Best of the Net: Art Game

January 1st, 2010

Happy New Year everybody! 2009 was a year of awesome game development, and Art Game was no exception with a grand total of 29 submissions! You guys really pulled out all the stops despite the holidays, so the good folks at FACT will really have their work cut out for them in picking a winner.

Let’s see what we have, shall we?

Secret Uncovered, by Gemedet

An odd game – definitely worth trying.

Color Ride, by Mike Meyer

More a pretty graffiti-style rainbow painting toy than a game. I want this as a full-screen screen-saver. Make it happen, Mr. Meyer.

Jonas Ice Cream Stand, by Made of Tree

An arty tycoon-style game.

Color.art inside…, by Tayron

Paint the world using your keyboard and the microphone… maybe not one to play in a crowded cafe.

Warp Shift, by Jonbro

I don’t know if he finished the game, but here’s a video of his iPhone game in progress.

Ir/rational, by Tom Jubert

In his own words the game is “philosophical puzzler based around an experimental argument formation system, attempting to broach the theme of human rationality itself.” If you like logic games you’ll enjoy it.

An Apple a day…Doctor, by J Tremblay

Play as a doctor and find all 7 endings.

Forms, by Will

The basic artistic intention here is to see how different forms of presentation can effect a games gameplay and feel. The game is self reflexive to the medium of games so hopefully any retro gamers can see the style choices.

Gravity, by Lafe

A 10 level platformer in a Mondrian art style dealing with different zones of gravity.

EARTH, by Alexis Andre

A twist on good ‘ol Space Invaders.

Memory, by Aaron

I’m not sure what’s going on here, you seem to manipulate shadows in a sea of internal organs.

Paint Your Way Home, by Maciej Czekala

Paint the screen to see obstacles ahead. This one seems to be a proof of concept, I couldn’t really find a way past the first screen, but it’s kind of fun to paint the screen to unmask details.

Grey Matter, by Sam Bond

A platformer in a black and white world. Man I wish the main character was brighter, that bugger is hard to see.

And Everything Started to Fall…, by Alexitron

Wow, kind of like the twichy-man’s Passage – very impressive work. Alexitron has made a really clever title where you’ll die over and over trying to (quite literally!) stay on the straight and narrow. Arrow games and the “S” key to jump.

Piss Christ, by Sergio

For pure shock-value (and perhaps flash backs to Art School) I recommend Piss Christ1, especially for all you Beverly Hills Cop fans. IF, however, you only have ONE piss Christ game you can play I’d recommend #2: Christ in Space on pure gameplay merit.

Lucidity, by Alex Wells

An ambient heavy, absorption type game. The music and SFX work really well with the gameplay for an experience that goes down smooth. Somewhat reminiscent of Flow.

Balance, by Trent Polack

A one-button game that deals with gravity, energy absorption, and techno. Trying to manipulate your position in 2D space with only one button requires a smooth hand, indeed.

We the Giants, by Peter Groeneweg

If there was an emoticon for my head exploding I’d totally use it. A great use of twitter in Peter’s Massively Single Player Online Game. Fundamentally a platformer, it has some very unique aspects.

Two Grey Rooms, by Alcorn

Uncover your environment as you explore this ghostly platformer.

PALE, by One Life Remains

Drop lights to find the exit-crystals in this 3D exploration game.

Everything Can Draw, by Mehdi

Doesn’t appear to work with a mouse and keyboard, at least not on my machine. Looks like you’re supposed to manipulate objects to create certain line patterns. Did anyone get this to work?

Space Slay, by Ryan

Old, old school turn-based space game. In ASCII graphics, no less.

Psycull: Perfect (Brain)Storm, by vazor

A game about product development cycles. Collect the good ideas and polish those features!

Andre Copper Picture Panic!, by Ben Wilhelm

Use your mouse to trace outlines, in this art mimicry game. Before I played this game I thought I had a fine degree of mouse precision, but apparently I’m a B mouse artist at best.

Life is One Hard Level, by Alexis Bacot

Another platformer-as-metaphor game. This one taught me that religion is really, really heavy – and that money is impossible to get.

Starry Sky, byMarcos

Given a constellation, find its stars in the sky.  Simple, but man it’s been years since I’ve taken Astronomy.

Games will be played, reviewed, and critically assessed and a winner will be chosen (in the next couple of weeks), so make sure to check back mid-January to see who has a spot in the  FACT museum’s Space Invaders Exhibit!

In: Games | tags: Art Game, Best of the Net | #