Hey guys, what’s up?

Tainted Kingdom is finally here on ArmorGames! You can check it out here:

Play Tainted Kingdom Now!

Tainted Kingdom is a Fantasy Strategy game with 10 Missions you can play. You can send out Knights, Hunters, Priests, or swift Horse-men. You can heal your units, build defensive towers, and choose where to expand your base, and how you manage your resources and upgrade your units. The game comes with fully animated and voiced cut-scenes for all your story-telling needs It’s quite difficult to beat, and it’s even harder to get all the Trophies, so there’s a big challenge waiting for you in there, I hope you enjoy it!

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Now, people keep asking me this question: “Where is Sonny 2!?”

Answer is: It’s on its way! We’ve been working slowly on it for a while now, but since Tainted Kingdom is done, we’re about to start going full speed on Sonny 2. It’s going to be a lot bigger than the first. We plan to have three different classes, but this time each class will have its own Ability Tree, and so thats 3 times more possible character builds than Sonny 1!

I can’t disclose a lot more information about it yet, except that most of your suggestions, complaints, etc. will be taken into consideration so we can improve the experience. We’re planning to improve AI drastically, and add a movement system and non linear game-play.

My aim is to make this game improve on each aspect of the original by double. Because it’s Sonny-2, so it’s got to be 2 times as good. That makes sense, doesn’t it?

ttyl guys
<3 Krin

PS: Before you ask me silly questions, no, Sonny did not have a sex-change. That’s another character in the picture

ArmorBlog readers, Chris of Con Artists Productions. Chris of Con Artists Productions, ArmorBlog readers. Introductions aside, lets get down to the business.

Almost a year after the release of the first game, I’m more than happy to announce that The Last Stand 2: Stand Laster has been in production for 5 months and is nearing being ready for release.

The game has a number of features that I really wanted to include in the first game but due to a lack of time and sufficient programming knowledge, I had to put them aside. Here’s a brief rundown of what to expect:

Features include:

• New zombie types - They’re getting smarter
• New dynamic difficulty setting - No more Mr.EasyGame
• New search mechanic - You choose the buildings to search
• New weapons - 5 new weapons, all different from one another
• Explosives - Variety of things that go boom
• Traps - Bear traps, Explodable gas cylinders & Landmines
• Ability to give survivors most weapons you’ve found to use themselves!
• Multiple and varied locations, travel across the state
• New graphics/effects - Guns have been overhauled, blood particles etc

It will be out before GTA IV. If it’s not, we’re in trouble because I just don’t see the my game coming out on top in a bout against everyone’s desire to rampage through New York as an eastern European underworld figure.

The game will be released on Armor Games in the next few weeks, so keep your eye out.

Before the dawn of time, over a decade ago, there were but two companies. Two bitter rivals clashing over what was to become the biggest entertainment industry in the world - video games. Those companies were of course Nintendo and Sega.

These days I’m a pretty huge fan of the big N but back then it was Sega all the way. The first console Dim and I ever owned was a Sega Mega Drive 2 (known as the Genesis to those of you States-side) and so it was this console that first shaped our young minds into the gamers you see today. I’m certain that the games we played back then have made a big impact on the kind of games we make now, so I’ve decided to share some of my favourite and most influential games with you.

Dynamite Headdy

You might have actually heard of this one, since its available on the Wii’s Virtual Console. I strongly recommend you go get it if you can. This game just drips with creativity, charm and superb gameplay.

What starts out promising to be a standard platforming affair soon reveals itself to be a work of genius, through it’s simple gameplay mechanic - the ability to throw your head in any of the eight directions a D-pad affords you, it’s huge variety of unique and clever power-ups (manifested as different heads with different abilities) and its constant visual assualt of beautifully crafted levels full of detail and colour.

This game was the first to show me just how creative games can get and how much human touch can be poured into what for most games of the time was just a group of pixels shifting about.

James Pond 3: Operation Starfish

This. Game. Is. Huge.

