Screenshot Weekly – Cartoon Masochists Headed For the Grinder
Welcome back to Screenshot Weekly! Every Tuesday, IGM brings you exclusive looks at upcoming games in various stages of development. The featured image introducing each game will always be original, and made especially for IGM, so you’ll see them for the first time right here! Without further ado, let’s take a look at this week’s screenshots:
Cartoon Survivor
I really need a tee shirt that says “I was a cartoon survivor.” Anyway, the Brisbane-based studio Spunge Games is working on Cartoon Survivor, which they classify as an adventure runner. The development team is made up of members spun out of the award-winning Liquid Animation, an animation studio responsible for the creation, development, and production of animated and live action projects for major international entertainment studios like Disney, Warner Bros, and Mattel. The team boasts that Survivor is “set in a beautiful vibrant 3D world full of loveable dynamic characters. [The player] must maneuver through death-defying obstacle courses full of feisty creatures and hazardous prehistoric environments before the dynamite attached to the main character’s back explodes!” The game is planned for release on iOS first by the end of the month, followed by Android. For more information about Cartoon Survivor, be sure to check out Spunge Games on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube.
Graffiti Grinder
Are you a teenage rebel with the wind in your hair, anxious to leave your anarchistic mark on the world? I suggest therapy. But if that doesn’t seem like a fun way to spend your afternoons, then perhaps Graffiti Grinder is more your style. Developed by Troll Inc, Graffiti Grinder is a runner/platformer which tasks players with showing rival graffiti gangs who the best person-who-sprays-paint-on-city-owned-property really is. As described by the development team, “Graffiti Grinder is our 5th game in the past year. You make your mark by jumping, gliding and diving through the city, tagging over rival squad graffiti and dodging the Anti-Graffiti squad.” It’s sort of like Jet Set Radio, except not available for the Dreamcast, and now I’m sad again because I miss the Dreamcast. Other features to be found in Graffiti Grinder include upgradeable power-ups to facilitate play, and leaderboard support via score sharing on Facebook, so you can challenge, and subsequently mock, your low-scoring friends. You problem-child.
Masochisia
Remember how you clicked this article and the first game previewed was a cheerful, colorful, fun little experience? Yeah, that’s over now. (Make ’em smile, and then cripple them with dreary depression right at the end. That’s how comedy works, right?) Welcome to the world of Masochisia. Cryptic solo developer J.O. explains that “Masochisia is a 2D point-and-click horror narrative for the PC, Mac, and Linux.” Point-and-click horror, eh? Those are a dime a dozen, you say. How scary could it be? Well, as J.O. puts it, “Masochisia is an experimental title that tells the story of Hamilton, a troubled young-man who learns through a series of hallucinations that he will grow up to become a violent psychopath.” Imagine having to watch yourself becoming a killer. That’s rough. If that wasn’t cheerful enough, the game is actually based on a true story. Masochisia is currently slated for release in Summer 2015. Those interested in giving the game a try can download the Alpha build, currently available via the game’s official website.
That’s it for this installment of Screenshot Weekly. Be sure to come back next week to see more exclusive looks of the latest indie games in development! Let us know in the comments section what upcoming indie games you’d like to see featured in a future segment. As for any indie developers who would like to see their screenshots featured right here, feel free to send an email to IGM at [email protected] with the Subject Line: “Screenshot Weekly.” Or, if you’d like to be part of our Magazine’s Screenshot Monthly segment, include that in the email as well!
