Lucid

I wanted to make a quick meantion of Yeaboing‘s Lucid.. the developer has temporarily made the game available on a pay what you want, if you want, scheme, for PC or Mac, over on their website.  Otherwise, it’s available on Steam.

Lucid is a match-all puzzle game, where you clear areas of coloured blocks by drawing a line through them with your mouse.  The painted blocks then disappear, with remaining blocks filling in the gaps and more dropping in from the top.

The game is really easy to pick up, and clearing large areas feels quite satisfying.. but there is a trick..

You can only clear an area if your line passes through every block in that area.  I thought I was being smart and setting myself up for a huge bonus, but instead trapped a large pile of blocks here!

Despite blocking myself in a bit, I was still able to clear other blocks, fill up the meter, and pass the level.

Lucid is a nice, casual game.. easy to play, lovely to look at, and rather relaxing.  The music is rather soothing too.. that’s also available to download in OGG format for the time being, on Yeaboing’s page here.

Voxatron Alpha

Voxatron is a block-based platform shooter by Lexaloffle Games, where you navigate a small robot around a destructible world made of tiny cubes, with a variety of enemies to kill.  The game is still in alpha, but there are a number of levels included in the game, as well as a level editor and browser so you can check out other people’s creations..

I love the graphics.. the cute little block-enemies, the bright colours, the way everything starts to break up as you shoot it.. I even loved being killed the first time, because of the little cube explosion!

However, I really don’t enjoy the controls.  It’s not the movement.. I spent a great deal of my childhood playing Spectrum games which used cursors or “w”, “s”, “o” and “p” to move, with the spacebar or some other random button for jumping or shooting.  The movement is fine..

What I don’t like about Voxatron is the shooting, because of having to stop running and face the enemy before I can shoot.  I just found this frustrating.. especially when new enemies appeared up-close and I’d have to run away first, to make room to turn and fire.  It’s a shame, but it tipped the balance enough that I found myself not enjoying the game.. and well, I have more than enough games that I would rather play!

If I’m honest, I probably wouldn’t have given the game more than a quick look if it hadn’t been part of the recent Humble Bundle.. I wouldn’t have bought it without playing and loving a demo, certainly.  However, I love the idea of the Humble Bundle.. and I enjoyed the other games in this pack, so I don’t regret the purchase 🙂

Blocks That Matter

Blocks That Matter is a platform puzzle game by Swing Swing Submarine, featuring a tiny robot, blocks and puzzles.. another game with blocks?  Minecraft really has set the trend.. 🙂

The adventure mode is called The Underground Rescue, and it starts with the story of Indie Game Devs in Trouble.  A pair of indie developers have been working on a secret project which their fans have been anticipating just a little too much.. they decide they don’t want to wait any more..

The devs are kidnapped and held hostage with instructions to complete their game overnight.. however, their secret project isn’t a game but a little robot, the Tetrobot, which is sitting de-activated in their office.  To help them, you need to get him up and running!

In the first level, you are only able to collect blocks by bashing into them with your head.  Once you have collected four blocks, the first upgrade station unlocks; going into it awards you the first upgrade.. the drill!

The drill allows collection of more blocks.. sand, wood and stone at this point, more types to come in later levels.

Your next upgrade teaches you to combine your blocks into Tetrominos, Tetris-blocks which you use to help you jump up to other parts of the map to gather other blocks, reach more upgrade points, or get to the exit portal.

Each portal moves you a little bit closer to the devs!

There are also a few enemies.. slimes!  The small ones can be jumped easily.. contact with them more than once will result in them triggering your nanoreset, and you start the level again.  You can trigger this yourself if stuck by holding down the W key: the first time you do this you get an achievement: Someone did it wrong!

The big one, though..

She chased me through one level.. a frantic dash for the exit portal, broken up by entering puzzle mode to create tetromino stairs and platforms to jump gaps.  Maybe she was mad with me because I killed some of the smaller slimes by dropping blocks on them 😉

Sand falls if there is nothing supporting it, so if you drill out the block underneath it, or explode a row of eight blocks, and the sand will fall onto whatever is underneath.  This can be used to kill slimes, to provide a step to climb on, or used in the construction of a tetromino where you don’t want all four blocks to stay put.. all depending on the puzzle you’re trying to solve.

I can see the game getting frustrating later, as any mistakes are punished with the need to nanoreset, and return to the start of the level.

In addition to the Adventure Mode, there is a set of chocolate-themed bonus levels, from the Chocolate Update.. starting with Chocolate Rain.  Many blocks have been switched out for chocolate, and the puzzles here involve having the chocolate blob enemies blow up the blocks 🙂

I found myself stuck after only a few levels, though..  I think I’ll come back to this after the main game!

While checking over the game’s website, I saw that Swing Swing Submarine have another game in the works: Seasons After Fall.  I actually noticed this game thanks to the early artwork, featuring a cute little fox sleeping under a tree..

Image by Djaoul..

Seasons After Fall will be more of a discovery-based puzzle game where you explore the countryside taking advantage of the changing seasons.  It looks as though this was meant to be out in 2011, but they now say it will be done when it’s done.. which at least means they’re concentrating on getting a properly working product together, rather than shipping something out full of bugs.. plus points to them!