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Quick Fix: Screenshot Saturday 6/28

This is a new series of articles I plan to do on my blog. For the past six months, four times a month, I've posted in the NeoGAF Indie Threads about games I've discovered on Screenshot Saturday. I thought it would be cool to post here about the games that intrigued me the most. So without further ado...

Seaworthy

Developer: Mildly Competent Games

Seaworthy is a real time strategy pirate captain simulator roguelike-like. Take command of your very own pirate ship! Order your band of brigands around as you face a variety of crazy encounters and navigate through our open world consisting of procedurally generated maps.

More info and images here (Website coming soon)

Blackhole

Developer: FiolaSoft Studio

Go through an adventure inside of a black hole! No physical laws apply in here. Adventure arcade with logic elements, great atmosphere and awesome gameplay.

Blackhole Site

Excaliword

Developer: Cariboo

Excaliword is a puzzle word game mixed with simple RTS mechanics. Expand your kingdom by making words and attacking your enemy. Excaliword is a multiplayer online game which allows you to compete against one player by killing the enemy king or capturing the sword.

IndieDB page

Telos

Developer: Overpowered Games

Rethinking the competitive FPS with spidermechs, zero gravity, grapple hooks, and color

Telos site | TIGForum Devlog

Quick Fix: Submit your game pitch to the 2014 Banana Jam

I'm sure many of you have had ideas for games you'd love to see become reality one day. Well now, that dream could become a reality. Indie developer Nerd Monkeys has put together the 2014 Banana Jam. What's the purpose of this Jam?

This is a challenge for a few selected IPCA students as their final project. A public poll will decide what batch of game concepts they can use to produce their project. Your submission may reach full production and be published by Nerd Monkeys, earning you a royalty of its sales! The project development will be done live and the viewers can interact with the developers.

The chosen projects will developed into prototypes, then alphas; if the alphas are promising and have potential, "Nerd Monkeys will invest to take that project into the final stage", which could see a possible release on a variety of platforms from Steam, Desura, IOS, Android, and others. Progress and development will be live-streamed through Twitch. You can learn more about the Banana Jam here, and submit your game pitch through this form. The project goes live March 4th.

Q&A: Joar Jakobsson on Rain World

By now, if you've been reading my blog, you've seen my previous coverage of Rain World. The game is probably one of my most anticipated indies, besides SuperHOT, Distance, and Hyper Light Drifter. Joar Jakobsson - the man behind Rain World's concept, programming, art, and design - was kind enough to answer a few questions about the game and its development.
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What inspired you to start a career as an indie developer?

I have always been fiddling with games on the side, but it has always been more of a hobby rather than anything else. I like the game medium because of the interactivity, it’s possible to build worlds that people can actually explore, driven by their own curiosity.

You’ve been developing Rain World for three long years. How does the current game compare to your original vision?

Hehe where do you put the line for “the original version”? I remember many different versions of rain world, both from when it was a few boxes moving around in a maze and later versions as well, that also looked quite different from what we have now, save from the main character. I think the Movement Prototype* I uploaded way back is still around on the internet, if you can find that you can try your hands at a very early version of Rain World. If it really was, though, the world of Rain World wasn’t really invented back then. Short answer - pretty much everything

In your TIGForum devlog, you’ve said that the art style was inspired by graffiti and old cartoons, but what were the inspirations for the world and gameplay?

Oh, that’s a hard one. The world was actually originally intended to have more of a resemblance to the sources of inspiration you mentioned, but drifted to something slightly more realistic. You can still see remnants of those styles though - the monochromatic palette of the levels comes from the old cartoon style, and many of the plants are supposed to borrow part of their shapes from graffiti ornaments. Gameplay has never really had those influences, inspiration for gameplay would rather be something like the harshness of nature.

As a fan of stealth games, I find the AI developed for the game quite fascinating. Was this focus on AI your intention from the beginning? Has it been difficult developing such a layered system?

I have always been interested in AI, so working that into the game has come naturally. Because the game always has had stealth elements, a somewhat decent AI was a necessity. I don’t really know if it was difficult - rather frustrating. Like, there is no mind-bending mathematics going on, just a lot of glitch fixing and endless iteration.

Given the reactive and adaptive nature of the AI, have the creatures ever behaved in an emergent way that surprised you?

Sometimes they do surprise me, but it's rarely mind-blowing because their actions are so limited. The lizards' choices in any given situation are basically all about where to move - the world doesn't allow for many more interactions than that as it's not a puzzle game with a lot of doors and levers and the like. I have tried to get a few interesting interactions in there though, such as lizards occasionally picking up objects and the like. I'd love to spend more time on AI interactions, but it might be a balance where you don't want to end up with the lizards doing so much other stuff that they don't have time to hunt you.

Currently Rain World seems to revolve around a simple gameplay loop: collect bats, evade lizards, return to shelter before the rain falls. Do you have plans to expand these mechanics, perhaps introduce new mechanics, in the full game?

Yeah, followers of the devlog will know about the pups. Basically the game will revolve around the cycle you mentioned, but when you find a few orphaned pups things will get mixed up a bit.

