The Watchlist: Slain!

Title: Slain!
Developer: Wolf Brew Games
Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux, Xbox One, PS4, PS Vita
Releasing May 2015, consoles planned for September and December
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Prepare to be Slain! Our homage to the gory hack and slash games of the 80's and 90's. We promise stunning visuals with gore galore.

There's something so satisfying about playing a brutally difficult game. Be it Volgarr The Viking or Super Meat Boy, succeeding where you failed myriad times before, mastering a game's seemingly insurmountable challenge, is always rewarding. Slain! harkens back to the days of brutal games like Shadow of The Beast and Ghosts 'n Goblins, a lone hero against grotesque odds, across Gothic landscapes of blood and death.

At a glance, Slain stands out due to its lavishly detailed pixel art. Clouds drift above and fog rolls across the swamps and underbrush. Torch lights flicker and sway in the breeze. The otherworldly abodes of werewolves and spirits and undead beasts drip with blood, walls choked with vines. Gruesome creatures, from skeletons and witches to more dangerous horrors, are displayed in grisly detail, all decayed flesh and tattered clothes.

But Slain! promises more than just wonderfully-realized Gothic environments. As the reawakened hero Bathoryn, you must traverse these lands and free seven towers from the grip of their monstrous overlords. From the crimson halls of Blood Tower to the lupine effigies of the Wolfwoods, Bathoryn strikes down creatures with his sword and mana abilities, while also dealing with each tower's puzzles and deadly traps. Master your skills, know your enemies, or die.

Slain! is estimated to release on PC, Mac, and Linux in May, with console releases rolling out in the months to follow. You can learn more about Slain! on its official site and TIGSource devlog, as well as support the game on Kickstarter and Steam Greenlight.

The Watchlist: Strength of the Sword Ultimate

Title: Strength of the Sword Ultimate
Developer: Ivent Games
Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux
Releasing late 2015
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A Fighting game combined with a BRAWLER!  With a huge sword, rocket launcher and a FLAMETHROWER!The game is a 3D, third-person, arcade-style, action-game that combines the tactical and skill-based combat of a Fighter with the progression, overwhelming odds, and awesome boss battles of an old-school Brawler!

The two-man team behind Ivent Games is getting a second chance. Two years ago, they released their hard-as-nails 3D brawler Strength of the Sword 3 on PS3, where it slipped into obscurity. In their own words, they "were basically invisible in the store. We weren't even featured in the indie section." Now through the nature of Kickstarter, the developers hope to bring their game to PC, expanded far beyond that initial Playstation release.

Strength of the Sword is all about gameplay. The loose story of defeating an ancient evil is merely a framework for challenging, flashy combat against punishing enemies. Playing the PS3 version reveals a game where knowing your enemy, learning their patterns, mastering countering and parrying, when to block an attack and when to dodge then move in for a combo, is all critical to success. Button mashing is only a quick way to die; this isn't God of War. Mastering Strength of the Sword requires precision and practice. Rather than facing hordes of enemies, you only fight a few at a time, the challenge coming from handling each enemy's strengths and skills. Armed with a selection of swords, shields, support items like throwing knives and grenades, and your repertoire of combat maneuvers, you dance around your foes, rushing up with leaping stabs, deftly dodging and blocking, moving in to deliver combos and mana-charged attacks on staggered enemies. It's fast-paced, tough, and satisfying.

The Ultimate version seeking funding on Kickstarter expands on the game in myriad ways. More customization and new weapons in the campaign will allow for greater combat depth and online and split-screen co-op means you can tackle the increasingly challenging enemies alongside a friend. But the biggest additions are PvP and Dark Mode. The developer's plans for PvP sounds similar to the Nidhogg formula, as you and your opponent push back and forth across connected regions to reach the opposing player's castle. Dark mode expands on PvP by introducing the ability to enter matches as a Dark Swordsman, a powerful boss-like enemy with random and devastating abilities. 

Strength of the Sword Ultimate is estimated to release later this year. You can support the game now on Kickstarter and Steam Greenlight; the original PSN game is available for $4.99 on the Playstation Store.

PC Review #111: Greebroll

Title: Greebroll
Developer: ThoseSixFaces
Platform: PC
Price: $6.99
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You've probably played a ball roller before, perhaps Super Monkey Ball or a mobile game like Orborun and Gears. So in that sense, Greebroll will feel familiar: roll your sphere around, avoid obstacles, don't fall into the abyss. But the game stands out thanks to its abstract style, unique and varied levels, and interesting mechanics that open the door for a plethora of inventive challenges.

