Circadia is a minimal puzzle-game for iOS. At its core very simple, it adds depth by plain constructed levels, that adds trickyness and a sense for the right timing to the gameplay. Enjoy the video to learn more. Here is the AppStoreLink.

I just found this game that looks like pure fun. Flush the Goldfish a remixing sort of game, with many diffrent playing mode and a reduced input-mechanic. The A button changes the behaviour of the player in every room, like jumping, crawling, avoiding etc. Each screen is simple, filled with colorful pixelstyle-graphics. The game has casual upfront music and soundeffects. There is a in-depth-review – well written – avaiable at 4 Color Rebellion.

Flush the Goldfish is available for Nintendo DSiWare made by Goodbye Galaxy Games. Go for it!

The third Global Game Jam at the Cologne Game Lab just went over and it gets better each year. This time we had over 15 contributions – in total over two hours of presentation time. Also the platforms, game-concepts and realization of the games and game-prototypes really went into a mature state. I try to highlight some of the great works. Follow the links to get downloadable files! Here is a list of all submissions.

Obelisque

A 3d-exploring game. You start as a robot, that woke up in an ancient, abandoned city on an planet far away, trying to research about what happened and what this is all about. A work with a strong mood – maybe close to “notgame” as well. Check it out! (Jammers-Site).

Sequpes

A music-toy, exploring game-mechanics and the joy of making music with two players. Player A plays a little melody and player B confirm this melody, by playing the same melody after some delay – or rejects it by not playing the melody. It uses simple music-phrases in the background and pentatonic scales. A unique fun experience – worth checking out! (Jammers-Site)

Nordic Bondage Hero Vikings

A mature fun game. Two players – bound to each other – have to collect and drink as much beer as possible. If drank enough, they enter “Valhalla Action Hero”-mode. When in this mode, player must kill himself to enter Valhalla. While you are running, you are tied to a second player with a rope. You can pull the other player and help or annoy him. If you begin to glow, try to kill yourself and die as a hero before the other player becomes a hero. (Jammers-Site)

Mindloop

An experimental exploration of a new input-device. The game uses a “mind-feedback-machine” as input. The player has to change “calm” and “focus” state of minds, to progress further in the loop. Polished graphics – things to build upon. (Jammers-site)

Don’t be square aka “The revenge of the psychedelic boring boxes” aka “vice versa”

A flash-experimentation game, exploring visual effects over gameplay. Something nice to tinker into – and to get inspired! (Jammers-Site)

Sifteo Specials!

Two remarkable works put a game on a new platform, called Sifteo. The tangible objects can be programmed, to also games can be run on them. We had a snake-game (unfortunately they did not provide the game on the Global Game Jams site yet) and Krystian Majewski once again launched a homing missile to out heart by bringing the Nyan Cat to the Sifteo! Programming by @mczonk (Jammers-Site)

Recommended

Feel free to look also into this works: Giant Robot Snake, The Tale of Archy, Loopy Island, Punxatawney Adventures. You can see, lots and lots of contributions. I made also a project – not finished unfortunately. If interested, look at Internity.

Square is a small experimental flash game made by Etienne Perin. A little variation of the “Snake-game” category. In Square you do not fight against the length of your own tail like in Snake-games, but against black blocks on the field and time constraints. A well executed and fun to play game. Just check it out.

Monday, 8th August 2011 – this is the day, the game Trauma from Krystian Majewski will be finally available in the public! I already played the game and enjoyed this unconventional gaming experience very much. And I think you will do as well.

We continue with the good news: The game Trauma is available for Win PC, Mac OS-X and Linux systems. The game is available in Steam as well (including Mac). And the game is available for only 5 Euros and with no DRM. That sounds like a fair deal!

Here is the official website traumagame.com, Twitter-Account @traumagame and a little bit of pre-release chit-chat at Krystian’s GameDesignScrapbook-blog.

PS: You can experience this game at the Notgames Festival on the 15. / 16. August 2011. In the CologneGameLab, just at the same time the GDC Europe and Gamescom is in town!

I just discovered the game “Smurfs Village” for iPhone and iPad, that was made by Capcom Mobile, and that is surprisingly well made. This days everywhere are the trailers for the Smurpfs movie are popping out, but I somehow dislike the way, the 3d-characters are made in the movie. Compared to the movie, this game is really close to the original Smurf-comics when it comes to the look and feel of the game. And this is really the quality.

The gameplay is really exactly like in Farmville: you create crops, harvest berries, build houses, make friends and visit other villages. There are some sublime differences and additional gameplay, for example you can mix Potions at Papa Smurf’s House or send Smurfs into the forest, to look out for the cat Azrael. This all sounds familiar, since the “additional gameplay” is 100% derived from the comic books. Even the graphics, in handdrawn-style, are more or less 1 to 1 taken from the original comic-books. But this indeed is the quality of the game: if you ever loved the Smurfs in your childhood, you will instantly love this game, because it has this strong and original vibes, the books have. Even if not, the Smurpf’s world is really unique at its own.

Although this is game from a comic or movie (that go normally wrong) I really can suggest this free to play game. If you play it through facebook, you can add me as a friend.

Dear Esther looks like a very interesting, upcoming gaming experience. That game has an interesting story in its creation. Originally started by Dan Pinchbeck in 2007 as a mod in the context of a research-project at the University of Portsmouth the game hit some serious audience. It also won the best world/story award at the IndieCade festival in 2009. So there was clear evidence, that Dear Esther got the potential, to become a successful title on the market. And that is how the game became the 4th funded title of the Indie Fund – a collective that funds and invests in unique indie games.

Indie Fund about titles like Dear Esther: “While Indie Fund is looking for unique gems that exemplify the indie spirit, it is not a charity, and the funding partners hope that they don’t lose their investments. (…) the time is right to find out just how commercially viable such offbeat titles really are.” (quoted from Gamasutra).

Creative Indiegames like Dear Esther are fundable, because there are small teams working on the title, not teams that are like 20 or 100 members big. Original indiegames can make enough money, to refund, but do not necessarily be real million sellers. This is why this could be the right time with the right opportunities for getting big in being indie. Let’s look forward to it! (via)