Indie Games 2014 [June] Now Voting - Post 538!
- Thread starter Toma
- Start date
PandaPedinte
Member
Ops.
Man, can't wait for Shovel Knight.
As an aside, Kuru Kuru Kururin has one of my favorite recently-discovered chiptunes in it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fX3F6LFci2U
I love this song.
As an aside, Kuru Kuru Kururin has one of my favorite recently-discovered chiptunes in it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fX3F6LFci2U
I love this song.
Motoyama is great. He did a lot of Umihara Kawase tracks which are always pleasant.
Also, to bring a (preliminary) close to our Kururin sub-plot, let's not forget the upcoming Roundabout. Combining the rotating mechanic with combo-based parcours/platforming and FMV is pretty ingenious.
Frostt
Member
Someone can point me in some awesome indie direction for Steam or PS4?
Some of my favorites games so you can see what I like:
Out There, Wayward Souls, Danmaku Unlimited 2, The Last Rocket, Indiana Stone: The Brave and the Bold, Gesundheit, Monsters Ate My Condo, Leo´s Fortune, Kero Blaster, Mini Dash, Darkin, 99 Bricks or Worm Run. All for iOS as it is my main platform right now.
But I want to broad up a little and use my laptop for something besides watching GoT or Hannibal. Any recommendations? I know it not an easy one...
Some of my favorites games so you can see what I like:
Out There, Wayward Souls, Danmaku Unlimited 2, The Last Rocket, Indiana Stone: The Brave and the Bold, Gesundheit, Monsters Ate My Condo, Leo´s Fortune, Kero Blaster, Mini Dash, Darkin, 99 Bricks or Worm Run. All for iOS as it is my main platform right now.
But I want to broad up a little and use my laptop for something besides watching GoT or Hannibal. Any recommendations? I know it not an easy one...
What is the genre of the games you like? PS4 is still a bit barebones on that end, but I am sure we'll find plenty suggestions on Steam/Desura:
A good start would be this thread - Indie GOTY 2013:
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=766928
Fried Food
Banned
There are an awefull lot of games in here I've never heard of. Are any of them as objectivly good as the indie games I have heard of?
Are these the true indie games and the indie games I've heard of are just regular games?
Are these the true indie games and the indie games I've heard of are just regular games?
Frostt
Member
I Guess I dont have any "genre" right now. I bought my PS4 because of BF4, so I guess FPS is one of them, played a lot of strategy games, but since I found the iPhone my gaming horizons have expanded beyond anything I imagined before. Now I like any game that is unique and full of originality above all.
Wow, thanks so much! So many games there. I already have FEZ (for PS4) and Waking Mars for iOS. Kind of shocked to see that there are many more for XBL than for PSN, when I read that indies where going to support Sony more than Microsoft because of the initial specs XOne had... but oh well, I have a PC don't I? From that list I have my eye on: Clairvoyance, Dust, Guacamelee (coming to PS4 too, yeah!), Reus, Spelunky and many more. Great start.
More_Badass
Member
Hey Frost! Welcome to the Indie Threads!
Okay let's see:
Out There - Check out Capsule. I think you'd like that. Very minimal, atmospheric, and tense
Wayward Souls - Too many good roguelikes and rogue-lites to count. Teleglitch, Dungeons of Dredmor, NEO Scavenger, Nuclear Throne, Super House of Dead Ninjas, Rogue Legacy, The Binding of Isaac, Spelunky, Risk of Rain, etc.
Danmaku - Too many bullet hell, shmups, and shooters to count. Ikaruga, XenoRaptor, Assault Android Cactus, Luftrausers, Scoregasm, Sounddodger
The Last Rocket - Check out VVVVVV
Indiana Stone: The Brave and the Bold - Rock of Ages is like this but better
Kero Blaster - Cave Story is the developer's other game. Also Pink Hours, the freeware prequel to Kero Blaster
Mini Dash, Leo's Fortune - So many good precision and puzzle platformers. Super Meat Boy, Electronic Super Joy, 10 Second Ninja, Stealth Bastard, Volgarr The Viking, They Bleed Pixels. Fez, Teslagrad, Vessel, Braid, Gateways, Nimbus, Life Goes On
And of course, overall must-plays IMO: One Finger Death Punch, Hotline Miami, Broforce, SpaceChem, The Swapper, Don't Starve, The Stanley Parable, Papers Please
If you're intrigued by strategic/tactical games like Clairvoyance, I recommend also checking out Frozen Synapase, Door Kickers, and Infested Planet
More_Badass
Member
Not sure what you're saying exactly. It's true. Some indies become more well known than others. But the lesser known games aren't worse or less enjoyable. In fact many of those under-the-radar games deserve infinitely more attention than they're getting.
