4/27/23

A few Minecraft enemies in the style of ilomilo

9/17/19

An old Wormflyer doodle

Breaking News!!!

After several years of wondering where the plushie versions of ilo & milo ended up (or if they even still existed), we finally have an answer...

They're still together!

"After southend closed down, @/sidebjorn took them home." -@/simogo on Twitter

There's also a framed drawing that can be seen in the game under "train concepts"

(Anyway, this is very cool to see & Thanks again to Björn & Simogo for responding!)

a couple more old ilomilo doodles!

(Disclaimer: This post is not my own. This is a repost from the official ilomilo developers on blog.ilomilo.com (only accessible on the wayback machine)!)

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Kotaku and Giant bomb plays some ilomilo

Friday, September 10th, 2010

Another ilomilo article from Pax! This time from Kotaku.

“Giant Bomb’s Brad Shoemaker and I each took an Xbox 360 controller in hand at the Microsoft booth at PAX East and tried our best to understand Ilomilo, a puzzle game involving two characters who need to walk across tricky terrain in order to stand next to each other.”

Read more

[Pasting below for easy reading!]

Ilomilo (first letter is an "i", second an "L") is great to look at. But how do you play this game about two cube-people needing to meet? Maybe let a Kotaku guy and a Giant Bomb guy play, sans directions.

On second thought, maybe that's not how you do it.

Giant Bomb's Brad Shoemaker and I each took an Xbox 360 controller in hand at the Microsoft booth at PAX East and tried our best to understand Ilomilo, a puzzle game involving two characters who need to walk across tricky terrain in order to stand next to each other.

Brad and I were bravely trying this new upcoming Xbox Live Arcade game. Our first discovery: we would be taking turns. We could each move one of the cube people, but when I had control and could move, he could not. It seemed that we were playing a cooperative game, but we could not move at the same time. When I had control, my cube guy was front and center. Brad could only control a cursor version of his guy. With that cursor he could highlight areas of interest, but not control his guy. When I pressed a button, Brad had control.

We figured out that we needed to get our cube people to stand on adjacent cubes in each of Ilomilo's dreamy floating environments. In the early levels, this was too easy. My guy trotted over. His guy hit a switch to pull my guy over. They met. We won.

Ilomilo has many tutorial levels. These levels teach you that some blocks can be picked up from the game world and transported on your back until you put them down again. This important action allows you to create bridges where there once were gaps. You can also walk on small ramps that rotate the world and turn what were the sides of the game's floating platforms into the new bottom of the terrain. Brad would do this, flipping the camera view, while my cube guy waited, dangling but not falling off. Without much effort, we met again.

The game was too easy, so Brad and I backed out to the game's level selection screen and skipped a couple dozen levels ahead. Mistake. On this new level, our guys were very far apart. There were bubbles coming out of vents on some of the blocks. One of the blocks I picked up and placed back down became three cubes long when I put it down. Except sometimes it was back to being just one cube long. I bridged a couple of gaps and wound up with my guy on a high perch. He was stuck. Brad spun the level by walking his guy up some ramps. He was spinning the camera enough to make me feel unwell. It no longer seemed wise to have skipped the rest of the tutorial levels.

I beckoned an official who was working the PAX Microsoft booth. He explained the expanding blocks to us. We asked him about the whole taking-turns thing and wondered whether the second player really could only control a cursor while the other player moved around. The man looked confused. Cursor? I guess he skipped most of the tutorial as well.

Brad and I each had other games to play. So we dissolved our brief partnership. He went off to play other games. I stood behind one last second to ponder Ilomilo. Looks great. Doesn't seem like it needs to be played by two people to be enjoyed. Probably ramps up in difficulty better if you, well, ride up that ramp and don't jump ahead. It's a puzzle game at its core, for people who like staring at a complicated game level and figuring out which switches need to be pushed, which gaps spanned in order to be solved. Give me and Brad more than a few minutes of Ilomilo play time sans directions and I'm sure we could be masters.

(Disclaimer: This post is not my own. This is a repost from the official ilomilo developers on blog.ilomilo.com (only accessible on the wayback machine)!)

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Thunderbolt preview

Wednesday, September 8th, 2010

Thunderbolt stumbled upon ilomilo at PAX and wrote a neat preview of it.

“Admittedly iloimilo was already somewhat on my radar before checking it out at PAX, but seeing it in motion really drew me into playing it. At this stage it’s beautiful, fun and remarkably intuitive to play, simply put, it was the most fun I had with a title at PAX this year. ilomilo drops into XBLA – as well as our hearts – later this year.”

