Binary Joy

Fun Link Friday

There’s an update to the progress of Crayon Physics on the developers blog, and the official website has been launched.

Sony have come under fire for deleting users Little Big Planet levels without warning - and have since said they will be changing their ways

Nintendo Trademark a bunch of new ideas

Fans rage at anti-MadWorld campaign - Mediawatch-UK has received sacks of “hostile emails” after calling for a ban of gory SEGA Wii game MadWorld.

25 Years Ago Today: Teen Sets Asteroids Record in 3-Day Marathon

Meggy Jnr RGB is a new handheld console that you …

Play Greenhouse - new indie game publisher

Penny Arcade have decided that “publishers are scum” (paraphrasing there) so they are going to start their own indie publishing business called Greenhouse.

Many indie game devs have tried this, self publishing is a common path, however to really succeed with this sort of thing you need to have lots of people viewing your website, and this is the advantage that Penny Arcade bring to the table. As well as publishing their own upcoming game, they want to publish games by small developers. They’re mostly interested in quirky or arty games that are clearly good, but don’t fall into …

Webgame Wednesday : Magic Pen

Crayon Physics is fab - I’ve said that loads of times. Magic Pen is Crayon Physics - in a free Flash based online form. It’s also fab.

The inspiration couldn’t be more obvious with this one, and the physics work surprisingly well. Essentially the game is the same as it’s inspirational parent, but there are some control differences (eg click and hold to make a perfect circle) and some different puzzles. Having attempted physics in Flash I know how hard they are to write and, even though this is likely using a Flash physics library, they still work very well. …

Fun Link Friday

Some links to start off the weekend.

A list of 20 Underused Game Mechanics - some really good suggestions for games in there.
The recently interviewed Petri Puhro has released the next in this seasons monthly game prototype, Humpsters. Slightly disturbing.
Wonderland have posted a list of the top 10 freeware games of the year. If you like the look of the Wonderland games then you should check out my review of Wonderland Adventures.
Visual Design, Comic Game Action, with a purpose - Team Fortress 2 concept art
World of Goo to be released on Valentines day next …

IGF Entries Announced

I’ve been a bit slow on this one but since I am a big fan of independently developed games I had to give it a mention anyway. Basically the upcoming Indie Games Festival aka IGF have announced the finalists for their competitions. I’m pleased to see that Kloonigames is up there for the Seumas McNally award.

The full list is…

Seumas McNally Grand Prize

Audiosurf
Crayon Physics Deluxe
Hammerfall
Noitu Love 2: Devolution
World of Goo

Best Web Browser Game

Globulos.com
Iron Dukes
Tri-Achnid

Design Innovation Award

Battleships Forever
Fez
Fret Nice
Snapshot Adventures: Secret Of Bird Island
World Of Goo

Excellence in Visual Art

Clean Asia!
Fez
Hammerfall
Synaesthete
The Path

Excellence in Audio:

Cinnamon Beats
Fret Nice
Audiosurf
Clean Asia!
OokiBloks

Technical Excellence:

World of Goo
Goo!
Audiosurf
Axiom: …

Binary Joy