Gameplay
Emberwind’s possesses your standard running, jumping, and attacking commands, with extra powers and abilities that can be unlocked once they are discovered during the course of the game. In addition to increasing the strength and speed of your cane, there are friendly spirits (called Brownies) that bestow Kindle with extra firepower, such as fireballs, bubbles, and chestnuts. And you’ll certainly need all the power-ups you can find, as the giggling goblins will quickly rise up in numbers, often flooding the screen and attacking our hero from both sides. Enemies will continue to respawn unless you destroy the nearby barrels that produce them, but the real objective is to save the trapped villagers, whose homes have been invaded by the goblins. Each stage has a certain number of homes that must be cleansed of enemies before you can move on, and to do so you must turn on the fireplace, as goblins instantly disintegrate from bright light
Game Mechanics
Twitch
Time pressure – the time will run, bonus points will also be given to how fast the player clears one stage.
Avoidance –the player dodge the attacks and physical damage by the creatures by jumping over them or killing them. As the player complete each stages, there will be special skills to be acquired to help them in avoiding enemies. For example, there is a skill “press down and up” Kindle (character) will hide himself in the hat, the hat acts as an armor. Even if the enemy hits the hat, there will be no damage done to Kindle.
Risk and reward – the player can choose to jump over the enemies or to kill them. But if there’s a lot of them approaching you, it might be a risk. But if you do kill all of them, you will be rewarded with coins that are dropped out by them which means more points. As you go through every stage, there will be stage with enemies that will drop a bomb once u hit them. So if you are not careful, you might just get bombed by the bombs. Once you hit them, you have to walk away from being too close to the bombs, and then go forward to hit them again. Of course the bombs don’t go off once they are being dropped by the enemies. As per normal, points will be given to you once you kill them.
Resource - in this game, player will collect acorns. This acorns can be use to “hook jewels, diamonds and points up from the well” for example, one hook from the well will use up 12 acorns. So the more acorns you collect, the more jewels and points you can get from the well.
There is this small little creature, which is your “helper”. It gives you powers; these powers allow you to be a long range attacker which will benefit the player a lot. Because the player itself is a melee attacker. There are a few choices of powers, for example, fire and ice. There are a total of around 3 to 4”helpers” in one stage, being deployed around.
Loss avoidance
When the player is collecting the acorns, he must remember the number of acorns will keep decreasing if you keep hooking the wells for treasures. So to avoid that, try not to hook the same well, the more you hook on the same well, the returns might not be as much as the first hook. Try other wells.
Speed Up
As the player complete each stages, special skills will be given to player. For example, there is a skill that allows the player to dash up the sky. Firstly, you have to hide yourself in the hat and hold spacebar (jump) and let go. This skill will allow you to speed up in the sense that you will reach your designated destination faster.
Description of game
Controls are simple with lots of special moves introduced early on. After a breezy level or two you're in full Gremlin attack mode (so seriously, pay attention to all those moves). Enemies are distinct with attacks styles easily identified by what they carry. There are Soup Troops that favor a ladle, Bandits with explosives and Scouts sporting tridents, to name a few. Combat with standard enemies brings up their health in the lower right, which can be beaten away at with your gnome stick. Boss fights, however, use more of a pendulum principle. Landing a hit swings tide in your favor, while getting hit does the opposite. As a reward, completing boss battles unlocks bonus stages that have you playing as Wick against the cloud king's army.
As you progress and defeat more enemies Kindle's health will increase, and he can find magical runes floating around Grendale for additional attacks giving this platformer a little shot of RPG.
Checkpoints are abundant, and they preserve all progress through a level so if you do hit a sticky point you don't have to worry about going back to clear out an area you already completed. This means that no section is really frustrating, but that doesn't make up for some weird moments. Take the water conundrum: Kindle seems to have an endless supply of oxygen for particular underwater segments, but if he encounters water elsewhere it causes death. Then, as a result of the open level design - which I still love - there are some very confusing moments that could do with a little "hint" bubble.
Making of - Where did the idea for your game, Emberwind, originally come from? Was there any sort of inspirational sources?
Erik Möller: It all started when I went to Chris’ office and said something to the extent “I’d really like to make a 2d-platformer… why don’t you write up a short game-design and we’ll play around with something after work?”. A few days later Chris handed me a 9 page printout of “Emberwind” filled with little concept images he’d googled up. It had the core game-play all plotted out, the gnome hero flying his owl between stages, the gremlin horde led by Candlefinger, unlit lampposts, the cane, the lantern and the snuff helmet. After that followed months of intensive iterative design. Features were implemented, tested, thrown away, reimplemented and tested more. That’s really how you have to do it if you want to come up with a fun game. People can be good or bad at _guessing_ what will be fun, Chris definitely being one of the very good, but to really know you have to try it out and not be afraid to throw stuff away if it just doesn’t work. I decided from the start to give Chris free reins on the game design and never complain about new features or re-implementations. I think that was really successful in terms of coming up with something that is great fun. It wasn’t quite as successful in terms of keeping to a schedule, but then again we never really had one. As to inspiration, we’ve both grown up with the awesome games of the 80’s and 90’s, Chris being a NES guy and me a C64 guy, so Emberwind is heavily influenced by all those great platformers that bring back fond memories. Golden Axe, Metroid, Castlevania just to mention a few.
