Today the game “Kovoclak [PlayState entry]” for iPhone / iPod Touch was released. It is the first game from the indies caou.org, a “small development studio from Europe” with the focus in “games for touch screens“. For Kovoclak Mouky teamed up with with the French artist Lingouf, who provided the artworks and the music for the game. And this game captured my heart in record time – I can highly recommend it.

You play Kovoclak, a “businessman dealing with polluting companies”. He has a big clean-up duty to achieve. So somehow an eco-game if you like. You must find your way through all this dirty factories, avoiding robot rabbits, radioactive waste and other evils. You can move Kovoclak left and right. He cannot jump up, that’s why you have to move the platforms up and down to get your way through the levels. There are 50 levels in total, divided in 4 zones. The things that make this game so remarkable are the charming storytelling, the cute and funny graphics from Lingouf as well the well balanced music and sound-design. The intro alone with that straight industrial-techno-sound is definitely a must see. The depth does not come alone from the gameplay or the assets, but from the games as a whole. It feels dense and complete.

Unfortunately two things I absolutely miss:
1. This game should support mulit-touch! I tried so many times to move the player and move the platforms just at the same time!
2. The start-menu should show an option to watch the intro again, without the need to start a completely new game.

Maybe Cauo will make a update for that issues? Would be great! And here’s the gameplay video:

Cream Wolf: Aaaooouuuuuh!

Sometimes only the lineup of the game reads really promising. Cream Wolf is such a case. It is an “Ice-cream-man in disguse cannibalism-game“, where the indie-makers Pixeljam and Messhof teamed up to get the game done. Both gameplay, as well as aestetics look absolutely retro. But this browser-game is also full of modern graphic- and soundeffects, that support the gameplay really well (and to be honest, we didn’t expected anything else from Pixeljam and Messhof).

About gameplay and story: You drive an mad ice-cream man and have to collect cones, play music with your ice-cream van and attract children in the street, in order to sell them your ice cream. The more ice they eat, the fatter they get and more addicted to ice. If it gets full-moon, the fatter kids will follow your ice-cream van. You have to try to get the kids to your homebase… where they then support the ingredients for more ice. Weird story, weird game. Just one click away. (via)

Pixelprospector is still a realtive new site about “promising indie-games in the making“. Ad it is becoming more and more promising, to have a look at pixelprospector itself – just because the games presented there look really promising. Have a look for example at Invert Inc. – a black and white puzzle-platformer, that are so popular this days.

Less is more… I love this formula! The other game, that caught my interest is the opposite of being minimal: “V-Knights is a very fast paced platform shooter that comes across like a really nice SNES Game from the 16-bit era.” The graphics are awesome, while unfortunately the sound-effects are a little bit annoying. V-Knights at least scores with the mood, somewhere between Double Dragon, Turrican and Finwick.

Zoo Transport is lovely. You play a penguin, that has to do animal-transposts for the zoo. Your truck get equipped with various animal-loads, like parrot, dolphin, zebra or monkey. Don’t loose your load on the way from zoo to zoo! Every animal-package on your truck has different properties. Zebras for example love speed, while parrots begin to fly from time to time. In combination with the road, interesting combinations of levels are possible. Thumbs up for Zoo Transport. Music and style are relaxed sporty.
A really entertaining and laid-back casual.

Nitrome are back with once again a nice casual game with polished graphics and a little bit more of gameplay, like other simple casual games have. In Rouble Trouble you have to destroy. Yay. Destroy buildings for your boss. Every tiny bit you destroy will get you a little bit more money. The nice thing is, that this game do not rely on one (simple) game-mechanic, but every of the first level introduce new “weapons of chioce”. There is a bit of stories involved, adding to making this a nice casual for the meantime. Only the music is really annoying. I also think that the game is a little bit too easy – it should get challenging much more faster. (via)

Somewhere in the deepest guts of the Global Game Jam, I discovered the game “Resonance” (Global Game Jam Entry). It has a decent poetry, and also a little bit of innvative gameplay. Resonance is basically a puzzle-platformer, where you have to reach the exit of each single-screen level. In order to do so, you will collect clefs (Notenschlüssel). This will unlock notes (actually sounds). Every time you play thouse notes, special colored platforms appear. A little bit of a very classic gameplay. But… the note you play merge with the harmonics of the background music. In some levels, just triggering the sounds is a bunch of fun – more like playing music, than a game! I could imagine, that some “timing-based levels” cound increase the fun of playing this music-game much, much more, giving the feeling of playing a score. Another plus of Resonance: the graphics are really, really nice!

Dot Dot Dot is the third from an ongoing series of 6 games, that has a “dot” as its main character. Each one of the games is made in 48 hours (a little bit like the global game jam) by the team at UsTwo. This game is a small casual game with a very simple idea and a short playing time. Your aim is to “flee” the dot from reaching the top. In order to do so, you have to every time reach the hole in the ground as fast as possible. What makes the game so interesting is nicely executed sound-design and the monochrome graphics. The game was released for iPhone (0.99 cent, Entry at Playstate.org), but you can also play it for free in your browser (in Flash, click on the 3 dots).