No, really, it is. So big, they had to put it on an extra-large cartridge, double the memory of other games - you can see it says 16 Meg right on the box. This game was so epic in fact, that we never did get all the way to the end without cheating.

Those familiar with other James Pond titles (most probably JP2: Robocod, which I swear is the most ported game of all time) will know all about the kind of platforming adventure to expect. What this game adds is a whole cast of playable characters, a ton of weapon, huge levels and a world map so big it’ll make you cry. Include on top of that a bunch of different side quests and some of my favourite 2D bosses in all time and its easy to see why this game made its mark.

This game showed me that people out there were trying to push the limits of gameplay and size. Incedentally, this was the first time I’d really heard of EA (don’t you love their old logo?)

The Ooze

I played this game recently, it can be found in some of the recent Sega/Sonic compilations available on various systems. I’m sad to say, it doesn’t hold up as a great game.

It does however still make my list, just for the unique gameplay. If you don’t know of it, the game sees you playing as an amorphous blob of the eponymous ooze. What with games like Gish around these days, you’d be forgiven for thinking that this might not be such a big deal, but this was back before vector graphics. I know know that the ooze was most likely constructed from a series of tiles that shift and change as you move around. When I first played it, I couldn’t begin to imagine how they’d done it and I was captivated.

This game was the first to really impress upon me the idea of making games that don’t yet have a genre, games that stand on their own laughing at the flood of generic platformers and shoot-em-ups on the market.

Tom-

To steer away from the RPG for a while, I have been working on small branch of the Dark Cut series.  I wouldn’t call it Dark Cut 3, but more of a Dark Cut 2.9 or a prequel of sorts.  Either way, It’s the 1940’s, deep in the heart of World War II.  A field doctor has come back from months of traumatic operating room procedures, and has to recall his traumatic moments with his doctor.  The shell shocked medic officer retells some of the recent nightmares he’s been having, ever since he got back from the war.

Unlike the other Dark Cut games, this one has a lot more mixed media in it.  There are certain operations and procedures that rely exclusively on the use of a microphone (of course, the game lets you bypass these ops if you don’t have a microphone), and there are now voices in the game.  The game is definitely getting bigger and better with each new release, and I am sure this one will fit in quite nicely with the others.  Expect the usual, but definitely expect the extraordinary in this one :).

Expect a release next week.  Tally-ho!

It seems like every Flash game website has a voting system. But I find interesting that the voting mechanism usually tells you the average vote score BEFORE you vote. So that got me thinking, what if the voting system hides the popular vote before playing and voting? For example, lets say that the vote bar appears after playing the game and asks you to vote. You would not see the votes or reviews of users… just the vote bar. Think of how different it feels voting based on your experiences alone.

Good. Now take a look at this next scale. This scale reflects a voting system that constantly updates as the votes come in.

Seems much different now, right? You have the popular vote to take into consideration. I think this has three major effects on your voting habits:

Effect #1) I may now vote based on my expectations of the game.

If you see the current score on the graph, you are going to get an indication of how “good” people think the game is. This is going to set your expectations before you even open the game. After playing the game, your vote may be effected by whether or not your expectations were met.

Effect #2) I may now vote based on the agreement or disagreement of others.

Instead of voting specifically for the value you think it deserves, you may vote in agreement or disagreement with the current popular vote. For example, if you think the game was better than the current popular vote, you will vote higher than the average. If you thought the game was worse, you would vote lower. Instead of voting in line with your own opinions, you’ll be voting in such a way to show your agreement or disagreement with how others voted.

Effect #3) I may now vote on the extremes so I can sway the vote with the greatest impact possible, in lieu of Effect #2.

More is better right? Since you are voting on a scale, there are extremes to how a user can vote: 0 or 10. An extreme vote is going to change the vote much more than one that hits closer to the popular vote already. Throwing a 0 at an average score of 7.5 is much more powerful on the popular vote than throwing a 7. The image below reflects the voting habits of individuals like this:

So now that these three effects might have altered your vote, does this mean that pretabulated voting is bad? Isn’t it better to get a score that is from personal experience instead of being effected by the crowd’s vote?

