Canabalt

Play online | Put it on your iPhone for $3

Canabalt really just needs to be experienced, but I’ll try and describe it anyway. Your city is being decimated, and you have to escape. See how far you can get as you bound your way to freedom in the parkour platformer. For a game that takes only one finger to play, I almost hate to admit how much time I’ve spent jumping from rooftop to rooftop, crashing through plate glass and scrambling to avoid the falling engines. Play this one with speakers up or headphones on.

Play more games by Adam Saltsman

More games after the jump.

Dino Run

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Speaking of avoiding the doom in a panic, check out this slightly more colorful sidescroller. The guys from PixelJam know how to have fun with their games. Keep your raptor out of the wake of the death-bringing meteor impact. Keep your pace up by avoiding your fellow dinos and collect mysterious power-ups to help you along your way. Pick up lost eggs and be rewarded with point you can put towards performance upgrades. I give this one big points the drama in a very serene environment.

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Understanding Games / Black Forrest

Play Understanding Games online

As a theme for these Lunch Break Gaming articles, I hope I’ve encouraged you to take inspiration from your downtime. I’m a fan of how games, as a whole, work. Not so much the nuts and bolts, but what draws us to them, why we consider them “fun” and what makes them worth playing again and again. The episodic series of Understanding Games ask questions about learning in games and how we identify with computer generated characters while you interact with them. Join Bob and Bub as they break down the forth-wall and pull you into what makes a game successful.

Play The Black Forrest online

Also from Pixlate, a series of experimental mini-games presented with limited explanation and varying mechanics between them. Pilot your little ghost friend around these worlds and notice how your experience changes as the way the games are played changes.

Small Worlds

Play Small Worlds online

Lastly, and in the vein of experimental “art games”, try out Small Worlds. This entry into the Casual Gameplay Design Competition #6 by David Shute has become very popular with its simplistic style and worlds that make you want to explore every pixel in them, literally. Not bad for a game whose protagonist is only 3 points tall. This game adds a little extra texture, but that, along with the soundtrack, just helps you get wrapped up in poking around these little alternate dimensions.

For more pixel art games, try Nitrome, it’s their specialty. Share your own favorites in the comments.

Yes, this is a screenshot of the game I propose you take your lunch break playing, and yes I realize its a cartoon gentleman in the nude on a bicycle, just hang in there with me.

Icycle, from game designer Damp Gnat, puts you in the world of the last successful human to be cryogenically frozen before the world became flash frozen in quiet desolation. Or is he?

I realize this is the second post to feature a game and a game that features a lonely protagonist in a world at a stand still, but it’s mostly a coincidence, if you conciser I work out of my home. But the visuals are lovely and it a great bit of storytelling in this vectorized treat. A nice use of textures, visual cues and sound gags to ensure the game never gets dull, even after you die for the 70th time. Perfect for a little lunch time inspiration.

Play Icycle here, or view a trailer after the jump.

It’s called Little Wheel from Slavic game designer OneClickDog. The premise is simple. You’re a robot, the last of your kind on a lonely planet and it’s your job to restore the power to get the planet moving again after 10,000 years of hibernation. Think Wall-E with less space travel and more Victorian tones.

It’s a pretty little game. Perfect duration for a lunch break. It’s stemming the tide until I can get my hands on the new Monkey Island episodes/Special Edition.

Play it at Fast Games or watch a walkthrough video after the jump.