One of the challenges of creating a game is to establish effective pacing. The difficulty of balancing tension and subsequent release, challenge and gratification, highs and lows, is in making sure that they cycle at a steady, if occasionally unpredictable, pace. If one were to take a traditional stealth game such as, say, Assassin’s Creed and speed up the sawtooth cycle of stealth-tension to kill-release, then one would get Deity.

Produced by a team christened Double++ at the Digipen Institute of Technology, Deity is a stealth/action game with an aggressive pace. As a dark spirit whose nation was overrun by crusaders and angels, you possess your way across the halls and corridors of castles and other medieval buildings in order to reclaim your home. Your core ability to accomplish this is the power to leap from object to object, devouring any enemies you come in contact with. “Slaying enemies just by jumping on them?” you ask, “wouldn’t that be easier than lying down with a weighted vest on?”

Well, yes, at first impression it seems fairly tame, before you realize that leaping on enemies from the front damages you, while doing so from behind doesn’t. Also limiting your progress is the fact that if you are detected, enemy knights can bombard you with light, your primary weakness, whether you are inside a torch or corporeal. All in all, from these simple mechanics comes a considerable variety of challenge. With a constant stream of enemies and torches to shoot yourself through, movement is your most important asset, since you can only attack while moving. If you can stay unseen, it’s possible to pick off soldiers one by one, leaving the others to wonder unsurprisedly how their friends vanished into the ether. One is reminded of the Batman: Arkham Blank games and their sneaky-stealth awesomeness if played on fast-forward.

The aforementioned rollercoaster ride that is springing from light to flesh to light to gargoyle to flesh to light is a fast and thrilling one for a stealth-focused game. As a shakeup of typical stealth mechanics, it works admirably. As effective pacing it works fairly well also, since the entire Deity experience can easily be finished in under an hour, or half of one if you’re a gaming veteran – the rollercoaster analogy applies equally well when talking about length. Given its abrupt and satisfying conclusion, Deity simultaneously leaves us with a lingering thirst for more and the fading satiation of having appreciated a fresh gameplay style, however briefly.

When discussing games born of student effort, it’s important to realize that the game is trying to fulfill two purposes. It must function as an engaging game, and it must convince players that the work done on it was qualified and repeatable. As such, Deity performs both tasks well. The development team specifically decided to make their game from a custom engine and also to make it short and sweet with the possibility of future additions down the line, but that doesn’t at all mean that what is here is insubstantial. Deity is wonderful for a quick jaunt through an original concept, at the most appreciable price point. Don’t be surprised if the members of Double++ soon appear on longer credit rolls.

Find out more about the game at its official website. You can also follow the developers on Twitter.

Team SkyFire have just released Alpha 0.04 of their madcap shoot-a-thon Stasis and we have played it and it’s bloody great!

We’re pretty sure that you have had enough of all that mining and digging, so let’s just go mental and blow some heavily armed guys away, right? This is exactly what Stasis is all about; stylish and crazy side-scrolling shooting. Stasis is in its every early stages at the moment but it’s already a fantastic action platformer that has had us whelping in excitement. With a load of bullets at your disposal, you are tasked with charging in to packs of armed soldiers and shooting the crap out of them. Jumping around and blowing things up also helps. The developers say that they are currently working on adding a full campaign mode to the game which will feature some additional puzzle solving and role-playing elements to vary up the madcap shooting fun.

Before the campaign mode is delivered though. the game’s Alpha 0.04 update adds another mode to the game, Riot Mode. In this mode you are located in a single area with waves of enemies and are tasked merely with surviving and building up the highest score possible. You do this by shooting as many people as possible (obviously) and doing it with a bit of style. Using the environment, your grenades and general kick-assery; you are best off trying to get multi-kills and chain them together. To make things even better, when you do something spectacular the game goes in slow-mo and zooms in on the carnage. It’s hella exciting, as you can see the trailer below.

