The Best Linux Games of 2013.

January 19, 2014, 4:08 am

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2013 was a huge year for Linux gaming with Valve’s continued commitment to the platform, encouraging words from big studios like Battlefield developers DICE, and Creative Assembly’s commitment to bringing Total War: Rome II to Linux next year.

Our list contains both indie titles and some of the most influential AAA titles to date. This list isn’t intended to be comprehensive nor anything other than our opinion.

All of the titles are available on Steam and/or the Ubuntu Software Center, so get your wallets and purses and prepare to throw some money at your screen!

Garry’s Mod

Prop or not?

Garry’s Mod is a sandbox game with little to no objective in itself, but the magic is in all the props you can load up from a number of Source engine games and the growing number of mods created by the community.

One such mod is PropHunt– a hide-and-seek game where one team hides as various objects on a map and the other attempts to find the filing cabinet precariously perched on a secluded staircase.

It’s simple fun, yet the vast array of game mods – be it for prop hunting, spaceship building, or machinima recording – makes Garry’s Mod a fantastic addition to an avid Linux gamer’s collection.

Get Garry’s Mod on Steam

Half-Life 2

Theoretical physics has never been so cool.

And speaking of the Source engine, Half-Life 2 might be the oldest game in the list, but is by far one of the most beloved both in Valve’s oeuvre and amongst all the games to come to Linux this year.

Half-Life 2 continues protagonist and theoretical physicist Gordon Freeman’s story from the first title in the series as he makes his way across a world ravaged by man and alien alike. Everything from physics puzzles to frighteningly agile headcrabs stand in your way, but the journey is still one of the most enthralling experiences in any game today.

The next title in the Half-Life series has a lot to live up to, but judging by the reception of one of the oldest titles to get a Linux port, Linux gamers are ready with crowbar and Gravity Gun in hand.

Get Half-Life 2 on Steam

Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs

amnesia-machine-for-pigs

When we reviewed Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs in September, we found the title’s atmosphere as nerve-wracking as the first and worth trudging through the easy puzzles to explore the Victorian surroundings and steampunk-like machinery.

One of the biggest wins was day one Linux support for a title in such a popular series. But the developers at Frictional Games have always been friends to Linux gamers, porting titles from their Penumbra series in 2007 and 2008 soon after launch.

Get Amnesia: AMfP on Steam

Metro: Last Light

metro-lastlight

Metro: Last Light is one the first AAA titles to come to Linux and relatively quickly to boot. Set in 2034 under the nuclear-devastated city of Moscow, Metro: Last Light twists the tropes of post-apocalyptic narratives into an intense first-person shooter experience.

Everything from ghosts to mutant arachnids and giant amoebas are prepared to make a normal day in post-apocalyptic Moscow a little less pleasant.

It’s not as tongue-in-cheek as the similarly post-apocalyptic Fallout series, but just as reflective of the brutal, yet sometimes touching, human experience in trying times.

Get Metro: Last Light on Steam

Starbound

Think of Starbound as Terraria or a 2D Minecraft with a real storyline and set in space. What’s not to love?

Much like Minecraft, you can hunt, mine, and build in the world, but unlike the popular 3D sandbox game, you can also travel to other planets and participate in an actual storyline. Your spacecraft starts off stranded in orbit and your first set of quests involves familiarising yourself with the gameplay mechanics and finding fuel for your ship before you can start exploring the procedurally generated planets. What’s more, the various monsters on each planet are also procedurally generated, so you’ll encounter some truly bizarre creatures along the way.

Starbound is an Early Access Game, so you’ll probably discover some broken mechanics (the bow and arrow are a bit troublesome to say the least) and experience a crash or two along the way. But it’s still a fun and featureful game despite being in beta.

Get Starbound on Steam

0 A.D.

Workers constructing buildings and picking berries.

0 A.D. has been available on Linux for several years, but we think it deserves a place in the list for all its accomplishments in 2013.

It’s the only free and open source title on the list and recently wrapped up a $33,251 fundraising drive– enough, they say, to hire one of their programmers for a full year. Though the game didn’t reach its more optimistic fundraising goals, that’s still $33,251 raised to support an open source project.

And more than anything, it’s fun. Fans of the Age of Empires style of real-time strategy will enjoy the work that’s gone into 0 A.D. over the years. The attention to detail is evident and though the title still has a ways to go, it only stands to improve with another dedicated programmer on board.

Get 0 A.D. on the Ubuntu Software Center

War in a Box: Paper Tanks

Tower defence games are as common as Reversi or Minesweeper, but War in a Box: Paper Tanks adds a dose of charm to the addictive genre.

Its unique paper-craft aesthetic works extremely well, giving the 24 levels a tireless appeal as you play and replay each level. At $3.99 it’s an easy sell for anyone who enjoys casual tower defence games. It’s simple fun, but utterly addicting.

Get War in a Box: Paper Tanks

FEZ

I like fezes. Fezes are cool.

We reviewed FEZ back in September and the perspective-shifting 2D platformer is every bit as fun as a Pillsbury Doughboy-like character with a fez on makes it sound.

Jumping puzzles, mind-bending perspective puzzles, and gaming in-jokes all contribute to a title that stays fresh even when you’ve fallen off the map a dozen times or stood too close to a bomb when it goes off.

Get FEZ on Steam

Europa Universalis IV

europa-universalis-banner

Imagine Civilization with a bit more micromanagement, a big helping of history, and one gigantic difference: it’s on Linux!

Unlike the Civilization games, Europa Universalis titles are historical strategy, though by no means a play-by-play of history books. And instead of battling across thousands of years, EUIV only spans the years 1444–1821. But that doesn’t mean EU is any less fun or engaging as the longer running Civilization series.

EUIV plays out in real-time rather than in turns, so you’ll be pausing often to get a better view of your growing empire or your wealthy nation’s vast trade routes. The EU series can be intimidating to beginners given the scope of “grand strategy” gameplay, but if you ever wanted to play out the colonisation of the Americas or tweak the outcome of the Napoleonic Wars, it’ll be worth the effort.

Get Europa Universalis IV on Steam

Kentucky Route Zero

Kentucy-Route-Zero-1

Kentucky Route Zero is one of my favourite games of all time. It’s the most artistically-orientated title in the list and one that exemplifies the more poetic side of gaming in addition to all the AAA titles that we can to look forward to in 2014 and beyond.

Kentucky Route Zero brings the magical realism genre to point-and-click adventures, mixing the surreal with classic adventure game elements. You start out looking for an unknown address to deliver antiques to, but the narrative takes off in unexpected, often fantastical, directions from there.

It’s a game about discovery rather than achievements or saving a princess who’s inevitably in another castle. It won’t be everyone’s cup of tea – nor will it fit everyone’s definition of a “game” – but it is one of the most meaningful and creative titles I’ve ever had the pleasure of playing.

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Ardentryst is an arcade game with focus on a fantasy world.

January 20, 2014, 9:47 am

≫ Next: Teslagrad game built around the concepts of magnetism and electricity.

≪ Previous: The Best Linux Games of 2013.

Ardentryst is an action/arcade role-playing game with focus on a fantasy world by the same name.

