As Comic-Con buzzed away on the other side of Perth, another Playup was silently churning away. While not quite on such a scale as the after dark sessions, some of the best Playups I’ve attended have been during the day. This one mainly consisted of returning veterans, but there was still a newcomer that caught my attention. It was a more intimate affair than usual, but the games on show were definitely worth checking out!

Whacky Ball

First up for me was a game that took me back to the days of the Eye-Toy. Whacky Ball is an iOS game where you bounce a variety of different balls using the camera. Each ball type has its own unique mini-game, and depending on the shape of the ball, you need to use your hands differently to move it where you want. It’s a cool concept, and it would be awesome to see projected on a screen at an event. The thing that caught my eye, though, was the variety in the different mini-games for each ball.

There are a number of balls available in the game, ranging from volleyball to TV-ball. Each one has their own mini-game, like playing pinball with your hands or (my personal favourite) a more ball-ey version of Doodlejump. It’d be great to see more of these kinds of games be developed in the game, and some of them really live up to the game’s name! It’s a nifty idea, and I’m looking forward to see what else gets added in!

Blocaganda

The next game I tried out was Blocaganda, a game that’s passed through the Playup doors more times than I can remember! The foundation of the game is to create tetris shapes on a board of squares in order to acquire ‘votes’. Each tile you place also has a symbol on it, and if you can match the symbol to the one on the shape you’re trying to make, you’ll be get more votes. This had already been tested a few times at Playup, but what was new was the power cards.

One of the issues the game was having previously was that it felt a bit monotonous. Agents moved, tiles were placed but something was missing. Enter power cards: active abilities that you acquired after making a shape. These allowed players to immediately influence the game in unique and sometimes hilarious ways. I thought it was a great addition to the game, and it seemed like the next step from the last time I saw Blocaganda.

Super Salmon Migration

Finally, I indulged in the ever ridiculous Super Salmon Migration, a game so odd that it lets you wear a tutu. as a migrating fish. The aim is swim past obstacles and get as far as you can without slamming into the ground or an orca. The last time I saw the game was a couple Playups ago, and it was still more of a demo than something you’d call a game. After some time, it’s grown into something a more robust and ludicrous.

With such a ridiculous name, you probably won’t be shocked to learn that this game is amazingly nuts. Orcas and logs are commonplace in water, but shields and cyborgs are a bit more fitting of a super salmon’s migration. Bouncing off of the terrain is great fun too, and is, in some cases, required to get past some of the obstacles. It’s progressing nicely, and I hope it just gets getting more bizarre as time goes on!

It’s been a while since I’ve been able to play all the games at a single Playup, but don’t think this made the event bad. I was able to chat with the devs about how they were approaching their games, what was in store for the future and heaps of DnD tales. As usual, the devs appreciated any feedback we could give, and they could go into more depth than usual thanks to the smaller numbers. I’m not expecting the next After Dark session to be small, though, and it should be coming up very soon…

A few weeks ago, this years’ Global Game Jam quietly ran for any Perth dwellers mad enough to try and make a game in 48 hours. I was there, and let me tell you, my game sucked, but there was some damn good stuff being pumped out! This playup was a chance for the participants to show off their efforts and celebrate the fact that they made a game in 48 hours (quite the achievement). After a brief introduction to all the games and a reminder that the Murdoch site made some weird stuff, we got into it!

Of course, I’m just one man, so I got Rohan from Gamecloud to help ensure that all 11 games were given a crack.

Inti’s Trial

Nick: Made by a father and son duo, Inti’s trial is a simple maze game. You, a small ball, start off at the top of a totem and need to navigate through the carvings and reach the fire at the bottom. It’s nothing flashy, but it’s really cool to see something made by family at these sorts of events. It doesn’t seem likely to be worked on again, but it’s a nice example of what can be done with the people around you.

Try it out: http://globalgamejam.org/2016/games/intis-trial

Symphony of the machine

Rohan: Described by team member Lisa Rye as a ‘mechanical rain-dance’, Symphony of the machine was a standout to me, and not solely because it was the only game of the night to utilise a VR kit. Making use of a relatively small active space, the game limits player movement to the interior of a futuristic bio dome with a view of a distant alien landscape. A glowing interface recalls various combinations of arcane symbols as the player attempts to resolve a specific combination, which will result in alien plant growth. With an aesthetic somewhat reminiscent of early 90s VR, its control method was simple enough to grasp in a single sitting. I even managed to avoid the nauseating vertigo of my earlier experiences with stereoscopic headsets, instead feeling calmly immersed and rather oblivious to the view of my bumblings, which were projected on SK’s back wall for all to see.

Try it out: http://globalgamejam.org/2016/games/symphony-machine

Golem’s Wake

Nick: Golem’s Wake looked like an ambitious game that only had 48 hours to come to life. It was a resource collection game, with the end goal of summoning a giant golem from the earth (because why not, right?). You can summon small golems to help speed up the process, and after a while, you’ll heave a heap of mini-golems doing your bidding. It’s quite a simplistic system, but it felt like if the game was worked on some more, it could develop into something quite interesting.

