Games of 2010

Posted in games of 2010

Better late than never! Here’s a selection of games released in 2010 which I absolutely loved. Unfortunately, I now have to accept that I simply don’t have time to explain why I loved them in detail, but they’re all amazing games and I recommend you check out as many of them as you can.

They’re in the more or less arbitrary order that I’d planned to post them, with one exception; the last game I was planning to post – my favourite game from 2010 is Phenomenon 32.


Minecraft by Mojang
Shareware, 14.95 EUR, download, (writeup)

REDDER by Auntie Pixelante
Free, Play online, (writeup)
Super Crate Box by Vlambeer
Free, Download, (writeup)
Fractal by Cipher Prime
Shareware, $9.99, Download, (writeup)
Sleep is Death by Jason Rohrer
Pay what you want, Download, (writeup)
Fish Fish Bang Bang by Rob Fearon
Pay what you want, Download, (writeup)
Hero Core by Daniel Remar
Free, Download
Space Funeral by thecatemites
Free, Download, (writeup)
Cactus Block by chuchino
Free, Download, (writeup)
L’Abbaye des Morts by Locomalito
Free, Download, (writeup)
Digital: A Love Story by Christine Love
Free, Download
The Terrible Whiteness of Appalachian Nights by Increpare
Free, Play online
Recettear by Carpe Fulgar
Shareware, £12.99 Download
5 Colors Pandora by Jordan Magnuson
Free, Download
Desktop Dungeons by QCF Design
Free, Download
Looming by Gregory Weir
Free, Play Online
The Sense of Connectedness by Brog
Free, Download
Teppoman 2 by Ikiki
Free, Download
Norrland by cactus
Free, Download
Prosopamnesia by Agj
Free, Play Online
Super Meat Boy by Team Meat
Shareware, £11.99 Download
Feign by Ian Snyder
Free, Play Online
Air Pressure by Bento Smile
Free, Play Online
Where we Remain by Two Fold Secret
Free, Play Online
Playpen by Farbs
Free, Play Online
suteF by Ted Lauterbach
Free, Download
A Slow year by Ian Bogost
Shareware, $19.95 Order
Marvel Brothel by Nicoisas
Free, Download
Pirate Kart II by The Glorious Trainwrecks Community
Free, Download
Phenomenon 32 by Jonas Kyratzes
Free, Download
18 Comments

Coming soon: Alphaland

Posted in nexus city

I took a little time away from my current project last week to help Jonas with a little coding work on his new game, Alphaland. It’s an incredibly cool, clever little game, and I’m extremely happy to have been able to help with it in any way. Keep it an eye out; it’ll be released as soon as Jonas finds a sponsor!

5 Comments

VVVVVV 60% off on the Mac App Store this weekend

Posted in VVVVVV

This week, VVVVVV’s had the very good fortune of being listed as a “staff pick” on the relatively new Mac App store, which launched me into the top 30 games on the store (and into the top 100 overall). Lots of new people who would probably never have tried the game otherwise are discovering it for the first time, which is pretty cool!

To celebrate, I’m matching the Steam Christmas sale with a sale of my own, and putting the game on sale this weekend for just $1.99 USD (or £1.19 GBP, €1.59 EUR), exclusive to the Mac App Store!

VVVVVV on the Mac App Store

Please spread the word! This weekend only!

Here are a couple of the nicer user reviews the game’s gotten from Mac users:

The best game I’ve played in the last 5 years ***** by Neven Mrgan

    VVVVVV is a wonderful retro game, but that is only a small part of its charm. The fact that it gets *absolutely everything* right is the real victory. The graphics are cute and sharp, the level design is super-creative and challenging, the puzzles are simple but often maddening, the music is amazing. Among the movies I’ve seen and books I’ve read in the last few years, VVVVVV stands out as one of the best pieces of entertainment. I couldn’t possibly recommend it any more.

Shockingly good! ***** by primitiveworker

    Tight controls, compelling story, challenging areas, cohesive minimalist 8-bit design, metroid-like in its exploration and excellent 8-bit music! A gem!

Wow. Just, wow. ***** by Scott Jon Siegel

    I’m guilty of having never played VVVVVV before. This game’s an incredible platformer, and worthy of your hard-earned monies. Buy buy buy.
3 Comments

It’s still untitled

Posted in at a distance


So, I got back from GDC last week. Hell of a lot of fun. Already can’t wait till next year!

Since getting back I’ve been crunching on my new game, which I still haven’t settled on a good title for. I’m really excited about the project, but the deadline’s getting closer and closer, which is pretty stressful (it’s supposed to be basically complete by the end of march, ready for playtesting in April). As a result I’ve had to scale down my ambition a bit to come up with a version of this idea that I’ll actually have time to make, but I think the game actually works better for being more compact, particularly for an exhibition setting.

In other news, I finally found a musician for the game! I got a surprising number of emails about the job – it wasn’t easy to choose, but eventually, I decided to work with Stian Stark. He made an amazing demo song which completely nailed the feel of the game and I’m really looking forward to hearing what he comes up with for the rest of it.

Hoping to put together a video or something as soon as I think of a title that fits.

7 Comments