The player is guided through a storyline which he or her must act in and play a major role in keeping peace and order in Ardentryst.

The game features two playable characters and a variety of weapons, items, armour, monsters, and beautiful level scenery and graphics.

Ardentryst is a platformer game and plays similarly to games such as Castlevania and Maplestory. There are RPG elements present in the game such as attributes, abilities and an inventory system which increases the depth of in-game play. Levels are played in a sequence defined by the world map, similar to the Donkey Kong Country series games, and there is a boss stage at the end of every world.

Features

Two playable characters
A good number of weapons, armour, items and accessories
Things you equip will be visible on your character as you play (eg. weapons, armour)
Walking, jumping, special abilities per char/level
A fantasy storyline
Spells, magic and summoning
Lots of monsters and friendly NPC characters
Lots and lots of sprite art married with digital painting, mainly in Anime and FF style
Fighting combos and flexible fighting system
Worldwide competition
A well-suited soundtrack and high-quality music and effects
3 epic worlds/locations with bosses at the end of each--play as both characters to go through all worlds
Customise your character, allowing different play styles

Requirements

Python 2.4 or greater (probably not Python 3)
pygame
A decent computer (1.6GHz CPU, 512MB RAM, dedicated graphics card at least)

Anyone is free to download the source code to the game and play with it. You can get it directly from the SourceForge.net project page . The requirements to run are Python 2.4+ (Python 3 is unsupported) and pygame. The game is licensed under GPL v3 and you are not permitted to use the source code for commercial purposes.

Screenshots.

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Teslagrad game built around the concepts of magnetism and electricity.

February 8, 2014, 3:10 pm

≫ Next: Top 10 blog posts for January 2014 from Linux & The Planet Games

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Teslagrad is a 2D puzzle-platformer, where you play as a young lad who suddenly finds himself embroiled in an ancient conflict that will shake the foundations of his entire existence, and bring a gruesome truth to light.

The game is completely devoid of both text and dialogue, and prefers to tell the story purely through visual means.

The game revolves around the use of electricity and magnetism, and your ingenuity will be put to the test as you employ the amazing technology of the Teslamancers to traverse the abandoned Tesla Tower. The game is completely devoid of both text and dialogue, and prefers to tell the story purely through visual means

December 13th is the big day, our journey towards the end is finally over. After two years of drawing, programming, building, tearing down, rebuilding, testing and long days and nights, we're done. Teslagrad is being released into the wild, and we're very pleased with how it looks.

Nikola Tesla, the electrical engineer from whose life and work the game borrows its name and ideas, once built a tower in New York, but this is a different sort of place, more like an electrified castle filled with Castlevania-esque nooks and cellars. The tower rises spectacularly, the centrepiece of an unspecified European capital, which now burns around its foundations in war's ugly afterglow.

Teslagrad is anything but ugly, however. Its expressive hand-drawn art is at times reminiscent of Winsor McCay's Little Nemo, but there's a Scandinavian flourish that adds melancholy to the folksy charm. Crackling bolts of blue electricity and red, sinister droning magnetic fields offset the browns and yellows of the tower's bricks. Creeping bugs, cloying shadow figures and bipedal robot giants patrol its floors, a curiously diverse gallery of squatters in a place whose original function is never made obvious.

Teslagrad's soundtrack, composed by Jørn Lavoll and Linn Kathrin Taklo from Bear & Cat Music Production, is both haunting and memorable.

One area houses a giant tree, its branches tenaciously grasping its leaves in the overcast air; another is filled with conveyor belts that courier dollops of scrap metal off to who-knows-where. Other rooms are dedicated puppet theatres, used by the designers to stage short plays, which tell the whisper of a story in a game that belligerently shuns any text and dialogue. Tesla's Tower is the architecture of a fever dream, as if jotted down by its dreamer at daybreak.

Structurally, the game follows the Metroidvania tradition. You begin as a powerless young boy, fleeing the town's occupying forces by scrambling over rooftops. The Tesla Tower initially offers simple refuge from the soldiers, but as the game unfurls, you discover discarded tools within its walls and new areas duly open up for exploration. There's a glove which can be used to infuse objects with electrical charge, a trinket that allows you to dart a few metres through the air in the blink of an eye, a fur-lined hood that allows you to set your own polarity and others'.

In the main this is a platform puzzle game, many of its objects charged with red or blue electricity. These must be manipulated to attract or repel one another in order to create platforms and pathways where there were none. In time, even your own character can be imbued with magnetic charge and, as your range of abilities expands, so you are able to revisit previously explored areas to uncover yet more secrets.

Once you've perceived the solution to a puzzle there's then the tricky business of execution - this is a game that makes tall demands of its players' sense of timing and dexterity. This is never more apparent than in the game's intermittent set-piece battles with hulking mechanical monsters. In one area you fight a screen-tall gurning furnace, its eyes glowing with fire, its mouth sucking and grinding. In another, you must attempt to electrocute the belly of a mechanical bird as it flaps and claws at you, before laying eggs that sprout motorised minions.

The 'blink' ability, cribbed from Dishonored, works exceptionally well in a 2D platform game, although later sections demand exacting timing.

These fights are unusually and somewhat anachronistically challenging, requiring players to time leaps, dashes and attacks with painful precision. There are no checkpoints here and, as your character has no health bar, sustaining a single hit will force a restart from the beginning of the fight. There is a great deal of repetition to learn a boss's attack patterns. Moreover, these unblinking brutes require more than the Nintendo-stock three successful hits before they'll topple. Until you build up the requisite muscle memory they will block your progress through the much more easygoing exploratory sections of the tower.

The unevenness of the challenge extends to the exploratory puzzles, some of which are peculiarly convoluted. There's ingenuity to the designs, but the learning curve lacks an elegant trajectory, a typical issue for an independent developer without the gentle feedback of an experienced publisher to add some perspective and kink-smoothing guidance.

Screenshots.

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JumpingCube is a simple dice driven tactical game.

February 20, 2014, 5:47 pm

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KJumpingcube is a simple dice driven tactical game. The playing area consists of squares containing points. Players move by clicking on either a vacant square, or on own square.

Objective: Conquer all the squares on the game board to win the round.

KJumpingcube loads directly into the game mode, so you can start playing right away.

You move by clicking on a vacant square or the one you already own. If you click on a vacant square, you gain an ownership over it and square’s color changes to your playing color.

Each time you click on a square, the value of the square increases by one. If square's value reaches maximum(the maximum value any square can reach is six points), its points are distributed amongst the square’s immediate neighbors (the points ‘jump’ around).

If a neighboring square happens to be owned by the other player, it gets taken over together with all of its points and changes color to your playing color.

Example: If a square in the centre reaches five points, four of its points go to its four neighbors leaving the source square with a single point. It is possible for a cascade of automatic moves to occur if the neighboring squares also reach a maximum due to the points’ distribution.

Note:Large parts of the playing area can change hands very rapidly.

The winner is the player who ends up owning all the squares on the board.

Screenshots.

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10 Best Linux Games for 2013.

February 25, 2014, 9:13 am

≫ Next: If we talk about the most popular Linux games, Braid is the name which comes at first.

≪ Previous: JumpingCube is a simple dice driven tactical game.

