Garage Games have always had a restless quality about them that’s usually worth watching – since coming into being in 2000, they’ve worn (and continue to wear) all manner of hats, including developer of game dev middleware, a casual/indy game publisher, and a development house cranking out their own quirky and fun titles. As a company, they’re clearly excited by the potential of online distribution, and have spent a lot of time looking for ways to streamline the process of putting new players in front of games.
And what do you know, they just might have found it.
InstantAction is just what it says on the tin: all manner of games ready and waiting to be played instantly (barring a couple of minutes to register, of course) via your web browser. The free beta went live last week, offering potential players – or at least those running Windows – a peak at what they can expect from the full service.
As peaks go, there are far worse. InstantAction already offers four games to play either alone or with others:
Cyclomite, Marble Blast Online, Think Tanks, and Screw Jumper.
Cyclomite (single player only for now) is an interesting little puzzler, appearing simple and slow for just long enough to lure you in before whopping you over the head with your ring changing colors and new asteroids being introduced.
Marble Blast Online is the latest evolution of Garage Games’
Marble Blast series, turning things into a slick-looking race against others to collect as many gems as possible before time runs out.
Think Tanks is the early star of the show, putting you on a team of cute and cartoony brain-powered tanks with orders to wipe out the other side before they can do the same to you.
Screw Jumper, sadly, is much like the version that appeared on Xbox Live a little while ago: a good, simple idea, but not much fun in the execution. All in all, not a bad opening lineup, and the soonish addition of Garage Games’ own
Fallen Empires: Legions (along with an as-yet-untitled racing game, and another about aerial dog fighting) should be enough to keep people interested as the service ramps up to the full version.
Emphasis is heavy on multiplayer, and the Beta already comes equipped with in-game text chat, friend’s lists, and the ability to send messages to other players. There’s every indication that the service will run on micropayments, with “ActionTokens” eventually being available for purchase that can be used to unlock new weapons, abilities, maps, and even entire games. If properly balanced it’s a fine idea – people like to get new customization options or gameplay modifiers, but if it turns in to the sort of thing where players can buy a win in a particular game by splashing out on the finest weapons and power-ups, you’re going to isolate a lot of potential players. Garage Games seem to have a pretty good handle on this whole ease-of-use thing, though, so there’s every chance it’ll turn out just fine.
As an idea, InstantAction is a great idea. The graphical quality they’re managing in a web browser is remarkable, as is the thought put into the multiplayer. Each match I jumped into was short and sweet, the sort of thing I could see myself getting online specifically to play or just popping by for a quick round while wandering the internet. And that’s what you want. There are still a few issues to iron out – multiplayer matches currently just sort of end, lacking the sort of satisfaction that makes you want to go again. Niggling details like this are what Beta periods are for, however, and in many ways just the realization of what you’re doing – playing fun, visually impressive games in a Firefox tab – is satisfaction enough.
Filed under: Monday Games
