Indie Games 2014 [March] Now Voting - Post 651!

Finally. Can't wait

Think I might pick up Glitchspace
There's a 1.0 browser demo on Kongregate, was a lot of fun

Easily one of the best games so far this month, but I still got 30 or so to go :p
Try out Glitchspace, people!

...and you all should anticipate FRACT OSC next month.
 
OP impressions, KiloBite:
ixlaOSyW6CRzq.gif

Well, you cant describe it better than Snake in a 3D space, but the devs deserve a huge thumbs up for offering the ability to disabling any stylistic graphical options like scanlines and whatnot, as those gave me slight headaches. Other than that.. it works and is a good highscore game. Going through the level once you played for a while is also decently interesting and challenging with yourself obstructing so much of the path. Certainly came out well and is surprisingly polished, especially option wise. If you like the sound of that, you'll like this too, although I wished it had more gameplay options/modes.

Lennas Inception:

This game is VERY ambitious and also succeeds at its ambition. I am incredibly surprised at how good this actually is. Its a free randomized, highscore, permadeath (if you want) Zelda game, that creates the dungeon layouts, item placement, puzzles and enemies on the fly for you. It even accomplishes throwing in different randomized puzzles for the plethora of items you acquired and adjusts the difficulty of the enemies as you go along by adding more and stronger enemies. I just played my first round (permadeath) and died to some skeletons in dungeon 3 that ganged up on me after being a bit too "brave" (read as: stupid) for rushing into a pile of them instead of taking them on one by one. Additionally, it also has certain challenge modes that present you with other options like highscoring a only-1-life attempt or some other crazy permadeath challenges. Very, very cool.

Lift

Plane sandbox builder that recently added some challenges to actually use the built planes in. I find it very interesting that the actual vehicle design (wing length, weight, etc) actually can make a huge difference. You know not just "giving" a vehicle a certain speed and turn range, it just naturally gets it based on its physical features. However, I really wish they would add easier options to shape planes in forms other than pipes. Furthermore, the game is currently not much more other than the sandbox builder and they really need to add more challenges/modes to offer more actual "content", especially a decent tutorial with tutorial challenges to try your vehicles in. Games like this are always cool to see, but I'd really love more of them with actual levels/content. Until then, its probably safe to say that not many people will get too much out of this.

Magic Book


Lite sidescrolling roguelike that seems more fitting for the mobile platform because its simple, probably a bit too simple. You do pick up items like potions and fireballs, so its a huge step up over the lite ones that dont even have an inventory but its just not enough. The options presented in this game are too limited making you too often feel helpless instead of being able to prepare for situations. I dont see how I could have done my last run any better, because you dont have any major possibilities to improve yourself, and if I dont get the feeling that I could have done any better and still die in that very same space... then the game kinda fails.

>----------< Highly Recommended >----------<
1. Card City Nights
2. Cubesis
3. Glitchspace
4. Black Ice
5. Lennas Inception
6. Cosmochoria
>----------< Recommended >----------<
7. Banished
8. Box Out!
9. Heroes of Steel
10. Blue Saga
11. Action Painting Pro
>----------< Decent-ish >----------<
12. Lift
13. Izbot
14. KiloBite
15. Clockefeller
16. Bosses Forever
17. Astrovoid
>----------< Bleh >----------<
18. Magic Book
19. Guild of Dungeoneering
20. Grabbles
21. HOMEunculus
22. Cubrick
23. Goofball Goals
24. Cloudbase Prime
 
Okay, the dev had posted this in the Feedback/Play Testing thread on TIGForums, and I'm really enjoying it

Corridors of Uncertainity - Free pre-alpha (PC)
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http://frankforce.com/?page_id=4704

Corridors of Uncertainty is a top down arcade ction roguelike with huge procedural generated maps that are fully destructible.

This game is awesome. Already feels polished and fun for a pre-alpha. The shooting feels tight and satisfying, the powers are fun to use, the effects (love the destruction on the ground when you cause an explosion) and lighting is really good. It's inspired by games like Robotron, Hotline Miami, Loaded, and while the Hotline Miami-ness is evident, the game feels like its own thing, thanks to the sci-fi style, destructible environments, and powers. The game gets hectic, but still allows for tactics like staying out of sight and using cover to take out a tough enemy with a melee attack or blowing through a wall to make a last-ditch escape.

