Lithium Leaf

Link: http://www.16x16.org/2008/06/03/rescue-the-beagles-public-beta-is-out/

Nenad Jalsovec (AKA 16x16) has released a public beta of his new game, Rescue: The Beagles. Rescue: The Beagles is a platformer created for the TIGSource Procedual Generation Competition. The music is by Rich Vreeland and Aesqe. Due to the nature of the competition, the levels are randomly generated in the game.

The gameplay is simple: rescue the beagles and the beagle puppies while avoiding or taking down enemies (with OWLS). It differs from standard platformers in that you cannot survive a big fall, actually the falls you can survive are quite low, and you cannot jump too high, either. But to aid you you have parachutes and ropes, these activate while in mid-air. If you press up in mid-air you will throw a rope and escalate upwards. If you press down in mid-air you will open a parachute that will slow you down and save you from big falls. However you have a limited supply of both of these, so you have to pick up more, and try to find places in the terrain where you don't need to use items to move to avoid running out of them. The aim in each stage is to rescue a set number of beagles, if one of them leaves the screen unrescued, you loose a life.

Although I have explained half the control scheme already, there are a few things left to mention: you move with the arrow keys, up to jump and down to climb down. Space shoots owls (if you have them, you have to pick them up).

The game tells the story of three elite animal rights activists. They are to rescue the beagles that scaped from a crashed cargo airplane. The beagles were going to be the test subjects for a toxic red lip balm. The evil scientist are trying to get the beagles back to the Lab as well, and it's your job to save them.

I speacially enjoyed when, I got a few levels in, a scientist appeared saying: "doggieeee...." in a creepy voice. Edit: Edited to fix my bad grammar and because I've learned that the scientist is named Vivisector and is voiced by Aesqe. Nice creepy voice, man.

As you can see from the screenshots, the graphics are just superb. Sure, my opinion is biased due to my own personal taste. But I think the feeling they convey is great. Plus it's cute.

For detailed info on the game. Visit the topic at TIGSource Forums.

Go download the beta.

Source: Tim via the IndieGames Blog

Also, on a related notice, the TIGSource Procedual Generation Compo's final deadline was yesterday, June 2nd. But according to Derek, he is willing to take in late entries (probably not too late).

I suggest you take a look at all the entires, a lot of the games are finished and look awesome. Unfortunately, I don't have as much time in my hands as I'd like.