Obviously, obviously, Human: Fall Flat is primed for multiplayer. It’s a knockabout physics game in which you play as a wobbly non-Newtonian man. He’s ungainly and awkward to control and, for heck’s sake, Gang Beasts showed how funny that combination is when several players get together.
Yet developer Tomas Sakalauskas never really saw his game like that. Human Fall Flat was meant to be a singleplayer physics-based puzzle game, a meeting of Portal and Limbo. And besides, he was pretty sure that online multiplayer was impossible. But it’s what players asked for, so what could he do?
]]>[Update: The first day's streaming is done! But you can still watch us kissing the ground hard in Human Fall Flat in the video below.]
That rumbling sound you hear is half of Brighton packing its bags as Gamer Network decamps to Birmingham for EGX 2018. And the Rock, Paper, Shotgun Video Department will be at the show, too. We’ve decided to try our hand at ‘livestreaming’, which is basically video without safety nets. I’ve heard it’s quite popular these days and that someone called Ninja makes a billion pounds a minute from it. So even if we make fools of ourselves, we’ll at least be able to retire on all that delicious green. I can’t believe we didn’t get on this sooner. Anyway, read on for information on what we’re doing and when.
]]>We've just passed the half-way point of 2018, so Ian Gatekeeper and all his fabulously wealthy chums over at Valve have revealed which hundred games have sold best on Steam over the past six months. It's a list dominated by pre-2018 names, to be frank, a great many of which you'll be expected, but there are a few surprises in there.
2018 releases Jurassic World Evolution, Far Cry 5 Kingdom Come: Deliverance and Warhammer: Vermintide II are wearing some spectacular money-hats, for example, while the relatively lesser-known likes of Raft, Eco and Deep Rock Galactic have made themselves heard above the din of triple-A marketing budgets.
]]>As the charting games on Steam once more congeal into a single amorphous lump, quickly dive in to catch the last appearance of Subnautica, and probably Slay The Spire too. Next week it'll just be GTA: Counter-Strike - Witcher Battlegrounds.
]]>A strange thing has happened in the Steam charts since the start of the New Year. A minor indie release from summer 2016, the rather lovely Human: Fall Flat, appeared in the top ten grossing games of the week. And then stayed there. It's been top ten for four weeks in a row now, twice peaking at #3. And I couldn't work out why. So I tracked down the game's one-man development team, Tomas Sakalauskas of No Brakes Games, to solve the mystery.
The answer, it seems, is multifarious, but contains lessons that might help other developers who want to see their games live on. Though, as Sakalauskas says, there are no magic bullets.
]]>Aw MAN! Just when I'd started up a great new running gag for the appearance of GTA V in the charts, this week it's fallen out! And Divinity: Original Sin 2 has finally failed to make the grade for the first time this year. However, you'll be relieved to learn CS:GO and Plunkles don't let us down and wearily continue their infinite reigns.
Meantime, there's quite a nice mixture of fresh and more recently popular scattered within.
]]>Well sound the klaxons, unfurl the flags, hoist your main-braces and petards whatever they may be, 2018 is proving far more interesting for charting Steam games. Of course we can't escape the three usual suspects, but beyond those this is quite the collection of interesting, independent, and novel games.
]]>Aw, hey! I'm so glad you came. You know, I was saying to Alice, just a second ago I was saying to her: "I hope our favourite listener drops in" and now look here you are. That's great, that's so nice. YOU'RE nice. Ha ha. Have a drink. No thank you, I've had twelve. Look, there's Adam. Watch out though, he's gabbing on about Overcooked and those Jackbox Party Packs But never mind, Alice is outside by the paddling pool, talking some chumps into a game of Jelly Stompers. I also think she has a copy of Deadly Premonition with her for some reason. Brendan? He's in the kitchen, probably boring somebody about Gang Beasts. Best stay here. With me, the Electronic Wireless Show.
]]>Sorry to frighten the more sensitive reader, but, goodness me, among the miserably common entries, this week's chart welcomes a fair few newbies and indies! Are customers about to get better at buying? Or will we just see these games in the charts every week for the rest of the year? STAY TUNED!
]]>As the feedback loop of Steam successes reaches an ear-shattering scream, this week we see last year's best sellers dominating the New Year's first week. So I refuse to live in the past. Let's look forward. Let's imagine what we might want from these behemothic developers.
]]>Humble's latest Bundle is the ninth in the series of Jumbo bundles. As the name suggests, these gather up larger and more popular indie gems into one big package where - as per normal - the more you pay, the more you get.
This ninth Jumbo bundle includes river-bound roguelike The Flame in the Flood, Left4Deadalike Warhammer Vermintide, clumsylike platformer Human Fall Flat, trenchalike shooter Verdun and we-really-like American Truck Simulator, among others for up to $10/£8. A portion of your money will go to fund the AbleGamers Foundation charity or any other charity of your choosing if you have a specific one in mind.
The Humble Jumbo Bundle 9 is live now and up for the better part of the next two weeks, if it seems like your thing. More games are set to be added at the end of next week, as well, so check back to see what else your money will have gotten you.
]]>Have You Played? is an endless stream of game retrospectives. One a day, every day of the year, perhaps for all time.
What happens if you take one of the waddling jelly people from Gang Beasts and drop it into a physics puzzler, set in surreal environments? Human Fall Flat [official site] happens. It's a game about pulling levers, hopping across platforms and shunting crates around, but all of those things are made trickier and more interesting thanks to a control scheme that gives you control of individual limbs that are about as stiff as a plank of porridge.
]]>It's hard not to compare Human: Fall Flat with Ubisoft's Grow Home and Boneloaf's Gang Beasts, because Human: Fall Flat [official site] tumbles in the exact same physics-powered footsteps. In Grow Home you control a little robot called BUD, unsteady on his feet, using physics to solve puzzles and climb a giant plant. In Gang Beasts you control little blobby creatures, unsteady on their feet, using physics to have multiplayer fights. In Human: Fall Flat you control a little blobby creature called Bob, unsteady on his feet, using physics to solve puzzles and progress through its rooms. However, rather importantly, HFF makes a strong effort to do something appropriately different with the same ideas. Here's wot I think.
]]>Last month we warned you that Human: Fall Flat [official site] was coming out. And did you listen? No. And now look. This wobbly physics puzzle game, starring a drunken Gang Beast lookalike called Bob, is all over Steam and you are all like, "whoa, where did this come from, dude?" and "oh the wee man can't hold the stick" and "haha I'm having such a great time". Well, don't blame us when you're having fun throwing things through a window with your friend in co-op mode. We tried to tell you.
]]>"The thinking man's Gang Beasts" is the kind of awful thing I'd call Human Fall Flat [official site] if I wrote for a '90 games magazine. It's a physics-y puzzle-o-explore-a-platformer which, well, does seem to be awfully fond of Boneloaf's physics-y brawler, from its soft looks to its grabby hands. Still! Sending a doughman swinging, flinging, pushing, and smashing around any way the physics engine allows does sound fun. And today publishers Curve Digital announced that Human Fall Flat will hit on July 22nd.
]]>Human Fall Flat [official site], which will be released this summer, is the work of solo developer Tomas Sakalauskas and it really does look an awful lot like Gang Beasts. More specifically, the player character looks exactly like one the jelly-people from Gang Beasts, wobbly and prone to physics-driven mishaps. Rather than fighting other jelly-people, this chap uses his arms, which are controlled independently, to manipulate objects in order to solve puzzles and progress through a series of strange environments. Take a look.
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