[h2]GBAtemp book game club #89[/h2]
Twin Isles (NDS homebrew)
It has been a while since we picked homebrew title as our sole main selection, we try to link homebrew wherever we can but main picks are a different beast.
We really like homebrew around here and though we occasionally have to drag people kicking and screaming to a point where they realise non emulator homebrew most definitely has merit that is easy enough. The next stage is often getting them to see non port/non emulator homebrew as having the potential to make a game that lasts many hours and requires a lot of thought, though encountering such a mindset is quite jarring when we run up against it, especially given it often does it better than commercial offerings, it is possible to see how it formed.
Today we have a fairly early DS homebrew that is both great and has the potential to be up there among the long term and lots of thought games. The game is twin isles and a quote from the author, on and off game developer Scott Graham, is fitting at this juncture "I've always enjoyed Civ-style games, and I had the urge to design one around the same time as I got a homebrew cart for my Nintendo DS"
Urge fulfilled would be our reply and though it clearly borrows elements from other games, a few of which we have covered in the past, it stands alone and even makes for a nice alternative/middle ground to some of those.
The game itself is a real time civilisation type game, largely touchscreen driven though you will want shoulder buttons at least but prone to being somewhat shorter. Similarly it is not what might pass for a full game in terms of maps, scenarios and such like available but the mechanics are all there including against CPU and it works well.
filetrip download
Author homepage
Google code (source code)
[prebreak]Rest of the article[/prebreak]
Another great example of homebrew doing well or a nice idea but less brilliant execution? For those that like this we already linked a few things but Advance Wars, Civilisation/Civilization, Anno and Age of Empires are but a few titles that explore similar themes on the DS.
We are working on getting a new searching mechanism working with the new forum software now our tag system has been changed. In the meantime all the editions are in this section and hopefully a search for GBAGOTW should get you the other entries in the series. gbagotw.
GBAtemp holds that the portal is right up there with anything else we are about (forums, wiki, IRC....) and to such ends we aim to have various types of extra content on it. This extends to various features beyond the contests, reviews, news and such like with The GBAtempbook game club/GBAtemp game of the week feature being but one of those.
Conceptually some might see it as quite similar to our sister project in the "GBAtemp recommends!" feature and in some ways it is; we certainly try not to have overlap between them. However we hold the The GBAtempbook game club is different in that its aim is about starting a discussion among those in the thread where it can be reviewed and the opening post leans far more towards describing the background of the game and providing an overview of it.
Similarly where GBAtemp recommends! aims to share quality games with you we often move in slightly different ways and will share games that tried interesting, uncommon or new mechanics, techniques and methods. In short we seek to be something other than a top ?/hidden gems list though such titles as might appear on those will definitely be among our selections here. We usually draw from the GBA, the DS and the Wii and if we go outside that then the DS will almost certainly be able to emulate it. Games have been around for long enough and are a broad enough field that it would be seriously remiss of us to not mention titles, spiritual sequels and whatever else that appeared on other platforms.
Though it is a limit we hold it is not limiting as our three choice consoles have a huge wealth of commercial games, homebrew titles, unlicensed code/leaked code and far reaching ROM hacks that we have still yet to do more than scratch the very surface of.
Twin Isles (NDS homebrew)
It has been a while since we picked homebrew title as our sole main selection, we try to link homebrew wherever we can but main picks are a different beast.
We really like homebrew around here and though we occasionally have to drag people kicking and screaming to a point where they realise non emulator homebrew most definitely has merit that is easy enough. The next stage is often getting them to see non port/non emulator homebrew as having the potential to make a game that lasts many hours and requires a lot of thought, though encountering such a mindset is quite jarring when we run up against it, especially given it often does it better than commercial offerings, it is possible to see how it formed.
Today we have a fairly early DS homebrew that is both great and has the potential to be up there among the long term and lots of thought games. The game is twin isles and a quote from the author, on and off game developer Scott Graham, is fitting at this juncture "I've always enjoyed Civ-style games, and I had the urge to design one around the same time as I got a homebrew cart for my Nintendo DS"
Urge fulfilled would be our reply and though it clearly borrows elements from other games, a few of which we have covered in the past, it stands alone and even makes for a nice alternative/middle ground to some of those.
The game itself is a real time civilisation type game, largely touchscreen driven though you will want shoulder buttons at least but prone to being somewhat shorter. Similarly it is not what might pass for a full game in terms of maps, scenarios and such like available but the mechanics are all there including against CPU and it works well.
filetrip download
Author homepage
Google code (source code)
Some images from the game
Another great example of homebrew doing well or a nice idea but less brilliant execution? For those that like this we already linked a few things but Advance Wars, Civilisation/Civilization, Anno and Age of Empires are but a few titles that explore similar themes on the DS.
We are working on getting a new searching mechanism working with the new forum software now our tag system has been changed. In the meantime all the editions are in this section and hopefully a search for GBAGOTW should get you the other entries in the series. gbagotw.
GBAtemp holds that the portal is right up there with anything else we are about (forums, wiki, IRC....) and to such ends we aim to have various types of extra content on it. This extends to various features beyond the contests, reviews, news and such like with The GBAtemp
Conceptually some might see it as quite similar to our sister project in the "GBAtemp recommends!" feature and in some ways it is; we certainly try not to have overlap between them. However we hold the The GBAtemp
Similarly where GBAtemp recommends! aims to share quality games with you we often move in slightly different ways and will share games that tried interesting, uncommon or new mechanics, techniques and methods. In short we seek to be something other than a top ?/hidden gems list though such titles as might appear on those will definitely be among our selections here. We usually draw from the GBA, the DS and the Wii and if we go outside that then the DS will almost certainly be able to emulate it. Games have been around for long enough and are a broad enough field that it would be seriously remiss of us to not mention titles, spiritual sequels and whatever else that appeared on other platforms.
Though it is a limit we hold it is not limiting as our three choice consoles have a huge wealth of commercial games, homebrew titles, unlicensed code/leaked code and far reaching ROM hacks that we have still yet to do more than scratch the very surface of.
