I recently received an email for an indie bundle that you should check out being organized by Kyttaro Games. It is called the Bundle In A Box – Adventure Bundle, and to top it all off, it is for charity.

The bundle includes the release of The Sea Will Claim Everything, as well as Gemini Rue, Ben There, Dan That! Special Edition, Time Gentlemen, Please, 1893: A World Fair’s Mystery, Metal Dead and The Shivah. The Sea Will Claim Everything is a point and click adventure game made by Jona Kyraztes. 1893: A World Fair’s Mystery will make history by being the first text adventure/IF game in a bundle of this sort.

All the games are available to download, DRM free (as is common with indie developers) for Windows computers, although codes will be available for select games on Steam and Desura. The bundle is using the traditional pay-what-you-want model with the starting (minimum) price of $2.99 lowering by 5 cents with every 500 purchases, so buying helps everybody! For every 10,000 purchases, a selection of extras will unlock such as the soundtracks of Gemini Rue and The Shivah as well as a Making Of Metal Dead PDF booklet. The main bundle contains 5 games and The Shivah and Metal Dead are bonuses to people who pay above average price.

The Bundle In A Box Adventure Bundle is supporting Perivolaki – The Hellenic Centre for Mental Health and Treatment of Child and Family, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping mentally ill kids and their families in Greece. This organization desperately needs your support.

On top of all this, a grant will be given to one indie developer who emailed the bundle creators and asked them to be part of this it. This will be voted. It is called the Indie Dev Grant. For every 15,000 bundles sold, $2000 will go to the grant. At the end, the money from that will go to one developer who deserves or needs it. So, in other words, you are donating to help indie developers, and a charity, and you get games for it – this bundle is a good thing. I encourage you to support the Bundle In A Box – Adventure Bundle.

Official Website: http://bundle-in-a-box.com/

Email to join the Indie Grant: mailto:info@bundle-in-a-box.com

Or contact them here: http://www.kyttarogames.com/?page_id=42

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Nathan – He prefers his last name not to be known. He’s probably a high-class superspy, but we don’t mind. For a temporary amount of time, he is the editor of Indiegraph. He’s our point man for interviews, and occasionally he takes a blowtorch to a game to see whether it measures up to his standards. He runs Gamesbydesign, an IndieGraph affliate site dedicated to game design articles. You can email him at gmaker4@hotmail.ca or follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/#!/VGR_Reviews.

I interviewed the creator (Kirk Johnson and iNCEPTIONAL) of a new GameMaker made game, Light Hero, available for iOS and Windows.

1.) Mind telling our community a bit about yourself?

My name is Kirk Johnston. I live in Edinburgh, Scotland. I’m 35 years old and I have been involved with and working in the games industry for around 15 years now.

My first job in the industry was working as an artist/animator for Rare Ltd. This was back in the N64 era when they were making classic games like GoldenEye, Banjo Kazooie, Perfect Dark and Conker’s Bad Fur Day.  I worked as a 2D artist and animator on games such as Donkey Kong Country GBC and Banjo Kazooie: Grunty’s Revenge on the Game Boy Advance.

Since then I’ve worked for various companies in various positions, such as a 3D animator, games tester and even producer. My last job was as a level designer at Rockstar North, working on their upcoming games, Agent and GTA V.

After leaving Rockstar North I decided to work with a small company called Vmlweb to convert a version of the very first Game Maker game I made, called iZone, for iPhone. This game eventually became iLectronz and was released in demo form on iOS in 2011.

Once I’d finished iLectronz I decided one day to randomly change the graphics for the entire game and this eventually led to the current version of Light Hero that I’ve just finished and released on PC, as well as a simpler version on iPhone too.

2.) Could you please tell us a bit about your new game, Light Hero?

Light Hero is a game that I’ve been working on myself for a few years now, on and off (mostly off because of jobs and stuff). It is basically a simple reflex test in the guise of an old school shooter. It’s designed to test how good both your hand-eye co-ordination is and your gamer skills in general.

You play as an enigmatic and cocky character called Light Star. He is the greatest pilot in the galaxy and it’s his mission to gather a valuable new space mineral called Phosphorium from the asteroid belt. The date is 2045 and Phosphorium is now used as the primary energy source on Earth.

The game’s story and premise is very simple and gives the game just enough context to frame the underlying gameplay so that it doesn’t seem completely arbitrary.

It looks like a very simple game on the surface, and in terms of controls and gameplay mechanics it is, but once you get onto the later levels, or up to the faster speeds in Infinite Mode, you’ll start to understand that it really is about good old fashioned skill.

Light Hero is a classic example from the whole ‘easy to learn but difficult to master’ school of game design.

3.) Your game seems to have a retro style – is there anything that draws you to that type of game?

I’ve been playing games since the early days of the industry and personally consider the SNES era of gaming as the most influential and important time in my gamer life. There are so many classic SNES games that truly stand the test of time, certainly when it comes to gameplay; games like Super Mario World, Yoshi’s Island, Street Fighter II Turbo, F-zero, Super Aleste and Super Metroid, to name a few of my favourites.

