Edmonton indie game developers find success par for the corpse
Pity poor Sir Reginald the Obtuse. He is brave, adroit, fleet of foot. But if you want to get across that spike pit, you’re going to have to bounce off poor Sir Reginald’s spike-riddled carcass to do it.
The video game platformer Life Goes On is the most twisted little piece of black comedic fun to come out of Edmonton for a while. But in a town where cool gaming ideas seem to be popping up like whack-a-moles in a Sam and Max adventure, the dark comedy about a knight and his many convenient replacements is poised to be a hit.
At its core, it’s about a knight on a quest. “In order to reach this coveted prize, you must sacrifice the knights one by one in order to progress,” say the developers. “Impale a knight on a spike to provide a safe platform needed to cross a pit. Catch another knight on a saw blade so their body falls on a button to solve a puzzle. Fling your knights heroically into the flames to allow those that follow to reach new heights. Discover hidden monsters that linger in the depths and hunger for the satisfying crunch of an unfortunate former champion.”
Funnily enough all of this morbid merriment started with a snake eating its own tail: the idea of death and rebirth was the central theme at the local edition of the Global Game Jam in 2012, says Erik Johnson, with Infinite Monkeys Entertainment. A handful of local amateur programmers at the U of A event came up with the idea of a
CONTINUED…
1 2