There are plans to expand Riot Mode in many ways outside of just adding online leaderboards, all of which will be available in the next Alpha update. The plan is to get Stasis fully released in 2012, so make sure to offer feedback to the guys to speed up the process.

To download the Alpha 0.04 version of Stasis for your Windows PC, click on this link and press ‘download now’.

More information on Stasis can be found on the game’s IndieDB page.

Give ‘em Hell Stanley are a new 2 man development team from Los Angeles who are creating a game that caught our eye. Rocko: Dawn of the Shred is a “technical skate game” come “beat’em up side-scroller” and the guys have done a good job at making it look pretty. They want to do much more work on it though and are consequently asking for your support on Kickstarter.

Rocko has a fairly interesting premise that fuses two previously separate genres into one gameplay idea…almost. The developers say that before the player enters into the beat ‘em up side of the game, they have to “build up their shred” in the half pipe, which culminates in unlocking special moves to kick ass with when you enter the streets. This may sound like a very alien concept to some of you, but the game’s story goes some way to alleviating that confusion:

“You play as a young alien boy named Rocko, who has been taken from his planet and forced to work for his evil alien overlords making crop circles on various planets to prepare for the oncoming invasion. One night on Earth, Rocko decides to make a run for it and escapes to a nearby skatepark. There, he befriends a group of skaters who shelter and protect him as he hones his skating skills and seeks revenge.”

Of course what really caught our attention, like the jewel stealing crows that we are, is Rocko‘s visuals. Artist Mike Mac is clearly a pretty talented guy, which makes the rewards for donating to Rocko quite attractive. Fancy a video tutorial on character design from Mike? Or perhaps even a signed Rocko skateboard (see below)?!

If you said yes please to the above, or you just fancy yourself a pre-order of the game, head over to the Kickstarter page and pledge the desired money to the developers. Give ‘em Hell Stan are asking for funding so that they can work on the game full time and add more levels, tricks, enemies, specials, bosses, a level editor and better sound design. So pretty much everything about the game is set to be bigger and hopefully even better.

Normally, we would say more information on Rocko is available at the official website, but it isn’t at the moment. So there’s that.

One thing that has always made smartphone gaming feel innovative, fresh and almost futuristic is the imaginative use of the interface controls. When placed in the right hands, these controls can turn even the most simple of games into a surprise that you cannot help but come back to again and again. Twist n’ Catch is one of those games. Although its title could not be any more straightforward, do not be fooled, there is plenty of personality to fall in love with in Twist n’ Catch.

Taking the most memorable part of Mission Impossible as its structure, Twist n’ Catch has you precariously dangling adventurer Emmet Black between spiky walls and other pointy objects to reach the diamond at the bottom of each tomb. Tense but always fun, his daring descents are accompanied by plenty of gasps and awkward face contortions on the player’s part. Swinging Emmet left and right as you tilt your phone, Twist n’ Catch utilises the gyroscope to create an immediate understanding between the game’s physics and the player’s actions. This main mechanic, although simple and seen before in other games, is effective at lending itself to peril. The player must remain steady as if actually holding on to the rope which Emmet dangles, but it’s not just this required skill that causes lip biting, the flustered animations of Emmet also give way to panic.

The game’s loveable characters, Emmet and his sidekick monkey Sergeant Cookie, are cute and ultimately force you to care about their thieving pursuits. When a tomb’s many traps cause a diamond to be destroyed and the level failed, they appear on-screen with tears in their eyes. You soon realise that you also share other emotions with them, namely their joy at having beat a level. Dwelling on character design is usually not a common aspect of a review, it’s just that Twist n’ Catch manages to use the comic characters to great effect; one that enhances the experience for the player who cannot help but care for them.

Twist n’ Catch also adheres to what seems to be an unwritten rule with “pick up and play” type games – plenty of challenging content. Not only are there loads of short levels to attempt in Twist n’ Catch, but the only way to unlock all of them is to collect the small blue diamonds in each level. The big pink diamond is the main objective, needed to complete the level, but grabbing all three of the blue ones proves to be a cause for replaying levels to progress. Fortunately, Twist n’ Catch also knows how to treat its players properly as the more you play the better you get, without it ever really feeling overwhelming. In other words, there is a fitting learning curve helped by new dangers that provide a different challenge. It’s not just dangers that are added to the mix either, adding buttons to open passage to the diamonds also adds a puzzle element as you work out how to use the rope to push the button for you.

