INFINITE WORLD Roundup

February 29th, 2012

Februaries infinite worlds seemed to be a bit daunting, but a few brave souls produced some new and infinite worlds. Exploration and escape were prominent motifs, across the world, through space, and over floating islands.

Let’s explore these 6 games:

Frosted Feud, by Andrew

Compete with another player to get your cupcake across the world.

Overseer, by Shai Shapira

Very experimental idea in which you affect the environment to help the ‘player’ get through.

Stolen Ufo, by Kyle Rodgers

Try to escape an infinitely large airfield as military choppers close in.

Infinite Floating Islands, by TCStyle

Explore an infinite network of floating islands as a monkey.

Vast Frontiers, by Cheswick

Travel through and colonize an ever expanding universe.

Cretan Hubris, by Deraj

Escape a maze of infinite complexity before you’re destroyed.

1 Comment | In: Theme | tags: Best of the Net, Infinite Worlds, Theme | #

5 Button Winners!

February 22nd, 2012

The results are in for the winners of the 5 button competition!  Drum roll, please…

1st Place (1200€): Rakete, by Mario von Rickenbach

2nd Place (600€): Porkerpillar, by Nathan Fouts

3rd Place (200€): Revolution, by Felix P

Our friends at 02L > Outside Standing Level have a write up of the event, as well as a quick recap of how the votes were tallied in case you missed it.

Although I couldn’t make it, our man on the scene, Pete Angstadt, was able to check out the competition in beautiful (and very cold) Berlin, Germany:

For those who don’t know me, I’m Peter Angstadt, and I write some of the monthly round up posts (including the 5 Button Roundup). I’ve been in Dresden, Germany recently and last week decided to take the couple hour train ride to Berlin to attend the Stattbad Media 5 Button Competition. I wanted to check out the games on the actual hardware, see how the audience reacted, and help out with the event. It turned out to be a great time, and I thought I’d share some of the highlights.

The competition took place in the Stattbad Gallery, an old re-purposed swimming center. It’s a big building with a bunch of empty pools, one of which housed a crazy triangular skateboard ramp. In another pool room there was a giant screen and five big buttons set up for the competition. The O2L guys set up the whole competition, fired up each game and managed the audience voting. As the event got going the audience streamed in, filling up the area around and inside the pool. At peak time there was close to 200 people!

I hung out down in the pool near the five buttons with a bullhorn. Before each game started we encouraged new players to take a spot at a button, introduced the game, and start it up. After a bit we’d introduce a new game and round up new players. We cycled through all finalists/runners-up multiple times so as many people as possible were able to try each game.

The audience really enjoyed all of the games. Notably, they got father than I ever did in Rakete, proving themselves to be excellent at steering the rocket as a five person team. And much to my surprise, the audience was able beat Individual Medley Relay. Everyone cheered when the five person controlled swimmer completed the final lap. In another tricky game, Revolution, people glimpsed a little bit of the magic but it wasn’t until later on during another session (with a lot of coaching) that a group of 5 friends were able to complete it.

Close to midnight, after all the games were played and votes tallied, DJs set up near the big screen started dropping phat beats and such. We let the audience play what they wanted and lots of people hung around to enjoy the party late into the night. Everyone had a great time and I want to congratulate and thank all the entrants and finalists/runners-up for making the night a big success!

Congrats to all the winners from everyone at EGP!

13 Comments | In: News | tags: 5 Buttons, Competition | #

5 Buttons Finalists!

February 7th, 2012

First the good news: there was a metric ton of great games made for the 5 Buttons Competition.  So much so that we had a really tough time deciding which games would make it to the Stattbad Gallery.

Second, the better news: our friends at 02L >  Outside Standing Level  have confirmed that they will be showing 13 of your games, with the possibility of showing an additional 10 games!

Twenty-three games is an enormous show. We’ve never had such a large number chosen for any competition, so congratulations to everyone involved!