I wouldn't divide them into true indie or not. The indie scene is so diverse and varied nowadays. It's just a matter of which get the widespread mainstream spotlight (i.e. the games you've probably heard of like Braid, Fez, Limbo) and the ones that don't and yet are just as excellent and fun and polished as the better-known games (i.e. Factorio, NEO Scavenger, etc.)
Frostt
Member
So many recommendations! THANKS!! Rock of Ages reminds me of Giant Boulder of Death but being a real game instead of a freemium shenanigan, cool!
VVVVVV should release either next week or the one after for iOS.
Nuclear Throne is the one by Vlambeer? Bought! Same as Luftrausers. Already have FEZ and Stealth Inc (as the iOS version is called).
Will check the rest. This is definitely an awesome way to start my indie adventure
What Baddy said, though to be fair, the Indie threads also have a good amount of games that are not quite as good and we feature them here to check whether these games are actually good or not.
Best course of action would be to just go through classics that Baddy recommended or the Indie GOTY voting thread.
However, if you eventually want to dig deeper but dont have the time to play all the games each month, a good indicator is the monthly voting results in the first post of each thread, since they are usually among the most interesting games or concepts of the past month. Echo of the Wilds, Cross Code, The Fourth Wall, BroForce, Last Night and Icarus Proudbottom were all interesting choices for the current voting list.
More_Badass
Member
Guys, check out this Kickstarter. It's called A Song For Viggo, the subject matter is very heavy, and the art style is really impressive
Made a thread too: http://neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=831979
Made a thread too: http://neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=831979
Guys, check out this Kickstarter. It's called A Song For Viggo, the subject matter is very heavy, and the art style is really impressive
Made a thread too: http://neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=831979
Interesting art style.
More_Badass
Member
I've only played the demo of the original, so I'll be interested in hearing how improved the game compares to the original visually.Got a Crimsonland code! Not sure I'll need to comment much, so I'll probably just play a bit until reaching some harder levels and then do a pure gameplay video
Have we ever talked about Another Star?
Because it seriously might be my favorite indie JRPG ever. I've never played another indie JRPG that captures the feel of old school RPGs so well. The creator limited himself in a lot of areas so that he'd have to find creative ways to work around the limitations just like devs used to have to do and also to make the game feel authentic. He also included some really awesome tweaks to the formula though like optional random encounters, a warring clan system, and super fast paced battles. I know that the guy has been struggling with sales and also with Greenlight votes if his tweets are any indication, to the point that he is not sure if he is going to be able to make any more games, which is always a shame.
Check the game out here, it's about 20 hours long and I seriously can't recommend it enough to RPG fans. There is also a demo.
http://youtu.be/ZAgzt7LnRa0
Another Star's website:
http://www.visionriders.com/anotherstar/
Steam Greenlight (the guy could use your votes):
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=249799827
Because it seriously might be my favorite indie JRPG ever. I've never played another indie JRPG that captures the feel of old school RPGs so well. The creator limited himself in a lot of areas so that he'd have to find creative ways to work around the limitations just like devs used to have to do and also to make the game feel authentic. He also included some really awesome tweaks to the formula though like optional random encounters, a warring clan system, and super fast paced battles. I know that the guy has been struggling with sales and also with Greenlight votes if his tweets are any indication, to the point that he is not sure if he is going to be able to make any more games, which is always a shame.
Check the game out here, it's about 20 hours long and I seriously can't recommend it enough to RPG fans. There is also a demo.
http://youtu.be/ZAgzt7LnRa0
Another Star's website:
http://www.visionriders.com/anotherstar/
Steam Greenlight (the guy could use your votes):
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=249799827
PandaPedinte
Member
It was featured last month, but nobody talked with me about it. I played the first 1-2 hours of the game and it felt a bit too derivative to be honest, which mostly came down to a bit boring exploration and no proper loot in dungeons, and only this weird loot currency that you'll need to buy equipment.
