Photo credit: Gizmodo
The unbelievable picture of a Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II was captured mid-flight by another pilot, and it looks to be straight from a movie. The F-35 has a maximum speed of over Mach 1.6. With a maximum takeoff weight of 60,000 lb (27,000 kg). Click here to view the first image in today’s viral picture gallery. Continue reading for a video of an extreme homeless man makeover that will restore your faith in humanity.
When Nuprahtor tweeted me the link to the trailer above, I knew he had found something special. Zzzz-Zzzz-Zzzz is the result of 3 months of work by Russian developer SaintHeiser, whose earlier game Mind Trap turned plenty of heads. Zzzz-Zzzz-Zzzz is a semi-open world platformer featuring exploration and puzzle-solving and sporting some truly fine pixel art. All of the action is set inside the narrator’s dreams, from which he cannot awaken.
The music, the deliberate pace of the gameplay, the spare but expressive art, and the washed out palette of much of the game all convey the feeling of moving through a lucid dream. The narrator comments on his dreams as you guide him through them, providing both guidance and poignancy. The controls are simple: arrow keys to move and jump, and Z to do various things (like enter doors, get up or lie down in bed, use a superpower, etc.) To exit a dream, hit Escape.
The game has a lot of traditional platformer elements in spite of its unique presentation. After the first couple of levels, you gain access to the Dream Map, a central hub-world. Each dream, or level, is entered by lying down in one of the beds found around the Dream Map. As you complete dreams, new ones become accessible.
There’s a lot of platform jumping, but none of it’s sadistic nor deadly. The real challenge lies in finding your way to the different levels and solving the puzzles within them. The lack of direction may be frustrating for some, but it perfectly fits the tone of a dream. If you’re stuck, try replaying levels and finding something new.
You can download the game from SaintHeiser’s website or from Game Jolt. It is currently only available for Windows.
Grundislav Games’ Francisco Gonzalez on A Golden Wake
The hook: A Golden Wake is a point and click adventure about greed, corruption, and redemption set against the backdrop of the Land Boom in 1920s Miami.
Release info: The game is being made in Adventure Game Studio, which uses Windows as the primary platform, but the engine has been ported to Mac as well as iOS, so it may appear on those platforms at some point. Price and date are still TBD, but I am shooting for a 2014 release.
Screenshot info: This screenshot shows the beginning of Chapter 2 (out of 4), in which the main character, Alfie Banks (bottom left) is at work at the Coral Gables Land Developer’s Office. Soon, another character will walk in and give him some information which will send him on a set of adventure-gamey quests. The art style is low-res 320×200.
An earlier iteration above: I haven’t made too many changes, except to the lighting. In the previous screenshot I felt it was way too warm and dark, so I made it brighter and more like lamp light would be, as well as adding some lighting to the edges of several objects in the scene.
The devs and tech behind the screens: I did the artwork of both the background and characters. So far, A Golden Wake is a solo operation. I have a musician and have had talks with a publisher, but it’s still a bit too early to talk about that. I mainly use a very old version of Photoshop and a Wacom tablet to do my art.
The selection process: I choose screenshots which hopefully don’t give too much away regarding plot, but which are hopefully visually appealing and pique the curiosity of the viewer. As for why, it’s to keep the game fresh in people’s minds and let them know that progress is being made.
How can people follow you? Twitter, Facebook fan page, and my main website featuring my other freeware games.
Pay it forward. What game caught your eye this week? Fantastic idea! There were several interesting screenshots, but this one made me laugh. I have no idea what Casey Goodrow’s Sorry Mario Bros will be like, but I’m definitely interested!
[For more on A Golden Wake, check out this announcement back in February]
Reptile Games’ upcoming customizable robot beat ‘em up Megabyte Punch is ready for release next week. If a combination of Mega Man, Custom Robo and Super Smash Bros. sounds appealing to you, then this might be a game worth looking into.
There are two main modes available in Megabyte Punch. The first is a single-player adventure that centers around defending your home village from an evil empire and its tyrannical leader. The enemies you’ll destroy across the 18 stages drop pieces which can be used to customize your character. There are 150 parts in all, which can help power up body parts and add new attacks. Other pieces might create a functioning arm cannon, allowing you to shoot. Expanding your abilities will help when trying to tackle the six bosses that stand in your path.
These upgrades will also be convenient in the local mutiplayer battle mode, where you can take the fight to up to three of your friends. It honestly looks a lot like Super Smash Bros. in the way you try to knock your opponents from the level, though unlike Nintendo’s fighter, the stage itself is destructible. The campaign also supports split-screen multiplayer, for those who are a little less bloodthirsty but still want to play with their pals.