The only real problem with Twist n’ Catch is barely a complaint, but it’s good to have some balance. While the tilt controls work perfectly, for some odd reason the touch screen does not always react to your tap. Luckily this issue is only evident when required to tap to start a level, rather than when you have to touch the screen to reel Emmet back up once the diamond has been snatched. Speaking of which, merely touching the screen to reel Emmet back in feels understated at the start of the game, you feel like you should be doing something more kinetic to match the action. However, the harder challenges later in the game actually make you thankful that reeling him in only requires a subtle action, as required tilts and twists are complicated enough as it is.

It’s obvious just from Twist n’ Catch‘s presentation that there is a great little game in your hands. Not only is it a smart and tight package, but it has a human side laying in wait for players to fall in love with. Progression is rewarding and there is plenty of content to keep you going for some time. Players are bound to be immediately drawn into the charm of Twist n’ Catch, so much so that it is hard not to express emotion outwardly, which makes it entertaining even for those watching. A definite must-buy when you need something to cheer you up.

More information on Okugi Studio can be found at their official website, the same goes with their game Twist n’ Catch.

Atom Zombie Smasher by Blendo Games is the most fun I have had on my PC in quite some time. The game is insanely addictive and very challenging. Who knew that bombarding pink dots with artillery shells could be so much fun?

Unlike most zombie games, Atom Zombie Smasher takes you far away from the action. Everything is shown from a top-down perspective over different sectors of the city where you will issue commands, order evacuation helicopters and reign down orbital barrages to thwart the Zombie menace. The game is very dynamic, but each mission starts with you selecting a territory. You are then presented with a planning phase where you can place your evac helicopter and other mercenaries on the city map. Once you’re ready, the zombie hordes start flooding into the city. During this action phase, you can move your mercenaries around, fire artillery and trigger TNT explosions. The baseline goal is to save the prescribed number of civilians, but if you want to stand a chance you’ll need to eradicate the zombies before nightfall and capture the territory. All of this carnage boils down to a simple scoring system; the first side to reach the set number of victory points wins the game.

[This Content is Exclusive for Insider]

Did you find Chris Priestman’s review of Ignite interesting? Think that you would like to try the game out yourself? Our friends at Nemesys Games have made that possible by partnering with IGM to give away Steam Game Codes to eight of our lucky readers.

How can you be one of those lucky eight people? We have made the contest super simple for you. All you have to do is Tweet or Re-Tweet the following:

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@indiegamemag and @Nemesyshu are giving away 8 Steam codes for Ignite #contest! To enter RT! #indie #game #developer http://bit.ly/IgniteTweet

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IGM will select four random Re-Tweeters and Nemesys will select another four Re-Tweets. The contest period will run from Thursday, November 10, 2011 @ 12:00 pm (EST) through Friday, November 18, 2011 @ 12:00 pm (EST).

Additionally, Nemesys has generously offered to add an additional code, to a maximum of 20, to their pile of codes for every 20 new followers that they gain during the contest period. IGM will contribute a hearty ‘thank you, pat on the back, and an ‘Ata’ Boy!’ for every 20 new followers that we receive.

Winners will be selected at random from all of those who Tweeted or Re-Tweeted the above message on Friday, November 18, 2011 after 12:00 pm (EST). Winners will be notified on Monday, November 21, 2011. There will be a follow-up notice soon afterward which will let you know who the winners are.

If this contest is a success and we overwhelm Nemesys with tweets and follows, then I would like try to do more of these contests and find more developers who would like to participate in the future.

