Freeware Game: Mr. Rescue

Mr. Rescue is the second fire fighting game I've featured here on No Signal Input and I'm half hoping that shooting my hose at things becomes a bit of a trend. Sorry, that ‘joke’ was awful. Anyway, the first game was Station 37, and while I enjoyed that it turned it something a little crazier than your average firefighter simulation. Not that Mr. Rescue doesn't have its fair share of craziness, after all you rescue people by literally throwing them out the window without a second glance to see if they've become little more than a pizza on the street below or not.

Fighting fires isn't the easiest job in the world by any means, and Mr. Rescue – developed by Danish developers Simon Larsen and Lukas Hansen of Tangram Games – doesn't pull any punches. You must work your way up through the floors of one of three buildings, your objective being to rescue people rather than actually putting out the fires. Sure, you have a water hose to put out fires - although it quickly empties before having to recharge – but extinguishing each fire is pointless as those who linger too long will end up with an overheated suit and a quick death. The fires can quickly spread out of control, so your best bet is to get rid of those in the way and hunt for survivors to toss through windows.

 

Along the way you can collect coolants that bring some relief from the overheating, plus other power-ups that extend your suit or water tank size. You'll also have to face off against various flame monsters, which is another area the craziness sneaks in. Mr. Rescue isn't trying to be a serious simulation though, instead it’s a fun yet often unforgiving little game that you'll suddenly notice you've just spent four hours playing when you’re supposed to be writing blog posts!

Download Mr. Rescue for Windows, Mac and Linux by clicking here.

Portal Gun Competition, Courtesy of PrintExpress.co.uk

I've been away for another few days, but since I've been so busy that I haven't really had any time for gaming – let alone indie games – I can't really write about my experiences with them. Anyway, today’s post still isn't about an indie game, we'll return to that in the next post, but I'd love to see anyone who reads this enter the following competition.

PrintExpress.co.uk is running a competition for what is arguably two of the best games of the last decade; Portal and Portal 2. I don't really cover many competitions here, unless I'm doing one myself, but the prize in this one is pretty damn cool so I figured it’s worth my while to share it here. The winner of the competition will win the full scale replica Portal gun seen below, and given that Thinkgeek sold out of these babies in a mere 30 minutes it’s also a pretty rare prize too. Plus, runners-up will receive a miniature portal device, sentry turrets, core plus toys and apparently more.

It’s a decent prize, but what you have to do isn't exactly easy – at least for me! You need to draw, paint or design a “Portal based piece of art”. It doesn't have to be the gun, it can be a scene from the game, one of the characters or literally anything that’s Portal related. If you win you'll also receive a professional print of your handiwork, which isn't surprising giving that a printing website is running this competition. Entries need to be sent to the website by 30 April, so you've not got much longer.

See the full details here and good luck if you do enter! I don't have the artistic talent to do anything remotely worthy.

The Humble Bundle Weekly Sale: Blendo Games brings along four fantastic games, including Thirty Flights of Loving

The Humble Weekly Sale may seem like a good idea on the surface – it’s hard to argue with a weekly promotion that divides money between the games developer, the Child’s Play charity and the Electronic Frontier Foundation – but the biggest problem I have with this pay what you want extravaganza is that you end up buying the games only to never have time to play them. I've lost count of all the games I've bought in the numerous indie bundles that pop up these days, the majority of them remaining unplayed simply because I actually have to work, eat and sleep for most of the week.

It’s so hard to avoid buying them though, especially when the promotion comes out with fantastic games along the lines of what’s being featured this week. Every Tuesday is the turn of a new developer, and this week Blendo Games takes the helm. The developer is offering four fantastic games, with soundtracks also thrown in on three of them, and is only asking for a measly $1 to secure 3 of them. You’ll get the fourth if you pay more than the current $3.74 average, and if you can’t put a few extra dollars down for that then you really must be skint and probably shouldn't be spending what little money you have on video games.

Blendo Games is pretty much just one guy – Brendon Chung – and the four games on offer in the bundle show off the breadth of creativity he possesses. First up is Flotilla, a real-time strategy game that has you controlling a flotilla of space ships in a fully 3-D environment. You don’t just move on one plane in space, as much as some movies would have you believe, so you need to take into account that you can move in all sorts of directions – including up and down – when engaging your opponents.

Atom Zombie Smasher describes itself as a ‘tactical zombie simulation’, another RTS in which you attempt to save the city of Nuevos Aires from a zombie plague. Being a big zombie fan this firmly makes it on my ‘to play’ list, and it should make yours too; that’s if you love taking out zombies with landmines, bombs, snipers all the while grabbing territories back from the zombie horde. There’s also a co-op mode if you want a friend to join the fun.