As we know, Linux has been liked by users but not by game lovers. But from some time developers are working over the task to create interesting games for Linux. And today, we’ve an astounding collection of Linux games. Such games are not only likable by the users but the game lovers also appreciating them too.

Via this article we are presenting the collection of 10 Best Linux Games of 2013. This collection is completely provided for game lovers. Check this once and share your views.

1.- Braid.

If we talk about the most popular Linux games, Braid is the name which comes at first. Basically, it’s a puzzle solving game with respect to the fast moving time. The game provides you a chance to immerse yourself in the gaming world. If you’re truly passionate for puzzle games, you should try this once.

2.- Faster than Light.

Faster than light is totally dedicated to space mission game lovers. In this game, player has to control his spacecraft in the space where a bunch of enemies are ready to destroy the player’s spacecraft. Along with this player has to complete various missions and destruct spacecrafts of enemies with his spacecraft which is fully loaded with various kind of guns, lasers, shields and much more.

3.- Super Hexagon

While watching this game for first time, you must consider it a simple game. But actually it’s not so! In this game you should have good concentration strength, because you’ve to control a small triangle (whether moving it in left or right) to save it from incoming lines and other shapes. To play this game properly, you’ve to be able to take actions quickly and properly when lots of things are trying to distract your mind.

4.- Anodyne.

Anodyne is the combo package of action and puzzle games. It’s graphics are inspired by Nintendo graphics. No doubt, it’s not too much hard game to play but the interest and enjoyment of this game is incomparable. In this game, you’ve to search for various keys to get into different areas. So don’t wait too much to play Anodyne.

5.- Battle of Wesnoth.

Battle of Wesnoth is considered as the most interesting and enjoyable strategical games. If we talk about the game-play there is nothing too much action or hustle and bustle but fun is always there. You can download a lots of add-on related to this game. On the whole, if you’re strategy game lover, you must try this game.

6.- Penumbra Series.

Penumbra series is set of three interesting games. Don’t forget to switch off your headphone while playing these game, because the scary audio effects can cause a heart attack. To experience some kind of games, penumbra series is best to try.

7.- Dungeons of Dredmor.

While playing RPG games, character making is one of the most interesting part. While creating a new character, you think about all strengths and weaknesses of the character. Dungeons of Dredmors provides this fun to a large extent. In this game, you can give a new direction to your imagination and creativity. And it’s set of creative options make it more funny and interesting.

8.- Kerbal Space Program.

It’s very hard to find anything more interesting than flying a rocket. And Kerbal Space Program is providing the same. In this game, you’ve to complete complete various space missions. With the completion of each and every mission you’ll earn some money which helps you to buy new and amazing spacecrafts. Just try this once, you’ll like this game for sure.

9.- Dwarf Fortress.

According to previous records, Dwarf Fortress is very popular game among the Linux users. In this game you’ve to save your dwarves from attacking enemies and help them to find eatables and other essentials. It’s very difficult game to play. You’ve to give good efforts to in this game. Don’t give-up if you loose, just play and win the game.

10.- Super Meat Boy.

Super Meat Boy is very funny and interesting game. In this game, the player act as a meat cube and his task is to save his loving girlfriend from bad and evil Dr. Fetus. It’s providing more the 300 various game levels. And the difficulty goes on increasing with the increase in game level. And difficult levels are very hard to play for a normal persons.

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If we talk about the most popular Linux games, Braid is the name which comes at first.

February 25, 2014, 4:24 pm

≫ Next: Top 10 blog posts for February 2014 from Linux & The Planet Games

≪ Previous: 10 Best Linux Games for 2013.

Braid is a platform and puzzle video game developed by Number None, Inc. The game was released on August 6, 2008 for the Xbox 360's Xbox Live Arcade service. A Microsoft Windows version was released on April 10, 2009. Hothead Games ported and released the game to Mac OS X on May 20, 2009 and the PlayStation Network on November 12, 2009. A Linux port, created by Ryan C. Gordon, was released December 14, 2010 as part of the second Humble Indie Bundle.

The basic story elements unfold as the protagonist, Tim, attempts to rescue a princess from a monster. Text passages laid throughout the game reveal a multifaceted narrative, giving clues about Tim's contemplations and motivations. The game features traditional aspects of the platform genre while integrating various powers of time-manipulation. Using these abilities, the player progresses by finding and assembling jigsaw puzzle pieces.

Jonathan Blow designed the game as a personal critique of contemporary trends in game development. He funded the three-year project with his own money. Webcomic artist David Hellman drew the artwork, which underwent several iterations until it satisfied Blow's vision. A preliminary version of Braid without the final artwork won the "Innovation in Game Design" award at the 2006 Independent Games Festival; the final version received additional accolades. The game received highly positive reviews from critics, eventually becoming the highest critically rated title on Xbox Live. Some reviewers, however, criticized the game's price relative to its length.
Braid is played by solving physical puzzles in a standard platform game environment.

The player controls the protagonist Tim as he runs, jumps, and climbs across the game's levels. Tim jumps and stomps on enemies to defeat them, and can collect keys to unlock doors or operate levers to trigger platforms. A defining game element is the player's unlimited ability to reverse time and "rewind" actions, even after dying. The game is divided into six worlds, which are experienced sequentially and can be entered from different rooms of Tim's house; the player can return to any world previously visited to attempt to solve puzzles they missed.

Each world has its own time-based game mechanic:

    2. Time and Forgiveness plays as an ordinary platform game, except that the player may rewind time to undo their actions. The section includes several challenges that would be unplayable or unfair in an ordinary platform game, but become feasible when the rewind mechanic is available.
    3. Time and Mystery introduces objects surrounded by a green glow that are unaffected by time manipulation; for example, switches will remain flipped even if time is rewound to before the action occurred. Rewinding can thus be used to change the synchronization between objects that can and cannot be rewound, the basis of many puzzles in this section. This theme is also used in later worlds to denote objects unaffected by the player's time manipulation.
    4. Time and Place links the passage of time to the player character's location on the horizontal axis. As the player moves toward the right, time flows forward, while moving toward the left reverses the flow; standing still or moving vertically will pause time. The player's location must be carefully managed in relation to enemies and objects.
    5. Time and Decision involves a "shadow" of the player character appearing after the player rewinds time and performing the actions that the real player character rewound; if the timeline expires, the shadow will complete any initiated falls and jumps but will otherwise stand still before disappearing. Things coloured in violet can interact both with the main character and its shadow at the same time. Puzzles in this section revolve around using this mechanic to carry out multiple actions at once.
    6. Hesitance provides the player with a magic ring which, when dropped, warps the flow of time around itself; the closer moving objects (including Tim) are to it, the slower time passes for them. The regular rewind control remains available.
    The final world is labeled simply as "1." In this world, time flows in reverse. Rewinding time returns the flow of time to its normal state.

Each stage contains puzzle pieces that must be collected to create jigsaw puzzles that tell the story, and to unlock the last stage. On completing the main game, a speedrun mode becomes available for select levels and the entire game. There are also eight stars hidden throughout the world of Braid that correspond to the stars in the constellation of Andromeda just outside the main character's house.

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Ubuntu for Phones: 6 Interesting Things We’ve Learned.

