Been playing this the last day or so. It’s pretty fun.

It’s cheap too @ $10.

So I’ve been addicted to another iPhone game as of late. This time, it’s from the the fellas at Tiger Style (including former Thief designer, Randy Smith).

The description for the game is as follows:

You are a spider. One afternoon, you discover an abandoned mansion. Where is the family who lived here? What happened, and why did they leave? Search for clues as you adventure from room to room on the hunt for your next meal.

The official trailer is included above, but let me give you some of my initial impressions.

The game itself has a pretty illustrated style, and the music isn’t bad either.  The gameplay is the real draw of the game, though (as it should be).  Controlling Mr./Mrs. Spider (you have the option to change the name of the spider from the default “Leggz”,  I’ve named mine Tim) is a breeze, and feels intuitive.  Placing your finger on the right side of the screen moves the spider along to the right of the perimeter of whatever it’s on (placing your finger on the left does the opposite).   Swiping across the screen sends the spider flying in whatever direction you swiped.  Tapping on the spider, then swiping, sends the spider flying with a web-strand trailing behind.  To form a full web, you have to form an enclosed shape from the aforementioned web-strands.

There’s a combo system within the game where you score more points by eating the bugs caught in your webs and moving from web to web without touching the ground.

Supposedly there’s a semi-hidden story in the game revolving around the abandon mansion’s former tenants, but I’ve only seen bits and pieces of that story so far.  I’ve run into hidden love letters in containers above the shower, old boxing trophies, and other kitschy items indicative of what the former tenants were up to before they packed up and “got out of Dodge”, if you will.

I like the game, and maybe you will too (for only $2.99!)

Unfortunately embedding has been disabled for this video, but I highly recommend all the Juicers here (especially the ones that went to RIT) to give it a watch. It’s Gabe Newell presiding over a focus group with deaf gamers to learn more about sign language and generate feedback as ot how it could be applied to gaming (presumably Half Life 2: Episode 3, as there’s more than a couple of mentions of Alyx and DOG).

From the video’s description:

He [Newell] talks about it briefly in the second clip, so it sounds like maybe an idea that the he or the writers are working on is a deaf character/crush in Alyx’s backstory that influenced her and DOG to learn how to sign as a way of communicating around enemies without speaking. That would be fun to see how that worked into the story, and how the characters would act it out during the game.

I did laugh a bit as someone in the audience of this focus group mentioned how they see gamers when they’re back at RIT.  This could be a very interesting development if it’s fully realized, and I believe Valve should be commended for even making the effort in the first place.

Click here to go to the video.

Remember that game we used to play that (at least for me) was introduced by Nan…it was like ScattagoriesPictionary but you’d have a cycle of one person drawing a picture then the next person writing a blurb best describing it then having the next person draw a picture based off that blurb?

Well holy corndogs folks. Someone made a web-based game out of it.

Behold, BrokenPictureTelephone.

Horribly underrated (yet loved by a majority here @ JTB) Wii game Excitetruck is getting a sequel on April 20th!

From Nintendo Power (via Ars):

Unlike its predecessor Excite Truck, which featured normal trucks to race, Excitebots will see players riding in vehicles modeled after insects and animals. This includes robotic racer versions of turtles, frogs, ladybugs, grasshoppers, and more. You can even collect power-ups that will allow you to run around on two/four legs.

Aside from the new look, it appears that the game will play much like Excite Truck. Tilts controls will make a return, as will ground deformation. Once again, whether or not you win a competition will depend on a combination of the tricks you pull off and where you finish in the actual race.

And now… a video!

Hopefully they’ll have the option to play the game without the Wii-Wheel, as I’m personally not the biggest fan of useless pseudo-peripherals.

I strongly recommend playing this game for a little bit when you have some free time. The object of the game is to use the predefined tools to build a “fantastic contraption” to move a 1 or more objects from the starting position to the end position. Anything after that is up to you. They even let you save and share your solutions, so if you guys come up with some sweet shit, lets see it!

http://www.kongregate.com/games/ColinNorthway/fantastic-contraption

It’s Monday. We love it, we hate it, sometimes we argue and sometimes we make out (don’t tell Tuesday). What better way to break in the week than to have a little fun with some flash games?

Each Monday, one flash game will be put up on the PULPit for play. The poster will briefly describe the game and post a link (possibly embed it directly into the post) to play. It’s then out job to decide whether or not it passes muster using a simple yet effective review system. If you wish to partake in the PULPit, please use the following format to review the game. Other random comments are more than welcomed, but if you’re making an official review keep that as it’s own comment for the sake of organization.

PULPit Review Template:

Commentary:
Describe your thoughts and feelings on the game. It can be as basic as “Worse than crack, I loved it!” or as in-depth as describing the pros and cons of the gameplay mechanics & artistic style. The level of juiciness is up to you.

Difficulty:
5 – Insanely Hard
4 – Very Challenging
3 – Slightly Challenging
2 – Easy
1 – Boring, Grandma Beat It

Rating:
5 – Exquisite game. Amazing in every sense of the word
4 – Fantastic game. It’s missing something (better art, too short/long)
3 – Average game. Your run of the mill flash game, fun but leaves you wanting more
2 – Poor game. Bad quality on several aspects of the game, maybe one redeeming quality
1 – Abysmal game. I could have been looking at pictures of cats with funny captions instead of playing this.

So that’s it! I hope this stays strong, I think we can have a lot of fun with something like this. One last thing: I feel like we should figure out who the next person to post a game should be beforehand, unless you feel first come first serve when Monday rolls around works for everyone.

The game I chose to put up on the PULPit is called Bubble Tanks 2. I’ve never played Bubble Tanks 1, but from the description on the website, the guy who made it took a lot of ideas from the comments on the first game and made this one a lot better. The game is fairly basic. It’s a shooter located in a body of water where you control a tank made of bubbles. The object of the game is to roam around from one giant bubble (or room) to the next and shoot down enemies comprised of bubbles. When you take out an enemy, they leave several bubbles on the level for you to absorb into your own tank. As you absorb these bubbles, you work your way towards upgrades for your weapons and abilities. The enemies get progressively more difficult the further away you get from the starting bubble. Enjoy!

This is just for Colin … Shazam!

I gotta tell you guys, it feels just as great as you think it should…being a National Hero and all.

This is just for Brian … Pow!

http://superobamaworld.com/

Take note of how many points you get when you hit the woman w/ the clothes… I love it