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Jan
31
You might want to go grab yourself a cup of tea to sip on while you read today’s epic collection – I surely consumed a few myself while putting this random tangle of words together… 
Today we have:
- Have Adventures
- Higher Still
- Hubris Quest Online
- Labyrinth
- Led’s Get Shooting
- Mechwar (Battle for Narita)
- Mr. Kitty’s Quest
- Mulder’s Totally Bogus (Rabbit) Journey
Off we go, then!
Jan
30
No need for faffing about. You know the routine by now, surely! Here’s another four entries for your inspection…
Free Dee by LemonScented 
Entitled using a cunning “pune”, or play on words, this one gets bonus points for supporting those cutting edge owners of bonafidy 3D goggles! Normal visuals are also available but that sort of defeats the object. 
The game itself involves using the incredible powers of transdimensional vegetables to defeat the Lizardoid menace and protect your home village. Switch platforms between 3 layers in order to solve the puzzles and get through each level to the exit. Short ‘n’ sweet. 71%
Goblin Treasure by Reiss 
Tsk. You’d think that if a treasure box had been cursed so badly that it could eventually bring its surroundings into ruin, people would learn enough to leave the bloody thing alone. But ohh no. Those crazy adventurers have to go and try and dig it up… but, ahem, anyway. Make your way through a random maze of rooms in your hunt for the fabled box o’ treasure. Fight minibosses with both sword and arrows. Open doors locked by pressure plates. Find the box! Nicely polished but could use more variety. 75%
Great Dungeon in the Sky by Lord Tim
Adventure through a giant floating rock in an attempt to kill the ultimate epic boss of doom protected by his four dragon pets. This game reminds me of 
Pixelships except with a fantasy theme, and that can only be a good thing. With some balancing and some different level environments I could see it becoming a very interesting project indeed. Buggy but great potential! 82%
Guyman Hero by feeblethemighty
A veritably multicoloured retro adventure! Clever use of artwork means a distinct look from most other Assemblee entries so far, but in terms of gameplay, you should be warned: this platformer is so hard you could cut diamonds with it! Yet despite the frustration (or because of it, whichever fits you best), the experience is hard to put down. Looking forward to see a future expansion of this. 77%
Jan
29
Inevitability STRIKES! 
Okay, so the TARs will still be a regular feature, but there’s no possible way in any existing universe that I’ll finish all of the reviews before the voting period closes as I was first aiming for. Does this matter? I suppose it does and it doesn’t. In the incredibly remote likelihood that you were reading these reviews to decide what games to vote for, then yeah, it’s a bummer. But otherwise there’s no hard feelings, right? 
The weekend should see at least a dozen more entries get cross-examined in the virtual witness box, then back to the three or four at a time at various points during the week until they’re all done later in February.
Jan
27
Hello there and welcome back to another spifftastic batch of Assemblee hopefuls! Only three tonight – sorry, but for some reason I think I’m already starting to suffer from review burnout. Don’t worry, though… I’m not giving up yet! 
Dungeons of Fayte by pulsemeat
My favourite Assemblee game so far. A relatively large adventure that supports up to 4 players in co-operative monster bashing. Superb mix of RPG ideas, and would be even more fantastic if it were playable via the net – but still great even if played solo. Fight against the Bone Lord by training in the village and embarking upon the occasional dungeon crawl. Can you prepare yourself in time?… 90%
Extreme Turbo Dungeon by Inzaniak
In the words of the author: “It is extreme because there are a lot of enemies, turbo because it’s fast and dungeon because there are fantasy creatures.” Can’t say fairer than that! It’s a scrolling shoot ‘em up that is actually quite addictive. Earns points for achievements, unlockables and wacky powerups. Loses points for low difficulty, sluggish controls and bouncy screen edges. 66%
FlxAdventure by SeiferTim
Take a stroll around your village and the evil lair of ultimate nastiness that lurks below, all the while fighting off baddies left right and centre. Monsters move in real time when you are not engaged in combat, which is turn-based. Good quality evident throughout, though this is another game that’s a tad on the easy side, and sound is sorely missing. A worthwhile play nevertheless. 78%
Jan
26
Right, I’m going to have to pick up the pace a little since we’re running behind schedule. Badly, in fact. Today makes it 19 games down, so only another 54 to go – over seven days, that means eight a day. 
