Weekend Download
The Experimental Gameplay Project has returned! Originally started by Kyle Gabler and Kyle Gray, the site encourages rapid prototyping of new gameplay concepts in a short period of time. World of Goo began as an experimental game called Tower of Goo, so you can see how much creative potential an idea like this has. With the relaunch a new theme was unveiled: Unexperimental Shooter. Developers had seven days to create games based on a classic shmup concept. What could come of this craziness? Well, the first few releases are featured below. Play and enjoy!
Bunny Blaster (Windows, 5MB, free) - Created by Shalin Shodhan, this game is all about shooting bunnies. Don't worry, though, because each time one is shot, it multiplies! Actually, that's the point of the game, to clone rabbits as quickly as you can to reach 1,000. You have four guns at your disposal and shooting is done with the mouse. Great time-waster that's far more entertaining than should be allowed.
Frobot (Mac/Win/Linux, 6.4MB, free) - Disco! Dance! Experimental shmup! All in one! Frobot by Kyle Gray is based on the classic arcade game Robotron and controls with the [WASD] keys with the mouse to shoot. Take out the businessmen (who are obviously trying to crash the party) and they turn into dancers. The more dancers you have, the more powerful you are. The best part of the game is the dance at the end of each level. Seriously, you'll love it.
Proto Shooter (Windows, <1MB, free) - The most shmup-like of them all, Proto Shooter by Allan Blomquist is all about destroying enemies in space with pew-pew weapons. Left click to fire, and right click to freeze time in a 2D-ified chunky pixel Matrix-esque kind of way. You receive a score multiplier for accuracy, so conserve shots instead of going all ballistic and tapping the mouse button as fast as you can.
Egg Worm Generator (Windows, <1MB, free) - Created by Kyle Gabler, this one isn't so much a game as it is a neat thing to watch. You're looking at a fish tank of sorts where proto-lifeforms spawn and evolve on their own. As they become more complex and unique they begin to crawl to one side of the screen. It's fun to watch the little guys and gals learn to walk, and you almost feel for the ones that creep to the wrong side of the bowl...
Note: All games have been confirmed to run under Windows Vista and are virus-free. Mac users should try Boot Camp, Parallels, or CrossOver Games to play Windows titles, Linux users can use Wine. If you know of a great game we should feature, use the Submit link above to send it in!
I'm not sure if it was just my imagination but it seemed that more of my "worms" made it to the green box when I had time sped up than without. I'm using this hunch to explain why after 500 iterations my first place worm only had a speed of 20m/s and was from batch ~20. If the sped up mode is indeed bugged it would mean that "dna" which shouldn't be passed on is and is in effect hampering the evolution that is supposed to emerge from this simulation.
I'm curious to see if others have noticed this as well. I'll leave this running at normal speed and see if the results are wholly dissimilar when I return in a few hours.
There's just something wrong with that bunny game being that fun.
Well, the bunny game was a load of fun, but I wish there was a "keep playing for infinite bunny" option.
Side note: It works flawlessly under Wine on Linux.
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