March 9, 2014, 1:45 pm

≫ Next: Dungeons of Dredmor is a graphical roguelike game created by Gaslamp Games.

≪ Previous: Top 10 blog posts for February 2014 from Linux & The Planet Games

In a press conference held earlier this week the multi-millionaire revealed the first mobile handsets to be sold with Ubuntu pre-installed are coming later this year.

What follows are six small nuggets of information from that press call.

1. Two Ubuntu Phones Are Coming This Year

‘You wait ages for an Ubuntu Phone – and then two turn up at once!’

A popular British saying alleges that ’You wait ages for a bus…and then two turn up at once’. Swap ‘bus’ for ‘Ubuntu Phone’ and the soundbite remains a relevant and apt observation.

Before the end of the year Mark Shuttleworth promises that not one but two different Ubuntu phones will be released, and by two different companies.

The first Ubuntu Phones are apparently going to be rebadged versions of Android handsets that are already on each company’s respective roadmap. Following that hint we can therefore expect an Ubuntu version of the powerful eight-core MX3 phone from Meizu, and something equal to (or better than) the quad-core Aquaris 5 from Bq.

Ubuntu Edge? Pah, that’s ancient news!

2. But They Won’t Be Available Everywhere

Before anyone gets too excited about these handsets keep in mind that they won’t be available everywhere.

From the hints given by Mark, it seems that the Meizu handset will likely launch in China. That makes sense; Meizu a big brand name in the country, and Ubuntu Touch has already gained the backing of the country’s second biggest mobile network, China Unicom (中国联通).

As for Bq, that’s less certain. We know that the Spanish company’s phones are sold in Uruguay, Spain and Portugal. With the Portuguese carrier Portugal Telecom already a member of the Carrier Advisory Group, could we see Bq launch their Ubuntu Phone there this year?

On a more positive, if equally speculative, note hardware from both companies is often made available to buy online globally, albeit through third-party sellers.

3. Big Brand Phones Are Coming Next Year

’2015 will see Ubuntu Phones from established OEMs, said Shuttleworth’

If you’re bored sick of hearing vague statements about unnamed “household brands” supposedly interested in Ubuntu Touch, or the oodles of carriers clamouring over each other to ship it on their networks (just not yet), then you’ll want to scroll on down to the next point.

If, however, you’re now willing to put a bit more stock in such noncommittal statements now that concrete plans have been announced then listen up: Shuttleworth has said that 2015 should see Ubuntu Touch shipping on hardware from established OEMs and offered by big-name carriers in a wider range of countries.

4. 50 ‘Top’ Android/iOS Apps By Launch

Bold statements are nothing new from Mark Shuttleworth. Elephants (and anyone else with a good memory) may recall his 2011 goal for more than 200 million Ubuntu users by 2015.

On the software side his goals are no less ambitious. Mark says he hopes to see the top 50 Android and iOS apps available for Ubuntu Touch this year, just in time for the launch of the newly announced handsets.

While companies like The Weather Channel and Evernote have ‘okayed’ the use of its APIs in community-built apps, the big name apps many consumers rely on remain few and far between. For every VLC port there are gaps in the shape of Twitter, Instagram, Rovio,WhatsApp, et al.

With new focus on HTML5 web-app support, Ubuntu Touch will soon be able to cherry pick the best of, and piggy back off the success of, platforms from Google and Mozilla. Both companies are pushing the boundaries of what web applications can do, blurring the lines of what ‘native’ really means.

Google plans to bring their powerful ‘Chrome Apps’ to Android later this year.

5. Mark Thinks Tizen Is Dead

‘Even Microsoft, with bottomless pockets and universal brand recognition, has found amassing a meaningful number of users difficult’

Only the naive see Ubuntu for Phones as a guaranteed success story; it faces an almightily struggle to gain a foothold in a market so firmly controlled by just a handful of companies. Even Microsoft, with their bottomless pockets and brand recognition, has found amassing a meaningful number of users difficult.

Will Ubuntu Touch fare any better? While Shuttleworth wouldn’t put an exact figure on what might constitute success, it does appear that Canonical is realistic about the task at hand. Mark considers Ubuntu’s “convergent” factor as being a significant disruptor for gaining attention and, more vitally, adoption.

On the competition, Mark didn’t hold back in his view of Tizen, the Intel & Samsung backed Linux OS targeting everything from mobile phones to TVs.

Describing them as a ‘fading force’ that is ‘much less of a competitor than it was 6 months ago’, Mark says he’s expecting to see many of the companies who previously backed the OS start ‘to distance themselves [from it]‘.

6. Canonical Charge OEMs To Ship Ubuntu Touch

Of all the information shared this bit was the one that truly enlightened me: Ubuntu for Phones offers mutual benefits to both Canonical and OEMs/Carriers alike.

Mark explained:

“Our [OEM] partners appreciate that our business model is straightforward …We charge [them] a fee per device [and] we share revenues made from the app store with them”.

Understandably the cost of this “fee” hasn’t been disclosed. It’s not without precedent either; Canonical already require OEMs selling laptops and desktops with Ubuntu pre-installed to pay a nominal fee to cover use of the trademark, licensing, etc.

While Google does not charge for Android, OEMs are required to pay third-party companies for certification of devices that wish to include the core Google Mobile Services (GMS) framework. The cost of certification to gain permission to ship GMS, which includes the Play Store, Gmail and Maps apps, can run into the tens-of-thousands of dollars, The Guardian report.

If Ubuntu for Phones gains traction there will likely be other revenue streams to explore in the future. Thinking out loud, this could include companies paying Canonical for their content to gain preferential surfacing in scopes and shipping with certain applications pre-installed.

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Dungeons of Dredmor is a graphical roguelike game created by Gaslamp Games.

March 9, 2014, 3:21 pm

≫ Next: OpenClonk is a free multiplayer action game where you control clonks, small but witty and nimble humanoid beings.

≪ Previous: Ubuntu for Phones: 6 Interesting Things We’ve Learned.

Dungeons of Dredmor is a roguelike indie game released on July 13, 2011 by Gaslamp Games. The game features tile-based graphics. A DLC release for the game entitled "Realm of the Diggle Gods" was also released later that year. A second DLC called "You Have To Name The Expansion Pack" was released on June 5, 2012. A third DLC called "Conquest of the Wizardlands" was released on August 1, 2012. The game has extensive support for user created modifications.

The game starts as the player assumes the role of the game's main character entering a hostile dungeon crawler environment. The player enters a dungeon at the top floor and gradually progresses down through levels of increasing difficulty. Each level is a randomly generated maze of interconnected rooms, filled with monsters, traps, loot, and various objects.

The game world is laid out in a tile-based square grid viewed from a top-down perspective, where the player, enemies, and various items and objects occupy discrete squares. The game is turn-based, and both the player and numerous enemies take turns performing actions. Each turn the player may move to or attack monsters in adjacent squares, pick up, drop, and use items, and interact with various in-game objects.

As in most role-playing games, the player has several character statistics that determine their effectiveness in various aspects of gameplay. The player begins the game with 7 chosen skills, which may be further improved as the player gains experience levels. The combat focuses on melee, ranged, and magic attacks, as well as use of items and skills. Weapons and equipment can be worn to improve player's defences and abilities. The player carries an inventory of items, which can include various foods, drinks, potions, crafting materials, etc.

