Archives for 2015

It’s no surprise that it’s hard being a game developer, especially if you try to go for it full-time. It’s a labour of love, but the devs here in Perth are crazy enough to go for it, even if it means tinned tomatoes for dinner. Playup Perth was established to help out these local devs in connecting with the public, and with the latest Playup, we’ve finally made a connection to the political players too. It was a special night filled with heaps of games, so for everyone who coudln’t make it, here’s a quick rundown of the evening.

It all started off with a quick discussion from local devs about what they’d like to see from the local industry. Scott Ludlam was present to make sure he got a clear picture of what could be done for these guys, and, you know, to play some games. There were some great points made from all round, but there was one clear message behind them all: Perth is a pretty rad place to be. Everyone said only positive things about the community here, and it really is remarkable when you consider how isolated we are from one another.

 

The main hurdle mentioned by the speakers wasn’t to do with making games, but it was having the capacity to make them that was the issue. Financial limitations and a lack of dedicated office space (like Spacecubed) means producing high quality games is difficult without resorting to Kickstarter or moving to Melbourne. There are very talented people here in Perth, but they don’t have anywhere to flourish, and that’s a problem. It’s difficult for game devs to make the changes they’d like to see without support from somewhere else, but once it gets off and running, it’s a different story.

What was ultimately desired was to put Perth on the map as a hub for sustainable game development. Simply being given money is one thing, but being able to take that money and turn it into an ongoing source of income is quite another. Scott Ludlam briefly reminded us all there’s also more to all this than just making money. Games are a new art form, and while we haven’t seen much to suggest that from the medium yet, the early days of film were just as questionable. After some great discussion, we were all ready to get playing, and we did just that!

 

Bramblelash

The last time I had my hands on Bramblelash was a few Playups ago, and a lot has changed since then. The core mechanic of having a line of bramble join two players is still intact, but now there’s stuff like terrain and different game modes in the mix. The PVP mode involves some hilarious backstabbing, and the co-op adventure mode is looking like it’ll be a great romp with a few friends on the couch. Apparently it’s on Steam Greenlight, but without a single player mode (which seems impossible), it seems like a strange choice to release it there. Still, it’s grown into a solid game thus far, and hopefully it will only become more polished moving forward!

 

Valiant

No matter how many times I try out Valiant, I’m always impressed at how satisfying the game feels. There’s something about riding a horse in VR and slamming your lance into some other sucker that’s so damn pleasing. The last few times I’ve tried indulging in VR, that horrible motion sickness hit after a few minutes, but the guys have been hard at work to fix it for Valiant. I can safely say that this time round was the best yet, thanks to the addition of a fixed helmet on the screen, so I could joust dudes down for hours if I had to. There were also new weapons and AI this time around, so I’m looking forward to seeing what else the guys put in there for next time!

 

D3bug

There’s nothing like a platformer with a quirk, and D3bug seems to have caught onto that. It’s a typical platformer, but you can morph the stage with a variety of “hacks”, like making a platform acquire it’s own gravity. If I was a kid, I would be freaking out that I could change the world to suit my needs, which probably sounds a little psychopathic, but it’s a really interesting idea to explore. This was just the first public showing of the game, so the demo was extremely short, but I’m really excited to see where Stirfire takes it!

 

Worlds Fastest Pizza

Picture the most outrageous pizza delivery you’d ever have to do. Multiply that by a thousand, then shove a flying shark in there, and you get a sense of what World’s Fastest Pizza is all about. It’s a bit like if GTA was a game about delivering pizza while ingesting as much meth as possible, all while making sure you don’t get fired. Or die. Needless to say, it bewildered me in all the right ways, and while it was more zaney rollercoaster than full game, it kept me coming back again and again.

 

Cogz

If you’ve been to almost any gaming event around Perth, chances are Wes Lamont’s Cogz has made an appearance. After a successful kickstarter and a heap of playtesting, Cogz is available to the public in both human and ludicrous sizes. I’ve only seen the ludicrous size from afar, and I’ve always thought that a lot of work went into those wooden pieces. Turns out they’re cardboard, so it’s just like playing the small version (which was already pretty fun) but on a ridiculous scale. There’s not much to say about Cogz other than that it’s good to go, and if a competitive multi-player puzzle game sounds interesting, I’d recommend checking it out.

Unfortunately, because there were so many games, I couldn’t get around to trying them all out. Thankfully, Bernadette over at Gamecloud took up the reigns and covered the other games (including Star Hammer, One Night Only and Blitz Bandits), which you can read over here!

 

It was a very special night for everyone involved, and a great evening for all the local devs to connect with someone from the political sphere. This is what Playup Perth is all about, after all, and seeing Scott Ludlam take in all the potential on display makes me optimistic about the changes we can make for the local scene to grow. Hopefully, we can bring in more high-profile guests for future Playups, but only time will tell.

