*Update Update* Unexperimental Shooter: Best of the Net!

July 24th, 2009

As the month draws to a close, it’s time for the Best of the Net roundup! This month’s theme was Unexperimental Shooter – which some took to heart in a hearty homage to the much beloved genre. Others of you used, shall I say, more subversive methods – making games which were in fact experimental (shame, shame!) – be they in theme, art, or even gameplay.

Thanks to everyone who participated and if anymore of the internet’s vast realm of inhabitants wish to participate in this month’s round, you still have a week!

Ready, steady, go!

*UPDATE UPDATE*

Zombies!!!, by Salim Zayat

Kill as many zombies as you can using a host of weapons carelessly strewn about the level. An experiment in facial recognition – try and remember what weapons hurt which zombies.

*UPDATE*
Single Serving, by Lafe

Attract objects to attack your enemies in this ultra-minimalist shooter. Left-Click to move, Right-click to attract.

Kosmosis, by Molleindustria

Rouse the space prolateriat to overthrow the reactionary war machines in this intergalactic political rabal-rousing game.

Second Shooter, by Spyeart

Use the mouse to fly around, and collect all the coins. Don’t touch the monsters or walls.

Bubblebee, by Gemdet

Bouncing bubbles = soothing experience.

CrytorYan, by Amidos

Convert bluy atoms into whity atoms, in this stylish shooter.  Impressively made in 6 hours.

Slimes, by Paul Vollweiler

Try to destroy the slimes for points, but beware, bullets bounce off walls and will lower your score if you get hit. Internet based high score table included.

Metro Shooter, by John Tremblay

Follow the beat of the metronome to power up your ship in this Seussillian looking shmup.

The Socratic Method, by LeFishy

Destroy zombie hoards as one of the world’s most preeminent scholars – Socrates!

Obsessive Nuclear Testing Disorder, by Awkward Games

Better living through nuclear weapons.

13 Comments | In: Games | tags: Best of the Net, Games, Unexperimental Shooter | #

New Experimental Game Q&A Tea Time

July 21st, 2009

Kyle Gabler: Three of us here in the experimental castle have decided to try and make an actual real game, maybe for Wii, or PC, or whatever platform it feels good on. Or maybe if it turns out horrible, it won’t go anywhere. But there have been some rumors, so I thought it would be good to clear up some of the speculation, and answer any questions here:

Q: What is the new game?

The game is based on one of my previous experimental games. Tower of Goo became World of Goo, so it’s not Tower of Goo. Tower of Goo. It’s probably best not to speak about it in more detail prematurely in case the game doesn’t evolve as we hope and we need to shoot that baby in the crib. It’s all just a fun experiment at the moment.

Q: Who is making it? Is it 2DBOY? Is it EA?

Nope, 2DBOY isn’t making it. EA also isn’t making it.  It’s nothing very official at all, just the two Kyles (Gabler and Gray) and Allan, who all went to grad school together and have been wanting to make something for a long time.

It is also true we have all worked with EA at some point, where Kyle Gray notably made Henry Hatsworth. And Kyle Gabler and Allan Blomquist worked with 2DBOY alongside Ron Carmel where we made World of Goo. This new adventure is purely a fun, small, experimental project that three experimental friends are making in our spare time.

Q: What is 2DBOY making next?

Ron and I have NOT yet announced the next thing for 2DBOY, as we are shy and afraid to announce prematurely against World of Goo sized expectations, because we might have a Britney sized meltdown.

Q: Will it be big or little?

Our plan is to continue the trend of going shorter, more high quality, with all the fat trimmed. Our hope is that a shorter, just a few-hours-long game where everything is high quality and extraordinary, will be more valuable for players than a 40-80 hour game with lots of filler. I suppose we’ll find out if other people feel the same way!

Post any other questions and I’ll try to answer them here! -Kyle (one of the kyle’s)

34 Comments | In: News | | #

Unexperimental Shooter RoundUp

July 13th, 2009

For the month of July, we were supposed to make games on the theme “Unexperimental Shooter”. Here’s what we came up with:

Proto Shooter, Allan Blomquist

Egg Worm Generator, Kyle Gabler

Frobot, Kyle Gray

Post IT Shooter, Petri Purho

Bunny Blaster, Shalin Shodhan

To anyone else participating over the vast, vast internets – please be sure to send us the links to your games or post them in the comments section and we’ll do a “best of the net” feature – can’t wait to see what you lot come up with!

18 Comments | In: Games, Theme | tags: Games, Unexperimental Shooter | #

Play Sticky Notes Shooter

July 11th, 2009

Sticky Notes Shooter, by Petri Purho.

There are invaders from space made of post it notes. You have to shoot em up. Use the arrow keys to move and space to shoot.

Download and play it for your PC: HERE

22 Comments | In: Games | tags: Games, Petri Purho, Unexperimental Shooter | #

Bunny Blaster

July 9th, 2009

Bunny Blaster, by Shalin Shodhan. Help the bunnies multiply – with bullets!  Choose between 4 different weapons to see how quickly you can get to 1000 bunnies.

Download and play HERE for Windows.

34 Comments | In: Games | tags: Games, Shalin Shodhan, Unexperimental Shooter | #

Egg Worm Generator

July 6th, 2009

Egg Worm Generator by Kyle Gabler. This was supposed to be a shooter, where you shoot peacefully evolving creatures. But I didn’t finish, and the creatures turned out too stupid to fight anyway. So instead, its a fishtank where you observe randomly generated creatures evolve and kindof learn to walk. Inspired by Karl Sims stuff from 1994. Press ’s’ to speed it up.

Download and play HERE for Windows.

Update 1: If you have trouble getting it to run, Alan in the comments recommends making sure this Microsoft thing is installed. Thanks for the tip! Does that help?

65 Comments | In: Games | tags: Games, Kyle Gabler, Unexperimental Shooter | #