Now if the first two games aren't exactly appropriate for your kids then consider showing them Air Forte, an “educational children’s game that will also delight adults” and has them testing math, vocabulary and geography skills in the skies. Sounds a lot better than all the educational games we had to ‘play’ at school, especially as 3 friends can join you in the multiplayer mode.

Finally is Thirty Flights of Loving, the game that is unlocked if you beat the average. This story driven first-person game has you trying to piece together the story of a heist. The art style on this one is brilliant, with a colourful world populated by grumpy block heads. It’s probably the best reason to get hold of this bundle.

Buy the Humble Bundle Weekly Sale here, but hurry because there's only 6 days left!

Star Command "only 30%" of what was originally planned, but that doesn't make it a terrible game

It feels like the original Star Trek series was first airing when Star Command was announced, because we all know that a game that was supposed to be released way back in 2010 feels like a lifetime ago in Internet years. Things move at a breakneck pace these days, and if a game that people are hugely anticipating keeps getting delayed then people are going to start to utter the death song of ‘vaporware’. So, when it comes to the Kickstarter backed – twice - Star Command, which has you captaining your own spaceship in a Star Trek like universe, people were, quite understandably, getting a bit irate that it was taking so long.

Thankfully developers War Balloon Games have announced, via the games Kickstarter page, that Star Command will finally be submitted to Apple’s App Store in “about 48 hours”. Unfortunately, and here’s the bummer for the people who are expecting so much from a game that’s been dangled teasingly before their eyes for a while now, Jordan Coombs of War Balloon Games says that Star Command is “probably only 30%” of what they originally planned for the game to become.

In an effort to finally get the game out of the door and into our hands, certain features have had to be sacrificed due to lack of time and resources. I remember when the game was going to give you the ability to beam aboard other ships and onto planets; that’s gone. Ships from multiple eras were also planned; that’s gone, as is research and a ‘Civilization-style diplomacy engine’.

"Star Command could never be all those things. But we do feel like we got to the core of the idea - managing your ship, hiring your crew, making life or death decisions, meeting strange aliens, and exploring the galaxy," Coombs said.

Some people will bemoan the lack of these features, and to an extent I’d agree with them. The features cut were an interesting part of what was shaping up to be a brilliant game, at least on paper, but the sad reality of games development is that features inevitably end up on the cutting floor. People will have to accept that the original vision was just that, a vision, and a vision that a small team couldn't possibly hope to reach – it’s simply a case of setting sights too high.

Nobody knows just how long development is going to take; things crop up and get in the way, things that once sounded brilliant turn out to simply be unworkable. I’m not a developer, but I can imagine that it can be hard for them to decide what to get rid of, to decide that something they set their heart on just can’t be done with their current resources. So, the best thing they can do is make a game that is still going to be brilliant, despite not meeting every goalpost they originally planned out.

Star Command won’t be a bad game just because some features got cut, it would be a bad game if the gameplay sucked, if it was riddled with bugs or it was simply one of the dullest games you can get for mobile devices (and believe me there are plenty of terrible mobile games out there). From what I've seen of the game so far I don’t believe that this will be any of those things, although of course I can’t say for sure until I actually get chance to play it. It might not meet every lofty expectation you expected of it when it was first announced, but don’t write it off just because of that. By all means criticise it if you don’t like it once you play it – I’d be the first to air my opinions – but give it a chance first.

(Via PocketGamer)

Freeware Game: Void Rogue (Game Jolt Official Chaos Contest Winner)

I’m a bit late to the party when it comes to roguelikes, I’ve played a few but I'm mostly just spied them from afar on my indie game travels around the Internet and ended up not trying them. So, when I saw that Void Rogue had won the Game Jolt Official Chaos Contest I decided to give it a shot – only to find out that it’s really not a roguelike in the normal way.

Sure, it has minimalist graphics, procedurally generated levels and it’s pretty damn hard – three tropes that make up a roguelike – but it’s more of a shooter come platformer. Each time you drop into a level you'll find randomly generated platforms, with more dotted around above you. Fall off the lowest platform and you'll resign your little basic man to a long drop into the void. So, check off the box for horrible death.

You can add another check box to the official ‘roguelike but not really roguelike’ list with further horrible deaths, brought on by three types of enemies that will relentlessly pursue you until you consign them to the void from which they came. You do this by firing little white streaks of bullets at the ghosts, giant knight and something that looks a bit like a fox. On second thoughts the knight might be a demon, but don't quote me on either as I don't have a bloody clue.

You can reach upper platforms by bouncing off the sides of them, all the while wildly firing at the throngs of weird enemies giving chase. After you take them out you can jump through a wormhole to the next level, where you’ll do it all again against a bigger horde of these strange creatures from the freeware world. You'll die a lot before you figure out a technique, and the controls can take a minute or two to get to grips with, but that’s a roguelike for you; except I'm not sure this is a roguelike, and now I'm totally confusing myself.

