Dark clothing? Check. Flashlight? Check. Someone else's house? Check. Checklist? Check. Gold bar? ...Working on it. Even if you don't find it, you're still The Very Organized Thief in this unique stealth/puzzle game.
"A four dimensional system represented in two dimensions". Sound confusing? Well, just try it out. This deceptively simple turn-based puzzle game uses its clever concept to craft some devious levels, though a lack of explanation of its mechanics and restrictions will make it feel rough around the edges for some.
Do you remember those puzzles where you have to trace an image without lifting the pencil or retracing your steps? Draw The Line isn't one of those, no matter how much it looks like one at first. Cross every line exactly once, navigate teleporters and double walls, don't cross your own line, and try to finish in the starred area in this deceptively tricky little game.
Do you remember those puzzles where you have to trace an image without lifting the pencil or retracing your steps? Draw The Line isn't one of those, no matter how much it looks like one at first. Cross every line exactly once, navigate teleporters and double walls, don't cross your own line, and try to finish in the starred area in this deceptively tricky little game.
Olav and the Lute, a music-based puzzle adventure game by Shelly Alon, and Johann and Daniel Von Appen has you exploring a post-apocalyptic fantasy world, wielding the power of a magical stringed instrument. Gameplay will be familiar to players of LucasArts' Loom, but Olav and the Lute is an engagingly unique ride, despite its short length.
Grab your bombs and take a leap, because in this strange but fun arena action game, you play a lost monkey who has to blast her way down through a floating island full of baddies to defeat the boss and get back home.
The Poyas are simple, spherical creatures who don't do much on their own... but using the power of a strange cube they both fear and worship, you can use them to help you solve puzzles and proceed deeper into a temple in this short yet compelling and clever puzzle adventure.
You're trapped in a big, box-like room. You have nothing that can help you escape. The best you can do is explore and hope you find something interesting. But don't worry, for such a minimalistic game, Box Life sure is full of fun secrets.
Prepare to enter a zen-like trance as you play LYNE. In this minimalist puzzle game, you must connect all similar shapes without crossing your path. What starts out simple quickly becomes complex as you bust your brain to solve as many puzzles as you can.
The results of the "10 Seconds"-themed Ludum Dare 27 72-Hour are in, and top prize goes to NXTWPN10: a quirky Unity shooter by Graebor. An explosive combination of color and creativity, if a little disorienting, but a worthy winner and a perfect candidate for expansion.
In this incredibly swanky and clever twist on the standard first-person-shooter formula, time only moves when you do. Dodge bullets, take out enemies, and navigate a field of deadly fire (or turn it to your advantage) in this short but incredibly stylish game that you'll want to see even more of.
I Am Level is a one button arcade platform game from Smiling Bag. It does away with most control buttons and gives you a rolling character you influence by tilting your mobile device left and right. Tap the screen to activate all of the screen's mechanisms, shooting springboards up, shifting platforms around, or knocking pinball-style flippers in the air. Through a creative combination of luck and skill, it's your job to explore the delightfully unconventional pathways that wind their way in and out of the game's challenging stages.
Pursued by a killer as you search for the artifacts you need to pay homage to a deity who will destroy him, you have to listen, run, and hide to stay alive in this freakish nightmare of a game made in just fourteen days. Though rough around the edges, its surreal style and great production values make it a fun time with the lights down and the sound up.
Janie is baffled as to why her boyfriend, Mike, told her he needed a break a month ago, and she doesn't understand why her friend Trina keeps telling her to calm down and try a new perspective. In this visual novel style story made to raise awareness for teen dating violence, you'll have to help Janie explore her memories and her life to come to some unpleasant but necessary revelations about her relationship... and herself.
It's the oldest trick in the lame spy book: when in doubt, jump under a box, because nothing says "inconspicuous" like a moving chunk of cardboard. In What Box? your mission is to find the exit while being hidden in, you guessed it, a box. The trick is that you see yourself through the eyes of security cameras, so finding your way through rooms and corridors is positively labyrinthine.
When you're dangling by your fingertips off the edge of a cliff, what you really want is for someone to come and help you up. Instead, fate hands you a stupid little bird that tries to peck your fingers off the edge. No, Birdie, No! is a quick skill game of reflexes and dexterity where you've got to hold on to the cliff, but lift your fingers before the menacing canary pecks at them. How long can you hang on?
