GDC 16: Best of IGF Pavilion

he 18^th annual IGF has now come and gone, and with all the buzz about VR, and new networking, it’s comforting to know that the IGF Pavilion is still getting plenty of love from the attendees that’re passing through. Some of the titles being showcased are ones we’ve all become familiar with, and then there are the ones that were out of left field; the ones that proved that VR wasn’t taking over the future of video games, and that there was plenty of steam left within the creative bank of design towards games.

Here are some of my favorite experiences with my time at the IGF Pavilion.

The abstract of a game and the elements that define one have never stretched thinner than they have within the more recent years of the independent game scene.

The quote unquote “empirical laws” on how a game should be structured has seemed to do nothing more than limit how much fun a game can be if allowed to go with whatever it’s doing; case and point, Panoramical from Fernando Ramallo and Proteus creator, David Kanaga, a game that honestly could be best described as a simulator for the human sensory of art and music.

Getting access to over 18 different channels of audio and environmental effects, players can manipulate the visual effects by scrobbling one of the nine keys distinctly, or simultaneously, and watch as the colors and sound respond differently with whatever rhythmic pattern that’s inputted. The ambient composition ranges anywhere from arthouse jazz to orchestra mashed into electronica, the transition and layering of each track is done with a sense of fluidity that grants players this sense of freedom and accomplishment that’s just simple, dumb fun.

While Panormical isn’t exactly Fruity Loops “gamified”, the effervescent songs and vivid colors of this interactive experiment for the senses that’s enjoyable to indulge upon for anyone who wants to be post-modern hybrid of Picasso and Chopin in their own right, and it’s currently available right now if you wanted to do just that.

There’s no shortage of competitive multiplayer on the couch these days, there’s not a whole lot of cooperative multiplayer that happens on the couch; and even then, it still has its fair share of trolling.

That’s why a game like Pitfall Planet is endearingly charming for its emphasis on teamwork driven exploration. Taking on the role of one of two robot astronauts, gameplay centers utilizing a grappling hook on either various objects, or your teammate, through isometric obstacles course that’s designed around the various physics pertaining to the verticality and reach of the grappling hook. Players won’t get far scrambling around the map with some degree of coordination with their partner in game, and the death of one robot astronaut spells failure for the whole team, so communication through cooperative play isn’t just key; it’s absolutely essential.

In addition to engaging mechanics, the presentation of the different settings of the planet you come across, and whimsical character designs are pleasant, and charming. The game is a student title, and is still far from completion, so there no news on when we’ll see it released, but it’s definitely one that should be kept on the radar of anyone who’d rather their friend on the couch for a change of pace.

Now I’m going to be honest here, this game is most certainly one of my favorites from my time at GDC here alone, as it not only possesses a wonderful narrative, but a poignant message that makes for some excellent social commentary on the state of online interaction these days.

The game is called Cibele from Star Maid Games, and it’s loosely based on the real-life experiences of Nina Freeman, and her story of playing a game online with a certain someone, and how it can have the potentiality of leading to being so much more than just playing a game.

The meta-mechanics of scanning various communications from mail accounts and social networks on a desktop, balancing hails from other people out of, and in-game, was surprisingly articulate; especially to those who could personally relate with it from their own experiences. In between the filler motions of guiding the in-game character of this "game" that the title is built around, the exposition of Cibele’s real narrative gradually begins to reveal itself through in-game conversation.

The conviction of the story being told in Cibele is genuinely affecting, the empathy for this character logging into a game as a background outlet to communicate with this particular individual was convincingly gripping in the time that I had with it.

The game is out now, and I highly reccomend checking it out; we'll be sure to get some more coverage of the title soon!

Puzzle mechanics have made it into just about every genre of video games, and the puzzle genre itself has grown exponentially the last couple of generations. Look no further than Beglitched from Alec Thomson and Jenny Jiao Hsia, a Puzzle block love letter to games like Tetris Attack, and Bejeweled, where the dynamics of the puzzle solutions are engineered around the story elements of its cyberpunk presentation.

Moving through a web of stages (pun was kind of intended) You’ll encounter enemy hackers that you must dissimilate through coordinated switches of matching blocks—while this setup may seem familiar, there is one big catch; you’re only given a limited amount of turns solve the right stack of colorful puzzle tiles before the hacker wins.

Which one is the right one? The one that the hacker is hiding in, and that where the dynamic of the game is more unique than any other of its kind. Each hacker will stealthily hide within a single tile, being stunned when the row that they’re hiding in is disintegrated from the needed match, giving players enough time to discern which tile that the hacker may be waiting in.

Using special compass tiles that will highlight the general direction of puzzle block clusters that the Hacker may be hiding in will take up one of your cycles as well, with players getting the chance to earn new cycles by chaining multiple stack matches, and solutions that will add back from the initial trigger of the match solution that popped everything off. Beglitched juxtaposes the traditional elements of the puzzle mechanics it muses into an entirely different game of strategy, and it’s one that’s enjoyably engaging as it is challenging. There’s no release date announced as of yet, but it’ll be primed for Steam once it launches, and it’s definitely worth a look.