The compilation UFO 50 is a gaming concept album from the makers of Spelunky, Downwell, and Catacomb Kids. It's a collection of 8-bit inspired games that were "created by a fictional 80s video game company that was obscure but ahead of its time." It was announced way back in 2017, and skipped its 2018 release window. Who knew 50 games would take a while to make? Good news, though! It's just popped up on Steam and is listed as "coming soon".
]]>What have those scoundrels at Devolver Digital gone and done now? Oh look, it’s Devolver Bootleg, a mixtape of the Punk IPA publisher's classics that someone left in their jeans pocket before a wash and now the musics all fuzzy and the track list is garbled nonsense. Also it’s one percent off, yeah, because screw…discounts?
So, is this a delightful slice of performance-art-as-consumer-product brilliance? Or have Devolver, in their mission statement to point a funhouse mirror at the game industry’s cynical marketing, done a big old cynicism themselves?
]]>Downwell occupies a similar space in my Steam library as Nidhogg. Tense, kinetic, focused, ridiculous. But instead of swordplay, we're rescuing our cat from the bottom of a miles-deep well while felling innumerable eldritch horrors by bouncing atop their heads.
Oh, and you have gun-boots.
]]>You might have noticed all your friends' avatars and profile pictures turning into comic book drawings or impressionistic paintings over the last few weeks. That's because of Prisma, a photo editing app for iOS and Android that let's you apply a couple of dozen filters to images you feed it. The app goes further than simply messing with the hue like Instagram does, using a process similar to Google Deep Dream to warp and twist photographs - without shoving fucked up dogs in every corner.
I spent last night feeding it game screenshots, to find out what No Man's Sky, Half-Life 2, SimCity and more would look like if their artists abandoned realism.
]]>Downwell is an tight vertical shooter in which no single part of the game is wasted. I've tried many times to explain exactly how smart its design is, as has Adam, but it can be hard to appreciate the beauty of a clockwork machine by someone describing cogs and pendulums to you. This recent video from GDC 2016 might help: its Downwell designer Ojiro Fumoto explaining how he designed the game around its "one key mechanic," the gunboots.
]]>What is the best shooter of 2015? The RPS Advent Calendar highlights our favourite games from throughout the year, and behind today's door is...
]]>Adam returned from below yesterday with his review, but Downwell [official site] has also pulled Graham into its depths. The pair pulled on a gunboot each to discuss the down-scrolling platformer's simplicity, its feels, and its flaws.
]]>In Downwell [official site], there's only one way to go. Equipped with a pair of gunboots, you're making your way right down to the bottom of a well, blasting objects, terrain and monsters that block your path. You shoot straight from the soles and there are various powerups that change the spread or strength of your pedal-projectiles. I've been plumbing the depths for a couple of days and here's wot I think.
]]>I never intended for that picture to become the official header for What Are You/We All Playing This Weekend, you know. I found myself in charge of this section one week and thought I'd find a nice picture of a pond - which was where I intended to mostly spend my weekend. Finding nothing in antique illustration archives (we have our whole antiquated Britishness schtick, yeah?), I turned to what else I'd be doing: appearing in visions, indulging my nymph side, and firing cannons at ghastly moustaches.
Anyway, what are you playing this weekend? Here's what we're into:
]]>Bayonetta sold me wholly on gunshoes but, if Platinum's kickwitch won't come to PC (seems so), I'll get my fix of kerblamky boots elsewhere. Like Downwell [official site].
The depths-plumbing platformer sees a low-fi kid with gunshoes venturing down a well to find fame and fortune, blasting monsters while collecting weapons, items, and cash. The premise caught the eye of those nice Devolver Digital folks, who've helped solo developer Moppin to a PC release. That's out now, priced at only £2.
]]>When our Cara's (well, the Cara we borrow's) globe-trotting 'Embed With' series took her to Tokyo, she had a good look at Downwell [official site]. Made by Ojiro Fumoto, it's a Spelunky-inspired mobile platformer about someone with guns for shoes who travels deep down a well, fighting monsters and collecting treasure.
Soon after, Devolver Digital chucked Ojiro a wodge of cash, and now it's an IGF finalist in the Student Showcase, it's coming to PC too, Devolver say it's due this year, and we're getting around to posting about it. There, we're all caught up. On with the post!
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