Well, I went to Eurogamer Expo 2010 this year on the Friday, thanks to Dave Hayward at the recently-merged Mudlark. Dave arranged it for us to showcase Revenge of the Titans at the Indiecade booth round the back of the show, along with a few other indies. Extra super thanks to Dave for being brilliant! Unfortunately I didn’t take a worthy camera with me so there aren’t any exciting pictures of me doing exciting things, which is just as well, as I’m not too photogenic.
The Indiecade section was right at the back, as befits our lowly status. I had to pick my way past row upon row of giant screens with gaming geeks sat mesmerised playing incredible looking AAA games. Amongst various others, I saw Enslaved, which looked quite gorgeous; Little Big Planet 2, ditto; and quite a few FPS games with really big guns and loads of blood in a section cordoned off for over 18s only. I wandered in there in case there were boobies, but alas it turns out it was merely crammed with geeks and the odd geekette.
At the Indiecade section I was most pleased to discover a small crowd constantly hovering around RotT. Admittedly it doesn’t really lend itself to being demonstrated in a sea of noise to people who are determined to look at 50 other games in the space of a few hours, but even so, a few people looked like they seemed to really enjoy themselves and some of them even got the hang of it.
Mode7’s Frozen Synapse
When I got there I mostly hung out with Ian, Paul and ‘Bin from Mode7 games (they’re the guys behind Frozen Synapse, which is a condensed turnbased tactical squad simulation similar to Laser Squad Nemesis (having trouble finding a link for that) – available to buy in pre-order beta). Nice to meet you, guys! Mode7 are a UK based indie studio like Puppygames, and like Puppygames, are perpetually starved of cash and I think they survive on beans and whatever it is ‘Bin cultivates under his mattress. Help them out!
Charlie’s Games Scoregasm
Really good feel to this dual-stick arena shooter reminiscent of PomPom games Mutant Storm Empire. Admittedly a pretty niche market but done with extremely nice polish. This is just what you need after a curry and some lager. Turn up the music, turn down the lights, zone out and blow stuff up! Head on over to Charlie’s Games and grab it right away. Available for all OSes!
You can tell Charlie’s from the UK by the tone of the game description:
The game is set in a little galaxy comprised of various different arenas that have been invaded by naughty space baddies! It’s your job to sort them out.
Tiny and Big from Black Pants
Beautifully designed physics puzzly 3D thing backed by a cute story. You have a laser with which to slice up rocks in any way you like, causing them to topple over and make bridges and such. Obviously written by dead clever people way beyond our humble skills. There’s a demo available for all OSes.
Black Pants are a 7-strong team from Germany. I wonder what we could achieve with 7 people working at Puppygames?
Swimming under Clouds from Piece Of Pie Studios
Another pretty game, this one I actually had a little blast on as well. Controlled with a gamepad, your avatar is a little fish, living in a blob of water. You scud around in the manner of Gish, using inertia and momentum to your advantage, collecting things. You can also squirt water in any direction. No demo yet (it was good fun, if you’re into platforming physics games) – maybe more information will appear on Piece of Pie Studios’ site soon.
Piece of Pie are another German outfit, but seemingly a one-man band.
Well, that was all I actually managed to get to play while I was there, before I craved booze and fled to the RockPaperShotgun after-expo Knees Up in the O’Neils down the Old Brompton Road.
At the O’Neils I managed to fawn around various journalists from RPS and other places, who will be on the receiving end of my obsequious sycophancy in due course, and drank much Guinness. I also scavenged a few leftover burgers. Well, you never know if it’s your last, etc, etc. I met a chap called Brod from the RPS forums who’d made a Minteresque psychedelic game of some sort he was showing to Kieron Gillen, but unfortunately it caned the battery on his laptop and promptly shut down. Also unfortunately, Kieron has just quit being a journalist, just when we needed him to gush about Revenge of the Titans. Ah well.
So there you have it. Quite a fun day, if a little knackering.
Ah right, I went on Saturday and Sunday, will have to stalk you another time
Ah, looks like we missed each other! I was around the Scoregasm end of the row all weekend!
I didn’t play revenge too much (too busy chatting about my own game!), but what i played felt more streamlined than the beta you had out earlier in the year, plus it looks super swish!
Cheers
Charlie