Greebroll separates itself from other games in the genre from the get-go.

Rather than long windy tracks, levels here are compact and dynamic, abstract shapes hovering in the abyss or structures based on fonts and pixel. The goal here isn't to beat your time or reach the finish line, but to simply survive for an certain amount of time. Easier said then done when levels rotate and twist, forcing you to jump from ledge to ledge or stay balanced on off-kilter spinning platforms. Equipped with a double jump and the ability to fire projectiles, the levels grow more complex as you blast through barriers, activate platforms mid-jump, or deal with clones and multiple spheres at once. In fact, I'd say Greebroll is closer to a game like Super Hexagon than Super Monkey Ball, as you will die and restart again and again until you've perfected your skillet and mastered each level's challenges. The vivid colorful style completes the abstract minimalist presentation.

If the 200+ levels aren't enough, Greebroll also allows you to play every level co-operatively as well as test your skills in a competitive multiplayer. You can download free demos and alpha builds of Greebroll on IndieDB. The game is also available to purchase on IndieGameStand and looking for votes on Steam Greenlight.

The Watchlist: Phantasmal

Title: Phantasmal
Developer: Eyemobi
Platforms: PC
Releasing 2015
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The crux of horror games is the unknown, never being able to rely on your previous experiences. Welcome to the world of Phantasmal, a procedurally generated game that will feel like a new experience every single time!

Ah...horror games. The thrill of good scare, tensing in your seat, that creeping dread. If there's one flaw, it's that once you've died or restarted at a checkpoint, you know what to expect; the scare has lost its potency if you're expecting it. Phantasmal hopes to sidestep that by blending first person horror with procedurally generated levels. Set in an university plagued by some Lovecraftian evil, you play as Vietnam war veteran John Hope. Drawn into the haunted place by dark voices, John finds himself in a struggle for survival and sanity against nightmarish creatures, Armed with impromptu melee weapons like pipes and brooms or perhaps the rare gun, you'll also need to fend off the darkness with limited flares and your flashlight. The most unique aspect of Phantamal is its procedurally generated levels, meaning new layouts, new enemy and weapon placements every time you play. However, there will be a persistent element, through earned XP that allows you to upgrade John between playthroughs.

Phantasmal is currently aiming to be released mid-2015; you can download early alpha demo here. Learn more about Phantasmal on its official site, support the game on Kickstarter, or vote for it on Steam Greenlight.

The Watchlist: Noct

Title: Noct
Developer: Chris Eskins
Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux
Releasing 2015
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Noct is a 2D top-down multiplayer survival horror game that blends arcade combat with RPG survival elements. You are a survivor of the apocalyptic purge that formed the desolate wasteland now known as Noct. Explore a ruined world filled with ancient nightmarish creatures from a time long forgotten.

Seen through the grainy muted display of a thermal imaging satellite, Noct tasks you with traversing and surviving procedurally generated landscapes filled with monstrous beasts. It's a survival horror action game; while you may be armed with guns and melee weapons, the roaming creatures are relentless and ruthless and fleeing may often be the better option. Elements such hunger, hydration, and fortifying locations will also play a role, as the player scavenges for food and supplies. The developer plans to not have a heavy focus on survival mechanics, but rather for supplies to act as currency for trading. You won't have to face Noct's terrors alone; the game will feature online co-op so you can explore and fight enemies with a friend.

But even a friend may not be enough to protect you from Noct's nightmarish otherworldly creatures. Personally it's the creature designs that drew me to the game; the slow predatory movements, the washed-out glow of the eyes, the hulking size compared to your small human. From swarms of spiders and burrowing worms to creeping sinewy...things lurking within building interiors and massive room-filling bosses, Noct's bestiary promises a diverse array of monsters to flee and fight.

Noct will be released mid-2015. You can learn more about Noct on its official site, and support the game on Kickstarter (currently 117% funded with 70 hours left) or vote for it on Steam Greenlight.

The Watchlist: Human Extinction Simulator

Title: Human Extinction Simulator
Developer: Machine 22
Platforms: PC
Releasing late 2014
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Human Extinction Simulator is a turn-based tactical space combat game designed as a "training program" against the inevitable alien invasion we all know is coming. The game focuses on tactical decisions made on the battlefield and each move can make the difference between victory or defeat.

