Indie Games 2014 [June] Now Voting - Post 538!

OP Impressions, Pyroeis:
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There is not really much to say about the game. Its a dig/craft game, but very simple. There are 4 basic items that you can craft and 4 weapons to defend yourself with that you will need upon decending further into the cave, but its just not involved or interesting enough at the current point, more or less I'd compare it to a Terraria without the crafting/building and less interesting cave layouts.

Shipwreck:
9UAzJA4.png
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Surprisingly good Zelda clone with a sizeable world to explore and 4 main dungeons to conquer. The controls are very reminiscent of the first Zelda, and work perfectly well after a few minutes of walking around. It also seems to have quite a few different items, smaller challenges and hidden extra items (heart containers) to make exploration worthwhile. The only downside I see so far is that some areas look a bit generic, which makes it hard to orientate yourself. Very nice soundtrack and lovely presentation too btw. Easy recommendation.

Shütshimi
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Bucketload of weirdass random(ized) shmup fun. The different powerups, their weird descriptions and the quickfire levels come together really nicely for this rather interesting little title. My only issue is that a randomized shmup usually ends up feeling a bit boring due to rather uninteresting enemy patterns. Doesnt weigh too much here though because of the 10-15 second waves each time and the constant change of the level rules. Fun little game.

Social Justice Warriors
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More of a social commentary than a real game, you can (and should if you are interested) read up on the thought process behind the game here: http://nonadecimal.com/site/making-social-justice-warriors/ The game itself isnt really worth playing though, the actual gameplay mechanics are seemingly random (choose options against an internet troll and deplete their stamina) and its meant that you die or ragequit the game anyway without an actual endgoal. Purely based on the game itself, it should probably go into the Bleh category, but it gets a decent-ish for the thoughts behind it. Defeating 1 internet troll in real life for $1 would be worth it, but I cant really recommend the game :p

Steam and Metal
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Charming shmup and I cant have enough Steampunk games anyway. Unfortunately the controls feel a bit loose and the enemy patterns are a bit hit and miss, some are interesting and/or challenging, while others seem a bit derivative/unfair. I also really love rewarding upgrade systems in shmups and neither is the approach on how to upgrade the weapons interesting here, nor the actual effect of the upgrades, especially considering there only is a single upgrade path. Still, the art style is great and its not all bad, so this is something someone could enjoy, but Jamestown (on Steam) has a similar approach and is so much better in every regard... that its really hard to recommend Steam and Metal.

The Hot Dog Parable
The comparison is a bit mean, especially for a Ludum Dare game, but the subject matter is just too similar not think about similarities and differences to Cart Life. Now, Cart Life was a very special game with its emotional hook, but the actual simulation here isnt interesting either. Simulation games should allow for different choices through the possible setups of the environment that you are supposed to manage, and unfortunately I just dont think its fun to wait until I can buy more food, click the food button and then wait until I have enough money to buy ads/research and repeat. I know there are people liking these simpler simulation games, but I unfortunately dont.

>----------< Highly Recommended >----------<
Grid Legion, Voyage
Jet Force
Epic Flail
Shipwreck
>----------< Recommended >----------<
Antisquad
Fearless Fantasy
400 years
Shütshimi
Kitsuni
Icebound
Ascendant
>----------< Decent-ish >----------<
8BitBoy
Among the Sleep
Steam and Metal
Deity Quest
For Science!
Farsh
The Hot Dog Parable
Prisoned
Social Justice Warriors
>----------< Bleh >----------<
Pyroeis
Crashed Lander
AnimalAlbum

Notes:

- I wanted to check out Sarcia, but Gumroad only accepts Credit Card. I asked the dev about it, but in the meantime someone really should check this out at $1,25

- Stranded looks interesting, but overall impressions on the internet seems overwhelmingly negative, in regard to length/price/interesting content/meaning ratio and the agonizingly slow movement. I am still interested, buuuut I'll probably wait for an interesting bundle or IGS deal.

- I am very tempted by The Stomping Land, did anyone here play it?
 
Bit-Bit said:
I'm getting old, GAF. After watching all of the press conferences so far. It seems like every game is just explosions as you shoot stuff with a gun or explosions as you slash stuff with your sword. They've all rolled into one numbing experience. The Indie games are the only ones that have kept my interest.
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You should check out some Nintendo stuff.
A quick chart I made from the conferences. I was going to post all my stuff but I think it would get locked as a "reaction thread" at the moment.

lqxczfc.png
 
timetokill said:
You should check out some Nintendo stuff.
A quick chart I made from the conferences. I was going to post all my stuff but I think it would get locked as a "reaction thread" at the moment.

