December DRAWING

December 6th, 2010

Remember when you were a kid and it used to snow and reindeers got on your chimney and your tummy was filled with tiny sparkles and you wore a sweater with an animal sewn on it and you could see your breath in the air like thousands of tiny wishes and you just knew that anything could happen, because this was a special time, and now you’re old and you spend every day pressing F5 on your social website at work and then you go home and stream netflix into your sad old face?

This month, the possibilities are back! The theme for December is DRAWING. You have 7 days out of the month to make a game that somehow incorporates the theme DRAWING. “Good luck!”, say all the reindeer friends.

36 Comments | In: News, Theme | tags: Drawing, Theme | #

Neverending Winners!

October 13th, 2010

 
After a lot of careful consideration and multiple never-ending game sessions, the fine folks at Baby Castles have chosen Mocke’s Goblin-stomping entry: Pilot Crash Course as the winner! Congratulations Mocke!

RUNNER-UPS
Additionally, organizers have determined a number of runner-ups whose work will also be shown at Baby Castle’s new, swanky, Manhattan setup. The Runner-ups include:

Untitled, by Martin Gonzalez

A platforming game where you create platforms to explore in an endless environment that changes the longer you’re in it.

Clock, by Luke O’Connor

Press any button to jump to the opposite side of the screen to avoid touching the red lines.

Asterodyssey, by Gametron Studios

Move the Earth out of the path of oncoming asteroids in this mouse-only arcade game. Good use of sounds & the hand-drawn art is nice.

Mines 4 Ever, by PYRONIMOUS

The easiest comparisson here is Minesweep with a Lumines-like time component that you can speed up at will.

 
BONUS-ADDITIONAL GAME SHOWN

Last, but not least, Baby Castles would also like to show a game from April’s REPEAT theme, none other than Krimelo’s twisted, twisted game:

 
Auto Cannibalism, by Krimelo

Features RepEating uses of the theme. The low-bit aesthetic, music, and dialog combine to make a hilarious experience. Plus, when was the last time games explored the delicious theme of cannibalism?

 
When can I see the games in person?

The winners will make their public debut on Friday, October 22nd with live musical guests : Fat Tony & Tom Cruz, Ava Luna, and a special game history talk/performance by Blue Leader.

The games will be up through Saturday, October 30th, so if you’re in Manhattan do stop on by and check them out!

Yay, I won! Now what?

In order to make sure your work is properly shown, please email your contact information to contact at experimentalgameplay dot com. Make sure to include your email, full name, and of course the name of your winning entry. Congratulations, everyone!

15 Comments | In: News | tags: Baby Castles, NeverEnding | #

BOYS AND GIRLS in October

October 1st, 2010

Now that games are officially art, we can think of games as windows into our culture, just like film and music are windows into our culture. An anthropologist thousands of years from now can go to the floating public library in the sky and load up “video games from 2010″ on the microfiche and learn all about our culture way back in 2010. And they would learn that thousands of years ago, there used to be TWO genders, BOYS and GIRLS, instead of the green glowing orb of energy that everyone is now, and that according to “game designers” back then, boys and girls both had a lot in common! They both had arms and legs and inability to communicate with the other, but they were also really different! Games made for boys indicated that boys liked stealing cars and murdering and being lonely, and girls liked being pretty, and making themselves sad because they will never be a princess.

With that in mind, your challenge this month is different depending who you are:

• Boys: Make a game for girls.
• Girls: Make a game for boys.
• Other/Green glowing orb: Surprise everyone!

If you need inspiration, read about how Pac-Man was created over on Eurogamer. And consider this our official request to inspire more folks other than boys to make games, in a classic friendly battle of boys vs. girls vs. other. Good luck!

45 Comments | In: News, Theme | tags: Boys and Girls, Theme | #

NEVERENDING in September

September 1st, 2010

You have seven days out of the month of September to build a game that is “NEVERENDING”. Can you build a game that is infinitely playable, and always crowd pleasing?

There is a special reward this month for the best, most infinite games: The winner (or winners, as selected by the fine folks at Babycastles) will get their games displayed as an installation at the brand new Babycastles indie game arcade in Times Square, NYC at a yet to be determined event toward the end of the year.

Remember, your game will be shown in a loud, busy, public space. People will be walking by, their attention will be split between dozens of distractions. Some tips:

• 1. Look interesting even when not being played. Attract players!
• 2. Be instantly playable, understandable, intuitive. Assume your game will be left in any possible state, and must always be ready for one player to leave, and another player to pick up some time later.
• 3. Avoid a title screen, or any menu system at all. (Like Flow.)
• 4. Use sound, but don’t rely on it for gameplay.

Good luck constructing a NEVERENDING game! See you on the other side.

129 Comments | In: News, Theme | tags: NeverEnding | #

Announcing Tomorrow Corporation

March 8th, 2010

In semi-related EGP news, three of us, Allan Blomquist, Kyle Gabler, and Kyle Gray have been silently toiling away on an actual real game for months now, and while we’re not yet ready to announce it, expect more information to flow from our brand new studio’s brand new website:  Tomorrow Corporation!

11 Comments | In: News | tags: Allan Blomquist, Kyle Gabler, Kyle Gray, Tomorrow Corporation | #

Shoot 1up coming soon to an Xbox near you

December 9th, 2009

Well this is really nice news.  Nathan Fout of Mommy’s Best Games just pointed us to an update on his game for October’s Numbers theme, Shoot 1Up.  Since October he has developed it into a full-fledged shooter, which he will be releasing in January 2010 on Xbox Live Indie Games.

Anyone interested in snagging a free copy of the game can do so by following him on twitter where he’ll be giving away game codes in the near future.

This has been a proud year for everyone here at EGP, first Canabalt becomes a runaway success (har, har) taking the iPhone by storm and now this. Maybe we’ll be fortunate enough to see Broken Brothers or Lose/Lose win at IGF this year like in 2008 when that one game took two awards, and that other one took the grand prize.

Of course with all of these 7-day prototypes becoming the real deal, one has to ask the obvious:

Are there any games you’ve made that you think could make the leap to a full-fledged title?

*UPDATE*

Nathan has been keeping a developer diary on the Shoot 1up prototype.  Probably something worth doing, though I think most of us are too lazy for such introspection.

3 Comments | In: News | tags: All Grown Up | #