We're All Plain! 2 SE is a little level-based Flash puzzler created for the Global Game Jam. On each level, there are an array of colored orbs. They're on springs; you can pull one back and let it go. If it intercepts an orb of the complementary color (red/gree, blue/orange, purple/yellow), both turn white. To clear the level, you must turn all orbs white.
In addition, banging an orb into a non-complementary color changes the target into the intermediate color (e.g., banging blue into red turns the red orb purple). At higher levels, the springs have limited pull-back, so quite often you cannot change to white immediately -- instead, you must manipulate the orbs, changing to intermediate colors to establish an array that can then be turned white.
The resulting puzzles are actually quite challenging, given the simplicity of the underlying scheme. Graphic designers, to whom the color wheel is second nature, will doubtless find it easier than I, of course.
Decepticolor is a remarkably polished little game, for a 48-hour game jam effort. It's a puzzle game, supposedly for two players (one using WASD and the other the arrow keys), but in fact it can readily be played by a single player manipulating both, although it's sometimes hard to remember which of the squares under your control is controlled by which set of keys this way.
Each player controls a square that contains a simple pattern of 16-bit colors. Somewhere in the game are are two "target" squares. You must move your squares to the target squares in such a way that when they overlie the target squares, the pattern of colors matches.
The keys "flip" your squares -- left or right moves you one square distance and flips the pattern across the vertical axis, while up or down flips across the horizontal axis. In addition, if on player flips his square, or part of his square, atop the other player's square, the underlying square assumes the overlying pattern. Thus, on many of the higher levels, you need to figure out how to strategically flip squares atop part of each other in order to build the target pattern. (In the screenshot above, the target squares are all blue, so the two manueverable squares need to be manipulated to transform each other to an all-blue state.)
The result is quite an interesting set of spatial and logic challenges. Only twelve levels, but then that's pretty good for 48 hours.
Semblante is a Global Game Jam entry from a team at the Catholic University of Paraná. As is typical with GGJ games, it's more of a prototype than a complete experience; just a single level.
What's notable about it is the atmospherics; darkness, an eerie soundscape, shadow enemies gliding in the depths. Periodically, there are overhead lights, and when you pass through the light, you glow for a time and can defeat enemies until the glow fades. Jumping atop them helps you not at all. Consequently, navigating the level is a combination of platforming and using the strategically placed lights to advantage.
Also, you can scream with the X key, but I don't believe this has a game effect.
Ostensibly, your character is named Jung, and you are exploring the recesses of your own mind.
You can see how a fuller treatment might be emotionally effective -- and certainly, the complexities of the human mind and its fears is a motif that lends itself to introducing additional gameplay elements over time.
Console dweebs frequently say things like "PC games suck because you can't be sure they'll run," and its true that sometimes there are configuration issues. Of course, we PC gamers sneer at console gamers for this kind of thing, because it's rarely a problem post-DirectX, and anyway, we know what a goddamn DOS prompt looks like and know how to use a Linux shell when we need to, and suspect that console gamers' coffee pots are all blinking "12:00". But Jesper makes me think maybe they have a point.
I don't often feature two-player games, with people whacking on the opposite site of the keyboard, because, well, the basic dynamic sucks. And anyway, we PC gamers are basically recluses. If we had friends, we'd be playing board or tabletop roleplaying games, and even when we play online, we generally prefer to solo instead of dealing with a bunch of whining guild mates. So I'm left testing a 2-player game playing left-hand-against-right, which really sucks, and anyway, I suspect the portion of our readers who'd play such a thing is small.
A Global Game Jam entry from students at Carnegie Mellon, Balloon Man is a pleasant, dream-like little game in which a man holding three balloons rises upward (an "upscroller" rather than a sidescroller, if you will) past a somewhat surreal skyscape. Various obstacles float in space, and if a balloon intercepts one, it pops -- lose all three balloons, and you lose, of course.
Off With Her Head is partly an experiment with an alternative conversation system; partly an exploration of a morally dubious space; and partly the sort of game the purpose of which is to uncover the different endings (ala I Wish I Were the Moon or The Majesty of Colors).
The backstory is that the King has gotten annoyed that no one will marry him, and has decreed that all unmarried women must join his harem, or die. You are the king's executioner, presented with a series of women. You must attempt to persuade them to join the king's harem or, of course, execute them.
Gameplay is in a series of dialogs with these women; rather than entering text, IF-style, when it's your turn to respond, you press one of the arrow keys: Up for Yes, Down for No, Left for "ask question" and Right for "answer." At left top are a series of red light-bulbs for you, and yellow ones for the woman you're talking with; if her row of light bulbs is reduced to zero, she succumbs, and you have saved her life. Contrariwise, if your row declines to zero, you've run out of ideas, and must execute her. Some other dialog choices also lead to her execution (e.g., answering "yes" if she says "You're going to kill me now, aren't you?")
It's actually a somewhat awkward game to play; as you, or the woman, speaks, text appears in a scroll, and the instant she stops talking, your light bulbs start to disappear. Thus, to play effectively, you must be ready to respond instantly. As a result, though the dialog from the woman is often interesting (and pathetic), you wind up ignoring much of it and hammering on a key to avoid losing light-bulbs. A little more time to respond would improve the game, I think.
As the executioner, you are, of course, in a morally repugnant position; neither execution nor slavery is exactly a desirable alternative, of course, but if you fail to do your duty, the king will execute you instead (and call in a new executioner -- game over and restart, in other words). Still, perhaps where there's life, there's hope, so conceivably the least repulsive option is to earnestly try to persuade the women. But of course, some of them are very resistant, and there's certainly a temptation at times to say, hell with it, kill the bitch.
In addition to the clearly undesirable ending (the king kills you), there are at least two others: one in which you have persuaded enough women to satisfy the king, and another in which you execute the king. They're hard to get to, however.
klish was certainly the most polished game at the NYC/Columbia site of the Global Game Jam. It's a little level-based Flash game in which your mouse pointer is a repulsor, pushing other screen objects away; you use it to herd them around. Your goal -- well, this is an almost immediately intuitive game. You will figure it out very quickly. Six levels, each of which will probably take you no more than a minute to play. I list the download site above, but it's a freely distributable swf, so it's also embedded here.
Din is hilarious. Mind you, I'm not sure it's playable (although it's a lot easier to play on my home system with good speakers than off a laptop at the Game Jam). It's also not a game that's going to take over your life -- it lasts 3 minutes, and you aren't likely to play it more than a few times, I suspect. But it's worth a look for its novel approach.
One of those "better" games from the Global Game Jam, Move Mouse to Fulfill Destiny is a short Flash that tackles logistical management with a loose, Benmergui-esque stance. You simply move the mouse around to dictate what your man spends time on over the course of his life. Holding the mouse in one box has you build stuff up, while the other squares have you growing food and entertaining guests. You grow old and based on what you´ve done, you die with varying levels of community support. Calling it "a cross between Agricola and Passage" or "hyper-Harvest Moon" both smack about right, but there´s something distinguishing in the actual gameplay that leaves these descriptions a bit off.
It starts as a vine. You sit back and watch it, chasing the black, diamond-studded sun, and a fluttery golden angel taunts its path. Then you realize that this is the game, and you follow that path with your cursor. The vine curls. As it curls up toward the angel, a leaf sprouts in its wake, catching it, or maybe the angel eats it, then it grows dark. A second vine is emerging. This is going to get more interesting.
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