Critics have generally given the game high scores, and as of June 6, 2012 it holds a 79/100 score at Metacritic and 79.00% at GameRankings.

Alec Meer of Rock, Paper, Shotgun notes how the game's complexity and heavy reliance on the random aspect makes it unbalanced and unpredictable. He notes that careful strategy has to be employed; and ends that Dungeons of Dredmor is "genuinely, a fantastic game" albeit with minor interface issues.

Jordan Baughman of GamesRadar calls the game a "competent roguelike" and points out that the game requires careful strategy. He notes the game's humor sets it apart other roguelikes, but criticizes inventory management. Adam Biessener of Game Informer calls the game a "fun, accessible, lighthearted dungeon crawl". He notes that the game does not innovate outside the bounds of the genre, but manages to excel at certain aspects. He also remarks on the game's humor and level of detail.

Nathan Meunier of IGN calls the game challenging, but also notes it is easy to get into with adjusted difficulty settings. He also praises its game's humor and replayability.

Jason Wilson of GamePro praises the game's simple starting setup and calls the game's combat "simple yet deep". While he sees the game's difficulty as a good feature, he also comments on balance issues. Josh McIllwain of Ars Technica notes that the game's "wicked sense of humor" sets it apart from other roguelike games. He also points out the difficulty and calls the game "brutal and unforgiving".

PC Gamer US chose Dungeons of Dredmor as their "Indie Game of the Year" for 2011.

Screenshots.

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OpenClonk is a free multiplayer action game where you control clonks, small but witty and nimble humanoid beings.

April 6, 2014, 3:48 pm

≫ Next: Mining for Gold: the truth about the virtual game economy [Infographic].

≪ Previous: Dungeons of Dredmor is a graphical roguelike game created by Gaslamp Games.

OpenClonk is a free multiplayer action game where you control clonks, small but witty and nimble humanoid beings.

The game is mainly about mining, settling and fast-paced melees. OpenClonk is also not just a game but also a versatile 2D game engine that offers countless possibilities to make your own mods.

OpenClonk is a project dedicated to the further development of the Clonk game series. Our goal is to improve and make the real strengths of Clonk more fun to play: Bustling mining, production lines and economy, fast and fiddly melees.

Another focus lies on the further enchancement of the game engine and the extensibility/modability of the game content with C4Script which has always been one of the most important features of Clonk.

What is Clonk?

Clonk is a multiplayer-action-tactics-skill game. It is often referred to as a mixture of The Settlers and Worms. In a simple 2D antfarm-style landscape, the player controls his crew of Clonks, small but robust humanoid beings. The game encourages free play but the normal goal is to either exploit valuable resources from the earth by building a mine or fight each other on an arena-like map.

History.

The inventor of the game is Matthes Bender. The first Clonk was a two player melee game in which the players fought with rocks, flints (basic explosives) and catapults. Through several versions Clonk developed into a hectic and quite complicated game with numerous tactics and possibilities. The classic versions of the game are freeware and can be downloaded from clonk.de (may be in German only).

OpenClonk: Beyond the Rocks Trailer - Desura

The newer versions of Clonk series (Clonk 4, Planet, Endeavour and Rage) are mostly based on the engine of Clonk 4. Clonk Planet (2000) was the first game in the series with a built-in developer mode that enabled the player to actually develop their own mods for the game. Permitting access the core scripts of the objects and scenarios, the developer mode became one of the most beloved features of Clonk. Thousands of player made and still make mods that are accessible on the CCAN, the main download archive. Single objects but also big settlements packs or adventures are available. On the Clonk Forge, hobby developers come together to collaborate and contribute to each others clonk development projects. Since Clonk Planet, new original game content was continuously added to the main game, for example the knight pack (introducing the knight as a new type of Clonk and medieval battles), the fantasy pack (with a powerful mage and new magic spells) or the FarWorlds (uncommon places such as the Arctic, the Jungle and the Deep-sea). The scripts of the objects and scenarios are written in Clonk's own scripting language: C4Script (with a C-style syntax).

In the last years the Clonk community grew continuously, even beyond the borders of the German speaking countries.

In early March 2009, Matthes Bender told the other developers of Clonk Rage that he wouldn't have any time to work on Clonk anymore. As the Lead Designer of Clonk since Clonk 1 and Directing Manager of RedWolf Design, the company selling the Clonk titles, he left a significant vacancy. The development of Clonk Rage, the last commercial Clonk title, was mostly done as a hobby by the other developers and although they wanted to continue doing that, they felt that more contributors were needed. RedWolf Design agreed to put the game engine's source code under an open source license, the ISC license. The source code was published in a public repository, allowing everyone to freely modify the source code and game content and discuss the future directions in an open forum. This big change gave us the opportunity to redesign the deadlocked structures of the shareware Clonk titles. By giving up the downward compatibility new concepts become possible. So it was also decided to drop a lot of the "old" game content and drop the backwards compatibility requirement.

Community & Links.

Forum: In our development forum, we discuss about the game. This is where public development takes place. If you got questions about the game or want to give some feedback, this is the place to go.

IRC: Meet us in the channel #openclonk on irc.euirc.net

Documentation: Get familiar with OpenClonk's scripting language to develop your own mods for the game.

FAQ: Any questions? Find the answers here!

Download.

Linux 32-bit (45MB)
Linux 64-bit (45MB)
Source Source code (49MB)

Debian Ubuntu Linux Mint
Install via apt (Available as a Debian package since jessie)

Desura
Install via Desura

Update
Updatable from within the game

Old versions.

Old versions for all supported operating systems are available in the archive.

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Mining for Gold: the truth about the virtual game economy [Infographic].

April 6, 2014, 6:50 pm

≫ Next: The Neurology of Gaming [Infographic].

≪ Previous: OpenClonk is a free multiplayer action game where you control clonks, small but witty and nimble humanoid beings.

With the meteoric rise of online gaming and the resulting production of digital currencies, a new market has been born.

Tens of thousands of students and migrant workers make a living across the world by playing online games and selling the resulting virtual assets to wealthier players.

A growing number of crowd-sourcing and ‘microwork’ platforms employ unskilled workers in digital tasks ranging from pattern recognition to data input.

This ‘virtual economy’ of digital goods and services are the subject of this infographic.

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The Neurology of Gaming [Infographic].

April 6, 2014, 6:53 pm

≫ Next: Abyss: The Wraiths Of Eden Hidden Object Game Released On Steam For Linux.

≪ Previous: Mining for Gold: the truth about the virtual game economy [Infographic].

Do you like video games? Do you like having a brain that can do stuff?

Then this infographic is just for you!

As it turns out, gaming has an effect on your brain, and it’s not “turning it into mush.”

As I am sure many of you know first hand, gaming generates happiness in awesomeness lobe and then moves it to your soul, or at least that’s what it feels like.

This infographic from Online Universities goes a little deeper into the subject and deals with a few of the other things involved in addition to the synthesis of pure happiness.

Some of the points about violent gaming could probably use a little more context in my opinion, but it’s still interesting.
Take a look.

