Finn Morgan being the dude who made the very excellent, third-prize winning Shindig entry,Colourbind.
And what did Finn Morgan have to say in this email? Well! What DIDN’T he say? My, my, my, he said ALL SORTS of things. HATEFUL things. Poisonous, HURTFUL things that stung my soul to its very core. Things that I dare not repeat lest they infect you with their corrosive venom.
Oh wait, sorry – it wasn't Finn Morgan who sent a crazy hateful tirade ... it was Mel Gibson! Hee hee! What an hilarious mistake on my part!
Anyway, the real reason Finn wrote to me was because he wanted to let everyone know that he’s making a SEQUEL to his excellent, third-prize winning Shindig entry, Colourbind. Hooray!
Called Colourbind 2: Bind Harder (not really), Finn says it’s going to have all sorts of neato new features, like better graphics and ... such. Actually, why don't I just quote the email directly? Here you go:
[I've] been working on it for a while now. Probably will be finishing up around about the end of the year. There'll be a bunch of new stuff, including:
A bunch of mechanics that were in the original engine, but not in any of the levels cos I ran out of time (colour mixing/secondary colours, variable strength of gravity instead of just variable direction, and a few other things) (!)
A couple of actual new mechanics (!!)
Stacks of new levels — I'm thinking the final game should have about fifty, all up — there were lots of ideas that didn't make it the first time round. (!!!)
Cooperative multiplayer (!!!!)
Analogue input control (!!!)
A level editor (that the end user can use, even) (!!)
The ability to save replays. (...)
Sound, and also interactive music. (!!!)
Control and level design tweaks that will make the game generally less infuriating to play early on (FUCKEN A! – Patrick)
General upgrades in prettiness and a couple of other odds and ends (!)
(Note: Punctuation added to express the insane levels ofRED BULL brand FROTHING EXCITEMENT inspired by each feature. RED BULL – giving gamers the energy to own n00bz since 1987.)
So, yeah: that sounds pretty fucking awesome, Finn! Please keep us updated on its progress! And as for the rest of you, if you haven’t already played the original Colourbind (or indeed any of the Shindig entries), then go and rectify that right this second. Otherwise, treat yourself to a delicious ice-cream from the fridge.
TO THE OTHER INDIE DEVELOPER WHO EMAILED ME RECENTLY: I’m going to talk about your stuff soon too, don’t worry!
TO BRIAN CRECENTE: Have you and Ashcraft ever considered pitching a sitcom? You could be a dashing 18th Century aristocrat named Senor Haircut, and he could play your bumbling pervert butler, Arsebag. The show could be called The Hilarious Misadventures of Haircut & Arsebag. It would be a huuuuge success. Huuuuuuge.
You are Hue, a little videogame guy. The object of the game is to shoot blocks to score points without falling off the edge of the screen. The rub is that you can only shoot blocks that are the same colour as Hue, meaning that you have to constantly change Hue’s... hue to survive.
A 2D puzzle/platformer in which the goal is to get your little car thingy to the end of the level. The twist is that gravity operates along three differently coloured vectors, each affecting similarly coloured elements in the gameworld: so red gravity affects red things, green gravity affects green things, and blue gravity affects blue things. Hence the name.
ColourWise is a colour-themed puzzle game. The idea is to change your little block to the correct colour, and get it to the end of the maze. There are tonnes of puzzles, and a puzzle editor too, making it a pretty complete package.
A very strange 2D strategy game in which three tribes of differently coloured monster things compete for resources and dominance of a hostile alien world.
Protect your little ball thing from marauding enemies by using two differently coloured bullets: red for attack and blue for defence. Think of it as kind of like a static Asteroids.
Paint the World is a vertically-scrolling shmup in which the world is dynamically affected by colour. When you shoot enemies, they drop colour chips (red and blue), which you can then manipulate to receive power-ups and alter the difficulty of the game.
Space Safari is a steampunk-ish platform game starring a colonialist adventurer with a grappling hook and a multicoloured laser gun, that he uses to rob aliens of their space gold, for the love of a beautiful princess.