Reading through your devlog on TIGForums, it seems like the relationship between slugcat, lizard, and bat is core to the mechanics and game’s fundamental structure, and at this point, seems finely tuned and well balanced. How would the addition of new creatures and enemies affect and enhance this core system?

This trio of creatures will always be the core of Rain World, throwing in something else might wreck the balance. I do have ideas of other creatures, but they would not be as reoccuring as the lizards and flies. Rather they would be placed in special locations on the world map, and feature as occasional encounters, to spice up and bring excitement to exploring the world.

Also, was the focus on such a small number of creatures due to the limits of your current engine or just an extension of your vision for the game?

It’s sometimes difficult to keep apart limitations and vision, especially in game making where you can only get a good artistic result if you very consciously work with your technical limitations rather than against them. That said, there has never really been a technical limitation to the number of creatures, but it has rather been a question of development time. I early on decided that I wanted few, well made creatures rather than many species with less care given to each one of them.

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You can support Rain World on Kickstarter, and follow its development on TIGForums. The game was recently Greenlit on Steam.

*Here is the download link for that early Movement Protoype (.rar)*
There are no enemies and you can't balance on poles, but you can climb around and see how the slugcat moves and animates. Player 1 controls are Arrows for movement, K to jump. Player 2 controls are ESDF for movement, Q to jump

Quick Fix: Ushering in another year of indie games

A belated Happy New Years to readers and indie gamers worldwide! Once again, thank you for reading Indie Game Enthusiast and participating on this journey through the unique and inventive world of indie games. 2013 was a great year, with some incredible releases like Gone Home, Badland, Outer Wilds, and far too many quality games to list here. And 2014 promises to continues this impressive trend.

IndieStatik's Top 100 of 2014
Recently, IndieStatik published a pair of fantastic articles that I'll definitely be looking back to as the year progresses, listing their 100 most anticipated upcoming games as well as a whole separate article of honorable mentions. You can read them here (Top 100, Runner-ups). Distance! Hyper Light Drifter! SCALE! And so many more. Yes, 2014 is going to one hell of a year

2014 Kickstarters
2013 was not only a fantastic year in terms of releases, but also in promising and successful Kickstarters. From the hair-breadth success of Windforge and Neverending Nightmares' eleventh hour funding to the Hyper Light Drifter's and Rimworld's impressive final hauls, we saw myriad projects find success. 2014 is getting off to an impressive start, with four promising campaigns in January alone:

Proven Lands - "mid-January"
Galactic Princess - "mid-January"
Mighty Tactical Shooter - "No, not early January"
MTB Freeride - January 14th

Then throughout the 2014, expect Kickstarters for Edgar, Witchmarsh, Darkest Dungeon, Path of Shadows, Oblitus, possibly Rain World, and others.

2013 in Review: Honorable Mentions

In this series of articles, I'll be listing and discussing my top 20 indie games of the year. While many indie GOTY lists I've seen tend to focus on the most popular and well known indies released in 2013, I hope mine represents a well-rounded look at the year's best.
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I've listed my favorite 20 indie games of the year, but there are many others I feel deserve recognition. Here are a few honorable mentions:

Samurai Gunn

The game itself may be kind of bare bones at the moment, but that doesn't diminish the sheer intensity and thrill of the finely-tuned combat. The lightning-fast melee is what continues to draw me back to Samurai Gunn, even while my backlog grows thanks to the ongoing Steam sale. Decapitating an enemy in mid-air, and that sword slash deflecting a bullet from a second enemy while you lunge over spikes is rewarding and just intense.

Dust: An Elysian Tale

I only recently started playing this game, but the art style and animations alone make it a fantastic experience. But Dust isn't just a looker; the combat is smooth and satisfying and just wonderful to watch in motion. Screenshots don't do the game justice.

Teleglitch

Teleglitch was my first roguelike, and it certainly made an impression. It may not have Crysis-level graphics, but what matters is the gameplay. The tension of the unknown, the joy of finding a new gun or a medkit, the fear when you're low on health and ammo, is fantastic. When you enter a room armed with only two shotgun rounds, 25 health, and one explosive, and a horde of mutants and zombies rush out of the area where you can't see and you just turn and flee the other way...it's worth every penny.

Overgrowth

I had been following this game a while, and finally was able to get my hands on it last month. Like Samurai Gunn, the combat is absolutely addicting, simple to control, but difficult to master. Your extreme agility, the physics-based animations, the little details like dripping blood, make Overgrowth a joy to play. And I haven't had so much fun with third-person platforming since 2003's Prince of Persia.

Penumbear

Penumbear is and continues to be one of my favorite IOS games, not just of 2013, but of my entire IOS gaming career. A wealth of content, challenging platforming that requires precision and timing, expansive levels to be explored, an inventive light/shadow mechanic that is used in so many unique and inventive ways, even boss fights and secret levels, and more make this game a must-play.

"Late to the Party" GOTYs:
I finally played both these games this year and I can't believe I took so long to finally do so. If I had experienced them sooner, they would have been my GOTYs for the years of their release.