Haha! It’s all going pear-shaped, I tell ya! But enough of that. Onwards and sidewards into section D we go, and it’s quite a selection that awaits us…
Darker Than Your Soul by KissMaj7
Explaining the story too much would be a spoiler since this game is so short, but suffice to say that you play the part of a mighty warrior who is sent upon a quest. Try it and be surprised! DTYS is a lo-fi throwback to the classic RPGs of old like Dungeon Master with a first-person view of the dungeon and real-time combat. Points lost for being far too short (I wanted more!) and poor monster AI (they won’t chase you around corners). 72%
DEBT by floatstarpx
Intergalactic traveller Owen has fallen upon hard times. Help him to eradicate his debt by platforming your way through 3 distinct planets to collect all of the valuable goodies within. I like the mix of 2D and 3D effects, and the game itself is quite addictive as you hurry around grabbing loot. Forces you to think tactically on a short game – figuring out which planet you can scavenge the most from is key if you’re going for the world’s best online highscore. 75%
Dog and Bone are Friends by Jake Elliott
A very pleasant Flash puzzle game. Help Dog and Bone get around various obstacles so that they can meet up and play together. As you might expect, both characters have unique abilities: Bone – who doesn’t like birds – can climb ladders and use magic statues to rearrange the landscape, while Dog can jump around and bark to scare birds away if he’s close enough. Level design may seem too easy, but you’ll be playing through them again with added challenges later! 79%
Dot Dot Dot by Noyb
Ah, now here we have something quite shallow, and yet at the same time, very deep! Tell me, are you a philosophical gamer? Do you like analysing true meaning and the exact nature of whatever the deuce you’re doing? Find out! Take part in a short series of minigames and decide for yourself whether there is some greater purpose. The style is actually quite good, and while I would normally dismiss a “game” like this, I found myself smiling at the end. Bonus points for cat usage! 68%
Jan
25
Crivens! Time to start (and finish) blazing a path through section C, but today, you’ll have to click past the jump to see the details – after I failed to post the third part yesterday, there’s now a whole seven games to cover in this installment!
Another new thing is that if a game isn’t downloadable, you can play it straight through you browser instead by clicking the icon. Ah, the wonders of Flash…
Covered today we have:
- Cave Explorer: to the right!
- Charles Babbage and the Difference Engine
- Chase Goose
- COIN
- Coin Hunt
- Cosmic Unleasher
- Cowgirl and the Mushroom Men Genocide
Jan
23
Oh boy! As we keep cracking along down the alphabet we find some real humdingers filed under “B”.
One thing I forgot to mention in the first TAR post is that the download links will point you to the final competition version of the games – bear in mind there may also be further updated downloads! For the most recent links be sure to check the TIGForum threads.