Read full preview

[NOTE FROM TESS: Pasting below for easy reading!]

ilomilo is based on the simple premise of separation and reunion. The title characters start each and every stage separated and the goal is to reunite the pair, on adjacent tiles. Of course the reunion is easier said than done, as both ilo and milo need to be utilized in conjunction to facilitate the progress of one another.

During my time at the Microsoft booth I was able to run through ilomilo’s four tutorial stages and a pair of the earliest levels. Prominently featured in the tutorials and even in the actual levels was the Napoleon-like Sebastian, who has a house in apparently every stage that looks like a cube with a lamp on top. Strolling over his residence triggers Napoleon to fly out of his geometric abode aboard something eerily similar to a Catbus. Sebastian provides background and at least at this early stage in the game alerts the player about the various mechanics of ilomilo. Amusingly his dialogue is voiced in a sort of gibberish, which I have a soft spot for thanks to games like Klonoa and Okami.

The most important core mechanic of ilomilo is the ability to switch between the two at any point. Whenever I wasn’t immediately sure what to do next it became very natural to quickly switch characters and see if a puzzle made sense from a different place in the level. Having this alternate, but necessary perspective seems like the perfect way to alleviate some of the frustration one feels when they run into a puzzle they can’t solve. If you can’t see the solution as ilo then try milo, maybe there’s something totally different with the other character that needs to be done first.

During my time with the game I got to see blocks that could be deployed to create platforms and bridges, a block that would have a monster jump out to block your way and magic carpets that allowed you to walk on certain walls. Playing with the deploy piece was intuitive as it allowed one character to create bridges either for themselves or the other. The carpets served as an early introduction to the somewhat mind bending nature of the puzzler, as many surfaces can be walked upon during certain levels and chances are if you’re allowed to there’s good reason for it. A good example is the monster block, if ilo is adjacent to it, it will pop up to impede his way. If you leave ilo there, the monster will remain out, allowing milo to pass by the same cube on one of its other three traversable surfaces. Admittedly it’s quite straightforward, but there’s something elegant about the simplicity.

Some people might be turned off by ilomilo’s adorable design but the whole presentation is absolutely refreshing and was the main draw for me in the first place. The game has a surreal feel and looks truly unique, which is saying something based on the wealth of originality seen in the downloadable space. The closest comparison I can make is it has a sort of hand crafted quality to it, which is somewhat reminiscent of LittleBigPlanet. Thankfully the setup was fitted with a pair of nice headphones too and I can say the sound design really compliments the quirky puzzler.

Admittedly iloimilo was already somewhat on my radar before checking it out at PAX, but seeing it in motion really drew me into playing it. At this stage it’s beautiful, fun and remarkably intuitive to play, simply put, it was the most fun I had with a title at PAX this year. ilomilo drops into XBLA – as well as our hearts - later this year.

(Disclaimer: This post is not my own. This is a repost from the official ilomilo developers on blog.ilomilo.com (only accessible on the wayback machine)!)

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ilomilo at the Penny Arcade Expo

Monday, September 6th, 2010

IGN and 4playerpodcast played some ilomilo at the Penny Arcade Expo and here’s what they had to say about it:

“This gorgeous-looking puzzle game caught the eye of several bystanders while I sat by the kiosk, dragging them away from the more prominent Microsoft games so they can find out what the hell this adorable looking game is all about.” -IGN

Read full preview 

[NOTE FROM TESS: Pasting below as well for easy reading!]

While most of what Microsoft had at PAX was available to IGN earlier, they did have one small surprise: a playable demo of the upcoming XBLA/Windows Phone 7 game Ilomilo. This gorgeous-looking puzzle game caught the eye of several bystanders while I sat by the kiosk, dragging them away from the more prominent Microsoft games so they can find out what the hell this adorable looking game is all about.

The short answer is that Ilomilo is a puzzle game. The longer answer is that its a puzzle game that makes you think about perspective. Because each of the environments are made from various cubes, and because quite often the two titular characters (Ilo and Milo) can walk on multiple sides of the cubes, players have to think about how the world can be rotated so that the characters can successfully reunite with one another. This is further complicated in later levels through the introduction of blocks that the characters can carry (that also have their own unique traits such as collapsing and extending), making for levels that really tease your brain. The basic stipulation for winning is easy enough to understand -- simply get the two characters next to one another -- but it is really challenging thanks to the variety of blocks the game introduces and because players have to switch between both characters to find success. Milo, for instance, might have access to a block that he can pick up and use as an extending bridge, which then could enable Ilo to proceed when the block acts as a column he can stand upon. Or perhaps Ilo would be trapped behind an apple block, conveniently located in a place where Milo could drop a block in place to allow the hungry animal to cross and consume Ilo's impediment... Confused? I completely understand; this is not a game that is easily described in words. Check out the video below for a more vivid demonstration. [NOTE FROM TESS: Link doesn’t work]

You see that? That is some crazy level design! But don't get scared of the difficulty, as Ilomilo ramps it up over time, introducing new elements to players at a rate that makes it easy to understand. This is true on both the mobile and XBLA versions of the game, too, despite their different levels. Don't be sad that the games are different in level design between the two platforms, though, as this was done intentionally to take in the strengths of each. The XBLA one is played with a controller (of course), but the mobile one requires a touch sensitive screen, meaning that they had to design the game around very few interface options. Still, both are beautifully rendered in 3D, and, more importantly, have their own achievements so that hardcore nerds among us can get double the points for playing both.

