Trilby: Peril at the Static Art of Rocks'n'BOMB is our featured game this weekend. Or... something like that. Gameplay involves placing bombs on the screen to guide a gentleman thief through each level (stealthily) while finding hidden objects along the way. Don't forget to grab an emerald while hopping through the confusing mass of animated static!
Agatha Christie: Peril at End House (Windows, 59MB, demo) - A hidden object game with a refined sense of style, Peril at End House takes the Agatha Christie mystery stories to a whole new level. The puzzles are superb, the mini-games are fun, and the storyline is well-integrated into the game, making almost everything you do part of the experience. Some of the items are misleading or hard to find, which is unfortunate, but that doesn't even begin to tarnish a great item finding experience.
Trilby: The Art of Theft (Windows, 2.5MB, free) - Slink. Slink. Slink. I'm a thief! And so is Trilby, and Trilby practices the art of thievery like a gentleman. Sneak through buildings and evade guards by hiding in the shadows as you score loot on a number of heists. An old-school visual style makes it feel like a classic, but the gameplay itself is polished and extremely engaging. Well worth the small download!
Rocks'n'Diamonds (Windows/Mac/Linux, ~4MB, free) - A tile-based puzzler that takes a page from games such as Sokoban and Boulder Dash to create a charming little game. Work your way through each stage collecting jewels and blasting rocks with dynamite. Simple, of course, but loads of fun from the moment you start playing.
Lost in the Static (Windows, 3MB, free) - In what could just as easily be described as an endurance test for the eyes as an adventure platformer, Lost in the Static is an experiment that plays on the brain's ability to interpret visual input. Everything is made of animated static, from the floors to the "lava" and even your character. Explore the 2-color world and hope you don't go blind before the end. The site warns that if your eyes get "all woggly" or you experience nausea, stop playing. And that's very good advice.
PuffBOMB (Windows/Mac, ~1.3MB, free) - One part Incredible Machine, one part Eets, PuffBOMB is a simple game where the only goal is to blast the adorable main character(s) to the end point of each stage. Bombs are your tool of choice, and you'll need to find just the right spot to place them in order to win.
Lost in the static? That'll be funny, I can't make a thing on the screenshots on their site! :P I'll keep trying.
Ah, now I see.. The man moves, the rocks don't and the lava does.. You'll understand if you play it! Rather good game though, but not keen on the lack of jumping speed.
For nearish the end...
If you're in the room which has the three lava things going down into one, when you get closer to it everything starts to speed up. Just hold down right and it'll eventually go white and close.
That is the ending...
this weekend download looks distressingly absent of aquaria...
Trilby is one of the best indie freeware games released this year. If you're stuck on a level, just search for it on youtube, there are lots of walkthroughs available there.
There is also a text walkthrough written by Radiant (of the glorious forums of adventuregamestudio.co.uk) with lots of helpful advice here.
I can't help but love the Agatha Christie hidden object games even though I don't really like Agatha Christie's plots. A mild spoiler.
It's always the person you least suspect. But that's predictable.
I can't help but love the Agatha Christie hidden object games even though I don't really like Agatha Christie's plots. A mild spoiler.
It's always the person you least suspect. But that's predictable.
Oh, it annoyed me that I can't turn off full screen in Peril. The fullscreen option is there but it's dimmed so it can't be unchecked.
Lost in the Static, whoa, cannot unsee what I has seen. That is an awesome game. Amazing that it works. Reminds me of my old ZX81, but in HD. How far we have come.
Love their screen shots on their homepage. They can't be interpreted when stationary, so they all look like.. static.
Tribly is really amazing! It reminds me of Flahback
I love all of Yahtzee's work, and Trilby: Art of Theft is no exception.
Oh, and about Lost in Static:
OOOOWWW MY EYES!
There's just one thing I don't get with that Static one: what's the point of making an otherwise dull and unoriginal game deliberately annoying?
One of the worst ones I ever encountered here.
bioLarzen, I look at Lost in the Static not so much as a true game, but as a demonstration of the amazing versatility of the human mind. Completing the game was trivial. But the fact that our brains can interpret different types of noise as different types of terrain and make the connection to a familiar type of game is simply mind-boggling. Then again, I have always been fascinated with optical illusions.
Also, I enjoyed seeing how different ways of animating static could be used to suggest a variety of landscape features, such as lakes and streams, trees with fruit, underground caverns, and a wide variety of creatures. Each of the couple dozen rooms felt unique. With the focus on the landscape and not the difficulty of playing, Lost in the Static actually felt quite a lot like the Knytt series of games.
Puffbomb is not bad altho often goes to extreme pixel hunting.
The voices are fun :)
PuffBOMB is absolutely hilarious! I can't help but laugh at the sounds that little guy makes when he gets blasted!
Lots of fun!
Of course, it would be better if there was some way to save your progress.
Unless I'm missing something?