What I love about all those games is that they have this laser-like focus on creating extremely clean, refined and polished gameplay experiences, and they always have really responsive and intuitive controls which I think is very important in any game. They usually have relatively simple game worlds and designs that are easy for the player to understand, no convoluted stories or overly complex controls and game mechanics, yet they still offer a genuine challenge to gamers who want to test their pure skills. They are also all 2D, in that the camera viewpoint is locked in a 2D perspective, and I really think the 2D view and 2D gameplay is more often than not far more intuitive and fun than the more complex 3D view and gameplay of many modern games.

I’ve always wanted to create a game like that myself.

To be clear, I don’t see Light Hero as “that” game but it’s definitely a good first step towards making one of those games.

On a side note: the original design for Light Hero, or iZone as it was originally called, was actually based loosely on Tetris. Well, the basic game mechanics of moving left and right into position and changing state using one button as the game level constantly speeds up over time. I really wanted it to be a game that anyone could pick up and play but that required pure concentration and focus to stay alive once it got going. That was the whole idea behind the original name, iZone (getting in the “Zone” as it were).

4.) I see Light Hero has a lot of　gaming jokes and memes built into it. What inspired those elements?

Well, I’m a total geek in general, not just about videogames, and I just thought it would be cool to sneak in a few of the retro references from some of the games I enjoyed playing as I was growing up. As well as some stuff from sci-fi and pop culture etc.

When I first made iZone/iLectronz (before it became Light Hero) I actually had a lot more references to Nintendo and its classic franchises in the game. I did however get a few warnings that this might cause me some legal troubles should I start selling the game, so I took most of them out.

I did however leave the “Do a barrel roll” one in there, from Star Fox, because I thought it went well with the space shooter theme/setting. I just found it funny that Admiral Halcyon would suggest trying this classic manoeuvre after you’d already failed the level and even though you can’t actually do a barrel roll in the game.

Maybe in a sequel…

5.) The game looks great! How was that done?

A bit of luck really.

I’m not actually a particularly great artist, despite what my resume might make some people assume, so a lot of the art you see is basically the best I could do given my various personal artistic limitations and the limitations imposed on me by the different software I was using.

Trying to create anything that looks half decent using a mouse is a personal challenge. That’s why there’s not a lot of actual ‘drawn’ artwork in the game. I think I managed to reasonably cover up my artistic deficiencies for the most part.

I’m really happy you like the look of the game.

6.) Do you have any interesting stories involving the development of Light Hero?

So many I don’t even know where to start.

To go off on a slight tangent; I guess it might be interesting to your readers to mention that throughout the entire development of Light Hero I’ve actually been involved in a continuing legal battle with Warner Bros over the trademark for my company name, iNCEPTIONAL, and to this day I continue to fight them for the right to use my company name.

For the record, I was in fact using the iNCEPTIONAL name in the public domain first, well before Warner Bros ever used Inception in any form.

It wasn’t easy focusing on getting the game finished when I had this legal battle with one of the world’s largest entertainment empires constantly looming over my head, I can tell you.

Who knows how that one’s going to play out in the end…

Another fact you might find interesting is that all the asteroids in the game were actually created from cutting a circle-ish shape out of a brick pattern I made in Photoshop when I was trying to do a Christmas skin for the original version of iLectronz. I then just applied a couple filters and added a bit of light and dark here and there to get what you see as the final asteroid designs.

7.) Do you have any tips for aspiring developers?

The main tip I would give to anyone who wants to develop their own games is just to keep busy doing something on the project at all times. Don’t make up excuses not to get things done and don’t worry about not doing things right or even failing completely. As long as you’re doing something and making progress then you’re always heading in the right direction, and you learn from your mistakes.

Also, don’t be afraid to get other people involved with the project if you need them, like extra artists, programmers or musicians, especially if you can find people who are willing to help you for free. There are so many talented people out there willing to contribute art, music and other resources, all for free or at least for a minimal amount of money. You just have to be willing to get the feelers out there and talk to like minded people.

The secret of success isn’t having great ideas. Ideas are ten a penny. The secret is actually doing whatever it takes to turn those ideas into something real and tangible that other people can appreciate and love just as much as you do.

I’m just starting to figure that out myself.

8.) Have you always been a fan of video games?

I can clearly recall my first real introduction to videogames and the moment I first fell in love with them…

The first time I really began to enjoy playing videogames was when I was given a Sega Master System one Christmas at the age of thirteen. I loved playing games like Alex Kidd in Miracle World and Fantasy Zone II on that system. In fact, I was a Sega fanboy for quite a while because of the Master System.

I didn’t however completely fall in love with games until I got a SNES a few years later and played Super Mario World for the first time. That game was truly magical to me and something changed in me when I played through its brilliantly crafted worlds, jumping around from platform to platform with perfect pixel accuracy, on my way to rescue the princess from the evil Bowser. Playing that game I knew I’d found my life’s passion, I also discovered the Nintendo fanboy in me, and from that moment onwards I knew I wanted to have a career in videogames no matter what.

I still love videogames as much as I ever have. I will always love videogames, and I think they are the greatest form of entertainment ever created.

9.) Any particular video games you are currently playing and would recommend?

Well, I played Rayman Origins recently and I’d certainly recommend that game. It has the feel of a classic Mario platformer but also brings its own beautiful art direction and humour to the table. It’s a brilliant example of a great modern game with some classic old school sensibilities. Right up my alley. I’m definitely looking forward to the upcoming Rayman Legends.

10.) What was it like getting on the Apple App Store?