Mankind has made contact with extraterrestrial life, and the odds aren't looking very good for us. Thankfully we have the ultimate tool at our disposal, allowing us to simulate the coming invasion and encounters and prepare fleets for battle. Human Extinction Simulator is a turn based tactical strategy game, set across hexagonal maps as you command your ships against attacking aliens. There really isn't any guessing here. You always know which hexes will put you in harm's way, where enemies can move, what you can accomplish from any possible maneuver. This knowledge places the focus on positioning and movement, as you stay out of your enemy's range while maneuvering into the best positions to attack. The variety of vessels to deploy, from heavy slow cruisers to fast but weaker fighters, offer a wide array of strategies against the alien threat. Playing the beta, I enjoyed the slower pace and methodical, Chess-like gameplay, and definitely want to see the developers expand on and improve Human Extinction Simulator in the coming months.

You can try Human Extinction Simulator for yourself; the beta is available here. Machine 22 plan to release HES later this year; you can learn more about the game on its official site and vote for Human Extinction Simulator on Steam Greenlight.

No Money, No Problem: Colony Assault

Title: Colony Assault
Developer: Dejan Poje
Platforms: PC
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Colony Assault is a top down sci-fi tactical action game, as you guide a team of elite soldiers against a deadly alien threat throughout various facilities.

Solo, or with a team, you're equipped with powerful weapons and vehicles and tasked with decimating the alien hordes hallway by hallway, room by room. While I felt the gameplay was a kind of slow and sluggish at times compared to similar games, the variety of gear at your disposal allows for some fun intense fights: classics like flamethrowers and motion trackers to your APC's extraterrestrial-shredding turret, remote guns, and airstrikes. Colony Assault won't wow anyone with its visuals, but they're competent and the game itself is an enjoyable strategic shooter.

You can download Colony Assault for free here; an advanced edition can be voted for on Steam Greenlight.

The Watchlist: Cavern Kings

Title: Cavern Kings
Developer: Vine
Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux
Releasing late 2014
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Inspired by action-packed games like Vlambeer's "Super Crate Box" and the increasing difficulty aspects in "Risk of Rain", Cavern Kings aims to explode with special effects in classical arcade fashion and create interesting synergies with its powerup system.

Cavern Kings isn't coy about its inspirations. Risk of Rain, Super Crate Box, even a little Spelunky, the influences are clear but Cavern Kings doesn't feel like a ripoff or derivative. I lost an hour to the beta; this is a fun challenging action platformer with a lot of potential and promise.

In Cavern Kings, you have one destination: down. Armed with randomly selected ranged and melee  weapons, you tunnel your way through the ground into increasingly difficult arenas, filled with enemies and hazards of all kinds. Collects gems and gold from crates and defeated enemies allow you to unlock chests, maybe granting you a new power up or a new weapon to the overall armory. Similar to Risk of Rain, power-ups stack, so an especially successful run might end with your guy able to triple jump, fire missiles at random, be protected by a shield, or countless other permutations. Take too long, and a massive grinder begins descending from above, forcing you to move on or die.

Gameplay is fast paced and frantic, as you desperately evade and shoot the enemies encroaching from all sides, blast flying worms out of the air, decimate the arena with TNT, jump over saw blades and spikes. Your arsenal is varied and satisfying to use, from the blade-throwing Sawdriver and Nailgun to the ground-pounding Kinetic Fist. Even the Shovel is an effective weapon; each feels different, requires different strategies, and the power-ups only allow for more diverse play styles. 

Cavern Kings is currently in beta, with more enemies, playable characters, weapons, power-ups, levels, and bosses to come. You can download the beta here, support the game on Kickstarter, and vote for Cavern Kings on Steam Greenlight.

The Watchlist: Valzar

Title: Valzar
Developer: Mike Craft
Platforms: PC
Releasing 2014
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Valzar is an action platformer with roguelike elements. A randomized world of humanlike enemies, grumpy gods, magic fruit, and mistakes.

Valzar immediately hooked me with its visuals. It's true that pixel artstyles are quite prevalent recently (and that's not a bad thing), but Valzar's weird enemy designs, vibrant color palette, and hectic display of magic attacks and flying blood makes for a intriguing compelling look. You play as a young girl, traveling across a vast world, fighting dangerous enemies and worshiping powerful gods. After equipping your preferred attacks and weapon from a varied selection of spells and equipment, you venture out into this dangerous world. Valzar is set up differently than other roguelike platformers; rather than your usual progression from area to area, you're presented with a map to explore as you see fit, each section of the grid offering a new level to fight through.