Lexaloffle Games and The Humble Bundle have decided to create another indie gaming pack known as the Humble Voxatron Debut. The Humble Voxatron debut is similar to most of the other Humble Indie Bundles that came before it. Each bundle contains three different games, you pay what you want for the whole pack, and decide where the money can go. What actually makes this bundle different is the premiere of a working edition of Voxatron by Lexaloffle Games. The Humble Voxatron Debut also includes the game, Blocks That Matter, and the more recently released, Binding of Issac. This version of Voxatron is still currently in it’s Alpha stage.

Voxatron is a highly stylized twin stick shooter that utilizes the voxel visual style. Voxels are three-dimensional pixels that blend retro-style feel with an extra dimension. Due to the fact that the game is currently in it’s Alpha stage, there are possible features that have not been implemented into the game and, as a result, don’t fully reflect the quality of the final product.

While this is an early build, there are still several features in the current build. The Adventure Mode of Voxatron has players traveling from room to room, clearing out waves of enemies. There is also the arcade mode along with a voxel model editor. Adventure Mode is the main feature of the game currently. This mode feels almost like a classic Zelda game where you must defeat each wave of enemies before you explore a different room. The enemies, however, are severely lacking in variation and are fairly basic, aside from a few quirks and the amount of their health.

Gameplay-wise, the controls feel slightly unpolished and unresponsive. The game can be played with a keyboard alone or with both keyboard and mouse, but playing with both is extremely difficult and highly unrecommended. While the mouse is the preferred method, it isn’t perfect. For example, when you move, it doesn’t respond quite as well as you hope in certain situations and there have been many times when I expected the attack to move straight, but it went slightly to the left.

Another exciting part of Voxatron is the ability to create voxel models to use in your game with the in-game editor. The editor allows a person to create rooms to be played in as well, working nicely with visuals, but lacking the behavioral properties of what you make. There are basic commands to allow objects to appear and act, but models for creatures and power ups have not shown up yet if they are to be implemented. It is a little disappointing to see that the editor hasn’t allowed for a more complex scripting.

Voxatron might be in it’s Alpha stage, but the game certainly shows a large amount of potential to be a great game. There are lot of issues with the current build however. If this was a final product it certainly would be rough around the edges. Since this is a very early version of the game it certainly is worth a look to see what Voxatron will become the future.

Alien Hallway is a game that comes out of the Sigma Team Company (think Alien Shooter or Zombie Shooter) and takes place in a hallway high above some planets. The story behind what is happening is rather irrelevant, but still rather enjoyable. They needed the story to explain why you kept going on and why the aliens keep getting harder, but that is the extent that was put into it. Perfection in this instance. Anything more would have been a waste of time.

The game play is simple, yet subtly complicated. You create the units that you want to use and they go on and do their thing from there. Simple, right? Not so much. You get money at the end of each level to help you buy upgrades to your units, defenses, and more. This money is determined based on how many aliens you kill, how many of your guys get killed by enemies, and how much time it takes you to complete the level (I think, I haven’t seen the code to back this up). Hence the problem; if you simply do a rush of the cheapest guys that you have and keep them going till the enemy teleporter is gone, then you will undoubtedly have killed a large number of the badys, but with insane casualties on your side as well. Each unit has a different range, some have grenades but some don’t, some can withstand a lot of damage and some can’t. Decisions, decisions…

The graphics are really good for this title. They are very adjustable to allow play on many levels of computers. At the top they are very bright and very flashy, but still allow a good view of the playing field. The opposite is true at the bottom. It is very minimalistic, although still top-notch, and still the same view of the playing field. They have handled the adjustment in graphic levels very well.

The only real downside that I have to mention about this game (sticking to my belief that no game is perfect) is the number of levels. Rather the level of planets. The levels themselves are all well done, and each planet has its own style for the hallway. Only three planets is definitely too few for this game though. The potential is there for an almost unlimited number of possibilities that they could have thrown in. I would say five planets at the very least.

All in all, this game is a great strategy game that will destroy your free time. Even after you have beat the game there is still the fact that you are itching to find that special combination of units that will get you those magical five stars.