We are giving away a free iPad2 to one lucky winner who tells us their thoughts on our upcoming game, Choplifter HD! How might one enter in such an awesome giveaway?!

It’s very simple.

1) Before August 31st, head to our contest entry form at http://choplifterhd.com/ipad-contest and fill out your contact information and your thoughts.

2) Visit our Choplifter HD Facebook page and Like Us.

That’s it!

I know what you are thinking, “Oh, you just want our contact info so you can resell it and then I’ll be getting fliers in the mail for hair loss medication and mortgage loans!” Not at all, dear fans, not at all! We are NOT using this information in any other way than listening to what you think about Choplifter HD and to contact you to deliver your iPad2, if you should win. This information is not going to ever be resold, leased, rented, or even bartered for livestock (though, how cool would it be to have a heard of guinea pigs?! No… not even for a heard of guinea pigs!). This isn’t like those other offers and contests… we simply want to hear from you and feel like sending you a thank you in honor of Choplifter HD. Seriously. It’s super easy to enter and your information will be kept confidential.

What are you waiting for?!

That’s right, Platform Racing 3 is now available for the iPhone and iPod touch! You know PR3, right?! That multi-player Internet sensation that pits you against your friends (soon to be bitter enemies) or random Internet citizens in a mad dash to explore custom levels, fight your way through intense battles, acquire hats and custom blocks… I could go on and on, but let’s face it… you can’t describe the sheer awesome of this game until you are knee deep in Platform goodness. Many of you have sent us emails describing how your lives are now complete, but also how a small part of you dies a little inside every time you have to step away from the computer to do such pedestrian tasks as eating, going to work and going to school.

Not any more! We heard you loud and clear and not only developed Platform Racing 3 to be able to be played while on the go and away from your computer, but you can also play against others who are playing through the website, not just other iPhones! You have the FULL community available to you! Be sure to visit the official site when creating levels for yourself and friends to enjoy, but now you can play a quick game while standing in line at the movie, while getting your teeth drilled at the dentist… anywhere you have your iPhone (or iPod touch and WiFi) with you!

In Platform Racing 3 for the iPhone you receive:

1. 50 campaign levels!
2. Thousands of custom levels!!
3. Over 1 million possible customization combinations!!!
4. Play with thousands of other happy players on the interwebz!!!!
5. Visit www.sparkworkz.com/platformracing3 to make your own levels!!!!!!
6. Retina display ready!!!!!!
7. Excessive use of punctuation!!!!!!

You’ll soon be competing against the masses online as you run, swim, jump and battle your opponents with lasers, jet packs, mines and a plethora of other wacky items. And with each race you will gain experience to spend on skills, such as speed, jumping and acceleration! Personalize your racer with custom body parts; turn your racer into a dinosaur, an alien, a caveman, or any combination of the bunch! Wear goofy hats that improve your abilities!

What are you waiting for?!

Buy Platform Racing 3 NOW!
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/platform-racing-3/id437364752

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But sometimes we worry that people are missing out on this helpful resource.  So now we have added new buttons to the top-bar of our site.  Just drag your eyes toward the upper-left of the screen and you’ll see this:

Just click and subscribe!  You’ll have a source of new Sparkworkz news from then on!

(EDIT) Thank you for the suggestions everyone!  I can’t believe how many there are!  Thanks to your combined efforts, expect to see some awesome achievements in Platform Racing 3 for the iPhone!

There are lots of video game conventions out there.  E3 for the big companies, GDC for game developers, PAX for the game players…but if it’s Flash games you’re talking about, then there’s only one convention for you: The Flash Gaming Summit.  A one-day conference on the subject of online games, the FGSummit “brings together leaders in the Flash game space to share industry insights and strategies on successful game design” It also has an awards ceremony:

The Mochis are an annual award contest that pits the best of the best against each other in the Flash Game world.  There were some really impressive entries this year, by some of the best Flash game creators out there.  Here’s a taste of the winners:

Raze – Winner of Best Shooter
Inferno Meltdown – Winner of Best Strategy Game
Coma – Winner of Best Indie Game

Congratulations to everyone!  All the winners were magnificent games, but the runners-up were all incredibly impressive as well.  I can’t wait to see what amazing work is submitted next year!

The Game In Action!

It’s a proof of concept, just to show it can be done, but it’s surprisingly fun and a neat trick to boot.  The creator was messing around in HTML 5 when he discovered he could do this, so it works best in Google Chrome (although Firefox should be able to play it as well) Try it out, and see if you can beat my terrible score of 4 “a”s in 24 seconds.

This year, the contest was won by Jason Rohrer, an accomplished indie game creator who has made a dozen uniquely experimental and unusual games, including Sleep Is Death and Inside a Star Filled Sky.  His entry into the Game Design Challenge was something he called “Chain World”, a modded version of Minecraft meant to represent how myths are born (Minecraft is a game where you try to survive life in a randomly generated world made of Lego-like blocks and infested with monsters).  Here he is presenting it:

In short, the gist of the game is that a USB stick is loaded with a Minecraft world and some of his own code.  The person with the stick plays that world until he or she dies, saves it, and then must pass it on to someone else.  No one is allowed to talk about what happened in their session, no one is allowed to create signs with text, and you only get one chance.  There are even a list of Commandments to lay out the exact rules.  It’s like a game of Telephone, except instead of words there are just accumulated artifacts from the previous players, which each new player is forced to re-interpret on their own.

Amusingly enough, immediately after Jason Rohrer handed it to the first player, a schism was created in this mythology simulator.  It seems the recipient, Jia Ji, has taken it upon himself to auction off the next slot for charity as well as attempting to predetermine the following players, a decision that some people see as going against the goals of the experiment.

Maybe Someone should make a second Chain World, in the hope that the rules will be more carefully followed?  Maybe that person could be you!  If you had a USB stick and a copy of Minecraft on-hand, with the intent to start your own Chain World, what rules would you want the subsequent legions of anonymous players to follow?  Would you try to mod the game so that your rules had to be followed, or would you include a list of Commandments and trust that they’re followed, like the original?  Who would you give it to first? Someone you know?  A friend? An enemy?  A complete stranger?  So many possibilities!

Back in 2006, The Game Over Project – lead by artist Guillaume Reymond – took the idea of old video games, collaborative projects, and stop motion; and then put them together in a big auditorium to create some truly inspired depictions of arcade classics.  The idea took off, and for a while, you couldn’t surf the web without seeing one of their amazing videos (or fan tributes) popping up somewhere.

The premise was simple: everyone gets together with specifically colored shirts in the seating area of an auditorium.  Each person then sits down and represents one “pixel”.  A picture is taken and then they move to a new seat.  As the pictures stack up, the whole video game begins to unfold, from beginning to end.  Each “pixel” gets to decide what he or she does from frame to frame, lending a bit of improv to each “game”.

They started easy with Pong, and went on to do some incredibly complex performances, including Space Invaders and Pole Position.  But my personal favorite was their take on Tetris:

Just this past summer, they created a new performance depicting a game of Pac Man, complete with pellets pasted onto the seats!  It’s obvious that a lot of love (and a lot of fun) goes in to each project.  It just goes to show that when people get together to pay their respect to their favorite pastime, some amazing things can be created.

1. Cave Story
The definitive 2D platformer, smoothly combining a great story with open-ended exploration and spot-on game mechanics.  It takes everything great about Metroid and Castlevania, simplifies it, and perfects it.  Set in a vibrantly pixelated world much larger than it first appears, you take the role of a wide-eyed robot caught in the middle of a conflict between a tribe of proud bunnies and a mad sorcerer bent on global domination. (Note: From what I understand, the English translation comes separately for the Mac version)

2. Dwarf Fortress
If you ever wondered what it would be like to truly live in a fantasy world, and build a kingdom from the ground up with no detail left unchecked, then Dwarf Fortress is the game for you.  Don’t let the simplistic ASCII graphics fool you – there is a visual depth here that’s impossible to describe without playing it.  Armies fight, fires spread, poisonous clouds linger over fallen troops, crops grow with the changing seasons and alliances shift as the years pass.  All the while, your Dwarves dig ever-downward, mile-long mine shafts expanding in their wake as they search for precious metals to craft goods for farming, trade, everyday needs, and battle.  All you have to do is give the orders.

3. N
A 2D action puzzle platformer where you are given control of a perfect ninja: he’s got a twenty-foot vertical jump, bounces off walls like they’re ladders, can stop on a dime and has the midair reflexes of a flying squirrel.  So why do you keep getting him killed?! This game is the perfect example of how to make a game difficult without handicapping the player.

4. Gamma Bros
If Cave Story is the definitive 2D platformer, Gamma Bros is the definitive space shooter.  You are given control of one of two space ships, tasked with clearing up the space junk around your station…oh and also vast legions of aliens.  The pacing is spot on, with enemy appearances timed just right to keep things tense while not overwhelming you too quickly.  And the graphics are an amazingly executed nod to 8-bit games of old.  Not to mention the magnificent music.

5. Nethack
There is a very specific and odd genre of games out there called “roguelikes”. It literally means “any game like Rogue”.  Basically, “Rogue” and all its “likes” are RPG games built out of simple ASCII characters which are anything BUT simple.  You navigate
maze-like dungeons from a top-down view, fighting monsters by equipping items, bumping into them and hoping for the best.  Your goal is to head ever deeper into the dungeon catacombs in a quest to find the untold riches at the bottom.  Usually, you get about a third of the way there and die horribly.  Yet thanks to the depth of the game system, your death is always unique!  Oh, you’re going to use that wand you picked up?  Turns out it transforms enemies into pools of acid, which fills the room, dissolving you.  Low on health and drinking an unfamiliar potion?  Oops! You’re a statue.  You’re carrying around all those items, and you want to use this ladder?  Oh dear, it broke under your weight, dropping you into a pit of molten lava.  The possibilities are endless!  And gore-free, since everything is made out of letters!

This only scratches a meager surface of the amazing indie games that are out there, waiting to be discovered.  Hopefully, I’ve sparked an interest in you to go out and search for some yourself.  If so, then talk about your discoveries in the comments below.  I’ll be watching, and will update the list with user suggestions!

Seeing the new style Jhawk was using, I thought this latest contest sounded a bit daunting myself.  You mean it’s not just an “Elimination Competition”, but an “EXTRA Elimination Competition”??  What if we scare people away?!

Well!

My fears were completely unfounded, it turns out, because a whopping seventy-eight members (and counting!  There’s still time!) have entered the qualifying round, hoping to do well enough to vie for the grand prize at the end of the competition.  This time around, the winner gets a specially colored forum name and title (and possibly other forum things, who knows)!  And of course the knowledge that you out-designed the best of the best in FC2.

I wish all contestants the best of luck.  The results of the qualifying round will be announced in the contest thread tonight at 9:30 pm Central Time.  Then it’s on to the real challenge!