Featured VVVVVV level: “Quantum Tunnel” by Martze

Terry Sep 29, 2011 9 Comments

“Quantum Tunnel” is a new level by Martze, creator of the previously featured level “Soul Searching“. While that level briefly touched on a room duality idea, this level explores the idea in much, much more detail, using a long 20×2 sized world to combine warp lines and world wrapping in a very clever way.

This is the sort of VVVVVV level I really love to see – succinctly designed, light hearted and imaginative, more interested in exploring cool ideas than presenting you with difficult challenges. Highly recommended.

To play a VVVVVV player level, extract the .vvvvvv file into your VVVVVV levels folder. On windows, that should be in My Documents/VVVVVV, on Mac it’s Documents/VVVVVV, on Linux it’s ~/.vvvvvv

At a Distance at Eurogamer Expo 2011

Terry Sep 24, 2011 12 Comments

So, for the last couple of days I’ve been hanging around the Indie Games Arcade at the 2011 Eurogamer Expo, showing people my No Quarter game At a Distance. There’s still one day left and I’m absolutely exhausted, but it’s been a lot of fun. I’m really pleased with how well it’s gone down at the expo too – it’s very encouraging that almost everyone who gives it a try ends up playing it all the way through to the end.

The expo’s not even over yet, and a couple of people have already written a bit about it (warning, major spoilers): there’s a preview of the game up on DIYGamer, and an incredibly flattering review on dealspwn.

I’ll talk a bit more about it when I get back to Cambridge next week, but something cool happened today that I wanted to mention – when I came back from lunch today, I found this stuck on the wall above the game:

This left me absolutely speechless – At a Distance was nominated for game of the show, alongside massive big budget blockbuster sequels like Call of Duty MW 3, Skyrim, and Uncharted 3. My chances are actually winning are probably non-existent, of course, but it’s an incredible honour to even be considered.

Tomorrow’s the last day of the expo; if you’re in London and you’d like to give it a try, consider making a trip down to Earl’s Court and checking it out 🙂 There’s lots of other cool things to see in the indie arcade too, so it’s well worth a visit!

Featured VVVVVV Level: Bonus Roundup, Part 3

Terry Sep 21, 2011 3 Comments

Time for one last bonus round up! Five more little levels I liked lots:

“roomerBang” by DcTurner

This short level is lots of fun and extremely polished (which is no surprise considering it’s by the animator who made this). Loved the writing in this one too.

“LOVE V 2.0” by Ashley Gwinnell

Here’s another level that uses trinkets as keys! I really loved the structure of the main hub in this one, and the style of using the bright neon pink lab tileset for each room.

“Mineshaft” by Kadir

My favourite bit of this level is the second trinket, past the “Vent” room – Kadir set out to make a level that had a “strong sense of place”, and that’s where it comes across best. (The rest of level is great too!)

“Under Wraps” by Kurosen

Like “Devious Dimentions” in the previous post, this level is set in a very constrained world – but it takes the concept further than that level did, with lots of warping rooms and heavy use of screen edge warp lines.

“Space Station XCIV” by Danboe

This is actually one of the first custom levels posted to the forum, and the first level I saw to do the whole roomtext as roomnames thing. Although it’s a bit hard (impossible?) in places, it’s a dimension that’s a lot of fun to explore thanks to its attention to detail and very open structure.

Ok! Hope you enjoy these; I’ll be back to posting single featured levels next week. You can download this set from here:

To play a these VVVVVV player levels, extract the .vvvvvv files into your VVVVVV levels folder. On windows, that should be in My Documents/VVVVVV, on Mac it’s Documents/VVVVVV, on Linux it’s ~/.vvvvvv

Featured VVVVVV level: Bonus roundup, Part 2

Terry Sep 17, 2011 3 Comments

Hope you’ve been enjoying the last set of levels from the roundup the other day! Continuing through my list, here are another five levels from my list of fifteen. Once again, these ones are a little rough compared to other levels I’ve featured, but they’re all awesome in their own way, and worth checking out.