Finalists

1.Beep Brrp Bing Bang Bosh
2.Crazy Fossil Fuel Racers
3.Fart Away
4.Kickz
5.Pool Push
6.Porker Pillar
7.Revolution
8.Square Loves Triangle
9.Super Expeditio
10.The Blame
11.Varje Voorje
12.Versus Vs.
13.Whack a Mole
 
 

Runner-ups

Some modifications are necessary, contact 02L for more information:
 
1. Cold War Hangover
2. Comet Tune
3. Individual Medley Relay
4. Milliways
5. Nature Strikes Back
6. Tone Tennis
7. Unity Rackete
8. Uprok
9. Wyrm
10. Zaboodles
 

What do I do next?

Please send the following information to our friends at 02L > Outside Standing Level:

1. Game Name

2. Game Author(s)

3. Game Description (200 characters max)
 
Email your information to: x AT 02l.net

Who determines the winner?

On Friday, February 17th your game will be shown at the Stattbad Gallery as part of a live public show. All finalists (and runner-ups if they make some changes) will have their games played by attendees, who will vote on their favorites.  In addition to the general public, we’ll have a small panel of judges who will help determine the winner.

The very practical prizes:
 

First Place: 1200€

Second Place: 600€

Third Place: 200€

If you’re in Berlin (or Germany in general) I highly suggest you go – it looks like it’ll be a hell of a show!

16 Comments | In: News | tags: 5 Buttons, Competition | #

5 BUTTONS Roundup

February 1st, 2012

Wow, we had an incredible turnout for December – January! There’s a massive amount of creativity here. From dancing to swimming to shooting to pushing to baby bouncing to trippy shape merging, you guys showed just how much can be done with 5 big buttons. We had games of every kind imaginable and had a lot of fun trying them all out. And remember, this is just the round up, you’ll hear more about the progress of the competition soon!

Without further adieu and in no particular order, let’s step on into these 48 games:

Comet Tune, by Keenblaze

Use gravity to guide the comet to the goal in this soothing coop-title.

Versus Vs, by MrBlack

Save your jumping powers to collect more coins than your competitors! Just wish it had music.

Whack a Mole, by Average

Nicely animated Whack a Mole played from the other perspective.

Fighting Dargon, by Jack Kern

Dodge Dargon the dragon’s attacks and take him down. A little hard to control.

Fractured Memories, by Travis W Stewart

A 5-player controlled platformer. Guide the boy out to recover his memories.

Neenjah Inna WearHauz, by Sam(GMX0)

Cooperate to dodge in coming boxes and escape the Wearhauz!

 
 
Skater Duck, by Elvis Brevi

Stay on the path to collect the coins.

Square Loves Triangle, by Mr. Black

Daw. A love story, and it’s not even February! Cute, interactive runner-style game.

Snow Grabber, by Soyyo

Cooperate to catch the falling snow.

Wyrm, by David Durham

Sweet vector-based techno-Vikings action – slay the wyrm from your flying ship, while dodging his firy attacks.

Super Expeditio, by Volando

4-player split screen competitive runner with atari-style graphics. Pretty slick.

Stattbad Shooter, by Christian Lech

5-player competitive shooter. Really interesting how some elements cross between players.

Rhythm Rope, by Aaron Angert

Jump rope to good ‘ol Edvard Grieg!

Stattbad Invaders, by More Pie

A 5-player cooperative Space Invaders style game.

Jolly Jumper, by Simon

An odd, cooperative game about jumping on a diving board to collect pellets.

Hamusuta Man, by Alfonso Monton

A very bizarre game, about a man throwing vegetables at a giant squid.

Porker Pillar, by Nathan Fouts

Fun game with a trippy art style. Try to feed junk food to your expanding hoard of babies while avoiding vegetable mines.

Pool Push, by Krimelo

The retro aesthetic really works for this one. On physical pads this would be pretty fun.