[End of IGN preview]

“I feel I can predict with confidence that ilomilo is my PAX 2010 Game of Show. From what I was shown it’s got the gameplay, music, and style to be right up my alley.” -4playerpodcast

Read full preview

[NOTE FROM TESS: Pasting below as well for easy reading!] 

Yeah, it's only half way through Saturday but I'm calling it in early. There's still a few things I need to see first. For example, I'm in line for Duke Nukem Forever as I'm writing this. I just saw Portal 2's Co-Op Demonstration and I still need to take a look at Outland and Bastion.

Even so I feel I can predict with confidence that ilomilo is my PAX 2010 Game of Show. From what I was shown it's got the gameplay, music, and style to be right up my alley.

I mean seriously who makes a Co-op Turn Taking Puzzle Game these days. It's a little difficult to describe the types of puzzles the game provides but it looks like there is enough variety with it's enemy design and block types to keep the formula from staying too simple, a trend I've seen with a lot of recent puzzlers.

My only concerns are with the ways players will be presented with the more challenging levels. Many times objectives and abilities are not clearly explained, which is something I experienced during the demo. There were obstacles in which I had no idea how they would react to me or how I could interact with but I'm almost completely positive that is due to it being a quick demo experience and I do not expect that to be a problem when it releases later this winter.

I did feel though that the controls were a little rough. Movement didn't seem as smooth as I would have wanted and character switching may be something I just need to get used to.

Other than that, I'm extremely excited about getting my hands on this title and playing through it with a friend.

David

(Disclaimer: This post is not my own. This is a repost from the official ilomilo developers on blog.ilomilo.com (only accessible on the wayback machine)!)

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ilomilo Windows Phone 7 screenshots

Friday, September 3rd, 2010

Hmm, let’s see…Today I give you some screenshots from the handheld version of ilomilo on Windows Phone 7! Wohoo! Click on the images to size ‘em up a bit and be sure to share them with friends, family, neighbors, pets and complete strangers. Enjoy!

(Disclaimer: This post is not my own. This is a repost from the official ilomilo developers on blog.ilomilo.com (only accessible on the wayback machine)!)

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allaboutgames preview

Monday, August 30th, 2010

The good folks at British gamingsite “allaboutgames” played some ilomilo XBLA at Gamescom and afterwards they wrote a nice preview about it praising it for its gameplay, art style and its high definition qualities. [NOTE FROM TESS: this link is broken and was never archived :~(]

Cheers mates!

(Disclaimer: This post is not my own. This is a repost from the official ilomilo developers on blog.ilomilo.com (only accessible on the wayback machine)!)

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ilomilo at Gamescom 2010!

Wednesday, August 25th, 2010

Both ilomilo XBLA and ilomilo WP7 were shown at Gamescom 2010. Here are some videos from both versions of the game. Yay!

Some gameplay from ilomilo XBLA [link doesn’t work]

Some more gameplay from ilomilo XBLA [link doesn’t work]

Some ilomilo WP7 talk and gameplay at 2:42 [embedded below; segment ends at 6:45]

(Disclaimer: This post is not my own. This is a repost from the official ilomilo developers on blog.ilomilo.com (only accessible on the wayback machine)!)

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ilomilo mobile gameplay

Monday, August 23rd, 2010

Last week we announced ilomilo for Windows mobile 7 and already some gameplay footage has popped up on the interweb! [NOTE FROM TESS: embedding below as well as including the link!]

Ahh, good old youtube. What would we do without you?

(Disclaimer: This post is not my own. This is a repost from the official ilomilo developers on blog.ilomilo.com (only accessible on the wayback machine)!)

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New screenshots!

Friday, August 20th, 2010

Today, for no particular reason, we’re giving you some new screenshots. Click on the pictures to enlarge them and see them in their full glory [NOTE FROM TESS: no longer true]. Enjoy!

(Disclaimer: This post is not my own. This is a repost from the official ilomilo developers on blog.ilomilo.com (only accessible on the wayback machine)!)

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ilomilo for Windows Phone 7!

