Flash

A Visual Novel about breaking up with your girlfriend? That's indie in more ways than one -- we're dipping into indie music territory here. This is a game for everybody who's been in a bad relationship that lingered on more than it should have, which should cover just about everybody in attendance. The backstory is vague enough that you can impose yourself into the role of the protagonist, who is struggling with ending a courtship that isn't exactly healthy. The game plays out as a series of conversations with the young lady supplemented by your own interior monologue. Occasionaly you're prompted to choose between two options, which usually either relent and placate her or push towards ending your entanglement. The game's short so exploring the various options doesn't take much time, and the dialogue is well written and easily identifiable with. The pixel art has a clean and appealing style to it but the tinny chip music wears thin after a while. Instead I'd recommend some early Elliott Smith to set the mood. With that in mind, give it a shot and come back for spoilers and musings. I'll promise to not pull out my acoustic guitar.

Crafting a game in under a week is hard work; making a game fun is harder still. Managing to pull off both with aplomb is by no means an easy feat, so I have to hand it to Mr. McCoy here. Every 168 hours this man graces us with another short-form game that isn't only just playable, but actually pretty fun. The game mechanics that are the crux of these two titles are solid and well designed. Admittedly the two games I'm highlighting have spheres for protagonists, but who plays indie games for sexy graphics anyways?

Wavespark is the lovechild of Excitebike/Truck and RunMan. It takes the positioning mechanic of Excitebike -- but instead of tilting a bike you merely have to land on a downwards slope -- and combines it with a satisfying sense of speed. It's a one button affair, press any key to increase your sphere's gravity. It's ultimately a test of timing and momentum. Land on a downwards slopes and you'll get a speed bonus, but land on an uphill section and you'll grind to a near-halt. It doesn't sound exciting on paper but trust me, it's an absolute blast. There's four modes of play, of which Time Attack is my favorite; the time restriction lends itself well to quick-play sessions for whenever you have a few minutes to kill. Once you get the ball rolling (Editor's Note: because putting these in somehow qualify as an excuse for a shitty joke) and get a hang of things you'll most likely get addicted to its simple yet charming gameplay. Now how about an iPhone version?

If the above sounds too Jay Is Games for your taste (which it shouldn't, you snob) Dragondot should give you a reason to break out your prosthetic Hyrulian ears. It's an action RPG that's in the vein of Game Boy Zelda titles or, say, Shining Soul for Game Boy Advance. You take control of a dragon, erm, dot and fight your way through screen after screen of enemy dots. It controls fairly well, imagine wielding a sword and Roc's Feather in LoZ and you'll have a good idea of combat. Despite the lack of innovation in the character designs the enemies have distinct movement and combat patterns. There's also a nice attention to detail; if you're savvy enough you can have enemies whack each other a la Wind Waker. The game exploits your hard-wired love of doled-out progression by having an RPG system in place that gives you extra health and the occasional attack to your solitary combo. It's pretty basic but good and stupid fun.

Both of these games aren't especially deep but are solid foundations for larger projects, should McCoy want to pursue these further. The quality of these weekly experiments have been consistently fun, so I'd keep an eye on this guy if I were you.

Anna Anthropy continues her degradation into commercial work --which began with the tightly-crafted squealer When Pigs Fly -- and I couldn't be happier. With her latest release she moves away from the masochism she's infamous for and instead weaves a tale of a lone space traveler. It's, dare I say it, actually pretty charming. While the lack of bondage is suprising her knack for marvelous game design (which is apparent in her earlier games and level design lessons) is still intact. Selling out hasn't been this well-crafted or fun.

Anthropy has a fine sense for graphical composition; her pixel art has an elegantly clean style to it. The music by Amon26 (of Au Sable and All Our Friends are Dead fame) is also top notch -- I'm actually listening to it as I type. The game's minimalist story echoes Knytt by establishing that the protagonist has lost roughly two dozen gems and must regain them through exploration. Your sole verbs are walking and a low-gravity leap, which ends in a slight bounce if you fall long enough. The game's main mechanic is the dual polarity of red and green platforms; if you touch a red switch, for example, red blocks disappear and green blocks materialize. Like Terry accomplished with V^6, Anna wrung out every conceivable application of this mechanic and the game's three pitfalls of robot, laser, and electric pit. The level design is absolutely stellar. The difficulty is also fairly low-key, the platforming isn't by any means sadistic and save spots are frequent. Playing through Redder and exploring its landscape shows that you can create a mainstream-oriented experience without dumbing it down or diluting it.