Anyhow, this installment should be a good one, so let’s not hang around any longer. Here they come…
Bang Bang Roguelution by Sos
Holy macaroni, it’s a thinly veiled clone of Dance Dance Revolution complete with hordes of retro sprites! Get ready to mash your keyboard like there’s no tomorrow and maybe, just maybe, you can bag yourself a highscore. Includes 23 blippy tunes to savour the madness with. Steer clear of this one if you are prone to seizures, but otherwise get in there and have a laugh! 71%
BirdyWorld by Logan Ames
Billed as a “collaborative Zelda“, this has to be one of the competition’s star entries. Explore a world that has been created by other players (that includes the monsters and dungeons, too) and expand the world yourself as you go! A cool concept indeed. It’s let down by the lack of any sound or music, but the gameplay is horribly addictive despite the lack of clear objectives… 83%
Bitworld by Ivan Safrin 
Imaginative use of 2.5D makes this another strong challenger for an Assemblee victory. It’s a Roguelike dungeon romp where you take either a knight, wizzard (sic) or archer into ye olde dwarven fortress in order to defeat the stompy red demon of doom which has invaded the place. Very, very smoothly done. Switching between axiseses is fun! 86%
Bleerg …
I couldn’t get this to work, so I’ll return to it later in TAR when I’ve had chance to find out why it hates me 
Boulder Dodge by EzekielKnight
A single-screen time attack where you must keep the counter running for as long as possible while picking up gems and multipliers to increase your score. And, weirdly enough, there are these boulder thingies which you have to… erm… give me a minute… dodge, that was it, dodge! Or they’ll bash you on the head and make you lose, and stuff. Nothing special – good, simple fun for a few minutes. 59%
Jan
23
Guild Wars 2 is sounding good
Posted under Commercial, MMO, PC
One of the Guild Wars 2 developers recently chimed in on a forum thread dicussing the sound effects of the game. They went into the details of exactly how they’re going about the job, and revealed that several effects such as footsteps and armor noise are generated procedurally. If you play with sound enabled (especially if you use headphones a lot like me), one of the things that can break the immersion of a game is listening to the same two or three footstep sounds over and over and over again… so it’s good to know that GW2 hopefully won’t have this problem!
They also linked to a selection of photos capturing their sound-recording men in the field. They look like they’re having a great time – I’d love to have their job…
For more Guild Wars 2 news, check out its website.
Jan
22
With the TIGSource Assemblee entrants out in the open, I thought I’d blurt out a few words – or in some cases perhaps more than just a few – on each of the contenders, no matter how NSFW they may be. This could be an epic undertaking. 73 mini-reviews in under two weeks? Oh, crud. Bloody impossible, that’s what this is…
Quick note: click on the 
or icons for an appropriate download link, or to visit the relevant thread on the TIGForums. Anything not safe for work is marked with a 
.
6nine by JMickle
Oh, good. A game packed with male reproductive organs. How original! This game isn’t just made of cocks – it is cock. Almost non-existant gameplay. In truth, a waste of perfectly good bandwidth. 15%
30 Bomb of Awesome Frags by C. A. Sinclair 
“I seize my material!” Quite fun. Bonus points for nonsensical storyline. Short but tough gameplay in a style you could liken to Meritous – navigate through a dungeon and kill enemies by charging your attacks to release bombs. 74%
87 Spiderbats go to the Inn by Sos
Points awarded for technical skill – this is a proper Atari 2600 game! Nice, but unfortunately the game itself is rather basic. Stop the dreaded spiderbats from invading your inn by killing 87 of them before you lose all your lives or too many get past you. 58%
Backworld by Juha Kangas & Anders Ekermo
An impressive game with an interesting gameplay mechanic. Guide the rabbit to the end of each screen in a grayscale world. To do so you will need to paint holes into the “backworld” to erase obstacles, reveal platforms or even reverse gravity. Good stuff. 84%
Expect more TAR over the weekend!
Jan
20
The Assemblee needs your vote!
Posted under Competitions, Free, Indie, Retro
A clarion call sounds out amongst the many trillions of pixels of indiespace…
The TIGSource Assemblee Competition has concluded and is now in the voting stage! It’s up to you to decide the ultimate winners. Should you wish to participate in judging what’s been quite an epic display of indie community teamwork, you should first of all familiarise yourself with the full list of all 73 entrants (preferably by playing as many of them as possible). Then, as per the rules decreed by the competition’s masters, you should place up to 7 votes in this thread sometime before the 3rd of February – so you have a whole fortnight to decide on who gets your backing!
Remember, the games created in part 2 of the competition were only allowed to use the resources made during the first part. If you want to vote on the graphics and music made during the first part then it’s a similar affair: see what was created over on this page (extremely image-heavy!), then place your votes in this thread. Easy, really.
Roll on judgement day… vote wisely!