Channel VIVA: what is that amazing looking game?!

[Sketcz]

For those who have Satellite TV, I am talking about the German music channels, VIVA and VIVA Plus.

I only watch said for 2 reasons:
1) Late night metal fests where they occasionally play good rock music

2) Repeating clips of an as yet undertermined game.

I have seen this clip a hundred times, its part of an intro to a feature they do, and I have scrutinised it with the kind of eagle eye you only get from playing far too many games over your lifetime.

Ill be honest:
It looks to be the most remarkable and exciting looking game Ive seen in years.

It seems to be a genuinely insightful parody of the gaming as a whole, seemlessly blending 2d and 3d, in a super high resolution, and beautifully realised Escher-esque world. With a dash of maybe "Snake rattle and roll" thrown in for good measure.
A mixture of sprites, polygons, voxels and heck, maybe there are even some vectors in there.

It starts with an avatar on a floating island, with Palm trees in the background, it appears 2d and sprite based, suddenly he runs along, and grabs a vine "pitfall Harry" style. He swings across negotiating the gap. Suddenly the camera changes, and you see the little floating island in the background, in fully rendered 3d, with large stylised voxels making up the palm trees. Its chunky in a statement of artistic originality. The many runs along, up some walls, and the whole world pans out and spins around, giving a glimpse of the reality he exists in.

At times it reverts back to the 2d world, blocky with large primary colored pixels, teasingly reminiscent of the Atari 2600. Then at times, it will turn into a fully 3d 3rd person platformer, where your avater must jump platforms, over an exquisitely rendered 3d water pond, as sureal and cubist multilegged orange crocodile swims about hoping for you to fall in.

You can walk on walls, use elevators, avoid enemies, collect items, jump from platfroms, swing from vines, a vast array of gaming moves.
Stylistically the closest Ive seen has to be HavoHotel, and the whole PixelArt trend we've been seeing, but everything seems so smooth and well rounded.
3D to 2D and then back to 3D seemlessly.

While the level layout is filled with cliches, it is blatantly intentional, and designed to envoke all forms of memories from pitfall to Solstice.

Does this game even exist?
Or was it merely a graphics demo for the channel?

I found it to be riveting, and would certainly be interested if it were actually based on a real game.
It seemed to be filled with neat little touches, and solid gameplay.

Well, it was only a 60 second(???) clip, but I am certainly captivated by its charms.

Am I mad, or does anyone else think it looks good? Does anyone have a link to a clip of it? (preferably without that annoying presenter who stands in front of the screen.)

Im curious to see what others think.

[Crispin]

They do this sort of thing a lot. You should see the "Angel of Darkness" music video. *Shudders. It could be a game. But they are quite fond of making stuff that looks like it is from a game, only it isn't.

Viva Zwei? Used to be good showing weird rock crap. I didn't like it and the videos made no sense, but at least it was different and sometimes new stuff would come up that you like. Then they sold out and became a SMS channel. Shame. Now all they show is crap like Christina Aguilera, over and over again.

And MTV? Is that even a Music channel. At least MTV2 on Satellite shows just music videos at the mo'. On Sky it seems to be missing the point. I watch MTV for the videos, not for some wankers who make programs about their stupidity.

Don't forget to check out RTL II for anime goodness. And some channels occasionally review games and new hardware.

[Sketcz]

another good post from crispin
sadly its true. Most satellite channels are crappier than the normal terrestrial channels we get.

oh, and why is it, 90% of them seem to be any language other than English? I thought we had conquered the world?

My favourite at the moment is ARIRANG
Korean channel, with films, and great sitcoms like "Nonstop", as well as informative programs on food and history.
Luckily all of it is in English, except films, which are subbed.

They even had an hour long feature on online games, featuring the international world torunament of online games, which was hosted in korea I believe. Surprisingly well done actually.

Anyway, back to this game clip Id see, as an intro to a VIVA feature. (top hits of the week or some crap)

Have you seen it crispin?
Its not from any music video, and im still not sure if it was made specifically as a graphic demo for the intro or not.

Still, it does a good job of implying a good game behind it.

[Crispin]

Anyway, back to this game clip Id see, as an intro to a VIVA feature. (top hits of the week or some crap)

Have you seen it crispin?
Its not from any music video, and im still not sure if it was made specifically as a graphic demo for the intro or not.