It would have benefited more from a highscores chart; simply so you can feel down when you think you've done well through the few levels you got through only to find out that someone has utterly thrashed your score.

I can't really say if Void Rogue should have won or not, as I'm yet to try any of the other 91 entries in the competition. I'll probably give a few more entries a shot and report back throughout the week, that’s if I haven't already died of indie games overload.

Upcoming: Citizens of the Earth - The RPG With a Vice Presidential Stamp of Approval!

There aren't enough games where you play Vice President, especially not games like Citizens of Earth that puts you in the shiny quite expensive shoes of the Vice President of Earth. Imagine that, in the USA you only have to make do with being the Vice President of one country because you're not good enough to be President, but here you were one step away from becoming President of Earth; bummer!

I suppose the game is trying to say something by casting the VoE as a “charming, charismatic, but practically useless” buffoon. You could say that about the majority of politicians though, at least the incompetents we seem to have ended up with here in the UK.

Anyway, Citizens of Earth, under development at Eden Industries, has the ginger haired VoE (maybe that’s why he only got VoE?) returning to his rural hometown in the backwaters of the USA for a bit of a vacation. Unfortunately there’s some strange stuff going down around town, and it’s not just the local drunk spouting some rubbish about the end of the world. The VoE wants to help, but like any politician he doesn't want to get his hands dirty to sort out the mess. This is where his excellent charisma comes into play!

Any fan of RPG’s will recognise the standard leader of the party, with all the other members trailing behind him/her as they traverse the environment. While everyone works together in those games it’s a little different in Citizens of Earth. Your task is to recruit normal citizens around the town, such as bakers and baristas instead of warriors and mages, and have them fight for you. The enemies aren't exactly your run-of-the-mill RPG types either; with “toupee-wearing eagles” and “sentient coffee plants” making up the roster. How did these freakish mutations arrive in your splendid town? Obviously it’s up to you and your lackeys to find out!

Characters can be swapped on the fly, and you won't have to only use certain characters simply because those are the ones you've concentrated on levelling up. Eden Industries founder Ryan Vandendyck told Destructoid that characters “are ready to use right out of the box” and “while they do acquire new equipment and skills down the road, these do not represent incrementally better options but rather new choices and strategic options”. It’s good for those who may initially have been put off by the complications of the RPG genre, but it’s also robust enough to allow for some depth for those who are used to RPG’s.

What’s the best part about this vice presidential themed RPG? No random encounters! Every enemy will be visible on the map, meaning you can avoid them if you wish to do so; if possible of course. I'm quite sick to death of random encounters so that’s some more good news.

It’s shaping up very nicely, with sharp 2D animation that are positively brimming in bright colours. Vandendyck has said that it will definitely be out for PC/Mac/Linux, with iOS and Android a possibility down the line.  Look out for more on Citizens on Earth soon!

My Laughable Web Design Skills

Eventually I want to get around to re-designing this blog. I do think that it does its purpose well at the moment, it's not exactly like an old Geocities site, but then again it's not the best looking site out there by far. My web design skills are pretty limited, which is why I'm using a slightly modified layout that really didn't take much effort to implement. I'd like to say it's Blogger that is limited and that I should make the switch to Wordpress, but Blogger is still surprisingly flexible; you can create some brilliant designs with Blogger and it's also far easier for a novice like myself to do so. However, although this blog may have been around for a long while, that doesn't mean that my web design skills have matured alongside it. I am pretty bad at anything design rise, mostly because I'm awful at drawing unless we're talking maps and diagrams.

There are things I'd love to change though, such as the width of the content area as I think it's far too small at the moment. Images are a problem when it comes to my content area, you may be able to click on them to see their full size but I'd love for them to look bigger in the first place. Videos are also really tiny, which bugs me quite a bit. Why don't I extend the width? I would do, but the header (lovingly designed by Detrix Artworks by the way) is at a fixed width that would look awful if stretched, plus the top contents bar doesn't play well with a higher width either.

So, one thing I unfortunately want to get rid of is the header. This means I'm going to have to design a new one, or hire someone who will design it for me. The latter isn't really an option, I run this site as a hobby (I know I have a few ads, but I do this because a few extra pennies for doing what I love wouldn't hurt) and I can't really afford to be hiring web designers. I can't design it myself though, as illustrated:

Ok, so I'm taking the piss a bit with this design for a header, but it's not like I can draw much better even if I put my mind to it. Piss taking aside though this is the kind of thing I'm looking for, which sounds like I'm going mad but bear with me.