I preferred Cthulhu saves the World vastly over it, how would you compare them since you obviously played more of Another Star than I did.
Quick and dirty screenshot comparison:
Graphically, the HD version has proper widescreen support, full resolution, new textures, polished up models and new graphical effects. It wont win any graphic awards, and I am glad to report its still as fun as ever, now with more levels, leaderboards, more weapons,more perks and more modes. The first 10-15 levels are a bit too simple to get a good feeling of why this game is as good as it is, but whatever!
Fun game
Played the first few levels of The Floor is Jelly using the XBO controller, works well (once you plug it after running the game). But playing the game on my TV, it's displayed in 4:3 with no way to change that in the options, is there a way to fix this or is that how it's supposed to be?
Shadow Hog
Member
Trust me when I say you'll want something with physical buttons for VVVVVV. It's not the twitchiest of games, but you need to be precise if you ever hope for 100% completion, and I really doubt a touchscreen is up to the task.
Dog Problems
Banned
I mentioned this in the Steam and I'll mentioned it here as well. I'm a bit annoying at the pricing. When it was in Early Access, the description had this in it:
Obviously I should have bought it in Early Access if I wanted to save money.
I'm hoping it's all a mistake.
More_Badass
Member
You can get the game for $11 on Gamefly (JUNE15OFF)
Dog Problems
Banned
Nice! Thanks for sharing that.
glaringradio
Member
Does anyone have any impressions of Pixel Boy and the Ever Expanding Dungeon? It literally just got a mention via one screenshot in last months thread, didn't see anyone who actually picked it up.
I've heard it's a bit Binding of Isaac meets shmup. Kind of tempted but can't find impressions beyond the Steam page itself.
I've heard it's a bit Binding of Isaac meets shmup. Kind of tempted but can't find impressions beyond the Steam page itself.
Seems likely no one tried it, if you pick it up, post some impressions!
I have not, but my friend has put a few hours into it. He's in love with The Binding of Isaac, so I trust him on matters like these. Here were his quick impressions:
- Colorful artstyle, but kind of gets old after a while with all the procedural generation
- Vast variety of power-ups and weapon types. This is by far his favorite part of the game, you can do some creative things with weapons in this game if you "stack" powerups. Although, it takes some digging and experimentation, and he felt the game didn't offer these options up soon-enough (for him, anyway).
- Enemies were cheap at times because the enemy types randomly spawn (they are apparently deciding on before the level is generated, and sometimes you aren't yet well-equipped to deal with them)
- Really, really addicting.
- Awesome soundtrack
glaringradio
Member
Sounds like a thumbs up from me for £7. Thanks for the words
More_Badass
Member
I have the game, but I've only played a few minutes because it performs pretty poorly for me. Which was unexpected considering Assault Android Cactus and other hectic shooters run just fine
charlequin
Banned
Not that this kind of game isn't directly up my alley, but I will never, ever vote to Greenlight this without absolute assurance you can turn off that awful screen curvature filter.
Will buy... again.
electricpirate
Member
I've been playing a fair amoutn of floating point.
It's good, but it feels very much like a prototype. It needs another few months in the cooker to get some of the visual interactions right.
It's good, but it feels very much like a prototype. It needs another few months in the cooker to get some of the visual interactions right.
If you read the Greenlight page you would have saw this:
Unfortunately it looks like it was designed with that effect in mind, and looks a bit odd with it off. I don't mind it though, you kinda get used to it.
xDavidLeon
Member
Quick and dirty screenshot comparison:
Graphically, the HD version has proper widescreen support, full resolution, new textures, polished up models and new graphical effects. It wont win any graphic awards, and I am glad to report its still as fun as ever, now with more levels, leaderboards, more weapons,more perks and more modes. The first 10-15 levels are a bit too simple to get a good feeling of why this game is as good as it is, but whatever!
Fun game
I spent too many hours playing Crimsonland while in High School.. haha
I'd like to see some online coop, or at least some proper local couch multiplayer, and more perks!
As for Shovel Knight, it gives me a 2D Dark Souls mixed with Megaman vibe.. and I guess that's good.
