Is a indie survival car game where you drive around in different courses and doge the many obstacles using the cars special equipment as: Boost, Wings and Jump.

The game is created by students at DigiPen Institute of Technology wich is located in Redmond, Washington.   This is a school dedicated to game development and other forms of computer science.
http://nitronic-rush.com/

" DigiPen Institute of Technology is a dedicated, world-renowned leader in education and research in computer interactive technologies." 

A quote from the schools home page to find out more information is located here:
https://www.digipen.edu/about/

They have produced alot of great game developers, a shining example is three former students working on the game Guild Wars 2.

Budget:
So since this is a school project there are limited information about the development and cost of the game.

Plattform: Windows PC.

Targeted audience: It gives a feel for the car games from the 90's but has revamped graphics and physics making it a great example of how to make smart and creative ways to create a car game. So this will trigger for people who played and love car games in the 90's but also older and younger audiences,

Thoughts behind the game:
The little information their homepage gives about the game itself it seems like it is a experimental game, to se if it hit a cord with the targeted audiences and if it is liked. It has won a bunch of awards from different Indie sites and festivals. And the general feel of the discussion forum is very possitive. So i would say they have something here they could build on.

Gametrailer:

Gameplay summary:
Goals: The players goal is to complete all the courses with his life intact.
The game world: This is a thing of beauty, it is so mezmerising to me that this is a free game, it looks so awesome and then when you combine in the audio it just become a total package. And to think this is made by students ill say WOW. It looks amazing and the gameplay aint that bad to be a computer based car game.
Win/Loose: Win if you complete all the courses, loose if die and then you need to try again until you succed.

Of a list called Fourteen Forms of Fun on Gamasutra:
http://accad.osu.edu/~pgarrett/730/gamasutra/Gamasutra-Fourteen-Forms-of-Fun.html

Out of the fourteen id pick this to stick for this game:

• Beauty - It definatly got beauty it is to be a free to play indie game looking awesome. 
• Immersion - The world is so beautiful that i get mind boggeled to think students made this game.
• Competition - With yourself to do better and succed in the game.
• Thrill of Danger - With insane jumps, rolls and acrobatic you get the sense of danger for sure.
• Advancement and Completion As you play u will unlock different items and tracks untill you are complete
• Application of an Ability - And yes this realy counts since you can use your wings boost or jump to do insane acrobatics or just to complete the difficult tracks.

What was great about the game?

It looks amazing and the sound is amazing and it got a fresh way to do a simple car game.

What could be done better? 
Well the only thing i would prefer is to get this to a consoll as they are more capable for players to experience car games in general but other than that im in awe of how well made the game is

League of Legends or as it is commonly know as "LoL" is one of the biggest MOBA games out there at the time. It is created and drifted by the company RIOT and is one of the many games that excel in the market at the moment, they claim to have atleast 1.5 million gamers on their servers every day and that there are more than 10 million accounts created on the different game servers.

The regions is split up into four servers you got the EU West, EU Nordic and East, North America and Asia
to make them one of the biggest companies in this category.

But the game is not orignialy their idea it is their take on the extremely popular Warcraft III mod "Defence of the Ancients or DOTA for short. This is still a incredably popular mod and is played by millions even to this day (and we all know how old Warcraft III is).

The rules is pretty basic, kill the enemy's team main building first and win the game the rest is up to the players. You can either play a 3v3 or a 5v5 game and be matched with other players through their matchmaking system or you can play against "BOTS" to learn the game basics.

The basics are you at the start of the figth choose your champion from the champion pool you have avialiable, then when everyone has choosen a champion you load into the game world called the Summoners rift. Here you will face off against your enemy killing computer controlled BOTS to (or just kill the enemy team players) earn gold and experience to become as strong you can be to smite your oppnonent.

So as you can imagine it is a team game, so teamplay is an important aspect of the game. The top players and top teams in the game earn good money by playing in competiotions and by the many sponsors that follows beeing a proo team or a proo/popular player. This is still a untapped marked because the genre are still so young, and it is constantly evolving to please and intrigue us players for many many years to come,

Many of theese players use their spare time when they are not practising to stream live feed of them playing on different sites, and the popular ones earn good money doing so.

