The Pirate Bay Bundle: 45 Guys 1 Brain, A Lonely Moon, A tale about life death and a looser, Abandoned and Abomination

All of these games are featured in moshboy's Pirate Bay Bundle, watch the trailer and download it here:

Over the next few weeks I'm going to write about 5 of the games in the bundle and give you a reason why you should try them for yourself. I will try to do 5 games each day, but I might miss a day every now and then. I will only finish doing this until I've written about all 101 games in the bundle. So without further ado the first 5 games of the Pirate Bay Bundle!

45 guys 1 brain

In 45 guys 1 brain you control 45 clones all at the same time, as you might imagine this can get pretty hectic as you try to keep all of them alive. The art style is simple but stylish with a funky chip-tune-esque loop of music in the background. The clones also enjoy making a load of strange random noises, so don't worry you won't feel too guilty when you kill them. Yes, you will kill many of them in your attempt to save the rest. They can die by either falling down a pit, or getting electrocuted into tiny particles of dust. It would be nice to see more variations of death, but I'm not fussy.

Definitely an interesting concept I haven't really seen before, it could be expanded in a philosophical sense about the morality of clones too. There's only 4 levels but perfecting them isn't easy, most of my clones where doomed to die on each of my attempts.

A Lonely Moon 

The first thing that strikes you about A Lonely Moon is the smooth simple graphics. While the graphics might not be technically impressive but it certainly looks really nice, especially for a Ludum Dare game. As you can tell by the image below it's a platformer where you play a rather adorable grey cube that crashed his rocket on a moon. A very lonely moon. While it may only be a few minutes long, and isn't very challenging I enjoyed my time with it.

A Tale about Life, Death and a Looser

I think one can assume the looser is supposed to be spelled "loser", but perhaps there's a reason for the misspelling? Either way this game isn't a game in the typical sense. It's more of a series of scenes with a few lines of dialogue following the life of a disillusioned person. There isn't even any music or sound, but the graphics are beautiful and the experience itself was very thought provoking. There's a decent amount of meaning in here, in my opinion it was about how life can easily pass you by if you don't take an active role in your decisions. I'm sure it means different things for different people though, why not give it a try.

Abandoned

In Abandoned you play a malformed creature with wings that hatches from an egg. Are you a strange alien being, or a grotesque bird that mutated inside it's egg? It's not clear which one, but either way you are abandoned. One can assume this is because of your ugliness, but maybe there's another more disturbing reason?

Abandoned plays like a few different games, VVVVVV, Anodyne and the original Zelda come to mind but on a few websites it's classified as a "maze game". You collect different power-ups that help you get to certain areas of the map, which further gives you upgrades that let you get to another area and so forth. There is also a timer ticking down which can be increased by getting oxygen tanks. It certainly isn't an original concept, but my god Abandoned oozes atmosphere. I haven't played such a mysterious game in some time, this is helped greatly by the disturbing ambient music. I'm not over emphasizing when I say Abandoned has one of my favourite soundtracks in a game, ever. I'm a sucker for ambient stuff though, I don't think it's to everyone's taste.

The look of the game works nicely with the soundtrack. There aren't any bright colours here, it's dark and dismal, but I like it and it suits.

The game requires you to use your memory as traversing the maps can be confusing if you don't keep track. Because of this I haven't finished Abandoned yet, but I'm keen to get to the ending due to the excellent atmosphere. I might actually start drawing a map of the in-game areas to take some pressure off my memory, as I really want to complete this game.

All in all, I would pay money for this game. Not much money perhaps, but I really do love it. Highly recommended.

Abomination

In Abomination you play (yes you guessed it) an abomination trying to get his teddy bear. It's a sidescroller that involves numerous interactions, wall jumping, wall climbing and traversing ceilings. This happens over 25 different levels of varying difficulty. On the whole each level is well designed, introducing new elements of the game one by one, this is without tutorials so you learn about the game quite naturally. Unfortunately the controls take a little getting used to as they have some frustrating quirks, but I got the hang of it after a while. I managed to beat two of the levels using an exploit, one level being the last one.

The character you play isn't very lovable but it's satisfying when he holds up his teddy bear in glee at the end of a level. Like your character the environment isn't pretty. I mean this in a good way though, the pixel art and animations reflect the disturbing character very well. It would be nice if the animations were a little smoother or faster though.

I enjoyed my time with Abomination but if the controls were polished up a bit more it would be much more fun to play. The music is also good, nicely reflecting the game's theme.

