#skookum arts llc

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Game Developers

Thomas Brush is an indie game developer who is best known for his artistic vision and commitment to crafting memorable gaming experiences, like his game "Neversong" which was formally known as "Once Upon a Coma". Brush does all the work for each of his projects from the art to the coding and the music. He has inspired many new indie game devs thanks to his course which teaches you how to get into the industry.

Skookum Arts LLC is a development studio founded by Brent and Devin George and their childhood friend Ben Swinden. They are most known for their game "The Pedestrian" which has a unique 2D and 3D environment. The game involves you playing as the little man from the road signs and you have to solve puzzles to progress in the environment.

Studio MDHR are the developers behind "Cuphead", one of my favorite games. They spent years working on every asset, hand drawing every little detail and animating it. The brothers that founded the studio named it after their grandparents who inspired them with their love for classic animation. The game itself is a run and gun action game where you fight bosses to collect their contracts for the Devil to make sure that you don't lose your souls to him after Cuphead went after foolish riches.

[an-aussie-button-masher]

Short & Sweet - Five Games You Can Finish in One Afternoon

   Triple-A game titles are always boasting 80-hour-long campaigns, hundreds of hours’ worth of collectables and all sorts of other time-consuming features, but what if you simply don’t have that kind of time on your hands? Not everyone is able to sit around playing games 24 hours a day, so it’s a good thing these shorter games are around. These games can all be finished in a single session each if you want, making for a fun, no-commitment afternoon. Some might be a bit more expensive than others, but they’re all an experience worth the cost - you’ll have tons of fun playing through these quick little puzzlers and will remember them long after you put them down. Enjoy!

LEGO Builder’s Journey    This isn’t your usual LEGO game - there’s no minifigures to unlock, no gold bricks to collect, no goofy film adaptations or anything like that, and yet it’s probably the one game that truly captures the real fun of playing around with LEGO. LEGO Builder’s Journey is a simple and charming story about a father and son told through a series of short puzzles that can be solved in just about any way you can imagine. With relaxing music and gorgeous graphics that look better than actual LEGO bricks, this game tells a surprisingly heartfelt tale without saying a single word and allowing a level of creativity unlike any other puzzle game. It’s a little pricey for a 3-hour game, but lovers of LEGO and puzzles will certainly find it worthwhile.

Please Don’t Touch Anything    You’re standing in front of a mysterious red panel with nothing but a large red button on it, and told not to touch anything. Naturally, it’s time to touch everything. Like a deceptively small puzzle box, almost everything you interact with on this panel causes something new to pop out - more buttons, switches, number pads, dials, levers, tools, and so on. Pushing the right combinations of buttons, switches and numbers results in various “endings”, most of which result in the poor city shown on the monitor being obliterated in various ways. It takes only a few hours poking around to get all the endings, though some of them are a bit more obscure than others. Messing around with a virtual doomsday machine has never been cheaper or more fun!

The Pedestrian    One of the most fascinating and expertly-executed concepts for a puzzle game I’ve ever seen, The Pedestrian takes the little stick figure you see on various street signs and brings him to life. It’s up to you to guide him through a bustling city, rearranging various signs and panels around the fully-modelled 3-D environment to get the Pedestrian to his destination. Taking you through apartments, subways, warehouses, construction sites and more, the puzzles get very complicated very quickly - expect quite the challenge even for the most puzzle-minded of players. It’s a bit expensive for its length, but definitely worth grabbing on sale if you want to spend an afternoon challenging your mind to its limits.

OneShot    Don’t let the simple artstyle and short length fool you; this innocent little adventure will mess with your mind, your computer and your heart like nothing else. A lost child named Niko finds themselves stranded in an unfamiliar, dying world, and the power to potentially save it is thrust upon them. It’s up to the player to guide Niko along their journey, solving puzzles and meeting various characters still clinging to life in this cold, dark world. Also, the game knows who you, the real player, are. While it can be finished in one sitting, the endearing cast and thought-provoking writing, on top of a soul-wrenching ending no matter what choices you make, will leave you thinking about this game forever.

INSIDE    A bleak and dystopian world, eerie monsters, disturbing story elements, zero spoken words, and a lone child trapped in the middle - the developers at Playdead certainly know their strengths. The people that brought us the creepy classic Limbo give us the brilliantly unnerving follow-up INSIDE, a 2.5-D side-scrolling survival game with sinister puzzles and horrific experiments. Playdead have definitely upped their game with this one; be wary of vicious guard dogs and spine-chilling mutations, and don’t play it too late at night if you want to get any sleep! Despite taking only a few harrowing hours to finish, INSIDE will leave your skin crawling for days afterwards - and coming back for more.

   All these games and more are great for those short afternoons when you want a quick and memorable game that won’t eat up your free time. Do you know of any other games that would be a good fit for this list? Let me know! Reblogs and likes are much appreciated!    Thanks for reading!

[first-impressions-gaming]

The Pedestrian

Developed & Published by Skookum Arts LLC

Release Date 2020 (differs from platform to platform)

Tested on Xbox Series X

MSRP 19.99 USD

Imagine a game where your movement is restricted by cardboards, traffic lights, and signs that you may come across in a construction site or factory. Now, expand that picture to a whole world, your environment changes all the time as you progress in the game. The game presents your ‘playable world’ in line with the world that is present in the background. I am not much of a person who enjoys challenging puzzles or complex mechanics when it comes to games. I like fluid experiences without me thinking ‘oh hell, I am stuck in this mission!’. The Pedestrian is so well developed that it is a puzzle game without feeling like it with a playful soundtrack. In other words, the game draws the player’s attention from the get-go without any further introduction to the game, allowing the player directly jump in and just play.

The game does not give you strict ‘tutorials’, and I prefer it this way. I felt that mechanics, gameplay, movement, actions and controls were pretty natural. The simplicity and fluidity meet, mix and combine in the best way. I like it when a game does not need to explain ‘itself’, it gives you the opportunity and chance to try it for yourself. For example, you’re given 5-6 pieces of cardboards and you just gotta figure out, placing them correctly, mapping out an accurate route, and making it to the next level. Trial and error rule this game. Sometimes it gets frustrating or you think that ‘I tried everything, every kind of combination and placement, I just don’t get it!’ but that’s the exact ‘Aha!’ moment and you grasp that the proper route was just in front of your eyes all this moment, and it is satisfying and rewarding.

I wish to emphasise that the game is rewarding considering that there are a ton of puzzle games with gotcha mechanics. When you progress, pass a chapter, the game provides you new playgrounds, mechanics, and features to play. The acknowledgement of progression is satisfying and it keeps the pace at the right speed, always leaving you wondering what will be the next surrounding/environment.

The environment and the world we’re in feels alive and breathing, it is well-crafted and looks and plays unique, such as a construction site, factory, warehouse, streets, subway, apartments, university etc. The smooth transition from one environment and chapter to another is top-notch without any loading screen.

For a quick glance at gameplay, check out the video below: