Title: [encrypted] Developer: Niall Moody Platforms: PC, Mac --- [encrypted] is an abstract and minimalist roguelike, stripped of stats and gear and focused purely on discovery, experimentation, and tactical maneuvering. In a world of odd glyphs and roaming enemies, you must survive. There is zero handholding here, no tooltips, no tutorials. Your first few attempts will be confusing, but each death is a learning experience as you slowly but surely learn how enemies behave, how spells work, and grasp the game's other systems and mechanics. Evading challenging enemies and using abilities at the best time is rewarding, especially as you piece together the rules of the game and use the knowledge to your advantage.
[encrypted]'s development is currently on hold, but the available build is relatively complete in terms of mechanics. You can download the game here.
Title: Rain World Developer: Videocult Platforms: PC, Mac Releasing Summer 2015 (Steam) --- I've written about Rain World four times on my blog. I participate in the game's devlog regularly and update the Rain World thread on NeoGAF. Suffice to say, I'm a big fan and can say, without a doubt, that it's my most anticipated indie game. So after following Rain World's progress for months, I was very excited to finally play the latest build, which will be available at PAX and soon for Kickstarter backers. First a refresher: Rain World is a platformer with a focus on stealth, exploration, atmosphere, and AI. It's set in a world once inhabited by some intelligent civilization; now only the local ecosystem roams and thrives in the weathered, ruined industrial landscape. You play as a slugcat, a lithe agile creature, both predator to the fluttering bats that migrate throughout the world, and prey to the beasts that hunt you such as deadly lizards and terrifying alien vultures. Rain batters the surface periodically, crushing and killing everything, so between downpours, you need to leave your den and gather food while evading and dealing with predators. Rain World's procedural animations and atmospheric visuals bring this struggle for survival to life.
The PAX build consists of four regions out of a planned twelve: the overgrowth-choked rooms of Suburban, the dank water-logged tunnels of Drainage System, the rusted machinery of Heavy Industrial, and the open spaces and heights of Chimney Canopy. Lizards roam the lower regions, leeches swarm in the sewer water, and vultures rule the skies around the canopy. Your goal in this build is simple: explore, eat bats, and return to your shelter before the rain comes.
Visually, Rain World has progressed massively since the early screenshots and videos seen on the game's Kickstarter page over a year ago. This alien world feels alive, as shadows shift across the background, water drips from above, and the sky rumbles. The game's ecosystem cements the atmosphere. Each lizard looks unique, with different body sizes, spines, ridges, tail turfs, and each species reacts to each other and to your slugcat in their own unique way. White lizards blend into the environment, surprising you with their chameleon-like tongue, while heavy green lizards charge forward with unexpected speed. Blue lizards scale walls and ceilings and pink lizards chase you down relentlessly.
Enter a room and you might see lizards of the same species fighting for dominance or hunting another lizard. But lizards pale in comparison to the vultures. These aerial creatures swoop down from above, their fleeting shadow your only warning before they descend for the kill. Using biological thrusters and their tentacled appendages as both wings and walking limbs, vultures are fast, agile, near-unstoppable apex predators. As a slugcat, your best options are to flee and hide or...better yet, lure a lizard into the vulture's waiting mandibles.
The world of Rain World isn't the only aspect that's been improved. Your slugcat is more agile than ever before, able to backflip over lizards, roll and perform high jumps, and chain these new maneuvers together. These skills are your greatest strength, allowing you to deftly evade predators and scurry out of sight or provide some breathing room to nail a devastating spear throw. Jumping and climbing around is fun thanks to the fluid animations, and using your agility to avoid or fight predators makes each encounter a tense game of cat-and-mouse.
Rain World is far from complete. New creatures and regions in development, such as the pack-hunting yellow lizards and the Garbage Wastes, promise to evolve the game even further. But even now, as an alpha with a few (albeit quite large) regions and species, it's already an impressive and engaging experience.
You can follow Rain World's progress and find many more GIFs and in-depth development updates in the game's TIGForum devlog. You can also add Rain World to your wishlist on Steam.
Title: Slain! Developer: Wolf Brew Games Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux, Xbox One, PS4, PS Vita Releasing May 2015, consoles planned for September and December ---
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.
Made for the Procedural Generation Jam 2014, JET/LAG is described as a "Hyper Minimal Rogue-like-like-like featuring unforgiving tactical gameplay". What does that mean? You're a square, dropped into random arenas of dangerous geometric foes, each one with own unique behavior that you must learn how to avoid. Pick-ups imbue you with special abilities such as homing drones and a close-range electric attack, but your main means of attack is ramming into enemies. The controls and objective are simple - click to move in that direction, clear the level - but add the varied enemies and different skills and JET/LAG evolves into a fast-paced game of evasion and close calls as you move in close to ram your foes while also dodging laser-firing triangles, charging squares, homing projectiles, and more. It's a fast, frenetic, and addictive challenge.
You can download JET/LAG or play it in your browser here.
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.
Title: This War of Mine Developer: 11 Bit Studios Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux Price: $19.99 --- A popular franchise once stated "War. War never changes". Maybe so, but for the people caught in the midst of the conflict, everything changes. This War of Mine explores the horrors of war from a perspective not explored in the medium till now and delivers one of the most tense, gripping, and bleak experiences I've played this year. Games like Call of Duty and the like tend to use war for the spectacle, creating big action set pieces from the chaos. You'll never see the war ravaging the country where This War of Mine is set, but its effects are ever present. A gutted war-torn city, all pencil-sketched shadows and ruined structures, reeking of desperation and hopelessness, as explosions thunder and flash ceaselessly outside.
This War of Mine is not fun. It's grueling. Unrelenting. Oppressive. You start each playthrough with three survivors. Sometimes one or more might already be sick or wounded. Sometimes it might be winter at the start, meaning fuel and heat will be utmost priorities. The game is divided into two phases: Day, where you're confined to your base because of snipers outside, and Night, where you can venture out and scavenge for supplies, The daytime hours are when you can maintain your survivors and home, crafting new tools and workshops, building defenses against looters, or simply keeping your group alive by making sure they rest, recover, eat. You're always on the back foot, always just barely eking out a miserable day-by-day existence; even when your group finally is healthy and has a good amount of food stored, there's always the sense that it can't last long.
Once night falls, you're free to travel to other locations with one survivor, while instructing the others to rest or guard against raiders. These places range from homes and apartment buildings to schools and hospitals, and each scavenging run is a slow intense affair. Similar to 2012's Mark of the Ninja, environments are cloaked in shadows, only areas in your line of sight being visible. New unexplored areas are foreboding, never knowing who resides within or if they're friendly or not.
Even when you're equipped with a knife or gun, combat and violence in general feels like a last resort. Not simply because guns and ammo are a rarity or because you're untrained, but because you don't want to kill people or steal from them. A lot of games have moral choices or meters telling you if you're good or bad, but honestly, they've always felt artificial to me. In This War of Mine, there are only murky grey choices. Your actions matter, not just at that moment when you're desperate enough to kill and steal from people who are just trying to survive, people trying to keep their group alive just like you are, but also in the long term, as doing morally questionable things weighs on your characters. Building a radio or finding books and cigarettes can only distract and keep them occupied for so long. Survivors grow depressed, listless, broken, perhaps even suicidal.
If anything, that's War of Mine's greatest achievement: the way it makes you feel bad for crossing that moral line or makes intruding onto another group's home feel weird and wrong. You don't want to turn away children asking for help, or steal medicine from that elderly couple, or kill those people for their food. But your group is sick, and starving, and you desperately need fuel to stave off the winter cold, so you must.