Edit: And his other games are really good too, all worth playing

Self Destruction - Free (PC)
MHnJZN6.png

http://frankforce.com/?p=4685

Self Destruction&#8221; is a game about being trapped in a time travel loop and needing to kill all previous versions of yourself to progress. Each wave you&#8217;re actions from all previous waves are layered on top of each other but instead of helping you, they are the enemies that you need to kill.

Secret Formula - Free (PC)
yYb7cExa.jpg

http://frankforce.com/?page_id=4385

Secret Formula is the winner of Indie Speed Run 2013!
Secret Formula was created by the team IDK composed of Saam Pahlavan, Jerry Uan, and myself. We created the game in 48 hours based on the theme &#8220;Secret&#8221; and the element &#8220;Vines&#8221;. The gameplay is a mixture of rope swinging action and stealth mechanics.

(R,G,B) - Free (PC)
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http://frankforce.com/?p=3829

(R,G,B) is a minimalist adventure game I made for Ludum Dare 26. The theme was &#8220;Minimalism&#8221;. My goal was to experiment with pure color values and explore the flat 2D space while keeping the game itself very simple. The gameplay is physics based, the only buttons are left, right and jump. It also supports keyboard or gamepad. There are no upgrades, weapons, powerups or anything to collect, though there is a potato at the end.

Protactor - Free (PC)
snapshot_0086-1024x640.jpg

http://frankforce.com/?page_id=1897

Protractor&#8221; is a katamari shmup that I originally made for Ludum Dare 18. The theme was &#8220;enemies as weapons&#8221;.

---

From the developer of Postmortem: One Must Die
Karaski - ????
karas29_the_gang_500x200.jpg

http://koobazaur.com/

It&#8217;s a highly stylized Slavic-steampunk RPG emphasizing dialogue, stealth and not-getting-spotted-doing-illegal-stuff &#8211; think less-shooty Deus Ex meets Thirty Flights of Loving.
 
Lemma's slo-mo predictive system

---
Glitchspace
So I've been playing the alpha and I have to agree with Toma, this game is great. The visual style reminds me of Mirror's Edge. with the stark white-red color scheme and minimal aesthetic, but gameplay is unique. While it's certainly a puzzler platformer, it feels more puzzler than platformer. Yes you need to jump over gaps and between platforms, but the core of the game is the visual programming mechanic. It took quite some time for me to wrap my head around the mechanic, and I'm still learning, but it lends itself so well to that sense of playful exploration and discovery, just learning what different variables do by testing and playing with them.

Seeing the programming breakdown on the Greenlight page shows the depth and possibilities you can achieve with the mechanic
  • Apply a force to an object, moving it out of the way.
  • Scale an object down to make it the correct height for jumping on.
  • Duplicate and move an object to create stairs, or floating platforms.
  • Make an object have no collisions to pass through it.
  • Change the physical properties of an object.
  • Make an object move when you touch another object.
  • Replicate the functionality of the Portal, and Gravity gun.
That last one makes me excited to see how the game progresses and what kind of challenges the developers create.
 
Lemma's slo-mo predictive system

i have no clue what is going on here. What is that predictive system supposed to do? You can run through a level and the game creates walls to get you to the end safely? Seems kinda... beside the point of a parkour game, but maybe I am just misunderstanding this.
 
i have no clue what is going on here. What is that predictive system supposed to do? You can run through a level and the game creates walls to get you to the end safely? Seems kinda... beside the point of a parkour game, but maybe I am just misunderstanding this.
Here's the dev's description of the two systems
Lemma has two systems that work together to offer full creative freedom. The first allows you to extend an existing wall or platform by running off the edge of it. Keep running as if the wall does not end, and the game fills in the gap for you.

You can activate the second system any time you're in the air. The game predicts where you're going, enters a "slow motion" mode, and offers several structures which you can use to maintain your momentum. They're transparent until you touch them; perform any parkour move on a structure and it becomes real.
 

The lovely people at TinyBuild sent me an email the other day saying that Speedrunners is 50% off this week. I've had a lot of fun with this game and for the price it is currently (about £3-4) then I would highly recommend it to anyone who ever played Super meat Boy and wondered what it might be like if you could play it multiplayer, and shoot rockets at your friends. Also has local play and online and level building and all that jazz.
 
