This game’s ####ing awesome

Wow, this has made my day.

One of my favourite songs (+ clips) in years [<-- language warning, also scenes of thrift shops] has been parodied by a New Zealand Group and turned into a lovesong to the Steam Summer Sale (& indie games in general).

They’ve really nailed it.  They even refer to Gabe Newell as ‘grandad’.

Massive thumbs up to Viva La Dirt League for this effort.

The real Spanish inspirations behind Maldita Castilla

Late last year Spanish indie game maker ‘Locomalito’  released his latest ‘big’ game…  The beautifully Ghosts n Goblins-esque Maldita Castilla.

Just prior to the game’s release, I got chatting to ‘Loco’ (real name, unknown) and he told me a bit about the inspiration he’d got from researching Spanish history, characters and landscapes.

For example, the main character is based on El Cid (immortalised in the statue below). He was a well-known Spanish hero, who inspired many myths.

 

 

The best of the best of the best: Pixel Prospector’s finest

Earlier this year, we celebrated the birthday of a great indie game players/makers resource with a rather popular lookback over it’s past three years.  Now, we bring you news of Simon Kaizen’s latest creation, “Pixel Prospector’s FINEST”.

One small click for mantas, a giant leap for bundlekind

Blah blah blah “too many bundles…”  HANG ON A SEC, THIS ONE’S AWESOME!
Bundle in a Box (“the only thematic bundle around”) went all ‘adventure’ games last time, but this time it’s SPACE GAMES and it’s a CRACKER.

Dig Dug, Tapper guy… it’s Wreck-It Ralph trailer 2!

Wow, this just keeps looking better and better.

Lots of cute ‘game phenomena’ moments (when a character dies, they reappear “flashing” for a few seconds) with game characters (well-known & obscure) from a wide range of eras.

Plus Jane Lynch as herself. Well, actually an FPS heroine – but it’s 98% Jane.

Pinfest: In the crazed mind of a Wizard

There are some great pinball players coming to compete at Pinfest tonight…   Richard (RGR),  Scotty (Cruiserman), Rob (TIN), Mitch (DataBeast), just to name a few.

But what goes on…   in the crazed mind of a top pinball player?

JOMG flipped a few questions to Edy Stevens (aka Dedrok) as he helped setup the machines for this weekend…

Pinfest – how one mad idea came to fruition

December 2011.

After months of work, Chris and Dom Slevin opened their dream business, Pizza n Pinball, in Broadmeadow. (A Newcastle suburb, 2 hours north of Sydney)  The brothers combining their skills in takeaway food, pinball maintenance and of course their love of the silverball. The word was put out via arcade forums, a Facebook page was set up, and the customers started to walk in.

One of those initial customers… was Robert Denton.

Unveiled: Official poster for Pinfest, Caves Beach

Yes, you might have heard whispers about this one, but J-OMG has been digging a bit deeper to get you all the juicy details.

The inaugural PINFEST Pinball Festival will happen on Saturday September 8th and Sunday September 9th at the spectacular Caves Beach Hotel complex. Entry will be $10, with most proceeds going to the ‘SIDS for kids’ foundation.

Awesome indie game/dev resource blows out candles

These days, the number of great freeware games being released is staggering. But finding such games – let alone narrowing them down to styles or preferred platform – is a challenge. This week three years ago, somebody launched their answer to the problem. In the years that followed they also became an incredible help to would-be game makers.

But let’s not jump too far ahead in our story…

Special guest review: Games Masters at ACMI

Guest post by Andrew Marshall…

Retro gamers have a massive reason to visit Melbourne with the opening of the Game Masters exhibition at ACMI. The follow up to the hugely successful Game On (with over 148,000 visitors in 2008), Game Masters aims to introduce the public to the Gods of gaming. Taking its cues from the auteur theory of film criticism, over 30 video game designers are profiled, with over 125 fully playable games. A stroll through the gallery space is indeed an appointment with gaming genius.