Thankfully, Valzar's gameplay is as equally polished as its visuals. Aside from the spells and weapons you can equip, there's a large array of items and perk slots that can adjust your playstyle. Headgear and auras, fruits and potions, pets, class, all can boost different stats or provide the player unique abilities. Deities discovered throughout the map can be worshiped to increase certain stats and be rewarded with gifts. Outfitted with all these augmentations and special gear, the player is thrust into hectic fast-paced combat against surprisingly smart enemies. You won't find any calm planning here; you'll need to evade deadly projectiles and enemies while landing strikes of your own. The enemies are just as well equipped as you, with the same magic and weapons, and can even adapt to your tactics. Fond of leaping over an enemy's head and attacking from behind? Don't be surprised if that enemy intercepts your jump and attacks you in mid-air

Valzar combines challenging fast-paced combat with a sense of exploration in its weird colorful world. You can learn about this roguelike platformer on its official site and vote for the game on Steam Greenlight.

PC Spotlight #98: The Sun At Night

Title: The Sun At Night
Developer: Minicore Studios
Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux
Price: $14.99
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Many games give you a canine companion. Fallout, Fable, Dead To Rights, even Metal Gear Rising. But it's much rarer to play as the animal itself. In The Sun At Night, you play as a heavily-armed Russian space dog, in a sprawling world filled with dangerous enemies, cool upgrades, and intense combat.
As the intelligent Laika, you're augmented with powerful armor and an array of weaponry as you explore the caverns, jungles, various military camps, laboratory, and other facilities of an alternate Earth ruled by an all-powerful USSR regime. The Sun At Night set across a large interconnected map, and as you explore and discover secrets, your canine warrior becomes a far more formidable fighter, thanks to a wealth of upgrades. From increasing your health and speed, to improving your shields, to granting your weapons new functions with modifiers, you can customize your playstyle in various ways. You'll need all the improvements and enhancements to succeed, as The Sun At Night is a challenging experience. A mix of bullet hell action as you evade enemy fire and fast-paced platforming and shooting as you fight dozens of robots and massive bosses makes The Sun At Night a satisfyingly difficult game. Skill trees and secrets offer a nice amount of replay value and an story told through dialogue, journals, and cutscenes kept me interested throughout the game.

The Sun At Night is a an expansive, action-packed game, with a unique protagonist and intense gameplay. You can purchase the game here, and vote for it on Steam Greenlight.

PC Spotlight #93: inSynch

Title: inSynch
Developer: Them Games
Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux
Price: $4.99
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Gameplay-wise, inSynch is simple. Four lanes converge at a center pit, and various shapes travel towards the middle. It's your job to bounce these shapes into the pit with a button press. Timing is key here. So as a game, inSynch isn't very deep.

But as an experience, an audiovisual experience, inSynch shines. The stop-motion animations give the game a wonderful textured look, and the shapes move towards down the lanes, not as static figures, but imbued with life, dancing, unfolding, reforming, flapping, twisting and turning like abstract dancers. Their graceful movements add to the gameplay, requiring you to learn the patterns if you want to time your bounces. The music building as you progress, changing with your performance, a smooth soothing soundtrack that draws you into the experience. inSynch is a relaxing game; in fact, in Explore mode, it's impossible to fail. Complete a track in Explore and you unlock its more challenging Exploit counterpart, where you can fail and the seemingly sedate gameplay becomes a test of skill and reaction.

InSynch's simple gameplay is bolstered by its finely crafted aesthetic, a playful mix of stop-motion animation and reactive music. You can purchase the game here and vote for it on Steam Greenlight.

SitRep: Prisonscape

Title: Prisonscape
Developer: Heaviest Matter
Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux
Currently Kickstarting, late 2014 release
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Prisonscape was among the first games I previewed all the back in September. Now the RPG is aiming for a December release and progressed leaps and bounds since last fall.

