pick up a piece of this beautiful adventure

Release Date: 23rd April 2011

Developer: Colibri Games

Genre: Point and Click Adventure/Puzzle

Mode: Single

The Tiny Bang Story opens with a great introduction sequence of the tiny bang itself fracturing the cute little world. Naturally it’s your job to set things right. The Tiny Bang Story strings together many hidden object and other puzzles with this beautiful world.

Once you start play you are given very short but clear guidance via suggestions on where to click. It helps make the rather kind learning curve even more smooth. There’s also a built in hint system involving collecting little mosquito-like insects. The Tiny Bang Story is a very easy game to get into and, once it gets its hooks into you, the graphical and puzzle appeal will keep you there.

One of the interesting ironies of The Tiny Bang Story is that it doesn’t exactly have a story. Instead the sequence of events and personality of the game allows a lot of room for your own story to be woven.

There are many hidden item puzzles and a good selection of other interesting puzzles of different styles, such as jigsaw and pipe alignment puzzles. There’s also a few mini video game type puzzles done in a wonderful basic 8 bit style.

At the end of the game you can revisit all the music and 20 of the major puzzles. Your options to configure The Tiny Bang Story are limited and simple.

The puzzles in The Tiny Bang Story are fairly well balanced and should not be a hindrance to an experienced puzzle player.

The Tiny Bang Story delivers many good and diverse puzzles and it’s unique beauty adds to the value of The Tiny Bang Story as positive entertainment.

Graphics are quite adorable and hand-drawn, despite the minimal animation. It’s a style that is vaguely reminiscent of Beatrix Potter and has all the appeal of a beautiful picture book. There is some light interaction which helps give the world a living feel. The only drawback is this game must be played in windowed mode. Full-screen is available as an option but stretches the result into a blur.

Music is soothing which matches the game style well. Sound effects work well.

The Tiny Bang Story runs on Windows and Mac with Android and iPad versions coming soon. A demo for Windows and the Mac also exists. Click on the Buy Now button on the website to see the link to it. You can also get the demo from Steam. You can buy The Tiny Bang Story from Steam, GamersGate and Playism for $US9.99

The Tiny Bang Story has a delightful and charming world to explore as you unravel the fun puzzles. Well worth it.

Game: 4½/5    Positive: 

Light up your Cardboard

Release Date: 9th May 2011

Developer: State of Play Games

Genre: Point and Click Adventure/Puzzle

Mode: Single

Lume is a beautiful but also very short flash based adventure game with an interesting style. The game begins with a short introduction where you see the electricity fail at Lumi’s granddad’s home. You, as Lumi, arrive to find granddad has gone and set about restoring power.

Lume is extremely easy to learn to play, as many adventure games are.

The puzzles in Lume are fresh, interesting and not terribly difficult with one major exception. There is one puzzle in there so obscure I don’t see many people finding their way through it without help.

In terms of positive entertainment, Lume delivers some good puzzles and an innovative graphical look. It has the simple appeal of taking action too so that the adventure doesn’t seem as contrived as many do.

One of the great appeals of Lume is the interesting graphics which are a merged style of animation which feels like felt or a scrapbook and real recordings from papercraft. The papercraft in Lume used paper and cardboard to make the sets which include a few extras like dollhouse lights. It let State of Play Games make very nice area transitions which pan to give a light 3D feel to the game. Altogether the result is smart, charming, cute and has a faint air of school. The graphics resolution is fixed at 800×600.

Lume comes with only one piece of music which will get repetitive but can be toggled on and off. I find the music irritating because it has a very soothing feel but there is one note which is so sour it may be an error.

The few ingame sounds are all fine.

Lume could have used a little more polish. Lume doesn’t come with an icon so the default flash one is used. The game also lacks an internal way to close the game. There are also very few configuration options.

However the biggest problem is that this game is very short. If you take out the obscure puzzle game time would be well below an hour. It makes sense since it is the first part of a series but I simply found it far too short.

Lume runs entirely through Adobe flash and runs on Windows and Mac. You can get it from Steam, Direct2Drive and GamersGate for $US 6.99-7.49.

Overall Lume is a charming but flawed game which is too short but has a beautiful and innovative graphical style.

Game: 3/5    Positive: 

Have you got the brains for this puzzle?

Release Date: 1^st December 2010

Developer: Michael Brough

Genre: Puzzle

Mode: Single Player

The Sense of Connectedness is a puzzle game in a unique style delivered simply. Part of the puzzle is figuring out what you are supposed to do. In that sense it is an exploratory game too. It will suffice to say that it is a tile based logical puzzle. Yes that’s right, there is only one puzzle so the one presented is good.

Essentially it’s about a brain where the ego releases electrical signals. It’s up to you what to do with those signals. This brain is not scientifically accurate to be sure but the general idea is there.

It would be remiss not to mention the masquerade involved in the game’s release. While gamers have hardly noticed, it seems to have affected the developers quite a bit. There were four developers. Each one released a game of their fellows as though their own (but carefully avoiding the claim of directly saying they made it). As such they got to experience the feelings of releasing a game that wasn’t theirs and having their fellow developer release the game that they made. Quite an interesting experiment.

The Sense of Connectedness offers good positive entertainment. It’s a lot of fun trying to figure things out and it strikes a good balance between too hard or effortless. The game gives a glimpse into the complexities that lie within your noggin as well as providing that logical and exploratory challenge. I also think the game is quite unique.

Graphics in The Sense of Connectedness are a pulsing lot of layered lines. There’s something soothing but also visually aggravating about it on the eyeballs at the same time. It certainly gets your attention.