Break Out

Rohan: Another one of the more finished concepts created at Game Jam this year, Break Out is part joke, part puzzle game. It plays on established perceptions of the conventional player/world relationship and tries to break those expectations. Apart from the initial explicit goal of finding your way out of maze in the fastest time possible, the game lends itself to ambient exploration, featuring a retro-esque voxel look which makes thoughtful use of space balanced with selective detail.

Try it out: http://globalgamejam.org/2016/games/break-out

Azimuth

Nick: The first of the tabletop games I tried out, Azimuth, was a novel mix of resource collection, positioning and timing. The main mechanic of the game was positioning your priests to gain resources, but if the sun or moon passed by a priest in your turn, you’d get an extra resource. Unfortunately, I kinda broke the game when I realised that you could gain and sacrifice priests, thus resulting in ALL THE VICTORY POINTS, but it was fun nonetheless. It’s a nifty game, and I’d definitely like to see Wes work on it in the future.

Try it out: http://globalgamejam.org/2016/games/azimuth

Ritual Failure

Rohan: Humbly described as a ‘running simulator’ by developer Grae Saunders, Ritual Failure could easily be pinned as a procedural mushroom dungeon crawler. The game centres on a musical co-op element where bizarre looking guardian creatures are summoned in order to protect the players from hordes of bats, with somewhat unpredictable results. Through the combined effort of a 5 strong team, Grae sought this year’s Game Jam as an opportunity to extend his graphics skills in order to better work with others in his regular role as programmer.

http://globalgamejam.org/2016/games/ritual-failure

Bathtime Exorcist

Nick: We were warned at the beginning of the night that the Murdoch site had made some rather strange games, and let me tell you, Bathtime Exorcist delivered on that promise. Your roommate Jeb gets possessed, and it’s your job to exorcise the demon using household implements and an ancient exorcism guide. It’s probably the product of sleep deprivation and skulling a few too many energy drinks, but this game is just absurdly funny. It’ll probably never get looked at again, but it was definitely one of my favourites of the night. Bloody Jeb.

Mage Masher

Rohan: Secretly known as Nicholas Mage, Mage Masher is an arena style shooter, with noted influences from Unreal and other similar-era twitch shooters. Featuring procedurally generated maps and a straight forward premise, Mages perform summoning rituals in order to gain elemental powers. You are then obligated, as all mages are, to relentlessly throw said powers at your opponents!

Try it out: http://globalgamejam.org/2016/games/mage-masher

Banishment

Nick: The other tabletop game on show, Banishment, put one player in the shoes of a demon and pitted them against everyone else, the exorcists. To banish the demon, the exorcists had to complete a number of rituals, but the demon had powers of his own to keep the game going and eventually win. For a game made in 48 hours, it’s surprisingly fun and well-balanced, and there’s nothing quite as satisfying as ruining your enemies’ plans with a well-placed demon card. It’s a functional, enjoyable game, and for something that came out of a game jam, that’s pretty awesome!

Try it out: http://globalgamejam.org/2016/games/banishment

Mime Madness

Rohan: A novel concept based loosely on charades, Mime madness involves a co-operative element where the player’s goal is to free their counterpart by combining various ingredients in a cauldron in order to enable a spell reversal. The other player performs mime through use of limited character movements in attempts to direct them to the correct ingredients. A maiden Game Jam effort for most of the 4 man team, developer Ben Lemmon cheerily described the experience as having an ‘optimistic start and pessimistic finish’.

Try it out: http://globalgamejam.org/2016/games/mime-madness

Too Many Cats

Nick: Following the trend of weird Murdoch games, Too Many Cats is a game about morning rituals. After you set up your ritual in the morning, going through the motions makes cats appear. And butterflies. And weirder things. It’s not really a game so much as a neat little experience, but it’ll definitely leave you questioning what the hell is going on. Alas, it doesn’t seem likely that anything will come of it, but at least we got cats along the way.

Try it out: http://globalgamejam.org/2016/games/needs-more-cats

Must

Rohan: Created by solo jammer Vivien Lengkeek, Must is an exploration into what she describes as “everyday obsessive activities”. The result approaches a form of touch-based interactive poetry made using the Twine engine. The game takes on an appropriately minimalistic appearance, and mirroring a particularly pervasive form of compulsive behaviour, compels the player to accept one option to the exclusion of all others. Must is an example of a game that attempts to make a personal statement, rather than place emphasis on more common entertainment aspects.

Try it out: http://globalgamejam.org/2016/games/must

Some of these games were insanely impressive, regardless of the fact that they were made in 48 hours. The fact that they were made in 48 hours is just mind-boggling, but not in the Jeb-got-possessed-again kind of way. It was a great playup to see what was possible when you put your mind to something, and I’m hoping that next year’s GGJ playup has even more games on show!

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…