Well it was extremely easy for me because I actually made a little arrangement with Vmlweb, the company that worked on converting Light Hero to the iPhone for me, to host the game on their iOS developer account.

That little agreement means that Vmlweb receives half of any money we make selling the game. So right now I get 20p for each copy of the game sold.

In about one hundred years time I’ll be rich!

For the record, the iPhone version is actually supposed to be free but because of the whole Warner Bros legal battle I’ve had to start charging for it. This is basically to provide evidence to support the fact that I’m using my business name in the actual trade of products and services.

Not the best situation really, for me or the iOS gamers, but one day I’m sure we’ll be able to make it free again.

11.) Any parting thoughts?

I’m currently looking into putting the game onto various other services if possible, like Steam or maybe as part of a Humble Indie Bundle, and I’d really love to add full online leaderboards at some point too, as well as maybe a couple of other little things in the levels.

I’m also deciding what to work on next; whether it is the Light Hero sequel I’ve been thinking about or something completely new.

I’ll be sure to update you when I figure out what it’s going to be.

Thanks for the interview.

Thank you, Kirk.

Yoyogames download link: http://sandbox.yoyogames.com/games/198725-light-hero

Official site: http://www.inceptional.com/index.html

iOS download link: http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/light-hero-lite/id450519670?mt=8

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Nathan – He prefers his last name not to be known. He’s probably a high-class superspy, but we don’t mind. For a temporary amount of time, he is the editor of Indiegraph. He’s our point man for interviews, and occasionally he takes a blowtorch to a game to see whether it measures up to his standards. He runs Gamesbydesign, an IndieGraph affliate site dedicated to game design articles. You can email him at gmaker4@hotmail.ca or follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/#!/VGR_Reviews.

I have mentioned before the problem with entropy in games, but today I would like to bring up a more pressing issue.

“The time for emotional games is now” proudly screams the ad for the MolyJam, a competition dedicated to creating experimental gameplay, but can you do it? Can you make a game bring someone to tears?

I have seen a lot of “emotional games”, and to be honest, very few have actually instilled any feeling in me. And that’s not because I am a lifeless corpse of a person, although I am, it is because most “emotional” games on the market are nothing of the sort. They are thoughtful, and that is a totally different thing.

An emotional game should make people sad, and very few interactive arts actually do that to the degree that other media outlets (films and books) do. I believe that games are actually far more capable of gripping players and giving a feeling than anything else aside from reality. The problem is that it is really hard. The highest mountain is the hardest to climb, but eventually someone will reach that peak and will place a flag that will put the banners of Mount Video and Mount Literature to shame.

The closer something is to reality, the more it will affect you. If someone showed you a cave paining of someone being stabbed to death in a horrible way, it would not really effect you for the painting would be so obscure it would be hard to make out the characters. In Tom and Jerry people laugh when Tom gets his head stuck in a window frame and his tongue sticks out like it is trying to escape his body.

Compare this to those two events happening in reality. Unless you’re a sadist, then I imagine you will be very shocked if someone got their head stuck in a window and their tongue gets a life of it’s own, or if someone was stabbed to death in from of you. We can therefore conclude that the closer something is to reality the more influence it has on you.

Now, games are closer to reality than any other media because of the fact they have free- will. In reality, the things you do affect the world; the same happens in games. Not only that, but games are a combination of a lot of other media, making them even more involving.

But there are three things that are holding us back.

Entropy, as I have discussed before – the chaotic nature of games makes them notoriously hard to work with. This means a lot more time and money need to be put in to ensure a nice story.

Things can get TOO REAL – don’t try to climb all the way up that mountain or you’ll run out of air. There is a boundary that all players have where a game stops being fun and starts being disturbing. Keep this in mind when thinking about horror games especially.

And last of all, keep in mind that if anything bad happens DIRECTLY to the player it will not make them sad. It will make them angry; don’t just randomly punish your player because all it will do is make them rage-quit.

So, you want to know the secret way to make the saddest game in the world?

You give your game one character, a single character that interacts with the player in a way that no film or book character could; that reacts and comments on the player’s actions and make them fall in love with that character.

Then kill her/him.

If you’re lucky, the player will not become angry at the game but will instead burst into tears in a great cathartic explosion. And then you’ve done it, you’ve got as high as you can up the tower of sadness. Hopefully, if you do it just right, and I mean just right, the player will rate you 7 out of 5 stars and not punch his fist through the computer.

That’s the real problem – the sadder you make your game, the closer you get to overdoing it and having the exact opposite effect.

“The time for emotional games is now” beams the add for MolyJam, and even though I’ve weighed up the good and the bad, I still stand with that claim. People are afraid to go near that boundary and that upsets me, because sure, it could go wrong, but it could also go so right.

MolyJam link: http://www.whatwouldmolydeux.com/

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Joseph, or Lawsome, as the internet folk call him – Spends a lot of time making games, most of which fall apart or don’t work and are never published, but the few that survive can be found on his account at Yoyogames http://sandbox.yoyogames.com/users/Lawsome1997. He mainly enjoys writing about game theory but you’ll see him do a few reviews. He avoids games that look generic and would rather play something original than something fun. He has strong opinions on games and can hold his own in an argument, if you tell him that COD MW3 is the best game ever he may bite your head off.