A8b1lCt.png
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50/50 is already a pretty decent stat already considering how prevalent shooting is in our games these days. Would have figured its easily more than 50% shooting.
 
timetokill said:
You should check out some Nintendo stuff.
A quick chart I made from the conferences. I was going to post all my stuff but I think it would get locked as a "reaction thread" at the moment.

A8b1lCt.png
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Thankfully you mention the number of games. My guess is most of the Nintendo games are made by Nintendo (and there is this recent focus on shooting with Splatoon), while most of the Microsoft and Sony non-shooting games are in fact indie games.
 
Wok said:
Thankfully you mention the number of games. My guess is most of the Nintendo games are made by Nintendo (and there is this recent focus on shooting with Splatoon), while most of the Microsoft and Sony non-shooting games are in fact indie games.
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Microsoft: Of the "indie reel" of games, I counted 6 of 13 as being games about shooting, so pretty much the same percentage.

Sony: Of the "indie devolver reel" of games, I counted 3 of 5 as games about shooting. Of their "F2P" reel I counted 5 of 10.

It seems as though the indie games that are frequently picked up by these publishers involve shooting about as much as their standard library does.


Edit: Actually I just noticed I forgot to label a game in Sony's conference as shooting, so I updated the chart. Even 50/50 now.
 
timetokill said:
Microsoft: Of the "indie reel" of games, I counted 6 of 13 as being games about shooting, so pretty much the same percentage.

Sony: Of the "indie devolver reel" of games, I counted 3 of 5 as games about shooting. Of their "F2P" reel I counted 5 of 10.

It seems as though the indie games that are frequently picked up by these publishers involve shooting about as much as their standard library does.


Edit: Actually I just noticed I forgot to label a game in Sony's conference as shooting, so I updated the chart. Even 50/50 now.
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Next to the fact that I am surprised its only 50% shooting, I think the next most interesting observation is the idea of the platform holders grabbing similar percentage of shooting games, which either sort of suggests that they think this is the % they want to hold/keep on their platform for their users or that big profile console indies have that % naturally as well.
 
They Breathe - It's a short game that doesn't tell you what you have to do or how the game mechanics works (besides the "press the space bar to swim faster" message in the title screen), it really pass the feel you venturing into the unknown. I like these kind of games where you need to pay attention to understand how the "world" works, not every game needs to have a tutorial holding the player's hand in every new discovery.
 
timetokill said:
Microsoft: Of the "indie reel" of games, I counted 6 of 13 as being games about shooting, so pretty much the same percentage.

Sony: Of the "indie devolver reel" of games, I counted 3 of 5 as games about shooting. Of their "F2P" reel I counted 5 of 10.

It seems as though the indie games that are frequently picked up by these publishers involve shooting about as much as their standard library does.


Edit: Actually I just noticed I forgot to label a game in Sony's conference as shooting, so I updated the chart. Even 50/50 now.
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I am quite surprised then. Another explanation for Nintendo: the WiiU uses a new controller device, and maybe the easiest way to build upon it is some kind of first-person view. But maybe I am wrong, because by shooting, you do not only mean FPS, right? What does shooting encompass? Super Smash Bros is not a shooter, right (although there are guns)?
 
Toma said:
Sweeeeeeeeeeeeet game, but I might be slightly fanboyish in that regard. Here was my gameplay video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVPbJWcxz7c

Also no clue why it starts at 6 minutes for me, but feel free to skip to the start :P
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Well your fanboyism was very persuasive. Got the game, played for about 30 minutes. Oddly enough, I didn't like the demo of the original that much when I played, but some reason, I'm really enjoying this new version. There's a layer of strategy underneath the run and gun gameplay that I'm finding really cool. Which gun is best for the current situation, should I rush for that power-up but risk having to run through a horde to reach it, which order should I use power-ups, which perks should I choose? The visuals are great, the effects and weapons are cool, and screen just gets flooded with enemies. Seeing the screen literally turn red with blood and gore is very satisfying. I only think Infested Planet tops this game in terms of enemies on-screen at one time.
 
