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 47 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!

7 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?

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

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.

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

UPGRADE in November 2011

November 1st, 2011

This month’s theme is UPGRADE.  Frankly, we’re shocked we haven’t done this theme before, but after minutes of extensive research combing through EGP backlogs we determined that we some how missed this theme.

So there you have it.  UPGRADE away, game developers.

12 Comments | In: Theme | tags: Theme, Upgrade | #

SLICING Roundup

October 31st, 2011

This Halloween saw a number of takes on slicing. We saw slicing wood, cutting walls, separating bones, and even slicing integer arrays!

Now let’s cut into these 12 games and see what’s inside:

The Lazy Haberdasher, by Patai Gergely

A very challenging spatial puzzle game where you cut up a chunk of wood and use the pieces to make a shape.

The Real Ninja, by Rahil Patel

Slice ninjas, jump over pumpkins and duck parents in this Halloween themed slicing adventure.

Luckey Slice, by Leighton Luckey

Fun game that will test your reflexes as you slice some squares but not others!

A. Cyborg, by Mark Sacks

A simple stylish game in which you can cut apart robots!

Gringo Slicing, by Gringo

This game explores the idea that Pac-man can eat through walls and push them!

Quest of the Slicetron, by Dusty of Podunk Studioz

Slice yourself into two controllable characters to get through each level in this challenging platformer.

Combat Simulator For Skeletons, by Vamsi Krishna. Veligatla

A pretty difficult game where you can split apart a skeleton to collect stars and avoid hazards.

Ohrwurm, by Aaron Oldenburg

An interesting way to explore different materials and the sounds they make.

Slicing The Bush, by Michael Sanford

Slice up a grid-like bush to match a pattern.

Slicing Defense, by Erik Jansson

Slice up endless waves of zombies.

Slicing, by Peter Reijnders

Sort arrays of numbers by choosing slices.

Slice, by Alex Shipley

Slice the dots that match the background color, or suffer the consequences.

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

October 2011 is… SLICING

October 1st, 2011

Now that we’re officially into the Fall season here in the States our great marketing gears have turned toward the grizzly Halloween Holiday, a joyous celebration where our youths dress up as psychopaths, monsters, or Disney mascots and stuff themselves silly with candy while fake bludgeoning each other to death.

Your challenge this month, dear developers, is to make October the most SLICING-est month ever.

30 Comments | In: Theme | tags: Slicing, Theme | #