Fun game, although there’s no difference between just, ah, “visiting” a chimney and actually filling the house up. Still simple and fun though.
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Follow @TweetsofOld. Totally worth it.
Currently Tweets of Old, a Twitter account that tweets news from the turn of last century, is tweeting children’s letters to Santa. Not a demand for iPads or lengthy transcriptions of Amazon links to be seen!
You’re a hideous freak, running through underground caverns, fleeing a giant worm, oh and there’s creatures trying to turn you into sushi if you don’t fall in the yellow goo of death. Welcome to Discount Mayonnaise.
So, how is this game like Tetris?
The storyline is more elaborate than that of, say, Wouter “Aardappel” van Oortmersson's Cube, thanks to that bloody giant worm, but you still are involved in killing stuff. It’s just that you can’t kill or slow down that sodding worm, so you have to survive to the end where a handy bunker awaits you, collect coins to afford better armor and weapons, and generally avoid falling into the yellow goo. Maybe it’s the eponymous condiment.
Visually the game has that cartoonish, crazed edge that makes me think of a cross between Edmund McMillen (Gish, Super Meat Boy, The Binding of Isaac) and Jhonen Vasquez (Johnny the Homicidal Maniac, Invader Zim). Admittedly the graphics are overwhelmingly brown and yellow, but that just makes the baddies and pickups stand out.
The music by Hopeku is suitably frantic, and while not as ‘metal’ as the graphics might suggest, manages to do two things: first, it keeps up the anxiety levels, and secondly, doesn’t get in the way. Either that or the developers didn’t crank the volume to maximum like almost all do.
Sound effects are effective and alternate between meaty (the roars and splats of dying monsters) and strangely appropriate (e.g. the two-tone lift bell when you reach the end.)
Controls are as simple as you can get: Arrows or WASD to move, space to shoot or open menus, escape to close said menus. However, you can only shoot left or right, you can’t shoot up or down. Which is annoying at times when there’s a posse of monsters waiting for you.
Powerups are jackets (which shield and heal), gloves (which allow you to use damage and special pickups), and shoes (which affect your speed and jumping ability). Depending on the path ahead you’ll probably need to trade off powers - especially on level 12, where you need a lot of speed as opposed to jumping, if it’s your first attempt.
The first downside - and there are two - is that the game lags noticeably when there’s a lot going on - not a good thing in an action time-attack title that is this Hard. And yes, that’s Capital-H-italic-and-bold Hard. You’ll be crying with frustration by level 9 and ragequitting by level 12.
The second is that this game doesn’t have an autofire facility - and in this game thought goes out the window and the space bar gets a hammering. Which hurts after a while.
Despite this, the game is like Tetris. There’s no plot, simple controls, and most importantly, you keep going back to try again, because it’s a matter of pride.
A great little game that I thought I never would find again, since there are quadrillions of games with the words “treasure” and “tower” in the title. And since that was all I could remember, it’s taken me this long to find the bloody thing.
The gimmick is that every level is randomly generated from a set of styles, layouts and enemies, so you have no idea what’s coming. And the clock is constantly ticking down, drowned out by furious MIDI piano rags. I think it’s a fun time. Well worth having a bash at.
(The author found the original of this post and was pleased to learn that his game still delighted!)
The only Christmas movie you need this year.
A great little game that I thought I never would find again, since there are quadrillions of games with the word “tower” in the title. And since that was all I could remember, it’s taken me this long to find the bloody thing.
The gimmick is that every level is randomly generated from a set of styles, layouts and enemies, so you have no idea what’s coming.
And the clock is constantly ticking down, drowned out by furious MIDI piano rags.
I think it’s a fun time. Well worth having a bash at.
This video clip was found on alt.binaries.slack some time in 2003. I’ve no idea where it’s from, but it pretty much sums up my feelings about the increasingly silly season.
So, I did another Ecclescraft. I spend more time in Cubidon exploring, getting killed, grabbing my gear back in a daring midnight rush, and finally visiting Ukaistan or whatever it’s called. Also, a short music video in which I get into the festive spit by attempting to off Santa.
After five years I’m amazed it still works.
*bulldada = so bad, it’s actually good
A poorly thought through promotional item for Yet Another Zombie Game is given both barrels’ worth of sarcasm. Best comment so far:
There has to be a zombie movie out there where the walking dead go for the tits instead of the brains.
Possibly Japanese. And the zombies are all middle-aged business men.
One step sideways in the board game
The Second Life board game has taken a slightly retrograde step - but one that to my delight, actually worked right out of the box.
Previously, when I started, I had the sensible idea of having each seat maintain itself, sending link messages to the main script (hiding in the board prim) whenever someone mounted or dismounted. Unfortunately I didn’t understand that whenever someone did so, a changed() event was sent to all the scripts in the object, which caused Interesting Things to happen. So for a while, wanting to get shot of Interesting Things happening, I was contented by having seating and perms control handled by the one main script and one incredibly hairy-looking chunk of code.
Yes, that hairy chunk worked, but I was moving to a state-based system
Today I looked at it again and it occurred to me that, instead of four bulky and unpleasantly similar conditionals, I could have the seats asking: “Hey? That change? Was that me?” and send link messages appropriately.
And my code worked! I think there’s a little adjustment I could make which would be even more elegant, but that can wait for now. After all, for my next trick, I must not only roll the dice, but make it do something very important and cool.
You’ll find out soon.