Bart Bonte delivers a short, surreal adventure game about a mysterious factory... well, maybe not that mysterious given what greets you. But though you might find this little title, made for the No Future Contest, a bit too simple and more of an interactive movie than anything, it's worth the few minutes it'll take you for a chuckle.
Though currently only in its alpha demo stage, this gorgeously atmospheric puzzler is still well worth checking out. Wield the power of the moon, and thus the light and the tide, as a young girl exploring a series of ruins and temples, manipulating the moon to change your environment and proceed deeper.
CastleMine from Mugshot Games combines tower defense with a little bit of old fashioned digging. Instead of mapping out mazes for creeps to crawl through or building balloon things on green green grass, you get to dig underground one block at a time. Uncover extra gold deposits, additional resources, or even nests of enemies as you attempt to defend your castle from the threat from below.
You know what your average tug-of-war game needs? A table instead of a rope. At least that's what Otto Ojola thinks, and he's turned the idea into Tug the Table, a simple yet wonderful fighting game that manages to be reminiscent of Wrestle Jump while still being unique.
Created by Markus Persson (the mind behind a certain popular crafting game featuring mines) Drop is a simple experimental typing game with a visual twist. To play, you just type the advancing letters before they reach the edge of the screen all while the fabric of reality bends and warps around you.
It sounded like a simple heist... get into the old abandoned house, steal anything of value, and get out. But you're not alone in the dark, and something is very unhappy you've intruded. Explore an eerie house full of randomly generated treasure, grab what you need, and get out before you're caught, making use of ghostly eyes to see through the sight of the thing hunting you.
Minesweeper is the kind of game everyone's played at least once in their life. Or 57 times simply because, hey, it's there. When you combine zombies and the very familiar logic puzzle you get Zombie Minesweeper, a game from Frogtoss Games that is exactly what it sounds like: minesweeper with zombies chasing after you. Your job is to carefully move across the minefield, planting flags to mark dangerous tiles while you aim for the detonator at the end. Reach it and it won't be your brains splattered across the place.
How you look at things makes all the difference in the world, and Tom Davies proves just that with this simple but masterfully executed twist on an arcade classic that turns it from friendly to sinister. Move through the silent corridors munching down dots, but beware... you're not alone, and you're vulnerable.
And if 2013 is the Year of the Snake, well, then there's absolutely no reason why it can't be the year of the Shadow Snake 3, the new arcade game from Play Panic, also as a free download for iOS and Android. Snake gameplay is as familiar as it is difficult to mess up, but this is a very soothing and fun interpretation.
Work with other players to cooperatively end the frosty reign of darkness in this gorgeous and deceptively casual looking game of kingdom building and resource management. Blending elements of puzzling with real-time strategy, your task is to lay roads and factories for your little Flans to travel, gather resources, and beat back the winter. But it's not as easy as it sounds, and you'll need real planning, logic, and craftiness to win at this engaging and innovative game.
Calling all heroes! It's up to you to defend the castles of the kingdom in Wild Heroes. In this tower defense game you must place your heroes wisely to keep the enemy at bay. Upgrade them to wild status to really do some damage. Show the monsters what a hero is really capable of!
Quick, the patient needs a heart transplant, and a doctor! Too bad all they have is you in this hysterical, gory, and very challenging simulation where you control each finger of your hand individually as you attempt to perform life-saving surgery... without dropping a bonesaw into his chest cavity!
So, you were cursed by a witch to be a human magnet, and all for collecting cans. Figure out how to use your newfound powers to save your sister in the action adventure game Cantrip. In this twisted take on the Hansel and Gretel tale, wend your way through the scrapyard, fight off guard dogs and more as you cleverly use your magnet powers to find the witch and get your sister back.
Choose your hero and embark upon a dungeon crawl in Dungelot. In this roguelike you'll face a myriad of monsters as you fight your way deeper into the dungeon. Collect items to increase your stats as you find the key needed to exit each level. How deep can you delve?
It's time to learn to race like a champ, as some of the best in the biz steer your from rookie driver to pro as you face off against a field of challengers, and, perhaps, learn a little about proper engine maintenance. 4T2 Multimedia and Mobil 1 presents Mobil 1 Racing Academy. Fast and responsive driving action, with well integrated in-game ads, even if it focuses on breadth much more than depth.
