Music

While I virtually haven't made any smaller freeware games the last couple of years, I have been making music with my band Crystal Boys. It's easier to relax and have fun with music, than it is creating small games when you're programming all day long anyway.

Last year we released a new album and did a couple of live gigs. I figured I might as well post this here to keep the blog alive.



Hopefully we'll have time to write another record this year as well.

Both our records are available for free on Bandcamp, and there's more videos on our tumblr.

Unfinished things from the last three years

So over the past three years I haven't been releasing a lot of games. But other than Hotline Miami, Life/Death/Island and Keyboard Drumset Fucking Werewolf here's some of the stuff I never got around to finishing, plus some non-game things.

A game for Halloween that focused on the darker side of magic. A subject I don't think has been explored very well, especially not in games.

I'm not sure what Death Space was supposed to be about, other than that it was a platformer. I like the graphics in it though.

Kind of the same deal here. The graphics are constantly moving and creates a rather nauseating effect. Don't remember getting any further than basic mechanics for jumping and shooting. A bit of a shame.

This was supposed to be my entry for the first 7DFPS if I remember correctly. Couldn't come up with a good idea for gameplay.

Glitchy graphics that I had vague plans to turn into some sort of shoot em up. Never got anywhere with this really.

My Nordic Game Jam game that I never finished. Wanted to try making a local multiplayer game, but I was too tired to get it into a playable state.

Inspired by Receiver, wanted to turn it into Krebswelte 2 with lots of mechanics for world interaction, but never got further than intricate reloading of guns.

This was supposed to be a remake of a game I made just as I started out making games back in 2004. Basically a stealth game about terrorists.

I wanted to make a spiritual sequel to Stench Mechanics, but it never got anywhere besides graphics and movement. It looked really nice though.

Art print for 2D Cloud.

Another art print, this time for Klebstoff. I wanted to create an interesting vision of the generic Space Marine. Wish I could turn it into a real game at some point.

There's a bunch of other things I've worked on as well, but I don't have access to those projects right now. Might do a follow up post at some point.

IGF 2014 Impressions

I decided to look through this year's IGF entrants and see if I could find some interesting new games to be excited about. I chose to only write about games I had never heard of before, so a lot of really good looking games were left out. Might write a list of those later.

CAVE! CAVE! DEUS VIDET!

All I know about this game is that it's centered around Hieronymus Bosch, it's a graphic novel type of game, the plot doesn't sound terrible and the trailer is very nice.



Denisovan

A "fictional imagining of a girl who died 40,000 years ago" apparently. It doesn't really look like a game I would necessarily enjoy playing, but the trailer did intrigue me.




Savage: The Shard of Gosen

This one I chose to list mostly because I found the graphics full of charm and it seems like a game the creators really put their heart into.



Some Thing Clicked

I have no idea what this is about but I absolutely loved the trailer.



Crypt Worlds: Your Darkest Desires, Come True

Parts of this trailer look very surreal and the graphics ooze of retro 3D charm at times. Leaves me with a mixed impression as the gameplay seen in the video didn't really click with me.



ASUNDER - Earthbound

Apparently this is an Occulus Rift game. I see potential in the premise even if I did have problems with some of the execution. I just hope the final bit in the trailer isn't an indication that this will end up being a typical survival horror/zombie game...



Spate

Not sure at all what I think of this, but the graphics are at least kinda nice.



Games without videos: Endlight

Website back in working order

I had some trouble when my domain expired and lost all my website settings. Now everything is back to normal. Hopefully I will get around to updating my game archive with missing entries.

HOTLINE MIAMI - Announcement Trailer

So Hotline Miami - the new game me and Dennis have been working on for the past six months - has finally been announced. It's a surreal orgy of violence and neon lights. We wanted to make a bit of a tribute to the violent action flicks released during the 80s (although with less cheesy one liners). There's more to it than that, Devolver Digital has some extra details on their site about it.

Here's the announcement trailer:

http://www.hotlinemiami.com/

Me and Dennis are also officially starting a more permanent collaboration; Dennaton Games. Visit our website at http://www.Dennaton.com/ to see the future of webdesign and entertainment.

