Spending most of the month getting excited for Play Up’s next event is quickly becoming a habit, and today we finally got our fix with number four! After our table top adventures last month we were back to the PCs to try out two very different games, both with a square theme. The event was almost sold out, and I’d like to make a point here that now tickets go for a small price to help cover costs of these events. This is due to the proposed funding cuts that will greatly affect initiatives such as Play up Perth, but we’ll follow up with a full article on that situation soon. For now, let’s have a look at what you probably shouldn’t have missed from Play Up Perth! #4.
Square Heroes
First up were Aranda and Mark from Gnomic Studios with their colourful alien-blasting squares with jetpacks. If this sounds familiar, it’s probably because it is; we featured their previous game, Square Off back in November and enjoyed it. From that game, they took on board one of the biggest feedback suggestions: make it multiplayer!
What started several years ago on Xbox has been rewritten from scratch to be played online, and in multiplayer mode. There are RPG elements with level up capabilities and item unlocks, as well as several new modes and weapons. I regret missing out spending any time on the tournament mode, but I was too far gone in the Death match against three others to notice. While we managed to find a few slight areas that needed tweaking in multiplayer, the overall consensus from everyone present was that we had a blast. There was some interesting feedback received, and we might see some of those suggested changes when Square Heroes is presented at PAX. In the meantime, head over to Steam Green Light to show your support, and don’t forget to keep track of their progress at squareheroes.com.
The Adventures of Square
Keeping with the square theme was James Paddock’s FPS game The Adventures of Square. James and Ben opened by explaining that AoS has been built on a Doom mod, but is aesthetically very different. They further clarified that they were aiming for a teenage audience, and possibly at appealing to us older, more retro gamers.
As someone who primarily sticks to console games, I thought I’d struggle with the tutorial, but Doom came flooding back, and I found few issues as I whizzed through. Adventures of Square uses a solid cartoon style that feels like a cross between Doom, Minecraft, and an interracial paintball death match. While it is a bright and enjoyable enough game, we were there for the purposes of improvements through feedback. Luckily for James and Ben, we had in our midst a real live teenager who was gracious enough to be put on the spot and offer some insightful tips straight from the proposed target audience. With the game very near completion, we look forward to hearing what’s next for the team. Stay up to date as new chapters are released over at facebook.com/theadventuresofsquare.
What you’re probably feeling right now is PuP remorse that occurs in most people immediately after they miss a Play Up session. Don’t fret, the only cure is to keep checking for the details of next month’s event and be sure to buy a ticket: it has sold out before, and it will happen again. September’s Play Up will be a Friday night After Dark session that is just for those 18+, but we’d like to encourage younger people to attend our next day session. If you’d like to see photos, read the blog or get involved then head over to playupperth.org, or follow them on twitter. It’s great to see Perth getting behind local developers, and we hope to see you there next month!