While wandering through the iOS Appstore (looking for another game to steal away all my free time like Angry Birds did) I ran into a neat little game called Paper Bees. I decided to give it a try and tell you guys about it. Well, this is my review on Paper Bees.

Paper Bees is an arcade defence game and was created by Wiggles 3D (a company who started making board games and this is their first app). The game is also coming to Android devices soon. The objective: get a high-score and get medals as you try to protect your hives and flowers from other invading bugs. You must survive until nightfall to win. The game has Game Center support. There is 30 levels right now which go by quickly but there is a good amount of replay value (to get the best medal possible on every level). Wiggles 3D said that more levels would be coming soon in the form of updates.

You attack by flinging bees across the screen from their flower home base (when a flower is destroyed, that bee dies) and once they hit their target (or miss it) they return back to their flower to go charging again. You sometimes get allies on your team (other types of bugs) and you also receive powerups from friendly insects.

The game has a pretty good overall presentation. The loading times can be quite long at times and some of the in-game text such as “Loading…” may be hard to read for some people because it is so small (at times). The art style is simply gorgeous – cute, colourful and attractive paper cut-outs. The game has some cute tunes playing and they are all quite memorable, as they should be. During levels, atmospheric sounds really suck you in and are quite beautiful to the ear. The cartoony sound effects are good and fitting for the most part except for the sound the bees make which is really odd and it gets irritating!

The controls can be a bit finicky at times. Most of the time they work but sometimes they are either slow to respond or don’t respond at all (leading to a few game-overs that could have been averted). The game has a good difficulty curve too – it starts out easy to ease you in and then gradually ramps up the difficulty. The game is quite simple but it does a pretty good job of teaching you what to do for the first few levels by means of helpful little post-it notes that fit in well with the school diorama setting.

There is a good dosage of variety to the game as well which I believe is crucial to game like this. There is three unique worlds (with 10 levels each) to break it up as well as the inclusion of lots of different enemy bugs with lots of different behaviors – some swoop around you, some simply move in like a tank in a straight line – and it helps give just the right dosage of strategy to the experience. It is simple yet fun, much like a lot of the other offerings on the Appstore.

The game is pretty stable. I’ve had one crash and I have had one bug where it seemed like two sentences of game tips were right on top of each other (they overlapped), making it hard to read. Nothing really serious.

When you get past the $1.99 price point (which isn’t unreasonable, really) which some may fight against because of $0.99 games like Angry Birds that have more content, you have a pretty decent game that I believe you should check out if you ever got addicted to any games like this – you may be addicted for a long time like me, so welcome to the club. I recommend you check out Paper Bees.

Check out some of their other games (board games) here: http://wiggles3d.com/

Link: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/paper-bees/id512225599?mt=8

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Nathan – He prefers his last name not to be known. He’s probably a high-class superspy, but we don’t mind. For a temporary amount of time, he is the editor of Indiegraph. He’s our point man for interviews, and occasionally he takes a blowtorch to a game to see whether it measures up to his standards. He runs Gamesbydesign, an IndieGraph affliate site dedicated to game design articles. You can email him at gmaker4@hotmail.ca or follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/#!/VGR_Reviews.

It is no doubt there are some truly creative and amazing Flash games out there. Well, I was bored and so I decided to look around Newgrounds (http://www.newgrounds.com) and see what I could dig up. This article is the result of my findings. Enjoy!

Time Fcuk – A dark (and sometimes humorous) puzzle-platformer with a level editor.

Link: http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/511754

The Love Letter – A quick yet challenging game in which you attempt to read a love letter while avoiding hordes of nosey kids.

Link: http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/590938

One Chance – A dark, choice focused game in which you unleash a horrible, cell killing disease and you have to decide what to do with your last time on Earth.

Link: http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/555181

Minecraft Tower Defense 2 – A Minecraft tower defense game where a Minecraft noob fights off hordes of Minecraft mobs. Why wasn’t this made before?

Link: http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/593976

Straight Bullyism – A unique RPG in which you play as a bully trying to survive school.

Link: http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/593568

This is the Only Level II – A platformer staring an elephant that only has one level – but you have to figure out all the ways to beat it.

Link: http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/546025

TETRIS’D: The Game – An arcade game in which you are a stickman trying to avoid getting crushed by falling Tetris blocks – addictive and fun, just like the normal version of Tetris.

Link: http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/514128

Infinite Ocean – An eerie sci-fi adventure game. NOTE: The game is available on Newgrounds although I couldn’t get it to work so…

Link: http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/555087

Windows Doors – A fake OS making fun of Microsoft Windows. Quite humorous, creative and funny. More of a toy than a game but a work of genius nonetheless.

Link: http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/512482

Get Closer – A weird puzzle game in which the objective is to… get closer!

Link: http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/595243

Of course, there are lots more neat games to be found on there, as well as on other sites, so be sure to explore! If you find any neat ones, post about them in the comments section. If you didn’t know already, Newgrounds lets people post their own games so you may find the site a good place to get players for your Flash games. If I find more (I probably will) I may add a few more parts to this over the next little while and start a series.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Nathan - He prefers his last name not to be known. He’s probably a high-class superspy, but we don’t mind. For a temporary amount of time, he is the editor of Indiegraph. He’s our point man for interviews, and occasionally he takes a blowtorch to a game to see whether it measures up to his standards. He runs Gamesbydesign, an IndieGraph affliate site dedicated to game design articles. You can email him at gmaker4@hotmail.ca or follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/#!/VGR_Reviews.