To clarify; me and Dennis are doing the game design together, he's also drawing the graphics and I'm doing the programming.

As for other games, we'll probably release a free version of Life/Death/Island soon, and I'll make sure the new Mondo game is released at some point after the summer.

Oh fuck. I totally forgot to link the amazing artists who contributed with music to the trailer. Perturbator and El Huervo both write sweet ass instrumental music, though quite far apart stylistically. Click the images below to hear more from them!

Quick Update

So, I've been working on a big project lately, which is why the blog hasn't been updated a lot the last few months. This is a game that is a lot bigger than anything else I've worked on, and I'm not doing it alone. I'm working with Dennis Wedin, who I did Keyboard Drumset Fucking Werewolf with, and I don't think I've ever had such a good collaboration going ever before (though many good ones). We're still keeping things under wraps for a little while, but those who follow my twitter updates closely might have figured out that it's a violent overhead shooter, and it won't be freeware.

I'm also finally taking the time to make an attempt at telling an interesting and thought out story, although it will be quite subtle. I'm making it as unintrusive as possible so that those who play the game for the gameplay experience can just go ahead and skip it if they want.

There's so much more that I want to talk about, but for now I'll keep you in the dark for a while longer. Not too long though, I promise.

Evac MAC

Thanks to L there's a new Mac port. This time it's a small game I made for a game jam at HKU, called Evac (click for PC version).


DOWNLOAD (6.5 mb)
Right now I'm working on Tuning whenever I get the chance, which I feel is way overdue by now. I'll try to make a few smaller games this year as well and not focus too much on big projects like last year. We'll see how it goes.

KEYBOARD DRUMSET FUCKING WEREWOLF

A collaboration between me, Fucking Werewolf ASSO (Music, Graphics), my brother (Cover Art), and gbsr (SFX).

DOWNLOAD (PC): http://cactusquid.com/games/FWA.zip
DOWNLOAD (MAC): http://cactusquid.com/games/fwamac.zip

A big thanks to L for the Mac port!

Caution + Thanks for the fanart!

Thanks for the awesome fanart. It got me working a bit now, hopefully I'll have it all fleshed out by the weekend.

There's one potential letdown about the game that I should probably address; it is very effects ridden. So if you've had problems getting games like Norrland running on your setup, you might have to forget about this game. When I showed it at the Killscreen Party during GDC the computer threw errors every once in a while when the graphics memory had been all used up. I'm not sure if there's a good way of fixing this...

The game's using multiple surfaces for various effects and I've even managed to get some slight pixel shaders in here. It looks completely trashy and I love it, hopefully it won't make people freak out.

I think I need some motivation...

Sorry for the lack of output these days. I've been feeling some pressure to actually make worthwhile games and generally not been having ideas popping into my head as frequently as I've had earlier.

I really want to finish the new mondo game as it is very close to completion, but I keep losing momentum.

Maybe if I see that there still is interest I'd get my shit together and plow through the last 10% of the game. I actually really like what I have so far, although it's a step away from previous installations. I hope it won't disappoint fans of the earlier games.

So, if you can't wait to play the game, please post some fanart and I'll try to feed off of that to get the game done!

More Spoilers

Hot Throttle Released!!

PLAY IT NOW!

Me and Mark Johns' game Hot Throttle was just released on Adult Swim a few hours ago. The reviews so far are pretty wild:

"Words can hardly convey how ludicrous Hot Throttle is"
-Jordan Devore (Destructoid)

"It's like watching a car wreck."
-David James Peterjohn (jayisgames.com)

"It's not a gay pr0n simulation game as one would first think"
-WebPimp (JoystickWidow)

"It's pretty enjoyable, although those cutscenes remain creepy as hell."
-Michael Rose (indiegames.com/blog)

"Thank you... for everything."
-Anthony Carboni (bytejacker.com)

"Adult Swim’s New Game, Hot Throttle, is Bizarre, Even For Adult Swim Standards"
-Allen Park (DualShockers)

"Totally needs a graphics++ XBLA version asap."
-Dan Marshall (Zombie Cow Studios)

"It's all worth it for the strange and usually NSFW cutscenes!"
-Eric Caoili (GameSetWatch)

"this game is really wierd. i dont like it"
-Rebecca Sanchez (Adult Swim user)

"This game is just...awful"
-Liam Laferriere (Adult Swim user)

"wierd."
-Ck (Adult Swim user)

"This game is really wierd..."
-Joe (Adult Swim user)

"i like it this game naked game. and i got a boner too!"
-Anonymous (indiegames.com/blog visitor)

We will try to update the game with a bit more content that didn't make it to the flash version yet and add a little tutorial for easily troubled people. But do give it a try!