The days go by. Winter comes and goes. As the war worsens, places that were once safe havens might be overtaken by bandits. Barter, scavenge, do what you must to endure. This War of Mine is the kind of game you might only be able to play in short sessions, due to the overwhelming bleakness and depressing nature. It can be slow and tedious and monotonous, but that only works in the game's favor, establishing a grim "We just need to last another day" tone. This War of Mine is not a fun game, but it is one hell of an engrossing, compelling, and atmospheric experience.
Title: Absolute Drift Developer: Funselektor Platform: PC, Mac, Linux In development, demo available ---
Absolute Drift is a car drifting/gymkhana game set in a minimal 3D world. The core-mechanic is simply controlling the car while it is sliding sideways. The aim is to increase your skill to the point that you are a master driver by competing in events where you must perform tricks around obstacles and demonstrate your driving skill.
Think back to 2011 for a moment, and you might remember the release of Dirt 3 and the Gymkhana mode, with its incredible drifts and vehicular stunts. Absolute Drift hones in on that focus, delivering a top-down, minimalist game all about the art of skidding sideways through the tightest turns and hair-breath gaps.
The current demo of Absolute Drift offers several race tracks and freestyle levels, all presented in contrasting red and white, black serpentine skid marks in your wake. The game can be played with either a gamepad or keyboard, but the controls feel more responsive and precise with the former. And you need every ounce of precision when playing Absolute Drift, as you slide around corners and turns with barely inches to spare. The freestyle levels offer an even greater and more creative challenge; achieving a high score means weaving between poles and under gates, performing donuts and spins, barrel-rolling off ramps and crashing through boxes. It's a game that requires skill and practice to achieve the best times and scores.
Absolute Drift is still in development, with new tracks, gymkhana courses, and challenges being worked on. You can download the demo and follow Absolute Drift's progress on IndieDB.
Title: Noct Developer: Chris Eskins Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux Releasing 2015 ---
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.
Title: Velocibox Developer:Shawn Beck Platforms: PC, Mac Price: $4.99 --- When you break down twitch games to their base elements, they tend to revolve around the same basic concepts: fast gameplay, and dodging things at high speeds. Some excel in their simplicity, like the classic flash game Vector Runner or the more recent Super Hexagon, while others add more complexity, such as Pivvot, Wave Wave, and Duet. Point is, that since the core elements are generally similar, it takes something more, something exceptional for games in the genre to stand out. Velocibox is one of those games, and it's perhaps the most addictive twitch game I've played since Super Hexagon. Expanded and improved from an entry for the current "Connected Worlds" Ludum Dare, Velocibox is unforgiving. In fact there aren't any checkpoints, when you fail (and you will), you start over from the first stage. Initially, I disliked this lack of checkpoints, but once I played more, I came to appreciate how the game was set up. Success relies on practice, learning the quirks and obstacles of each stage and surmounting them. It's more than twitch reflex but also adaption and gradual improvement, not just "one more go" but "I know these obstacles. I can do better". It's incredibly satisfying to race through stages that had defeated you countless times before.
But what makes Velocibox exceptional, because that's a pretty strong word? Well, it's more that all the game's aspects merge into a excellent whole rather than any individual element. It's the sense of speed, the feeling of racing forward at some extreme velocity, blasting off from stage one without a moment to catch your breath. It's the gravity-defying gameplay, as you flip between floor and ceiling and ride the walls. It's how the gravity flip mechanic opens the door for a wide variety of obstacles that wouldn't be possible in other twitch games, forcing you to deftly maneuver around and across all sides of these corridors. It's the vibrant visuals and effects, the great music, the no-frills presentation that lets you jump into the action in seconds.
I've only reached stage four out of nine, and beating the initial nine stages unlocks an even more insane Super Velocibox mode, so there's a hefty amount of content here. Velocibox is an easy recommendation for fans of the genre. You can purchase the game on Steam.
Title: Tinertia Developer: Candescent Games Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux Price: $14.99 --- Ah, the rocket jump. Such a wonderfully blatant disregard for physics and a core skill for FPS maestros the world over. Tinertia marries the wild high-flying antics of rocket jumping with a fast paced precision platformer. Your goal is simple: race through levels as fast as possible, avoiding the myriad hazards along the way. Tinertia would fall apart if the controls weren't finely tuned or accurate, but thankfully they are, allowing you to fire your rockets with precision, in mid-air as you fly over gaps. Shoot the ground to propel yourself upward, at walls to wall jump, and so on; combined with an air dash, you have a diverse moveset based on skill and precise timing. Shooting down barriers, bouncing over deadly platforms and saws, ricocheting through narrow tunnels and around corners...all at high speeds and a controlled flurry of rockets.
Along with the numerous stages, various modes, and boss fights, Tinertia completes the platforming fun with its stylish visuals, 2D gameplay set in 3D environments that allow for sprawling levels that coil and twist. Tinertia is a fast-paced platformer that requires precision and practice to succeed, and a worthy challenge for fans of speedrunners. The game is currently available on Steam Early Access; the full release will include 80 levels, more bosses, character skins, leaderboards, and other additions.
Title: Cavern Kings Developer: Vine Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux Releasing late 2014 ---
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.
SUPER III is a fast-paced, action/puzzle-platformer that follows the story of an alien named, III (Three). After a galactic war, III is given the task of finding and rescuing all survivors. Utilize III's teleportation abilities and screen-wrap to smash baddies and solve puzzles!
There's nothing perhaps more disappointing than when an anticipated game is cancelled (or at least equal in disappointment to when an anticipated game doesn't meet expectations). I've discovered a lot of games, followed a lot of projects that have since been abandoned or put on hold. Games like Stealer and A Shepherd in Dark Times and, most recently, Frog Sord. You can read about what happened to Frog Sord here and its current status here, but I'm excited to say that while Frog Sord may be in limbo, some of the developers of that promising game are working on something new: the teleporting platformer Super III.
In Super III, you play as an alien on a sprawling planet filled with enemies and bosses to defeat, traps to avoid, and puzzles to solve. Super III promises to blend challenging precision platforming with large expansive levels, a design choice inspired by games like Mario 64. Rather then bite-sized rooms, levels here will house multiple challenges to tackle, from races and time trials to survivors to rescue and items to collect. Your little alien is more than capable of traversing these areas, thanks to the ability to teleport horizontally and wrap around the screen. Hazards are numerous - bosses, spikes, missiles, unstable blocks, and more - but all are surmountable through timing, precision, and smart use of your skills.
Initially designed as a jam game for indiE3, Super III has only been in development for little over a month; however the game has progressed at an incredible pace, with numerous levels and mechanics for the game's five worlds already designed and prototyped. A Kickstarter and Greenlight campaign are planned for early August. You can learn more about Super III and its development on TIGForum.
Title: The Nightmare Cooperative Developer: Lucky Frame Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux Price: $9.99 --- If you go into this game expecting a grand and complicated experience, you'll probably be disappointed. The Nightmare Cooperative is a compact game, a roguelike distilled to its base elements. You won't find complex skill trees, or a multitude of loot to collect and equip, or expansive environments for you to explore and perish in. That's not a bad thing; if you're looking for something simple but challenging, simplified yet also strategic and tactical, The Nightmare Cooperative excels. The set-up is simple, a framework for the action rather than an extended narrative. Your village is in disarray; go out, gather gold, fight monsters, survive. The core of The Nightmare Cooperative is its gameplay and that aspect proves to be much deeper and more engaging than the story. If you've familiar with Michael Brough's 868-HACK, you'll feel right at home among Nightmare's enemy-filled rooms. Similar to that game, your goal here is to amass a high score, the amount of gold you collect equaling your final score. Opening chests rewards you with gold and spawns enemy so choosing whether to rush for the exit or increase your score is a crucial choice. Enemies move when you move so each step forward is a strategic decision that, when combined with the game's mechanics and varied foes, gives The Nightmare Cooperative a methodical, puzzle-esque vibe.
