LittleBear
says: An honest brew makes its own friends.
12.04.06
CG_01 Beta
I mentioned CG_01 awhile back in this post. I know that Tim at Independent Gaming has been following the progress as well. Good news arrived in the form of an email this morning from Charlie of Charlie’s Games. A beta of CG_01 is available now for both Mac and Windows.
The game is an arena shooter, a very popular genre these days due to the popularity of Geometry Wars. I’m not against clones of games myself, and I’ve enjoyed the “clones” and “near-clones” of Geometry Wars very much. But CG_01 is not such a clone. It was in development long before the latest XBox Live craze came out, and seems to take more of it’s inspiration from Mutant Storm and Robotron more than anything.
The strength of the arena shooter genre, or perhaps its appeal to developers, is the flexibility provided. I look at it as a “testing ground” of sorts for experimenting with 3D effects, interesting enemies, and bullet patterns. In fact, one of my own projects, Relentless Automata, is just such a skunkworks.
CG_01 is visually very impressive, and still incredibly fast despite all the eye-candy. Gameplay is simple, shoot everything that moves, or doesn’t move, collect gold to increase your bonus multiplier and collect powerups. There are some very tricky characters, even in the first 10-15 levels, with bullets flying everywhere. I particularily like one enemy that tends to get in the way… absorbing all your shots that should be hitting the more important target behind it.
The game is also very professionally packaged. Time has obviously been spent on the level design complete with bosses, the menu system, the game options and customizing them, and the excellent soundtrack. Control is either by keyboard/mouse or dual analog sticks. I really need to get a USB adaptor for my Dual Shock.
I received a hint to expect the full version out in a week or two. Give the beta a try now and give Charlie some feedback. You won’t be disappointed, I’m having a lot of fun with this game.