Next up would be my versus game, followed by Mondo and my comic around the same time. I'll keep you guys posted! <3

Stench Mechanics Mac Version

DOWNLOAD

Forgot to post this. Another big thanks to L for spending his time porting the games!

Nordic Game Jam + More Mac Ports! + Misc

Yeah, I know you're waiting for the Mondo game and whatever else, but I can only update with what I've actually got! Mondo X-mas will be released soon, I've got it to around 50% made, the only thing that isn't there is actual gameplay, sadly.

So here's what I've got instead; a horribly crappy game about Nordic Game Jam. It's a joke game, although some of it is somewhat accurate. I enjoyed the event a lot, but I couldn't resist poking fun at it when I failed to finish the more serious project I started. I also made a trailer so you wouldn't have to actually play the game.



DOWNLOAD

Further more, the ever awesome L has provided me with two more Mac ports and even sent me slimmed down versions of Clean Asia!, Fractal Fighter and Illegal Communications that he ported earlier.

So here's Burn the Trash and Block On! for Mac users:


DOWNLOAD


DOWNLOAD

Also, I edited a video of my acceptance speech at IGF last year for a talk I gave and decided to upload it to YouTube. So I can finally post it on my blog without having to link the vid of the entire event.



Tomorrow I think another one of my games will be released! And I'll leave you with a screenshot of my work in progress for the TIGSource competition.

New Mac Ports and Mondo

Mondo Medicals (MAC)



Fractal Fighter (MAC)




Illegal Communication (MAC)



Mondo XMAS (PC)



As usual; Mac ports courtesy of L. Be sure to thank him!

Clean Asia! - Mac Version

Mac version of Clean Asia! was sent to me by L today.
DOWNLOAD HERE (38 megs).

Be sure to thank him for porting it for me.

Psychosomnium Mac version?!

L, aka J-Factor of the excellent Soul Fighter (the game that initially got me into shmups) sent me a Mac port of Psychosomnium the other day. Seeing as I don't have a Mac it's hard for me to see if it actually works, but maybe someone here can verify that!



Game available here (12mb). Music by zabutom, titlescreen artwork by Cow.

Also, the blog has been pretty inactive lately so I'll see if I can get some time to do a small game next week. Some big projects in the works though!

Dear Agent

Dear Agent is the game I made for BTH's Game Jam. It's short and to the point. Music by Curt Cool.

DOWNLOAD DEAR AGENT!
I didn't have time to fully playtest it, so there might be some bugs in the game. Will fix as soon as possible if I get any reports!

BTH Game Jam

I was invited to Blekinge Tekniska Högskola (a university in southern Sweden) to hold a small talk and participate in a game jam. It was a lot of fun, and probably the most generously organized game jam in the history of game jams.

Petri Purho was there to give a talk as well, and he talked about how limitations in games can cultivate creativity. It was an inspiring talk and as usual it was very fun to listen to. I talked a bit about what to think about when you want to finish a game in a short period of time, basically a modified version of my 4 Hour Game Design talk I gave at GDC.

After that the game jam started of with a design competition where everyone got to draw a motive for a shirt that would be printed as an official gift to everyone participating in the jam. My entry split first place together with another one by Martin Jonasson (grapefrukt).


I also made a game, but ended up not winning the game jam. I'm happy with the results though, and the game that won did deserve it. I'll release the game tomorrow, got to add sounds and some small things before it's ready to be played. Meanwhile, here's a preview:

Life/Death/Island Preview

Working on this for IGF. Lots and lots to do before it's ready though!