That’s a hard question. For a lot of users, seeing the popular vote helps them make decisions on what to play. It doesn’t make sense to buy a car without seeing the ratings and scores of auto reviewers and previous owners, right? Neglecting popular opinion may lead to the risk of getting the wrong car. The same thing goes for Flash games. People want to know which are the best games to play, and not everyone wants to spend their time playing both good and bad games in hopes of finding good ones. People just want to have fun.

However at the same time, I think it’s a genuine way to vote when you are not effected by other’s votes. Voting straight from experience is the purist way to do it. You like or dislike something based on what you think, not based on what you think and what the rest of the world thinks. And who knows, you may love a game that everyone hated.

It seems like voting is caught in a catch-22… more genuine votes or a better game-seeking experience? It’s hard to tell. What do you think? Do you want to spend time finding good games among the throngs of mediocre ones, or just get straight to the juicy stuff and know your vote may be affected by what you see? At Armor Games we have been discussing implementing both methods, so that users can choose their own way to vote. But we are curious about your opinions on the matter!

Hi guys, Dim here. I recently got home for Easter holidays and my sister Maddy showed me a photo of something from a recent birthday party she went to. This is so awesome:

A James the Zebra cake! My sister has a friend called Rosie who is a massive fan of the James games….so her friends made her a cake with him on! Its so strange to think that this goes on without me knowing. And so close to home, too! Tom and I have been aware of Rosie for a good long time, she manages to get some of the top scores!

Well, she’d probably have more top scores but most of our hi-score tables end up looking something like this:

Whats going on here then? Somehow a whole bunch of people have managed to get 2147483647 points….This is from our game Solarsaurs, where its only really possible to get tens of thousands of points at most. It tends to happen after a while, either people find a way to cheat or they just hack the hi-score table, or something! It’s quite annoying, actually. Do other people find this happens on their games? I remember the first instance of it was people getting “0 seconds” on the time trial from the first James game. If people want to find ways to cheat at our games then we’re honoured, really. But this one is just silly!

Oh, and in response to John’s mildly contraversial post about Super Mario Bros 2 as the best game ever made, I can’t resist offering my own opinions. Here are some of my absolute favourites:

(NOTE: I’m not including FFVII and Ocarina of Time in this list. I do consider them 2 of the best games of all time, but a lot of people do so I’m not going to offer my own thoughts.)

SHADOW OF THE COLOSSUS

This game is breathtaking. Honestly. It delivers all the emotions you thought you’d never feel from a game. It’s innovative, exciting, a lot of fun and it even has lots of replay value. But it can’t be described as just”good graphics, good sound” etc. Its more than that. Its one of the most satisfyingly simple concepts ever conceived. Just 16 bosses, a boy with a sword and a horse named Agro. No towns, no side quests, nothing. The horse’s animations stands out especially - its lightyears ahead Epona in any Zelda game.

RESIDENT EVIL 4

I’ve been a Resi fan for a while but I held off playing this one until the Wii version came around. I saw the new camera and the new focus on action and I thought “psh, that looks stupid. It won’t be scary.” Well, I finally played this and I felt like a fool. Its simply incredible. It delivers so many different environments and atmospheres I don’t know how they packed it all in. The game was marketed by showing the village environment at the start, but little did I know that was just the tip of the very large iceberg.

METAL GEAR SOLID 3

Some people didn’t like MGS2 because it had too much talking, etc. MGS3 fixes everything that was wrong with MGS2, and then some….and then some more. Its so ambitious. The bosses, the story, the adaptive music, the characters, everything about this game is grand in proportion and perfectly realised. The ending is really just the most exciting ending in any game ever. If I had to pick one reason why this game stands out, its the boss battle with the ancient sniper, “The End.” that “boss” is just 2 men hunting and tracking each other around the forest, and it was one of the most intense experiences I found on the PS2.