A platform game in which the goal is to collect tubes of paint to restore colour to a black and white world. Beautiful graphics and sound make this well worth checking out.
As of last Tuesday, Eegra.com’s 1st Annual Game Makin’ Shindig has been officially closed. That means the cut-off date for eligible entries has passed, and we have now entered the judging phase of the competition. During this phase, Patrick and I will play and evaluate each entry, determine three prize winners, and then post the results (along with the games) on July 29. In the unlikely event that Patch and I can’t agree on who should get what prize, an as-yet-undecided third party will be asked to adjudicate. Failing that – gladiatorial combat.
So there you go: that's all the boring administrative shit out of the way. Now here’s something a bit more interesting:
Name: Color-FULL Genre: Shooter/Puzzle By: Craig Savage
Name: Colourbind Genre: Puzzle By: Finn Morgan
Name: Colourwise Genre: Puzzle By: Francesco Ariis
Name: Go Beryllium! Genre: Shmup/Bullet hell By: Conor O'Kane
Name: Paint the World Genre: Shmup By: Jonathan Law
Name: Space Safari Genre: Platform By: Wilson Saunders
Name: Spectrum Spelunker: Shoot Blocks to Win the Game, Also Jump and Run: Starring Hue Genre: Platform/Puzzle By: Tim Jenkins
Name: Tinte Genre: Platform By:Mark Powell
And that's it! Nine entries, nine great games - but only THREE winners! Who will they be? Who knows! I guess you'll have to check back in a fortnight's time to find out!
The Shindig is a month old now, which means it only has two months left to go. Two months might sound like a long time, but trust me, it’s totally not. In this go-go-go modern world of ours, with its internets and automobiles and such, two months goes by like THAT. So if you’ve been sitting around, hemming and hawing, wondering whether or not to enter The Shinding, then lemme give you some advice: stop being such a pussy and enter already. It’s not like there’s any good reason not to enter (the T&Cs are all standard legalese, we swear), and the more time you spend equivocating, the less time you’ll have to develop an awesome money-winning videogame. So c’mon and sign-up, damn it!
Oh, and speaking of awesome (potentially) money-winning videogames, here’s a video of MonoRAIL’s Shindig entry – an impressive looking “quantum-electrodynamical-shmup” called Go Beryllium!
Some of you might recognise monoRAIL (AKA Connor O’Kane) as the developer of Harpooned – a thought provoking shooter where the goal is to “research” cetaceans in the same way that the Japanese have been “researching” them for centuries: i.e. by killing them with harpoons. Unlike a lot of persuasive games, this one is actually a lot of fun in a disturbing sort of way, so if you haven’t already, then go check it out.
In other news, I’m in Japan on holidays. Today, I went to a park and fed a deer some biscuits. Later, we played Mario Kart. He won.
What’s going on with The Shindig? Lots! The comp has been running for a little over a fortnight now, and – thanks to neato people like Justin at Joystiq and Tim at IndieGames – has already attracted a considerable amount of enthusiasm and talent. Of course, it would have attracted even more enthusiasm and talent if certain people had mentioned it in on their popular indie game blogs, but whatever. The point is that The Shindig is going well and I have some art and screenshots to prove it.
BEHOLD:
This is the title screen from All Puce, by Hideous. Wikipedia says puce is “a colour that is defined as ranging from reddish-brown to purplish-brown, with the latter being the more widely-accepted definition found in reputable sources.”
“In the Dilbert comic strip, the boss' favourite colour is puce, but he doesn't know that because he is mistakenly thinking of a primary colour, as he doesn't know what puce is.” Thanks, Wikipedia!
This is a screenshot from ColourWise – a colour-mixing puzzle game that (among other things) includes a “story mode full of sassy jokes” and an “austere yet friendly” level editor. It is by bicilotti and friends.
Here we have a title screen mock-up from farmergnome’s entry, Friends Forever. From what I can gather, Friends Forever is about a crazy person named Leroy whose imaginary friends are helping him escape from a mental hospital. Sounds fun! Here’s a screenshot:
This is the title screen from Tinte, by Malwyn. I have no idea what it’s about, but the screenshots are adorable.
See?
