Freeware Game Pick: Focus (Jesse Venbrux)
In Focus you find yourself trapped in a cave full of traps and robots that fire missiles at you on sight. You will learn a skill called 'focus mode' early in the game, which can be used to teleport yourself anywhere inside a blue circle. Some momentum is applied as well, but the longer you hold the focus button the smaller the circle becomes, hence your teleport range will shrink until it is no longer possible to perform the feat. The focus field also causes everything inside the circle to move in slow motion, and focus power is regained by not using it for a couple of seconds.
Players who complete the game will receive a rank and a medal to honour their achievement, although some might find the game a bit too challenging because of random elements such as the behavior of falling debris and homing missiles. (Windows, 17.5MB)
Comments
The game mechanic me so much of a gamemaker game - but I can't remember what it was called, and neither can I find a reference to said game by venbrux or anyone...
Posted by: Z | November 18, 2009 11:31 AM
http://www.venbrux.com/blog/?p=8
Posted by: Tim | November 18, 2009 11:33 AM
Looks cute, and somehow, the presentation reminds me of Ark22. That's weird, as it looks nothing at all like it, yet gives off the same vibe.
I'll definitely give this a go.
Posted by: Anonymous | November 18, 2009 11:53 AM
Holy crap, he's back.
Posted by: Andrew | November 18, 2009 12:42 PM
Very good time waster (and damn it I still have to finish that paper for tomorrow)
Posted by: D-san | November 18, 2009 3:09 PM
my only complain is that movement keys should be wasd (or at least the pssibility to change keys)
not be able to press up and left really sucks
Posted by: jack | November 18, 2009 3:54 PM
@Jack: If it were WASD, that would make it a complaint for me. Not having a qwerty layout (Dvorak, Qwertz, Azerty or any other) turns controls with those keys into an impossible gameplay. Nowadays, we have arrow keys on our keyboards, so can as well use them ;)
Posted by: Anonymous | November 18, 2009 4:12 PM
Seconded on the arrow keys bit. It's annoying that I keep dying because when I try to focus I can't because I'm going up-left.
Posted by: Chetyre | November 18, 2009 5:04 PM
@Tim - you have a better memory than I do, I salute you.
For those with problems with your arrow keys, try switching Focus to CTRL, which may (or maybe not) fix it. It's a problem with your keyboard (controller) that won't accept up, left, and spacebar simultaneously. Customizable keys would be ideal, though.
Posted by: Z | November 18, 2009 5:14 PM
A note to those suffering key problems. The readme suggests a fix; switching the focus key from space to ctrl, an option provided in the main menu. Worked for me, made a world of difference.
That said: Wow; this is a simple concept done very nicely. I didn't finish it (I don't have that much time to spend bashing my head against the difficulty curve) but I did enjoy the progress I made. The addition of a pause button would have been nice; there were moments where I wanted to stop briefly and exiting to menu seemed unnecessary.
The difficult curve is perhaps too steep. I enjoyed all the levels I came across, but found myself wishing for similar, simple levels to precede them. Many of the empty-room-missile-launcher-switch chambers would have been leagues more entertaining with the same setup with a little cover, if only to then offer the more difficult version a few rooms later.
The brutal, quick style of play reminds me most predominantly of N, and I feel that Focus could liberally take design cues from it. I also feel that while the levels are fun, the basic model that Focus uses could be better adapted to smaller groupings of levels, rather than a single string of levels. Additionally, I find myself wishing for branching paths, and possible for a procedurally generated mode.
Regardless of my personal wants, Focus makes for an excellent twitch workout. It thrives well in it's simple presentation and quick style of play. Both the time dilation and teleportation effects make for some riveting play, allowing the player to really experiment with their approach to any given deathtrap.
Posted by: Greg | November 18, 2009 5:24 PM
Just another indie platformer? No, wait. With bullet time option it's a little different and... pretty good.
Levels are hard though.
Posted by: Faguss | November 18, 2009 6:41 PM
ERROR in
action number 1
of Alarm Event for alarm 0
for object objZeroZero:
Error defining an external function.
wen i try to reopen the game
Posted by: banana | November 18, 2009 9:41 PM
I like the design and the concept, but up shouldn't be the jump button, because if i map a controller (joy2key) it makes me jump all the time. And the difficulty it's too steep. Great music and design though.
Posted by: Dusan Vlahovic | November 19, 2009 1:49 AM
Great game. Original idea, well worked out. I had no problem with the steep difficulty, I like it when a game is challenging.
Posted by: KeeWeed | November 19, 2009 9:15 AM
Brilliant game! Very addictive. Levels are hard and its a good thing.
Posted by: Saurabh | November 20, 2009 1:52 PM
This thing is great, can't stop playing it. Love the feel of the focus mechanic.
Difficulty wise, Its a tough game, but its difficulty stems from using a super fun mechanic, I love that!
I felt that the difficulty curve was fine, yeh I got stuck, yeh I had to put it down and come back to it, but their is nothing wrong with that in my book.
My only two constructive criticisms would be, to have a controller option for us lefties, WASD, shift/space for focus..
If a player pushes their focus target to an outer wall, let them warp to as close as they can get to that wall, instead of turning their reticule red and failing them on the warp attempt.
the things above were minor wishes, for something i consider a REALLY great simple, fun game!
Cheers!
Posted by: Sir_Sheeple | November 21, 2009 10:21 PM