iGame Radio

Hemisphere Games reported last week on their website that they are in the process of bringing their award-winning game, Osmos, to the iPhone and iPad. According to the blog post, as soon as they had completed the Mac port they began porting the game to the iPhone six months ago.

During the process, they came to realize that some design changes would be necessary to the game, but overall the game would work very well on the iPhone and iPod Touch. When the iPad was announced and released, they became very excited about the possibilities, but only recently obtained an iPad to begin testing.

Hemisphere Games is currently looking for beta testers for the iPad version. They will also be beta testing the iPhone version at some future date.

Got a newsletter update from the folks developing Feist, which was an IGF 2009 game finalist. They assure everyone that they are still working on the final version of Feist, for both PC and Mac, and that they will be releasing a trailer soon for it. So, if you wondered what happened to Feist, and whether it would ever come out for the Mac, there’s your answer.

Today the Independent Games Festival announced the finalists for this year’s awards. The event, held on March 11, 2010 during the GDC in San Francisco, will award nearly $50,000 in prizes in six categories, including the coveted Seamus McNally Grand Prize. Over 300 entries were made this year to the IGF, representing a 35% increase and breaking last year’s record of 226.

Twenty games have been nominated for at least one award, with some receiving multiple nominations. Multiple nominations include three nominations for puzzle platformer Closure (which I got to play for a short bit at PAX 09), and two nominations for Monaco, Pocketwatch Games’ co-op heist game, and Hello Games’ stunt motorbike title Joe Danger (which has no more than a couple of screenshots to titillate you).

So, I was curious to see which of these games were playable on the Mac or iPhone/iPod Touch. Many don’t have decisions on platforms yet, so that will be hard to determine until we get closer. However, even with that caveat, and not including Flash games (which do play on the Mac), 40% of the games below are going to be available for the Mac (based on announcements made, or past history of the game developer). The games listed below are the finalists…I’ve listed the ones appearing on the Mac or iPhone/iPod Touch.

• A Slow Year: Coming out for the Mac. Developed by Ian Bogost, who I interviewed through the DigiPen PodClass.
• AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! — A Reckless Disregard For Gravity
• Closure: Coming out for the Mac. I looked at this game during PAX 09. You can play the Flash version to get an idea of the game.
• Cogs: Coming out for the iPhone (currently out for PC). You can see a trailer of it now. Oh, and their FAQ does say that they want to bring the game to the Mac, as well!
• Enviro-Bear 2000
• Heroes of Newerth: Now here’s a game that has been well known in the Mac community. Nice to see it is getting some IGF love. Currently in beta.
• Joe Danger
• Limbo
• Owlboy
• Miegakure
• Monaco: though there is nothing specified for the platform for this game, Pocketwatch Games puts out games for both PC and Mac, so I expect this game to continue that trend. Further, this is a rather unusual game for Andy Schatz, a real departure from his regular style. Finally, I would be very surprised to NOT find this showing up with an iPhone client.
• Rocketbirds: Revolution!: A flash-based game with a downloadable launcher. Has both a PC and Mac launcher. There’s a free demo with locked levels, and the full version available for $9.95.
• Shank
• Shatter
• Star Guard: Mac version to be released. There’s even a demo!
• Super Meat Boy!: Though there is no mention of what final platform the game will appear in, I know that McMillan did say that his intention was to bring the game to the Mac. Of course, we know all about good intentions. Heh.
• Today I Die: Flash game that you can play on a Mac. No launcher necessary. However, note that this is a very esoteric art game. More art than game.
• Trauma: Another flash game, presumably playable on the Mac, but not yet available.
• Tuning
• Vessel

I’ll be keeping this list updated as more information is forthcoming. And I will be gaming the IGF as I did last year, so keep checking back!

 

A Game Review Edition featuring reviews of:

Brainpipe: Digital Eel’s IGF 2009 awarded arcade game of psychedelic sights and sound.


A Vampyre Story: follow the unlife of an undead Parisian opera singer as she tries to escape her plight and accept her fate.


Pixie: Little Pixie is afraid of the night bugs…so she zaps them with her death vines! Well, you can read it that way…

 

I uploaded Game Review Edition 6 yesterday, but only was able to get the blog post today. Features great reviews of:

Caster by Elecorn


Crayon Physics Deluxe for the iPhone by Hudson Entertainment


LEGO Indiana Jones by Feral Interactive


Enjoy!

