Rock, Paper, Shotgun
And Now I’m Excited About Pid
By John Walker on December 6th, 2011 at 7:49 pm.
I think you might be too, if you watch the trailer below. Pid‘s a forthcoming platform game that seems to borrow from everything ever, in a really rather impressive way. Anti-gravity beams, homing missiles, backpacks full of equipment, and a really gorgeous art style. Take a look:
It’s the work of Swedish developers Might And Delight – a studio we haven’t come across before. But their core team worked together on GRIN’s Bionic Commando: Rearmed, and members had hands in Mirror’s Edge, Battlefield and Killzone. Apparently they realised they all got on rather creatively, and so formed their own studio. Pid’s their first game, due out some time next year, which they describe like this:
“When a young schoolboy gets stranded on a remote old planet, a unique and eccentric journey unfolds. His search for a way off the planet takes him through citys and castles, attics and space stations on this dreamlike yet dangerous world. Along the way he outsmarts a variety of malicious robots bent on stopping him and befriends unlikly allies that shed light on a huge conspiracy, that keeps the planet mesmerized and prevents him from ever reaching home.”
Via Tom F, et al.
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indie, Might And Delight, Pid, trailer.
65 Comments »
I find it hard to get excited by indie platformers these days. The market is so over-saturated with them. Same thing with tower defense games.
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I disagree. Most of those so called “indie platformers” are just puzzle games with a side-scrolling perspective. Besides Super Meat Boy and PERHAPS VVVVVV I can’t think of a whole lot of good platformers that had actually great platforming in them.
This has sublime music, a very pretty art style that doesn’t rely on unwarranted nostalgia and it doesn’t seem to rely on pure puzzling (while still giving you plenty of unique powers). The only thing that’s a bit concerning is the stiff jumping.
These are just the feelings that I get from the trailer of course. Based on that, it doesn’t seem fair to put this with the rest of the “indie platformer” crowd.
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Well Juan go right ahead and don’t get excited, it is your right. The rest of us will gladly play and enjoy these games and support the Indie market with all their creative risks. Just the other day I was thinking we need more Limbo style games because there aren’t that many. Keep ‘em coming devs.
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Risks? Seriously?
It’s not really a risky endeavor (at least creatively) to create a physics based, puzzle, platformer in this day and age. That’s pretty much the go to indie genre. I have nothing against indie games (they do take risks in other areas), but this particular genre has been done to death.
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Juan Carlo? Seriously?
Thanks for killing my buzz, bro. That was an absolutely terrific trailer.
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It is a pretty high density for basic indie stuff… but it makes up for a very noticeable lack of any equivalent in “AAA” studios. With the exception of Sonic Generations and Rayman Origins, I can’t think of anything that’s really been put out there.
But I think if you looks at the “high end” of indie games you’ll find the genres much more evenly balanced, and usually packed full of “unique features”… I’m not sure Tower Defense really handles that level of variety (most stick to the fixed-path, mixed troops/tower type design the genre is known for)
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It is a risk, you just said you are not excited by it.
There is something there, a creative edge. The presentation, the finesse in the production. These are not ground breaking genre changing paradigm shifts obviously. Is that really required to get you excited to play a fun little game? What genre hasn’t been saturated in any case? PC games have been around since 1873, every genre has been saturated. Creativity within and outside of those established frameworks is still creativity and there is still an element of risk which most of the giant publishers shun away from.
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I don’t get excited about them coming out, but I play the hell out of them when I get them in a bundle.
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@TheGameSquid
VVVVVV definitely had great platform mechanics not perhaps.
They were simpler than SMBs, but still better.
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The trailer is awesome. I see where you (Juan) are coming from, but this actually looks like a richer experience of a game than say, No Time to Explain. (which had a pretty memorable trailer)
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“I find it hard to get excited by indie platformers these days. The market is so over-saturated with them. Same thing with tower defense games.”
I remember when all we had on the PC, platformer wise, was Cave Story and a bunch of other obscure indie freeware projects. I think its better to have more of everything then less of everything, in general. Unless you’re talking about COD of course.