Hotline Miami

Hotline Miami is badass. Cathartic. Insane. With its Super Meat Boy-style of lightning fast gameplay and instant restarts, every death is not frustrating but a learning process, a way to hone your skills. A lot has been made of the violence, which is both gratuitous and meaningful, but the blood splatter and gore is just a cathartic veneer over the game's perfectly tuned mechanics. The controls are simple but it all combines into slick bursts of violence. Knock an a guy down with a door slam, stun the armed enemy with a thrown pipe, punch a third to death, bash the other two's heads on the floor, pick up a shotgun and spin around in time to splatter the three other enemies entering the room. But for every moment like that, you will die. Your reflexes won't be fast enough, you'll overlook an enemy and be blown in half. One hit kills, but like in Super Meat Boy, each death is a learning experience, another opportunity to improve your skills. Levels where you died dozens of times will eventually be cleared in a single smooth combo of door slams. thrown weapons, booming gunshots, and spraying blood and gore.

Braid

I've been nothing less than absolutely impressed by the game. Every aspect of the experience is perfectly crafted. The art style is wonderful and painterly. The story is mysterious and engaging. The controls are tight and responsive. The game has, by far, the best time-based puzzles I've ever played. Better than Prince of Persia, or Ethan Meteor Hunter, or any of the game I've played that involve time control. Now only are the mechanics just ingenious, the way they're seamlessly combined with the platforming is fantastic.

2013 in Review: #4-1

In this series of articles, I'll be listing and discussing my top 20 indie games of the year. While many indie GOTY lists I've seen tend to focus on the most popular and well known indies released in 2013, I hope mine represents a well-rounded look at the year's best.

20-15
14-10
9-5
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4. The Stanley Parable

PC, Mac (Site) | Watch the trailer
Defining Moment: The thing about Stanley Parable is that you can't talk about anything specific without spoiling something great, but there was one moment that made me smile and surprised me more than anything else I've played all year. Let's just any gamer will get one hell of a kick out of it.

The Stanley Parable may last only four or five hours but it's a one of a kind experience that will have you smiling, chuckling, laughing, confused, reeling from momentary shock and surprise in response to the myriad paths your choices will take you. It's a game tailor made for discussions and excited recollections of your favorite moments and discoveries. More than any other experience this year, it's a game for gamers, in the way it plays with, subverts, comments on the expectations and tropes of the medium. You need to play The Stanley Parable.

3. NEO Scavenger

PC, Mac, Linux (Site) | Watch the trailer
Defining Moment: Suffering from infection, down to a glass shard, I attempt a desperate ambush on a pair of bandits. One goes down in the struggle, the other leaves for me dead in the rain with broken ribs and fractured skull. I don't last the night.

One of the few turn-based roguelikes I've enjoyed, and set in brutal gritty apocalyptic world where life is short and cheap, and death can come from any angle, from the raiders tracking your footsteps to the cold night air. The combat is my favorite aspect; it may be turn based but that doesn't stop every conflict from feeling as tense as something ripped from The Road. All those elements make NEO Scavenger one of the most intense and immersive experiences I've played in a while.

2. Outer Wilds

PC, Mac, Linux (Site) | Watch the trailer
Defining Moment: That first launch from your landing pad, as you rise through the atmosphere, watch the ground shrink away and ascend into unexplored space for the first time.

I love exploration, and finding new vistas and areas to explore. While Mirrormoon appealed with its abstract environments, Outer Wilds awed by delivering an incredible and intriguing solar system to explore in its short play time. Each attempt offers a new opportunity to head off in a new direction, to practice zero gravity flight, fly a remote drone. To admire the beautiful planet and star filled sky. To land your craft on unexplored worlds, meet new species both friendly and hostile.

1. Project Zomboid

PC, Mac, Linux (Site) | Watch the trailer
Defining Moment: Cooking rotting food on a campfire when a horde passes by, fleeing across the fields and forests into a nearby town, as night falls and visibility drops to near nothing, no time to fight back, only to run as long as my sick and weakened body could, before finally getting surrounded, and fighting off the undead horde before finally going down.

Once again technically, Project Zomboid's been out for a while, but the beta only released on Steam recently and I never had an opportunity to play it until this year. Other indies may have had better stories, better art styles. Maybe others were even better games overall. But as a gamer, what I love to experience most are those emergent moments, that can't be achieved by any other medium. And that's what Project Zomboid is, a story generator, providing tales of survival and foolish deaths, of desperate last stands and incredible moments that rival those seen in the best zombie fiction. I guess the same could be said for a game like NEO Scavenger, but as a huge fan of the genre, personally Project Zomboid has the edge. DayZ may represent the human on human violence of the genre better and The Walking Dead may have the emotional edge, but Project Zomboid offers the chance to be a survivor.

2013 in Review: #9-5

PC (Site) | Watch the trailer
Defining Moment: Spelunky loves to punish you, but for me at least, the first time the Reaper appeared because I was being too cautious and then my careful exploration become a frantic race for the exit was when I knew I'd love the game.

I was late to the Spelunky party, but I was not disappointed. Its cute veneer hides a challenging game of quick reactions, strategy, and overwhelming odds. The platforming is tight, survival is tough, and it's the little details that make the game so memorable, from the human sacrifices and the shopkeepers to the infamous reaper.