Anyway, that concludes this instalment of The Shindigger’s Digest. Hopefully I’ll have another one for you in about a fortnight. In the meantime, I have the flu and can’t be arsed to think of a pithy way to conclude this update. I’m going to bed.
Hello! I've just posted a big ol' pre-emptive FAQ for The Shindig on the forums. Click here to read it.
In other news, I recently acquired Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core on PSP. It's a very strange game, and frankly, playing it makes me kind of angry. Maybe I'll review it next week.
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA (April 08, 2008) – Eegra.com, self-proclaimed industry leader in hilarity and radness, made the universe a slightly better place today with the unveiling of The 1st Annual Game Makin’ Shindig – an independent game creation extravaganza in which talented developers can win FABULOUS CASH PRIZES simply by sharing their work with the world.
“Primarily, The Shindig is a transparent ploy to drive visitors to the site,” says Eegra editor Dan Staines. “But unlike most promotional ploys, this is one where everyone benefits: we get visitors, indie developers get cash, and everybody else gets some neato games to play. It’s win-win-win – or win to the power of three, if you want to be scientific about it.”
For more information on The Shindig, including competition Terms & Conditions and Guidelines for Entry, please point your intertron browser to www.eegra.com. Unless of course you’re reading this at Eegra, in which case, just click on the links in the previous sentence.
Hello! Would you like to enter The 1st Annual Game Makin’ Shindig and perhaps win one of three FABULOUS CASH PRIZES? You would? Okay, great! Here are some things you need to know before you can do that.
Who can enter
The 1st Annual Game Makin’ Shindig (‘The Shindig’) is open to anyone aged 18 or older. Contestants may enter as individuals or as part of a group. Note that in the case of group entries, an individual from the group must be nominated to act as a (potential) prize recipient. Groups that fail to comply with this condition will not be considered eligible for The Shindig.
How to enter
Here’s what you need to do if you want to enter The Shindig:
Please note that in order to submit an Entry Form, you’ll first need to register an account at the forums. We know it’s a bit of an inconvenience, but that’s just the way it goes. Truth be told, you’ll probably want to sign up for the forums anyway because it’s a pretty cool place, and there’ll presumably be lots of discussion about The Shindig going on in there. So there you go.
Criteria for Eligibility
To be considered valid entries, all games submitted to The Shindig must meet the following criteria:
Format: Games must be submitted as either self-contained executables, or in zip/rar archive form. (Note that we cannot accept submissions that rely on third-party applications to function. So no mods!) Platform: Games must be Windows (98/2000/XP/Vista) compatible. Size: No more than 20Mb. Originality: Games must not be remakes or be otherwise based on existing intellectual property. Availability: Games must not have been available to the public prior to the conclusion of The Shindig. Shameless Plug: All submissions must feature the text ‘Made for Eegra.com's 1st Annual Game Makin’ Shindig’ on the title screen, or if there is no title screen, in another clearly visible location somewhere throughout the game. (It doesn’t count if we can’t see it.) Theme: To help ensure that The Shindig attracts original work and not just a bunch of crappy rehashes, all games submitted must adhere to a common theme. The theme for this year is COLOUR. To qualify for entry, each submission must be accompanied by a brief description (on the Entry Form) of how it fits the theme. If the Judges deem this description inadequate, the game may be disqualified from The Shindig.
Judging
All submissions to The Shindig are subject to scrutiny by a panel of EXPERT JUDGES and will be evaluated based on the following (utterly subjective) criteria:
Originality
Artistic Merit
Technical Merit
Adherence to the Competition Theme
Please note that these criteria are meant merely to guide the judging process, and do not constitute an exhaustive summary of the qualities on which entries will be judged. Also be aware that all judgements are final, and that judges will not be required to justify their decisions. (That’s not to say that they won’t – they just don’t have to.)
And that’s it!
Along with the Terms & Conditions (you really need to read those), that’s everything you need to know to enter The Shindig. Oh, and just in case you missed them before, here’s a link to the Forums, and here’s a link to Entry Form. All good? Okay then! Good luck!
Finn Morgan being the dude who made the very excellent, third-prize winning 