The penny drops. The Top 40 intro screen! Yeah seen it loads, that is really, really old. Not a computer game I'm afraid. There are loads of CD and music power-ups. I'm not sure why they do it. Perhaps, it is a play on words. Say "Chart" or something might mean "Pitfall" in German. But I doubt it. I think they chose it at random. It is rather witty, but I think that is because we perceive it to be. The Germans don't tend to have that sort of humour, especially the type who watch VIVA.

In fact, as stuff goes, it is really rather odd. Most German adverts and trailers and intros aimed at the older demographic go for no-nonsense bull****. This is a bit wackier as it targets the younger teenagers.

It does look clever, but I think that was by chance.

[Sketcz]

It does look clever, but I think that was by chance.

for shame. they got luck huh?
Still, that leaves someone open to create just such a witty game, should they feel the need.

I loved the whole 2d to 3d to 2d thing going on. very witty.
and a fun idea.

Imagine in say a mario game, mario runs along in 3d, like the 64/gc version, suddenly he runs up to a wall, jumps into it, and he continues to mave sideways, as a 2d image ON the wall, in a way more akin to say the NES/SNES versions.
Where he is able to traverse lets say that entire room, but only having to deal with enemies in the wall, rather than in the room itself

Interesting concept Ive never actually seen utilised in a game.

[Crispin]

Well, you could try and implement it. You clearly have some programming skills, start off with an isometric viewpoint for pseudo 3D then have a wall in 2D. Don't worry about transition effects between the dimensions, just have it load the levels immediately. Should be able to work on the transition effects later.

Imagine Sonic 3D on the PC (*shudders) and combine it with Sonic on the Game Gear (yay!)

[Sketcz]

Well, you could try and implement it. You clearly have some programming skills, start off with an isometric viewpoint for pseudo 3D then have a wall in 2D. Don't worry about transition effects between the dimensions, just have it load the levels immediately. Should be able to work on the transition effects later.

Imagine Sonic 3D on the PC (*shudders) and combine it with Sonic on the Game Gear (yay!)

I like the Sonic example, actually thought you might mention a pokemon example tbh. (great GB games in all truth)

Im chuffed you think highly of my porgramming skills , but to be honest, they suck, and are basic in the extreme. Clearly you havent played the raw simplicty that is "Tramampolining Gunmen", found in my sig.
2D maybe, isometric though is not so simple, especially if you add a Z-axis for height.

But, seeing as Im to attend a games design course at Uni soon, (Ive already recieved early letters of unconditonal offers from some), who knows, it might have to be a little project I test out.

[rjpageuk]

Clearly you havent played the raw simplicty that is "Tramampolining Gunmen", found in my sig.

Hahaha!

Thats what I love, truly original concepts. I have never played a gun game before on a trampoline .

Anyhow, I downloaded it and gave it a go (QBasic huh?). I won 1 round then died. Unfortunately it beeped a little too much for my liking especially since I am at work so I had to quickly ctrl+alt+del it because I couldnt work out how to get out of it in time before my boss came in asking what the hell all the beeps were .

If you can use QBasic, you should move onto Windows programming via Visual Basic Net or something .

[Sketcz]

yes, I really should move on from QBASIC.
But sadly I am just too damned lazy.(this will no doubt change when I goto Uni, so maybe for homework Ill do a remake)

I have written up a detailed design brief though. With selectable charatcers, levels and bonus rounds.

Sorry about the beeping, I implemented an OFF option for sound, but havent uploaded it yet onto the link. Hope the boss doesnt found out.

To get out quickly, once in the game, just push "esc"
died after 1 round? hmm, must have had it on 1 round to win options.

did the speed detect work well?
its supposed to detetc the speed of all computers, but it may have some kinks in it.

try it 2 player, not quite Ikaruga, but it kills 5 minutes.

[Crispin]

Nice little game, made it worth my while getting a new computer.
Keep up the good work. At the mo' I'm working on a functional programming language called Haskell. Very powerful, but a complete bitch to master.
Hope you enjoy Uni.

[Sketcz]

just tested it on my brothers laptop, UGH! its far worse than when played through the rickety speaker on my old PC tower.

oops....

cheers for the encouragement crispin.