Get ready to smackdown your opponent in the one or two player game Wrestle Jump! Control a Mexican wrestler with the single goal of pounding the other guy's head to the ground. Kick your leg against the arena floor to throw your opponent wildly around. Whoever gets the most smackdowns wins!
A lesson in escaping... mass, mind, memory and me... A mind-wrangling first-person puzzle game. ...As I Drift Away... is an entry into our 10th Casual Gameplay Design Competition, with the theme of "Escape". Overall, it is a gorgeously mysterious little game, and one you won't want to drift from until you've solved the final puzzle.
It's hard to be 2D in a 3D world, which you'll soon find out if you play this austere little platformer from Henning Steinbock. But don't let the minimalist atmosphere lull you into a false sense of security, because you'll need to do all your best wrist exercises from that mandatory carpal tunnel workshop your boss made you attend last spring if you're going to be limber enough to keep this line on track to ultimate victory. Jumping Line is a great example of a simple idea done well that will appeal to all the oldschool gamers out there who don't need a lot of bells and whistles to have a good time and break a satisfying gamer sweat.
You've got bubbles. You've got letters. And you've got a powerful need to spell some words, all while swapping orbs against the clock. That's the basic premise of Burble and Burble Select, a word game meets marble popper from Charlie Dog Games. Using the power of your hand, drag and drop letter bubbles to switch position with other bubbles, all while the chain of orbs slowly advances down the track. Your goal is to spell four letter and above words, eliminating bubbles and postponing your Level Lost! for another day. Act fast and hope your vocabulary is as flexible as it is comprehensive!
Are they conveyor belts? Are they fallen trees? To be completely honest, we can't figure out what those strange laser-emitting bricks in increpare's aptly-named Puzzles are supposed to be. All we know is that they cause trouble if you touch them, but yet that danger might be the key to solving the eight enigmas in this game.
Red Riding Hood was once a normal girl baking sweets, skipping through enchanted forests, wanting to visit her grandma without any ulterior motives. Little did she know that she was about to be thrust into a nightmare when her poor Granny was taken by some rude wolf. Now it's up to you, as Red, to brave 96 levels of puzzles to save Granny and show that wolf it's never good to mess with a girl who can master gravity.
Is your trigger-finger ready for a challenge? Then load up the beautiful but deadly Ludum Dare competition entry Kumiho. Pilot a ship with the ability to teleport against hordes of semi-organic monstrosities transformed by a vengeful Goddess. With striking visuals and simple but high-difficulty gameplay, it's a lovely little diversion if your reflexes are up to the task.
In this surreal and visually stunning game that showcases just what Unity can do, you play a moth trapped inside an attic who wants to escape and be with its true love... the moon. Resurrect other moths to help you move obstacles and eventually find your way out in this short but lovely game that marries exploration with simple physics puzzling.
Who knew that everything through the looking glass was actually made of cardboard? Yamada Box Legend is a quirky fantasy game that sends you spiraling into the Cardboard World after being the stooge for a magician's vanishing act. It's a graphically pleasing puzzle RPG adventure that will draw you in with its bizarre characters and engaging gameplay.
Swift Stitch, from Sophie Houlden, author of some fan-favorite browser games like Linear RPG and BOXGAME, is a one button (almost) arcade game that's all about speed, direction, and crashing into walls because you got confused as to which way your ship was going to go when you pressed the "switch" button. Smart decisions and quick reflexes get you through this game, and if the 20 odd levels in the free browser demo get you excited, there's more than twice that content awaiting you in the full version!
Sometimes it's all about going fast and getting far. This is the premise behind Tenebrous' arcade game Accelerator. A deceivingly simple game, you only need a mouse for the controls. The game is in first person perspective where you careen around and through 3D obstacles towards a non-existent finish line. The longer you play, the faster you go. The menu offers many options in the controls to assist in your avoidance through these randomly generated corridors. This game's a trip, so roll your computer chair real close, flex that mouse hand and dive into a world of soft sound effects in Accelerator.
Euclid taught us that spheres are masters of espionage. Tactical espionage, that is. One might even say tactical espionage action. Metal Sphere Solid is a short game that can be completed in five to ten minutes, but it's still an innovative take on the stealth genre. A longer game of this nature would be great, but everyone with a bit of time to spare should give Metal Sphere Solid a shot. It certainly beats geometry class!