With a little help from the YoYoGames community themselves for question ideas, I contacted YoYoGames and we arranged for an interview. This is the result of our efforts. We hope you find it interesting. NOTE: Mike Dailly deserves a lot of credit for all the good work he did on most of the question answers.

1.) Do you mind introducing yourselves?

The YoYoGames team is headed up by Sandy Duncan CEO, Russell Kay COO and Mike Dailly, Head of Development with approximately 20 plus years each of game development experience. YoYoGames is the home of GameMaker, the development tool that creates games without any programming knowledge. We have expanded to approximately 16 employees in the Dundee-based office.

2.) What is your motivation for supporting the indie community?

The games industry started on the back of bedroom coders and is something close to the hearts to the tech team at YoYo. As the industry grew, so did budgets and it became very difficult to break into. Now, we are seeing a return to simple games being made as home projects and having access to get this to market i.e. on iOS. This is great news for all developers; in fact you don’t have to be a coder at all anymore. It has opened opportunities to anyone who has enough creativity to give it a go. The indie community is just brimming with talent.

3.) How is your iOS campaign doing?

We’re doing pretty well on the YoYo published games on iOS… Our ad backed Solitaire game has done very well, so much so we’ve released a paid version. Karoshi won 2011’s Android game of the year award from Pocket Gamer and others like They Need to be Fed, Reflexions, Pollushot etc. have all done great sales as well.

4.) Do you have any major plans with your publishing division? What does it take to get a game to be published by you?

We’re finishing off the first version of GraveMaker, our first foray into multiplatform social gaming and this is a pretty big title for us. We’re also continually looking for more markets for our existing games, and have just started to release them onto the web. We’ve moved more to making games ourselves; We’re always interested in unique concepts, something that’s different.

We do hope to be able to offer submissions from developers in the future but at present we are currently focused on creating games in-house for the foreseeable future.

5.) Are there any mysterious, future plans you can tell us about?

We’re just putting the finishing touches on GameMaker: Studio, and this is going to be a massive product for us. This tool really does make cross platform development a breeze, and we’re incredibly excited about it! The games guys still go home to play with their own projects using it, even after working with it all day, and that’s something pretty special. We also have a roadmap planned out that will bring some really cool enhancements later in the year, but we’re not quite ready to announce these yet.

6.) What is next for GameMaker? C++ instead of Delphi?

Looking into 2013, GameMaker will get a full rewrite so the IDE is totally cross platform and the Mac and possibly even Linux editions will all be on par with the Windows version. This is a big step, but it will be well worth it. We’re also redesigning the whole interface, the scripting language (GML) will get a revamp and the game engines themselves will get rewritten. It’s a huge undertaking, but the results will be something special. While we will improve 3D support, we still think GameMaker’s strength is in 2D, and that’s where most of the effort will go. Before this, we’re always looking for more platforms to support, and may well add some as time goes on – it’s not a massive task to add a new platform, and that’s one of GameMaker’s real strengths.

7.) Is there a release date for GameMaker 9?

Not yet.

8.) Darn. People say that your forum (the Yoyogames Forum) is really buggy and people think you forgot about it. What do you have to say to the community? Is there a possibility of getting new forums?

We have two sets of forums, the GMC (Game Maker Community) and the YoYo- Games forum. The YoYoGames forum is part of the sandbox portion of our site and we would love to revamp it but at the moment the whole company is very focused on finishing GameMaker: Studio. The GMC has become our main point of interaction with the community.

9.) Interesting question from another forum goer. When should we celebrate GameMaker’s birthday? 15th of November, 11th of August or whenever YoYoGames bought it off Mark?

I guess whenever Mark released the first version. GameMaker pre-dates YoYoGames, and we shouldn’t try to pretend that it doesn’t. Mark Overmars did an amazing job before YoYoGames ever got involved – which is why YoYoGames got involved in the first place! Mark is the best person to ask really when it was first released and use that as a proper birthday – I think it’s almost 13 years old now.

10.) What is Mark Overmars up to now? Is he in touch?

Mark is still very much involved in YoYoGames, and while he doesn’t write GameMaker directly anymore, he’s on the board of directors, and is consulted in all major decisions. He also makes games to sell as well – Super Snake was developed by him and he has plans for many more. So while he’s not at the forefront of YoYo’s day to day, he’s very much involved in the strategic direction of the company and the GameMaker technology.

11.) Any parting thoughts?

GameMaker is an amazing tool, a testament to Mark’s foresight, and we’re now working hard to bring it to new audiences. This doesn’t mean we’ve forgotten our roots though, education and the novice developer is still very important to us, but since we use the tools ourselves it makes sense that other more professional developers will be interested too. However, longer term, this can only be good news for younger budding developers. No longer will they feel they’ve finally learnt the tool and are now limited by it so should “move on,” but that GameMaker has enough depth and complexity to satisfy all their needs and demands. Our aim is to make GameMaker a tool anyone can start with, but also a tool that you can grow into, making ever larger, ever more professional products where you can actually get to the point of selling them, and making a career from it.