SILENT HILL 2

Another PS2 game!? Yeah, well, screw nostalgia. I happen to be just about the biggest Silent Hill fan you’ll ever meet, but very few people will argue with SH2. It really is just storytelling perfection. Most games “have” a story. But Silent Hill 2 IS a story. It has a wonderful plot twist and it’s quite honestly one of the most chilling games I’ve ever seen. This is a game that knows less is more, silence can be used as effectively as sound, and if you’re going to have a character driven story - character development is pretty important. I actually think SH3 is scarier but this one is the overall best.

* Update : 3/19/08.  If you are taking this article personally, you need to go take a break from the internet for a while.  Everyone has their favorite game, and I am just giving my argument, feel free to give yours.

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I have been doing a lot of Flash programming recently, and decided to take a break to talk about the best video game ever. And sorry, you cannot argue with this statement of truth:

Super Mario Bros 2 is the best video game ever made.

I know, I know, it’s a big claim to make. But for all you Halo lovers out there, I need to explain to you why Super Mario Bros 2 perfected gaming, and nothing has ever come close, ever. But before that, a short lesson in Mario 2.

History

Super Mario Bros 2 was released in the United States in 1988 on the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). If you are too young to know what an NES is, please unplug your next-gen consoles and visit Ebay to pick up your own system. The main basis of the game is to complete each level by side-scrolling through different levels, enemies, and obstacles. To deal with enemies, you would either pick up turnips from the ground or the enemies themselves and hurl them at other enemies. The game evolves from there.

Maybe you didn’t know, but Super Mario Bros 2 has a really confusing history. Super Mario Bros 2 in Japan was a different game than it was here in the US. Super Mario Bros 2 (Japan) was an extremely hard sequel to the original Super Mario Bros, and resembled the original game in most respects. It had levels that were near impossible for the casual Mario player to beat, which made it frustrating to play. The Japanese version of Super Mario Bros 2 did not launch initially in the United States but instead released years later, being retitled to “Lost Levels” and bundled in the Super Mario All-Stars game for Super Nintendo (and eventually onto the Wii Virtual Console as it’s own title). But while Japan was getting Super Mario Bros 2, here in the United States we were getting a totally different Super Mario Bros 2 game experience.

The game we had was a bubbly “pick enemies up and hurl them at each other” sidescroller, with a whole unique style of gameplay compared to the other Mario games.

But that unique gameplay was understandable, since the US version of Super Mario Bros 2 game was not originally intended to be a Mario title when it was made in Japan back in the 80’s. Super Mario Bros 2 (US) was actually reskinned from a Japanese Famicom game called “Doki Doki Panic” which had characters with similar gameplay traits, just with different looking bodies. The game was reskinned and shipped as a Mario title in the United States because of issues with audience… the Japanese version of Super Mario Bros 2 (Lost Levels) was extremely difficult and had very few changes since the original Super Mario Bros, so they changed up their gameplan when marketing a second Mario title for the United States.

Beyond some minor gameplay changes from Doki Doki Panic (for example, different music, graphics, and subtle boss changes), the game was relatively the same. The levels had similar layouts and could be completed the same way that you may beat them in Super Mario Bros 2.

Oh, and to confuse things even more, the US version of Super Mario Bros 2 went back to Japan in 1992, as the fourth Mario game called “Super Mario USA” even though it was made in Japan to begin with. Fun huh.

So now you know why Super Mario Bros 2 is so different from the other Mario games, and sticks out like a sore thumb.

So Why Is Super Mario Bros 2 the Best Game of All Time?

Because it does everything right as a video game.

Character Selection: At the beginning of the game you get to choose between four different characters: Toad, Mario, Luigi, and Princess. Each of the characters are unique in what they offer skillwise. Luigi can jump higher, Toad can pick up items faster, Princess can float, and Mario seems to have a little bit of everything. Choosing your character before the level impacted the entire game’s difficulty each time you play. So as you get better at the game, you’ll learn what parts of the game become important for specialized characters. How many games do you know let you choose between four unique characters with different abilities? Yeah I thought so!

