The film focuses on six game designers from around the world. The countries they hail from run the gamut from game design hotspots like Japan and the United States, to the lesser known burgeoning industries of Chile and Ghana. Industry heavyweights like Mark Healey, Robin Hunicke and Tetsuya Mizuguchi will sit down and talk about the process of ideas generation and how they go about refining these initial seeds into the games that reach our screens.

This ambitious project stretches beyond just the documentary, however. Each of the interviewed creators will supply an idea – be it a character sketch, music, or abstract concept – to be taken in hand by one of six game design teams in France. Each team will then create a unique game within 48 hours with this idea at its heart. Anyone with game design can apply to be part of this game jam on the Pixel Heart website.

The final stretch goal of the project is a travelling exhibit to accompany the documentary and game releases. Six additional games will be developed exclusively for the exhibit. These games will be of a more experimental nature and are intended to showcase games’ abilities to push boundaries through creative application using hardware like the Oculus Rift.

The project is being crowd-funded through Ulele, similar to Kickstarter. Check out the promotional trailer below, then head on over to the project’s official website to read more and see the stretch goals and rewards.

© 2014, The Indie Mine. All rights reserved.

Game jams are wonderful. Some of these quick-fire projects have even gone on to become super popular indie games like the frantic Surgeon Simulator 2013. It’s no surprise then that there is currently one such event happening right now,

The Walking Dead: All Out War Game Jam is one such event, and hopeful candidates have spent the better part of this year building their entries for the occasion. Unlike the frantic 24 hour blitz some jams go for, this one has allowed the developers more time to flesh out their ideas before the final cut off date earlier this month.

So what was the theme? All out war of course! Games weren’t necessarily restricted to zombies either, despite the host’s main theme. 10 winners will be chosen in the coming days, each earning a full Unity Pro license (That’s $1500 by the way), a Steam Greenlight key, special The Walking Dead goodies and featured spots on both TheWalkingDead.com & Eurogamer. The number one pick will also receive the official endorsement of Robert Kirkman, creator of the The Walking Dead series.

In light of the event, I trawled through a number of entries to pick out my 5 favourite hopeful submissions, some were impressive displays of indie talent, and others were just so crazy I couldn’t stop myself from including them.

5.  The Narrow Path

I can’t quite make out what these things are, spewing from the camper van. If they’re zombies that learned to drive, then all hope is lost. The developer lists this as a roguelike, and the art style was just fancy enough to warrant a closer look. Plus, there’s a dog that goes around eating up all the corpses.

4. Remember The Fallen

Remember the Fallen has a slick minimalist aesthetic, and the subject matter takes a more serious and emotional look at ‘All out war’. The player must search the ruined homes in the area to find several flowers, which need to be placed on the graves of fallen soldiers.

3. Dog In A Mech

It’s a dog. It has to drive a mech. I don’t need to say anything else. Seriously.

2. Don’t Make Me Turn This Car Around

This is a genius take on ‘All out war’. Here you test your patience as you wage war on the increasingly aggravating children sitting in the backseat of your car. This seems to be a strange blend of Desert Bus and Oregon Trail, where staving off monotony meets micromanaging the resources (or in this case, snacks and bladder capacity of your passengers) play key elements in the gameplay.

1. Black Death

Sword, crossbows and the medieval time period combine to make this action packed zombie slasher catch my eye. There are even explosive barrels!

© 2013, The Indie Mine. All rights reserved.