While Megabyte Punch will release on August 6, those with the Unity Web Player can try the browser-based demo right now. The full version will release on Windows, Mac and Linux for $14.99, but a first-week only 20 percent reduction means early adopters can get it for $11.99. A special edition will also be available for $19.99 that includes wallpapers and a soundtrack. You will be able to find it through The Humble Store, Desura and Gamersgate. No Steam release is in sight just yet, but the game is up on Greenlight.
Kyttaro Games, of which our own Gnome is a part, has released its sci-fi, stop-motion animated, action puzzler Droidscape: Basicila this week. The gameplay is split in two main parts: tracing a path for the robot to follow through deadly mazes and using a slider to speed the character forward or backward through the path.
Kyttaro has also deployed a rather accessible, experimental mode for iPhone 4S+, iPad 2+ owners. Using “HeadTwister” technology, the front-facing camera of those newer devices allows for hands-free head-tracking. OIder model phones can still play the game using touch-based controls.
Also of note, fans of hand-made models will want to check out Droidscape’s Facebook page, showcasing the game being molded into life.
The sketches in the beginning of the video and the music is rather epic, too, might I add! So be sure to click on the trailer above and see the game and Gnome in action. Droidscape: Basilica is on sale now for $1 for iOS, and an Android version is said to be in the works.
A mere five months in development, Locomalito’s homage to Choplifter, Defender and the classic monster movies of yester-year has been unleashed into the wild! Destroy the puny armies of mankind, battle collossal creatures and lay waste to the sleepy towns of the sun-drenched Canary Islands, all in glorious vintage coin-op-o-vision whilst Gryzor87’s thematic chip tunes blast out in the background! Oh yes, there is a whole lot of authentic 1980’s fun to be had in Gaurodan.
However, the big reveal – and indeed the reason why this particular release is so special – is that Gaurodan is the first Locomalito game to be released on a console as well as PC. Enter centre stage… the Ouya.
In a recent conversation with RGCD and Wide Pixel Games (who assisted with Ouya testing and technical support), Loco declared that he’d been dreaming of releasing games on a freeware-friendly console, something that the Ouya made possible with relative ease. Does this mean we could we see Hydorah or Maldita Castilla arrive on the machine? Possibly, but for now he has only confirmed that he plans to support the niche indie platform with his future releases.
I’ve been fortunate to have played Gaurodan pretty extensively over the past few weeks, and can happily confirm that the free-scrolling shmup is typically Locomalito hard – despite my best efforts I’ve only seen as far as the first boss battle. Despite its harsh difficulty, the game is a perfectly crafted tribute to a bygone age and often-overlooked genre, and I cannot recommend it enough. If the bargain price of FREE offends you, consider sending Locomalto a donation to help fund future projects.
Download the Windows version of Gaurodan here.
(The Ouya version has been submitted and is awaiting approval, but should be available for free download from the Discover store soon).
What happens when you combine the functionality of a real book with a notebook? Fujitsu’s “Real Notebook” of course. This futuristic laptop boasts dual flexible touchscreen displays that can be configured a host of ways. Continue reading for a couple more pictures.
Before throwing out that old NES controller that just won’t function anymore, consider turning it into a functional phone dock. That is just one of the any cool things that geeks have made with old video game parts. Other projects include: an NES toaster, Xbox 360 aquarium, and more. Continue reading to see them all.
Photo credit: Tecdive
This mind-blowing underground river, called Cenote Angelita, is located in the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico. Divers can reach it in about 10 to 15 minutes from the south of Tulum. While it may look like a real river, it’s actually “a thin layer of hydrogen sulfate separates the saltwater from the fresh water above it.” Continue reading for a video, more pictures, and additional information.
%20that%20can%20be%20found%20after%20a%2010%20to%2015%20minute%20drive%20south%20of%20Tulum.%20It%20is%20arguably%20the%20most%20unique%20formation%20of%20this%20kind%3A%20a%20thin%20layer%20of%20hydrogen%20sulfate%20separates%20the%20saltwater%20from%20the%20fresh%20water%20above%20it%2C%20allowing%20scuba%20divers%20to%20swim%20along%20this%20underwater%20creation%2C%20which%20looks%20a%20lot%20like%20a%20regular%20river%20would%20on%20the%20ground.%20There%20are%20even%20fallen%20trees%20and%20leaves%20on%20both%20sides%20of%20the%20“shores”%2C%20making%20this%20seascape%20look%20all%20the%20more%20surreal!)
The Samsung Galaxy S5 may not get as much attention as the iPhone 5S / 6, but rest assured, there will be some ground-breaking features in the company’s next-generation handset, like a flexible AMOLED display. If that’s the case, here’s how it would look. Continue reading for more pictures.