Playing the role of an unfortunate hero who is cursed with the habit of sleepwalking, you awake to find yourself in an unfamiliar witch's hut. Since witches aren't exactly known for their hospitality, you're tasked with escaping the building before she returns, using only your wit and maybe a few handy magical resources.
Drop is a fine physics-puzzle game with a musical theme that shows a little clever attention to detail can liven up an otherwise ordinary game. Offering both Sandbox and Puzzle modes, the goal of Puzzle mode is to fill all the end pipes with bouncy white projectiles. Draw lines across the screen to maneuver those projectiles around obstacles and to their goal.
Boccia is a game that requires both careful planning and skillful execution. You can't just be thinking about getting this particular ball close to the jack. You have to think at the same time about what position that will put your opponent in, whether he will be able to knock your ball away, etc.
14 Locks, the latest game from Bart Bonte, is not strictly an escape game but it is still fun to navigate your way through the imaginatively decorated spaces, each one becoming more elaborate than the last. Bart has created something that is pretty exciting and amusing to play with this Unity platform, although it can be a little nausea inducing, so please be warned.
I have to admit, if I was ever sucked into a Tron-like computer world, I don't know if I would be able to handle the games they would force me to play. Since getting my motorcycle, I think I could manage a draw in light-cycles, but Deadly Discs? Solar Sailor? Brawls at the End of Line club? I think I'd be derezzed pretty quickly. On the other hand, should the Master Computer challenge me to a game of hangman, I think I could take him. Such is the scenario presented by Langman, the new unity platforming word game from Von Lehe Creative.
Cathode Rays starts out simply enough (with only one ray to handle), but the difficulty quickly ramps up as you're required to thread the rays through tight passages and time your movements to match moving and fading planks. Soon you'll be trying to manage four beams at once in sparkly vector glory. Can you wrangle these ridiculous rays?
Second Person Shooter Zato is a unique kind of action game that flips everything you know about shooters on its head before turning it inside-out and looking at it through a mirror. Well, that sounds like it would cancel the weirdness out, but it doesn't! In this game, you control a gun-toting hero who is being attacked by groups of enemies. However, instead of getting a first-person view of the action, you can only see yourself through the eyes of the enemy. Spin around, fire your weapons, and hope you can survive without looking at the world from behind your own gun!
While the Sun from a distant universe falls from a sky, it's up to you and a magical mask that manipulates time to help him get back up in this short but beautiful little point-and-click adventure from a talented team of students at DADIU.
Something awfully scientific goes awfully wrong, according to the opening sequence. Scientists, explosion... you get the idea. Then we are in the head of our hero, who upon speaking to the first two-dimensional character wiggling against a wall, learn that they are the only hope in a world thrown into dimensional disarray.
LightSpeeder is a modern day update of a classic light cycle survival racing game. This Unity title features impressive visuals, dynamic cameras, and the ability to jump over light walls as you face against three AI opponents. You can also play against a friend simultaneously in split-screen.
A physics puzzle... in 3D!... wait, no. A better one sentence summary would be "a carnival milk bottle game... only better and on your computer... and starring adorable monsters!" If only beating the game earned you an inflatable turtle or some oversized novelty sunglasses.
Sarah finds herself trapped somewhere, and she'll need to make use of platforming, puzzle solving, and one very special ability if she wants to escape. Currently only available as a ten level preview, this beautifully smooth and easy to play game that showcases the capabilities of Unity is definitely worth your time to check out.
Best Friends Fighter isn't so much a game as it is a whimsically well-designed online toy by Glitchy Pixel. In a nutshell, Best Friends Fighter is what its name implies it to be: a beat 'em up game. The only thing is, you don't any actual control over the characters. Heck, I'm not sure if the characters could even be called characters. Instead of beefy, steroid-infused men and leggy women, Best Friends Fighter pits robotic entities comprised out of many, many blocks with faces against one another.
The Unity-based platformer from Silvertree Media is short, incomplete, and borrows freely from games with much larger budgets. It's also an amazing piece of work that just might change your opinions of what browser-based games are capable of.
