Double Buffered

My last few days have been pretty stressful (YOU try supporting an Open Beta that gets > 20k concurrent users), so I thought I’d jump back into this whole blogging thing by talking about a couple really fun indie games I played over the last week. Much like 75% of all indie games, they’re both 2d Puzzle/Platform hybrids. I blame Braid. They’re both cool and have nice free demos, so you have no excuse to try them out:

Saira

Saira is by the creator of Knytt and Knytt Stories (Nifflas), and is heavily focused on exploration and atmosphere. The premise revolves around being left alone in the universe after a failed teleporter accident and your quest to rebuild the device to find the one other living being who is left. You recover parts for the teleporter (such as the always-exciting Tape) by exploring different planets. Each planet is very distinct visually and features some amazing ambient music and soundscapes. The visual style of the backgrounds is very striking and consists largely of  moving image collages and lots of effective parallax scrolling. The game also takes an exploration-based approach to narrative as well, because you are given the opportunity to craft your own ending in a somewhat interesting way. The story left a lasting impression on me.

The actual gameplay is about half pure platforming and half information puzzles. That platformy bits are heavy on wall jumping and momentum, and I started to really enjoy it by the end. Your camera can be used to take pictures of the environment, which you will often have to mix together to find clues or codes to enter into various disembodied computer terminals. Some of the puzzles can get pretty tricky, although I was stuck for a few minutes because I mistook the letterboxing around the image on my non-widescreen monitor as a wall. Whoops. Oh, and while your ship is traveling between planets you can play non-linear pinball. Right now you can pick up one copy for $12, and a SECOND copy for only $1.50 more, to encourage you to share it with a friend. Get it now!

vvvvvv

I first heard about vvvvvv a few months ago when the IGF entries first got posted. The weird name (and great URL) got made me check it out, but the gameplay video is what got me pumped. The full version came out a few days ago and actually has been getting a bit of press. It’s by Terry Cavanagh, who’s also done a few other cool indie games of note. Anyway, the basic premise of this one is that there’s a spaceship or something and you rescue people. Whatever. Anyway, it’s a more explicitly retro platformer, with a C64 or DOS graphic style and a cool chiptune soundtrack. It’s also deviously difficult.

The gameplay consists of left, right, and one button. Sounds boring, but that button actually flips gravity. This expands the gameplay of the typical jumping puzzle to it’s absolute max. If you need a point of reference it’s kind of like Metal Storm for the NES. Which was sweet. I have to admit I haven’t purchased the full version yet, largely because I barely made it through the demo without exceeding my frustration threshold. It’s $15 of minimalist fun, and I think I’ll pick it up later this week.

Right now I’m listening to the Radio Kanar interstellar station available inside Saira, and now I’m going to go permanently add the soundtrack to my library. I don’t know why the game includes a large selection of hybrid jazz/classical/electronica but I love it.