Joystiq http://www.joystiq.com Joystiq http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/http://www.joystiq.com/media/feedlogo.gif Joystiq http://www.joystiq.com en-us Copyright 2013 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/<![CDATA[The Joystiq Indie Pitch: Forbidden Island]]>http://www.joystiq.com/2012/02/19/the-joystiq-indie-pitch-forbidden-island/http://www.joystiq.com/2012/02/19/the-joystiq-indie-pitch-forbidden-island/http://www.joystiq.com/2012/02/19/the-joystiq-indie-pitch-forbidden-island/#comments Indie developers are the starving artists of the video-game world, often brilliant and innovative, but also misunderstood, underfunded and more prone to writing free-form poetry on their LiveJournals. We at Joystiq believe no one deserves to starve, and many indie developers are entitled to a fridge full of tasty, fulfilling media coverage, right here. This week, Sean Wilson of international indie studio Button Mash Games explains how his iPad title, Forbidden Island, is contributing to the tabletop game's renaissance.

What's your game called and what's it about?

Forbidden Island is an iPad board game where one to four adventurers cooperate to capture the four ancient treasures hidden on a sinking island. As the game progresses, parts of the island sink into the ocean, making it more difficult to collect the treasures. The game is based on the award-winning board game designed by Matt Leacock and published by Gamewright.

How were you able to create a licensed game as a brand new indie company?

This was really a combination of confidence and luck. We reached out to Matt Leacock, the original game designer, and expressed our interest in making the game. We created a small gameplay demo and explained our passion for the project and Matt put us in touch with Gamewright. They believed in our enthusiasm and plans for the game so they agreed to work with us. They gave us the freedom to take the game design in the directions we believed were best, but pushed us to reach further than we would have if we didn't have any outside feedback. The game has tons of improvements directly because of their ideas.

Continue reading The Joystiq Indie Pitch: Forbidden Island

JoystiqThe Joystiq Indie Pitch: Forbidden Island originally appeared on Joystiq on Sun, 19 Feb 2012 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>Button-Mash-GamesForbidden-Islandiosipadjoystiq-indie-pitchmobilerenaissanceSean-Wilsontabletoptabletop-gamingSun, 19 Feb 2012 15:30:00 EST<![CDATA[Couch co-op gives way to internet teamplay]]>http://www.joystiq.com/2006/07/10/couch-co-op-gives-way-to-internet-teamplay/http://www.joystiq.com/2006/07/10/couch-co-op-gives-way-to-internet-teamplay/http://www.joystiq.com/2006/07/10/couch-co-op-gives-way-to-internet-teamplay/#commentsCo-op mode in video games is often a very popular feature, probably because of the added intensity of competing with A.I. in partnership with a friend. Games like Halo and Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory become entirely different (and better) games when played in co-operative mode. Of course, the early innovator was Contra, which, without a co-op mode, would have been just another side scrolling shooter. With the greats of the co-op gaming genre in mind, Vic over at Bits & bytes & pixels & sprites has written up a feature calling for a next-generation renaissance in co-operative games.

Couch co-op has never been an assured feature with games, especially recently. Since 2000, developers on the PC platform have clearly ignored the co-op mode in favor of dedicated multiplayer modes with big name first person shooters like Half-Life 2, Doom 3 and Quake 4 skipping on the mode. Games with teamplay orientated multiplayer modes like Counter-Strike and Call of Duty have picked up the fundamentals of co-op based games and thanks to their easy accessibility over the internet, have become wildly popular as a result (especially in comparison to the limit of 2-4 players in a usual co-op game).

There will always be developers that include couch co-op modes in their games (Bungie, Blizzard and Ubisoft come to mind), but there's unlikely to be a massive resurgence in the number of couch co-op games mainly due to an internet based takeover of team based gameplay.

[Thanks, Daniel Zuccarelli]

JoystiqCouch co-op gives way to internet teamplay originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 10 Jul 2006 08:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>bits and bytes and pixels and spritesBitsAndBytesAndPixelsAndSpritesBlizzardBungieCo-opCo-operativeContracouch co-opCouchCo-opdoom 3Doom3gamesgametypegaminghalf-life 2Half-life2quake 4Quake4renaissanceUbisoftMon, 10 Jul 2006 08:30:00 EST