RKNet Blog... Thing

Woe and sadness unto you, cubicle drone. An entire blog dedicated to snapshots of tons of different companies. Mainly young, hip, internet-based companies on top of it.

Take a good look around you. Do a quick inventory of your surroundings.
Do they include any or all of the following:

1. A full wall, hand-painted mural
2. Some manner of arcade cabinet or gaming table
3. “Alternative” or mainly ergonomic furniture
4. Pets, not counting fish, rocks, or plants
5. As-yet-to-be-finished sections, or furniture that is not yet assembled
6. A large colorful logo that isn’t your neighbor’s favorite sports team banner

If you said “no” to all of the following, it is entirely possible that you work for a stuffy, old-school, dead-end company. If this is a concern, it is highly advisable that your reorganize your life goals and hop to it. That house in Bali won’t build itself, bucko.

That said, go check out some of these pictures, seriously. If that doesn’t inspire you to improve your work life, what will?

Efilon pointed this out earlier in the ormgas IRC. Thanks!

This looks absolutely awesome! In the underwater environment I see shades of Ecco the Dolphin (boy did that game used to creep me out), and character designs that seem to remind me of Odin Sphere.

It’s been put together by a group called Bit Blot. Improvements to the way the character looks and behaves have been made since the time this video was made, according to a response to feedback left on the YouTube page for this video.

…
But yeah, there’s a lot of detail in her animation now and it has been updated a lot since this trailer was made (February) due to feedback. We haven’t had any complaints from people who have played the game.
…

There are more videos, as well as screenshots and written details about this game at the Bit Blot site. Such as the fact that it is due to be released tomorrow! Yup, Aquaria drops on December 7th. Aquaria was also the winner of the 2007 Independent Games Festival competition, which only adds more cred to this already tantalizing 2d adventure game.

Amanita Design, responsible for the two beautiful flash games: Samarost and Samarost 2, are now working on a full-length adventure game! According to the tantalizing site We expect to release the game in the 2nd half of 2008.

Right now the site only has the basic announcement, 2 tantalizing bits of delicious art, and a forum. The forum appears to be a little empty right now. I would strongly encourage anyone who enjoyed the Samarost games to pop by and give the Amanita Design team a word of thanks! Besides, the more talk generated in the forums, the more they might feel inclined to drop a few more hints of what’s to come! Nudge nudge, wink wink.

Jay Is Games tipped me off yesterday that Haluz 2 is out. If you enjoy “casual gaming” at all, and you don’t have JIG bookmarked, then shame on you. But I digress.

Haluz and Haluz 2 are two gorgeous point-and-click puzzle solving games. (See also: Samarost and its sequel, Samarost 2 from the fine folks at Amanita Design.)

Haluz 2 shows improvments from the first incarnation very early on, with the introduction of “level codes”. Right now I’ve got 3 of them on a sticky note next to my desk so I can pick up after I leave work. The puzzles in the early stages I’ve played so far were simple, but Haluz 2 is a game of two parts. One is free online, and the other is a download which costs $9.99(us). Or for a couple more bucks - $12.99(us) - you can get the full version and the soundtrack. Given the lush soundscapes that match with the rich environment design, I would argue that the extra few dollars for the soundtrack is well worth it.

Visit haluz.eu to play the free online versions of both games. The option to purchase and download all of Haluz 2 is also there. Also check out the links section where the games’ creator pays homage to its inspiration, Samarost, and also provides links to a few other p&c games and the games’ music creator.