I am not a fan of the curvature and scanlines filters either, and these usually break my will to play a game too. Not an issue here though.
Honestly, I've never been too into Cthulu Saves the World due to the lack of authentic feel. The sprite work is terrible and the lack of any kind of color palette limitations makes things look messy. The writing is fun, but it also feels a little bland in other areas. Another Star feels like the creator did the best he could with the limitations he set in place for better or for worse and I like that. I enjoy both, but I think Another Star is more my jam. I'm super pumped for Cosmic Star Heroine though.
You can! I do! Sometimes I like them, sometimes I don't, but he offers the option to use them or not.
Forgot to mention that Another Star is on sale right now too.
Thanks for this thread, folks! I've got a weekly podcast which has reoriented recently to focus on indie games (gamingforward.com) and am always on the lookout for new games to feature. I'll take a look at Echo of the Wilds for next week's episode.
Question: For those of you that listen to podcasts about indie games, do you have an example of a favorite episode in which the host(s) focus on one specific game? It's a challenge finding ways to interest people in new games without a video accompaniment, and I'm always interested in hearing how other folks tackle it.
Question: For those of you that listen to podcasts about indie games, do you have an example of a favorite episode in which the host(s) focus on one specific game? It's a challenge finding ways to interest people in new games without a video accompaniment, and I'm always interested in hearing how other folks tackle it.
In audio podcasts, I am always more interested in background and more abstract discussions about a game rather than the gameplay itself, like the philosophy behind the game design or something. Another thing that works well too are "stories", like opening up the discussion about the game with the most memorable moment you had. Also: the world needs more people talking about Echo of the Wilds
More_Badass
Member
Well you have over a year's worth of thread to check out, should provide you with tons of content for your podcast
The only gaming podcast I really listen to is Idle Thumbs. They tend to touch upon numerous games and topics per episode.
I think if you're going to dedicate episodes to one game, it'll have to less of a review of the game and more of an analysis and exploration of its themes and design and then branch off into related topics. Like I see you did a podcast on Always Sometimes Monsters. Haven't listened to it, but a podcast about that game could address stuff like narrative and choices in games, should games have to be fun to be enjoyable, other games that have explored social issues, as well as your opinions and thoughts on the game, what worked, what didn't
Edit: yup, Toma said it more succinctly than I did, but that's the same idea
In audio podcasts, I am always more interested in background and more abstract discussions about a game rather than the gameplay itself, like the philosophy behind the game design or something. Another thing that works well too are "stories", like opening up the discussion about the game with the most memorable moment you had. Also: the world needs more people talking about Echo of the Wilds
Good call; thanks. I've noticed this as well; in last week's discussion of Always Sometimes Monsters, the most interesting part of that (when I listened to it again) was the story about how Justin Amirkhani conceived the idea for the game while traveling around the US as a homeless nomad.
So I am currently looking to play some games from the OP and googled for a demo version of Ascendant. Then I found this comment by a developer:
http://steamcommunity.com/app/296930/discussions/0/522728269162635682/
Comment on Piratebay:
The game is wholly owned by them and self-published, which basically means this is almost an endorsed "PWYW" deal. I do not endorse piracy, but in this case this wouldnt even be piracy if the devs allow people to download the torrent version, wouldnt it? So weird. If a mod reads this, I'd love an "official" comment on this to know whether its perfectly fine to mention such an "offer" or not.
But seriously, why not just make a 1 hour limited official demo then?
http://steamcommunity.com/app/296930/discussions/0/522728269162635682/
Comment on Piratebay:
The game is wholly owned by them and self-published, which basically means this is almost an endorsed "PWYW" deal. I do not endorse piracy, but in this case this wouldnt even be piracy if the devs allow people to download the torrent version, wouldnt it? So weird. If a mod reads this, I'd love an "official" comment on this to know whether its perfectly fine to mention such an "offer" or not.
But seriously, why not just make a 1 hour limited official demo then?
