Heathen Aliens

Attention heathen aliens. The galaxy is not big enough for both of us.
First we tried leaflets, and you would not repent…
Then we tried hymns, and you would not repent…
Now we confront you with holiest persuader of all. Space-borne thermonuclear missiles. Prepare to die.

Cliff Harris of Positech Games (We’ve blogged about his other indie games like Democracy 2, Kudos and Kudos 2, and on Positech’s business model) has just added a new DLC pack for Gratuitous Space Battles. You’ll be fighting The Order, alien zealots who plan to wipe you out with shiny new weapons:

Radiation Guns

Bullet-firing weapons which deliver a radioactive payload which eats away at your ship from the inside, even if you manage to restore your shields after the initial impact. They also come with a free creepy green glow effect!

Nuclear Missiles

All the fun of radiation guns, in missile form!

Limpet Mines [

Tiny robotic drones which seek out fast moving enemy fighters and attach to them, slowing them down and allowing your heroic gunners to take an easy shot at those heathen alien swine.

Firefly Rockets

Think of them as ‘Rockets 2.0′, faster and more deadly.

You can get it here.  And, yes, there’s a strong possibility that I posted this just to share “then we tried hymns, and you would not repent.”

Popularity: 1% [?]

Game Review: Magic Toychest

The object of the new Magic Toychest from Graduate Games is to tidy up your room before Mom yells at you. Trust me, it’s much more fun in videogame land. (Being a 20-year-old waitress is also more fun in videogame land.)

Players use toys to build crazy contraptions that send toys into the toychest. Each toy has a different effect, with rockets and toy guns and trains to move items, as well as alphabet blocks and dominoes for building.

If you enjoyed the recent Crayon Physics, this is fun in the same way, a puzzle game without any blood or violence. Magic Toychest is a good kid-friendly game, without defaulting to the usual match-3 system of many indie all-ages games.

I was a bit sad that the physics challenges were interacting more with blocky anti-gravity terrain rather than the background bedroom. Different toys are available on different levels, presumably to keep the challenge up, for a real sandbox experience, try the level editor. How could you not want sandbox play with trains and domino towers?

One cool feature is the ability to skip a frustrating level, which was especially nice for me because I found some levels quite difficult and others quite simple. The toys were so cute that even redoing the difficult parts wasn’t too frustrating.

Definitely a fun kids’ game, and adult might find themselves playing as well!

Popularity: 12% [?]

Thoughts On Casual Games Dev

Game development isn’t exactly my strong suit. Personally I prefer to let other people work long hours, pouring their heart and soul into a game, and then I play it and complain about what’s wrong with it. Hey, that’s where my talents lie!

But I do have huge admiration for indie developers, and I hope to focus on lesser-known titles here on ThumbGods.

Cliff Harris of Positech Games talks about making independent development profitable. Cliff is behind the Positech Games titles Democracy 2, Kudos (and Kudos 2!) and others. The entire interview is worth reading, if you’re all interested in what makes a game succeed, but one statement really stuck with me.

Who will survive in the casual game business in 2010?

Big Fish Games, Popcap.
I think I’ve got the full list there.

Big Fish Games is an awesome casual games portal. The “new game every day!” works perfectly for repeat business.  They’re a total giant, even my mother-in-law has a Big Fish Games account. But I worry that massive portals like BFG (much as I love them!) and now Amazon are making it harder for the guy-with-website development model to succeed.

Not to be all doom and gloom, because as Cliff’s interview shows, an indie game developer and creative marketer can still do very well.

Via Interview with Cliff Harris (cliffski) from Positech Games | Sell More Games.

Popularity: 18% [?]

Kudos 2 for the Mac

A few months ago, I reviewed the original Kudos and talked about how much I enjoyed it. Kudos 2 was quite similar, but with many more options, like the ability to change clothes and hair to make unique avatars. This is my cute Kudos 2 sim over on the left. I hate to sound so girly but I get much more attached to characters I can customize.

Today’s Positech newsletter says that Kudos 2 is now available on the Mac, so even people with a one-button mouse can play too! From the newsletter:

You can download the mac demo here:
http://www.redmarblegames.com/downloads/Kudos2Demo.dmg
And buy the game here:
http://store.esellerate.net/s.asp?s=STR807618070&Cmd=BUY&SKURefnum=SKU05843952168
As usual, the mac version is sold through, and ported by our partners at redmarblegames.com

if you don’t know about Kudos 2, it’s a turn-based life-simulation game where you get to control the choices someone makes in their life from age twenty to thirty. Think of it as a strategic version of the sims, without all the worrying about answering the door and going to the bathroom all the time.

Of course, Kudos 2 for PC is also available, and you can try out a free demo version.  Besides Kudos and Kudos 2, Positech also did the game Democracy.

Popularity: 13% [?]

Kudos LifeSim

This thoughtful discussion of the Kudos sim game says it’s more than another Sims-clone:

Kudos is not animated, its graphics are mainly icons, little squares showing your friends’ faces or items for purchase. It’s not entirely text-based, but the focus is on the story, and not the graphics. If you don’t spend enough time cleaning up your house, though, a surprisingly realistic fly crawls across the screen! I am of the text-games generation, and a bookworm at heart, so Kudos has gotten the text:graphics ratio just right.

Your avatar has a limited number of leisure hours, and a collection of leisure activities. You can go out with friends, watch TV, go jogging, go to night school, or stay home and stare at the walls. (yes, that’s an option, and no, I didn’t do it). Each activity has positives and negatives, but they go beyond the simplistic “tv makes you fat”. Watching the news, for example, increased my IQ, and decreased my boredom, but all those depressing stories made me sad.

Popularity: 2% [?]