A platform game is a sub-genre of action video games in which the core objective is to move the player character between points in an environment. Platform games are characterized by levels that consist of uneven terrain and suspended platforms of varying height that require jumping and climbing to traverse. Other acrobatic maneuvers may factor into the gameplay, such as swinging from vines or grappling hooks, jumping off walls, air dashing, gliding through the air, being shot from cannons, or bouncing from springboards or trampolines. Games where jumping is automated completely, such as 3D games in The Legend of Zelda series, fall outside of the genre.
Double Fine Productions, Inc. is an American first-party video game developer of Xbox Game Studios based in San Francisco, California. Founded in July 2000 by Tim Schafer shortly after his departure from LucasArts, Double Fine's first two games – Psychonauts and Brütal Legend – underperformed publishers' expectations despite critical praise. The future of the company was assured when Schafer turned to several in-house prototypes built during a two-week period known as "Amnesia Fortnight" to expand as smaller titles, all of which were licensed through publishers and met with commercial success. Schafer has since repeated these Amnesia Fortnights, using fan-voting mechanics, to help select and build smaller titles. Double Fine is also credited with driving interest in crowdfunding in video games, having been able to raise more than US$3 million for the development of Broken Age, at the time one of the largest projects funded by Kickstarter, and more than US$3 million for the development of Psychonauts 2.
Double Fine Comics is a webcomics collective supported by Double Fine Productions. Each comic varies in style and tone, but they all reflect the eclectic humor found in the Double-Fine produced game Psychonauts. The webcomics were published in Adobe Flash format on the company website under the heading 'Comics'.
Jay Is Games is a game review website that features daily updates and links to casual games, indie games, browser games and flash games of wide interest to casual gamers. It was founded on April 19, 2003 by Jay Bibby, initially as a personal blog, although it later had several contributors.
Mystery Case Files is a video game series originally developed by the internal studios of Big Fish Games. Some installments were developed by Eipix Entertainment between 2015 and 2019 and Elephant Games who developed sequels from 2013 to 2014. The newest installments were developed by GrandMA Studios. The Mystery Case Files series is known for its hidden object puzzles where, in order to progress through a game, the player plays the role of a Master Detective and must find a certain number of items hidden somewhere on a painted scene.
Dream Chronicles is a 2007 adventure, hidden object, and puzzle casual game developed by KatGames and published by PlayFirst. It is the first installment in the series.
Boomzap Entertainment is a casual games developer registered in Singapore with a virtual office environment. It was formed in 2005 and has released 50 games to date that are ported on various platforms. Boomzap has developed for Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Nintendo DS, Wii, iOS, and Android. Its games are available on games portals such as Big Fish Games, Yahoo!, WildTangent, GameHouse, Google Play, Amazon, iTunes, Steam and others.
Super Mario Bros. Crossover is a fan-made crossover platform Flash video game launched on Newgrounds on April 27, 2010 by Exploding Rabbit. It is based mostly on the gameplay of Nintendo's Super Mario Bros. for the NES. The only major difference is the ability to control characters that debuted in other Nintendo Entertainment System games unrelated to the Mario series, plus the ability to use "skins" of levels and characters from other games and platforms. The latest version available (3.1.21) was released on December 27, 2013.
Costume Quest is a party-based role-playing video game developed by Double Fine Productions and published by THQ on October 19, 2010. In the game, the player controls a child who is trick-or-treating with their twin on Halloween night when they encounter a monster that kidnaps their sibling. The player must travel around the local neighborhood collecting items for their costume, candy, and fellow children as companions in order to face the leader of the monsters and rescue their sibling. The costume aspects are used in turn-based battle segments, where the player character and companions are transformed into whatever they are dressed as to fight other monsters; the costume aspects are also used for abilities outside of battles.