Target Audience- We're thrilled to be able to launch Emberwind. It has been a long and taxing journey and everyone involved are very proud of the end result. It is a great game and will bring back many fond memories for people that enjoyed the great platformers of the 80's and 90's as well as present a very solid game experience to the younger audience."
Game Review
Emberwind is a charming fantasy platformer from indie developer TimeTrap. You play the role Kindle and accompanied by your snowy owl Wick. King Gyro rules over typically safe streets, but now an evil army has hit town. Bummer. A Fire Gnome, Kindle has the duty of lighting the lamps of Grendale and thus delivering it from the invading gremlins and the evil CandleFinger while Wick provides taxi service. Other than that, Emberwind is light on lore and heavy on combat. Of course, how many of us really cared about why we were rescuing Peach, or how the gal got herself into such a predicament anyway? We were in it for the mushroom devouring, Koopa stomping glory, and Emberwind largely forgoes the pretense.
This 2D platformer is cartoon pretty and intensely cute. Kindle eats up snacks and collects coins like he's halfway to snuggly plushie. The music is good, with each area having its own theme, thought it is the music and not the lackluster effects that set the tone. Side-scroller or not, there is still a bit of exploring to do. While most citizen's homes are along the primary path there are additional places to discover and what I love most about the level design is that after the first two you can really tackle a level any way you want. There's no suggested path to follow or deviate from, it's just a level for you to explore and complete objectives however you see fit.
Checkpoints are abundant, and they preserve all progress through a level so if you do hit a sticky point you don't have to worry about going back to clear out an area you already completed. This means that no section is really frustrating, but that doesn't make up for some weird moments. Take the water conundrum: Kindle seems to have an endless supply of oxygen for particular underwater segments, but if he encounters water elsewhere it causes death. Then, as a result of the open level design - which I still love - there are some very confusing moments that could do with a little "hint" bubble.
If you want a fun platformer, Emberwind is an excellent option and a treat for the $10 price. With open levels, abundant combat and a real foothold on "charming" it's too bad that so much lore was left on the website and out of the game. Still, all that Gremlin-thwacking and fire-lighting means you'll have a good time while in Grendale. Add that to the tour book - but maybe a warning about the evil sorcerer problem?
Game experience - – Personally I feel that it’s quite interesting, it’s just like Mario. Going over collecting apples, acorn and defeating the small creatures that are getting in my way.
http://www.ztgamedomain.com/9104/Emberwind.html
http://www.diygamer.com/2009/12/man-gnome-emberwinds-erik-mller-interview/
http://www.rpgamers.net/?page=3
COGS”
Lazy 8 Studios, LLC, was founded in 2008 by Rob Jagnow. While finishing his Ph.D. at MIT, Rob got his start in game development by working on flight simulators for companies in Switzerland and Japan. He worked on a variety of projects with Demiurge Studios, Gearbox, Kaos, EA and WXP before deciding to take a chance on his own in the casual game industry. Puzzle games have always been Rob's passion and Cogs was brewing in his mind for years before he finally had an opportunity to make the game a reality.
Shortly after Lazy 8 Studios came to be, Brendan Mauro came on board as the lead artist. His passion for steampunk and background in user interface design made him the perfect candidate to bring Cogs to life.
Lazy 8 Studios is trying to solve both of these issues with its recent release of Cogs, a steam punk-inspired puzzle game that lets you build machines, connect pipes and perform other mechanical tasks across three dimensional puzzles.
Description of game
Cogs is a puzzle game where players build machines from sliding tiles. Players can choose from 50 levels and 3 gameplay modes. New puzzles are unlocked by building contraptions quickly and efficiently.
•Inventor Mode: Starting with simple puzzles, players are introduced to the widgets that are used to build machines — gears, pipes, balloons, chimes, hammers, wheels, props, and more.
•Time Challenge Mode: If you finish a puzzle in Inventor Mode, it will be unlocked here. This time, it will take fewer moves to reach a solution, but you only have 30 seconds to find it.
