E3 2012: Chillingo’s Indie Game Highlights

After being acquired by EA in 2010, it would have been easy for mobile game publisher Chillingo to gravitate towards more mainstream, sure-fire projects. Instead the  publishing label seems to be moving in the other direction. Chillingo has become one of the biggest champions for indie developers trying to get attention for their unique mobile projects.

The company’s E3 2012 line-up is no exception with a variety of indie titles on display. All three titles I went hands-on with are ones mobile gamers should keep on their radar. They might not be flashy but they’re all fun to play, which is what truly counts.

The Act

The Act is a game many, many years in the making. The Act might best be described as an interactive cartoon – the next evolution of the formula kicked off by Dragon’s Lair in 1983. The title was originally conceived as an arcade release, but unfortunately the North American arcade market cratered before the original developer Cecropia was able to release the game, even though it was virtually complete.

Luckily React Entertainment recognized The Act’s potential on smaller tablet and mobile phone screens, and got to work reengineering the game to work with touch controls.

Gamers play as Edgar across a variety of scenes as he attempts to save his brother, keep his job and get the girl. Each scene is highly interactive, albeit in a simplistic way. In my hands-on time it truly did feel like I was controlling a Disney cartoon.

To pass one scene, Edgar must fit in with a group of doctors. Sliding your finger to the right made him happier. Left made him grumpier. As the doctors told each other good or bad news I had to gauge their reaction and match it. Watching Edgar’s face change in realtime from a frown, to a smile and finally to knee-slapping laughs as I swiped by finger is very impressive visually, and unlike anything I’ve seen before.

A simpler scene involved Edgar attempting to woo a woman in a smoky bar. Sliding your finger to the right at different speeds determined how strong the come-on would be animated. Fast, repeated swipes result in pelvic thrusts and a disgusted damsel. Subtler swiping resulted in a completely different animation, and success.

A lot of questions about The Act remain. We don’t know how long the title is, or whether each interactive cartoon scene will truly hold up under extended scrutiny. For now all I know is I want to play more, to experience as much of the lush 2D animation as possible.

Knights of the Round Cable

Knights of the Round Cable is my favorite kind of mobile game: something totally unique that doesn’t clearly fall into any genre bucket.

The premise is simple: Collect as many gems with your knight as possible while avoiding the roving ghosts, dive-bombing birds and other enemies. It’s how gamers control their knight that truly sets KotRC apart. Each 2D castle stage is littered with pegs, and players can shoot a rope to latch onto the closest peg at any time with a righthand button. A lefthand button changes a player’s rotation, allowing them to better avoid the aforementioned enemies.

Once I got the hang of it I quickly fell into a perfect gem-collecting rhythm. With a few taps of the touch-screen I was swinging from peg to peg with ease. When not attached to a peg your knight simply bounces off the floor and walls of each stage, giving the game an almost pinball-like feel.

Power-ups like gem magnets and bonus health litter each stage and help to spice things up. As is the current mobile trend, players have three active meta-goals at any given time that up your score multiplier when achieved and give gamers reason to play the game in a different way. Finally, after each session is over players can spend their collected gems on new knights and other replay-extending store items.

Tiny Troopers

Finnish studio Kukouri Mobile’s Tiny Troopers offers up a simple touch-controlled take on squad combat. Players control their small squad of soldiers by tapping anywhere on the ground to move to that spot, and tapping on enemies to target them and begin firing. Simple. One nice detail is that after targeting an enemy your soldiers remain locked onto them, so it’s possible to target a soldier, begin firing and then strafe around them to avoid their return fire.

Tiny Trooper's 30 missions are largely non-linear, allowing players to attack enemy encampments from multiple directions. At one point I was able to rain grenades onto an enemy-spawning barracks from behind, making my progress through the stage that much easier.

Tiny Troopers’ twist is that any squad member that dies is gone for good – they have to be replaced with a brand-new low-leveled soldier, which makes for some tense low-health moments.



Source : ign[dot]com