Enemies: The enemies are not only diverse and smart, but completely awesome. For one, the main enemies in the game are Shy-Guys, which are weird round creatures with a mask and two small feet. They are completely menacing even though they are usually only capable of walking backwards and forwards… and won’t turn around unless prompted by a wall or ledge. In addition to being simple but deadly, they come in two main shades: red and pink. This game has a lot of character to choose it’s main enemy colors to be red and pink. But beyond that, there are other amazing characters in the game, which are all extremely memorable. Pokey the cactus was a family favorite.

Bosses: Each level usually ends in a boss battle with Birdo, which ranks as one of the best bosses ever. It shoots eggs from it’s mouth, and your job is to jump on the egg and throw it back at her/him (FACT: The gender of Birdo has changed since this game first launched to now… notice the lack of hair bow above compared to future versions). The hard part is that Birdo is constantly running back and forth, and shoots other eggs at you while you are trying to throw it back. In later levels, Birdo shoots eggs and fireballs, sometimes in multiples of three! Pattern recognition and timing make this is a boss that is not too hard, and something you can get better at as the game continues; and the best thing is that even though you play this boss about 5-10 times, it never gets old. Oh, and the final boss, Wart, is epic.

Music: The music for this game is incredible. There is one main theme for the main world areas, one for the underground areas, and one for boss battles. These three main songs play throughout the entire game, and you do not get tired of it. It’s catchy, fun, and it works in every gameplay situation. That is pretty incredible for a game. Also, there is a lot of class in the Pause screen of this game, which cuts the main notes of the music but keeps the bass line running.

Level Diversity: This game goes out of it’s way to mix up level design. Just from the start, you’ll fall several screen lengths, enter a large grassy area, go into a cave area, and end up in the clouds. The game just keeps throwing it at you, and as you visit different worlds it just gets better. The snow, desert, and sky levels all are very different and they keep the theming together with different characters and obstacles. There are 7 worlds total and each are very fun to play.

The worlds are also put together in a fashion that makes you feel like you are exploring. The levels are broad and keep going and going, but at times you’ll move up a screen or through a door to be transported to new areas. This helps the game create much more depth than the usual NES sidescroller. Also, when transporting to the “shadow land” it reverses the entire stage and manages to keep elements of the stage intact and interactive still. What you do in the normal world effects what is interactive in the shadow world; pretty deep for an NES game.

Water Levels: Do you know anyone who enjoys water levels? Super Mario Bros 2 has no water levels to speak of. Perfect.

Gameplay: It never gets old. Picking up enemies, throwing enemies at each other… it’s the perfect fodder. The relationship between enemy and player is much stronger than other games, and is prevalent through each level. For example, in one stage you must ride one of Birdo’s eggs across a large lake instead of using the egg to kill Birdo. In another, you must jump on the heads of Shy Guys to get across a pit of spikes. Also, this game has one of the best implementations of “find the key, unlock the door”. Instead of just grabbing the key and going, the key is a large pickup item like an enemy meaning that you cannot pick up other items while you are holding the key; it becomes a burden. There are nasty enemies called Phantos that chase you around the map while you have the key, which gets your heart pounding as you run towards the door like it’s the finish line. Just incredible.

Fun: The game is just fun. The levels are short and quick, but add enough excitement on each level to keep the player going. It is what Super Mario Bros 3 and Galaxy did a great job doing… giving a fun little mechanic to toy around with for a level and then moving on.

Difficulty Curve: By NES standards, this game is pretty easy to play. The difficulty curve is very appropriate, and even novice gamers will have fun on the first few levels. I know this myself, as I was kid playing my first console games when I first picked up this game with my Dad at the video store. But at the same time, it still takes a hardcore gamer to finish this game, but you feel eased enough into the ending that it is comfortable the whole way.

So what is wrong with this game?

