Well over a million people have downloaded Castle Crashers, the Flash-animated console game from The Behemoth. The game is reportedly arriving on the PS3 sometime this year, and while we wait, there’s a new Behemoth game to oggle. BattleBlock Theater, another Xbox Live Arcade gave, has to be one of the more creative set-ups in gaming history – you’re shipwrecked on an island terrorized by giant cats who force islanders into “deadly performances.” Here’s a teaser of the game-play, which includes all sorts of 2D animation, presumably led by Dan Paladin.
Based in Singapore, Ratloop Asia was behind this new Flash-based puzzle/action game that’s made a big splash in the gaming industry. It’s called Rocketbirds: Revolution, and it was created almost entirely in Flash. Some of the character animation is clunky, but then you’ll spot certain stuff that really works. I also think the design is world-class. You can play a free demo of the game online.
Gabe Swarr recently lent his design and animation skills to an iPhone game. MeowWalker (iTunes link) is a Michael Jackson-themed, rhythm-based game that Swarr designed and animated in Flash for Robot Symphony. As the iPhone doesn’t support Flash, they obviously exported the frames out of the software, as does the Pocket God team. I was watching this trailer below and wondering how they got the rights to Jackon’s Thriller, and then I read on Swarr’s blog that the app actually searches your iPhone for MJ tracks and pulls them into the game. Clever stuff.
Parker Simmons was behind the Flash-animation joystick on this recent parody video titled Dr. Mario with Lyrics. The song was created by Brentalfloss, who sends up the 1990 Nintendo game Dr. Mario, which mimics Tetris but with a pill and virus theme.
Anton Bogaty recently took over animation and design duties on a new web series called Nanovor. It’s the spawn of the free Nanovor Online Battle Game, which was created by Jordan Weisman from Smith and Tinker. Dustin Haynes and Chris Rogers contributed to the production as well. There’s CG animation splashed around the series, which is handled by Coleman Smith.