The League of Legends world championship just finished with TPA (Taipei Assasins) being the victors claiming a stagering one million dollar win bonus. Not bad since the game was released in 2009.

But my favorite team must be the popular North American team called Team Solo Mid or TSM for short. The players are awesome even tough they did not win this season championship, they are still pretty good. The team consists of:

TheOddOne - Jungler
Reginald - AP carry mid
Dyrus - Solo top
Chaox - AD carry
and
Xpecial - Support

Watch this awesome gametrailer:

And did i mention that the game is totaly free, you can register on their site, download the game and play it without a single fee. It is a freeplay based games so if you are dedicated and want a big champion pool to choose from you can pay to get different champions and skins, to stand out between the other players or "summoners" as RIOT calls us.

So join us be a summoner and join us in the fight in the Summoners rift!

To sign up for your own summoners account:
https://signup.leagueoflegends.com/en/signup/index

My beloved Tropico awhh.. The good times when i could lean back and be the dictator i always wanted to be.. Or as the motto of the game is "Welcome el presidente! it is your time to rule"

The basics of the game is that you become "el presidente" of a small independant island somewhere in the carribean during the cold war. And it is a basic game as to the builder game genre, but i love the politics of the game, if you want to lean towards America'n side or towards the Sovjet side in your politics and the facts that you could set up a "payment" plan. The "payment" plan is really a enjoyable way for you to launder money, if you build a building why shouldn't some of the money used for that building go to your secret bank account?

Well it is all fun and games untill you either neglect your promises as a president or doing a bad job of building houses or creating jobs for the locals living on the island, and you could be forcefully removed from office, but usually you are able to bribe or jail the people who is stiring up trouble putting a hose on the fire for a little while.

Well the game is all about building and politics, so you need to build houses for the locals and build farms, factories and hospital or in general buil a infrastructure on the island, while jugeling americans and sovjects on the side and keeping the locals happy. Geez why do people volunteer for this job, i know why, because you get to do what ever you want! for a little while atleast untill the locals or the americans or sovjects grow tired of you then it is smart with some well earned money of your own hidden away for a rainy day.

This is actually quite hard beeing that if you play the premade games setup instead of freeplaymode it comes with what that part of the world have to offer in natural events like tornados and hurricanes and then if you piss off either the sovjet or the americans you will live to regret it as they will invade you.

Have i mentioned how much i love this game, the simplicity bound with the complications and strict balance of politics with the dream of living on a remote paradise island.

This game is actually quite old since it was released in the year 2001 it have had many following titles, since it became quite popular back in the days.

Tropico (2001)
Tropico - Paradise Island (2002)
Tropico2 - Pirate Cove (2003)
Tropico3 (2009)
Tropico3 - Absolute power (2010)
Tropico4
Tropico4 - Modern Times

Still fun today and as they say nothing beat the classics and in my opinion Tropico the originale is the best of them all :)

"Trine" is without a doubt one of THE games you need to try if you are like me and love puzzle solving.


Developers:
Trine is created by the finnish game making firm "Frozenbytes".


Publishers: 
Nobilis, SouthPeak Interactive and Loaded

Platforms:
Microsoft Windows (2009), PlayStation Network (2009), Mac OS X (2010), and Linux (2011)

Distributors:
Steam, Direct2Drive, Gamers Gate, Impulse, Desura, Mac App Store, OnLive, Good Old Games.

Estimated budget: 30,000 Euros. (before it became Frozebytes main project)
Budget: 850,000 Euros. (When the game was finished)

Main Development Tools: MS Visual Studio 2005, Photoshop CS2, LightWave 9, Hansoft.

Target audience: Game lovers, people who isnt afraid of a challenge.

