Sunday 13 December 2015

the room

not quite sure why they called it 'the room' not 'the box', because this lusciously rendered puzzler/adventure/escaper is all about opening a series of increasingly complex boxes... i suppose maybe it's a satirical nod to the whole escape room genre...
it's better than it sounds because these steampunk contraptions are quite beautifully engineered.
only a couple of hours long, but a very enjoyable headscratching couple of hours. there's also a nice hint system that nudges you in the right direction when you get stuck, and you will get stuck...

Wednesday 2 December 2015

monument valley

a beautifully designed, kid friendly
escheresque puzzler.
simple, when you know the answer...

can you get to z?



really well executed hybrid of 2048 and drop7.
major timesink


atomas


another nice take on a 2048 like game
with a circular mechanic rather than a grid
and elements replacing numbers.
curiously satisfying.

city2048


a pretty straight 2048 port, except for one thing...
instead of adding numbers you are building a city.
isometric style. nice.

smash hit

very graphically pleasing endless runner/shooter
from the ironically named studio mediocre games.

Friday 6 November 2015

figure


deep house
go figure.
got 3 minutes and want to make some music?
yeah.

octagon


octagon! rotate your device 360 degrees!


finger laser

shooting shapes! ace!


cocktail club



there is something deeply addictive about this unusual colour matcher,
orange, kiwi, coconut, watermelon...

disentanglement

can you unravel this?


cube fall

neat endless faller


1 vs 100

i used to play this live on the xbox,
quiztastic.


voro blitz

voro with friends. risk with proractors....
...stetch it...

voro


gorgeous arty puzzler
you'll be taking lots of screenshots...

zapresso


elegant button presser


drive and jump

Drive and Jump: 8-bit retro racing action

hook

fluxe

nice little tetris like puzzler

Thursday 5 November 2015

hack run


Ever wanted to be a hacker?

the painted face

Painted Face is an ambient music player created by Samson Young and Henry Chu. Misreadings of Cantonese Opera are represented in 6 generative compositions.


gravity harp


gravity harp is an interesting space based musical intrument for your phone


arpie

in arpie you get to bounce balls
and make music.
ace.

chain3d

this is addictive


music ball

gravity is your friend


instant wild


spot wild animals!
in faraway places
yeah!

the path to luma


very engaging adventure game
with a sound ecological message.


catch


you have to catch a ball.
that is all.
strangely compelling...


blow up casual


8bit retro crunchy match 3 goodness


oblique strategies

brian eno's card game for creativity


brain sparker

inspirational quotes to help boost creativity


hue ball

beautifully designed bobblepuzzler
zenful soundtrack.


pocket rice

answer questions and donate rice


colorbs

visually pleasing match 3


Wednesday 4 November 2015

going up!

humerous little endless runner


magritte it

magritte it


art circles

so you like art huh?




record makers

weirdness


fixum

fixum. addictive


zez

mental match three game


zonr

how fast are your fingers?


buster spirits

shoot it!

townlets

furiously annoying but addictive russian game


flow free

everyone knows flowfree right?


go round

nice puzzler


gauge


neat little future retro gamer

alien isolation

ok, so this is not strictly casual...
...this is hardcore

this is survival horror A L I E N style
You'll spend a lot of your time hiding in lockers
Staying very very still,
Holding your breath...
...ooops you just got aliened!

This game sticks pretty well to the original alien premise
You are being hunted by a rather dangerous organism and you need to use all can to survive...
I played this game on medium difficulty and there was a lot of:
GAME OVER MAN! GAME OVER!
(Playing this on an virtual reality rig would be bad for your blood pressure)
F**K!
You can't even rely on the humans! I guess that's why they called it ISOLATION.

But if you are a fan of the original film
(And I fetishistically am)
Then there is plenty to enjoy.
The art direction is excellent
Both in sound and vision;
This is a game to play with the lights off; either very loud or with headphones on
The atmosphere of impending doom is palpably realised
With occasional stabs and all the great environmental sounds from ridley scott's 1979 classic.

the attention to detail is obvious
From the wonderfully soft wall furniture
To the adrenalin inducing alarms.
And frankly starkly gorgeous lighting effects.

The pacing gets a little sluggish in the middle of the game (maybe that's because I'm just rubbish at games),
there are a lot of fetch/carry tasks which get a bit frustrating;
once you've seen the inside of one locker, you've seem them all
But when you discover a new area and listen to the sounds and check out the artwork it's worth it.
SAVE OFTEN

The advertising posters on the walls are both superbly optimistic and darkly grim at the same time. Someone has spent a lot of time designing these.
They have both the look of soviet realism and western sarcasm
That is both comforting and disturbing at the same time
Remember, this whole place is owned by Weyland-Yutani and Seegson...

trivial pursuit

do you know trivia like i know triva?


gravity lander

nice little moon lander
from the deeply groovy swiss design house buro destruct


wave trip

wavetrip.
elegant musical endless runner.