Dec 122012
 

spirits

Perhaps someone is old enough to remember the original Lemmings game, a puzzle-platformer video game developed by DMA Design and published by Psygnosis in 1991. Originally developed for the Amiga, Lemmings was one of the most popular video games of its era, the basic objective of the game is to guide a group of humanoid lemmings through a number of obstacles to a designated exit. In order to save the required number of lemmings to win, one must determine how to assign a limited number of eight different skills to specific lemmings that allow the selected lemming to alter the landscape, to affect the behavior of other lemmings, or to clear obstacles in order to create a safe passage for the rest of the lemmings.

This gameplay has been reused by many games in these years and today I want to present you the last heir of this big family : Spirits



Gameplay

This is the official presentation of the game:

Autumn is coming. Leaves fall, and spirits rise from the fallen leaves to begin their journey home. You must guide them, without direct control, by changing how the wind blows or by rebuilding the ground. Each spirit can be sacrificed to perform one of four actions – build a bridge of leaves, create a blowing cloud, dig tunnels, or block wind currents in an area. Use your actions wisely or you will run out of spirits.

So at the start of each level you start with a finite number of spirits that usually walk in one direction unless they hit a wall in which they turn tail and head the other way. They also float on wind currents indicated by elegant particle swarms, on each level there is a particular wind current that you must use or block to bring a certain number of spirit to the Vortex that represents the end point of the level.

spirits2

Our spirits can be used to perform four actions:

  • The first allows you to transform a spirit into a cloud that blows wind in a direction of your choice in order to drive the following spirits.
  • The second one turns the spirit into a sphere that has the task of plugging into cracks and areas from which comes the wind that is not useful for your purpose
  • The third allow you turn the spirit into a vines that allows you to create staircases and bridges useful to overcome the obstacles in the level
  • Fourth and final action gives you the ability to mutate into a ball, that turning quickly, dig into the soil, creating tunnels and small galleries.

spirits3

Features

  • Play through 46 beautiful hand-drawn levels in a poetic game world
  • Influence a highly dynamic wind system and dig through destructible level geometry to help the spirits find their way to the swirl
  • Collect hard-to-reach plants and find the perfect solution to each level
  • Stunning illumination effects meet thousand and one particles
  • The computer version of Spirits offers beautifully redrawn hi-res graphics up to 2560×1440 pixels.
  • Orchestral music and sound effects by IGF-nominee Martin Straka
  • Online world ranks for each individual level

How to get the game

the game can be bought directly from the official website for 10$ or from Desura at the same price, and it’s available for Linux, Win, Mac and Android (for around 3$).

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  One Response to “Linux Games: Spirits the modern version of lemmings”

  1. although lemming gameplay has been reused by many games in these years i am aware of only one that did so on linux: pingus ( http://pingus.seul.org/ )

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