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Abyss: The Wraiths Of Eden Hidden Object Game Released On Steam For Linux.

April 7, 2014, 1:57 pm

≫ Next: Top 10 blog posts for March 2014 from Linux & The Planet Games

≪ Previous: The Neurology of Gaming [Infographic].

Abyss: The Wraiths of Eden has been available on Steam for Windows since October 2012, but now the game is also available on Linux.

There was no official announcement regarding the release of the Linux version, but the one mentioning the 30% discount.

“Discover and investigate a forgotten underwater city built in an intriguing Art-Deco style. This former utopia hides many spine-chilling secrets and supernatural forces, the remains of which still lurk in every corner.

Face the ancient evil that is hiding in the deepest chambers of the city of Eden,” say the developers on the Steam website.

Abyss: The Wraiths of Eden is set into a beautiful underwater world, it features hand-drawn graphics and superb animations, 40 different levels, lots of minigames, and more.
The Linux system requirements are pretty low, so users won't have a hard time playing the game: Ubuntu 12.04 (32/64bit), a 1.5 GHz processor, 512 MB of RAM, a graphics card with 128 MB of VRAM, and 1 GB of available space.

The game also benefits from a discount that is set to end on April 10.

About
Discover and investigate a forgotten underwater city built in an intriguing Art-Deco style. This former utopia hides many spine-chilling secrets and supernatural forces, the remains of which still lurk in every corner. Face the ancient evil that is hiding in the deepest chambers of the city of Eden.

Abyss-The-Wraiths-of-Eden-Hidden-Object-Adventure-Arrives-on-Linux-with-30-Off

During your exploration of this Eden beneath this sea, you will solve cleverly designed minigames and find hidden objects or play a special minigame as an alternative. Hold your breath and dive into the game to experience the wonders of the underworld for yourself.

Features

Scary and thrilling story in a unique underwater setting
Beautiful, hand-drawn graphics
Hollywood-quality animations
40 unique locations with 14 hidden-object scenes
Numerous original and inventive minigames
Unique option to switch from a hidden-object scene to a minigame
Intriguing Art-Deco city design

Screenshots.

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Asciiquarium is an aquarium/sea animation in ASCII art.

June 12, 2014, 10:06 am

≫ Next: Top 10 indie games of 2013.

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Asciiquarium is an aquarium/sea animation in ASCII art. It includes multicolored fish, a whale, and a fish-eating shark.

KDE Asciiquarium is a KDE screensaver based off of Kirk Baucom's FABULOUS asciiquarium program (http://www.robobunny.com/projects/asciiquarium/).

Or in other words, it's a simulation of an ocean scene, but using ASCII art instead.

NOTE This content is the KDE 3 version of the screensaver. I have not uploaded the KDE 4 port here because it is now included with KDE 4 in the kdeartwork module.

Note the screenshot preview will probably be a bit dark, view the full screenshot to see what it's more likely to look like.

To install:
Extract the tarball, and change to its directory (aasaver-0.3.2). In that directory, run the following:

./configure
make
make install (this may need run as root)

You will then be able to find Asciiquarium in the Miscellaneous category of the Screensaver Control Panel.

At this time the only option is the number of fish to have present.

Thanks to Maksim Orlovich for starting the project, and Kirk Baucom and Joan Stark for the asciiquarium program and ASCII Art.

Claudio Matsuoka has created a live wallpaper for Android!

Asciiquarium Live Wallpaper - screenshot thumbnail

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Top 10 indie games of 2013.

June 12, 2014, 12:51 pm

≫ Next: Atom Zombie Smasher is the perfect post-Iraq zombie game.

≪ Previous: Asciiquarium is an aquarium/sea animation in ASCII art.

We don't need to tell you that the gaming industry is currently experiencing an 'indie boom' -- the evidence has been piling up throughout 2011, with numerous developers at AAA studios leaving their jobs behind to work on exactly the kind of games they want to make.

You only have to look at the Independent Games Festival record number of entries to know indies mean business this year. This time around, nearly 570 games were entered into the competition, marking an increase of more than 45 percent compared to the previous year.

We say this every year, but we genuinely mean it -- having to choose just ten titles from the incredible batch of indie titles this year was not only next-to-impossible, but also excruciatingly heart-breaking, as we had to knock favorite after favorite off until there were only ten remaining.

But never fear, as a good number of those titles that we close, but just missed out on a top spot, have been compiled below the main list as honorable mentions.

Here are our picks for the top ten indie games of this year:

10. Atom Zombie Smasher (Blendo Games)

Will Blendo Games ever release a bad game? The studio's clean sheet was kept intact this year, as Atom Zombie Shooter showed us exactly how zombie games are supposed to be done -- top-down, filled with purple squares, and with gameplay that is, for the most part, completely out of our hands. There's a zombie outbreak in Neuvos Aires, and you've been put in charge of commanding the army, saving the population, and destroying as many of the undead as possible, real-time strategy style.
For each mission, you're presented with a section of city, and a selection of units. Each unit must be placed strategically on the map for maximum zombie-killing exposure, and then it's time to hit 'play' and watch the hordes swarm in from every direction. Some units can be given orders, while others are simply left to think for themselves, as your helicopter flies in and tries to rescue as many survivors as possible before they are turned into the walking dead. The entire time you're playing Atom Zombie Shooter, you're fighting a hopeless losing battle which will inevitably end in your country being over-run -- the question is, how many people can you save before that happens?

9. Dig-N-Rig (DigiPen)

From the school that birthed the students who created Portal comes Dig-N-Rig, an amazing little DigiPen student project game that puts you in control of a mining robot named Diggit 6400. Diggit's task is to dig all the way to the center of the earth, mining and collecting minerals along the way so that better equipment can be purchased from the lab back on the surface. To achieve its objective, a series of scoopers and conveyor belts must be built to transport the minerals back to your base of operations, where there are then processed and turned into rare elements for research and upgrade purposes.
If your robot is ever destroyed while en route to the core, fear not: it'll cost you a small amount of minerals to construct a new bot as a replacement. There are fourteen layers of earth to dig, and anyone who wishes to mine the moon can do so as well. Dig-N-Rig is a brilliant game that deserves more attention from the public, especially seeing how many people are playing sandbox and construction games in recent months.

8. Jamestown: Legend of the Lost Colony (Final Form Games)
Just when you thought that the shmup scene had run out of ideas and there wasn't really anything that exciting when it came to vertically scrolling shooters anymore, Jamestown came out of nowhere and exploded into a gorgeous display of retro pixels and fast-paced gameplay. Jamestown is a homage to shmups gone by, with plenty of oomph to grab the attention of both veteran blasters and those new to the shmup front. With a tongue-in-cheek storyline and plenty of levels to play through, this is easily one of the best shooters to appear in years.
There are multiple modes to play through, and various ships with different abilities, allowing each player to find the control scheme that gels with them the best. Jamestown might be great for all players, but it's far from a pushover, and only the fastest fingers will manage to see it through to the end, beating all of the available challenges. Once you've exhausted all the single player options, there's up to four player co-op too -- alas, it's local play only, but if you can get three friends around your computer with Xbox controllers, you're laughing.

