You want random? Oh, I'll give you random! This week on Link Dump Friday, a group of bloodthirsty harvesters comes to life on a farm, a little worm thing goes on a bizarre adventure to bulk up in the strangest way, a ship overtaken by devouring pink goo, and a machine that knows every movie ever... maybe!
- Harvest Escape - For this year's Indie Speed Run, Dom2D, Technobeanie and Ian Girard were given a theme and an element ("agriculture" and "engine") and 48 hours, and the result is this simple yet charming puzzle game about farming machinery coming to life. Your goal is to drag and drop your characters to a safe spot on the grid before the harvesters begin moving... and even though they can only move in a straight line, elements like exploding barrels means finding safety in under ten seconds is more challenging than you'd think. It needs a bit more to make it playable beyond a few minutes, but with a quirky concept and a great presentation, it's cute as the dickens. Provided your idea of dickens involves bloody chunks and death metal.
- Derelict - Has there ever been a time when AI in a science fiction setting wasn't a bad idea bound to end in death and grossness? Created for this year's Asylum Jam in 48 hours, Anshul Goyal and Shayna Moon deliver a surprisingly creepy experience as you control a crewmember woken up from stasis aboard a spaceship to discover disgusting fleshy goo everywhere and the AI apparently having turned against you. Just click and hold to make your character move towards your mouse. It's a great idea and has a stellar atmosphere, though the lack of better explanation winds up hurting it... when you're unable to move, for example, you need to use your mouse to click and drag or otherwise manipulate things, not that the game tells you that. Still, it's a great example of how unsettling horror can be without a lot of blood and violence.
- My Little Gyony - "Hmmmm", I said, playing Barbarageo's bizarre little adventure game, narrowing my eyes as my flying worm stole kitty ears off a cat to give to the sad girl on its back, "hmmmmmm." Made for yet another game jam, the whole point of this very silly and very weird game is to travel around Gyony-Ville, gathering up items in the proper order to unlock yet more items and bling out your... gyony... in the most elaborate fashion possible. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but that would probably matter a lot less if not for the ridiculously short and increasingly annoying MIDI loop you can't shut off, which is the worst... possible... THING.
- Filmillion - A movie-centric take on popular webtoy Akinator? Hmmm... sure, why not! Filmillion will ask you thirty questions and then theoretically be able to guess what movie you were thinking about based on yes/no/maybe/dunno answers. Sometimes it works, but often the odd phrasing or vagueness in the way it poses its questions gets in the way, likely a result of users being able to input their own questions as well as their own movies, or simply because a lot of movies feature themes and concepts that are hard to give a simple yes or no to.
"Has there ever been a time when AI in a science fiction setting wasn't a bad idea bound to end in death and grossness?"
"The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" by Robert Heinlein. It's the only one I can think of but hey, at least there's one.
Harvest Escape loaded *everything* except the characters. So it showed me a blank field, and killed me, with big X's.
Filmillion: I thought of two movies. It guessed neither one. So I guess I'm unimpressed? Also one question I kept getting was "Did you like the acting in the movie?" which is pretty subjective and I don't see how it can help the algorithm.
Harvest Escape worked fine for me in Chrome. Love the sound affects and 'background music.' Have still to make it out alive with all my animals intact.
Has anyone managed to solve the engine puzzle in derelict?
Thank you, Jamilworm! You're a star
Demon Seed, an old film, but a good one, and the ending was fantastic.
That gives us another, ryanandrew.
Filmillion is kind of weak-- it often can't get films. It might get better though. Some of their user-generated questions are odd though.
And....Filmillion got both of mine right. But you're right, the questions are weird. "Did you like the acting in this movie?" How does my answer have any impact on the answer?!
OK...I tried again with an older movie and the answer was WAY off! lol
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