Just in case you missed the beta of the game FRACT: just don’t miss it. FRACT is a somehow abstract adventure game, that plays in a virtual world, reminding of TRON or something like The Sentinel, Rez or Darwinia. It is not only the look, but excellence also comes from the sound-design. Extremely well made sounds totally support the games experience. (The game was selected as one of the Independent Games Festival student showcase winners as well.)

For my opinion the riddles are a little too abstract, but walking through this designed landscape alone is worth the try. The beta is available for download the the FRACT website, is available for Mac or PC (and is about 170 Megabytes, just in case you ask). The game was made by Richard E. Flanagan, linger in his portfolio as well!! (via)

CityHero, the game that you play with your friends and your city, is finally available in the AppStore! The game is a little like a mix of Foursquare (checkin-based stuff), Monopoly (become the greatest and richest) and Sim City (build the most interesting town). One of the main goal is, to build the city with the highest value. You also play with your friends: if with them or against them – this depends on your choice! There is a global hiscore-list and a hiscore-list of your friends.

Gameplay: You basically do checkins at real places to earn virtual money: the so called coins. With that coins you can buy yourself real-places in the city, that go directly into your personal virtual portfolio: displayed as iso-view. Now every item in your city has a coin-value – calculated upon the number of actual checkins. So the price of each item in your portfolio changes every day! At the same time: if somebody checks-in at a place you own, you will earn some money automatically. So having popular places is the key, to get successful in the game.

Socialize yourself: CityHero is also a social tool. You can use CityHero, to check-in at Facebook Places, Foursquare or post your checkins to Twitter. You can browse your surroundings and get dynamic information, i.e. from Facebook. You can also use CityHero to check, if your friends are nearby. So lots of stuff to explore!

I am one of the developers and co-founders of CityHero, so there is a very good chance, that you get exclusive and news early on CityHero on this blog Digital Tools – besides the CityHero-Website, CityHero-Twitter or the CityHero-Facebook page.

Right at the moment, the app is currently available only with a German UI. That means, that you can play the game on the whole world, but the UI is in German. But we are already working on the localisation of the UI in other languages.

People who love pixels, should check out the game Thor, published by Marvel. It’s a pretty much straightforward platformer, with a nice and colorful pixel-style. Read more about the game here.

One Single Life is a concept game by Fresh Tone Games. The game mechanics are similar to Canabalt, but there is a special twist, that games usually tend to avoid: You only got one simple single life. If you loose it, you cannot start the game again. Really. This leads to some very interesting shifts in the experience of the player. The game actually feels like having a round of Parcours, but in a game. Before you jump, you can practice every level. But when it is getting real, the adrenalin rushes into the veins. To achieve this thrill with such a minimal casual-game… Well, that’s something I call something. Best try it out yourself. At least this game is a free download. (via)

Unfortunately I got lost in level 6!

Gameduino is currently a Kickstarter-funded-project. It is a game-controller concept, that is build upon the open-source Arduino microcontroller-platform.

“Gameduino connects your Arduino to a VGA monitor and speakers, so anyone who can write an Arduino sketch can create video games. It’s packed full of 8-bit game goodness: hundreds of sprites, smooth scrolling, multi-channel stereo sound.”

This sounds great. You can still support this project by spending funds at Kickstarter.

(via)

Marble run is a collaborative gaming approach. Every user can build a custom “Marble Level”. The marble runs along this track from start to goal. The distance the marble runs is measured. The somewhat goal of the platform is to provide the “longest marble run that ever was.” Well, at the moment the current track-length is at 662 kilometers. The game was already made for the Mozilla GameOn challenge 2010. As a special bonus you can even download a special “Marble Run”-Font (.zip / ttf).

My first attempt, level called “Hey!“

Spent is a serious game made for the Urban Ministry of Durham, that want to teach about homeless people and the stuff the Ministry does. In the game you ran out of money and have to get through it, without getting homeless or loosing all your cash. This flash-game takes the approach of an interactive text-adventure, where you are bound to make choices all the time. Although the clean style and the interesting idea, the game itself unfortunately feels a little bit too serious in my eyes. All choices you make in the game, can be reflected too easily through the eyes of “not spending to much money“. On the other hand, this game tells a story about living at the border, so why not have a try? Somehow a counterpart could be Queue, that is about standing in an social welfare waiting line. Cool ideas for games I guess, but please put a little more fun into it! (via)