De Blob

As an inspirational story charting the success of an indie video game project, it's hard to beat De Blob. The original PC version was created in just four months by a team of less than ten students at a Dutch university. Now, a console port is widely available with a sequel on its way. Its easy to see why this title was snapped up and  turned into a blossoming franchise, since the project that started it all was published as freeware and remains active for download today.

De Blob has a streamlined plot: you play as an amorphous alien shortly after crash-landing right in the middle of the city of Utrecht. Worryingly, the city is bland and washed out, with the buildings appearing as pale blank canvases. Faceless government drones scuttle through the streets, absorbing the colourful inks from the world to further their nefarious schemes. As the Blob, it's your mission to reclaim the colours into yourself, making your whole body a giant rolling paintbrush and applying inks onto the buildings and other surroundings with a simple touch.

Picking up citizens of Utrecht gives you various primary colours to work with, while picking up groups of people results in new shades. Grab too many, and you'll eventually end up with a muddy brown mix. Alternatively, absorb one of the evil G-Men and your body will turn jet black, rendering you useless and forcing you to locate a river or fountain to purge yourself of the taint. Points are scored by painting buildings, as well as other objects such as trees and billboards. Bonuses occur when city blocks are fully painted, or when key landmarks - all modeled on the real city - are recoloured to their original state. As an added twist, certain locations can only be reached through a series of careful ramps and jumps: deceptively difficult when dealing with the physics of a rolling blob.

For a game made to such incredible time constraints on zero budget, the technical side of De Blob is astounding. Graphics are simple, but not overly so, and indeed would look right at home on the Nintendo Wii (probably not by coincidence since the console claimed the rights to the franchise shortly after release). The colours are the star of the show and are just as bright and vibrant as you would expect. There are neat little touches everywhere, such as how the Blob leaks ink wherever he/she/it rolls, leaving a permanent trail on the streets. Aesthetically it's a good effort, but it also serves as a trail marker of sorts, indicating which areas of the city you've yet to explore.

The controls are, initially, a bit of a hurdle to overcome, especially for players eager to dive right in and begin splashing colours around. The Blob rolls around according to momentum, so stopping him is much harder than getting him started. It can also make some of the sections of the game frustrating when the Blob misses a ramp and rolls off a rooftop for the fifth time. However, this is not an intensive game. It does not take long to adjust to the mechanics and it's easy to continue playing once you've begun. Players that like having objectives and goals might be deterred though; when a game is quite literally a blank canvas there is very little direction and no concrete achievement to speak of other than gaining points. The game can be completed with no more than an hour or two of dedicated play, after which it's a matter of starting all over again with a new, blank map. This naturally limits the lifespan of the title, but considering it was only created as a school project it hardly seems fair to berate it for lacking the shelf life of Skyrim.

De Blob is a masterclass on how original gameplay and unconventional thinking can result in a simple yet highly playable title that not only stands up on its own, but also forms the basis for a growing franchise. To try De Blob yourself and see where this quirky, colourful adventure began, you can download it here for free.