Not much else needs to be said, except this: thank you ma'am, may I have another?

As a reviewer, it's my job to push you in the direction of cool things in the hopes you just might check them out. I wouldn't be living up to my duty if I didn't direct you towards more of Stephen Lavelle's work, and you would be doing yourself a disservice as well if you aren't keeping up with his explorations of the medium. His motto is "let's try something out there" and he holds to it. He cranks out quirky little games that can make you feel empathetic or maybe slightly uneasy; he crafts experimental pieces that toy with game mechanics in a novel way. That is, when he isn't making games about female masturbation or a nerdy math joke. These are short experiences, so overlong explanations would ruin the fun. For the uninitiated here's a few tidbits about each.

VVVVVV, the beta of which was reviewed previously by TheDustin here, is now out. It's a platformer, but saying that is a bit like Edmund's character saying that. Since there's a demo on Kongregate that takes about ten seconds to load, I'll leave the explanation short, but what I can add to the demo is that the full game is more non-linear than that demo; the world (excluding the final sequence, etc.) is 400 screens large, some completely empty, some you'll be stuck on for a long time. You can also buy its soundtrack if you like the music (I do).

Think of this as the game equivalent of a webcomic. To follow this train of thought, the advent of the internet allowed cartoonists free reign in their work. It's like making an underground zine where everybody is a potential reader. All someone needs to make a webcomic is a scanner or MS Paint, but it wasn't till recently that Flixel was released and game developers were given the tools to rapidly create short, online little games. Developer Pixelate set out to make four of these experimental webgames for every week of December, and this is the fruit of his labor.

In Platonic philosophy an archetype (or Form) is some intangible ideal exemplifying a trait or object that subsists outside of our perceptions of space and time. If you want me to pull out the Cave Allegory, anything and everything we perceive are mere shadows of the 'real' thing, it's essence. But fuck that noise, right? And not just because that creates a hell of a bloated ontology; you want to play a game... right? And not one that would take you out of your comfort zone design-wise or thematically, it's not like you want to play a game about an old man in a hospice or anything. Pokemon was cool, no? Gotta catch 'em fuckin all. And every nerd, self-respecting or otherwise, has played a TCG in his or her day. I sheepishly admit to being addicted to both when I was younger, and thankfully our pal Stephen 'increpare' Lavelle provides a double dose of both in the form of a Flash title. This is a game with meaning attached, but if you like rolling dice you'll have fun. I swear. And therein lies the message, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

This was produced by the government of Denmark. I mean, c'mon. It was 'developed' supposedly to raise awareness for domestic violence in said country, but it does so in a crassly exploitative manner. The "game" plays out as a series of looping video vignettes of a hot chick berating you in Danish; your only possible interaction is to, ahem, change your pitch up. Think a further watered-down Dragon's Lair meets Youtube video meets misogyny. It's as terrible as you can imagine.

Minimalism. This game embodies the idea. From impressionistic graphics to a streamlined verbset of move and jump, this game does away with all unnecessary aspects of design and lets its superb ambiance and atmosphere shine through. I want to say La Monte Young would be proud, but the lush orchestral pieces probably wouldn't be to his liking. I dig them though. I dig this game, and you should play it.

Campaign is ostensibly a game of the 2008 US presidential elections; at start, you're given a choice of three Republican and three Democratic candidates (sorry, George). However, your "candidate" is like your king in Chess; they're all the same. 120 hit points, the same list of potential attacks, and so on. It's one of the pieces you move across the board.

The game is played on a square-gridded version of the continental US (guess Alaska and Hawaii don't count), divided into seven regions. In addition to your candidate, you start with three other units -- the possibilities include Hatchetmen, Spinmeisters, Fundraisers, and Operatives; you get to choose what combination you want.