My thunks: Shelter

Shelter is by no means a long game, neither is it very deep on a gameplay or mechanical level. That said, Might and Delight have undoubtedly worked to their strengths to make a game that I won't forget. In Shelter you control a mother badger protecting her five cubs. While it's also a very linear game it never presents you with a goal. This is perfect, as the player I was always focusing on the task at hand, remaining in the present I tackled what faced me, rather than think about what was ahead. I found this to be very suited to a game where you control an animal, considering animals mostly think in the present. Unlike us humans.

Interestingly enough, for one of the first times in a game I hardly thought selfishly about my own character's safety. I was always worried about my little baby badgers, not thinking about myself, or my own safety, I didn't even consider if I could get hurt or hungry myself.

It's lucky you don't have to worry too much about your own safety, since caring for five badger cubs doesn't come easy. I won't ruin the ways in which you can lose them, but lets just say you probably won't get through Shelter without losing the majority of them. Each time I lost a badger cub was actually rather depressing. I was the one who felt like a monster, not the thing that took it away. However with each cub I lost, feeding the remaining ones became much easier, a guilty reminder I had failed them.

Feeding the cubs is a simple matter of uprooting a carrot, headbutting a tree to make apples fall or pouncing on a small rodent or fox. The cubs can't acquire the food themselves, so once you obtain the food you have the choice of which badger to give it to. A cub's hunger is determined by the tone of it's fur, when it's markings are more of a grey tone you know it needs to be fed. That said, this isn't very easy to tell nor does the game tell you this, so often you have to rely on your memory for which one to feed next. Obviously this works nicely as it adds to the pressure.

As a few final notes, Shelter doesn't look like a horror game, but in many ways it is. I haven't been so afraid and stressed in a video game for such a long time. I was obsessively counting how many cubs I had left, even jumping out of my skin at any sudden noises. This was definitely helped by the fact I played the game in one sitting without getting up. I was extremely absorbed, often forgetting I was was playing a game. It left me with a great new experience but not one I want to repeat any time soon. The most heartbreaking moment that comes to mind; I was hiding in a bush with my last two cubs. As we were moving around in the undergrowth I could swear I saw a third cub, for a second my heart leaped. Alas, on closer inspection there wasn't a third, I knew true and well he/she wasn't alive anymore.

So all in all, I highly recommend anyone anyone to give Shelter a try. Like I said earlier it isn't long, only clocking 88 minutes to finish it myself. The gameplay isn't very deep either, but it left me with an experience I will never forget. That experience alone certainly makes it worth full price to me. And I haven't even talked about how brilliant the game looks and sounds. However, if you don't want to take that risk be sure to pick it up in a sale. Remember to play it in one sitting, no interruptions, all the way to the end of the credits.

How my #flappyjam game changed over time

For those who don't know Flappy FUUUU is my entry to the #flappyjam, this was the first jam I have participated in so I thought I would go through how my game changed over about two weeks. You can play the game here: http://nylepudding.itch.io/flappyfuuuu

From the get go I wanted to focus on tight controls and comically difficult gameplay. Suitably my game was originally called Flappy IMMA-FUCKING-KILL-MYSELF but I decided to change the name to Flappy FUUUU for obvious "family friendly" reasons. In hindsight I wish I thought more about the name as I regret calling it Flappy FUUUU. I don't dislike the name per-say, but I do think I could've done a better job, and believe it or not, names make a huge difference.

The first instance of the game was made in about 2 hours, with only 30 minutes being dedicated to the actual programming. The extra 1 hour and 30 minutes were spent on changing variables and nothing more. This gave me a great insight into one of the great time-sinks of game development. Some things can be done mathematically but others can only be done with trial and error. Of course experience also helps in this regard, something which I don't have much of.

Version 1

This first version was by far the most difficult, the barriers had a greater width and came towards you at a slower pace leaving a very small margin for error. You might think slower barriers would actually make the game easier, but in this case they didn't. On top of this the distance between the upper and the lower barrier was smaller, a measly 24 pixels which eventually changed to almost double that amount at 44. Another interesting thing I added to the first version was the ability to exploit the game. I thought this would be something not many people would figure out and act as more of a secret than a bug.

Version 2

I achieved what I wanted in terms of having stupidly hard gameplay, however I was pleased enough with the controls I thought I would make it a little easier. This lead to me to reducing the width of the barriers by half, increasing the speed they come towards you, and adding a limit to the downwards velocity of the player. I also increased the distance between the top and the bottom barriers to 40 pixels. Not to mention my purposeful exploit was far too easy to find than I thought. A few friends discovered it in just over a minute of play, and with someone tweeting me a score of 82 I decided to remove the exploit. I planned to add a more secret exploit in a later version but never did.

