The recently-completed TIGSource Assemblee Competition was all about artists and programmers working together as one big happy family-like unit thing. The two-part competition began with artists/musicians creating assets, then programmers came along, scooped up the goodies and used them to make games. The results, as you can see, are extraordinary, with over 70 games submitted in the end. Below are a few highlights of the competition.
Bitworld (Mac/Windows, 12.7MB, free) - A dungeon crawler of a slightly different sort, Bitworld utilizes a dynamic, pseudo-isometric point of view and a camera angle you can flip with the tap of a key. The dwarves' fortress has been overrun with monsters, and as a knight, wizard or archer, it's your job to clear it out. A lot of combat, a lot of loot, and a lot of really cool looking visuals. No wonder Bitworld collected the most votes in the competition!
Dungeons of Fayte (Windows, 20.7MB, free) - Aah, action/RPGs, how we do love thee. From games like Gauntlet to Secret of Mana, it's fun mixing cerebral RPG elements with sword swinging enemy killing. Dungeons of Fayte follows the familiar formula and goes a step further with four player co-op play, something far too few games these days bother with. Add to that 12 classes, 40 character endings, and loads of events to experience and you've got yourself a surprisingly full game to experience. Bring your friends!
Mr. Kitty's Quest (Windows, 2.2MB, free) - Exploration? Check. Action/adventure-ing? Check. Shooter-like elements? Check. Kitty? CHECK! It's time to go to the store and pick up a gallon of milk so you can prove cats are useful, but it looks like the outside world is an unfriendly place to be. Arm yourself with shooting weapons and clear the path while you work your way to the store. Did I mention how awesome it is to play a kitty with a gun?
BirdyWorld (Windows, 1.3MB, free) - A collaborative Zelda-like adventure game. Each world in the game starts out blank, but players (including yourself) can populate the screens as they pass through. Apart from the customization aspects, BirdyWorld is a fairly standard top-down adventure game with weapons to buy, enemies to dispatch, and coins to collect.
Note: All games have been confirmed to run under Windows Vista and are virus-free. Mac users should try Boot Camp, Parallels, or CrossOver Games to play Windows titles, Linux users can use Wine. If you know of a great game we should feature, use the Submit link above to send it in!
Oh no, Bitworld is encountering an error on XP. Does anyone know if it's possible to fix it. The game looks awesome and I totally wanna play it.
Am I missing something on Birdy World? It looks like I'm starting a completed game and not a new game...am I misunderstanding? I mean the two options given say "Adventure Finished" and "Dungeon 5"...what about dungeon's 1-4? Is there a way to start new or do I just not understand what "new" is in this game?
Just an FYI: if you use a Mac, and want to try the windows titles without paying a lot of money, here are two free alternate options:
WineBottler is a fairly easy-to-use version of Wine, which is what CrossOver is based on.
VirtualBox is free virtualization software (like Parallels), however I doubt very many DirectX games will play. I highly recommend this over Parallels, because you get 90-95% of the functionality for free-and it has never caused my Mac to kernel panic.
(I haven't tried any of the above games in either version, just thought I'd point this out. Also, I am not affiliated with either product in any way.)
Dungeons of Fayte is amazing! It's like, everything you could ask for in an RPG, except it only takes an hour to play through the whole thing.
Nonny, the world select screen is listing the status of the worlds, not of the player in them. As people are making the game as they're playing through it, each dungeon has to be placed, made, and beaten, one by one.
World 1 has already been made from start to finish; you can still play the whole thing if you want, but you won't be able to add anything.
World 2 has been made up to dungeon 5; all the previous dungeons are there and set, but dungeon 5 has no boss yet, and dungeon 6 doesn't even exist. If you select world 2, you'll still be able to add to any empty screens you find on the overworld, as well as to the latest dungeon (provided you can get to it).
As such, it's probably best to pick the latest world for the full experience.
And I'm afraid there's no indicator on that screen yet for your own status in each world. Sorry about that, and sorry for the confusion.
DoF IS NOT easier for one player, and 6 people, really? No one is gonna do that. Plus the mouse is badly handled, arrows are easier.
The introduction to Bitworld reminds me of Dwarf Fortress. Specifically, of the history of the fortress Boatmurdered
I've got some glaring graphic issues with Mr. Kitty's Quest. It's not dysfunctional. There's a lot of black squares around sprites. I think it's not supposed to be that way.
I have the same problem as ChaoSpectre and Bit world doesn't run at all. Running XP, if it matters.
While I received the graphical errors for Mr. Kitty's quest (it's a transparency thing), it does not cripple the gameplay except for any explosions. The first boss is challenging just because of that.
Disregarding graphical errors, the worst part is that it is WAY too short. There are a grand total of two bosses, although the game is exceptional quality, in my opinion. I hope that its creator will take it upon himself to lengthen it, as such a short game makes me feel as though the engine and premise are going to waste. 8.7/10
On a MacBook + Snow Leopard, Bitworld is running fine. Though there doesn't seem to be a way to save... I died in it. :/
Bitworld does not work for me, I only get a white square on a blakc background, then it turns into a larger white square and music starts playing. The one time I actually got to the game, there were no sprites, only shadows on the ground. I'm running Windows XP. Help?
After all that griping, maybe Mr. Kitty doesn't want to be your companion, Little Girl.
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