This is the fifth in the series where I’m slowly going through the finalists for this year’s IGF awards. This time I’m going to take a look at Mightier, the level drawing platformer that pretty much lets you craft anything in the game, from the levels, to your player, to the jetpack on his (or her, if you can draw anything remotely attractive) shoulders. And it’s pretty damn nifty. Impressions through the jump.
The winners of the IGF Student Showcase have been announced, giving a shortlist of 10 games from which the Best Student Game will be picked. There is a bit of crossover, with Feist making another appearance, as well as a few I didn’t even know were student efforts, like Tag (which I covered here). Those which are currently available I’ll run through in the next few weeks, but till then the names of the games, and the links to their websites, are below.
IGF Student Showcase Winners:
City Rain – Building Sustainability
The Colour of Doom
Dish Washington
Feist
Kid: The World Saver
Tag: The Power of Paint
The Unfinished Swan
Where is My Heart?
Winds of Orbis
Zeit
Between is a game from Jason Rohrer, the maker of Passage and Gravitation, and it’s by far his most… baffling. It’s multiplayer only, requiring two people to play, and it relies on them having little to no direct contact with one another. Perhaps using the man’s own words to describe the game would be a good place to start.
Over the next few weeks I’m going to be doing two or three in depth looks a week at the finalists of the Eleventh Annual IGF awards, trying to figure out which are brilliant, and which are just amusing gimmicks. Bear in mind the last few IGF awards have produced some truly brilliant games, such as World of Goo and Crayon Physics, and this year is sure to have a few gems contained within. Not all of the entries currently have demos available, and those are the ones I’ll leave till last, in the possibly futile hope they’ll produce demos soon. Instead, I’ll start with one of the most instantly appealing; Osmos, a physics based gravity game based around absorbing your enemies. You can download it here. Impressions below the cut.
The nominees for the 2009 IGF awards have been announced here. I’m going to be going through the available ones in the next few days, so expect some impressions and linkage soon. As it stands, there are a few recognisable entries in there, such as Zeno Clash (of which we have an interview with here), The Graveyard, and, of course, You Have to Burn the Rope. There are a few non-PC titles this year aswel, but we don’t concern ourselves with them. Go and have a gander, and see if you can spot the next World of Goo or Crayon Physics Deluxe. There has to be one there somewhere.
If you fancy a bit of physics based drawing then there is no better place to head to than Crayon Physics Deluxe which is now ready for pre-order. This game featured in the 2008 IGF Awards and won the Grand Prize, bear in mind this was the same awards ceremony which saw World of Goo claim two prizes.
You can pre-order the game for $14.95 before it reverts back to $20 after it is released and the below video is well worth checking out.
Crayon Physics Deluxe from Petri Purho on Vimeo.