Tag: Puzzle Platformer »

Ember’s Journey is a stark puzzle platformer with a twist: the entire game is played in darkness. The only light you can see by is the oneemanating from your own character.

Later this month you'll be able to enjoy the pleasures of Meerkatz Challenge, a puzzle platformer that seems rather reminiscent of the classic puzzle game, Lemmings.

Players must help guide a mob of meerkats as they attempt to travel the world in search of peace and tranquility. Digging, jumping, climbing, and many more activities will be involved when it comes to keeping the cute animals safe.

Set for release July 24, we'll be sure to keep you in the loop regarding its development.

In the meantime, check out the cute gameplay trailer below.

Ben and Abi seem to have no sense of direction. Now with the latest Lost Twins update from Werplay, you can get lost in the attic and unlock new levels and zones. Try out Ben and Abi's new method of transportation: Balloons! Sounds like a fantastic idea so long as you don't run into the spikes.

With the improved controls and visuals for iPad, now might be a good time to check out Lost Twins. You can find it on the the App Store for $1.99 Free.

A great robot once asked: "You guys like swarms of things, right?" How right he was to make that assumption. There's just something about overseeing a churning mass of critters that feels oddly right. Or perhaps that's just my inner overlord talking. Regardless, Wobbles, from Play Nimbus, offers up such an experience by letting players guide their aimlessly wandering charges through perilous maps in the name of technological progress. Sort of. We had a chat with Play Nimbus' Nick Mudry (Producer, Creative Director, Marketing) to get the lowdown on these odd little characters.

148Apps: What sort of game is Wobbles, exactly? I can see some definite similarities to Lemmings but it also looks like there's more to it than that.
Nick Mudry (NM): Wobbles is a 2D side-scrolling puzzle platformer where you guide a line of adorable creatures, called Wobbles, across a dangerous landscape. You do this by placing gadgets, such as fire, aqueducts, tunnels, etc, which the Wobbles interact with. For example, the fire lights their butts on fire and they fly into their air (think Mario 64) while the aqueduct allows them to safely land from falls in a pool of water.

Wobbles was inspired by Lemmings back when we were originally conceptualizing what game we actually wanted to make. It came up as "what if you had a ton of Lemmings running across a level and you were just throwing platforms in front of them?" That initial concept exploded into the game we have today. Minutes after we talked about that idea, we were already drawing concepts for the characters, mechanics, etc.

148Apps: About how many different eras are you expecting to include in the final build? Any plans to release more in the future?
NM: We are launching Wobbles with a total of 6 eras: Cavemen, Roman, Medieval, Industrial, Modern, and Future. Each era has 10 levels, which adds up to 60 levels for the initial release. Each era has their own specific gadget, ranging from the fire all the way to one that reverses the Wobbles' gravity. We've had many ideas for different eras and gadgets that we would have liked to do for release, but they have been put aside for now. If Wobbles has a good reception, I'm sure we might work on a few new ones and release them.

148Apps: What made you all decide on the name "Wobbles?"
NM: This is an interesting story. It goes back to the night when we were initially conceptualizing the game. When we first saw the Wobbles' concept and the way it was shaped, we were wondering what to call it. We threw a few ideas out in the air, but at the end of the meeting, we decided to call them "Wobbles" for the time being. It ended up sticking and being an adorable little name for them.

148Apps: Where did the Wobbles' look come from? I think I see a little Alice the Goon in their design.
NM: A lot of the game originated at that meeting many months ago, and so did the Wobbles' look. During our brainstorming of how the game played and what we wanted it to feel like, our amazing artist, Laura, was already drawing concepts for what they should look like. When I turned around, I saw something that I could easily remember and adore and knew that would be the design we'd pick. Funny you mention Alice the Goon as part of their design. While I haven't thought of that until just now, it does have a little bit of the same style. We've noticed the Wobbles also look like a few other characters in games. I won't say exactly which ones, but just picture a Wobble with a space helmet and then think what other characters look similar.

148Apps: Were there any mechanics that you wanted to include but had to cut due to time/balance/other reasons? Anything you're hoping to add later?
NM: Before we went into a full production cycle this summer, we spent a decent amount of time in pre-production preparing. We had many meetings discussing what we should have in the game, and what we shouldn't. This made us know exactly what we'd need to do, and didn't have to cut anything. Surprisingly, things came together pretty well and almost on time. We did cut one feature, the stone bridge, since it was a bit redundant, but we didn't miss it at all. There are things we hope to add later though. We have plenty of features in mind that we thought of during our production that we just didn't have the time to add before release.

Wobbles is expected to wander onto the App Store sometime this month, where the curious and the insidious will be able to get their hands on it for $1.99. We'd like to thank Nick for his time and wish the team over at Play Nimbus luck with their game's release!

Taco Graveyard knows names. Their new game Penumbear has players controlling a shadowy bear, as the portmanteau would suggest, through mysterious puzzle-platforming environments.This bear doesn’t quite know where he is or what’s going on, but he has one ability: the power to remotely turn on and off light switches, which is one of the more practical superpowers out there, although with remote home automation, it can be had. But see, for Penumbear, it’s especially useful, as he has the ability to walk on light. He can’t pass through dark to light, but he can use that to his advantage, strategically disabling and enabling lamps to find the keys in each level and moving on to the next one, and hopefully closer to the truth about himself.

The game is a puzzle-platformer, but it doesn’t forget about the ‘platformer’ part of the game, as it’s definitely got plenty of actual challenging jump sequences to take on. The lighting effects are fairly impressive as well, with clever uses of objects hidden in shadows that can help the player, or hinder them. The game also pulls out a lot of variety in its levels, with some that are more linear in scope, and others that are mini-explorations.

Penumbear also comes with a boatload of content: 100 levels will last a long time in this game, particularly as the early levels are not easy at all. This game will take plenty of time to beat and to see everything. There’s also the “bonus bears” to collect, which are hidden throughout the levels. They encourage exploration and discovery, which is a fantastic thing, because the game is perfectly set up for clever secrets. However, it’s rather annoying that any collected bonus bears are lost when dying and returning to a checkpoint. I collected the bonus bear, I should be able to keep it instead of having to constantly backtrack.

Penumbear may be made of shadows, but the sounds that he makes, and his animations make him surprisingly adorable. He controls fairly well too, with the ability to compensate for some close jumps. I felt like it was possible to maneuver him through tight spots effectively. Activating the four buttons for different switches could be annoying because on iPhone in particular they’re clumped so close together. Also, the settings boast of iCloud support, but it did not seem to work at launch. What a shame. The game also supports only one landscape orientation with the home button on the right, and on the iPhone 5 and iPad 2, that makes it very uncomfortable to play with headphones plugged in.

Penumbear is a clever puzzle-platformer that definitely grew on me as it went along. It’s got a ton of content for a cheap price, and it takes great advantage of its concept. Snuggle up with Penumbear.

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