So.. did I miss this?

Windforge is now available to buy on GoG - did this come out already?!

Edit

Comes out today - I guess GoG were first

Take this with a grain of salt because I have played this one alpha release behind the current one (might go back and dig into the latest build for sure), but I can't recommend Windforge at all. Every character movement and UI interaction has a clumsiness to it which makes the game just constantly irritating to play.
 
Take this with a grain of salt because I have played this one alpha release behind the current one (might go back and dig into the latest build for sure), but I can't recommend Windforge at all. Every character movement and UI interaction has a clumsiness to it which makes the game just constantly irritating to play.

That's disappointing :( Looks like it has so much potential as well
 
The lovely people at TinyBuild sent me an email the other day saying that Speedrunners is 50% off this week. I've had a lot of fun with this game and for the price it is currently (about £3-4) then I would highly recommend it to anyone who ever played Super meat Boy and wondered what it might be like if you could play it multiplayer, and shoot rockets at your friends. Also has local play and online and level building and all that jazz.

I also recommend Speedrunners, I haven't played in a while but the game is very fun to play with friends and the developers updates the game constantly.
 
That's disappointing :( Looks like it has so much potential as well

Yeah, I must admit I was super bummed out. I just was really ready to love a game where you kill whales and ride their corpses around as cadavar airships. On a positive note though, the humble release hasn't been updated since the end of January so hopefully they've spent some of that time tightening up the controls and general performance of the game. I'll write up some impressions once I have given the steam version a fair go.
 
Yeah, I must admit I was super bummed out. I just was really ready to love a game where you kill whales and ride their corpses around as cadavar airships. On a positive note though, the humble release hasn't been updated since the end of January so hopefully they've spent some of that time tightening up the controls and general performance of the game. I'll write up some impressions once I have given the steam version a fair go.

Thanks man, appreciate it. I'll file it under "maybe" for now - I have both Dark Souls II and (potentially) infamous SS over the next couple of weeks to play.

And HAWKEN. Love me some Hawken.
 
Yeah, I must admit I was super bummed out. I just was really ready to love a game where you kill whales and ride their corpses around as cadavar airships. On a positive note though, the humble release hasn't been updated since the end of January so hopefully they've spent some of that time tightening up the controls and general performance of the game. I'll write up some impressions once I have given the steam version a fair go.
Yeah, I was always excited for the game, and happy it was funded on KS, but idk, something always kept me from pre-ordering. So I'm interested in those impressions as well

---
So saw this game Dead Years yesterday. Huge Project Zomboid influence, obviously. Maybe a bit too much, even the website is set up similarly (Here's PZ's site for comparison)
But the art style looks so good
The hook here is that you travel with a dog as your companion and the open world has everything from small to large cities, highways, forests, towns, etc. More details will be coming soon, but I'm anticipating the game
 
So saw this game Dead Years yesterday. Huge Project Zomboid influence, obviously. Maybe a bit too much, even the website is set up similarly (Here's PZ's site for comparison)
But the art style looks so good

The hook here is that you travel with a dog as your companion and the open world has everything from small to large cities, highways, forests, towns, etc. More details will be coming soon, but I'm anticipating the game

Although if the website layout and language are that derivative, it doesn't exactly bode well for the project as a whole, right? Hope to be proven wrong, of course...
 
RPS's impressions of Windforge are not very promising
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/03/11/wot-i-think-windforge/

Kind of feel the same. The game has such great promise but after spending a good few hours in the beta I came out feeling like the game requires massive amount of polish for it to get to the point where I'd actually enjoy playing it beyond just mucking about.

Was hoping they would address it but since the early alpha it's been pretty much just about adding in content rather than go back to the initial systems and fix on it.

The graphic style also doesn't lend it self well to the viewpoint. the odd 3D way of showing layers doesn't mix well with the static 2D front of the rest of the game.

The team seems passionate though, so really hoping they take all of this to heart and work on it as it's stand now it'll go down as an average experience.
 