Even though it inherited the title from the original Tron, Space Paranoids is very aptly named. Because your advantage lies in speed, not firepower, the game encourages a lot of running away and waiting for enemies to come to you. Space Paranoids is not just a good advergame or a nice taste of nostalgia; It's also a fine game in its own right, and a great example of what the Unity engine can do when done well.
Cosmicube is one of those 'older games with a new twist' releases that you see every once in a while. The game uses the Unity engine to render a 3-D take on Marble Madness. The marble's track is made of red cubes mounted on a larger black cube. Your goal is to get a marble from its starting point onto the goal by moving your mouse to tilt the playing field. You're aided (and hampered) by an impressive physics simulation that feels very authentic and real, all while listening to a fast-paced soundtrack that fits the action and setting well.
The ability to change size is an oft explored trope from our favorite stories, from Alice in Wonderland to classic science-fiction films. But how many have asked what effects such an ability would have on the protagonist of classic sidescrolling platform games? That's the gist of the odd premise of Specter Spelunker Shrinks. Created by Ken Grafals, Specter Spelunker Shrinks is an experimental puzzle platformer where the ability to grow and shrink the main character is key to navigating a world of dangerous pink prisms and disparately sized passageways.
Choose between playing as Anakin Skywalker for the Republic, or as the Jedi assassin, Asajj Ventress, in this Star Wars action adventure game built in Unity 3D. Forget what you think you know about browser-based games and give LEGO Star Wars: The Quest for R2D2 a try. It won't be long before you get sucked into a time long ago in a galaxy far, far away, where plastic bricks vied for control of the universe.
The source of BOXGAME's name is obvious: it's basically a puzzle platformer wrapped around a box. Perhaps by M. C. Escher. The direction of gravity changes depending on how you cross from face to face, turning walls into ceilings and pits into doorways. Jump and rotate your way to the exit in this unique game by Sophie Houlden. Don't forget your teddy bear!
In Crane Wars, you play the role of a crane operator, and your mission is to grab hunks of building and stack them on top of each other. Your other, more fun mission is to fling stuff at those filthy scabs working next door!
Put Paper Mario and Tim Burton in a blender and you get Paper Moon, a smooth, sophisticated example of how to integrate design and mechanics into a masterful casual game. It's a platformer with a twist, and with enough style and depth to keep you coming back for more.
Blush is a unique and beautiful, 3D rendered, underwater physics-based game by Flashbang Studios, in which you play a betentacled creature fighting your way through the ocean deep. It is also very addictive. Fight off other sea creatures, collect eggs and bring them to glowing orbs that increase your speed and extend your tentacles. Even earn achievements, too.
It's like regular bowling, but it's on a volcano. And the ball is rolling down so fast it's on fire! And then the ball learns to fly! And then the ball gets really big and then it gets really little and then it rolls into a tree trunk and a raccoon throws it way up in the air! And the raccoon's brother rides the ball in the air because he can steer it because he is a smart raccoon. Shoot the ball out of a cannon! And that is how Downhill Bowling plays.
Games Featured:
- • Tumbledrop
- • Off-Road Velociraptor Safari
- • Rasta Monkey
- • Mars Explorer
Now it's time to break the rules. A little. This edition of Weekend Download highlights winners of the 2008 Unity Awards, games created using the Unity plug-in that are playable right in your browser window. Technically they're browser games, but since you have to download and install something, they're downloads, too.
The creators of the entertaining and CPU-intensive Off-Road Velociraptor Safari have just released an alpha version of their next game that also uses the Unity browser plug-in: Jetpack Brontosaurus. So far, the game sports various time and skill related missions to complete.
We're used to suspending a little bit of belief when it comes to the games we play. Off-Road Velociraptor Safari, however, really tests the limits. You play a raptor driving a jeep with a spiky ball and chain attached to the rear. Your goal is to chase down other raptors and throw them into a teleporter that sends them to the future. At this point it's a good idea to throw intellectual understanding out the window, because this game is all about hitting dinosaurs with cars for points.
When Orcs Attack is a tower defense game that... towers over other tower defense games. The first title made by Mr. Joy (a.k.a. John Frisby, WOA, pronounced "whoa!") uses the powerful Unity engine to give you powerful 3D characters and particle effects in-browser. Not only does When Orcs Attack play smoothly, but this is a huge technical step-up for web games.
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