Stars. And cheeses. And infinite towers filled with squishy monsters to cleave in twain. And princesses. Hm, dunno about you, but that sounds like a good time to me. This week's Link Dump Friday features several upcoming projects well worth training your beady little gaze upon, as well as a whole group of very talented people... one of whom isn't even old enough to legally drive yet! That's right, we're about to make you feel really inadequate... one ten-year-old game developer at a time.
Cheeeeeeeeese DREEAM-AH Did you know Nitrome now does demos? Well they do! Now you can play the demo for a new Cheese Dreams game, the original of which you may remember from way back in 2008. Why is this important? Well, in addition to allowing you to experience even more Nitrome awesomeness between major releases, you can take the time to play titles before they're done and help out with feedback of your own. The demo itself is fairly extensive, with plenty of secrets and surprises to find as you bounce around and explore, so give it a try and see what you think of the new engine, and then let Nitrome know about it.
Juicy Beast Gets Medieval On You We love Juicy Beast, as there's no better sure-fire cure for the blues than to play one of their weird and wonderful titles. Well, start limbering up those fingers, because there's a new one on the horizon! Knightmare Tower is a bizarre, bouncy launch action game where you fly up through a tower, slicing and dicing enemies in order to save princesses as you soar, earning new items and upgrades as you go. As expected from Juicy Beast, you can see from the new gameplay footage that it not only looks great, but also like the sort of thing that would be hard to put down. Keep your eyes peeled for this one!
Where the Horror Is Benjamin Rivers' upcoming horror adventure game Home has received a major site update, as well as a downright unfair but intriguing teaser in the addition of a Twitter account maintained by the game's protagonist. Home will be available this summer, and it looks like an opportunity to pre-order might be just around the corner, which I would appreciate, since if I don't get this game soon, I might die. For more information on this unique and compelling title, check out our interview about Home with Benjamin himself, or the official website.
Buy the Busk We've talked about the Indie Buskers before, a talented group of indie game developers who were using your ideas to create four games over a single weekend in April. Well, the Game Jam is now over, and it's time for you to enjoy the fruits of their labour! Until the end of April, you can purchase the five titles created, which include a Pac-Man tower defense game and a time-travelling stealth game, for whatever price you wish. If they reach their $10,000USD goal, they'll release the source codes too! Check out the games by clicking on each developer's portrait on the side of the site, and help feed a developer and support this kind of jam for the future.
Just... Something in My Eye What were you doing when you were ten years old? You know, apart from waiting to get older so you could eat ice cream sandwiches for dinner and stay up past ten on a weeknight. Well, ten-year-old Dylan Viale is not only smart and talented, but he's also got a heart as big as a whale. For his school science fair, Dylan used GameMaker to create a game called Quacky's Quest that relies on sound rather than visuals... all so that he could share his love of games with his grandmother, who has been blind for decades. Yeah, that's right. Kids these days, all thoughtful and clever and making us look bad and whatnot. (I made my Grandma play Primal Rage with me when I was ten. Does that count?) Not only is this touching, it also shows that kids are thinking about the sorts of people who aren't usually considered when games are in development. Read the full story here. Congratulations, kiddo. You deserve it.
Do you know an upcoming indie project or some community gaming related news you think deserves some attention? Send me an e-mail with LINK DUMP FRIDAY in the subject line at dora AT casualgameplay DOT com with the info, and we'll judge it with the all-seeing glare of our own self-importance for inclusion in a future Link Dump Friday article!
You guys know that Sword & Sworcery is out on Steam for the PC?
Are you guys going to cover it?
RedMug,
We're looking into it!
Okay
Update