These last few Playups have had more games on show than ever before. The last After Dark session had eight games (eight!) going at once, and we had to get two people just to cover them all! This time there were six games on offer, so we migrated over to Carpe Coffee and packed the room with as many people as possible, including kids! There were games from previous Playups and unique newcomers, but everyone was willing to give some feedback to the devs or chill out with a latte and talk about game design. There was only one game I didn’t get my hands on, but with so many games to try, I was hardly surprised!

 

Aliensche

The first game I tried out was Aliensche, a side-on game where you abduct cows in a UFO for (presumably) SCIENCE! The aim is to get as many cows from the ground into your mother UFO via a drop-down claw without being killed by soldiers firing rockets at you. While it’s a lot like a reversed version of Missile Command, the twist makes it a really unique, and it’s also dangerously addictive. It was easy to jump on and nuanced enough to keep me back to try and beat my own score, and even when I didn’t, the game was weird enough to keep me amused anyway.

 

Blitz Bandits

Channelling the golden days of when Game Boys ruled the streets, Blitz Banditz played like a free-for-all version of Contra with a taste for capitalism. The idea is to make $100 before you opponent by grabbing moneybags, holding onto valuable gems and shooting your opponent in the face! Like Alienische, Blitz Bandits was easy to pick up and play while still having that “one more time” quality to it. I was run over by that damn train way too many times, but the game was a great little party number that I’d be keen to play over and over again.

 

Verbivore

If you’ve ever felt like snake needed something more, Verbivore’s a game to keep your eye on. Instead of just squirming around eating pellets, you eat letters to construct words. The more words you make, the more points you get, but the game was still too rough to really get a grasp of. The letters that spawned didn’t necessarily make words, and the controls were borderline unresponsive, but it’s still a great idea at its core. I’m looking forward to seeing it later down the line once the kinks get sorted and seeing what other mechanics get fed into it!

 

Rogue Blitz

I couldn’t personally play Rogue Blitz, but I got a glimpse at the new and improved visual aspect of the game. Last time I played it, the game required the players to extrapolate where certain weapons fired without any visuals aids, but that’s changed now with the addition of missile pieces, laser rulers and all the cardboard things! I would have killed to be able to use them, but from what I saw, they definitely helped remove the ambiguity my group had the last time we played.

 

Bloc

Bloc’s become somewhat of a regular showing at Playups these days, and the progress that’s been made on it is evident. This time round, Eeshwar was doing a blind testing, which meant that he couldn’t explain the rules to anyone playing the game. Thing is, even I messed up on the rules, and I’ve played almost every iteration of it at past Playups. The game itself works beautifully, it’s just that the rules need some clarification, and knowing Eeshwar, it’ll be done by the next Playup!

 

Super Salmon Migration

When I first tried Super Salmon Migration, I thought it was just a rip off of that old Helicopter game. It more or less is, but there was a bouncing mechanic that piqued my interest. The aim is to migrate your salmon as far as possible, but sometimes you need to jump out of the water onto passing logs or rocks to keep going. I thought that the mechanic itself could be utilised more, but it was a really interesting twist on the old Helicopter format. Add a store in there (filled with coloured boxes!) and it looked like a promising mobile time-waster!

 

After three hours that felt like 20 minutes, Playup came to an end yet again. It seems that the more Playups I go to, the higher the calibre of local games I see, which is really exciting considering that we’re seeing more every time! A huge thanks to Carpe Coffee for providing the venue, and if you want to know when the next Playup is happening, it should be announced very soon.

Eight games doesn’t sound like a huge number until you see them all in the same room, but it’s even crazier when you realise that one of them is a gameshow! This was the biggest Playup so far; it was so big that I’d call it more of a mini-con than a playtest session. We had games that were already released, games that were barely in their infancy and even a whole bunch of kickass shirts for sale. Playing every game in the few hours we had was practically impossible, so I enlisted the help of Will Kirk (Editor-in-Chief over at Gamecloud) for his help in the writeup to make sure no game was left behind.

 

Time Chasers

Nick: I’ve always liked heading down to the pub for a trivia night with a bunch of friends who know as little about geography as I do, so testing out a game show sounded right up my alley. Instead of being played with points, Time Chasers is all about adding time to your own clock to make it through each round and be the last man standing. It played a bit like You Don’t Know Jack but with more racing against the clock, and while my trivia knowledge is still embarrassing, the game was great fun once you got the hang of it. I was especially a fan of how the game never lost tension as it went on, because no matter how far ahead you were, time always works against you, but in a fun way!

 

Doomsday Convention

Will: Tabletop is an area of gaming that I’m still relatively noobish with apart from way too much experience with Settlers of Catan, but there are two things I know I enjoy: resource management and ‘dogging’ any players that get in my way. Doomsday Convention is a new game from COGZ creator, Wes Lamont, and one which strongly incorporates those two qualities. Using a board built around resource collection and modifiers, the aim of the game is to move two units around (an evil genius and a minion) in order to fill up three resource cards as precisely as possible. Only you know what you require for each card, and at the end you will be penalised for going under or over any particular resource. Using modifiers, you can strategically work to earn optimal results for yourself or throw other player’s plans into chaos.