Damn. Wanted to pick up Humans Must Prevail while it was on sale at IGS. Of course I delayed, and now the sale is over. Shitnuts :/
 
Think I'm going to take a leaf of Toma's book here. Will flesh them out with some summaries soon

1. Glitchspace
2. Cosmochoria
3. Nothing To Hide
4. Grabbles
5. Xaxi
---
6. Retrobooster
7. Box Out
8. NeonXSZ
9. Lift
10. Bosses Forever 2.Bro
---
11. Tesseract
12. KiloBite
13. Mirage
14. Maverick Bird
15. Action Painting Pro
---
16. cubrick
17. HOMEunculus
18. Offworld
19. Black Ice
20. Walk
 
Bosses Forever 2.Bro - Played it for a bit and I wasn't able to notice the boss adapting to my moves and strategy, some times he seemed a bit dumb like going flying and staying at the top while I was under him just shooting without any peril. Maybe I'll give it another chance later this month.
 
Think I'm going to take a leaf of Toma's book here. Will flesh them out with some summaries soon

Surprised you dont like Black Ice at all. Its a randomized 3D FPS roguelike...RPG... thing. Whats your issue with it?

I mean, it has plenty of issues, but I think its unique and interesting enough at least.
 
Surprised you dont like Black Ice at all. Its a randomized 3D FPS roguelike...RPG... thing. Whats your issue with it?

I mean, it has plenty of issues, but I think its unique and interesting enough at least.
The shooting, the enemies, just overall, I didn't find the game that fun or enjoyable. But it does have promise; it's a game I'll come back to in a few months to see how it's improved
 
The shooting, the enemies, just overall, I didn't the game that fun or enjoyable. But it does have promise; it's a game I'll come back to in a few months to see how it's improved

I had the same experiences, the concept was fun but the moment to moment gameplay was really dull and uninspiring. Hopefully they can tighten it up a bit.
 
Put some time into the final release of Windforge and sadly my impressions echo that of RPS. It's a poor experience that is far greater as a concept then as a game. They appeared to have fixed relatively little of my complaints with the alpha. The feeling of control is still really loose and offputting and the world is still stuck in this odd limbo where it is nether open world madness (of a Minecraft or Terreria) or a tight scripted experience so it just sits somewhere between and results in you wandering around a lot and not really knowing what you should be doing. If you only play one whale hunting game this month then it looks like it should probably be From Hells Heart (of whatever it was called.)
 
Nothing to Hide - Along to Cosmochoria I can say it's one of the best games I played this month. When Messofanego said it was an anti-stealth game I had a totally different idea about what this game could be about, I thought it was a game about some girl sharing things in social media websites, but for my surprise it has little similarity to what I was expecting from the game. I don't want to spoil nothing of this game so go play it, and don't try to lie to me I know who is playing this game right now and who's only pretending. :P
 
Nothing to Hide - Along to Cosmochoria I can say it's one of the best games I played this month. When Messofanego said it was an anti-stealth game I had a totally different idea about what this game could be about, I thought it was a game about some girl sharing things in social media websites, but for my surprise it has little similarity to what I was expecting from the game. I don't want to spoil nothing of this game so go play it, and don't try to lie to me I know who is playing this game right now and who's only pretending. :P
Crowdfunding ends tomorrow, still has little over a thousand left to reach its funding goal
 
Year Walk left me feeling unsatisfied, it feels like a series of totally incomplete thoughts that never amounts to anything. It's going for some kind of metaphorical punchline but leaves with a rather expected ending. I think reading the journal in NG+ was the best part of the game. It is very pretty and the music is well done but all I can think of is the squandered potential behind a few really annoying puzzles and the reworks that had to be done since the game was no longer on a machine with a gyroscope and multi-touch interface.
 
The name sounds familiar but I don't think it was talked in any of the indie threads.
Well then...

Starship Corporation - Free alpha, $5+ to preorder (PC)
637x358.resizedimage

http://www.starshipcorporation.com

Starship Corporation is a Realtime Strategy Game that contains 4 Elements: Ship Design, Crew and AI Tactics, Ship Building and Trade.
The player is able to create the layout for Spaceships and Planetary Installations with multiple decks within the boundaries of existing fuselages. A completed design can then be challenged by playing a series of missions to test the crews reaction to emergencies and the ships combat capabilities.
 