•Move Challenge Mode: Take your time and plan ahead. Every click counts when you only get ten moves to find a solution
Game Type: Casual
Game Platform: Windows
Class:Professional
Credits: Rob Jagnow(Team Leader)
Brendan Mauro(Artist)
Luke Gilbert(Sound and Music)
Game play
The primary thrust of Cogs lies in Inventor Mode, where you attempt to solve one of fifty different puzzles presented to you. Left-clicking on a tile slides it into an empty space and you can actually move multiple tiles at once by clicking on the last time in a column or row. This becomes a key tactic, because as you attempt each puzzle, you'll be graded based on the amount of time it took to solve as well as the number of moves you took. Based on how you do, you can earn either a bronze, silver or gold cog, which translates into a number of stars. Collecting as many stars as possible is important, because this is the only way that you can unlock the next set of puzzles as well as the two challenge modes. These challenge modes restrict you to either 30 seconds to solve a level or 10 moves to complete your tasks. Managing to accomplish one of these tests will also add to your star count, so if you get stumped with the standard mode, you can always try to increase your "score" in this way.
Core Mechanics
Twitch
Timing – there is a gold, silver and bronze award. The faster you solve it, the better it is. Criteria to meet gold, silver and bronze.
Precision- how accurate the player is to piece the puzzle up together and get the problem solved.
Pure Speed – how fast the player solves the puzzle and more points will be given to the player with the shortest time possible.
Modes- there are a total of 3modes to choose from. Standard mode and two challenge modes(1.30seconds to solve the puzzle, 2.10moves to complete your tasks) So If the player is bored of solving puzzles in the standard mode without worrying about the time and moves restriction. He can try the challenges mode to keep him even busier.
Risk and Rewards
The challenge modes are your risks and rewards. If you didn’t manage to hit the criteria of the challenges, you will fail obtaining a medal. If you succeed, you will be rewarded with the gold medal.
Twitch skills vs Chance
Even though the twitch skills act as obstacles, but it also create chances for the player in the sense that, it’s not a must to complete the puzzle in the shortest time possible. Because even if you are stuck in the standard mode, the player can increase his “score” by playing the challenges.
Challenges vs success
The difficulty level, there is a limited time mode. This challenge restricts the player to either 30 seconds to solve a level or 10 moves to complete your task. The success will be that your star count will increased. There’s another challenge which is the “10moves to complete your task” it also helps to increase your star count.
Making of Rob mentioned that For those of you who are familiar with “The incredible Machine”, it was clearly influential in the design of Cogs.
WHAT WAS YOUR INSPIRATION FOR MAKING THE GAME?
I've always loved machines. With computers, most of what goes on behind the scenes is invisible, but with steam-powered machines, you can look inside, see how all the parts are moving and understand how it works. I wanted to build a game around that concept — something that feels totally real, like you could reach out and grab the steampunk contraption you just built and hang onto it a little longer before it flies away.
We didn't want anything to break the illusion of interacting with a massive steam-driven machine, so we made every aspect of the user interface with analog widgets from the odometer-style counters to the revolving puzzle descriptions to the massive iris in the background that opens to reveal each new puzzle. The result is a surprisingly compelling and immersive experience.
- ROB JAGNOW
Target audience - San Francisco, CA – Lazy 8 Studios announced today that they have teamed up with localization firm Locworks to bring their flagship game Cogs to an international audience.
Game experience – I find it very addictive, this game allows us to keep on thinking and using our brains and eye power to make sure that we solve the puzzle and get to our goal. The idea of using cogs was creative too, making use of cogs to generate steam and stimulate the energy to move the rest of the cogs to get the equipment moving.
Sliding puzzles appeal to a certain kind of puzzle fan, one who will dedicate a large amount of time to arranging the pieces to ensure that the picture or numbers work exactly the way they're supposed to. Cogs will definitely appeal to these players, with a large number of puzzles and three modes that can keep players rather busy. However, the extreme difficulty, coupled with the lack of a hint system, makes Cogs more of a diversion that you'll probably move on from quickly than something that you'll sink a lot of time into.
IGN Ratings for Cogs (PC)
Rating Description
out of 10 Click here for ratings guide
7.0 Presentation
The basics of solving the puzzles are presented in a quick tutorial page, and outside of that, you know all you need to complete the tasks in front of you. How you do it is the tricky part.
7.0 Graphics
Textures aren't detailed, but don't need to be. Menus and markers could use more anti-aliasing and full screen looks hideous, but apart from that, it's a nice steampunk-inspired puzzler.
7.0 Sound
There should be more than two tunes for background music. At least the sound effects for the puzzles are pretty good.
7.5 Gameplay
The fifty puzzles will give you a good challenge. It's too bad that there's no way to get any hints once you get stuck (and you will definitely get stuck on some of these puzzles).
7.0 Lasting Appeal
Three modes will keep you playing for a while, but the high level of difficulty will keep some players at arm's length.
7.3
OVERALL Decent
(out of 10)
http://www.lazy8studios.com/
http://pc.ign.com/articles/976/976914p1.html
http://www.indiegamechallenge.com/finalists/cogs/
http://www.lazy8studios.com/about_us
http://www.locworks.org/home/tag/release/
