The Further Adventures Of Cube-Head

August 22, 2012 1:49 PM

From BLENDO Games: Thirty Flights of Loving, the very strange sequel to the equally strange Gravity Bone.

In an industry where the word 'indie' is quickly losing its meaning, BLENDO stands out as a small studio putting out projects that almost certainly would not have been greenlit by any mainstream developer. Their other works include Flotilla, Atom Zombie Smasher and the forthcoming Quadrilateral Cowboy.

posted by anaximander (12 comments total)

To make it in Nuevos Aires, one needs nerves of silk and the filthiest of hands. Mix together a batch of espionage, some high- speed car chases, fire-spewing assassins, and you've got one oven that'll never bake cookies again. We provide the pliers and you bring the moxie.

You had me up until Moxie.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 1:58 PM on August 22, 2012

In an industry where the word 'indie' is quickly losing its meaning

I'm curious what you mean by this. It seems to me that the indie scene is stronger than ever, and is turning out tons of original, compelling work that more than makes up for the stagnation of mainstream game development.

If that's too much of a derail, then: Gravity Bone! Man, Gravity Bone was great! So were Flotilla and Atom Zombie Smasher! Games!
posted by IjonTichy at 2:16 PM on August 22, 2012 [1 favorite]

Gravity Bone was one of the games that convinced me that graphics quality was not correlated with immersion. It cleverly uses simple tropes to bloom the story in your head while keeping you busy doing silly things!
posted by musicismath at 2:21 PM on August 22, 2012

Here's a Let's Play for Gravity Bone.
posted by dortmunder at 2:43 PM on August 22, 2012

In an industry where the word 'indie' is quickly losing its meaning

pretty sure it always meant stuff like this
posted by This, of course, alludes to you at 3:17 PM on August 22, 2012

Yes! I absolutely love this game, but be aware that your $5 only gets you about a half hour of entertainment. Those 30 minutes are fantastic, but if that doesn't sound like a good deal, please at least play Gravity Bone, which is free.

There is a slightly different version of Thirty Flights of Loving that was released as a Kickstarter reward for the Idle Thumbs podcast. It has an option to play in "Puffin Mode" - where every character is replaced with Jeff Goldblum. (not a joke; massive game spoilers)
posted by Sibrax at 3:26 PM on August 22, 2012

Thirty Flights includes Gravity Bone, as well as a commentary track; the introductory scene was actually the prequel to Gravity Bone, but was later fleshed out as part of a Kickstarter project.
posted by Smart Dalek at 4:56 PM on August 22, 2012

IjonTichy, while there are a lot more indie games than ever, there's also people just hopping on the bandwagon. Thus things like the EA Games Indie Bundle.

The spirit isn't changing, but the label's getting watered down.
posted by 23 at 5:27 PM on August 22, 2012

I.e. indie is getting too popular? Everything old is new again (but I'm not stopping until I explore everything in the Binding of Isaac; maybe then I can rest. And check out Gravity Bone).
posted by ersatz at 5:36 PM on August 22, 2012

There is no up and down in space, Flotilla. You can't attack the bottom armor by moving down.
posted by cthuljew at 12:36 AM on August 23, 2012

Also.
posted by cthuljew at 12:55 AM on August 23, 2012

...but there is an up and down on spaceships, generally.
posted by IjonTichy at 10:22 AM on August 23, 2012