 

Part 2 of Gaming the IGF 2009. Includes an interview with Michael and Auriea of Tale of Tales, developers of The Graveyard, a finalist in the Innovation Category. Also, I interview Daniel Tabar of Data Realms, developer of Cortex Command, who won the Technical Excellence and Audience Awards at the IGF.

For some reason, I thought that the Independent Games Festival Awards Ceremony was last night, not Wednesday night. That’s what happens when one doesn’t attend the GDC, I guess. Anyway, kudos to everyone who entered the event, and especially to the winners. And major congratulations to the ones who won that have Mac clients! For your reading pleasure, the winners of the IGF 2009 (I bolded the ones with Mac clients or who would be bringing out Mac clients soon after the contest):

Seumas McNally Grand Prize ($30,000)
Blueberry Garden, by Erik Svedang

Innovation (Nuovo) Award ($2,500)
Between, by Jason Rohrer

Excellence in Visual Art ($2,500)
Machinarium, by Amanita Design

Excellence in Audio ($2,500)
BrainPipe, by Digital Eel

Technical Excellence ($2,500)
Cortex Command, by Data Realms

Excellence in Design ($2,500)
Musaic Box, by KranX Productions

Best Student Game ($2,500)
Tag: The Power of Paint, by DigiPen Institute of Technology

Audience Award ($2,500)
Cortex Command, by Data Realms

D2D Vision Award ($10,000)
Osmos, by Hemisphere Games

You can check out the interview with Jason Rohrer and Phosphorous of Digital Eel. I also did an interview with the guys who developed Tag for DIT’s podcast. The GDC got in the way of the rest, but I hope to have interviews with Data Realms, Amanita Design, and a few others shortly thereafter.

 

I’ve uploaded a little while ago the first of the Gaming the IGF 2009 series, about Mac game finalists in the IGF 2009 competition. First up, Phosphoros of Digital Eel, whose game Brainpipe is a finalist in the Excellence in Audio award category, and Jason Rohrer, whose game Between is a finalist in the Innovation award category. Enjoy.

The Independent Games Festival organizers have launched the voting website for the Audience Award vote. Here you can vote for your favorite IGF 2009 game. The winner of the Audience Award will be awarded a $2,500 prize, part of the $50,000 total in prizes being given during the IGF Main and Student Competitions.

The Audience Award finalists that have Mac demos are: Brainpipe, Cortex Command, The Graveyard, and Between.

Finalists that intend to bring a Mac version but have no current demo are: Dyson and Osmos.

Games that are Flash-based and work on a Mac are: IncrediBots, Coil, and You Have To Burn The Rope.

All Audience Award finalists have qualified by being a Main Competition finalist and submitting a playable public demo of their game. This gives you an opportunity to download their game and try it out first before you vote.

I’ve been spending time reviewing games in the IGF 2009 finalist list that have Mac versions (or soon will). Feist belongs in that category, at least according to the IGF entry and their website. Yet, when I reviewed their website, I could find now way to contact them. There is no current build for people to look at, Windows or Mac. I typed in the name of the company the developers list themselves under, Filthy Grip. If there is a website for it, I can’t find it. And though there is a link from the name of one of the developers to another website, it seems to be the academic site of that developer…in German. Dude, I don’t speak German.

The real issue here is that there seems to be no way to connect with these people, speaking German or otherwise. No company website with contact info, no game website with contact info, no developer website with contact info. No demo…just a short trailer that, while nice, really doesn’t show the level of game mechanic that this game advertises (you can’t see independent, autonomous actions by NPC characters in a game via a trailer). I can’t contact them for an interview, or to ask for a recent build to review.

I CAN’T TALK ABOUT THEM OTHER THAN TO SAY, GEE, THE TRAILER LOOKS NEAT.

So, Filthy Grip, developers of Feist, if you’d like to get more than just the awards that you’ve received, if you’d like to, you know, get marketing for your game before it gets out to the public, in a manner that is basically free (other than the time you have to spend in the interview or sending out a build), MAKE YOURSELVES MORE AVAILABLE. That would be nice.