You don't control a single hero in Nightmare, but rather an entire group at once, each hero moving and using their special abilities simultaneously. Each hero is unique and positioning and formation is important since their abilities are only effective under certain conditions. The Archer can only shoot enemies directly ahead, the Mage can hit enemies on diagonals, the Warrior can perform two strikes in one move, the Ninja can pass through enemies, and so on for the other seven heroes. Supplementing these abilities are items that provide special perks, such as extra life at the expense of mana or not spawning enemies when opening a chest.
The enemies you face are equally varied and cement the game's strategic puzzle atmosphere. Some enemies travel along predictable paths. Others mirror your movements or move extra spaces in a turn. Turrets rotate and fire in intervals. All this knowledge is always at your disposal and define how you position your heroes, which heroes are best for a given room. Managing four heroes at once, while timing and syncing your movements to evade enemies or get into formation to attack a desired enemy with a specific ability, is a satisfying challenge. It's best to approach each move in The Nightmare Cooperative slowly and carefully, taking the time to plan out your next steps, thinking about where you are and will be in relation to enemies and hazards. A poor decision can easily find your heroes scattered across a level, cornered, a beneficial move for one character being dangerous for the others.
The colorful distinct art style rounds out this compelling package. The Nightmare Cooperative is all about the gameplay, the turn-for-turn decisions that make the best roguelikes so satisfying. Those looking for something with more depth may find the game lacking, but the strategic gameplay, varied heroes, and one-more-go appeal makes The Nightmare Cooperative a worthy addition for fans of the genre. The developers plan to add a challenge mode that will feature rooms with predetermined heroes, enemies, and layouts designed to test your strategic prowess. A mobile version is also in the works, with an estimated release time frame sometime later this year.
Title: Catacomb Kids Developer: Fourbit Friday Platforms: PC, Mac Still in alpha, Early Access planned, tentative early 2015 release --- I wrote about Catacomb Kids back in January. The roguelike platformer impressed with its fun gameplay and reactive world. Six months later, Catacomb Kids remains just as fun and intense, and the games makes steady progress towards a public alpha release. Alpha 0.0.3 was released recently to Kickstarter backers, offering a wealth of changes and additions. The most game-changing feature is footwear. Stone Boots allows you to crush enemies from above but cause you to sink in water. Sandals of Blazing set enemies on fire; other shoes can grant you the ability to walk on water or accelerate the movement. This new category gear gives you new ways to approach situations and defeat your enemies. Along with footwear, the recent update added new magic that grants you mastery over time and deadly new enemies. Character portraits and leveling up have been revamped and a multitude of tweaks offer a refined experience.
Catacomb Kids still has a long way to go before completion; the developer is hard at work creating the new Anticropolis area. Future plans include co-op, mercenaries/companions for hire, new classes, devastating new enemies like mages, new weapons and gear such as wands, bows, and hammers, and of course new levels, secret areas, and powerful major and minor bosses.
Title: Super Scrapped Robot Developer: bureaubureau Platforms: IOS Universal, PC, Mac, Linux, Browser Price: Free --- Super Scrapped Robot wears its inspirations on its sleeve. The Game Boy-esque color scheme, the retro style, this is an experience that harkens back to games of the past and offers old school bullet hell challenge. Super Scrapped Robot is a dual stick shooter, dropping you onto randomly generated levels as enemies emerge from all sides. Survive the hordes, find the exit. While the gameplay is simple, it's the execution that make Super Scrapped Robot: varied enemies from charging foes that masquerade as rocks to ghostly melee attackers, weaponized hats that swaps your default weapon for a rapid fire machine gun or flame thrower, the tight controls. Limited health and a overheat mechanic encourages you to stay on the move; humorous dialogue and challenging bosses keep the player engaged.
