Screenshot Weekly – Pop! Go the Stealthy Cougars
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 (remember to click the pictures to appreciate them in all their fully-sized glory):
Pop! Ilumbo
Puzzle games aren’t really my forte, but Pop! Ilumbo has a unique feature of particular interest to me. Besides being a “money-free-ad-free” puzzle game on Android devices, all of which I approve of, it is also being developed for and compatible with Ilumbo’s “WarpHole” technology. Before you set you phasers to stun, or ask Scottie to beam you up, WarpHole is “a piece of technology, which transfers elements between games. Games that are WarpHole-powered borrow characters, objects and music from other games installed on the device.” Basically, it shuffles content between games, but reconfigures those assets to suit the style of the game you’re currently playing. So far as I can tell, it’s more sorcery than science. The game is being developed by Pimm Hogeling and Karim Sempel of Ilumbo, and features pop-art visuals and cutesy animals. Look out for it sometime soon.
Solarix
According to their kickstarter page, the team at PulseTense Games bills Solarix as “a ‘psychological survival horror’ game featuring massively detailed open-ended levels encompassing both survival and stealth-gameplay styles.” As with puzzle games, I’m not really the biggest fan of horror titles either. But I’m certainly able to appreciate atmosphere and quality game direction. (I adore BioShock.) If the following statement about Solarix turns out to be true, it’s a horror title even I might want to play: “Our goal is to take the survival horror genre beyond simple staged ‘jumpscares’ and cheap thrills. With Solarix we will create a world that fills you with unease, insecurity and desperation.” The game has 17 days left in its campaign, and is a long way from getting funded. So if you’re interested in seeing Solarix continue development, be sure to spread the word, and of course, pledge if possible.
Untamed: Life of a Cougar
Disappointingly, despite my mighty need for Untamed to be a Sim game where you play as a women in her mid-thirties on the prowl for younger men across a variety of nightclubs, the game is literally about a cougar. As in the animal. The physical animal. Never mind, you’ll see it in the pictures. What Life of a Cougar is actually about, is protecting 3 cute cubs from predators that include bears, eagles, wolves, foxes, and human hunters. But the life of a mother is never easy, and so if protecting her babies wasn’t enough, she also has to go out and hunt to provide for them. This requires players to stalk such prey as deer, rabbit, moose, and bison. Bison will apparently be the toughest encounter, so players will have to think a bit tactically if they want to bring one down. The game doesn’t have a release date, but intends to launch on PC and Mac. You can get more info here, and watch the trailer here.
That’s it for this week’s 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 installment. As for any indie developers who would like to see their screenshots featured in an upcoming segment, 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!
