Tech Blog

[#1]

You will hopefully have previously read me write about game developer Adam Atomic, who creates a fine range of indie games (usually playable in the web browser). I think his latest is his best, and it's been receiving a lot of buzz on the internet so I thought I'd share it here.

Canabalt is a "one button" Parkour simulator. One button games are pretty close to my heart - when I started as a professional journalist, some of my first articles related to accessible gaming - games that are available for differently abled people to play, even if they are only capable of pressing one button. There's a lot of information on accessible gaming at oneswitch.org.uk.

So even by pressing only one button, in Canabalt you can still run across rooftops, and thanks to the wonderful graphic and sound design, the sensation of being "on the run" is brought across wonderfully.  You can really feel the glass as you smash through it, the scrape of the tarmac when you take bad fall, and the flutter of the birds wings when you startle them when running past.

If there's a problem with Canabalt it's that as a small, quick browser game with a heavy randomization component, it tends towards unfairness, with things randomly going wrong all the time. I'd say I've rarely (if ever) felt that dying was my fault, as more often than not you'll die from a fall you could never have seen coming.

But it's almost impossible to not keep coming back. Canabalt is addictive, and a lot of that is to do with the fact it's not just simple to play but incredibly stylish. I don't think I've played a more emotive browser game in ages. Give it a shot here.

[#2]

Very, very addictive