pointy clicky stuff
August 25, 2010 11:22 PM Subscribe
Submachine: 32 Chambers is the winner of the Jay is Games 8th Casual Gameplay Design Competition (theme: sandbox). It's by Mateusz Skutnik. You may be familiar with some of his other flash games.
In other news, there's Grow Valley which is a new Eyemaze game.
You realize I have to sleep tonight and spend all day packing tomorrow for my move, right?
Just know that the blame will lie solidly with you when the truck is here and I'm glued to the computer surrounded by unboxed piles of my life.
posted by phunniemee at 11:32 PM on August 25, 2010
Just know that the blame will lie solidly with you when the truck is here and I'm glued to the computer surrounded by unboxed piles of my life.
posted by phunniemee at 11:32 PM on August 25, 2010
I'd love to get into this style of game, but the whole "you have no idea what is going on, click randomly and stuff might happen" mechanic so popular with indie game designers these days leaves me cold.
Can someone please enlighten me?
posted by Navelgazer at 11:46 PM on August 25, 2010 [3 favorites]
Can someone please enlighten me?
posted by Navelgazer at 11:46 PM on August 25, 2010 [3 favorites]
I'm cold too, but frustratedely clicking to try to get some kind of mining operation. What's the secret killer order?
posted by Meatbomb at 12:55 AM on August 26, 2010
posted by Meatbomb at 12:55 AM on August 26, 2010
Hunt-the-pixel at its finest, which is to say really really annoying but dammit you have to finish it anyway.
A new Grow, on the other hand, is always welcome.
posted by darksasami at 1:08 AM on August 26, 2010
A new Grow, on the other hand, is always welcome.
posted by darksasami at 1:08 AM on August 26, 2010
Love his stuff. Here's an FPP I made a few years ago that covers the early installments of Submachine. Might help give some context for this new one.
posted by jbickers at 3:04 AM on August 26, 2010
posted by jbickers at 3:04 AM on August 26, 2010
Submachine: 32 Chambers
It was originally "36 Chambers," but after ODB died...
posted by Pastabagel at 6:22 AM on August 26, 2010
It was originally "36 Chambers," but after ODB died...
posted by Pastabagel at 6:22 AM on August 26, 2010
Eyemaze and Submachine on the same day? I'm not getting anything done today, am I?
posted by LN at 7:02 AM on August 26, 2010
posted by LN at 7:02 AM on August 26, 2010
This word "game" ... I do not think it means what you think it means.
posted by brokkr at 8:12 AM on August 26, 2010
posted by brokkr at 8:12 AM on August 26, 2010
Maybe that gets good later on, but even I've got better things to do than find out.
posted by howfar at 8:53 AM on August 26, 2010
posted by howfar at 8:53 AM on August 26, 2010
Hint! That stupid Armor Games pop-up ad was obscuring a whole part of the interface! Close it to... actually figure out what's going on.
posted by bicyclefish at 9:40 AM on August 26, 2010
posted by bicyclefish at 9:40 AM on August 26, 2010
The Grow Valley walkthrough is posted on Jay is Games.
I disagree with the randomness of Grow games though. Part of the game is watching all the animations come to life. The Eyezmaze guy talks about how hard he tries to communicate everything about the game through imagery rather than text (for people who don't know Japanese or English). It's such a refreshingly different mechanic than the jillion games that begin with a 5, 30, 60 minute tutorial about How The Game Is Played or How To Move In This Universe or Here Is The Backstory, Feel These Emotions.
Part of it is that there's a good bit of strategy to the game. First time through, just click the buttons in order. The animations usually clue you into which tools need to be given the most time to nurture itself. For example, there are two guys in the Grow Valley game that definitely need to be employed before everybody else is either because the world collapses without them or because they seem to never stop leveling up. Second time through, you should play those buttons first and watch carefully for "dependencies", or buttons that interact with each other. If you can establish a "OK, A has to come before B, but not immediately, only after two beats have passed" type ordering between two or three pairings, it's usually enough to get you to the "you hear applause at the end of the game" mark. And then you can grind your way to 100% or look up a spoiler.
It's quite fun. It should be a game genre all by itself.
