By Adam Smith on November 6th, 2012 at 1:00 pm.
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Earlier this year, a collection of game developers formed a loose collective called The Indie Buskers. Taking requests from the shouting face of the internet, each of them coded a game in 48 hours and the results were released in a bundle of the ‘pay what you want’ variety. Well, the buskers are back with new games and, as with the last event, the ideas that the crowd yelled in their direction are seventy billion times more imaginative than ‘sequel to your most financially successful project’. Quotes of a Molydeuxbious nature below and a game where you really must talk to the monsters.
Ido Yehieli, creator of Cardinal Quest, wins the best busker prize because he has actually made “Doom, but you can talk to the monsters”. It’s called Diplomatic Doom and has the best plot of anything ever.
“The UAC Space Marine ship has arrived on Mars. Unfortunately the marines are all space-sick from the journey so they sent you, the ship’s counselor, to find a diplomatic solution.”
Sophie Houlden made a game called Phone Phantom, which is all about navigating customer service hotlines, bypassing robots and possessing human beings. The pitch contained this Vonnegutesque brilliance:
“…a world in which all citizens must, by law, display a customer support number at all times, through which other citizens can register their complaints. Naturally no one wants to be bothered by all this, so there’s a bit of an arms race for developing more and more obscurely-designed automated phone systems.”
Friedrich Hanisch of Rat King has made a game that shoots colours directly into your brain. It’s called HATESNAKE3D. The inspiration came from several sources.
“every 5 seconds you explode, you have to avoid killing people while chasing the man with the cure” (by @helscar) and “Beat’em’up in zero-g” (by Eelfroth) and all the others! Thanks!”
Phil Hassey’s DandyDan features “a hedge maze where you control the hedges” but, perhaps more importantly – “The dandy needs his coins!” I’m pretty sure that’s the first title card in 95% of silent movies.
Finally, there’s Sneaky Brats, a “stealth game in which putting your hands over your eyes really does make you invisible”. Instead of guns, the teams of children fight with the power of their imagination.
There is one unfinished project as well, Pekka Kujansuu’s Space Brawl, which has been delayed due to illness. Get well soon!
The bundle is available for a minimum of one Euro.
Trailer at article site.