Version 3

It was in the third version I made one of the most significant changes, the ability to break through barriers. Breaking through a barrier would let you keep playing but reset your score. This was to make failure less frustrating and to decrease the chances of a player "rage-quitting". I honestly thought this was an obvious idea, but I haven't seen a single game in the whole jam do this, none of them. That said I've only played about 50% of the games in the jam, so please tell me if you find one with that mechanic. I also made breaking through a barrier satisfying in itself by adding particles and a sound effect.

Version 4

The next big change I made was to the aspect ratio of the game. It was originally 320x320 this meant you could only see one barrier on screen at any time, often making your high-score a bit luck based as you couldn't plan ahead. I changed the resolution to something more normal so you could see 2 sets of barriers on screen at once. Now the scoring was more fair I also added scoreboard support via http://gmscoreboard.com/. I really wish I added this support earlier as my game got a lot more attention earlier in the jam. It was still very interesting to see the different scores though, and the numerous people who gave up with a score of one. Some people might see that as a bad thing, but I loved it.

Version 5

The final update was mainly a cosmetic one, I made the barriers slowly close as the player moved towards them. I really like this changed as it made you feel more of a bad-ass when you made it through the gap. Some people said the closing barriers actually made the game harder, but this was an illusion. The distance was actually changed to 44 pixels making the game easier.

Over the course of this jam I learned a huge amount, thank you to anyone who played Flappy FUUUU whether you liked it or hated it. Look out for my #cyberpunkjam game!

My thunks: Titanfall Beta

Titanfall's greatest achievement is it's ability to remain entertaining through failure or success. There are so many examples of this in Titanfall it must of been an inherent part of it's design.

Lets start with the movement, I was never very fond of the parkour in Assassins Creed games. It was satisfying but felt far too simple. Titanfall manages to strike a near perfect balance between being simple and flexible. Your hands and feet don't feel like magnets, clinging onto specific parts of the environment. It feels much more natural and effortless. The simplicity empowers you to experiment rather than feel confined. In addition to this, failing a jump or a wall run doesn't make you feel awkward since there are so many ways to go. Often I have miss-timed my double jump only to find myself in a better position.

In all honestly the sheer brilliance of running around makes Titans feel a bit boring in comparison. Why would  you want to be a lumbering robot when I can dash around with ease on foot? However there is one major aspect of the Titans that makes me look forward to calling them in. When your Titan takes too much damage and is completely and utterly "Doomed" tapping the eject button sends you flying through into the sky at incredible speeds. Another great example of making failure fun.

Even if getting fired several kilometres into the air doesn't appeal to you, you can set your Titan to autopilot and completely forget about the damn thing.

Those who aren't so great at shooters can still have fun too, perhaps even get one of the best scores in their team. AI controlled minions are frequently dropped into battle, mainly for the sake of getting shot in the face by enemy players. Killing these minions earns you points for your team and reduces the amount of time to your next Titan.

As the final cherry perched atop this rather fancy cake, losing a match of Titanfall is possibly the most exciting part of the whole game. All the losers have to quickly scramble to a nearby drop-ship and escape the battle without dying. The winners have to try and intercept you, and take you down.

As you can probably tell I thoroughly enjoyed the beta for Titanfall. It manages to be fun for a huge amount of players, over a huge spectrum of skill and experience. I have a few qualms such as there being too much lens flare, and how burn cards reward you for doing badly. However what really interests me about Titanfall is it's future. It's new and exciting right now, but will it simply become another Call of Duty? I guess time will tell.

My thunks: Jazzpunk

I only really found out what Jazzpunk was the day it was released, I knew PC gamer had given it a shining review but apart from that I knew nothing. After 10 minutes of Giantbomb's quick-look I was sold.

Jazzpunk is bright, bold, hilarious, confusing and garish at the same time. Mind, I don't mean garish in a bad way in this instance. It is a game best played completely blind. Some aspects are still fun and comedic the second time round, but a shock factor is a huge part of the enjoyment while playing Jazzpunk. With that said, there's no need to worry I won't be the one spoiling anything for you.

Jazzpunk is totally rife with references, be it games, TV or otherwise. It is obvious those familiar with the culture of video games will get the most out of this title. However there is still much to enjoy without the knowledge of anything it references. This is due to Jazzpunk being so utterly bizarre, many scenarios will leave you in a state of hilarious confusion. It really doesn't matter if you get the reference or not, it's random nature and constant moving forward won't keep you in an awkward state of "was that a joke I didn't get?".