I'm sure that dude from puffBOMB sometimes swears (using the word bas***d)
Got a quick fix - select a sniped of your favourite music, trim to that 5 second section (keep it fairly small), and save as "scream09". Then just delete the origional scream 09, and paste your own into the data file.
Or go to findsounds.com, and search for fart noises. Now that IS funny!
[quote]
this weekend download looks distressingly absent of aquaria...[/quote]
I'd like to second that, but it possibly deserves a review of its own...
Rocks'n'Diamonds is a blast! I'm already on level 12!!!
possibly = definitely
Don't worry, I didn't forget about Aquaria! It wasn't released when I wrote this article, so I couldn't very well link to it just yet. Expect a mention tomorrow along with a full review next weekend after we've spent some quality time with it. :-)
Static seems to be almost exactly like one of Squidi's concepts.
Did anybody else notice that? It may just be a coincidence.
@newbie: It's no coincidence. They gave them credits for the concept near the bottom of the page.
I didn't have the same experience with Lost in the Static as zxo -- most of the rooms seemed to be vague motion and, well, static. I get the feeling, on looking back, that I was meant to understand some of the shapes I saw, but I didn't.
Rocks'n'Diamonds is a blast! I'm already on level 12!!!
Didn't Ben Croshaw stop making games some time after the 5 days a stranger saga? Although it's nice to see Trilby! It's a bit tough though and if you don't buy the correct upgrades when you ought to, it can get frustrating.
I really like Static, but on one of the last levels my keys stopped working. The little guy just kept runing around on his own and it got too frustrating to continue on. Since I don't have a problem with my keys in other games, I do not beleive that it is my computer, but I may be wrong.
is it possible to get past camera's in trilby without setting off alarms? there's seemingly no blindspot underneath it so you just cant walk past it no matter how quick you are... stuck on the stupid prison level. seems like theres a set order you have to unlock new skills in, otherwise yer screwed....
Trilby is really spectacular, as expected. Yahtzee's games are all amazing and anyone who likes trilby needs to go play them all.
fattywads: Yes, there is a blind spot directly underneath cameras. The only skills that really really help by then are roll and lockpicking lv. 3.
About Trilby and the skills:
I consider two early skills essential, namely
3rd level lockpicking
and
Roll.
After those two, you'll want to save points for
Into Shadows.
I wasted RPs on
Gecko Hold
, which is fun initially, but later, you simply don't have time to literally hang around.
Heh, saying that "Lost in Static" is "demonstration of the amazing versatility of the human mind" is a wee bit too pretentious - there's nothing more amazing happening here then just good old shape recognition.
As for the game itself, I always like when people experiment and try something different, but even though the static-based shapes idea has some merit the game mechanics and level design (platform-wise) is simply attrocious. The nicest thing about it is the death animation, the spilling-sand sound effect is great and suits the theme perfectly. Other then that, nah, nothing really spectacular here.
I love Trilby: The Art of Theft, it's awesome. The style, story and gameplay really make it a joy to play
WRT Rocks'n'Diamonds, thought I'd mention you can get my portable version and play it on the go.
I personally love the game.
I think lost in the static is amazing. Nevermind challenging you with difficult enemies and puzzles, it messes you up by going straight to your brain! I didn't know what do do at the screen which the balls rolling down the slopes (the one after the bossish guy that shoots at you) so I decided to keep jumping back and forth between rooms. Jumping into the room after the boss guy one time my head got stuck in the wall! XD
Yeah, the collision detection in Lost in Static sucks. It would have been much more enjoyable had that been improved. Still, it didn't render the game unplayable, and the unique concept itself was enough to make it worth the short time it took to play through it. Of course, I've always been fond of optical illusions.
Now that I know there is in fact a blind spot under the cameras in Trilby, I'll have to give the first couple levels another go. I wondered why they'd make it so you had to trigger an alarm in order to finish.
Lost in static is a great game hard on the eyes but fun and unique idea.
Good lord, a hark back to the days before Trilby was embroiled in the whole Chzo Saga. Thank you Mr. Yahtzee for making a NONCREEPY game from the series.
Lost In The Static was amazing. I didn't have a problem with collision detection - it looked like the edges were exactly where the collision took place. Very enjoyable.
Did anyone else come out of the game and think that their desktop looked almost too real? Haha.
Never have I continued to play a game even while cursing a bluestreak, but these Yahtzee games are incredible.
Unfortunately, I have slight joint problems, and any puzzle which requires rapid keystroking means I probably can't complete it. :(
Also, I found a bug in Trilby's Notes, or at least a malfunction. On the roof, during the first cut scene, the black bathrobe man was in a perpetual loop where he stabbed the woodcutter continuously. It was quite hilarious after awhile but annoying, since I was so close and yet so far from finishing the rest of the story. I fixed it by holding down the TAB button while pushing the UP arrow. No idea why that worked...
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