Music in The Sense of Connectedness is smoothing and perhaps procedural. There is also the murmuring in the background. Overall it was a nice effect which is good since you can’t switch it off.

The difficulty of The Sense of Connectedness depends on how well you adapt to the unexpected. I think most people will find it a challenge but not insurmountable.

The Sense of Connectedness runs on Windows only. It is the full game and is free.

Game: 4/5    Positive:

Are you a fan of the tangram?

Release Date: September 2006

Developer: Intermediaware

Genre: Puzzle

Mode: Single Player

The Temple of Tangram is a puzzle game based on tangram puzzles. These puzzles originally made of materials like wood were popular in the distant past, especially during World War One in the trenches. The basic play involves shape matching which sounds quite a bit easier than it is. You pick up, rotate and place shapes to fit a silhouette board. This digital version allows for even more trickery including moving boards where you place your shapes, removal of placed shapes, shapes placeable only once and hiding the board.

Every now and then to break up the pace, you get a different game somewhat like tetris, where you match some images to ‘earn’ your next puzzle pieces.

During these challenges the clock is ticking and your score is based on that as well as any difficult elements used in the puzzle. On some levels you can get a hint which costs your score if you use it. All in all Temple of Tangram offers hours of play with 250 levels.

After completing 50 levels you can make your own puzzles up with the level editor.

I find Temple of Tangram offers reasonable positive entertainment. There’s the puzzles themselves, almost timeless, but delivered with the extra challenges possible from being in digital form.

There’s also wise old sayings sprinkled between levels.

Temple of Tangram graphics are naturally of the ‘oriental’ style. I found them functional, attractive and clean but perhaps a little too busy in the interface. The game resolution is limited and the game is played in a window.

Music in the Temple of Tangram is also of the ‘oriental’ style. It’s fortunate I like that style and what is there is pleasant. The sound effects themselves also work well.

The difficulty of Temple of Tangram is not too oppressive. It starts off very easy and gets harder as you progress in the game.

Temple of Tangram runs on Windows, Mac, and Linux. A 50 level demo version is available on their main site and is great for getting a feel of the game.

Temple of Tangram is available for about $AU6, bought through the game demo.

Game: 3/5    Positive: 

The rubber duckies all agree that this is a fun, positive game

Crazy Machines 2 by Fakt software, released 2008, is a single player puzzle-simulation game. Some content can be shared online.  There are 3 addons I will discuss later, one of them is Crazy Machines 2 -  Time Travel released very recently on 12th March 2011.

Crazy Machines 2 involves being presented with incomplete Rube Goldberg machines where the aim might be to do something very simple such as pop a balloon or move a container into a basket. In a nutshell, Rube Goldberg machines perform a simple task in a complex fashion, usually by way of a chain of many simple steps. So to turn on a toaster, might involve letting a bowling ball fall on a switch, which activates a fan, which blows a balloon over to turn a crank, which generates power to start the toaster. In essence, a crazy machine.

To do this in game you take various objects provided, which the game names ‘elements’ and you position them to create the desired outcome. There are many such elements, for example, a balloon an electric generator or a gear. Usually the puzzles involve several simple outcomes to achieve in order to obtain bonus points. While this sounds simple the actual difficulty varies considerably depending on the complexity of the machine. The game offers hundreds of these ‘experiments’, and you can make you own and try other people’s via the online feature. This means there’s plenty of content.

Crazy Machines 2 may look original, but it is not original. Apart from being a sequel, it is based on an old game series called The Incredible Machine. The original Incredible Machine was released in 1992 in MS-DOS format as well as others. So while Crazy Machines 2 is not original the concept has been polished up a great deal since those days.

Despite this, it’s not a widely exposed niche and has a lot to offer to Positive Gaming and Entertainment. There is a lot to discover and learn about physics here such as energy conversions, gears, levers, gravity and other mechanical concepts.

There is a significant amount of scope for creativity making your own Rube Goldberg machines and discovering different solutions to the experiments provided. Altogether Crazy Machines 2 provides quality Positive Entertainment.

The graphics for Crazy Machines 2 is the real selling point lifting it past it’s older versions and The Incredible Machine predecessor. The graphics are beautiful in full 3D. Movement is reasonably free and there are appropriately used effects. The elements have high levels of detail. Because the game utilises the PhysX physics engine the gameplay is enhanced by the more natural physical rules, which also enhances the overall visual effect.

Music in Crazy Machines 2 is catchy and uplifting but far too repetitive and perhaps a bit too noticeable while you are trying to concentrate on the puzzles. Likewise the sound effects are very good but some background and unnecessary objects such an an exhaust fan can become an irritating distraction.

Guiding you through the tutorial and rest of the game is an Einstein-like mascot who often makes silly comments (see the italicised subtitle above) and numerous scientific and pseudo-scientific cultural references. Fortunately he’s reasonably fun and not too in the face.

The game also includes achievements and trophies and, if the puzzles get too tough, there is a decent hint system.

One of the best things to see in Crazy Machines 2 is the interactivity integrated into the main screen. There objects can be manipulated under the PhysX engine, and there is chalk to draw with on a blackboard.

One criticism with the game is the tutorial is so important in a game like this. While the bulk of it is relevant, helpful and snappy there is one section, namely ’1-6 Fire and Steam’, where the placement of an element does not trigger the next step in the tutorial, thus hanging the newbie out to dry to either skip or try to discover another trigger by chance.

Crazy Machines 2 runs on Windows only. A demo version is available here.

Crazy machines 2 is available for download on GamersGate or Steam for $US20. It is also available from the main site on disk for the same price. There are also Crazy Machines bundles available.

Game : 2/5   Positive: