A Game By Its Cover Competition

A Game By Its Cover is a competition held by TIGSource, where, in a little over a month, game developers created games based on fake carts or box arts. Over 60 entries were submitted and I played them all (minus about 3 that I couldn’t get to run). Here, I go over my favorites and other noteworthy ones for you all to try.

8:Capsule is a fairly abstract puzzle game where all the solutions are discovered by experimental play and visual cues. Objects can be left clicked to be selected and then right clicked to send flying. The cues are balanced well enough to give a nudge in the right direction without giving it away completely or leaving you aimlessly clicking.

2061 is a very stylistic first person platformer where you collect items. It has an amazing atmosphere to it, with space-helmet-breathing sounds, vector-like graphics and wonderful particles floating around. The world evolves somewhat as the items are collected, adding a sense of progression. There are a few issues like no checkpoints and the movement speed seems to be a bit too fast but the atmosphere and looks more than make up for it. It can be mesmerizing.

I’m a bit of a sucker for games that tie in interactive music and Boombox does exactly that. Its main mode of play— collecting tape samples and mixing them together to progress—is a very novel idea for a game. For example, color coded platforms will move with color coded tapes and fellow boom-box-head-people must be jammed with by mixing the correct tapes. It is slightly disappointing how straightforward the game plays out and that there isn’t really an ending. Still, it is very intriguing and should be revisited.

Cat Poke is an incredibly charming game with a great art style, in which you play as a little girl bored on a rainy day who pokes the butts of her cats to pass the time. Each cat has its own trait that must be deciphered to be able to reach them. Apart from the awkward transition to the staircase and two cats that are a little too obscure, it is a great game. Finding the different items and having an ah-ha moment after realizing what item goes where makes poking butts oddly entertaining.

I will describe International King of Wine, simply and concisely, as follows... Its platforming is quintessential, pretty and exciting. Its aesthetic is elegant, classic and savory. The procedural text is balanced and powerful, bold. The game’s structure is spicy and classic and substantial and spicy again. Its music is classic and substantial. But the difficulty is astringent, jammy and acidic. The game is firm and savory and quintessential and elegant, powerful... yes. That describes this game in its entirety.

One of the best direct interpretations of a cart, Love Letter, is a platformer with a large, open ended level where there are various hearts throughout that must be collected. The twist on this was that the first person to collect all the hearts without dying could write a letter and have it displayed when the game starts—a wonderful metaphor. Unfortunately, that was accomplished shortly after release but it still a great game to explore (though I would now do it in practice mode as it has checkpoints).

The concept of Madris, Tetris meets The Sims, is perplexing. It is one of those ideas that just has to be played. Sims will fall down in blocks, that are rooms of a house and each Sim has a certain need, like sleep. The room blocks must be connected to fulfill the appropriate needs. It does play slightly slower than I would like but the way the rooms are designed create surprisingly cerebral challenges.

In Twilit Universe, you play as a spirit who is able to “jump” from entity to entity as the level scrolls constantly upward. The jumping is performed in a straight line from the entity you are currently in to the one selected. With enemies (of which you can also jump into) and different obstacles in the way but with power ups to help, it creates an interesting play of when and where to jump to next. It is all wrapped in a great glowing neon aesthetic as well.

Under the Garden is a survival game in which you can build things. Survival is mainly governed by a stamina bar that must be maintained. There are many different systems going on here. Weather effects, like snow and rain, that drain your stamina. A huge level with underground caverns, wild life to be hunted and rocks to be mined—all to survive. I have no idea if there is any end game here, as I feel like I have only scratched the surface. It is an incredibly rich game for such a short development time.

There were a lot of solid games in this competition, so here are a few more that have some issues but are still worth checking out for one reason or another.

Moonlight is a music infused platformer where you play as the little ball frequently featured on scrolling lyrics in Disney movies (almost). Candy Bar is a very authentic Atari 2600 game with an amusing manual. Burp N Shoot Bootleg is kind of like Peggle with beer, guns and recliners on front lawns. Neco Touch isn’t the most fun to play, but has super entertaining music and sprites. Love Love Favorithold 48...uhhh...sex...and uh...accidents...er...hitting the space bar...uh...car keys? An absurd game and a big not-safe-for-work warning.

Pigeon Racing is a racing game where the entire level rotates. Onion Warriors is an interesting twist on the pushing blocks puzzle where you are able to control three characters. Another “racing game” called SLOTH, with yes, a sloth. Love Trampoline was created from the same inspiration as Love Letter but completely different yet still good. And lastly, Tales of Unspoken World is reminiscent of Canabalt, though in first person and with some movement control.

You can play all of these games (and many more) and see the inspirational carts here. Voting for your favorite can be done here.