We know it’s possible, because we’re doing it already. In some respects, GameMaker’s life as a real developer tool has just started and it will simply just get better and more powerful as time goes on. We’re driven by the demands of not just the community, but our own development teams in house, and that means we will add real features that help development, making it ever easier for developers to make the next smash-hit game.

Thanks for your time, YoYoGames! Expect more from them some time in the future.

YoYoGames: http://yoyogames.com/

Sandbox: http://sandbox.yoyogames.com/

GMC: http://gmc.yoyogames.com/

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Nathan. He prefers his last name not to be known. He’s probably a high-class superspy, but we don’t mind. For a temporary amount of time, he is the editor of Indiegraph. He’s our point man for interviews, and occasionally he takes a blowtorch to a game to see whether it measures up to his standards. He runs Gamesbydesign, an IndieGraph affliate site dedicated to game design articles. You can email him at gmaker4@hotmail.ca or follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/#!/VGR_Reviews.

Farmyard Madness is an upcoming platform game made by Alomerain Game Studios (‘ah-low-mur-rain’) using the 001 game engine. The game will be available for Windows, iOS and Android devices soon. There is currently no release date however, and the estimated price is $5 UK or $8.07 US. For people who want to try it out, there will be a FREE demo upon release.

The game is set in England (a long time ago). You play as a 12-ish year old kid (choice between a boy or a girl) who is asked to watch the farm while your grandpa goes to town. However, all the animals go missing. OH NOES! What are you going to do? What will grandpa say? You set out to find them.

The game itself is a pretty standard platforming affair, with lots of obstacles to prevent you from finding the animals to neat little secrets to find. There are 16 levels in the 6 acts, split up by area, making a total of 100 levels (that is with the secret level and the bonus levels). There is also supposed to be some bonus levels for dedicated players to look out for. You can also buy new abilities from the local market to help you explore hidden areas on certain levels.

Sounds like there is a lot of good content – I may be addicted. Like it sounds, the game is certainly family-friendly but that doesn’t mean adults can’t enjoy it. Be sure to check Farmyard Madness out when it is released.

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/FarmyardMadness

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/FarmyardMadness

Official Web Site: http://www.alomerain.com/FarmyardMadness

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Nathan. He prefers his last name not to be known. He’s probably a high-class superspy, but we don’t mind. For a temporary amount of time, he is the editor of Indiegraph. He’s our point man for interviews, and occasionally he takes a blowtorch to a game to see whether it measures up to his standards. He runs Gamesbydesign, an IndieGraph affliate site dedicated to game design articles. You can email him at gmaker4@hotmail.ca or follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/#!/VGR_Reviews.

I’ve always been a Valve nut. I think it was Portal 2 that originally got me, I freakin’ loved it. Since then I’ve been gradually collecting their games. After that I got Left4Dead2, and after that I got The Orange Box. The Orange Box was by far the most intelligent buy I have ever made. There was so much gameplay there and I rapidly ate up Portal and Team Fortress 2, leaving me to absorb the goodness of Half-Life.

The Orange Box contained Half-life 2, Half-life 2: Episode One, and Half-life 2: Episode Two, and god did I love those games. There were all excellent examples of perfectly crafted shooters, and if I were to start talking about them I would probably never stop. So instead I am going to focus on the final battle of Half-Life 2: Episode 2.

The final battle in not necessarily the end. The end is the credits, the final video, it’s what ties the story up and cools the player down so that they are ready to re-enter the real world. The final battle is meant to heat up the player, designed as the final rush, the wave goodbye, final battles are what are remembered.

But how to do it well? A good end can make all the difference.

The end of HL2: Ep2 was certainly a bang. Given the job of defending a base against Striders, (giant three legged things with guns) I had to use special bombs that could be thrown and stuck to the creature than detonated to kill in one shot. The problem was that the Striders were surrounded by Hunters who would shoot and deactivate the bombs before they reach their target. So you had to take out them first.

Hunters were terrifying, almost more than the Striders – let them get close to you and you were screwed. Manic and dog-like, they could take you down in seconds so you had to aim from afar. But a few good shots could take out the Hunters no problem.

So it seemed easy at first, take out the Hunters, take out the Strider. Three came but I managed to take them out before they came even close to the base. Three more came and although I’d used all the ammo on my rocket I could use my other guns just fine to take out the Hunters.

Then three more came.

Then three more.

Than six.

At this point I was stooling myself. And not because the hunter packs were getting bigger, not because the striders were getting faster. That wasn’t happening at all. They were the same Hunters, the same Striders. Oh no, my problems were much less epic.

I was running out of ammo, fast.

The game didn’t do much to resupply me either. After a while I’d used all the ammo on my best guns. I was taking out hunters with pistols and crowbars. Than not even that. I was picking up rocks and chucking them because that was all I could do. And all the time the striders were inching ever closer. And they never seemed to stop, every wave I was thinking “Surely this is the last!”, but it wasn’t. I was being forced to be imaginative. When there were no rocks around I found that my car made a perfectly fine weapon if I hit the Hunters with the right speed. When my car was far away I discovered that it only took 80 shots from my practically infinite ammo and I could take down a Strider WITHOUT even having to use the bombs!

Basically, I was getting desperate. I felt like adrenaline was going to start leaking out of my ears. I remember when one Strider was getting very close to the base and I managed to snipe the bomb I had attached to it from a very long range with a pistol. I felt so epic in that moment, I was killing Hunters with stones for god’s sake! These were the things that had terrified me for so long and now they were mere annoyances, the challenge not becoming killing them but working out HOW.

