Platformines

A game by Magiko Gaming for PC, originally released in 2014.

As the name implies, Platformines is a cross between a platformer and the now-popular mining sub-genre of action-adventure games. Players set out across a large procedurally generated world to hunt for valuable minerals, destroy monsters, uncover hidden treasures, and even fight off other explorers along the way. Collected resources can be used to increase your life bar, add to your carrying capacity, and increase your firepower… all of which are needed to get back into the mine and fight your way through more dangerous territory and toward greater rewards.

At the start of the game, you are introduced to the character customization screen, allowing you to choose a male or female character, along with different types of hair, facial configuration, and style and color of clothing. Following this is a brief introduction demonstrating environmental navigation, the shop system, and item storage.

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 2014, Magiko Gaming, PC

Platformance: Temple Death

A game by Magiko Gaming for Xbox 360 and WP7, originally released in 2011.

Platformance: Temple Death is a game that is very much like its predecessor, Platformance: Castle Pain, which was also released on the Xbox Live Indie Games channel. Rather than putting out monthly installments as might be expected from a single-level game, a year has passed between these two entries in the series, and this is far from a slapdash effort on the part of Magiko Gaming. That’s probably for the best, because we may have been up to Platformance: Gazebo Hangnail by now.
The basic mechanics are the same, and all of the controls (move, jump, zoom) are spelled out for you on the starting screen. You have a low non-variable jump, no health bar, and you are required to make pixel-perfect movements to avoid loads of insta-death traps that will cause your character to explode humorously into a pixelated blood spray.

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 2011, Magiko Gaming, PC, WP7, XBLIG, Xbox 360

Platformance: Castle Pain

A game by Magiko Gaming for Xbox 360, originally released in 2010.

While some kids spent their off-time in school doodling army men and tanks blowing the hell out of each other with oversized artillery (an act that can actually get you arrested these days… yeesh), some of us were instead drawing out huge imaginary video game levels. Actually, some of us older gamers were sketching out huge Dungeons & Dragons maps… but it’s the same basic idea. We’d toss in all manner of fantastic creatures, sword-wielding skeletons, pits of water full of deadly aquatic life, and towering creatures blocking the way to fortune and glory.
Platformance: Castle Pain basically is that sketch sheet come to life and fully-realized in an actual game world. The world is presented as a singe gigantic level, one which you can zoom out and view all at once, and you’ll actually see the ornate frame holding the whole thing together. The game features 3 levels of zoom, which are toggled with the press of a button, operating in the same manner as Castlevania: Harmony of Despair, which Platformance beat to market by a couple of weeks.

You may need to zoom out to get a look at your surroundings, but often you’ll be too busy with what’s right in front of you to do so. The entire game is going on at all times, with fire rising up from a volcano, spikes constantly jutting out and retracting, and moving platforms sliding back and forth. You can play the game on any zoom level, but the fully zoomed in mode is the one of choice. The second zoom level lets you check out your immediate surroundings, while the fully zoomed out mode lets you see how far along you are in the game as a whole.

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 2010, Magiko Gaming, PC, WP7, XBLIG, Xbox 360