Thoughts about the game:

Trine started out not to be the main project of Frozenbyte but a side project of their main programmer Jukka Kokkonen and a few interns. But when their "AAA" project lost its funding they had to downsize and look for a new project. They turned their attention towards Trine as it had a promising outlook, but they had to rewrite and rework the whole game because it was never intended to become a main project of the firm. But as we all know people with creative ideas have a hard time of letting them go. That ment it was a hard intern battle in wich direction they wanted the game to go. 

And with their history of have delayed releases with their former games Shadowground it was a strugle to maintain their estimated release date, and cuts had to be made not to fall into the time trap again. So they had to change the ending from a boss fight to a "escape the lava" type of ending. 

It is made to be strictly entertainment and have recieved almost only good reviews and have great "Metascore" of 80% for the pc version and 83% for the ps3 version. 

 The controlls:

The camera view is of type "side scrolling" this gives you limited moveability (up. down, left and right), but who cares when the gameplay is so creative set up and they use the sidescrolling to perfection. The controlls feels fluid and not choppy and forced. It feels natural and i am in awe of how well they have interacted the use of three persons into one character. 

Because you can controll three different characters you also get three totaly different skill sets but the genious souloution here is that they are all trapped inside the "Trine" and you only can use one person at a time. And you can easily switch between the different characters using the 1,2 and 3 buttons giving you easy acces to the different skill set when you need them. 

The Plot:

You start out controlling Zoya entering the Astral Academy in search of a legendary treasure, what she dont know is that Amadeus have stayed behind in the academy to study the sky and try to learn the elusive "Fire ball" spell but have not yet succeded and they  meet up in the treasure room where they also meet Pontius who have a strong belief that he was ment to protect the academy from the evil forces that have taken over the world. Here in the treasure room they all are drawn to this shining magical object also called the "Trine" and at the same time they touches it and they all dissapear. 

It turns out that this magical item have the power to bind souls and now only one of our heroes can exist outside the "Trine" with a physical body at a time trapping the other two inside the object. 

To try to revert the spelleffect Amadeus are translating some ancient runes about  some information that mentions three different powerfull artifact that each had a guardian protecting its but they was hidden away. 

But someone had stolen some of theese artifacts and putting them togheter without all the parts it became tainted and summoned a tower of curruption that brought with it the undead scourge that invaded the land. 

So our heroes quest is to fight the undead scourge and recover theese artifacts in the hopes that they could remove the effect the "Trine" has over them.

The Characters:

You controll three different characters one "Knight" a "Thief" and a "Wizard". As you can imagine from the names they come with different abilities:

                                                           "Pontius, the knight"

The knight is a powerfull man with full mediveal armour, one hand sword and shield or a two handed weapon, he is used to destroy your enemies in hand to hand combat. The warrior can also pick up the boxes the wizard can create or other items in game and throw them with formidable force to destroy different obstacles.
                                                         
                                                           "Zoya, the thief"

The thief is a tricky woman with a bow and arrow and can shoot out a grapling hook that let you tackle different obstacles, but this can be as mentioned be tricky to use untill you get the hang of it. She can also shoot down targets with her bow and arrow, so she can pick off enemies before they attack you.

                                                           "Amedeus, the wizard"

And last but not least the wizard who can create boxes of different sizes to let you climb up, or go over places you wouldnt have managed to enter without. He can also lift and move his boxes using magic and can destroy his enemies with the use of this. But be wary his magic is mana based so you cant be to careless with your mana consumption.

The different skills:

The system is a standard xp gain on kills/level completed build, wich mean when you reach the right amount of levels, the game lets you unlock different abilities for your heroes.

Pontius: 

One hand sword and shield: Sword is pretty much self explanotory, but the shield is used to deflect enemy attacks and falling objects. 

Two handed hammer: Adds more damage in his attacks but you become more vulnerable.

Flaming sword: Is a unlockable skill that adds more damage in each sword swing and can be used to light different torches in dark area's. 

Zoya: 

Bow and arrow: Can charge up the shot by holding down your mouse button to make the shot more precise and go further. Lets you take down ranged targets or bosses you dont dare to go close to. 

