Creators of Caveman Craig, Teka Teki, and more.. 

My week off.

Hi all!
As you all know, a week ago we announced the CC2 pre-order deal and launched our new flashy Caveman Craig website. Simulteanously, we released our first BETA version to some private testers.

Tim and I had worked during every pocket of time we got to get these two milestones ready as soon as possibly possible. It was with great excitement that we found ourselves at the top of the final stretch as of last Saturday evening.

Having worked on the game at every chance I got during the past month or two, I decided to have a week “off”. It came to my attention that I had not played enough games recently, so I made that a priority.

After being blown away by the demo, I bought Playdead’s “Limbo” and played through within hours. The animation and graphics are stunning, sure, but the music and sound’s contribution to the atmosphere got me the most. The puzzles were challenging but not frustrating – for some I was so sure I was missing an element to the puzzle that would make it a little more possible, but eventually something always clicked in my lateral thinking mind.

Mostly, Limbo just got me thinking more about game design, and also some of the old games my brothers & I used to play. “Another World”, on Mega Drive/Genesis, was a christmas present when I was a very young child. I was terrible at it, and I think most of us thought it was a pretty B grade game as none of us had heard of it, and, what the hell man, no dialog or colourful sprites or bloopy sound effects. Retrospectively I think it’s one of the more respected games that I grew up with. Also, I never finished it.

Next up was “Sixty Five Million and One B.C”, a really good plot-driven platformer, created in Game Maker by snailfox. The game did originally have a price tag but is now free – a very generous move by snailfox, although it left me feeling sorry that I never bought the game to support him originally.

65m&1bc is actually really funny. There’s great dialogue that makes fun of the game and doesn’t take itself too seriously. The feel of the prehistoric forests and mountain ranges are just really friendly and light. The puzzles are challenging and clever, although sometimes it feels unpolished and I did come across some annoying glitches. Some of the music, art, and feel of the game really inspired me when working on Caveman Craig and I’ll always hold this game in high regard.

The last two games I played this week were America’s Army 2 and Call of Duty: United Offensive. That’s right, the very first Call of Duty (with an expansion pack that we don’t utilise). Tim and I spent many hours playing 1 on 1 over the LAN with our sniper rifles or MP40’s. Just recently we had an opportunity to relive those times all over again with some friends, and it was all rather exciting and with a welcomed slower pace from the later games in the COD series. It’s also funny seeing some of the sprites and ideas that are still unchanged in CoD: Black Ops.

I went through high school playing America’s Army at every chance I got. I was obsessed with this game – clan wars and all. Returning to this game after years of dulling my brain with newer renditions of Call of Duty and Grand Theft Auto meant it took a few days to get used to the slow, tactical pace of this game. In COD, jumping like a maniac is your key to survival. In America’s Army (and real life..), jumping is the worst thing you can do in a firefight. You lose your aim and you become useless for about 2 seconds while you get your gear back in place – 2 seconds, while your firefight lasts about 1.

AA is free, and brilliant. I’m not so sure about the current AA3 version, as I’ve heard it’s still very glitchy. I’ve been playing AA2, which is now dereliect with only a few servers. But it’s worth it!

And that, friends, has been my past week.
And now, back to CC2 =)

Regards,
Rhys