Friday Free Game: Shift 2 Friday, March 21, 2008

The Friday Free Game two-hit combo is live and on the scene, administering the beatdown of game goodness for the righteous readers of the Red Bull!

Shift 2 is the sequel to the Armor Games negative-space platformer that I featured as the Friday Free Game for February 15th. This time, they have added a few more new twists for deeper and more varied gameplay. While this robs the game of the simple elegance of the original, it definitely kicks up the challenge level a good two notches, making for a more satisfying experience if you're a gamer with a somewhat harder core.

The basics are all still there: black and white space, key puzzles, shifting, taunting comments, and the big-ol' splash of blood when you fall on the spikes. What's new is two new features: gravity modification and checkered space. By far, the most brain-bending aspect of Shift 2 is the incorporation of gravity redirection as part of the puzzles. Now instead of just flipping the board two different ways, you now have four possibilities. There are four different arrow icons you can touch to rotate the board and all of the sudden, walls become floors, floors become walls, and you're forced to look at things a whole new way. Checkered spaces are really just another kind of door. Hit the lightbulb icon (just like a key) and a set of blocks are removed so you can move on to the next step of the puzzle.

But perhaps the most interesting additions are to the meta-game. Shift 2 rewards players with trophies (a la XBox 360-style achievements) for completing various goals (such as beating the oh-so-annoying crosses level in the specified time limit). It also adds a level editor ("Shift-ed"... get it?), and the designers hint at a future pack of player-designed levels. It's easy to use and outputs a code that you can use to load and share your custom-designed levels. Like this one:

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

You can play it by clicking "Extras" on the main menu and loading "Shift-Ed", then clicking "Load Level Code", and then paste the code above into the text box. It will load the level in the editor. Click the "Preview" link to play.

Custom levels, deeper puzzles, snarkier narration and monochromatic charm all combine to deliver a solid experience. And with all of these new features, Shift 2 is bound to continue the momentum created by the original. I know you'll agree when you stop procrastinating and start shifting! Play.

Friday Free Game: Shift Friday, February 15, 2008

Ever hear of the Three Hundred? Webcomic writer Sean Howard is attempting to come up with three hundred game ideas in three hundred days. It's ambitious even if you realize that an "idea" is rather ambiguous. For example, some of his ideas are derivations of one another. But he has produced a large amount of content, complete with screenshots and thorough explanations. I actually stumbled upon his link some time back, but didn't blog about it, so I don't know when. Turns out the guy has gotten all kinds of press – Kotaku, Boing Boing (proof they will cover anything), other obscure game design blogs other than mine, and rightfully so – he's written some cool stuff. Well, one of the things he wrote about (in fact, his mechanic #1) is this idea of a platformer that takes place in two worlds simultaneously on the same screen. The negative space for the one one becomes the positive space for the other. Cool idea, right?

Well, sometime later, Nitrome produces a game called Yin Yang, a negative-space platformer. Jay Bibby gave it a write-up this past September. I played it back then (based on Jay's recommendation) while on the lookout for new candidates for the Friday Free Game. But while the concept is neat, I didn't particularly love the execution. Like many Nitrome games, I feel like it's lacking some of that special sauce that makes a game feel like a well-tuned machine. Maybe they need more playtesting. Anyway, rumors fly about whose idea it was. Nitrome, of course, claims it's purely original.

Well, proof that a great idea seeks out great execution, behold a negative-space platformer done right: a game called Shift, by Armor Games. Here, the concept works flawlessly. It's a small-scale adventure, self-referentially riffing on Portal, complete with distracting messages on the screen (sometimes written upside-down). The controls are über-intutive to anyone who's heard of Mario – run, jump and shift, don't touch the spikes, get keys to change the board. It's fun, it's well-paced, it's got an excellent tutorial, the soundtrack is good, and it's got the sauce. Play. Play now.