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Steph Thirion, creator of Eliss, annouces Faraway

Steph Thirion is an excellent game designer who I've had the good fortune to meet a few times. He first released a great game called Eliss on the App Store and he's now announced the second game he's been working on, called Faraway. Eliss was a terrific little arcade game that made great use of the iPhone's touchscreen, and Thirion says that while his first game dealt with "planets and space management in sectors, Faraway will be about constellations and infinite space travel." Sounds exciting. The game will be playable at GDC this week, so I'll definitely make time to run by and check it out.

Thirion has also announced a new company to represent and sell his iPhone games, and he's calling it LITTLE--EYES. It's really great to see a very smart, independent developer come into his own like on a platform like the iPhone -- there's really no other mainstream gaming platform out there that lets developers really jump in headfirst and release experimental games like these to a a mainstream market. We'll keep an eye out at GDC this week for all kinds of indie developers making it big. While it's cool that Valve and other larger companies are finally coming around, we have to be sure not to forget developers like this either.

Steph Thirion is an excellent game designer who I've had the good fortune to meet a few times. He first released a great game called Eliss...
 

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ADT2

I'd love to see some actual written instructions. I purchased this game based on a review somewhere, and I've never been able to actually understand what the hell is going on. The old-timey pixelated help screens are groovy and all, but they don't exactly explain the game very well.

March 09 2010 at 8:19 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
D675

I'd love to see an iPad version of Eliss. Imagine the same awesome game with so much more screen space. :)

March 09 2010 at 6:32 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
g_tex_im

Any news on an update to Eliss? I've got perfect in every level and have got a message that says I've found a door and an "update draws nigh." I would LOVE more of that game - easily my favourite on the iPhone.

Either way, looking forward to Faraway

March 08 2010 at 11:47 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
2 replies to g_tex_im's comment
David Lawrence

what's your strategy for level 15? I've been stuck there for months! Great game, looking forward to what he does next.

March 09 2010 at 12:02 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Kevlar

The problem with Eliss is that the game is TOO random. There's more chance than any amount of skill could counter.

The path of the "sun", the spawn points of the planets & black holes, are all randomized. You could have a perfect round where everything works, and the next level everything falls apart, just because of the randomizer.

So good luck with that. I gave up after too many randomly bad runs, and nobody will blame you if you do the same. It's like gambling.

March 09 2010 at 5:50 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Mathieu A.

No platform, except the PC, where everyone can release what they want, or the 360, with it's Indie program.

March 08 2010 at 11:18 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Panda

Isn't it Steph Thirion, as indicated in the picture?

March 08 2010 at 10:57 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Leo M.

Awesome! Can't wait to see what he has in store for us.

Keep us updated, Mike (please) :)

March 08 2010 at 10:56 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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