Announcing… WORD MESS

March 13th, 2012

In addition to running EGP, we here at the Experimental Gameplay Project some times make games.   For the most part they start off as little baby ideas that get made into prototypes.  Most of these morph into horrible mouth-breathing abominations that we smother mercilessly in their sleep, but every now and then one shows a glimmer of promise and we decide to see it through to completion.

This is one of those times.

Word Mess

Word Mess is a collaboration between myself and original EGP co-founder, Shalin Shodhan, and is our take on the word game genre. Instead of trying to make words from letters  in a grid, you search for words in beautifully crafted word clouds. The game is dead simple – touch words to get rid of them, find all of the words before the time is up.

As you play the difficulty gradually ramps up, with later levels introducing shuffle bombs that mess with your board in various ways. Currently we have 3 main modes: Find, Category, and Rhymes, but there are plans to add more with future updates.

You can also compete with your friends in Challenge Mode across Game Center – since this is what all the cool kids do these days, or so I’m told.

Where to get it

Word Mess is currently available for iOS devices and we’re selling it for the princely sum of $.99.

If you’d like to support us you can buy it: HERE

If you’d like to support us without buying it, you can also take the “Like” route on the game’s Facebook page.

5 Free Copies!

Since Shalin and I both started our game development careers with EGP we’re showing some love this month by giving away 5 free copies of the game (a retail value of $4.95!). Anyone who submits a game to the ECONOMY theme will be randomly entered into the drawing.

No Comments | In: Games, News | tags: apps | #

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 Competition in December and January

December 1st, 2011

We play most games within the confines of a teeny, tiny screen in a quiet, private setting. Not next year though. Next year we’ll ALL be playing games on the floor of an 19th century swimming pool with tons of people watching.

This month we’re partnering with 02L >  Outside Standing Level to bring you the 5 Buttons Competition. Submit your game between now and January 31st, 11:59 PST to have the opportunity to have your game displayed at the Stattbad Gallery in beautiful Berlin, Germany.

Unlike previous competitions, however, there is a bit of a twist: games will run on 02L > Outside Standing Level’s Unita Zero platform, an audio/visual playground made up of 5 pressure pads hooked up to a projector and audio system.

To make things even more interesting finalists will be played during the Stattmedia Game Contest event on February 17, 2012, and the winner will be selected by popular vote of the attendees.

And you’re not just competing for bragging rights. The winners get cold, hard cash prizes:

First Place: 1200€

Second Place: 600€

Third Place: 200€

The Rules

Your game should:

1) run on Windows 7 x64 (intel core-i7, NVidia GPU (260GTX+), 6GB RAM+)

2) use keys ‘1’, ‘2’, ‘3’, ‘4’, ‘5’ as primary or alternate controlling keys set (every interaction in the game, including navigating game’s states, must be handled by such keys).

3) run on a single fullscreen window (by default) maximum/optimal resolution 1280×800 (TBC)

4) never attempt to focus change to other windows

5) be self-contained in a single folder (dependency dlls should be found there)

6) be started by executing a single .exe file

Additional Considerations & Tips

1) Don’t use copyrighted materials.  Enough said.

2) Keep it tasteful: if your game is too offensive it may be rejected.

3) Design your game with the controls in mind: requiring the player to quickly press ’1′ then ’5′ won’t work so well if they have to run, however having them press ’1′ then ’2′ might work just fine.

4) Audio, audio, audio: your game will be played in a cavernous setting with a powerful audio system in a club setting.  There’s definitely some space to play around with sound.

If you cannot meet the technical requirements you can of course submit a game for the theme, but we will be unable to show it at Stattbad.

Good luck everyone!

About 02L > Outside Standing Level

02L > Outside Standing Level has worked on interactive installations since 2002, producing unique blends of art and technology. One of their projects, Unità Zero, composed by five massive sensor pads, has a great potential for driving experimental games with a strong physical interaction among players.

About the Stattbad Gallery

The Stattbad Gallery is a renovated exhibition space and was formerly a bad ass 19th century swimming pool designed by Ludwig Hoffmann. More pictures of it can be found HERE.

177 Comments | In: News, Theme | tags: 5 Buttons, Competition, Theme | #

Hey Everybody!

May 18th, 2011

Hi guys, just thought I’d introduce myself.  Peter Angstadt here, and I’ll be helping write up the end of the month game round ups.  In the early days (maybe 5ish years ago, wow I feel old!), this site really helped me get my game development career off the ground.  I spent some time at Maxis, then Havok, but now I’m an independent game developer and I’m excited to come back and help out!

Looking forward to checking out all the crazy new experimental games!

4 Comments | In: News | | #

ZOOM in May

May 1st, 2011

May is the month where the pace starts to quicken.  We’ve shaken off the cold, cold shackles of Winter and blown through allergy season just in time to realize that Summer is nearly upon us and that a third of the year is already gone!  What happened?

So with that in mind (and really, because we haven’t used the theme yet), it’s time to make a game around the theme: ZOOM.  This could pertain to speed, increasing or decreasing the scale of things, or anything else your clever minds can conjure up – just make sure you don’t let time zoom past you into June!

40 Comments | In: News, Theme | tags: Theme, zoom | #