Prisonscape is an adventure RPG set, not in a sci-fi future or the grand halls of some fantastical world, but in the gritty grimy corridors of prison. Through bloody violence, sharp tongue, intimidation, intelligence, or a combination of all those elements, you must navigate the various gangs, the racial factions, the guards, friends and foes alike to endure prison life. While the gameplay discussed in the last preview remains intact, new details have emerged. The player will progress from county jail to state-of-the-art Miranda Unit, followed by two other areas. Crafting is far more realistic than other games, a layered deep process even to make something as simple as a basic shiv. Drug addiction and withdrawal, working with guards as a snitch, the ever-looming threat of a cell shakedown, Prisonscape promises to offer a "gritty, uncompromising atmosphere", compared to other prison games such as The Escapists or Prison Architect.

Prisonscape is currently seeking funding on Kickstarter. You can also vote for the game on Steam Greenlight. If you're going to be PAX East this weekend, the developers will be showcasing the game there as well.

The Watchlist: Four Sided Fantasy

Title: Four Sided Fantasy
Developer: Ludo Land
Platforms: PC
Releasing early 2015
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From the level designer of Perspective comes a successor to his award-winning game The Fourth Wall, a game about limits of the screen.

The first thing about Four Sided Fantasy that caught my attention was its dev team, since it composed of DigiPen students. From games like Nitronic Rush (and its successor Distance) to Perspective, DigiPen talent has proven to always deliver innovative quality experiences. Actually it was DigiPen students who developed Narbacular Drop and TAG: The Power of Paint, two indie games that inspired the acclaimed Portal series. Not only that, but the level designer of Perspective is developing the game; Perspective remains one of my favorite freeware games, a mindbending mix of 2D platforming and 3D perspective that I don't believe has been attempted since. It's those factors that attracted me to Four Sided Fantasy, a puzzle platformer about screen wrap.

Four Sided Fantasy is the successor to developer's Logan Fieth's freeware game The Fourth Wall. The core mechanic is the ability to manipulate screen wrap. At any time, you can freeze the screen, allowing you to loop around the edges. Something as simple as screen wrap might seem like it would be difficult to craft a diverse game around, but playing The Fourth Wall proved otherwise, using that mechanic to create a variety of interesting puzzles and challenges. Four Sided Fantasy builds off that original version, introducing vibrant colorful visuals and a story of discovery and exploration as a seemingly normal business trip turns into something more mysterious. The trailer hints at new mechanics, such as gravity fields and moving between background and foreground.

Four Sided Fantasy will be released in early 2015. You can support the game on Kickstarter and vote for it on Steam Greenlight. Play the original prototype The Fourth Wall here, as well as Perspective.

The Watchlist: Grave

Title: Grave
Developer: Broken Window Studios
Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux
Releasing 2015
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Grave is a first person, open world survival horror experience. Explore an ever-changing world filled with frightening creatures. Grave is a hybrid of environmental exploration and combative horror, creating constant tension as the player balances exploration and survival. Our goal is to revitalize the survival horror genre with modern techniques seen in current horror games, while retaining the survival and inventory elements of classic titles.

Grave is an upcoming survivor horror game set in a surrealist nightmare. You awaken on a mysterious desert plain, an endless landscape that shifts with each sunrise. Inspired by the work of Salvador Dali, this world is ever changing, new areas, biomes, and structures appearing with each passing day. From ruined cities and displaced forests to a sudden downpour, you can never be prepared for what weird misplaced area appears over the horizon.

But this world isn't void of danger. Otherworldly beings emerge as night falls and light is your only defense against these grotesque enemies. While this may bring to mind Alan Wake, Grave puts an interesting twist on the mechanic by offering a variety of tools from flashlights and flares to matches and gasoline and making each enemies behave differently to light. Some are easily destroyed, others are merely stunned, while others are attracted to the illumination.

I was able to play the early press demo and even at this early stage, Grave delivers a tense atmosphere. Roaming the windswept plains as haunting music plays. Stumbling upon a derelict town when night falls, a flickering match your only illumination in the suffocating black as an unearthly shriek pierces the darkness. The satisfaction of finding a generator or a gas can, or setting a patch of gas aflame with a flare to kill an approaching creature. Finding some mysterious object out in the world where there was just empty plains the night before. Grave is already scary and fun, and the creatures, weapons, and environments to come will only flesh out the game's solid foundation.

You can learn more about Grave's development on IndieDB, support the project on Kickstarter, and vote for it on Steam Greenlight.

The Watchlist: Lemma

Title: Lemma
Developer: Evan Todd
Platforms: PC (potentially Mac, Linux)
Releasing 2014
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Lemma is an immersive first-person parkour game. Every parkour move has the potential to modify the environment. Surfaces pop in and out of existence at will.