Stacking is an adventure puzzle video game developed by Double Fine Productions and published by THQ; like Double Fine's previous Costume Quest, it is a smaller title created during the development period of Brütal Legend, and was released in February 2011 for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 video game consoles. A Windows version was released on March 6, 2012. A Linux version was released in May 2013.
Tasha Sounart is an American animator, artist, video game designer, and writer. She was the designer of Double Fine's adventure RPG Costume Quest. She is currently an Associate Creative Director of Theme Parks at Pixar.
Klint Honeychurch is an American graphic designer, video game designer, programmer, and writer. He designed Double Fine's free Adobe Flash games: the graphic adventure Host Master and the Conquest of Humor, sports game parody My Game About Me: Olympic Challenge, puzzle-platform game Tasha's Game, and fighting game Epic Saga: Extreme Fighter.
My Game About Me: Olympic Challenge is a free Flash sports game parody, designed by Klint Honeychurch with art by Nathan Stapley. The game was published by Double Fine Productions, and was originally playable on their website.
The Cave is a puzzle-platform, adventure game developed by Double Fine Productions and published by Sega in January 2013 on the PlayStation Network, Nintendo eShop and Xbox Live Arcade storefronts via the PlayStation 3, Wii U and Xbox 360 consoles and on Steam for Microsoft Windows, OS X and Linux. It was later released on October 3, 2013 on iOS devices, and on December 2, 2013 on the Ouya.
Kinect Party is the sequel to Double Fine Happy Action Theater, Double Fine's Kinect motion-sensing based casual video game for the Xbox 360. It was published by Microsoft in 2012. It was tentatively titled Double Fine Happy Action TV, before the game's final name was announced when the game was announced at PAX Prime 2012. The game was released on December 17, 2012. The game was delayed in Australia and New Zealand. It was added to the Xbox store for this region on March 29, 2013.
140 is a platform game independently developed by Jeppe Carlsen, known for his gameplay direction for Playdead's Limbo. The game is described as a "minimalistic platformer", using electronic music to create synesthesia as the player makes their way through four different levels, each with its own sound-track. The game-play has been compared to other similar games which involve music synchronization like Sound Shapes and the Bit.Trip series, though with difficult platforming elements comparable to games in the Mega Man series. The game was released on Microsoft Windows, OS X, and Linux systems in October 2013, on Xbox One in August 2016, on PlayStation 4, Wii U in September 2016, and Nintendo Switch in January 2020. A release on PlayStation Vita and Nintendo 3DS was planned, but later cancelled.
Host Master Deux: Quest for Identity is the sequel to Host Master and the Conquest of Humor. It is a free Flash Adventure platformer, created Benedikt Hummel and Marius Fietzek, and starring game developer Tim Schafer. The game was published by Double Fine Productions, of which Schafer is president, and was originally playable on their website.
Amnesia Fortnight 2012 is a bundle of prototypes made during a two-week public prototyping session in 2012 by Double Fine Productions, which was held in conjunction with the Humble Bundle group in 2012. Everyone that paid a minimum of $1 had the opportunity to vote on 23 concept ideas. After the completion of the voting period, Double Fine developed the top five voted ideas into game prototypes that became available to those that purchased the bundle after they were completed. There were also three bonus prototypes included, including two from the first Amnesia Fortnight that were made into commercial games, and one prototype from the previous year's Amnesia Fortnight that hadn't been released to the public before that point. 2 Player Productions filmed a documentary about the making of the prototypes, which was included with purchase of the bundle. Amnesia Fortnight 2012 was later released on physical media as part of a special edition bundle.
Homescapes is a casual free-to-play puzzle game. It was developed and launched by Playrix in 2017 as a successor to their 2016 match-3 game, Gardenscapes. The storyline narrates about attempts of the game's protagonist, Austin the Butler, to restore his childhood home. The game is available on Apple's App Store for iOS and macOS, and also on Android via Google Play, Amazon Appstore, or Huawei AppGallery. It is also available for Windows on the Microsoft Store.
