Shiny – PAX East 2016 Hands-On Preview

<p><em>Shiny<&sol;em>&comma; the first title from Brazilian based Garage 227 Studios&comma; is an adorable cross between <em>WALL-E<&sol;em> and <em>Oddworld<&sol;em>&period; Set on a world facing eminent annihilation as it hurls towards the sun&comma; this 2D action platformer tells the story of the junk robots that were created to build the humans&&num;8217&semi; escape craft only to then be abandoned on the planet surface by their dep arting human creators&period; Despite the bleak situation&comma; <em>Shiny<&sol;em> is a hopeful game focused on helping others&period; It features no killing or combat of any kind&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s a game about compassion&comma; sacrifice&comma; and humanity&comma; without humans&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><img class&equals;"aligncenter size-large wp-image-105428" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;04&sol;03184038&sol;05-1-1024x576&period;jpg" alt&equals;"05" width&equals;"1024" height&equals;"576" &sol;><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>According to Co-Founder Daniel Monastero&comma; <em>Shiny<&sol;em>&&num;8216&semi;s similarities to the <em>Oddworld<&sol;em> series is no coincidence&period; &&num;8220&semi;We even called up the man himself&comma; Lorne Lanning&comma; over Skype&excl; He gave us lots of pointers and advice&period;&&num;8221&semi; said Daniel&period; Instead of an <em>Oddworld<&sol;em>’s Mudokons&comma; in <em>Shiny<&sol;em>&comma; you play as Kramer&comma; a junk robot that awakens moments after the ungrateful humans hightail it off the planet&period; Instead of wallowing in mechanical self-pity&comma; you explore the non-linear levels&comma; gathering batteries and helping disabled robots in order to help build yet another ship to leave the planet&period; Helping others is completely optional&comma; but selfishness will inevitably bite you in your shiny metal ass when you get to the end of the game and aren&&num;8217&semi;t able to finish your ship&period; Luckily&comma; you&&num;8217&semi;ll be able to go back to replay levels&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><img class&equals;"aligncenter size-large wp-image-105431" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;04&sol;03183942&sol;015-1024x576&period;jpg" alt&equals;"015" width&equals;"1024" height&equals;"576" &sol;><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Your life meter doubles as your energy meter and performing any action depletes it&comma; with bigger actions&comma; such as activating robots&comma; taking damage&comma; or using power ups depleting it much faster&period; Generators found around the maps act as checkpoints&comma; both for respawning&comma; and an energy source to refill recharge yourself&period; Each generator has a certain number of available charges&comma; which are used up when activating the generator&comma; respawning&comma; or just siphoning off some juice to recharge your batteries&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><img class&equals;"aligncenter size-large wp-image-105429" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;04&sol;03184020&sol;06-1024x576&period;jpg" alt&equals;"06" width&equals;"1024" height&equals;"576" &sol;><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The platforming controls are very straightforward and &&num;8220&semi;old-school&comma;&&num;8221&semi; with no fancy ledge-grabbing or climbing&period; Some of the power-ups&comma; like the jet-pack do allow for a further range of motion and exploration&comma; but are not usable until they are acquired well into the game&comma; past the first two levels I managed to play&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><iframe src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;youtube&period;com&sol;embed&sol;nRQP6XAGX8Q" width&equals;"560" height&equals;"315" frameborder&equals;"0" allowfullscreen&equals;"allowfullscreen"><&sol;iframe><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Shiny<&sol;em> is pretty much finished as far as development goes and now just needs to be polished&comma; balanced and beta tested&period; Greenlit on Steam in 2014&comma; the game will launch on PC shortly after E3&comma; with an Xbox version soon after&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;