I leave for a day and Black Ice hate is what I have to come back to, smh.
:P

Seriously, some interesting releases happened. I'll be getting Towerfall for sure, I'm rather interested in Dominique Pamplemousse, same with Frozen Endzone. I'm also tempted to look through my posts and find my critical statement on the Windforge KS. Sad I wasn't wrong, but that game looked rough from the outset.

Edit: Nothing to Hide made it, yay!
 
I'm thinking of picking up The Banner Saga, any IndieGAF thoughts on the game?

The combat isn't too deep and it has supposedly some pacing issues (I'm not too far in), but the worldbuilding is really well done, game's looks and sounds gorgeous, and is absolutely fun to play, imo.
 
Wow Infested Planet is great. Surprisingly the gameplay is pretty deep and addictive.
Yeah, sacrificing a marine to build a turret in a key position and then regreting that ten minutes later when you're low on points and you're getting overwhelmed, your decisions can really have long term consequences deep into a mission. I just love the visual of seeing your team holding off thousands on enemies.

Is there a way to counter the poison spewing enemies? Other than dragging a med pod around?
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Okay, decided to pre-order Starship Corporation
Along with the premise and alpha, these videos sold me on the game
Major Collision
Magnetic Storm
Drone Attack
Also it was Greenlit a while ago and will be coming to Steam/Early Access
 
Yeah, sacrificing a marine to build a turret in a key position and then regreting that ten minutes later when you're low on points and you're getting overwhelmed, your decisions can really have long term consequences deep into a mission. I just love the visual of seeing your team holding off thousands on enemies.

Is there a way to counter the poison spewing enemies? Other than dragging a med pod around?
---

the only way i found is the have a medic with you or heal at the spawn control. i always try to keep away from the toxic gas or the sniper turrets range. you can see their range when you click on each one. Then have airstrike take care of it..
 
Toma, mentioned your comment about GIF in the Lemma Devlog. Dev's response:
Thanks for the feedback, that's a good point from the NeoGAF comment. I think the goal is not so much to have walls and platforms be created for you, but more to have the player take an active role in shaping the environment.
 
For info.

Introducing a bundle of love for Brandon Boyer, with more than 30 indie games (and counting) just for you!

Humble Bundle has teamed with independent developers to put together a bundle like no other. To help support this cause, pay at least $25 to receive a ton of games and all proceeds will go directly to the Brandon Boyer Cancer Treatment Relief fund. In addition to Brandon&#8217;s medical bills for cancer treatment, the excess funds from this promotion will be donated to a select cancer research organization.

New humble bundle: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/product/brandonboyer_widget/Bdh7SGsu8Ewj

$25 for
  • Actual Sunlight
  • AirMech
  • Auralux
  • Bagfull of Wrong
  • BitTrip Beat Soundtrack
  • BitTrip Fate Soundtrack
  • BitTrip Runner Soundtrack
  • Blocks That Matter + Soundtrack
  • Castles in the Sky + Soundtrack
  • Dynamite Jack
  • Ensnare Soundtrack
  • Ethan: Meteor Hunter
  • Fancy Skulls
  • God of Blades + Soundtrack
  • Goscurry + Soundtrack
  • Mazing
  • McPixel + Soundtrack
  • Paragon
  • POP: Methodology Experiment One + Soundtrack
  • Proteus
  • QbQbQb
  • Quixotica Soundtrack
  • Sepulchre Special Edition with eBook + Soundtrack
  • Shipwreck
  • Sokobond
  • Stacking + Soundtrack
  • Thomas Was Alone + Soundtrack
  • VVVVVV + Soundtrack
  • Waking Mars + Soundtrack
  • Warp Juggler
  • Wizorb + Soundtrack
  • World of Goo + Soundtrack

Note that Sokobond alone would cost $10. I think Toma praised the game in the indie thread.
 
Soon cool news: Pixel Piracy is now being published by Re-Logic
It's been a long time coming, and we've kept it under wraps for a month now, but it's finally time to let the world know about our collaboration together!

Working with them is amazing, they are very professional and extremely humble people who strive to give the utmost quality to whatever they put their minds to.
Pixel Piracy is the first project outside of Terraria that they have undertaken, and it is an honor to be working alongside them!
 
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