For better and for worse there are times which can be very overwhelming. You are often presented with a large open space full of many interactions, the majority of these interactions are optional too. This could be a problem for those who don't have the patience to explore as huge sections of the game can be missed entirely. Of course this is great for those you that enjoy second play-throughs, or exploration but that isn't to everyone's taste.

While the surface value of Jazzpunk is enjoyable, for those who like deep analysis of games there is something of interest here too. There is a huge amount of meaning behind some of the strange rambling characters. I don't think I've experienced a game which truly works on as many levels as Jazzpunk.

This is where we get to the general aesthetic of Jazzpunk. It is certainly something brilliant to behold, everything, even the blemishes seem with purpose. Somehow with it's multitude of video game references it's actually a very absorbing and atmospheric game. I wish I could tell you how this works, but believe me it's very easy to get caught up in the obscure world only to realize you're 30 minutes late for work. This is where everything truly comes together for Jazzpunk. It doesn't feel like a random mix of mini-games, it manages to stay consistently inconsistent.

In many ways Jazzpunk could make anyone laugh out loud or at least smile, but is 3 hours of gameplay worth £12? That's for you to decide.

I give Jazzpunk a "OMGWTFBBQ out of ten".

My thunks: Dear Esther

I first heard about Dear Esther in late 2011 while browsing the steam "Coming Soon" section. The music and poetic narrative of the trailer immediately caught my attention. The description of the game also spoke about "random" elements which greatly intrigued me. However closer to release I became less and less interested. I can't exactly remember why this was, maybe another game occupied my thoughts or I wasn't ready to pay the £6.99 for a game that took about 60 minutes to finish. Having only just played and completed Dear Esther for the first time it's a shame I lost interest and didn't purchase when it came out in February 2012.

I won't get into the argument about whether Dear Esther is a game or not, I want to leave that to angry people on the internet. I will simply talk about what I thought.

Five minutes in, the poetic narrative brimming with metaphors (and numerous other poetical devices) tells me I shouldn't follow the narrative too closely. For if I were to try and understand every word I would only get confused and muddled. Each paragraph of narration is somewhat like a standalone poem and only with all of them put together can you actually patch a story together. This works nicely as you can still enjoy the narrative as standalone pieces if you don't understand or miss the previous paragraph.

That said I'm pretty sure the story of Dear Esther is purposely vague and confusing, designed partly for the sake of speculation and discussion. For some this could be frustrating as you aren't really supposed to understand anything clearly in the first few play-throughs. That doesn't mean you don't get anything out of the first play-through, but Dear Esther is definitely better suited to those very fond of analyzing the deeper meaning of literature and poems. After going through Dear Esther twice many aspects of the story still remain confusing but that's why I like it. There is a great element of mystery about the island, some details of which I will never understand. I adore that, but like I said earlier, others will find the lack of detail annoying.

While there may be a lack of detail in the story, it would be a crime to say the same for the look of Dear Esther. The texture quality is disappointingly low but like a painting, standing back and looking at everything at once is breathtaking. The environment feels eerily natural, there were times I could swear I wasn't looking at a computer screen. The level design is clever too, it gives the illusion of wide open spaces and many possibilities while in reality being very linear. Not to mention the final area sent shivers down my spine continuously for longer than I've ever experienced.

Definitely not for everyone, but well worth a try if you're interested.

I give Dear Esther a "Looks pretty damn good and brought a tear to my eye, out of 10".

Flappy bird flaps for the last time

Mr Flappy has answered the final summons, he's as dead as a dodo, he's fallen off his perch, he's hopped the twig. However you like to say it, he's dead. 19:00 GMT marked the last minute of his final flap.

Flappy bird somehow managed to become a worldwide sensation, despite the fact it wasn't a unique game in the slightest. However I do think Flappy bird got a bit too much flack, it was a simple game, yes, but in many ways it managed perfection. I personally didn't play it more than five times, but I can see why people got so addicted. Unfortunately in the age of the internet where anything gets popular it's more than likely the creator will get a few death threats.

Anyone in Dong Nguyen's (the creator of Flappy Bird) position would be overwhelmed by the sudden increase in popularity. With this also comes a lot of stress, suddenly hundreds of thousands of people are knocking at your door. Most would justify the stress by reminding themselves how much money they are making. This is ultimately why I greatly respect Dong Nguyen. He obviously liked his previous way of life, and didn't think the money was worth that extra stress. Reports were telling us that he earned more than $10,000 a day on advertising alone. He might be rich now but he could easily of made 10 times that amount with sequels and merchandising. Not many people can turn away from the face of money and fame like that.

Dong Nguyen shouldn't be remembered for making Flappy Bird, he should be remembered for doing what was truly right for himself. If only more people knew themselves as much as him.