Grapling hook: Shoots out a hook that if it hits a wooden area lets you swing around or climb up the rope. (This can be a little tricky untill you get the hang of it)

Flaming arrow: Is a unlockable skill that gives your basic arrow more damage but consumes Zoya's energy so must be used with great care. Can also be used to light torches around the world. 

Amadeus:

Create box/boxes: Limited to create one a box a time but upgradable to creat multiple boxes, the boxes uses normal laws of physics and can be destroyed. Amadeus have no basic attacks but can use his boxes to smash his foes and create barriers that hinder the enemy attack. 

Create plank/planks: Unlockable skill, can be used to close gaps and you use it as a bridge object. upgradable to create muliple planks. Uses normal laws of physics. 

Create floating plattform: Unlockable skill to create a platform that defies the laws of physics and floats on the created spot, the wizard is able to move the platform around. Upgradable to make the platform into wood so that the Zoya can use her grapling hook on it. 

But be weary: All of Amadeus's skills cost mana so you need to time your use of the different abilities not to run out of mana.

Gameplay summary:

The goal of the game: To find the three artifacts to change their fate of being trapped inside the "Trine".
Rules: No spesific rules at all. But a little rule could be that only one of the characters are  allowed  to be outside the Trine with a physical form at a time.
Resources:  The collection of hidden objects and when you kill enemies they have a good chanse of dropping  mana/health restoring items. 
Conflict: Since two of the artifacts have been put togheter and one is missing it became tainted created a undead tower to rise and spreading a undead scourge swiping the lands.
The world: Got no specific name but is only called "the kingdom" but was created to feel as free as it could be since it is a sidescrolling game.
WIn/Loose: You win finding all the artifacts and succesfully putting them together. You loose if all your characters are without any life. Then you are spawned back to a earlier reasonable checkpoint.

From the list named 14 forms of fun found f. eks here:

Gamasutra

I will try to mention the different aspects of the list i feel the game has.

The game definatly has a lot of beauty as it is one of the best looking games i have ever seen. It also contains Immersion since it is a fantastic made up world filled with exiting looking details. Intellectual problem solving is a key ingridient in the game and why i love the game so much. Since the game has a offline co op mode avialable it is also got the flair of Social Interaction wich lets you complete the game with friends on a LAN connection. Comedy is a must here since Amadeus and Pontius is both a bit clumsy and fun in general and gives the players some funny moments both in the cut scenes and in the gameplay in general. Creation can be mentioned since you create different soloutions to the problems at hand with Amadeus abilities. Power is also a key factor since you can upgrade your items and abilities to make you stronger. You are searching for the artifacts and with this you discover the secrets in the world. Since you can complete the game you the player can enjoy Advancement and Completion. And because you solve the different puzzle using your char's skills you get to use the Application of an ability aswell since you more than once must use your skills in stressful situations and to solve different parts of the game it is a important representativ from the list. 

My thoughts about things:

Reading the Postmortem: Frozenbyte's Trine found at "Gamasutra - Postmortem: Frozenbyte's Trine" i learned alot of how the progress of the game went, with what went right and what went wrong. I belive it is a hard progress making a game (i can vouch for that beeing that i am making one now in one semester in school) And cuts must be made from the original plan since nothing is carved in stone of what is going to happen after the plan is set. It always takes a cut here and a twist there but usually the games survive it and sometimes even gets better and comes out looking great and beeing great as Trine does. But we will never know how the game could have been if the ending was with a bossfight instead of an "escape before everything goes to hell" type of situation. 

The only thing you could put your finger on in the game is the little difference in enemies that fill the world, it is wery repetitive but in the end, when you have completed the game and look back on it, i almost didnt even think of it before i read some comments in some discussions field about it and then in the Postmortem they had clearified why. As hopefully a future game maker myself i found the read quite entertaining and a learning and a warning of how to do things and what probably wont work or cut it in the game industry today. 

What could have been better? Well ofcourse adding some more different kinds of enemies and made a bossfight in the end but in the end they found a soloution to a problem with time running out that worked and in my books it is one of the best games ive played so far.

Could also mention that Trine2 have been released and is also reciewing great reviews and looking quite awesome aswell.