There is very little wrong with this game. For one, there was never a Super Mario Bros 2: 2. A sequel would make my day. Second, there was no save game feature, meaning you either run for the end or turn off your NES (this was later fixed in the Super Mario All-Stars version of the game). Third, it had to live up to being a “Mario” game. I hated that. This was truly a different game than the Mario franchise would normally feature, but was forced to be compared to it’s brethren titles for years to come. It’s COMPLETELY different from the other Mario titles, yet it is one of the largest contributing Mario games of all time. Think about how the Mario games later were influenced. How about those giant multi-sectioned cactuses in Super Mario World? How about Princess as a floating character? How about Birdo? Shyguys? Bomb-ombs? It contributed so much that franchise, but at the same time setting itself apart from the other dozen Mario games created. Yet people rag on it for being the “Black Sheep” of Mario games, as if it was a bad thing.

Well tough, because Super Mario Bros 2 was the best game ever made. As a Flash developer, I have learned a lot from that game, and as a gamer, it has left a lasting impression that no other game could ever leave on me.

We’ve covered the basics of what a class is, so lets look at how one is put together.

A class is written in a separate file from your main .fla, with the .as filetype. For example, MyClass.as. The convention with class names is to use something called upper camelcase - writing the name with no spaces, but capitalising the first letter of each word, such as MyClass, TomIsCool or CodingIsFun. This is just a convention, so you don’t have to use it but it will help to make your code more readable, both to yourself and anyone else who reads it.

Read more »

Hey, Fil here.

I am the new member of the Armor Games team! I am really excited to be part of this great gaming community! Right now I do many different things ranging from helping out around the office, to helping out with the website and the online community. I used to create websites on Flash and messed around with animations a lot, but that was when Flash was in it’s Bronze age. As soon as I get some more time (when my Finals are over next week) I’ll hopefully start fidgeting around with Flash some more, and maybe you will see some games by “Flipski” on Armor Games sometime (hopefully soon ).

I have a busy week ahead of me. Finals are coming up, and I need to study for a bunch of modern physics, and electronics courses I’m taking. No, fun…well kinda…but not during finals. However, I’ll be thinking up ideas for some cool games, and If I come up with some good ones, I will keep you all posted. And maybe get some feedback on which ideas are good and which ones sound like a joke :). I look forward to getting more involved online and, as I get more situated, with developing games of my own ! I hope you all have a great weekend!

Bye for now,
Fil

Hey, Dim here again. I wanna show you all the main reason I ended up doing this kind of work.

This game, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis is the beginning of it all. It wasn’t the first game I played but the it was probably the first that I really felt connected to. Anyway, You’ve all seen people raving about it before. Its a classic LucasArts adventure game, a genre that has sadly become very rare these days. The genre itself, along with Capcom’s Phoenix Wright, caused Tom and I to create our own homage game, “Detective Grimoire”. We’re planning on, one day, producing a sequel to that game but right now all plans are still just ideas, and thats the way I like it. I did draw up a couple of backgrounds for a possible Grimoire 2, though. I won’t show them all but here’s one…Its only small because I don’t want to give away too much of it.

This was one of the styles I developed, a filter heavy, detailed style that seemed to work sometimes and other times look horrible. I really wanted to produce something a little more stylised, in the way that Monkey Island 3 does it. But you know, original.

Anyway, I love playing games like these and my favourite Flash incarnation of the genre is Holy-Howard’s “Legacy of Pliskin”. The games have a wonderful charm to them and the voicework really delivers the sort of atmosphere that makes these games great. If you’ve got a minute, go play them! (particularly part 2). The graphics aren’t amazing but theres definately a certain amount of care that has gone into it. It looks like a Flash game but it feels as cool as an old fashioned PC game.

If you’re a fellow Adventure game fan and you’re a little sad to see that Lucasarts seems to have given up with the genre, don’t worry! There are a fair few Point-and-clicks on the way. The most exciting of all has to be “A Vampyre Story” By Autumn Moon Entertainment. Its all hand-drawn - very little 3D. It seems to be a completely old fashioned point-and-click adventure! You’ve probably never heard of Autumn Moon Entertainment but don’t worry - Its headed by Bill Tiller, an ex-Lucasarts genius who was behind games like “The Dig.”

-Dim