If you want to play a much more difficult (designed to be hardass) game from Eyezmaze, try Chronon. Same style: you learn the game by trying things out and watching the amazingly detailed illustrations, not by reading paragraphs of instructions. Different game: time traveling back and forth gives you a serious headache.
posted by shadytrees at 9:59 AM on August 26, 2010 [2 favorites]
I disagree with the randomness of Grow games though. Part of the game is watching all the animations come to life. The Eyezmaze guy talks about how hard he tries to communicate everything about the game through imagery rather than text (for people who don't know Japanese or English). It's such a refreshingly different mechanic than the jillion games that begin with a 5, 30, 60 minute tutorial about How The Game Is Played or How To Move In This Universe or Here Is The Backstory, Feel These Emotions.
Part of it is that there's a good bit of strategy to the game. First time through, just click the buttons in order. The animations usually clue you into which tools need to be given the most time to nurture itself. For example, there are two guys in the Grow Valley game that definitely need to be employed before everybody else is either because the world collapses without them or because they seem to never stop leveling up. Second time through, you should play those buttons first and watch carefully for "dependencies", or buttons that interact with each other. If you can establish a "OK, A has to come before B, but not immediately, only after two beats have passed" type ordering between two or three pairings, it's usually enough to get you to the "you hear applause at the end of the game" mark. And then you can grind your way to 100% or look up a spoiler.
It's quite fun. It should be a game genre all by itself.
If you want to play a much more difficult (designed to be hardass) game from Eyezmaze, try Chronon. Same style: you learn the game by trying things out and watching the amazingly detailed illustrations, not by reading paragraphs of instructions. Different game: time traveling back and forth gives you a serious headache.
posted by shadytrees at 9:59 AM on August 26, 2010 [2 favorites]
I'd love to get into this style of game, but the whole "you have no idea what is going on, click randomly and stuff might happen" mechanic so popular with indie game designers these days leaves me cold.
I agree. There doesn't seem to be too much rhyme or reason about where to click or why. I don't really get why people enjoy them so much.
posted by delmoi at 11:12 AM on August 26, 2010
I agree. There doesn't seem to be too much rhyme or reason about where to click or why. I don't really get why people enjoy them so much.
posted by delmoi at 11:12 AM on August 26, 2010
Hint! That stupid Armor Games pop-up ad was obscuring a whole part of the interface! Close it to... actually figure out what's going on.
Submachine: 32 Chambers is also here if you want it without the weird floaty panel thing.
I linked to the JiG one originally because you can check out the other cgdc8 entries from it.
posted by juv3nal at 12:01 PM on August 26, 2010
Submachine: 32 Chambers is also here if you want it without the weird floaty panel thing.
I linked to the JiG one originally because you can check out the other cgdc8 entries from it.
posted by juv3nal at 12:01 PM on August 26, 2010
Okay, wow, finally beat that Grow games. God I love those.
Shady trees is dead-on about the game, Navelgazer. The entire mechanic is "order these six pieces." It takes some time, but in all of them, you can tell which pieces have more stages of growth and which have less and arrange them into chunks. For instance, a certain game might have 5 components, with a 3/2 chunking. So instead of having to figure out how 5 pieces fit together, you can figure out the right combination of three, and then of two. It's hard to describe, but plug away at it. It's just about the opposite of "random."
...and you always know when you win in Grow games. He is not subtle with endings.
posted by griphus at 1:04 PM on August 26, 2010
Shady trees is dead-on about the game, Navelgazer. The entire mechanic is "order these six pieces." It takes some time, but in all of them, you can tell which pieces have more stages of growth and which have less and arrange them into chunks. For instance, a certain game might have 5 components, with a 3/2 chunking. So instead of having to figure out how 5 pieces fit together, you can figure out the right combination of three, and then of two. It's hard to describe, but plug away at it. It's just about the opposite of "random."
...and you always know when you win in Grow games. He is not subtle with endings.
posted by griphus at 1:04 PM on August 26, 2010
Oh, and here is the 100% solution to Grow Valley. Mouseover for item:
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
posted by griphus at 1:15 PM on August 26, 2010
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
posted by griphus at 1:15 PM on August 26, 2010
love, love, love the grow games. i had a dream about one of them a few weeks back. so glad to see there's a new one.
posted by nadawi at 3:28 PM on August 26, 2010
posted by nadawi at 3:28 PM on August 26, 2010
When they said "sandbox game", this is not what I was thinking.
posted by Robin Kestrel at 5:20 PM on August 26, 2010 [2 favorites]
posted by Robin Kestrel at 5:20 PM on August 26, 2010 [2 favorites]
There's a secret ending in Grow Valley, by the way.
posted by Rinku at 12:54 PM on August 27, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by Rinku at 12:54 PM on August 27, 2010 [1 favorite]
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posted by paisley henosis at 11:32 PM on August 25, 2010