{"id":72661,"date":"2015-02-27T11:01:41","date_gmt":"2015-02-27T09:01:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/?p=72661"},"modified":"2015-02-27T14:16:22","modified_gmt":"2015-02-27T12:16:22","slug":"would-you-like-to-be-productive-today-dont-download-cluster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/business\/72661-would-you-like-to-be-productive-today-dont-download-cluster","title":{"rendered":"Would you like to be productive today? Don&#8217;t download Cluster"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>She\u2019s taunting you. This was your personal best, yet you\u2019ve barely made it halfway through.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGame over,\u201d she says, slapping the words in giant text across the screen to rub it in your face.<\/p>\n<p>Without thinking you push enter.<\/p>\n<p>You explode. Push enter again. Die again. Enter. Die. Again. Die. Again.<\/p>\n<p>Just as you\u2019re starting to get frustrated, you realise that you&#8217;re making it through the first few levels much faster than you were initially.<\/p>\n<p>Suddenly you\u2019re on a roll, dodging bombs and boosting through blocks as the rhythm of the music pulsates\u00a0the shapes on your screen and pushes you ever forward.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGame over,\u201d she says again.<\/p>\n<p>What does she know? You push enter again, not daring to look up at the clock.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/WAXHDL_OiKM\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3 class=\"my-4\">Cluster<\/h3>\n<p>Cluster is a two-button game that hearkens back to a simpler time. When games were games for the sake of it and \u201cfree\u201d didn\u2019t mean you have to wonder\u00a0about\u00a0in-app purchases.<\/p>\n<p>It was developed by Kobus van der Walt after a prototype he called HalvCirkel received very positive feedback on\u00a0the <a href=\"http:\/\/makegamessa.com\" target=\"_blank\">MakeGamesSA forum<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Soon after the prototype was posted, Julian Pritchard joined Van der Walt to help with the design and marketing of the game.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt A MAZE Johannesburg 2014 I got to hang out with a bunch of cool artists and ended up making a game with some of them,\u201d Pritchard said.<\/p>\n<p>At one stage during the development of Cluster, Van der Walt said he realised the game needed music.<\/p>\n<p>Pritchard roped in Finnish musician Jukio Kallio &#8211; who worked on Nuclear Throne, Luftrausers, and Maverick Bird &#8211;\u00a0to write the music for Cluster.<\/p>\n<p>The game released for Windows, Mac, and Linux on 26 February 2015 and can be <a href=\"http:\/\/kobusvdwalt9.itch.io\/cluster\" target=\"_blank\">downloaded for free<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_72665\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Cluster-in-game-screenshot.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-72665\" class=\"size-full wp-image-72665\" src=\"http:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Cluster-in-game-screenshot.jpg\" alt=\"Cluster screenshot\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Cluster-in-game-screenshot.jpg 600w, https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Cluster-in-game-screenshot-267x150.jpg 267w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-72665\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cluster screenshot<\/p><\/div>\n<p><em>Disclosure: Jan knows Julian IRL and occasionally hangs out with him at events. Jan and Julian also know a bunch of other game developers and journalists and run into them at events and end up chatting. Why? The industry is relatively small and, you know, we\u2019re not dicks.<\/em><\/p>\n<h3 id=\"related\">More PC and SA game news<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/columns\/72563-pc-gamers-painful-wait-for-gta-v-how-you-can-help.html\"><strong>PC gamers\u2019 painful wait for GTA V \u2013 how you can help<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/pc\/72565-steam-gaming-smashes-playstation-and-xbox.html\"><strong>Steam gaming smashes PlayStation and Xbox<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/news\/72533-sa-made-cadence-hits-kickstarter.html\"><strong>SA-made Cadence hits Kickstarter<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/news\/68208-how-many-south-africans-make-video-games-for-a-living.html\"><strong>How many South Africans make video games for a living?<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Exclusive: a giant conspiracy by a handful of South African game devs to prevent all productive work today<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":163,"featured_media":72663,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[13327,21,13335,13333,13329,13331],"class_list":["post-72661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-cluster","tag-headline","tag-jukio-kallio","tag-julian-pritchard","tag-kobus-van-der-walt","tag-makegamessa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/163"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72661"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72661\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72669,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72661\/revisions\/72669"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}