8. Papers Please

PC, Mac (Site) | Watch the trailer
Defining Moment: For such a mechanical simple game, Papers Please hold tons of depth, but it really hit home when I returned home with my meager wagers and found my family sick and starving, and I could only help one of them,

Strip away all its other elements and Papers, Please would still be a fun game of logic and matching. But amidst the story and premise, that simple game of logic and studying documents becomes a thoughtful experience with surprising emotional resonance. From your tiny booth, you hold incredible power; with your stamp of approval, you can allow the tired huddled masses into your country or turn them away. At its core, that's the extent of the gameplay: look for discrepancies and signs of errors and forgeries, interrogate the suspicious citizens, and make your decision. But Papers, Please is so much more than that. From your little window slot and desk, you become the linchpin in fates both big and small, from the entire country to the individuals before you to your very family.

7. The Swapper

PC (Site) | Watch the trailer
Defining Moment: Jumping from a high ledge, swapping into clones as I fell, landing safely, and then my other bodies slamming into the ground around me.

If there's one adjective that instantly catches my attention to a game, it's "atmospheric". And that's probably the best word to describe The Swapper. Roaming the eerie corridors and expansive spaces, the dimly light rooms, entering zero gravity, the lighting, the unnerving unsettling implications of your device, the Swapper is an game that just oozes atmosphere and tension, even though it's not even a horror game. And that's not even touching upon the fantastic puzzles and the wonderfully complex uses of the cloning/swapping mechanics.

6. Broforce

PC, Mac (Site) | Watch the trailer
Defining Moment: When one bullet set off a minute long chain reaction of explosions, flying gore, dying enemies, collapsing bridges (but really there are too many great moments to count)

Of all the indie games I've purchased since I got into PC gaming over the summer, Broforce is the one I've played most. The game set out to be an ode to 80's and 90's action movies, the Expendables in video game form, and it succeeds on every possible level. The tight controls, the over-the-top destruction, the fact that you're playing as some of the coolest action heroes in movies, and the fast-paced challenging gameplay make Broforce an addictive and fun experience.

5. Badland

IOS Universal (Site) | Watch the trailer
Defining Moment: That picture captures the whole essence of Badland. Watching your duplicates get shredded by saw-blades while you make it through safely thanks to their sacrifice

This game took the simplest control scheme possible and molded a varied challenging experience that combines physics puzzles, obstacle evasion, and inventive power ups. The atmospheric art style is icing on the cake. Furthermore, in a time where IAP-heavy and freemium games are so commonplace, Badland's fantastic post release support makes this game the model all premium game should follow.

2013 in Review: #14-10

PC, Linux (Site) | Watch the trailer
Defining Moment: Due to the freeform nature, it was tough to pick one that encapsulated the whole game, but for me, no moment was more exciting than that first fall in the beginning, as you plummet deep underground and pass all the different layers and levels you'll come to explore later.

Full Bore was a pleasant surprise. After Escape Goat, I was eager to play another block-based puzzle platformer. Full Bore isn't a platformer. You can't even jump. Instead I found challenging puzzles set across an expansive and intriguing world, stretching from the sunlit surface to its dark lava-filled depths. And while the sense of exploration and discovery is fantastic, the puzzles, charming graphics and animations, and just the sheer amount of gameplay is even better.

13. One Finger Death Punch

PC (Site) | Watch the trailer
Defining Moment: OFDP is a game that really needs to be played to see the appeal, but what’s better than finishing off a perfect round by punching the last enemy’s heart out of his chest?

Visually OFDP doesn't seem like much. But sometimes what matters is the gameplay and in that aspect, OFDP is king. It's one of the most addictive games I've ever played and the simple controls hide a surprising amount of depth. The smooth animations, the number of upgrades, variety of round types, the sheer over-the-top spectacle of every fight, and the feeling that you're an utter martial arts badass grants OFDP that one-more-go appeal.

12. Assault Android Cactus

Browser (Site) | Watch the trailer
Defining Moment: The thrill of threading your way through a horde of enemies and countless bullets to snag a battery moments before you die.

Dual stick bullet hell chaos. That's what you find when you play Assault Android Cactus. Enemies and bullets flood the screen from every angle. Levels shift and change at a moment's notice. Turrets emerge from the floor. Bullets and missiles fly everywhere. It's mayhem, but you're always in control, thanks to the tight responsive controls and the different character load-outs that offer new and varied ways to take on the mechanical hordes.

11. Running With Rifles

PC (Site) | Watch the trailer
Defining Moment: Inching up the street as gunfire and grenades go off around you, your fellow soldiers dying at your side, feeling like victory is close at hand...and then a tank rumbles around the corner

Running With Rifles proves that an indie title can portray the chaos of war better than AAA shooters like Call of Duty and Battlefield. And it didn't convey this with photo-realistic graphics or scripted moments, but with its overall atmosphere and gameplay. You're just another soldier on a living battlefield, who can die in an instant from a stray bullet or mortar fire.The battles in RWR are hectic and ruthless, but also tactical and offer depth and strategy. It's these elements that make Running With Rifles superior to the myriad console "military shooters" and a worthwhile experience

10. Fez

PC, Mac, Linux (Site) | Watch the trailer
Defining Moment: The first time I entered a world and found a narrow tower to climb, only to rotate the level and realize that this tower was merely the side of an entire building

Mechanically Fez isn't a very difficult game. Death or failure doesn't have much consequence. But when playing Fez, perhaps it's best that you're not thinking about pixel-perfect timing and precision jumps. Because then you wouldn't be able to fully appreciate the unique art style and the perspective shifting mechanic that, at least for me, never gets old. What's more, Fez's depth is more cerebral than most, due its weird ciphers and language to interpret and solve.

