http://theepidemicgame.blogspot.com/

Humble Indie Bundle 2!

There's only 4 days left to get in on the 2nd Humble Indie Bundle. 5 games, and you can pay whatever you want, and the money goes to charity. The games are Machinarium, Osmos, Braid, Cortex Command, and Revenge of the Titans.

http://www.humblebundle.com/

You can also buy it as a gift for anybody else. They have absolutely no DRM so you can download them as many times as you want and install them as many times as you want on as many computers as you want, and they work on PC, Mac, and Linux.

Spread the word! Just make sure to pay more than 50 cents or so, so you pay more than their payment processing fee and they don't lose money. The average payment is about $7, and the highest payment so far is $2,000 from Notch, the guy who makes Minecraft.

Machinarium, One Chance, and Every Day the Same Dream

Just throwing this link out here:

http://machinarium.net/demo/

Amanita Design lets you play the first 3 screens of Machinarium for free in your browser. It's good stuff. Great point-and-click puzzle adventure.



And here's One Chance by Awkward Silence Games. You can only play it ONCE. Ever. You have one chance to save the world. Game only takes a few minutes, and you have some interesting choices to make. Do you spend the last week of Earth with your wife and daughter? Or do you spend all the time in your lab trying to develop a cure?

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/555181



One Chance is a totally shameless ripoff of Every Day the Same Dream by MolleIndustria, at least in terms of design, music, controls, and the whole map really, but... it's still pretty cool.

The Classroom

I thought about this game recently and remembered how fun it was. I rules are simple and the game was so successful the developer made two more sequels. This is the first game.

-Maja

Sound Design

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPWdnDdhdQM

The game Left 4 Dead 2 has excellent sound design. Multiple sounds can be heard at the same time like a horde rushing in, guns firing and fire burning. The sound contributes a lot to the game play as certain enemies can be heard, altering the player of what is stalking them. It also helps intensifies the action as certain events happen like a tank appearing or when you have to defend yourself. In the video it shows how all these sounds work well together.

Music Assignment - Vernon

Square Enix makes use its music to create a sense of unity among all its individual Final Fantasy series games. Here is a sample.

My choice for a good use of sound design in a game:Gradius 3

Software for Making Chiptunes

Here's a thread at OCRemix where they discuss several programs that emulate the sound chips for the NES, SNES, Master System, and Genesis:

http://ocremix.org/forums/showthread.php?t=13715


Here's a guide that will teach you how to convert a .MIDI song into a chiptune with Garage Band and a chiptunes plugin:

http://gigaom.com/apple/how-to-create-a-chiptune-in-garageband/


If anybody wants some free chiptunes, the 8 Bit Collective is a nice free database. Anybody can freely upload or download any of the chiptunes here, as long as they give credit to the composer:

http://8bc.org/

Sound/Alan Wake - Lily Hardy

Alan Wake Gameplay   Play at 3:50

I chose a clip from Alan wake.The game is about a man who begins to experience his own frightening novel. I think the makers did a great job using subtle sounds and music to convey the feel of a horror/thriller novel.

Maja's Pick for Sound

Bioshock 2 Intro Gameplay

The creators of Bioshock 2 implemented sound to create a cinematic experience. One signature sound, the Big Sister's scream, is used to anticipate the player for a rather difficult fight.