I am to this day not quite sure how they did it. But I can tell you a few things I think they might have did, and if not these are things you should take into account when performing the final battle. I stress this is the battle rather than the ending sequence.

First, Half-Life was clever to use Hunters and Striders in the final battle. Hunters were new to HL2: Ep2 and the game tries hard to make them intensely scary. Before the final battle you only saw Hunters in packs of 4-5 and only about twice. And god was it hard to beat them. In the final battle you end up killing Hunters with rocks and stones, something you wouldn’t dream of doing before. Valve did one of two things or a combination of the both here.

They made the terrain different, before you tended to fight Hunters in close quarters, this time you’re fighting from afar. Hunters are strong close up but weak from a distance.

They (might have) made Hunters weaker. Only slightly, not enough to notice but enough to make a difference.

All this adds up to the player killing monsters that had tormented them throughoutt the game in vast and hilarious quantities, and in unique ways. Making the player feel freakin’ epic, I think you’ll agree.

Second, they made ammo rare – they probably used spawning algorithms for this, making sure the player was always at the brink. Half-Life is unique in that the player carries all the weapons at once so you actually have quite a lot of ammo in them. However, some weapons are more useful than others. For instance, the rocket launcher pretty much kicks the pistol’s ass. As ammo runs short you have to be smart, using your weapons in inventive ways to ensure kills, making you feel even more awesome as you snipe a Strider with a pistol from a long distance.

Third, they used danger that isn’t really there, we just think it is. I was trying so hard to stop the Striders from getting in range of the base, but I never knew what the “range” was, the game implied it was the usual Strider shooting range, which is far. So, it became my mission to stop the Striders from getting within that range. A Strider did get within what I assumed was the range once but I didn’t lose. And it was only after I finished playing that I realised that actually, the “range” was probably right up against the base, I never knew because the Striders never got there. I got through the whole level and they never reached it. I did die a few times fighting, though.

I dub this “Holographic danger” and what it basically means is that the game used cues, (The Striders had blown up buildings from very far distances before, their guns could shoot from a long way away, the warning systems told me if a Strider was getting near way before it actually WAS near.), to make me think that there was danger when actually there was a lot less. This pumps up the adrenaline without making it pointlessly hard.

All I can say that I think Valve used these techniques. I may be wrong, but one way or another these techniques are still in place. When it comes to the final boss, perhaps try to use a few.

I’ve always been a Valve nut and always will be. This, my friends, is why. Only Valve can make a game in which I am reduced to a shivering mess dribbling incoherent babble like “I sniped a STRIDER with a pistol. A pistol!” at my unnerved brother. Only a game like this.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Joseph, or Lawsome, as the internet folk call him – Spends a lot of time making games, most of which fall apart or don’t work and are never published, but the few that survive can be found on his account at Yoyogames http://sandbox.yoyogames.com/users/Lawsome1997. He mainly enjoys writing about game theory but you’ll see him do a few reviews. He avoids games that look generic and would rather play something original than something fun. He has strong opinions on games and can hold his own in an argument, if you tell him that COD MW3 is the best game ever he may bite your head off.

Not many games made with Game Maker are this bold – to create a Legend Of Zelda style action-adventure with RPG elements and make it 3D. Sakisa (the creator of this game and many others including Infinite War and the Crimelife trilogy) succeeded with Mythology for the most part, but not without some missteps along the way.

You play as Timaeus, a boy who lost his parents to Hades, on a quest to get them back. The story is interesting enough, and the fact that it is based on Greek mythology makes exploring the game a bit more interesting than the now-standard Tolkien-esque setting. After the charming (yet dark) intro, the game thrusts you into a sea-monster dodging minigame right away, without warning. That kind of ticked me off cause I wasn’t ready. The collision-detection seems a bit iffy at times where I’d get hit even when I am out of the sea-monster’s reach, but nothing too horrid.

The 3D graphics and animations look alright but rather dated. The cartoony aesthetic itself is beautiful though. The music is okay, nothing too memorable but it certainly helped keep the tone for all the different parts of the game. The sound effects are also quite cartoony but fit in thanks to the aesthetic. The game’s overall presentation is pretty good.

After the sea-monster incident (you will encounter a few more minigames like this later, be forewarned) you arrive on the shores of a island, near a town. This is where the game really starts. The HUD is clean and unobtrusive yet tells you what you need to know, thankfully. There is also a minimap although I haven’t gotten much use out of it. The game also has signs all over the place in the starting town to teach you the basics which should help ease beginners in. You will find the world a bit empty feeling, mostly due to the low number of NPCs in the towns. NPCs all say the same thing too, repeating the same lines over and over. They also refuse to use capital I’s when referring to themselves, which bugs me. Sometimes, the dialogue is a bit awkward and unrealistic sounding as well.

The game uses autosaving and save points (at statues) which may irk some players who want more control. After I find a sword, do a tiny quest for an old lady and find a hidden shield, I can enter the first dungeon, a cave. But first, I must hit chickens! Hitting chickens with swords is fun! Anyway, this brings me to my next point – the controls. The controls are not as tight as they could be (I wish attack was the left mouse button!). The worst part about the controls is the fact that “E” is used for both attacking and interacting with people and objects, so every time you wish to talk to someone, you have to slap them with a weapon, almost like a talkative serial killer.