7. Bastion

Whether you've given Bastion a play or not, you'll no doubt be aware of the main character 'The Kid', thanks to the smooth, spine-chillingly cool narrator who chronicles the player's every move. The city of Caelondia has fallen apart, and only The Kid can fight off the Calamity and put it all back together again. Using the Bastion as his central hub, and an old wise man called Rucks as his guide, The Kid must find the Cores that power the world, and bring them all back together again.
While the narrator's voice is one of the outstanding features of the game, bringing incredible life to the simpliest of situations, that's not all there is to love about Bastion. The world is stunning, and builds itself around The Kid as he explores. The story is genuinely enthralling, and you'll no doubt want to see it through to the end. The gameplay straddles the line between hack 'n' slash and run 'n' gun remarkably. This is a very complete package that deserves to be played.

6. Dungeons of Dredmor
Take the classic roguelike formula, spice it up with a dash of wit and parody, and out pops Dungeons of Dredmor, baked to perfection. This comic-like dungeon crawler features all the elements you'd expect from a roguelike, from randomly generated dungeons to monsters and traps galore, and asks you to make your way deeper and deeper into the ground, looting chests and enemy corpses at every turn. The action is turn-based, with both the player and the various blobs, vampire bats and skeletons getting a good old swipe every time you click.
Dungeons of Dredmor is a roguelike veteran's dream, with an interface that allows for multiple weapons, potions and armors to be carried and worn, and UI windows that can be positioned away from the main action, and glanced at whenever needed. While Dungeons of Dredmor is a magnificent feat in itself, its even more impressive when you consider that it is only the first release from Canada-based Gaslamp Games.

5. Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP (Superbrothers, Capybara Games)
Did 2011 see any video game more stylish, more beautiful, more atmospheric than Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP for iPad and iPhone? We think not. The game follows the Scythian warrior, who is on a quest to discover a mysterious power hidden in the Caucasus Mountains. Sword & Sworcery focuses on intriguing exploration and tricky puzzles, with short sword battles from time-to-time.
As the player explores, there are items to be found and characters to converse with, although the game prefers to tell its story through visuals and gorgeous music most of the time, with such immersive, captivating presentation. It's incredibly easy to find yourself lost in the world of Sword & Sworcery, simply happy to wander around with a vague underlying goal and taking in the majesty that it provides. Hopefully 2012 will see this most unforgettable of experiences making its way to other mobile platforms too.

4. Frozen Synapse (Mode 7)

If you follow indie games, or even dabble a little every once in a while, you'll no doubt be aware of simultaneous turn-based strategy shooter Frozen Synapse, with its neon blue visuals and satisfyingly tactical gameplay. Players take to randomly-generated scenarios to do battle, giving soldiers moving and firing orders, and then hitting 'go' and waiting for their opponent to do the same. Once both players are ready, the action unfolds, and lives are most likely lost.
Described by many as 'Chess meets Counter Strike', Frozen Synapse takes real skill and understanding to better your opponent, as you attempt to guess where they are going to move on their next go, and counter their plans accordingly. The asynchronous play means matches can go on for days as each player makes their move in their spare time, or two really focused opponents can spend an evening trying to get the upperhand on each other again and again. Easily one of the most unique and challenging experiences of the year.

3. Terraria ( Re-Logic)

With the success of Minecraft spurring on multiple block-building clones in 2011, and even inspiring the next upcoming game from a big AAA studio, it was only a matter of time before one of these clones got it right. Terraria took Mojang's hit title, compressed it onto a single, 2D plane, threw in Castlevania-like elements, and came away with something that was completely its own experience. Players band together online, create small houses to store their gear and keep out the enemy, then dig deep in search of treasure and wealth.
The beauty of Terraria is that you can play for dozens of hours, and still not have seen whole main elements of the game. While the underground houses plenty of secrets to be found, from materials for making stronger weapons and armor, to streams of lava and enemies that will surround and destroy you, the overground is also teeming with life, as mucus blobs attack in the day, and hordes of goblins invade your humble abode at night. Grab some friends, and you can easily play Terraria for weeks on end.

2. The Binding of Isaac (Edmund McMillen and Florian Himsl) binding of isaac.jpg
When Edmund McMillen of Gish and Super Meat Boy fame sat down to work on a small-scale game over his summer holiday, who could have guessed that it would evolve into something so addictive and replayable, and would go on to sell hundreds of thousands of copies. The Binding of Isaac is a semi-roguelike that follows a young boy who flees to the basement, avoiding his murderous mother, with very thin and vague religious connotations.
Players guide Isaac through randomly-generated rooms, killing enemies, gaining power-ups and battling hideous bosses, before coming up against his mother. There are dozens of upgrades to find, and even after tens of hours of play, you'll still be finding items and secrets you've never seen before. Get killed, and it's right back to the start for you -- there is no concept of 'lives' here, as the roguelike status suggests. The Binding of Isaac oozes that 'one more go' mentality, and has been delighting hardcore roguelike players and more casual gamers alike

1. SpaceChem (Zachtronics Industries)
SpaceChem is "the leading chemical synthesizer for frontier colonies," and you are a reactor engineer -- a cog in the company's rather volatile goings-on. Your job is to build reactors that can take atoms and molecules, and turn them into someone of value for customers, using 'waldos' and a great deal of bonding. As molecules loop around in your reactors, you'll need to make sure no unauthorized collisions occur, and that the stock is being called up and transported to the next reactor in a timely manner.
SpaceChem is also one of the most challenging, ingenious and downright rewarding gaming experiences of 2011. No prior understanding of chemistry or chemical reactions is needed -- in fact, the game bends the truth when it comes to molecule bonding every now and again -- and you will no doubt come away from each session with a few more brain cells than you had before play. With wonderfully unique gameplay that not only provides fun, but also makes you feel clever at the same time, SpaceChem is unlike anything else you can play this year.

Honorable mentions:
Minecraft (Mojang) - note: already appeared in last year's top 10 while in alpha form
Gemini Rue (Joshua Nuernberger)
Explodemon (Curve Studios)
English Country Tune (Increpare)
Blackwell Deception (Wadjet Eye Games)
Scoregasm (Charlie's Games)
Viriax (Locomalito)
Really Big Sky (Boss Baddie)
Soul Brother (Superflat Games)
Capsized (Alientrap Games)
Serious Sam: The Random Encounter (Vlambeer)
Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet (Shadow Planet Productions)
Nitronic Rush (DigiPen)
BloodyCheckers (BigCorporation)

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Atom Zombie Smasher is the perfect post-Iraq zombie game.

June 12, 2014, 1:51 pm

≫ Next: Axis Runner project is a 3D game with a fast built-in graphics engine.

≪ Previous: Top 10 indie games of 2013.

As a game, Atom Zombie Smasher is just a series of RTS matches. You’re harvesting resources from a map. Instead of fighting an enemy, you’re fighting time, because the resources go bad in a matter of seconds (these are very short matches).

You get three or four units, which makes Atom Zombie Smasher a bit of a puzzle game.

Sometimes you’ll get a perfect set of tools for the situation. Other times, you’re completely and utterly screwed. It’s all indie graphics — dots, really — strung together in a simple but effective campaign mode.

But that’s just the game part.

