Atmosphere

Back in my A Flipping Good Time review I noted that the game's title sounded a bit hubristic but this game took the liberty to name itself after one of the most important aspects of game design.  With a name like that, this game better damn nigh drown me in its immersion.  It's a good thing they didn't call this Conveyance: The Game because starting the game up was one of the most confusing experiences of my life.

For a game made in the 2004-2005 academic year, the graphics are quite pretty and stylized.  The lack of shading does make the game as a whole look very loud, but oh well.  That's just a nit-pick.

One thing that really kills me is the sound direction.  As far as I can tell, there's only one track that plays throughout the whole game, which I wouldn't mind if it was actually pleasing to listen to.  Unfortunately, it's just an obnoxious chord progression on an overly distorted electric guitar.

The main concept of this game is that you must blend three elements together to create an entirely new element (because that's how chemistry works) with attention to magnetism, weight and radioactivity, which all help you race the newly created element. The tracks themselves are lackluster except for the two main gimmicks that give the game its challenge.

The first of these gimmicks are branching paths, each to be handled by elements exhibiting certain properties.  For example, one path may be a narrow metal bar that magnetic elements can cross with ease while another may be a dark area that radioactive elements can shine their way through.  My gripe with this concept is that when creating your element, you are pretty much limited to emphasizing one property (maybe 2 if you only fill the bars midway), so this isn't really choice to freely explore the levels as much as a linear path and two dead zones.  If that sounded a bit confusing, just play the game and see for yourself.  It's tough to put it into words.

The levels are also littered with powerups, which are amplified by how many of each type you collect etc etc.  It's a very simple powerup system that any gamer is very familiar with by now.

Overall, the game is fun if a bit frustrating.  It definitely has replayability, at least until you figure out that magnetism is the only property worth investing in and are able to zoom into 1st place every time.  However, it just doesn't bring anything new to the table.  being able to customize your vehicle in order to adapt to the tracks is a very basic concept in racing games.

TL:DR- nothing special but nothing horrible.  Just another racing game.

Links
it- https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=487

PS - no, the atmosphere is not done very well in this game but really who cares about a game's title? (I do).

Astrobunny

Oh boy oh boy was it ever a hectic weekend for me.  Sorry for the brief hiatus.  I'll try to resume as close to a regular schedule as humanly possible.

So, today's game was called Astrobunny.  I'll be honest, I didnt get a whole lot of time to play it, so I didn't experience all the levels, but I think I played enough of it to get the basic grasp of the levels.

This game is all about the principle of circular motion.  You know, that thing that you thought you knew in physics class until you take the midterm and immediately feel the desire to abandon all hope?  Or maybe that was just me...Anyway, you play as a wonderfully stylized space rabbit navigating your way around planets, using their gravitational fields to propel you from point A to point B.  It's a quite fun arcadey title and the first one on this list that was actually able to bring a genuine smile to my face.  I definitely recommend giving it a shot.

The gameplay is solid, the aesthetic is fluid and the controls are easy to understand.  I have to say, what really sold me on this game was the music.  The track that's played while storming through the main levels is really just a joy to listen to and certainly makes the experience that much better.

This game is great.  I don't think anyone would deny that.  However, as I mentioned in earlier reviews, the reason I wanted to play through the Digipen catalog is because I felt there would be no better way to really explore the use of games as an artistic medium.  As much as I love Astrobunny as a fun time waster, I think I can actually say it's contributed something great to the value of games as a whole.  Maybe just being a really fun game is all it needs.  Maybe it doesn't need a narrative.  Maybe I expect too much from a school project that was probably only made to get a good grade in some class.

The one thing this game did make me think of is the whole idea of gamifying education.  Check out the Extra Credit on that if you haven't already.   Really interesting stuff.  I'll include the links below.  Anyhow, it teaches a basic principle of circular motion (that of tangential movement in absence of a centripetal force) in a way that doesn't feel like school.  It feels like playing a game.  Personally, I think I'm going to show this game to my physics teacher and get his take on its use as a teaching tool.  There could be a lot to learn from a game like Astrobunny.  These kinds of things are what make me love games as a medium in the first place.  If we can use this arcade-style school project to teach even a portion of physics at the 11th grade level in a way that is both fun and effective for students, the possibilities of contributions from games to society really do seem endless.

Wow, that rant was quite tangential, if you'll forgive the pun.  I'm going to sign off now before I start talking about the place of philosophy in level design or something.  I hope what I've said has made you curious enough to check out this game.  I genuinely do think it provides something to think about.  And if not, it's just a really fun time.  This game gets my seal of approval.

Stay beautiful and tell your cousin I say hi.

Links
the game: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=26066
Extra Credits on Gamifying Education.: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuDLw1zIc94

Ascension

Alright, alright.  As busy as I've been lately, I wouldn't feel right leaving my nonexistent audience with only that last cop out review for the entire day.  The next game on my list is self-advertised as a "battle platformer." This alone made me want to play it, as images of merilly bouncing off opponents' heads in one of those co-op Mario games immediately filled my mind.  Combine that premise with the soulful originality stereotypically associated with indie games and I'm sold.  Much to my delight, the game handles very similarly to Super Meat Boy.  In fact, the characters look similar to Meatboy as well, so the best way to think of this game is "Super Meat Boy with no budget."