Overall, the game already flows very well once you get your head around it. The biggest problems are a board which can barely fit the pieces and some messy scoring calculation at the end. I look forward to seeing how it progresses!

 

Scavenge the Wastes

Nick: Everyone groaned when Brett, the creator of the game, likened Scavenge The Wastes to Fluxx, but he did mitigate it with “Don’t worry, unlike Fluxx, it’s not terrible”. Scavenge The Wastes is a card drafting game where you build up a post-apocalypse settlement through drawing and playing cards from a shared deck. I played a slightly modified version later into the night that was a bit more fast-moving than previous versions, so the game lasted a very digestible 10 minutes. Brett was pretty forthcoming about the game being in a broken state, which I’d have to agree with, but everyone I played with agreed that it was still better than Fluxx. I’m definitely interested to see how it changes in the future, and hopefully it’ll crop up at future Playups.

 

Star Hammer: The Vanguard Prophecy

Will: While not my favourite genre given the time investment that’s usually involved, I still have a great respect for both the RTS and space sim genres. I love sci-fi, so I definitely find this particular sub-genre interesting and feel generally clued in on what’s going on. Last weekend was the first time I personally got to go hands on with Star Hammer, and it was something I enjoyed as I chatted away with Lead Designer, Paul Turbett about his influences and approach to game development. Out of all the Perth-titles I’ve played, it’s definitely the one I feel most steps beyond the banner of ‘indie game’ to hold itself within the genre as a full-fledged experience. It’s clear budget restraints held back its full potential with the storytelling, in particular, but Star Hammer is still a fantastic example of the potential within our local industry.

The game is now available on Steam if you’d like to try it for yourself. http://store.steampowered.com/app/337680/

 

Mr Nibbles forever

Nick: While a lot of games shown off at Playup Perth are completely new, Mr Nibbles Forever is actually a sequel of the mobile game Mr Nibbles. The game is a side-scroller about a hamster making his way through his enclosure, and the more you tilt your device, the faster he goes. Everything in it was suitably adorable, and there were more costumes in it than a living doll store, but it was a surprisingly tricky game! You had to be spot on with your movements to get all the collectables strewn across the level, not to mention avoiding the enemies, but it made the game a lot more enjoyable than I expected it to be.

 

Fart Surfer

Will: The title ‘Fart Surfer’ wasn’t exactly something that captured my interest at first glance, but maybe that’s just a sign I’m getting old and rigid. In fact, I was pleasantly surprised by the build quality and challenge once I went hands-on with the game itself. In many ways, it reminded me of Perth’s own Space Strafer in combination with the addictive nature of the highly controversial Flappy Bird. As the debut title from Pete Phillips and his new studio 1984 Games, Fart Surfer has a visually appealing design that works well in combination with some catchy tracks. There are multiple difficulty settings and greater obstacles to overcome with each new level. Running on both PC and mobile, it’s just challenging enough for a casual demographic to enjoy and the theme will no doubt sit well with younger players.

Seen below is me focusing very hard on playing a game which is quite literally powered by farts. Look out for it soon!

 

A.G.E.

Nick: It’s cool to see that more and more people are embracing VR games as the technology evolves, and A.G.E. offers another perspective on VR development. The idea behind A.G.E. is that it’s an educational game about history, but the player can explore historical environments throughout history to give them a better sense of how the site has evolved through time. The site on show was the Parthenon, which could be explored in four different states of time. There wasn’t much to it, but the idea reminded me a lot of an old Dorling Kindersley game I was obsessed with as a kid. It’s a unique idea that could go in a whole bunch of directions, so I’m keen to see it develop!

 

Rogue Blitz

Will: When I first spotted Rogue Blitz, I was both excited and overwhelmed – as I mentioned earlier, I’m a bit vanilla when it comes to tabletop gaming. However, like every game I’ve tried before it, once I got my head around the rules, I had an excellent time. In fact, this was without a doubt my favourite experience of the night as I’ve never played anything quite like it. Except for the video games it’s inspired by, of course. Basically, Rogue Blitz is a tabletop take on vertical scrolling shooters such as the classic Raiden. It’s not something I thought could work in a physical form, but creator, Wes Lamont already has it in a functional state; though it still requires refinement to make the gameplay more fluent. What I especially enjoyed about it was getting to play co-operatively with other players in order to take down a boss.

You generally feel good about a game when you walk away a winner, and while we only managed to defeat the first boss as a team, we had a lot of co-op fun in the process as we worked it out together. Keep an eye out for this one!

 

As far as Playups go, I’d have to say that was one of the best so far! There was a huge variety of games on offer, from mobile to gameshow, and the quality of what was being plated up was phenomenal. If you’re unaware of what’s happening in the local scene, Playup Perth can offer a great insight into some great stuff that’s being developed, and you might get a nice surprise when you find a cool game that’s being made right here! A huge thanks to SK Games for hosting, and Will for helping us cover all the games, and keep your eyes peeled for the next Playup TBA soon…