Back in January of 2010 we ran the 100 Things theme, which was a rousing success… and yet we felt that there were still some unexplored possibilities. So of course we had to one-up that theme by doing one better (since as I understand it you should always being giving 110% or turning the volume up to 11) so we creatively settled on… 101 Things!
Given the limit of having 101 Things in the entire game what can you do?
Modern games are often based on ruthlessly calculated economies, ensnaring users with their shady psychological trickery to trigger that “just one more” feeling. The app store and facebook are bursting at the seams with their ilk – milking customers for that last dollar. But if you push aside all the tricksters and snake-oil peddlers, a game with a well designed economy is a pleasure in itself.
So what do you think game developers, anyone up for making their own ECONOMY this month?
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:
Compete with another player to get your cupcake across the world.
Very experimental idea in which you affect the environment to help the ‘player’ get through.
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.
Travel through and colonize an ever expanding universe.
Escape a maze of infinite complexity before you’re destroyed.
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:
Use gravity to guide the comet to the goal in this soothing coop-title.
Save your jumping powers to collect more coins than your competitors! Just wish it had music.
Nicely animated Whack a Mole played from the other perspective.
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!
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.
Cooperate to catch the falling snow.
Sweet vector-based techno-Vikings action – slay the wyrm from your flying ship, while dodging his firy attacks.
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.
Jump rope to good ‘ol Edvard Grieg!
Stattbad Invaders, by More Pie
A 5-player cooperative Space Invaders style game.
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.
The retro aesthetic really works for this one. On physical pads this would be pretty fun.
Collborative puzzle matching game. Cooperate to clear out the rows before you run out of time.
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!
Each player controls one thruster on the ship with the goal of landing it safely. Let the insanity commence!
1-Player dodging action game. Avoid in-coming enemies while collecting powerups. Lots ‘o mustaches in this game!
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.
Make sure you’re not with the farter when the elevator door closes – hilarious presentation
Try to navigate a tumultous stock market by investing in various sectors.
Figure out the best path through the stylish graph to collect the most dots during your turn.
Platformer where you cooperate to guide a bunny through each level. Nice music.
Bounce your ragdoll into the most points and collect more than your opponent.
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.
Very trippy transcendental cooperative/competitive racing game.
Action music rhythm game that rewards you with lasers for getting into the groove
Sleek and abstract music rhythm game (a bit reminiscent of DDR) in which players complete for the highest score.
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.
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.
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.
Trippy 2D top down space shooter where your action makes music!
5 player abstract racing game, with some cool music effects as you gather speed and outpace your opponents.
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?
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€
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
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!
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.
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.
We're a group of indie game developers, running a friendly competition every month. The rules: Make a game based on the month's theme, and don't spend more than 7 days. New games posted at the end of every month. 