At a glance, the game Lemma probably brings to mind is Mirror's Edge. However while both feature first person parkour, one let the player loose among stark dystopian streets and rooftops while Lemma drops the you in an abstract landscape where the environment itself can help or hurt you. In Lemma, you play Joan Emerson, a physics student who enters this mysterious world and soon finds herself unraveling its secrets. It's a semi-open world, spreading out from a hub that lets you choose which areas to explore in what order you want.

Besides the parkour and abstract levels, what makes Lemma fun and interesting is how the environment reacts to your presence and how you can affect the environment. Your influence is probably most apparent; by wall-running or sliding off edges, you create a surface to continue moving, and later you gain the ability to select structures as you move as shown in the GIF above. But the environment is always your friend. From dangerous turrets and virus-like red material that spreads across the level to explosive cubes that hone in on your or throw parts of the level at you, there's a wealth of hazards to deftly evade with your superior movement.

Lemma is still in alpha, but is quite playable; you can download the alpha here to get a feeling of the gameplay and world. The developer is working on new content and additions, such as blocks that expand at your touch, switches that allow for machinery like elevators, and improved animations. You can learn more about Lemma here and on TIGForums, support the game on Kickstarter, and vote for it on Steam Greenlight.

SitRep: XenoRaptor

Title: XenoRaptor
Developer: Peter Cleary
Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux
Beta available now
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I shared my thoughts on XenoRaptor in early February, and I've been enjoying this franctic action shooter and its bullet hell mayhem ever since. The developer has been working tirelessly on the game, providing regular updates on his Tumblr and TIGForums, and XenoRaptor has only gotten bigger and better over the weeks. This is a game best seen in motion so I hope you don't mind some excessive use of GIFs.

Additions have included:
Doubling the amount of enemies and bullets onscreen, allowing for even more chaos and making explosive weaponry more effective

New weapons, such as the tactical nuke (with lasers!), improved laser, and multi-directional firepower

New engines abilities like hyperdrive

Bigger bosses and the ability to mind-control bosses

The developer is also improving the menus and working on an objectives system, that will provide missions such as defending a base or friendly ship and surviving while confined to specific area. You can buy Xenoraptor or try the demo here, follow the game on Tumblr, and vote for it on Steam Greenlight.

The Watchlist: Gang Beasts

Title: Gang Beasts
Developer: Boneloaf
Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux, Android, WiiU, PS4, XBox One
In development
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Gang Beasts is a stupidly silly local multiplayer party game with doughy ragdoll physics and horrific environmental hazards.

I'll be honest. I first saw a screenshot of Gang Beasts during Screenshot Saturday. It looked interesting but nothing really jumped out at me as amazing or something to be hyped about. And then I read this great RockPaperShotgun preview and realized that was a mistake. Gang Beasts is awesome.

Even in its extremely early playable alpha, the game is one of the most fun and funniest I've played in a while. RPS was right when they said "every fight turns into a desperate action sequence." Gang Beasts is pushing and prodding your opponent into an industrial grinder. It's having a four-way brawl atop speeding trucks. It's punching your opponent in the face while both of you dangle from a window washing platform. What's more, those exciting fights are incredibly simple to control - keys for movement, for punching and grabbing - and your cute colorful brawlers all have physics-based animations that add some satisfying yet oddly hilarious brutality to every fight.

And that's only the 0.0.1 alpha. Reading through the developer's IndieDB and Greenlight pages, they have even greater ambitions. A shopping mall with glass elevators to fight on top of. A hotel/casino featuring a bar for a good old-fashioned bar brawl. A construction site with destructible walls and floors to smash through. An amusement park with a Ferris wheel and roller coaster to fight on. Levels ranging from fights in the middle of freeway traffic to fights on top of a train. A single player mode with levels and bosses. Various moves like headbutts, elbows, and evasive dodges. It sounds incredibly promising and the alpha is a clear evidence that Boneloaf is well on their way to achieving those goals.

Gang Beasts is still in early development. You can download the alpha here; it's currently multiplayer-only, with up to four players able to brawl locally across several levels, but the developers plan to add AI bots and a Sandbox mode in the next build. You can learn more about Gang Beasts on its IndieDB page and vote for it on Steam Greenlight.

