first-annual-game-makin-shindig posts

There's just something about gloomy, destroyed worlds that draws us in. Just take a look at the Fallout series. But we can't live in these wrecked worlds forever. Sometimes color must be brought to them. Tinte is just such a game. A black and white 2D platforming action game, this Game Makin' Shindig competitor has a great art style and interesting (although stereotyped) gameplay. You control a little man who must travel the world, picking up vials of lost pigment to return color to the land. You can also throw cyan pigment to eliminate enemies. If there was one complaint about the game, it's that the control scheme isn't polished enough. Z and X are the best for PC platformers, people!

Another entry in Eegra's Game Makin' Shindig, Spectrum Spelunker is a procedurally generated platformer with lots of quirky charm. As you may have noticed, the theme of the shindig was colors, and Spectrum Spelunker pulls this theme off amazingly. Playing like Mario meets Puzzle Bobble, you must platform your way continually across the randomly-generated world, destroying blocks along the way. You can only destroy blocks that are the same color you are. The catch here (and what makes it bring to mind Puzzle Bobble) is that blocks that are the same color will be destroyed together and counts as a combo, making the player look for large clusters of bombs to rack up the points. Overall

Talk about a game that makes sure you paid attention in physics! ColourWise, an entry in Eegra's Game makin' Shindig, is a game about combining colors to match the color required to exit the level. It's a very simple puzzle game, but makes up for its simplicity in greatly refined gameplay. It's also somewhat of a mind bender unless you have all colour combinations memorized. The music is also pleasant, bringing back memories of ages spent wasted away in SimCity 2000. It even has goofy cartoon cutscenes! If there is one complaint about it, it's that the colors are hard to distinguish sometimes and the color combinations are confusing at times.

We promised some deeper information on the Eegra Shindig games, and here we are! The first place winner in the competition is the minimalist bullet hell shooter Go Beryllium. As we are huge shoot-'em-up fans, this is good news for us. The game itself is rather simple for a bullet hell game. You shoot down enemy ships while dodging bullets. It's simplicity belies its addictiveness, though. Your bomb repels enemy bullets, the entire game is atom themed (bosses are large uranium atoms, you collect quarks, etc) and the usage of the colored quarks is genius. The music even syncs with your attacks and the destruction of enemies. This is a must play for any fan of vertical shooters and is a great relaxing-but-challenging game.

We do love a good physics game here at Big Download. We also love minimalism and the Eegra Game Makin' Shindig. So it is with great pleasure that we present to you Colourblind, one of the (two) third-place winners. A physics puzzler, Colourblind assigns each of the primary colors to a direction of gravity. In one level, Red might be down, Green to the left, and Blue to the right. You control a little car who must push, platform, and puzzle its way to the multicolored triangle that indicates the finish line. The puzzles are mind-bending and satisfying, the graphics are clear and effective, and it is overall a very high quality game.

One of the funniest gaming sites around would definitely have to be Eegra. With excellent parodies and a riotous (although definitely NSFW) comic, the people over there always manage to make us laugh. A few weeks ago, we reported on Eegra's First Annual Game Makin' Shindig. Well, the judging is complete and the games are now available for download! You can check out the competition page to both download the games and see who got which place. The games range from the very polished Colourblind to the promising but disappointing Chaos Wave. Look for our write-ups on each game and an Indiedaze on the competition soon!

We just love indie contests here at Big Download. They give the independent developers a voice and motivation to try out something new and different while keeping them from falling into the trap of "making a game perfect". People always work better with a deadline, after all. Eegra has just recently finished up the submissions phase of their first development contest and, we must admit, the games look amazing. From the trippy visuals of Chaos Wave to the shmupping of Go Beryllium!, the entries look absolutely incredible. As soon as the winners are determined, the games will be released for download. Look for our coverage as soon as the contest wraps up!