Milliways, by Masci

Collborative puzzle matching game. Cooperate to clear out the rows before you run out of time.

Spectrum, by MWT

Very trippy and atmospheric. The controls are a little hard to figure out in my head though.

Asteroids in a Wormhole, by Meedoc

Guide your ship through the wormhole while dodging asteroids…. in 3-D!

Unity Rakete, by Mario

Each player controls one thruster on the ship with the goal of landing it safely. Let the insanity commence!

Zaboodles, by Kurt Waldowski

1-Player dodging action game. Avoid in-coming enemies while collecting powerups. Lots ‘o mustaches in this game!

Balloon Ride, by Shane H

Nice cooperative game where everyone works to keep the balloon afloat while collecting points.

V-Sync, by Warren Longmire & Seth Archambault

A Collaborative running game with a fuzzy retro feel – make sure no one dies or we all start over!

Nature Strikes Back, by Christian

Players must work together to crush puny humans with a giant snowball on the mountain top.

Cold War Hangover, by Troshinsky

Do the wave to move the mine into the same bottle as the submarine.

Crazy Fossil Fuel Racers, by Made in PDA

Fun 1 – 5 player racing game, collect gas and avoid fires as you racing across the world.

Beep Brrp Bing Bang Bosh, by Paul McG

A Collaborative rhythm jumping game. Switch sides to keep the song going.

Individual Medley Relay, by Phillip Wei

A cooperative game where each player controls one part of a swimmer. Wow.

Fart Away!, by Gametron

Make sure you’re not with the farter when the elevator door closes – hilarious presentation

Aconomy, by Sendkey

Try to navigate a tumultous stock market by investing in various sectors.

Sec, by Luke O’Connor

Figure out the best path through the stylish graph to collect the most dots during your turn.

Bunny Jump, by Eddie

Platformer where you cooperate to guide a bunny through each level. Nice music.

Varje Voorje, by Mahdi

Bounce your ragdoll into the most points and collect more than your opponent.

Bunt, by Bloutiouf

Cooperatively solve a wide variety of phyicsy puzzles to collect stars.

Dancing, Dancing, Dancing, by Soyyo

Jump up at the right time to complete the song, gets easier depending on the amount of players.

Revolution, by Felix P

Very trippy transcendental cooperative/competitive racing game.

Cadance, by Agent 1729

Action music rhythm game that rewards you with lasers for getting into the groove

Kickz, by Armel Gibson

Sleek and abstract music rhythm game (a bit reminiscent of DDR) in which players complete for the highest score.

3 Hours, by Jim

Press the right button patterns before time runs out against a backdrop of very epic music.

Tone Tennis, by Balthazar Auger

Very interesting, stylish 2 player quick reaction tennis game.

Dandelion Game, by Sergio

A very challenging game in which players activate vents to blow a dandelion to fertile ground.

Space Protocol, by Dominik Reisel

Very tough game in which 5 players run different parts of a starship and complete missions.

Bass, by Luke O’Connor

Stylish presentation of a 2 player spy battle with some physicality. Read the instructions!

The Blame Game, by Luke O’Connor

Cooperate to navigate an incredibly difficult maze.

LLMLMMMRRR, by Rob Lach

Trippy 2D top down space shooter where your action makes music!

Uprok, by Joe

5 player abstract racing game, with some cool music effects as you gather speed and outpace your opponents.

16 Comments | In: Theme | tags: 5 Buttons, Best of the Net, Theme | #

INFINITE WORLD in February 2012

February 1st, 2012

From MMOs like Love, to block-smashing hits like Minecraft ginormous auto-generated worlds seem to be en vogue things days. And what’s not to like? An infinitely vast amount of space filled instantly by expertly tuned variables built by the hands of a few scrappy individuals is the dreams of many an ambitious designer.

Given 7 days over the course of February can you make your own INFINITE WORLD, developers?

20 Comments | In: Theme | tags: Infinite World, Theme | #