The Watchlist: Zaharia

Title: Zaharia
Developer: Inner Void
Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux
Releasing late 2015
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Zaharia is an RPG with an oriental and middle eastern flavored setting, inspired by Middle East cultures charm and made with care to be original but, at the same time, plausible and convincing.The player will be able to create his own character and use him freely, writing his own story in the world of Zaharia without neither compromises nor constraints. While exploring the game’s world, the player will discover its centuries-old history, and will come in contact with a world radically different from the ones inspired to European Middle-Age.

In the vein of Fallout, Underrail, and the like, Zaharia is an isometric turn based action RPG. But what makes the game stand out is its setting and premise. This is far from the ruined worlds of those games or Wasteland; it's a realistic fantasy world inspired by Middle Eastern culture and architecture. This is a world on the brink of leaving the mystic ways behind and entering a industrial and technological revolution. The deserts and sprawling cities hold many opportunities to build your skills and more importantly build your reputation and define your character. Stealth and taking enemies by surprise to gain an advantage is just as important as smart dialogue choices. The combat promises to be equally realistic, casting you not as an all-powerful warrior, but a skilled combatant who can easily be overpowered if cornered and outnumbered. NPC members have beliefs of their own and may even reject your orders if it clashes with their values. And they will remember your action and decisions, so your reputation and the factions you support will play a critical role in the missions you can undertake and their outcomes.

Based on the prototype demo, Zaharia has great promise and potential. While I enjoyed the gameplay, it was the atmosphere and world that was most intriguing and it's a world I'd like to see more of. You can learn more about Zaharia here, vote for it on Steam Greenlight, and support the game on Kickstarter.

The Watchlist: Classroom Aquatic

Title: Classroom Aquatic
Developer: Sunken Places
Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux
Late 2014
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Classroom Aquatic is the world's first trivia/stealth game. Players play as an exchange student in a school of dolphins, taking a test that the player is in no way prepared for. They must resort to cheating in order to pass it!

Classroom Aquatic is quite literally about a school of dolphins. Basing a game on a pun might seem like it would have little substance for an experience, but Classroom Aquatic takes the premise and runs with it, promising to deliver a weird game with a unique core mechanic. The framework is that you're a human exchange student in this submerged school and to pass the absurdly hard exams, you need to cheat. Playing the demo (available here), I was impressed by the atmosphere and how fun the gameplay was. The surreal tone adds to the enjoyment, but the game itself has a solid foundation to build on, as you cautiously peek at your fellow students' tests, watch the teacher's path for the best moment to glance over, and time distractions with thrown erasers. While I only played with a mouse and keyboard, I imagine the experience would be even more immersive and absurd with an Oculus Rift.

 While the demo is understandably bare bones, the developers plan to build on the gameplay with more environments and game modes, such a Detention where you must prevent other students from cheating off your test by tricking them with wrong answers or Science Fair which tasks you with sabotaging other science projects without getting caught. You can learn more about Classroom Aquatic at the official site, vote for it on Steam Greenlight, and support the project on Kickstarter.

PC Spotlight #80: Retrobooster

Title: Retrobooster
Developer: Really Slick
Platforms: PC, Linux
Price: $17.99
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Cave flyers have been around for years and the focus on moving through tight spaces while also avoiding objects and enemies have proved to be a popular framework for challenging games. Now Retrobooster promises to take the genre to new heights with modern visuals and physics and the game absolutely succeeds.

What stood out the most, from the moment I started playing Retrobooster, was the visuals. Now in terms of textures and other details, Retrobooster isn't exactly photorealistic, but once the bullets start flying and enemies start exploding, the game is an absolute visual treat. The particle effects, the subtle lighting playing across walls and ceilings, the realistic smoke of your thrusters against surfaces, it turns the relatively simple gameplay of evasion, maneuvering, and shooting into an intense frenzy of light and color and particles that's a joy to watch in motion. However, Retrobooster is more than a visually stylish experience; it's a challenging action game that requires skill to survive. Learning how to control your thrusters, momentum, and inertia takes practice, but once you get past the learning curve, you'll be able to weave through the dangerous traps and thread between projectiles with ease. The level design shines here, from the deadly crushers and moving gears to the claustrophobic caves and tight mazes of metal and stone to precisely move through, all while evading bullets and firing your own.

If surviving alone is too much of a challenge, you can also team up co-operatively or destroy each other in split-screen deathmatch with up to four players. But solo or co-operatively, Retrobooster is an impressive visual experience that is as fun and challenging as it looks. You can learn more about Retrobooster and purchase it from the developer's site and Desura, and vote for the game on Steam Greenlight.