flashbang-studios posts

It was a game that had one of the coolest titles ever: Off-Road Velociraptor Safari HD . Announced in 2009 by Flashbang Studios as a kind of downloadable upgrade to their popular Flash-based title Raptor Safari, the developer had already been taking pre-orders for this cool looking and unusual action game.

Unfortunately, it sound like Flashbang has hit some bad economic waters and as a result the development team announced earlier this week that Off-Road Velociraptor Safari HD's development was going on hold, perhaps forever. People who pre-ordered the game will get all of Flashbang's web based titles to play for free and folks who paid more than the pre-order price will get something extra. If you want your money refunded you can email the developer directly.

Welcome to Freeware Friday, a weekly column showcasing excellent games that you can play free of charge! It's our one year anniversary! Here's to many more years of talking about the best freeware games out there!

It's been one full year since Freeware Friday debuted on BigDownload. There has been many freeware games featured, and there are many that are waiting to be found. In memoriam of the past year, we'd like to present to you my personal favorites of all the games we took a look at over that past year. These are the games that were enjoyable and memorable above all else. The games that really define the independent and freeware communities as being truly classic and entertaining.

Playing free games via a web browser is certainly a growing trend for hardcore game titles such as Quake Live and the upcoming Battlefield Heroes. However, the downloadable casual game developer-publisher Flashbang Studios is trying to go in the opposite direction and will see if people will actually pay to play games they have normally played for free.

According to an article in the Wall Street Journal the company plans will launch a subscription service sometime in 2009 on their Blurst.com site that will ask people to pay $20 for a six-month period. People will be able to download the Flash-based games they make for that fee and the company will take requests for additional features. They are assuming that 5,000 people will have to sign up for the service in order for it to work. The company claims that 2.5 million people have played their free games so it will be interesting to see if a tiny fraction of those players would like to pay for the service. In the meantime Flashbang's newest game Paper Moon (seen above) is due for release on Friday.

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

With this quality of work coming from Flashbang Studios on a regular basis, expect to see one of their newest browser games featured on Freeware Friday on a regular basis. We've already featured Raptor Safari and Jetpack Brontosaurus before, and we even featured Minotaur China Shop on launch week. Despite their latest title containing no mythical or ancient creatures (well, maybe one. But it's not the focus!), it is definitely following the trend of extremely high-quality releases in a relatively short timespan that the previous games have created. I'm talking about Blush, and while short, it is no less addicting than any of their other games.

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

Another Friday, another great freeware game. This time, following hot on the heels of this week's Independent Minds article on browser games, Freeware Friday is taking a look Flashbang Studios' latest game. A mixture of business simulation, RPG development, and arcade action, Minotaur China Shop is one of their best games yet. There's nothing quite like tearing through your brand new shop causing as much havoc as possible before you go out in a blaze of glory. Best of all, it released yesterday, so the magic is still fresh!

Minotaur China Shop follows the adventures of a single minotaur. When perusing a china shop one day, he became enraged, flipped out, and destroyed the shop. He is sent to the Labyrinth for misbehavior, but is soon released for good behavior. Now that he has rage insurance (which protects anything he destroys due to his boundless rage), he has decided to fulfill his dreams of selling fine china. Can he do it?

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

The team at Flashbang Studios seem to have a fascination with times long past. First there was Off-Road Velociraptor Safari, which is an action-puzzler with jeeps, a large spiked ball, and plenty of awesome cartoony violence visited upon feathery raptors. Now there's Jetpack Brontosaurus, or, as Flashbang puts it, "splendid jetpack dreams of a the apatosaurus named 'Brontosaurus'." There is no better description of the game than that. Thankfully, the game goes beyond the simplicity of its description in providing an incredibly fun browser experience utilizing physics gameplay and the Unity platform to their fullest potential.

The web platform that Jetpack Bronto is hosted on is Flashbang's new Blurst platform. Unlike Flashbang's personal site, Blurst is designed to showcase their own games such as Jetpack Bronto, Raptor Safari, or Splume. It's a good platform, supporting user registrations, achievements, and leaderboards. It is currently in soft launch mode, meaning some of the features (such as leaderboards) are not fully implemented. However, as this is the main place that their games will be posted, it is bound to be a great site as the content is fleshed out.

For those folks looking for an excuse to make games with the best of them, here's your chance! TIGSource and Flashbang Studios (the guys behind the incredibly fun Raptor Safari) have teamed up for a fusion of indie development and community down in Phoenix, Arizona. Dubbed the TIGJam, it's a game jam for you to work on your latest game in development, either alone or with someone else. With food, drink, and one of the best communities around, it's going to be a huge blast for all involved! Sleep is entirely optional.

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

This is a first for me. Over the past few months, I have espoused the virtues of a wide variety of freeware games, from shooters to strategy games. Never, however, have I talked about a browser game. This week marks the first, and definitely not last, time that I'll be showcasing a browser game. When a game is as good as Off-Road Velociraptor Safari, one must share it with everyone. Plus, with most of our staff at E3, Off-Road Velociraptor Safari is perfect for them! Just don't expect many browser games to make it onto Freeware Friday.

No doubt the cousin of Professor Science, the Jetpack Brontosaurus has been eagerly awaiting to explore the stars with his trusty thruster. The much anticipated browser game of his adventures has finally entered alpha, allowing anyone to step into his over-sized dinosaur boots. Featuring a few missions, there's not much to it at the moment, but it is an alpha. Check it out at the official Flashbang Studios site. You'll need the Unity Player installed on your browser to play, and remember to fill out the feedback form!

[Via IndieGames]