Indie Rock: Ludum Dare 27

I want to cover every Game Jam that ever happens, not just because I want to play excellent games, but I figure at some point the idea of a weekend-long game creation attempt will be so ingrained into mainstream popular culture it’ll become financially viable to release a brand of “Game Jam”. Preserved fruit with a pixelated logo on the front and names like “Square Wave Strawberry” or “Mode 7 Melon”. That’s the dream; I can leave this life behind and start adding sugar to hot water with fruit in it. I don’t really know how to make jam, I’m copying this from Wikipedia. [That’s basically it but you also need pectin for your jam to set – Ed.]

Ludum Dare 27 was this weekend and people made games for it. The theme was “10 Seconds”, which is great because it’s an immediate limitation and that sort of thing brings about the best kind of creativity. Under the same thought process I purposefully write this column with an axed pendulum slowly lowering down on top of my head so that if I don’t get it finished quickly I’m decapitated. [Bisected, surely? – Ed.]

Here’s some video games you should play, I say, lowering my body as much as possible:

Clocked In

Play it here: http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-27/?action=preview&uid=15833

Imagine if Countdown were Tron. Carol Vorderman morphs into a powerful electric bike, Suzie from Dictionary Corner is now a series of poppable barriers and Richard Whiteley punches you in the arm while calling you a useless dickhead. And there’s no spelling.

You are a dot on a clock running away from a quick moving second hand. If the second hand reaches you then you lose a life. Each time you circle round the face the landscape changes so that it’s progressively more difficult.

It’s great execution of a simple idea. See if you can beat it. I can’t.

Pizzapocalypse 20XX

Play it here: http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-27/?action=preview&uid=26423

When was the last time you ate pizza? Imagine if that really was the last time. That’s what’s at stake here in this fucked up future-world.

Cyberpunk stories that are willing to accept that cyberpunk is utterly ridiculous are my bag. I think there’s great tonal work here in creating the silliest possible world, but there’s not quite the right level of characters leaning into it. That’s something which might have been fixed with one more pass over the dialogue.

Gosh. The art though, right? Big props to Wicked-Draws on that.

Emily Escape

Play it here: http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-27/?action=preview&uid=15547

Roguelike. Shooting. Moving to the next room. I get the impression that a lot of this might have been done before the theme was totally decided on, but… I don’t really give a shit? It’s a cool game. Play it. I’ve got things to say here you need context for. Hurry up.

There’s a core gameplay theme of managing risk but doing it quickly. Standing still to reload seems like a deliberate choice, because you aren’t dodging out of the way of the projectile you can see. You’re waiting until the enemy has fired so that you don’t risk getting shot while you’re stuck there. That’s made all the more stressful by the 10 second countdown. It’s a really smart idea and the total opposite of how this thing would normally go: a bullet-hell shooter.

So, is Emily Escape the first ever Bullet… Heaven?

Clockwork Cat

Play it here: http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-27/?action=preview&uid=14266

The cute kitty cat has a wrench and can’t let the clock count down. You’ve got 10 seconds to move between screws which reset the timer and act as checkpoints. Somehow, for as tough as this is, there’s no stress to any of it. You’re a rad cat jumping on things, nothing alive could mess that up.

See if you can find the hidden ending where you eat a thing and are happy forever instead of actually doing the mission. That’s canonical.

Power Struggle

Play it here: http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-27/?action=preview&uid=12549

Imagine the previous game – which should be easy because you’ve just played it – then remove any sense of relaxation and comfort. There are Death Lasers everywhere and you will bump into them. You’ll miss the checkpoint by half a second. You’ll get the jump arc wrong and hate yourself. You’ll keep playing because of that. It’s great.

Oh and I think the two blokes responsible for it are pricks and I hope I never work with them.