I want a little mascot for this blog, something like Destructoid has or even Pixel Prospector. I want it to be a computer monitor that has no signal, signified by the green line in the centre of the screen. You might not know it but he's also doing the thumbs up sign!

Erm, anyway, I then want the big NO SIGNAL INPUT title to the right of this mascot, possibly in a font similar to the one used in the Fallout games (and in red). I haven't really thought about the background yet, originally I wanted to change it regularly to a different indie game but that would eliminate the mascot idea (which may be for the best anyway, ha ha!).

It will probably take a few months for me to decide what design to go with anyway, for now my main concentration is the content as this is what brings the readers; a new design means nothing if people aren't coming. I can't say that my traffic is particularly high at the moment. This is my fault of course, as I failed to capitalise on the big boost in readers I once unexpectedly got. Life got in the way and I started to post less and less, although when I think about it I could easily have found time for at least a few posts a week so you could put it more down to laziness. I do think one of the problems was failing to settle on a topic for the blog, as for the first year or so this blog had nothing to do with video games. I know now that I want to cover indie games and games in general, and you could say that I should have started a blog. It's not easy to let go though, and I have a fondness but this blog and the name I chose for it - I can't just throw that all away.

Here's to the future; hopefully with a better design, better header, better content and, above all, some damn obscure indie games!

UPDATE: Here's my crappy mockup of how I want it to look:

With added sneak peak at an upcoming post! Bet you're thrilled, aren't you?

The font is obviously nothing like I want it, but it gives you some absolutely terribly drawn idea of how it will hopefully end up.

Ah, the many uses of your break at work.

Freeware Game: Bwak

Those flippin chickens! I’m sick of them; always channel hopping when I wish they'd just stick to one programme! I'd kick them out but they pay their way on the rent, and I'd be buggered without it. Thankfully Bwak teaches those chickens that they shouldn't be keeping me up late at night with the sound of a thousand different TV channels, unless they want to violently explode that is.

Bwak is a one button game that, unsurprisingly, puts you in the feet – or rather claws – of a chicken who’s up late at night channel hopping (argh!). Hitting Z will change the channel, giving you one point on the floating score count, and that’s all you'll be doing.

Except, obviously, it’s not as simple as that. Every now and again you'll land on a channel that literally jumps out at you, also giving me an unexpected leap of the heart. The chicken isn't safe either, as his heart rate rises in a pounding crescendo when this happens. Spend too long on one of these spooky channels and it’s “bye bye chicken” (and “bye bye rent”). The higher your score the more frequent these channels appear, but zap too fast and the game forces you to slow down. So it becomes a balancing act between trying to get off the bad channels quickly and not pressing z too fast to get penalised. You never know when the shock is coming, which can cost you valuable milliseconds as you try to recover from it.

It’s hard to get past 200, but you won't really care after the brief time you spend with this charming little game. Although I still think that chickens are little buggers!

Download it from Gamejolt.

Upcoming Games: Lune (Browser)

I don’t really know much about Lune aside from this beautiful announcement trailer, but then again I don’t really need to know much about the game when I'm completely captivated with it already. That’s a testament to what a simple trailer can do when teamed with the right visuals and a tranquil soundtrack.

Oh go on then, it’s off to Google I go.

The games Facebook page describes Lune as “an action/adventure game about reflection and solitude being developed by six ENGJMIN (a French training and research institute that offers a master’s degree in games and interactive digital media) students. In any case, it seems that the ever reliable Indie Statik has already done all the hard work and told us a bit more about what you’ll be doing in the game.

It turns out that players will be controlling the moon, giving them the power to control water – which is perfect given that the game is a based on a constantly dark island surrounded by the stuff! It’s due to hit browsers sometime in June, so no doubt we’ll be hearing a bit more about it soon.

Upcoming Games: Sad Bunny Face

We all like to think that bunnies are happy little chaps, bouncing around without a care in the world and looking all fluffy and cute to the 4 year-old inside us all. That isn't the case for Sad Bunny Face, in fact he spends most of his time crying – no doubt over some terrible incident that occurred during his childhood and left him emotionally scarred. Or maybe he’s just a bunny with sad face that happens to be bouncing around a colourful pretty world.

Sad Bunny Face is an upcoming platformer, inspired by the creator’s love of games that include our childhood heroes; Mario and Sonic. It looks like it plays very much like Super Meat Boy, although without the evil rock-hardness of that game, as you can bounce of walls to get where you want to go. It all seems to revolve around collecting keys to progress, and while the bouncing no doubt helps the lack of a proper animation for it so far somewhat retracts from the smoothness of it all.

Still, this is very much a work in progress and things like that will be added for when the game is finally complete. Everything else is looking fantastic, with a variety of environments and some awesome chiptune music.

Follow the progress of Sad Bunny Face over on the developer’s website.