Really my only gripe with the game is that there's no singleplayer mode.  Go multiplayer or go home, apparently.  Problem is, once I go home, I'll need a game to keep me company; and this game could have made great fun all by my lonesome.  Oh well, I won't fault the game for lost potential because it might also mean lost pretension. Maybe the game just wouldn't have worked as a singleplayer game or maybe the designers only wanted to deliver a fun friend v. friend experience.  If that's the case, they succeeded.  Give this game a go.  I'm pretty sure you won't be disappoint.  It's still nowhere near the Nitronic Rush level of game that made me want to do this list in the first place, but it's a fun time-waster.

Links
Ascension: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=24637

Army of TD

well this will be the easiest review I've ever written because I don't even have to say anything.  This game's download page brought be to a 404 page, so as far as I'm concerned, this game just doesn't exist, which is a shame because the title got me kind of curious.  What the hell is TD and why does it need an army?  Oh well, I'm still considering this a totally legitimate review.  Why?  Because screw you, that's why.

Have a nice day :)

Links:
maybe it'll work for you: https://download0.digipen.edu/GameGallery/gamedownloads/8170001477/Army%20of%20TD_Setup.exe

Armored Aggression

Oh boy oh boy, do I have a lot of shit to do today.  This is definitely going to end up being my only review today, and I wouldn't expect professional quality if I were you.  I'm going to be very busy preparing for a debate tournament this weekend during which I likely wont be able to post anything.  Who knows...

Right, Armored Aggression. First thing I noticed was the option to "join" or "host" a game, suggesting that this game was supposed to have online support but shared the same fate as the online in A Series of Tubes.  It's not unexpected for an indie game like this to not have online support.  Servers are expensive, yo.  Still, I bet with enough tweaking I could get a LAN game going on or something...but that's for another time.  Let's jump into the "practice" mode seeing as it's our only other option.

Upon starting the practice mode, I was greeted by a sprite that wouldn't move no matter what buttons I pressed and a bad electronic music loop.  I wanted to go back to the options menu to access the controls interface, so I pressed escape.  Unfortunately, this closed the game.

At this point, I was just about ready to declare the game broken and move on with my life, but I couldn't disrespect my nonexistent fans like that.  No, I must press on.

So after fiddling with the controls for a while I finally had a passable keymap.  Unfortunately, that didn't help the unbearably floaty controls.  You know how in some games there will be an oil barrel or something that handicaps the player by making the controls a bit more slippery?  Multiply that effect by a thousand and you have the basic feel of this game.  I couldn't play it for more than 3 minutes because between the preposterous movement and vomit-inducing background textures, it started to make me sick.

So I guess that's all for today.  What a shame.  See ya next time.

Links
that one thing I talked about that one time: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=475

Arc Angle

Welp, I knew this would happen eventually.

I've told you guys before about my preposterous schedule, yet somehow I've always managed to gather enough material in a day for a review for each game I play.  This is not the case with Arc Angle.  This game is going to take me a few days, if not weeks, to substantially rip through.  I'll see if I can update this post unti lit's done, but for now you'll have to deal with a first impressions sort of thing.

First impressions = fantastic.  Unique gameplay does honor to the name "project fun."  What blows me away even more is that this game only had 3 people working on it.  Add onto the fun, frantic gameplay a very wel executed aesthetic and competent sound direction and you've got yourself a winner.  This game gets a preliminary gold star.

Unfortunately that's all I have for now.  Stay pretty.

Links
this: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=25985

Aporkalypse

This review is going to be the antithesis of Aporkalypse in that you will hopefully be able to read through it quickly and without distraction.  If you would like an experience more similar to that of Aporkalypse, please copy this blog into a word document, make the font size 72 and the line spacing 3, and every time you read one line, close your eyes and breathe for 5 seconds.

Yes, the main criticism for Aporkalypse is that it's sluggish.  Very sluggish.  I'd like to say it's just poor optimization and that playing it on a futuristic space computer would fix this problem, but the framerate actually isnt that piss poor and some enemies move quite swiftly.  I know the sobriquets "big" and "bad" don't exactly inspire images of zipping around forests at the speed of sound, but I'm supposed to be playing as a wolf, not a snail.

The gameplay mechanics work decently enough.  There's not much challenge to the game since every enemy you kill spawns unreasonably generous health pickups, but the dual use of the huff and puff as an attack and platforming aid is interesting enough to hold the player's attention.  At least it would be if the game operated at any speed greater than that achieved by using your breath to boil a pot of water.

I've got nothing more to say about this game. As one of the first 3D installments I've played and pretty much the only one to function properly, I suppose it should earn a medal of some sort.  The only problem is this: Aporkalypse just wasn't an enjoyable experience for me.  One of the reasons I decided to play through the Digipen catalog is that i thought a college for game design would be a hotbed of new ideas and mechanics that the AAA wold has yet to see.  Oh well. 

Links

Aporkalypse: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=24652

Oh yeah, there's no save feature either, but honestly after the disappointment of Apoch I don't even care anymore.  insert sadface here.