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I completely agree with Juan. I hate it that so many indie studios are making high quality indie platformers! Why can’t they make what the world truly needs more of – shitty Call of Rainbow Battlefield clones?
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There’s nothing I don’t like about this, character animations and music are sublime. I hope the game maintains the same style and class from this trailer.
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I even like the fonts they’ve used, for some reason.
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@maninahat: Looks remarkably like Sentinel, basically H&FJ’s take on Claredon. Proper and pretty and quite trendy. Dunno about the title and headline/”red card” fonts, though. Probably customs.
/fontnerd
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“A delightful platformer”
Looks good! I’ll read the WIT with interest when that time comes.
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They had me at 0:21 when the lights clicked on.
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Yeah, seems to knowingly contrast with itself too, being stylish in a few inter-related ways. Well done people!
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And they used “affect” correctly!
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Co-op! Yes!
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Yes, this got me infinitely more excited about the game.
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The visuals remind me of Pixar and the music reminds me of Proun. This can never be a bad thing.
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i like the foggy backgrounds. Good art direction! That’s always good. Now get some good gameplay (backpack fumbling is always hit and miss with me) and we’ve got something.
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OMG! they made Bionic commando and they want to make another platform-er?
Hopefully they try actually playing the game before shipping it this time .
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Sarcasm? Rearmed was bloody brilliant.
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Must have been playing a different game than I, pkt. I can’t remember quite what it was but there was some basic function in the game that it wouldn’t allow… I think it was jumping? I tried to play it probably 3-4 times and walked away frustrated every time. Must agree with StinkyTaco on this one.
This game looks very awesome, although I do agree with an above post about the jumping looking a little stiff.
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Yes, weird game, but that was due to the structure of the original game it was developed from. They weren’t doing it to repress you.
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@Barnaby: Yes, it didn’t allow jumping, just like the original Bionic Commando. It was a puzzle/platformer, where the weight of your arm kept you from jumping while allowing you to reach places and perform actions you would not be able to do without the arm. Part of the challenge was performing these feats, timing your actions and pulling off, and linking, complex movements. The game was brilliant fun and the level design, enemies and boss designs all complimented each other amazingly; not to mention the fantastic music and throwbacks to the original game.
I can understand people not liking the game because they are not fond of the mechanics or it’s gameplay, but the idea that it is a bad game is 100% ridiculous.
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Complaining that BCR doesn’t have jumping is like complaining that Portal doesn’t give you a rocket launcher. Or like complaining that VVVVVV doesn’t have jumping.
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The deal-breaking problem for me with Bionic Commando was the old-school checkpoints. Die three times and start the level over from scratch? No thanks. I’ve got too many other good games to play to spend my time playing the same thing over and over and over until I finally get good enough to get through the first level.
This looks brilliant, but I wish you hadn’t told me it was from the Bionic Commando team because boy to I hate those guys for dangling a fun-looking game in front of me and then saying “Sorry, you must be THIS elite to play our game. But we’ll take your $20, loser.”
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@pkt
Even games that have no requirement to jump will give you a jump function. VVVVVV essentially was a jumping game that gave you complete control of the character, not the opposite as in the case of BCR. I think your analogies are a little weak. If Portal 2 had Serious Sam levels of monsters coming at you then didn’t give you a rocket launcher, then maybe it’d be a fair comparison. It’s a platformer without a jump button, and the mechanics of the arm didn’t compensate enough for it imo.
@brendan
It is quite possible that the game sits much better for those who have the context of the original game to go on. It’s just hard to play through a game that the primary challenge of the game could be completely eliminated by simply giving you a jump button. I love grappling hook-y sorts of games and BCR is one I could not get into.
Appreciate the responses.
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I am choking on slightly stale ’00s pretentiousness.
What an awful, awful trailer and overall presentation for what might underneath be a neat little “2D platformer with a twist” (you know, that underpopulated genre).
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Why is the P word being used again?
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You really don’t seem to see this dickish sort of write-off for an entire genre aside from platformers