Icarus (Benjamin Clarke, Keaton Johnson, Natalie Stowell, Foster Wattles)

left and right to move
tap space to flap your wings
hold space to glide – [Author’s description]

[Play Online (Flash)]

12 Comments.

  1. I liked this one a lot. In case people don’t have the patience, there are indeed three little hidden thingies to find (although unless I missed it, there’s not much of an ending other than getting to flap around the world some more).

    • I really like the slow reveal of new things while remaining in the same space. And the flapping movement has a degree more physicality than just 1:1 jumping.

      • I should say that I like the non-ending — do everything you’re supposed to do and your dad is still only interested in pushing you off a cliff. #realism

        • More than that– if I didn’t misunderstand something, it seemed like if you collect all three items then return home, “dad” *steals the items* and then pushes you off the cliff :O

        • More than that– if I didn’t misunderstand something, it seemed like if you collect all three items then return home, “dad” *steals the items* and then pushes you off the cliff :O

  2. Ohh man, this game has one of the best mechanics (or “gimmicks”) I’ve seen in a platformer for months. And it is easy enough to find in this game a commentary on the indie gaming scene.

    • What commentary would that be?

      • That sometimes something that seems simple contains great depth. Many games in the indie scene that have depth are really just explorations of the implications of a simple mechanic or a simple variation on an established genre. Analogously, there is complexity and detail “behind” the simple graphics in this game.

        Further, in this game, figuring out the mechanics of the “halo” is also to reveal more of the world in which the game is set (or at least one world in which it is set). But in many games, there is a strong sense in which the “world” you explore just is the mechanics of the game and their implications. So this game brings together two senses of exploration – exploring a world-as-setting and exploring a world-as-mechanical-implication. It confronts us with the similarity between these senses.

        • Yeah! Great analysis! One of the greatest things in a game is experimenting with the total newness of the world, the completely fabricated scape which should signify that anything can be encountered–yet so often we encounter only the familiar.

  3. Yeah I didn’t mind this one at all.

  4. “Screw you, Dad!” the game. Pretty good though.