This is the first of, I think, three "Games in Review" posts I'll be doing to quickly assess the games I played at IndieCade. Now, I'll be looking at these as a game developer as well as gamer, all the while trying to keep each review to a mere paragraph. So let's jump right to it!

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Sportsball

     Ahh, the nostalgia. When I was a kid, my brothers and I used to play a game called Joust for hours. As soon as I stepped up to fill in as the fourth player for this game, those memories of Joust flooded my head. This is a great party game, with lots of action. Putting the balls in the net is no easy feat, but the fun of the game comes from having to bop your opponents on the head to get those balls. Soon, there are four balls from each team whizzing around, and you don't know if you should be scoring them or watching your precious little head. Even though I had the experience of Joust backing me, I still lost, which leads me to the conclusion that Sportsball is a

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     Hey guys! Joraaver here, with a small but important post. I know you haven't heard from me in a while, but that's because I've been trying to package a new (not Elrel LLC related) game for release!

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Heroin Hero v2

Play it now at heroinhero.clay.io

What a lovably fun game!

     This game is actually the product of my time with two friends at LA Hacks two weekends ago. It's a play on South Park's "Heroin Hero", with the object of the game being to catch the dragon and stay as high as possible while doing so, which means collecting the most drugs, let it be marijuana, beer, or heroin. Of course, dodge the water and your blasted roommate--they sober you up.

Pause screen

     At the end, you can see how well you did compared to the rest of the world through the global leaderboard! Finally, you are posed with a moral question: will you play this dangerous game again?

What will you do?

Play it now at heroinhero.clay.io

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Small Note

     Now, this game is no way

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What time is it? It's progress update time! Today, I'll be showing you more art to look at and soundtracks to listen to.

Demo

To start, I've got a nice little demo for you all to try out, if you feel so inclined. Mind you, even though I call this a demo, we still are developing it, so it is more like a beta. Can you even have a beta without an alpha? I'm not sure. Anyway, enjoy!

Versions:    Linux    Windows    Mac

Feel free to email us or comment about the game here, or give feedback over at Feedback Friday on Reddit.

Art

The previous post's works were quite light, so this time you will see a darker tone.

I don't know what the rest of you think, but I was thinking The Hound of the Baskervilles, by Arthur Conan Doyle, with the one below. You know, the moor.

Music

I've got another soundtrack for you guys, and this one comes with an interesting "medieval" flute section. Let me know what you think!

Final Thoughts

Joraaver goes back to his day job (being a student) on Monday, so expect the release

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Head's up guys. This post is written by Joraaver.

We've given you the basics of who we are, but now, I'm going to dive into what the game is about, as well as what part each of us plays in the development of the game we're working on. The game has no name yet, so "the game" here means The Game.

The Game

This is a puzzle-platformer game. It's got a bit of a backstory, but the real focus is on the puzzle in each level. We hope players will learn to love the titles as they move on through the levels, because they'll get no other hints. Now, I can't tell you everything, can I? But perhaps a screenshot will satiate your hunger for now:

Our Roles

     I'm Joraaver, the lead programmer on the team. I'm using the JMonkeyEngine, or jME version 3 RC2, as the game engine for this project. I could have gone with a more classic 2D engine, like Construct 2, or even have used Unity, which has just released a 2D framework in it's latest version (v4.3). However, I am most familiar with Java, I like the open-source nature

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