Tuesday, August 17th, 2010

We are proud to announce that ilomilo will be released on Windows Phone 7 as a launchtitle. OMG!

Now you can carry ilomilo with you in your pocket and play it whenever you want to and wherever you want to, total rebel style! On the bus, on the train, in a spaceship or under the water (provided the phone will be waterproof of course, we don’t really know yet).

The game itself will be quite similar to ilomilo XBLA, but will feature new levels and even some exclusive content. Horray!

(Disclaimer: This post is not my own. This is a repost from the official ilomilo developers on blog.ilomilo.com (only accessible on the wayback machine)!)

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ilomilo wallpapers!

Friday, August 13th, 2010

Hello folks, our artist Peter created some sweet looking wallpapers for you! Why you ask? Oh I don’t know, perhaps it’s simply because you’re a bunch of fantastic people. Yep, that’s definitely it. Now, just pick your desktop resolution and enjoy those nifty wallpapers! [NOTE FROM TESS: literally none of the links work i’m so sorry]

Wallpaper resolutions:

1024×768 (4:3)

1280×768 (16:9)

1280×800 (16:10)

1280×1024 (4:3)

1440×900 (16:10)

1440×1080 (4:3)

1600×1200 (4:3)

1920×1080 (16:9)

1920×1200 (16:10)

(Disclaimer: This post is not my own. This is a repost from the official ilomilo developers on blog.ilomilo.com (only accessible on the wayback machine)!)

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Another update

Wednesday, August 11th, 2010

So what’s going on here on Southend? Well, right now we’re super-busy fixing bugs and the like. We barely have time for taking coffee-breaks or watching youtube clips of funny animals, people who stumbles and jaw harp experts. Oh yes, it’s really intense right now I tell you!

Still, there’s always time for another blog-post! This friday we will bring you something cool, so stay tuned folks.

(Disclaimer: This post is not my own. This is a repost from the official ilomilo developers on blog.ilomilo.com (only accessible on the wayback machine)!)

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ilomilo Shuffle -- the field of honor.

Monday, August 2nd, 2010

ilomilo might still be in development, but the high-score rivalry in ilomilo Shuffle is already ongoing. Not so long ago our office high-score was beaten by tester KCShuffle, but after an heroic effort by our ninja-programmer Jensen the high score was reconquered and our honor restored…well, until next time someone manages to get a better score.

You can beat our high-score, but we will always do our best to beat you back! 😉

(Disclaimer: This post is not my own. This is a repost from the official ilomilo developers on blog.ilomilo.com (only accessible on the wayback machine)!)

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ilomilo in The Age

Friday, July 30th, 2010

Australian newspaper “The Age” wrote an article about the importance of distinctive visual design in modern games, and ilomilo was brought up as an example. The Age asked Simon for some comments on the subject.

[NOTE FROM TESS: I’ll paste the excerpt below for easy reading!]

“In contrast to the committee-driven look of most major releases, a game made by a small team can have its entire visual aesthetic driven by the vision of a single artist, which can lead to very strong and original designs. Sometimes the design can even be more important than the game itself.

“This is arguably true in the case of the upcoming Xbox Live puzzle platformer Ilomilo. Southend Interactive Art Director Simon Flesser revealed to Split Screen that Ilomilo’s adorable home-made plushie aesthetic was firmly in place before anything else. ‘It was a visual style that I had wanted to try out on a game for some time’ Flesser said. ‘Then this puzzle concept came along, so it seemed like a nice fit.’

“Flesser agreed that eye-catching design is vital for a small game trying to generate market interest. ‘I'm not a marketing guy,’ Flesser told me, ‘but I would say yes. A lot of our efforts to communicate with potential players have been through videos and pictures.’ The game’s cute protagonists, appropriately named Ilo and Milo, feature prominently on the game’s blog, and the blog FAQ indicates that many people are asking if they can buy real plush toys of the characters.

“This idea of form before function lies in sharp contrast to Jonathan Blow’s groundbreaking art game Braid. Blow reportedly made his prototype with placeholder graphics, honing the platforming gameplay to perfection and working out how to tell the game’s melancholy story. It was not until he had a near complete prototype that he hired an artist to create Braid’s beautiful oil painting style visuals.

“Blow clearly thought that getting the game right was the most important goal, and the art could come later. Flesser took a more balanced approach. ‘The most important thing is how all the components of the game, including visual style, resonates with each other to create a unique experience,’ he said.

‘In the end, of course you’ll need a solid game, but to even get people to look your way I think you’ve got to have something that visually differentiates your game from what people are used to seeing.’

“Ilomilo’s release date has not yet been announced, but the developers are hoping to have it out before the end of the year.”