OP impressions:
AnimalAlbum
Antisquad:
Cities of Day and Night
Crashed Lander
Ascendant
>----------< Highly Recommended >----------<
>----------< Recommended >----------<
Antisquad
Ascendant
400 years
8BitBoy
>----------< Decent-ish >----------<
Among the Sleep
>----------< Bleh >----------<
Crashed Lander
AnimalAlbum
AnimalAlbum
Oh god, its bad, really bad. Its basically a game where you go around asking people about animals and then they give you either trivia questions or some pixels from a picture and you need to guess the animal. Not to mention that the guess work is completely impossible from just a few pixels, you can redo anything and you already know the correct answers from your first try. On top of that the controls are awful too. Its kinda misleading how he used the "pokemon" comparison in the description but actually just meant "you are collecting animal pictures for your album". Strong contender for worst Indie Game I've played this year.
Antisquad:
This game is surprisingly well done. I am very wary about mobile -> PC ports, but this game is definitely worth the money. Turn based strategy with a variety of different team member setups which all allow for different tactical approaches because of the different skill sets and actual challenging missions. Add some items to that, and the game offers a surprising amount of tactical depth. My biggest gripes are based on the mobile legacy, especially when it comes to controls, horrendously huge UI elements and no proper wide zoom or tactical overview, but this game is definitely good. Not as much depth as PC originating turn based squad games have, but definitely fun. I also really like the art style, the game really comes together rather well, even though I'd probably prefer playing it on ipad.
Cities of Day and Night
Dont want to judge the game, seems to be an adventure games of sorts and the people on his website actually do talk about what happens in the game, but I have no idea what to do. I walked up to several of those sites and couldnt find or do anything at all. If anyone has a clue what to actually do in this game, let me know.
Crashed Lander
One of those "navigate to another platform with thrusters"-games. The controls are alright, even though I dont think they are all that well polished, I really dislike the art direction and level design and I think that this game, even in the genre, is not really worth paying attention to at the moment. Might change with a future release, but I dont have any high hopes.
Ascendant
So this is a 1 life action roguelike and a rather decent one too. You can dash, slash, air juggle, use spells, find new loot and fight interesting bosses. Cool touch that the weapons you can find in the game also reflect on the character model and I absolutely love the art style. Technically, the game has no real progression, meaning once you die, its game over and you can start again to see how far you get. However, the game unfortunately misses some polish in a few general areas and also stumbles over the random generation hurdle, meaning the actual levels feel a bit bland and generic. The level design rarely evolves past a simple "jump on platform" design, though to be fair, the boss fights really deserve another mention because they can be pretty inventive. The game even has some persistence, because you are able to unlock weapons, which you can find in the random loot chests in your next playthroughs. Other issues include: not enough animation fluidity, a weird control scheme that is a bit hard to handle on keyboards, and not enough enemy variety. I love, love, love the art style though, really wish the devs had more time for polish. Most of these issues really come down to time and manpower, this game could be quite good with a bit more resources on it.
>----------< Highly Recommended >----------<
>----------< Recommended >----------<
Antisquad
Ascendant
400 years
8BitBoy
>----------< Decent-ish >----------<
Among the Sleep
>----------< Bleh >----------<
Crashed Lander
AnimalAlbum
Seems like some kind of marketing tactic I've seen used a few times wrt: indies. The Anodyne and Hotline Miami devs, and a few others I can't recall, got some press by reaching out to the PirateBay community; potentially converting pirates to paying customers. Not sure how that worked out for those guys in the end though. And a big difference is they didn't direct people to PirateBay like the Ascendant guys are, so it seems as if they're trying to force that kind of interaction.
Personally I think a 1 hour or otherwise limited demo would be fine for the kind of game it is, it seems questionable to me that they wouldn't spend an afternoon whipping that up.
Same, a demo pretty much does the same thing in reaching the "dont want to pay to try"-audience, but NOT offering a demo and directing people officially to the torrents just seems like it would be a net loss instead, especially for such a very unknown game.
Dr. Benton Quest
Banned
Anyone tried out Tabletop Simulator? I'm surprised it doesn't have an OT for meetups.
http://www.berserk-games.com/ts/
http://www.berserk-games.com/ts/
PandaPedinte
Member
Wormhunter - I got really excited for this game after reading the description, in theory the idea is very good but the execution is flawed. The worms AI are easily exploited you wait for it to show up and attack when it goes underground again just do dodge and it will appear at your previous location before the dodge, the beacon ended being useless.
It kinda have an OT
It kinda have an OT