Super Scrapped Robot is free to download and its IAP structure is unique among the IOS games I've played. Any IAP purchase unlocks a Rainbow Mode that changes the colors scheme, weekly Challenges, and a Cheat mode that lets you alter the gameplay in various ways, and you choose how much you want to pay, with tiers ranging from $0.99 to $4.99. You can download Super Scrapped Robot for IOS here, purchase it on PC through itch.io, or play the game in your browser.
Title: Ashen Developer: Aurora44 Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux In development, no release time frame ---
Ashen is a 3rd person, action RPG about forging relationships. Players can choose to guide those they trust to their camp, encouraging them to rest at the fire and perhaps remain. People you meet out in the world will have unique skills and crafting abilities to bolster your chances of survival. Together, you might just stand a chance.
For many games, I remain on the fence until I learn more (which is probably a safe route to go). But then there are others that hook me at a glance, games that I know I absolutely need to play. Maybe it's the game's description or its concept, or some intriguing mechanic. Sometimes it's a single image. Ashen is in that latter category. One look at the bleak windswept plains, the pale air tinged grey with ash, the low-poly art style, I knew this was a world I needed to explore.
In development for the past seven months, Ashen is set in a world hanging on by a thread. The sun is gone, forever concealed behind the thick clouds of ash that clog the sky, the only light from volcanic eruptions in the distance. It's a ruined world, and you're a lone wanderer just trying to survive its many dangers. Bandits and beasts; cannibals, giants, and creatures lurking in the dark; the environment itself all are threats found throughout Ashen's expansive world. Similar to the Souls series, combat is a high risk endeavor, perhaps not even your best or first choice.
However, while you may be a lone warrior at the start, you won't be alone. Taking inspirations from Journey, Ashen is built around a passive multiplayer system, where players seamlessly enter your world sans lobbies or menus. Alone, survival is a bleak difficult prospect, but together, you just might thrive. Forging relationships is a key aspect of Ashen. Work together, roam the wastes, help each other against foes, or set out on your own. There are quests and areas where cooperating with others is needed to succeed. Even once you leave a player's world, you leave your mark on their game, by persisting as an NPC that remains in that player's town. Ashen won't forget the solo player either; if multiplayer isn't your thing, the developers plan to make the game fully playable offline in single player, with AI-controlled NPCs taking the place of other players.
Ashen is still early in development, with no release time frame. The developers are planning a Kickstarter for late this year or early 2015. You can learn more about Ashen here.
Title: Sunless Sea Developer: Failbetter Games Platforms: PC, Mac Price: $18.99 --- When the Kickstarter for Sunless Sun was going on, I'll admit that I hadn't been that interested ...and then I checked out Fallen London. I was instantly hooked by the mix of Lovecraftian, Gothic, and steampunk elements, the sense of dark wit, the interesting world and lore. Fallen London is extremely well written, bringing the dark atmospheric place alive with vivid descriptions. It's a world I wanted to explore and with Sunless Sea, I can. Sunless Sea lets you explore the vast Unterzee, a sprawling expanse of ocean deep beneath the earth where grotesque things and terrible fates await those who dare venture into the abyss. As captain, you command your vessel and crew as you discover new lands, fight dangerous enemies, upgrade your ship with better parts and new weapons. Starvation, madness, mutinous crews, and horrors beyond comprehension await out on the black waters. You travel the sea, always mindful of your fuel, your food, the sanity of your crew. Pirates and worst things move across the water.
Combat is quite interesting. In the damp dark of the Unterzee, light is your greatest ally. When fighting you have three category of actions: offensive (cannons, torpedoes, etc.), illumination, and evasion. Each action takes a certain amount of time to enact, and you can pause the fight and queue commands. You need to illuminate your enemy to be able to attack and also want to perform evasive maneuvers to reduce how illuminated your ship is. It's definitely an interesting take on combat, not real time but not turn based either, with a nice strategic depth
However, the meat of the game is exploration, discovery, and the cost of pursing such goals. In the same vein as FTL and Project Zomboid, Sunless Sea is very much a "story generator". You encounter new places, collect weird and mysterious cargo from travelers, set out on quests, gather a crew, choose to stay among known islands or brave the suffocating dark of uncharted waters. Maybe your crew will go mad. Maybe you'll discover some incredible fortune. Maybe you'll run out of food and need to eat your mates to survive. Great adventures and horrific misfortunes alike are out there for you to find and like Fallen London, it's all delivered through such atmospheric writing.