2013 in Review: #20-15

Browser (Site) | Watch the trailer
Defining Moment: Hard to pick just one, yet oddly enough, I think the fast travel screen captures the essence of the game the best, as you ride on your horse past the setting sun in perfectly pixelated Spaghetti Western style

I guess I should I credit Rock Paper Shotgun for bringing this gem to my attention. If not for their article about the game in November, I would have missed it. Westerado takes one of my favorite genres, the western, and gives it an atmospheric pixel art look, with gorgeous sunsets and windswept cemeteries. The game revolves around a randomly generated murder mystery as you search for your family's killer across an open world, slowly piecing together the identity and location of the killer through clues from NPCs and quests. Poker in the saloon, bandits in the mines, buffalo roaming the fields, Westerado is a fun and engaging experience worth playing.

19. SuperHOT

Browser (Site) | Watch the trailer
Defining Moment: The first time you sidestep between bullets as your own rounds blows an enemy away and the blood spray lights up the clean white rooms...all in wonderful slow motion

I first played SuperHOT when it was submitted for 7DFPS and it was one of my favorite entries, alongside Beyond Perspective and Probably Archery. Since then, the game has been updated with cleaner visuals and revamped levels, and while it may not be that long or that deep, it's an fantastic promise of what's to come. The minimalist visuals and slow motion turn the act of blowing enemies away into an art as bullets creep across the screen, blood flies in elegant arc. But SuperHOT is more than a pretty facade; the core mechanics remain tight and satisfying even after my many playthroughs and your vulnerability and limited ammo promotes caution and planning over reckless action.

18. Gods Will Be Watching

Browser (Site) | Watch the trailer
Defining Moment: I think the first time you unceremoniously die because you forgot to deal with the campfire speaks volumes about the tone and bleakness of the game.

I would have never thought that a simple single screen point-and-click game would become my favorite flash/freeware game since Nitronic Rush and Facade. But Gods Will Be Watching, and not just because of its awesomely ominous title or because it's gritty post-apocalyptic fiction. Not only does the game sport a great pixel art style, it's just a bleak, dark experience where every choice is grey, either bad or worse. Like SuperHOT, it's more of a snapshot of what the expanded game will offer, but when a snapshot is this affecting and unique, it deserves all the attention and acclaim it gets.

17. Sang Froid: Tales of Werewolves

PC (Site) | Watch the trailer
Defining Moment: Your bonfire is moments away from whittling to embers, you’re frantically reloading your one shot as the pack circles around you, eyes glinting in the light of the fire, one prepares to attack...and then darkness falls...

Now granted, Sang Froid isn't perfect. As I said in my impressions, the voice acting is subpar and load times can be very long. But when you're actually playing, none of that matters. Sang Froid is a game where the odds are always stacked against you. Even you think you've planned for everything, you haven't. Having to reload each shot manually, manage your foe's fear, time your traps or see them wasted, fosters an atmosphere of tension and challenge, in which only the steadiest nerves will see you through the night.

16. Mirrormoon EP

PC, Mac, Linux (Site) | Watch the trailer
Defining Moment: Moving the moon for the first time and watching the landscape shift as you turn night to day and vice versa

It bears repeating: Mirrormoon EP is not about story or complex gameplay or moral choices or brain-twisting puzzles. It's about discovery. In Mirrormoon, space isn't just an expanse of blackness and stars, but a canvas of color and abstract architecture to explore. Every planet offers something new and interesting to discover and maybe you'll leave your mark with a name for your new discovery.

15. Prison Architect

PC, Mac, Linux (Site) | Watch the trailer
Defining Moment: Getting attached to your wards, providing them with amenities and rec time, only to realize the sneaky bastards have been digging an escape tunnel the whole time and someone got shanked when your attention was elsewhere.

First thing, I realize Prison Architect technically released in 2012, but I'm going by the Steam release and well, I wasn't into PC gaming last year and didn't know the game existed till this summer. Okay, back to the game. Prison Architect is a game where emergent narratives and moments breathe life into the already deep and complex mechanics. Every choice matters, and some consequences won't become evident until days layer, when your prisoners are rioting, dead bodies bleed on the grass, and your guards are too tired and overworked to hold them back.

And I'm back!

Hello and happy holidays, readers and indie gamers! Good news is that my semester is over, Winter break has begun, and I'm back to delivering you news and impressions of the best, most innovative, and just plain fun indie games. Today's going to be light, just the long overdue impressions of Kerbal Space Program and A-Men 2, but over the rest of the week, month, and January, I'll be making up for my hiatus with tons of coverage for great indies I've played, discovered, heard about online.