After the jump, there’s something more important going on in Atom Zombie Smasher.

Most zombie games are about a guy with a gun shooting his way out of a zombie outbreak (see the 1968 documentary, Night of the Living Dead). But Atom Zombie Smasher is a top-down perspective on the military response. Here are tough choices about evacuating, cleansing, or abandoning territories. It’s a race against a spreading pandemic, with the odds stacked against you and lots and lots of collateral damage along the way.

Just as Introversion’s Defcon used a cool blue minimalism for millions dead in a nuclear annihilation, Atom Zombie Smasher uses tiny dots to create moments of drama. As the helicopter arrives and sounds its horn to call the survivors to the LZ, some of them will run into barricades you set up. They’ll shuffle back and forth, trapped and doomed to turn into zombies themselves. A tiny cluster of survivors will turn barely escape an artillery barrage only to turn down the wrong street and find themselves cut off. A lone zombie will lurch toward a tightly packed cluster of survivors awaiting the helicopter, but your snipers take it out at the last moment. A ruptured gas line sets off a chain of explosions that kills dozens of survivors, but more dozens of zombies.

The rain slows zombies. Your helicopter breaks down. With a year of experience under their belts, your infantry learn to run faster and shoot better. Scientists research more room in your helicopter, smarter soldiers, or weapons of mass zombie destruction. Sometimes you just have to deal with the situation by lobbing a nuke (see the 1985 documentary, Return of the Living Dead). For such a small short game, something dramatic and intensely zombie-related is always happening in Atom Zombie Smasher.

Developer Brendon Chung gives Atom Zombie Smasher a picante Latin flavor (his obvious affection for motif goes back to Gravity Bone, which featured the song Brazil). Who can tell what’s going on with the storylines that burble up as you unlock vignettes? And who cares? Gabriel Garcia Marquez meets Wes Anderson meets George Romero. It’s weirdly charming stuff, from the cutscenes to the zedpedia entries to the names randomly chosen for your units. Go ahead, customize the names of your units. I dare you. It isn’t easy. Who wouldn’t want the fight alongside an infantry battalion called the Mercy Huskies or an artillery regiment called Hark’s Thunder?

A few settings can make the game harder or easier. During matches, you can slow time to carefully manage unit movement, artillery fire, zombie bait, explosive traps, landing zones, and so forth. But this isn’t a game about timing or repeating effective strategies over and over. You’ll only get three units each mission (hotkeyed, to boot!), and you never know which three they’ll be. This isn’t a game about winning, which isn’t going to happen that often. It’s a game about doing the best with the tools you draw in the situation you’ve been dealt. Your best victory might mean saving 65 of the 250 people in a territory instead of only 60.

As a campaign progresses, you and the zombies advance along a victory track, with infection tokens piling up on the map faster than you can possibly knock them off, racking up points for the zombies. If you can’t win, at least try to lose with a better score. The typical zombie movie ends in failure. So, too, does the typical campaign of Atom Zombie Smasher, which can be played in under an hour.

This might sound obvious to other zombie aficionados, but it occurs to me while playing Atom Zombie Smasher that zombies are creatures of the post-Vietnam era. Armies have been overwhelmed for thousands of years (see the 2006 documentary, 300), but the 70s seared into our consciousness the idea of an army helpless to save a civilian population from an infectious ideology. Watching the last helicoper fly away in Atom Zombie Smasher, leaving behind so many tiny dots to their sad fate, I can’t help but think of the evacuation of Saigon. Zombie mythology is the mythology of our generation, a product of our feelings about death, age, conformity, and betrayal. And there’s definitely some Vietnam in there.

Is it any coincidence that so many zombie movies portray the military as ineffectual at best, and sometimes outright evil (in Night of the Living Dead, which Romero shot at the height of the Vietnam war, it took the local militia to clean up the zombie apocalypse)? Like 28 Weeks Later, in which Idris Elba issues code red, Atom Zombie Smasher shows the military doing its best in a bad situation. This isn’t just a fantastic indie strategy game. It’s also a perfect post-Iraq expression of zombie mythology.
Demo.

Screenshots.

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Axis Runner project is a 3D game with a fast built-in graphics engine.

June 12, 2014, 2:13 pm

≫ Next: Babaliba is a video-adventure with fast movements and frenetic action.

≪ Previous: Atom Zombie Smasher is the perfect post-Iraq zombie game.

Axis Runner is a 3D game inspired by the Apple II game "Lode Runner". It features a built-in graphics engine and runs fine without hardware acceleration. All direction is relative as characters climb up on the walls and ceiling, reminiscent of the fighting scenes in movies such as "The Matrix".

This idea comes from some years ago; basically a 3D lode-runner type game with a weird topology: if the runner bumps into a wall he climbs up (like the fighting scenes in "The Matrix" or "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon") but if he reaches an edge he falls, in the current downwards direction. I.e. the direction of gravity changes. To keep the world finite it is enclosed in a cube. Typically characters walk on the ceiling/up walls/pipes etc.

After many attempts (openGL in 1996 was too slow, Java in 1998 with line graphics was too dense), after someone put an amazing sculpture in the local bus interchange, after a lot of learning about graphics engines, and after the SDL game competition, here is 8000 lines of pure c coded madness!
While it is still in the prototype stage, if you have a Linux machine handy you can try it out. You will need the SDL library.

Features.
    Custom built (fast!) graphics engine; can run on old pentiums.
    User controlled perspective.
    The cube walls, normally transparent, light up when characters are walking over them.
    All moves implemented: walk, rotate up, turn, dig, fall off, fall, take parcel, drop parcel, go to next level (walk on blue square), and character collision.
    11 levels.
    Sound effects.

Project Goals.
    To make a game that is fun and mind bending to play.
    To explore dense 3D geometry.
    To run on slow machines without graphics hardware acceleration.
    To explore alternate realities ( see A Mathematician's Apology)
        distortion of space,
        game theory.
    To explore the use of algorithmic music composition and dynamic sound synthesis.

Todo.
    Python scriptable.
    Automatic camera positioning.
    Demo mode: yes, it is possible to play this!
    Easier gameplay, for instance you can't dig 3 holes in a row like the original. It is not (yet) possible to dig in any direction, only in the forward direction. This would involve adding a new move "turn and dig", triggered by, say, a shift-arrow combination.
    Sound track.
    Improve/replace font.
    Texture mapping of surfaces.
    Some flesh on the runners (and arms too); use (real time) raytracing.
    AI for the bad guys (Dijkstra's algorithm would kick ass).
    To have the sound track respond to the player's actions.
    A more intelligent way of handling obscuring surfaces (such as the enclosing cube's walls) - eg. switch to a wireframe.
    Perhaps a small global map (just pixels and lines) in the corner?
    A background, rather than suspended in the middle of nowhere. Eg. some kind of mirror effect where the structure is echoed into the distance.
    Refactoring (oh, how i love thee): there are a lot of game possibilities for using this same regular cubic grid world.
Download source code.
axis-runner.tar.gz
If you are going to try this, use '#' to skip a level and ESCAPE will get you out of the introduction. To run on a slow machine (eg. Pentium 100) remove the

#define USE_ANTI_ALIASING

in render.c.

Screenshots.

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