“DSS Ideal X” by CHz

I almost featured this one on it’s own; it’s an extremely strong level – probably the best from this list of 15, if I’m honest. It’s bloody hard in places, but if that doesn’t put you off then I recommend it highly. It’s inventive, well designed, and has a pretty good story too.

“There and Back Again” by QualityJeverage

A level split in two paths, one easy, one hard. Both paths are good fun!

“The Sacred Grounds” by Requiem

This is a level inspired by the infamous secret hell level from Cave Story – but thankfully, not nearly as hard at the reference might lead you to believe! While it follows the structure of the Cave Story level pretty closely, it’s worth playing for its own spin on the level design. I particularly liked the interpretation of the Heavy Press miniboss!

“Jail Break” by YouKnow

A very short one next – Jail Break is a very neatly designed level with some cool ideas – including one section (in the screenshot above) that must have been a nightmare to script. This one’s not too hard either.

“Devious Dimentions” by Ferrety

This one’s set in a tiny, densely packed 5×3 world – there are a lot of little things I like about this one, but my favourite part is how it uses trinkets to encourage you to poke around in it’s various corners rather than as extra challenges.

You can get these five levels from the download below. I’ll post the final five soon!

To play a these VVVVVV player levels, extract the .vvvvvv files into your VVVVVV levels folder. On windows, that should be in My Documents/VVVVVV, on Mac it’s Documents/VVVVVV, on Linux it’s ~/.vvvvvv

At a Distance at Indiecade 2011

Terry Sep 16, 2011 7 Comments

I’m incredibly proud to announce that I’m a finalist at this year’s Indiecade, with At a Distance. Anyone who’s met me has probably heard me go on about last year’s Indiecade again and again, so to be part of it this year too is a dream come true. 🙂

Check out the rest of the finalists! I’m in some amazing company again this year!

(Indiecade asked me to record some gameplay videos for the festival, one of which I’ve embedded in this post.)

Featured VVVVVV level: Bonus roundup, Part 1

Terry Sep 11, 2011 1 Comments

Since the new version of VVVVVV launched, there have been a lot of amazing levels made for it – too many for me to cover, really. When I pick levels to feature, I try to stick to the best of the best – the ones that do something really special. Unfortunately, this means that a lot of great levels get overlooked…

So, I’ve decided to do a few roundup posts to highlight a few other levels I really liked, which you’ve probably missed unless you’ve been reading my forum!

These levels are a little rough around the edges compared to other levels that I’ve featured – some are glitchy, some are really hard, some are unpolished – but I think they’re all levels that fans of VVVVVV will enjoy a lot. There are 15 in all; here are the first five!

“Virtual V” by Vimol

This is a great little level that has a bit of a Manic Miner feel. It makes some pretty fantastic use of roomtext.

“Reactor Disaster” by Kris Asick (Gemini)

Reactor Disaster is a fairly large level with a lot of scripting. It’s quite hard, but very polished, and it has a lot of interesting challenges.

“Mirror rorriM” by PJBottomz

On the other end of the scale, PJBottom’z Mirror rorriM has no challenges at all; no spikes and no enemies. I liked it for its simplicity and singular focus.

“Castle Darkdeath” by Hatless

I found Castle Darkdeath utterly charming; it has some incredibly rough edges, but also some really imaginative challenges.

“The RYB maze” by S. Piqueras

The RYB maze I like because it’s so different from other VVVVVV levels – I found it really got interesting for me when I got as far as the room titled “The Bouncy, much much better edition”. I recommend sticking with it, even if you’re finding it a little confusing at the start!

You can get all five levels from the download below. I’ll post the other 10 over the next week!

To play a these VVVVVV player levels, extract the .vvvvvv files into your VVVVVV levels folder. On windows, that should be in My Documents/VVVVVV, on Mac it’s Documents/VVVVVV, on Linux it’s ~/.vvvvvv