I'll be doing a 2013 in Review feature, where I'll write about my top 20 indie games of the year. To say it was tough to pick just 20 and then rank them is an understatement, especially when so many quality experiences were released this year. Besides those features, I'll have the usual impressions and previews of IOS, PC, and maybe even a console indie or two.

So as I said previously, thank you for your continued support, not just for my blog, but for indies in general. And don't forget that this is probably the best time of year to build up that indie library; Steam's Holiday sale just got underway, Desura and ShinyLoot have promising indie sales, and IndieGameStand is conducting a 12 Days of Christmas Charity.

A Short Hiatus

Hey, readers and fellow indie gamers, you've probably noticed that content and posts here have slowed down over the last few weeks. As well as being a gamer, I'm also a college student so November and December have been packed with assignments. I'm planning on taking a short break from my blog here to focus on finals and my essays. So there won't be any new posts for at least a week, probably till next weekend or longer.

But don't worry, there's much to look forward to. When I return, you can expect impressions of Kerbal Space Program and A-Men 2, IOS games such as Cyro and Galaxy Run, and promising upcoming titles and free games. I'm also working on two new opinion pieces (one about roguelikes and difficult games, the other about the stealth genre) and I'm considering a Starbound diary chronicling my journey through the game and beta progress.

Before I go, wanted to thank all of you who read my site and support me on Twitter. I never expected my blog to amount to much, but thanks to you, my blog has had almost 18,000 views since late August and over 150 followers on Twitter. That might not be much compared to others, but it's a great personal success for me. My philosophy was always that if at least one person read my blog and decided to support a developer, than it makes all this worth it, so thanks again for all your support. It's people like you who keep the indie scene alive and thriving.

Quick Fix: The wonderful pixel art of Witchmarsh

I'm hoping to get some more information about Witchmarsh to give more in-depth preview, so in the meantime enjoy some screenshots of the game. You can learn about Witchmarsh here.

Quick Fix: Kickstarters & New Steam Releases Galore!

Some promising Kickstarters that deserve your attention

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Windforge

Explore a steampunk world, engage in airship combat or fight up close with a variety of guns and gear, and battle sky whales, krakens, and more

Paradise Lost

A "Stealth Puzzle Action RPG", where you control an alien subject trying to escape the Metroidvania-style levels of a secret government facility

Bullet Bros

A co-op Contra-style action shooter, with physics-based destruction, over-the-top chaos, and even crazier vehicles

Stasis

An atmospheric isometric adventure game, with the gritty industrial sci-fi horror tone of Alien, Event Horizon, and Sunshine

Exciting New Releases

I know a lot of indie gamers prefer Steam over other stores, so here's a trio of excellent games that just released:

Risk of Rain - A hard-as-nails sci-fi action roguelike, with multiple characters to choose from, tons of items to stack, and hordes of enemies that want to destroy you

Project Zomboid - Isometric survival in the zombie apocalypse is now available on Steam Early Access

Survivor Squad - If isometric action isn't your style, you can kill zombies from a top-down view and tactical gameplay

Quick Fix: Check out indie gaming's best in IGF 2014

658 games. That's how many entries await your opinions and soon your vote in the 16th Annual Independent Game Festival. I've discussed some of the entries here, from Rain World to Against The Wall to Cloudbuilt, but there are hundreds of promising games to see, such as the sleek and beautiful Source and the minimalist monochrome White Night. All are worthy of your attention and be sure to vote for your favorites.

Ramblings: The Numbers Game

On reviews scores and ratings:
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As a gamer, I share the same inclinations as others: that need to race to the bottom of a review of that highly anticipated game from your favorite site and check the score. I'm proud when a game gets the score it deserves and frustrated when a reviewer doesn't see the inherent greatness and rates a game poorly.

But now as a reviewer, I've found that I can't and won't score a game. Over these few months and in hindsight of other occurrences in the gaming hemisphere, I've come to the conclusion that applying a score, a rating, just does a disservice to the product. A game isn't a singular entity, but myriad variables working in sync to deliver an experience. How can a single number or ranking possibly represent the entire spectrum of that experience, from the wonderful highs to its frustrating lows and every aspect in between? Truth is, it can't.

When I first started this blog, I considered scoring the games I write about. But I found that once you start down that path, you're no longer considering the game in terms of the experience, but within those self-imposed boundaries. What separates a 7 from an 8, or the 9 from 10? What superficial aspect could possibly separate a 9.5 from a 9.75?

Consider games like Alpha Protocol or Fallout New Vegas, both which were riddled with technical issues upon release. In that decisive moment, how do you weigh the pros and the cons? Do the bugs and glitches tarnish the product as a whole? Do you place the narratives, those taxing moral choices, the wonderful emergent moments, above those issues? Is it really worthy of a 7,8,9,10? What are the designated context of those numbers? What constitutes an arbitrary "Average", "Great", "Masterpiece"? I feel it's better and more beneficial to the gamer to forgo the scores and ratings and just discuss the game, which is why I post impressions, not reviews.

