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Thursday, September 16, 2010

Developer Spotlight - Locomalito

I was reading the Indie Games Blog and I came across what looked to be a fun game to play. This game was L'Abbaye des Morts. The game has a simple look to it kind of a throwback to the Spectrum and games like Manic Miner and Jet Set Willy. With anticipation I went quickly went to download it but found the hosting site for this one had reached it's limit and I could not do it. After some searching I found the developers Twitter account and sent them a message asking for another source to download this from. Being they're in Spain I was not expecting a response until today. Well I woke up this morning to find a response they had put the game up on Filefront. I jumped up and immediately downloaded the game and just a little while ago I beat it.

L'Abbaye des Morts is a 2D platformer in the most simple of definition. You can run left and right and jump, that's it. You do not have any attacks and you have to dodge any enemy or obstacle in your way.

Here's the story taken from the page on the Locomalito site.

In the 13th century, the Cathars, who preach about good Christian beliefs, were being expelled by the Catholic Church out of the Languedoc region in France.
One of them, called Jean Raymond, found an old church in which to hide, not knowing that beneath its ruins lay buried an ancient evil.


I thought it was interesting and in a game with out a huge drawn out story the one they've given to this one is good. The ending is fantastic and you don't really see many games with an ending like this one, if you play it make sure you finish it. That being said the game isn't really that long, it took me about an hour to finish it but now knowing what to do I could beat it in about 10-15 minutes. The controls are spot on, they're perfect. If you die it's because you screwed up, not due to faulty controls. The running and jumping have a great feel to them, I really like the floaty jumps without making it feel like your flying. Ths music is really good too, with it's simplicity they made some great songs that help set the mood for the whole adventure. This game is great a lot of fun to play and you should check it out if you're into this type of platformer.

Here's the link to this game on the developers site

http://www.locomalito.com/juegos_abbaye_des_morts.php


So last night as I was let down I couldn't download L'Abbaye des Morts I decided to try out some of Locomalito's other games. First up was Hydorah a 2D side scrolling space shooter, in the vein of Gradius and Lifeforce.

In the vein of is probably the wrong thing to say because this game could very well be a Gradius game it's that similar. If they were going for the ultimate in Gradius fan service they nailed it because this game is bad ass. The main ship looks just like Vic Viper and you get some of the standard Gradius weapons as you progress. I haven't made it to far into this one because let me tell you it's hard. It will break you down in parts. Everything you're up against is out to kill you including the walls and it's been along time since I've played a game where the walls kill you. I've been spending a lot of time playing DoDonPachi lately and this game is still kicking my ass so that's more proof of this game's challenge. And to dig it in further the games let's you save but you can only save three times during your campaign. This limit on saves makes for an even more challenging experience because you need to pick where you want to continue from and can't just go saving after each level. The game itself tells you to practice and get better and not to give up which I think is a nice touch. Again I haven't beat this one yet but I plan on spending a lot of time with it.

You can go here for this one

http://www.locomalito.com/juegos_hydorah.php


Finally after Hydorah had it's way with me I decided to check out 8-Bit Killer. This one is a FPS game done in the 8-Bit style. Think of something like Wolfenstein 3D but with simpler graphics but 8-Bit Killer has mouse support. This is the big thing that stood out for me as I played this one. It has mouse support but it's really tight for turning. I had to up the DPI on my mouse to get it close to what I wanted and it still wasn't exactly there. You can play using just the keyboard but I can't do that anymore so I have to use my mouse. I made it to the second set of levels of this one and had to quit because it was getting late but don't let that keep you away because it's good. It does not have a save function but the site says it's short and easy and I can attest to the game being easy but I'm not sure how long it is but I was at 2-1 when I quit. It has a story and weapon pickups and all the early 90's FPS standards. I really like the art style in this and if you like FPS you should give it a whirl.

Here is the link for this

http://www.locomalito.com/juegos_8bit_killer.php

The developer of the above games is again Locomalito. On their site they have a Philosophy of gaming. A list of things that they believe to be needed to make a successful game and have a happy gaming community. I've read the list and I agree 100 percent with the things they say. Games today are way to easy, developers can get so wrapped up in holding our hands they forget the challenge. The other big thing that's mentioned is the remaking of old games, yeah we want old school games! But we want new games with that old school look and feel. I don't want to get off topic in this so I'll post the link to the above mentioned list and you can read it yourself.

http://www.locomalito.com/filosofia.php


Anyway I know I've only been playing Locomalito's games for the past few hours but I've been blown away by what they're doing. These game deserve a look take a few minutes and go check them out. I'm sure you'll be pleased.

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