Sunless Sea draw you into its Gothic landscape through its vivid descriptions and compelling world. The developers plan to expand the game with new enemies and beasts, new areas and islands, deeper crew and ship mechanics, a randomized sea to explore, and improved visuals. You can learn more about the game here and purchase it from the developer's site and Steam.
Drawing inspiration from both legendary tactical turn-based games and classic heist movies alike, the goal of The Masterplan is to put together the right crew, get the right equipment, and finally plan and execute the biggest heist ever.
I had been following The Masterplan closely after seeing it on Screenshot Saturday and I was fortunate enough to get my hands on the game's press demo. It's a small early slice of the game - a small store, three criminals to control - but it was more than enough to make me very eager to see how the game grows in the future.
The Masterplan is set in the 70s, the era of The Getaway and Dog Day Afternoon, of cunning thieves and daring heists. From a top-down perspective, you control a group of crooks in typical tactical game fashion (set waypoints, select actions, pause and queue commands) as you plan out and conduct robberies. In the case of the press demo, your goal is to steal as much as possible, the primary target being the safe in the back of the store. How you approach this is up to you. My first attempt went downhill fairly quickly. I spread my trio throughout the store and draw my guns to hold up the clerk and civilians. I was directing the people to the back at gunpoint, when another person entered the store. Panicking, I shot him, but that took my attention off the clerk, who drew a shotgun and opened fire. By the time gunfire died down, I only had one robber left. The police were on their way. I hurriedly stole what I could and barely escaped to the getaway vehicle.
My second attempt went much smoother. I left one person as a lookout, sent my group member who specialized in lock-picking to go around the back alley and enter through a side entrance and had my third robber kept the people inside at bay. Within minutes, the contents of the safe was mine, I was able to direct everyone to a back room and knock them out, and all three of us escaped to our getaway van. Such different outcomes showcases The Masterplan's tactical depth and gameplay freedom.
The Masterplan is still in development, with an Early Access release planned for this summer. Aside from more heists, more criminals to use, and refining the controls, the developers want to add a mission editor and experimental modes such as a twin-stick where you directly control a single character. You can learn more about The Masterplan here and follow its progress on TIGForum or the developer's blog. The game was recently Greenlit.
Title: The Sun At Night Developer: Minicore Studios Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux Price: $14.99 --- 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.
Design and build vehicles out of modular blocks. Fight enemies, discover new parts and corporations, and harvest natural resources.
I first learned about TerraTech while browsing through the Screenshot Saturday page a few weeks ago and was instantly intrigued by the hulking vehicles and interesting art style. If you've seen games like Scraps, Kerbal Space Program, or Mobiloid, you know the basics here: a wide variety of parts to use, build any kind of vehicle you want. While Scraps focuses on multiplayer arena combat, TerraTech has a much more ambitious expansive scope. Set in open procedurally-generated environments, you set out from your base, gathering resources, taking control of territories from different factions, create more powerful fleet of vehicles to command and to protect your base, and add to your own vehicle with new parts and weapons. From drills and spikes to lasers and cannons, you'll need a powerful arsenal to defend yourself against enemy vehicles; with the right parts, you can even take the skies and attack from above. This focus on exploration and single player sets TerraTech apart from other vehicle-building games, and even more promising, multiplayer is also planned.
The current demo build offers several challenges and an environment where you can explore, build, and fight, and even at an early stage, TerraTech shows a lot of promise. The vehicles look cool and feel powerful and it's fun to just augment and improve your simple starting creation into a massive, menacing beast of a machine. You can learn more about TerraTech and download the demo here. TerraTech is currently seeking funding on Kickstarter.