Consider Eurogamer's "controversial" review of Uncharted 3, which rated the game an 8 out of 10. Now personally, I felt the issues discussed in the article were perfectly valid, but reading through the comments, it seemed pretty apparent that most were fixated on the score, not the actual content of the review, and on the fact that because others had rated the game a certain score, then a lower score couldn't be valid. I've seen people compare entirely different games, in entirely different genres, not because they share any similarity in gameplay or tone or story, but because they share the same score. And I recall the controversy of hard-working developers losing bonuses and even jobs because of their game's Metacritic score. By designating a rating, all that a game is - all its promise and potential, its emotional resonance, all the elements that generate the experience - is reduced to just another number.

A Q&A with Cloudbuilt's developer, Coilworks

I talked about Cloudbuilt's unique blend of open levels and action platforming last week. Now the talented men and women at Coilworks were able to spare some time to answer a few questions about their upcoming rocket-powered platformer.
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What inspired you to become indie developers?

Anders Davallius (Creative Director): Well, I have for the longest time known I wanted to be a game developer, and to enter the indie scene is something that just felt natural to me. I am used to be able to be a part of everything that is happening on a game. So to enter a larger team where I could only focus on one thing alone, is nothing I’m interested in for now. So I want to work in a small team with other developers, where everyone has the opportunity to give input and to affect the outcome of the game in every way. Where we can create the type of game we want. Hopefully we will be able to do that while also making a living out of it, and hopefully without the stress and worries associated with being a small indie startup. I think this is something most of us at Coilworks have in common. We love games and want to create them, while also being an intricate part of its creation and affect the outcome. Everything from our games design, its technology, its art, its story, and its everything, is something we care for a lot and want to be a part of.

I think one of the first aspects that stands out is Cloudbuilt’s stylized look. Was this always your intent or did the visuals evolve over time?

Anders: As we sat out on deciding an art style we had a couple of goals in mind. The first goal was for the art to be stylized in a way that would not hold back the gameplay. What I mean with that is that we wanted to let the gameplay to be as over the top as we wanted, without feeling the need to hold back to make it fit with a , let’s say “realistic”, art style. We also wanted to find a style that was not overused and hopefully finding something interesting and kind of new. With that in mind we managed to settle on an art style during the first few weeks of development. The style has of course continued to develop and gotten better over time and is now close to being finished. Though, I still have some “issues” I want to address if there is time. But with the great reception we got on the visuals so far, I probably have to down prioritize those changes for now, even though they are something I personally would like to fiddle around with some more.

Watching footage of your game, Cloudbuilt seems strongly influenced by titles such as Mirror’s Edge, Prince of Persia, and Vanquish. How did games like these influence Cloudbuilt’s design and mechanics?

Anders: Well this is actually quite complicated, but I will try to simplify it a little. We were actually working on another title before this one, but due to over scoping; we had to cancel the project after one and a half year of development. That project then served as a source of inspiration for the basic mechanics of Cloudbuilt. We have then looked at lots of other games for inspiration as well. In the specific case of Mirror’s Edge and Prince of Persia we have of course looked at them, but I would say that we have tried to not be too influenced by them. We have tried to design a system of our own from the ground up. To highlight this I can try to explain some of the fundamental ideas behind our platforming and interactions in Cloudbuilt.

We had from the very beginning a goal in mind to create a deep and responsive system that rewarded player skill and also enabled lots of freedom. We wanted the player to be able to give meaningful input at all times during all interactions and to be able to affect them as much as possible. We also wanted to let actions weave into each other by basing the interactions on momentum; giving them a more dynamic state. That means that a wallrun won't always be exactly the same, it depends on the situation you’re in when executing it. This enables a deeper gameplay where there is more than a binary outcome of failure or success. I don’t want to say that our system in Cloudbuilt is inherently better than the other games, as it is not without its potential downsides. All this new enabled control and focus in skill makes our system much harder to manage for a new player. But in the long run, I think that our system is more rewarding and enables more freedom/creativity, and for me that is a good thing.

In the case of Vanquish I would say that many members of the team are huge fans of that game, but it has not served that much as inspiration for anything specific in Cloudbuilt. But, there were one instance where we actually considered changing the animations of a specific interaction to become more like Vanquish, just as homage to that game! But in the end we decided to do it in our own style anyway. Even though we think we are pretty different, we are only happy to hear the comparisons, as we do love these games!

Another promising element is the game’s open level design. Is it difficult finding a balance between giving players the freedom to make their own path while also providing a challenging platforming experience?

Karl Emil Norberg (Level Designer): I’ll jump in here quickly! Most definitely, because of the freedom of the controls and environment interaction, players have the ability to use our levels often in ways we couldn’t imagine during their design. This makes it often tricky to try and make more specific challenges that a player have to navigate since they, often, can just circumnavigate around them by being a little creative.. That is not to say we wanna punish people for being creative with how they complete levels. Oftentimes we find most of the routes people use to be a really cool solution and keep them, maybe alter them a little, sometimes though we find ways that are just too easy to use and we either try to make something more creative out of it that is a lot more fun and challenging or, rarely, we would just try to remove or block it.

Anders: As Karl said, we try to incorporate the creativity of the players into the changes to our levels. In a clear majority of cases we keep the newly discovered paths and try to make the levels better and more interesting by building upon them. I would like to call that process Emergent Level Design. Where our idea of a level in most cases grows and changes over time into something very different as we let people play and test it.

