The Chilean designers from ACE Team are back with the new crazy game Rock of Ages. It’s a strategy and action game like none you have seen before.

You control a ball that will roll downhill until it crashes at the enemy’s castle front gates. Repeat if it is not damaged enough. Your adversary does the same. The first to break into the castle wins. You can put obstacles between your enemy’s ball and your castle, in a Tower Defense way. You should balance your time and money between preparing defenses and attacking.

It’s overall idea is really nice but actual gameplay is not that fun. Well, It is fun at the beginning. I believe that it is fun in a sandbox mode, which you might experiment a lot. But for a single single player campaign, it is very frustrating. In the defense mode, the match is too short to allow you to test different strategies (or you win, or you lose in 2 or 3 rounds), neither gives you hints of would be a good call. In the offense ball rolling mode, the strategy is simple: avoid obstacles that make your ball weaker and go as fast as you can in the final meters in order to hit the gates as harder as you can. The problem is: that’s it. Not much else to do.

Nor difficult, especially for a strategy/action game. I was able to finish the game without complex thinking. The basic defense units, presented in the very first stages will take care of most of your needs in the entire game. The extra unities, gained when you reach later levels, are just visuals, offering almost no useful functionality. In like manner, the collectible stars, which was supposed to be difficult to obtain and would give the right to pass some portals, are also a piece of cake. So, it is more a matter to go and take them.

Another polarizing aspect is the humour. I felt it is genuine and fun, but you have to give it a chance, because it is not obvious or for the masses. Each stage is thematic from historic figures like Pope, or ancient legends, like 300’s spartans. The jokes are silly and the application in the actual level is vague. Nonetheless, it reminds me the same weird fun style from Zeno Clash.

Bottom line: play this game if you want to explore an original and beautiful game. Does not expect deep strategy nor loads of LoL moments.

I participated at Ludum Dare (give the game, in Latin), edition 27. It is a competition to create a game in 48 hours (in Brazil, from 10pm Friday till 10pm Sunday). The theme was “10 seconds”, but I refused to create an action game. It would be the most common approach. Rather, I created a strategy game.

In fact, there are 2 competitions: COMPO and JAM modes. The Jam allows you to bring a team and use pre-build stuff.You have to choose what mode you are going to compete. I didn’t know that was one OR the other, so I created a game in 48h and enhanced it in the next day.

Take a look. There are also some pictures from my design process.

But if you want to play it, download it!

EDIT 2021: all links are unavailable or broken

I heard so many good reviews about this book. There is also a movie being made, starring Harrison Ford and the little actor, not more than little from Hugo, Asa Butterfield. So I was expecting another masterpiece ready to be trashed by Hollywood.

The main concept explored in the book is the war room. Like a video game, war commanders see the battle and issue orders. Special maneuvers and spacial positioning are critical. It’s pure Sun Tsu. It’s Blizzard StarCraft.

However. [spoiler alert]

Orson created a story of a superhero that does not ever fail. Like… never. It is a tale of success after success. The main character knows the extension of his abilities, knows how to master them, and can perform formidably every single time. It seems that the character is cheating in an RPG game to the point to exploit the fun. Super smart, super fast, super agile. Superman.

The narrative style is nice. Besides being a futuristic sci-fi universe (usually hard to understand), Orson is good in the description so readers always understand the world from the first time. However, the movement description, important to the story, is too visual and difficult to comprehend.

Wow.

There is, though, a nice message about training. Because for little Ender, the training brought perfection for him. It is somewhat inspiring.

Great visuals. That is by far the most commented and notorious quality of this touching movie. This film have several common qualities with Cast Away. The main character, because of an disaster, is isolated to the world. Alone, he enters into a routine in order to maintain sanity. But from external eyes, it seems that they are, in fact, becoming lunatic.

This piece is beautiful not only for the eyes, but also for the heart. The main message is tolerance. Tolerance especially towards religion choices. It is very linked to religion theme, while not a sermon.

The main problem of the film is the somewhat long sequence of loneliness. While important to give motive to the religion, it is long enough to make some people sleep.

In the end, I recommend you to watch to reflect. Probably the book that inspired the film is more deep, but this piece is strong enough to provoke some thinking about religion, personal choices and differences.

I’ve heard about Bastion for quite some time. People love it as a very refined indie game. This review aims to confirm all you heard elsewhere: Bastion is a lovely game and I’m both happy and sad for finishing it.

Core mechanics are the main success factor presented. The fluid gameplay makes it accessible for almost everyone. He combat is satisfying and challenging. There are enough weapons to make you believe there is a variety, but not much to make you think there are just for filling in content. Each weapon requires a different play style

The graphics are great. It was given a lot of work to give Bastion a singular look. Its cartoonish characters and hand maid painted scenarios are richly detailed. You will believe in the universe.

The enemies are also nice looking as well animated. They have different tactics and you have to fight them with a strategy, especially in the later levels and the arena.

But the most notable and unique feature of this game is the narrator. The whole story is from the point of view of an old man that follow the trajectory of the Kid to restore the Bastion to its former glory. The uniqueness is: he speaks the whole time! In the middle of the action, the narrator comes with fun comments. Sometimes it might get a bit annoying, but I personally felt as an amazing immersing technique.

You must try it. It is available on every platform, including browsers, so there is no excuse.