The dungeons are fun for the most part besides the frustrating platforming areas which annoy me to heck! As well, the monsters are a bit stupid and charge at you like zombies. Combat feels a bit awkward as you can’t seem to do much movement while swinging your sword, although hitting chickens and bats is still quite satisfying. The game also sometimes uses puzzles to break up the pace, which are usually not that complicated but they help prevent too much hack and slash. The game also uses RPG style levelling which I quite like.

Now for the big picture: the game is quite stable (no crashes and minimal bugs that I have seen) and it has an average sized main campaign. The difficulty curve is pretty good and balanced. Loading times are short. In addition, you can unlock a bonus mode, “Arena” after you beat the game. I haven’t tried it so I won’t say much other than the fact that it probably helps up the replay value. All in all, it’s not a perfect adventure but it’s worth a try – and it is free of course! If you are a fan of The Legend Of Zelda series, you will most likely enjoy Mythology.

Available here: http://sandbox.yoyogames.com/games/180001-mythology

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Nathan. He prefers his last name not to be known. He’s probably a high-class superspy, but we don’t mind. For a temporary amount of time, he is the editor of Indiegraph. He’s our point man for interviews, and occasionally he takes a blowtorch to a game to see whether it measures up to his standards. He runs Gamesbydesign, an IndieGraph affliate site dedicated to game design articles. You can email him at gmaker4@hotmail.ca or follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/#!/VGR_Reviews.

I managed to get a hold of Jeff Vogel, the founder of Spiderweb Software and so I arranged an interview. Enjoy.

1.) Tell us a bit about yourself and your game company Jeff. How did your company start-up?

I started Spiderweb Software in 1994, which feels like a long time ago. I was in grad school studying math, and I hated it. So I decided to take a summer off and write an RPG called Exile: Escape From the Pit and release it as shareware. Much to my amazement, people actually bought it. I quit grad school soon after that.

Now we’re a humble 3 person mom and pop operation based in Seattle. Small, modest, and happy.

2.) Do you mind telling us a bit about your latest game release?

It is called Avernum: Escape From the Pit, a ground-up rewrite of the game that established it all those years ago. It tells the story of Avernum, a giant prison far under the surface of the earth. The exile of Avernum must struggle for survival, escape, and even revenge on the cruel Empire that cast them there.

It’s an indie, old school, hardcore role-playing game in the old style, part of a series that has been a huge cult classic for many a year.

3.) You really seem to like selling your games as shareware. Is there a particular reason why?

Shareware is basically a marketing technique, where you make a free demo available and it serves to sell the main game. But, since I started out, shareware became mainstream. Everyone has demos now. It’s just a really, really good way to sell software.

4.) It seems you have stayed with your classic-style RPG niche. Have you ever thought of making a game in another genre to sell?

All the time. I’ve had a thousand cool ideas over the years. However, I’m kind of a coward, and selling indie games is a difficult way to make a living. In the end, I always write more RPGs. I love the genre, I’m good at it, and I don’t want to build a whole new fan base from scratch. Not when I have kids to feed.

5.) I know you recently started selling your games on the iPad (and Steam too I believe?). How has this shift been for you? Was it tricky to get into the App Store, let alone make the game’s UI work with a touchscreen? How has Steam been for you?

Our games are now on iTunes and Steam, and it has made a world’s worth of difference for our business. Our sales have gone through the roof, and it’s terrific. Getting into the App Store is easy, but getting attention once you are there is not. It’s very crowded.

Steam is the opposite. It’s tough to get in, and I had to make a strong case before they accepted our games. Once they were in, Steam was hugely supportive and it’s a fantastic place to sell games.

6.) Have you been playing any good indie games lately?

A ton. Legend of Grimrock. Fez. Binding of Isaac. Realm of the Mad God. There is so much good stuff out there. The world is so different now than it was when I started.

7.) How is life like in your studio? Any funny/interesting/frightening stories that happened while making a game that you mind telling us about?

It’s boring. Three people in a room, making stuff, until the game is done. The three of us have been working together for a long time, and there has been an enormous lack of drama.

8.) Any tips for starting developers?

Get enough sleep. Invest in a chair that’s good for your back. Pay attention to how much competition there is out there. Getting someone to actually pay actual money for something requires a unique product of high quality.

9.) Any parting thoughts?

Just more cynical shilling of my games. We write deep, old school role-playing games with low budgets but great stories and lots of fun. If that sounds good, give Spiderweb Software a look. We have a big demo for each of our games, so you can be sure it doesn’t suck before you pay any money.

Thanks for your time, Jeff.

His blog can be found at:

http://www.jeff-vogel.blogspot.ca/

And his games and website can be found at:

http://www.spiderwebsoftware.com/

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Nathan – He prefers his last name not to be known. He’s probably a high-class superspy, but we don’t mind. For a temporary amount of time, he is the editor of Indiegraph. He’s our point man for interviews, and occasionally he takes a blowtorch to a game to see whether it measures up to his standards. He runs Gamesbydesign, an IndieGraph affliate site dedicated to game design articles. You can email him at gmaker4@hotmail.ca or follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/#!/VGR_Reviews.