Cyberpunk Jam 2014 Highlights: Day One

Cyberpunk Jam 2014 is live, with 100 cyberpunk-themed games submitted so far and counting.

Cyberpunk Jam 2014 is live, with 100 cyberpunk-themed games submitted so far and counting. With inspiration based off a single image, creators can make a game for any platform for submission by March 12th, 12 am PST the latest. Voting will go on from March 12-24th.

This week, IGM will be highlighting a few of our favorites; so stop by and keep checking back for continued coverage!

Sky Hackers puts you in the year 199X, a time when mega-corporations monopolized hundreds of millions of dollars worth of software – and along with it, dangerous security measures. Falling from the rooftop of one of these skyscrapers, the Sky Hacker falls down and downloads valuable software while avoiding detection.

At first glance Sky Hackers is a simple free-fall game in which you stay in green areas long enough to get money, and avoid the red ones. However, most of the green circles are too small, and the hacker will fall through too fast. The trick is to start sliding on the wall as early as possible to slow down the descent. Careful selection of sides with the A and D buttons is key here.

Other than the gameplay, Sky Hackers has a nice backstory and theme to it, as well as a good futuristic-techno beat. I got $2172, but surely you can beat that? Play it here.

This time, it’s a revolution! We take the role of a sniper assisting a saboteur who needs to gather important data to perform the Cybertage . Our friend goes in, but there are sentry bots on the way, and he relies on players to take out the bots.

Aiming the mouse and shooting with a left click, we have to make sure we don’t miss the target. The tiny aiming reticule expands into a small targeting circle when close to a sentry bot.  The author reproduced sniping mechanics very well here – the mouse movement slows a lot, reflecting how precise you need to be in order to hit your target.

Missing the target doesn’t always have disastrous consequences, but you need to be careful when and which bot you shoot. Cybertage is worth a playthrough if only for how well it handles a complicated mechanic in a simplistic medium. Check it out.

How about playing as the evil corporation for a change? Well, in Corporacy , you’re not evil necessarily, but living by the unforgiving market rules.

In this game, you try to get ahead of the competition by raising skyscrapers. Onscreen indicators display arrows from time to time – which equate to opportunities to build something of varying quality. You click and drag up, actively selecting how tall the tower should be, and then designate whether it should be for “Accommodations”, or something else. Options open up, letting you create casinos, shopping malls, etc., and the more diverse, the higher your star rating.

The goal is simple: To make as much dough as possible within the time limit. So far, Corporacy needs to refine the goal a bit – there’s no genuine sense of competition as you compete against computer opponents you don’t have to outscore – and the interface could use some tightening, but it’s a work progress that the author intends to port to Android as well. Play it now here.

Update: To check out the full list of Cyberpunk Jam entrants, and find favorites of your own, visit here.

Image credit: Filipe Andrade, via lightamplification.tumblr.com