It is really hard to make a good level that is challenging for skilled players that have this amount of control, but I only find that interesting. It is definitely possible to create extreme challenges but still keeping them open, it can sometimes be tough to determine what is too hard as well. One particular section of a level I have in mind is a proof that open challenges can also be really challenging. This is a more combat focused area in one of the later levels, and if we were to skip a few levels and get to that section a little earlier in the game, most players would probably feel it’s like an impenetrable wall.

But it’s actually a challenge that can be cleared in numerous different ways by skilled players. We have lots of levels though, and by playing them all, you will eventually gain the skill to clear all the challenges. But don’t count on beating all levels the first time you try them out. That is also why we added a branching level selection. If you encounter a level that is too challenging, there is probably 1,2 or 3 other levels that you have yet to test out or clear. (That is actually inspired by Megaman, where you have 8 bosses with 8 different levels to chose from. If something was too hard I always found myself going back to try a different level, and eventually I got skilled enough to clear all the levels.)

Combat also seems to be a critical part of Cloudbuilt’s gameplay. Can you talk more about these mechanics and how they complement the platforming?

Anders: We very much intend for the combat to be a part of the platforming. We have 9 very distinct enemies right now, and all of them are designed not only to be combined with platforming in interesting ways, but also to be combined with each other to create more complex and interesting combat scenarios. We try to incorporate elements like precision, timing, stress/pressure, reflexes, awareness and strategy into the combat and it will definitely affect the platforming. Too keep all this in mind at all times require a lot of skill, but we try to think about player choice here as well, and there is always different ways to engage in combat. Actually, if you are really really skilled, you can clear all levels without shooting, by really focusing on timing, dodging, and platforming, and by being creative while planning your routes. It might not be the fastest way though, so you might have to sacrifice some of your speed. That's why a No Ammo mode is one of the unlockable extra modes that you get as soon as you clear a level (all extra modes will have their own high scores).

Any way, if I were to compare our combat to any other game, it would probably be Megaman, but I would say; because Cloudbuilt is in 3D, uses more maneuverability and have larger environments, Cloudbuilt’s combat scenarios get pretty different, and it’s hard to really compare them. Though both games do have some similarities in the sense that they both use enemies that are fairly simple in their nature, but when combined with other enemies or platforming, gets challenging.

Casper Nilsson (Artist): Enemies like turrets can disrupt your wall runs if you get hit, while others like flying drones will stun and push you if they get too close. You have to master your own movements and also learn your enemies mechanism to counter them in a quick and safe way.

The more advanced paths in the game require more multitasking as you have to aim and navigate at the same time. Enemies like mines and moving force fields adds an extra challenge when you navigate on the platforms, But sometimes mines can also save you when you are chased by drones. Other enemies are placed to create a stress factor, while some are placed to create a challenge since you also need to manage your health in the game.

A great skill in the game is to know when you should take out a certain enemy and when you should avoid them to save time. But you also have the choice if you want to take an combat heavy path or an acrobatic path on a couple of levels.

Do you have any plans to bring Cloudbuilt to consoles?

Anders: Well, we have been investigating it a little bit, and it is definitely technically doable as we have full control over our engine, though we might have to hold it of for now because of time constraints, there are two other aspects we need to consider as well.

One is the controls. The game is designed for mouse and keyboard, and requires too much input to be comfortable on gamepads as most gamers are not comfortable using two triggers on one hand. It is a little bit hard to explain further, but I will try my best. (Though, we will launch the PC version with gamepad support, so you can all try it out for yourselves once the game is out.) On a mouse and keyboard most gamers have no problem using WASD for movement on one hand while also using shift/ctrl with one finger and space with another. With the other hand on the mouse it is easy to aim and shoot with the mouse button. That means that there is two directional inputs (aim and move) and three buttons (jump, shoot, booster). The directional inputs will require both thumbsticks on a gamepad, and as we require input at all times, it means you can't take your thumbs of the sticks to use the face buttons without losing control. That means that all other actions that you are required to use at the same time must be mapped to triggers/shoulder buttons. As there are three very important buttons, that means that two triggers will be used on one hand, requiring two fingers to operate. And that is the real hurdle.

The other aspect we need to investigate is the potential interest from console gamers. Do they want to play Cloudbuilt on console, even if these control issues can’t be resolved? It is playable, but much harder and it does not feel as intuitive at all. So even if we launch with gamepad support on PC, we recommend players to use mouse and keyboard, even if they are used to play with gamepads. Things might change in the future (Valve seems to be playing around with some cool stuff), but this is the situation today.

Generally when it comes to features and requests for platforms, we appreciate if people tell us what they are interested in, and we will make sure to look in to it if there is enough interest : )

When will gamers be able to play Cloudbuilt?

Anders: We have visited a few expos lately and let people play 6 of our levels there, we were meet with very good response, but I guess that is not what you were wondering about… we hope to release Cloudbuilt later this year, but as we are still in Steam's Greenlight process, we can’t really know for sure if that is possible. We are investigating our options, but if you want to help out, please give us a vote on Greenlight and help spreading the word! And if you have any feedback, questions or requests, feel free to tell us in a comment!

You can contact Coilworks on Cloudbuilt's official site and vote for the game on Steam Greenlight here.