TIGSource-Procedural-Generation-Competition posts

We've followed the game Dyson all the way from its origins as an entry in the TIGsource procedural generation competition. It stole our hearts, and later went on to make itself into a freeware game with some added features. Finally, a year later, it has been released under the new title Eufloria. While the title has changed and the gameplay has been tweaked, this is still the Dyson we know and love from so long ago. It's just received a facelift and the trappings of commercial, retail release. While it may appear to be a strategy game on the surface, it's actually something much different, and sets itself apart through its liberal use of procedural generation and an incredibly unique atmosphere.

It appears that one of BigDownload's most featured indie games has been delayed. Dyson, that serene, minimalist strategy game that emerged from the TIGSource Procedural Generation Competition, has been delayed from its original date of late July to sometime in October. While it may be sad that the game is not releasing on schedule, it does allow the developers to add more to the game. More features, within reason of course, is always a good thing.

One of the new things that is being added, and the most important, is base-level Lua scripting so that modders can edit the game to add new graphics and gameplay with ease. This also sets up the developers to add more play modes and gameplay goals within the game proper with the extra time they have. Finally, over the next few months, more details about the new Dyson will be revealed, such as the aforementioned new play modes. Excellent!

Welcome to Freeware Friday, a weekly column showcasing excellent games that you can play free of charge!

It's been about half a year since TIGSource's Procedural Generation Competition, and most of the entries have long since faded into obscurity. There are a few, though, that transcended their roots as a quickly written game into something new, innovative, and complete. The most intriguing of these games is the procedural real-time strategy game Dyson. With its simplicity, ease of play, soothing atmosphere, and high degree of polish, it's no wonder the original developers decided to refine it into a full-fledged title. This title will be making a showing at the Independent Games Festival, and the team has released their IGF build for free to all who wish to play. So let's revisit an old classic.

Welcome to a new regular feature here on Big Download. Since indie competitions are such a large part of the independent community, ignoring them would be very foolish. There's lots of undiscovered talent out there as well as established masters, and indie competitions are the best way to bring them out of the woodwork. They are held everywhere from TIGSource to poppenkast, and always bring together lots of great talent.

Indiedaze takes the best entries from a recently finished indie competition and showcases what we think are the best of the best. Sometimes they coincide with what the original competition's top three were, sometimes they are completely different. In any case, they are always the games we liked most, and worth all the attention you can give them. A recently finished competition is the TIGSource Procedural Generation Competition, having finished up around a month ago. Since such a long time has passed, the games have had a chance to be played and decisions have had a chance to be weighed. So here is our top three and honorable mentions that were just so good that they couldn't be passed up.

Much in the vein of Bomberman, Laser Bunny, an entry in the TIGSource Procedural Generation Competition, is a top-down maze game with cute sprites and an endearing style. Unlike Bomberman, Laser Bunny is much more about escaping the oncoming flood than killing enemies. Your goal is to reach the end of each level, outrunning the water that chases you. Along the way you'll encounter enemies, blocks, and various other things to prevent you from reaching the end. As a competition entry, the game as procedurally generated mazes, allowing for some nice replayability, but as the sprites and rules are always the same, there's not as much replayability as there is in other competition entries.

There is now a game poised to take the title of "Manliest Game Ever Created" from the current testosterone-injected leader Gears of War. The newcomer, an entry in the TIGSource Procedural Generation Competition, features a half-naked circus strongman as he flies around underground and punches everything in his way. The Adventures of Charles Dumbbell is the name of the game, and it's quite an entertaining entry. Featuring polished sprite graphics, simple but excellent gameplay which involves punching blocks, monsters, and witches, and (as always) randomly generated content, it's got our vote. Gears of War, look out. Charles Dumbbell's coming to clean your clock. With his fists.