Platform Game Engine

The Platform Game Engine project is exactly what it sounds like, a game engine and toolkit for creating platform games. It seems very complete and feature-filled, with an advanced editor with all sorts of tools as well as advanced game features such as warps, doors and world maps. Long story short, if you want to create a platforming game without coding, this might be a good place to start!

Editing backgrounds in The Platform Game Engine.

GearHead 1.310

Roguelike mecha role playing game GearHead is getting a new release while development of GearHead 2 advances alongside it. Several improvements have been made. As an example the game now features thinner, nicer looking walls and there have also been some improvements to the UI. This is a rather unique game that seems to have much thought put into it. A tip is to read the instructions a bit down on this page before starting.

GearHeads title screen. Note the nice pixel spaceships in the background.

Cytopia

Cytopia is a city building game with isometric retro-styled pixel art and a focus on mods. Lately it has moved from a promising engine to a promising game. There is already support for a custom UI system, terrain manipulation, roads and water, buildings and much more. The pixel art looks great and many cool features are planned for the future such as procedural terrain generation, OpenGL rendering and a scripting language for mods. Also, it seems like the project is currently looking for more developers, if you happen to be interested.

Buildings, roads and hills in Cytopia.

The Dark Mod - 2.07

Impressive stealth-game The Dark Mod has got a new update. It's primarily a stability release that improves many of the new things introduced in the last release, such as soft shadows. There are also various smaller improvements to gameplay and a few new assets. As before, this is a very polished and nice looking game!

Sneaking around in The Dark Mod. Notice the impressive shadows!

Flare - 1.08 - 1.09

The action-RPG engine Flare, with its accompanying campaign, has received another two fine updates. While 1.08 mainly brought bug fixes and translation updates, 1.09 has lots of goodies: several interface improvements, new options for mouse movement and a new alchemy system that makes the creation of potions deeper while balancing the game. Again, this is a very polished engine and the Empyrean Campaign is really well made and is well worth a try!

The new alchemy system in Flares Empyrean campaign.

The Dark Mod - 2.05/2.06

There really is something about The Dark Mod and how it is framed. The moonlit streets, the clockwork designs and the atmospheric font all resonate with me, saying "You will really like this game." And while stealth-games usually isn't my thing I have still played quite a bit of The Dark Mod due to it being so well made. It's also a project that really feels like it has high production values all the way through. Just look at the screen below! Since I mentioned it on this blog last time two new releases has come out with a wealth of improvements in each. 2.05 brought hundreds of new models, making scenes much more interesting and easier to create. There was also a new introductory mission, improved performance, a new AI opponent and loads of other smaller improvements. 2.06 comes with improved visuals, especially regarding shadows which can now be soft instead of sharp, EAX sound effects for all users, menu improvements, more new assets and a lot of other things including performance and gameplay improvements. All in all a very polished game with loads of content that needs to be experienced.

Soft shadows displayed in The Dark Mod.

EasyRPG

EasyRPG is a role playing game creation tool. It is inspired by the similar software RPG Maker and EasyRPG is also compatible with RPG Maker 2000/2003 games. The player seems further along than the editor, but the latest release certainly seems massive and there a loads of supported platforms, so you can get this to run on most devices if you feel like playing a few classic RPG:s.

A test-game loaded into the EasyRPG player.

OpenRA - 20180923

The extremely polished recreation of the classic Command & Conquer-games (as well as Dune 2000), OpenRA, keeps the banner high with regular releases. The latest is called 20180923 and includes several months worth of work. There is a new player account system bringing together more aspects of the games online community, several UI improvements, AppImage packages, performance improvements and many other fixes, balancing and tweaks. The Mod SDK has received large improvements too, and many interesting mods seem to be in the work. Personally I love the fact that one of them attempts to recreate another classic RTS: KKND.

New mouse-overs displays hints in OpenRA.

Oolite 1.88

Open-ended space opera Oolite has got lots of nice new stuff in it's 1.88 release. Perhaps most noticable are several graphical improvements. The game now has a much improved lighting system, making for some very dramatic and immersive scenes. Planets and atmospheres have also reveived nice improvements and look really pretty. There are also improvements to control, among which is the ability to use up to four joysticks as well as some improvements to AI and scripting. Together with add-ons in the form of expansion packs this can become the space-game of your dreams with a bit of tweaking, so make sure to take a look if it sounds like your thing.

Awwesome new lighting effects shown off in Oolite.