More_Badass said:
Well your fanboyism was very persuasive. Got the game, played for about 30 minutes. Oddly enough, I didn't like the demo of the original that much when I played, but some reason, I'm really enjoying this new version. There's a layer of strategy underneath the run and gun gameplay that I'm finding really cool. Which gun is best for the current situation, should I rush for that power-up but risk having to run through a horde to reach it, which order should I use power-ups, which perks should I choose? The visuals are great, the effects and weapons are cool, and screen just gets flooded with enemies. Seeing the screen literally turn red with blood and gore is very satisfying. I only think Infested Planet tops this game in terms of enemies on-screen at one time.
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Glad you agree with my sentiment and that the game manages to be fun to new players that dont have the nostalgia goggles on. :) The quest levels get continually more interesting as well and were my favourite part of the game back then, even without perks.

I am currently at the last level of the second difficulty, this game gets so fucking hard, but hey, lets see how long I manage to stay in the Survival Top 10 highscore.
 
So I'm pretty much brand new to the indie scene. I've typically avoided indies due to lack of word of mouth and at a glance, my favorite genre (RPG's) seem pretty underrepresented. All of the doom and gloom on GAF about AAA games has reminded me there is an entire segment of gaming that I and many others ignore. So I want to dive in and start to be involved in the indie scene.

So of course all this is overwhelming with the huge list of titles to explore. Is there a thread that discussed the best indie gaming has to offer. A place for people new to scene to get their feet wet? Also, any indie rpgs would be a plus!
 
mid83 said:
So I'm pretty much brand new to the indie scene. I've typically avoided indies due to lack of word of mouth and at a glance, my favorite genre (RPG's) seem pretty underrepresented. All of the doom and gloom on GAF about AAA games has reminded me there is an entire segment of gaming that I and many others ignore. So I want to dive in and start to be involved in the indie scene.

So of course all this is overwhelming with the huge list of titles to explore. Is there a thread that discussed the best indie gaming has to offer. A place for people new to scene to get their feet wet? Also, any indie rpgs would be a plus!
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There's the Indie GAF GOTY list from last year which has some great stuff on it!

Welcome to the positive side of GAF!
 
mid83 said:
Wow I'll check that out. Thanks!
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You're welcome! In the OP of this thread there's a link to previous months threads as well - not everything is gold, but each thread has a "Best of last month" in the OP as well to help you work through some good stuff.
 
mid83 said:
So I'm pretty much brand new to the indie scene. I've typically avoided indies due to lack of word of mouth and at a glance, my favorite genre (RPG's) seem pretty underrepresented. All of the doom and gloom on GAF about AAA games has reminded me there is an entire segment of gaming that I and many others ignore. So I want to dive in and start to be involved in the indie scene.

So of course all this is overwhelming with the huge list of titles to explore. Is there a thread that discussed the best indie gaming has to offer. A place for people new to scene to get their feet wet? Also, any indie rpgs would be a plus!
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In addition to the GOTY list, which you really should take a look into, you should look through the spiderweb RPGs. Some of them might look a bit dated due to the low res but they are absolutely fantastic, deep, long RPGs with a multitude of choices, gameplay approaches and a rich world:
http://www.spiderwebsoftware.com/products.html

This is one of the newer ones:
pic1293545.jpg
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mid83 said:
So I'm pretty much brand new to the indie scene. I've typically avoided indies due to lack of word of mouth and at a glance, my favorite genre (RPG's) seem pretty underrepresented. All of the doom and gloom on GAF about AAA games has reminded me there is an entire segment of gaming that I and many others ignore. So I want to dive in and start to be involved in the indie scene.

So of course all this is overwhelming with the huge list of titles to explore. Is there a thread that discussed the best indie gaming has to offer. A place for people new to scene to get their feet wet? Also, any indie rpgs would be a plus!
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Welcome to the wonderful world of IndieGAF! Like Moobabe said, you can't wrong with that 2013 GOTY list. For more recent games, check out the Voting results at the beginning of the threads; those are the games we liked best each month
 
Okay, yeah, unless something else amazing comes out this month, Crimsonland will definitely by my number one game for July voting. I think the coolest aspect is how the varied enemies require you to totally change your tactics and influences everything from the weapons and perks you'd want to use. It's not like some shooters where you can just get the most powerful weapon and kill everything.

If you're facing fast spiders that replicate when they die, then you're going to want a weapon that's accurate and precise but that fires and reloads fast enough that they won't close the gap, and power-ups that focus on crowd control and defense. Hordes of zombies? You'll want to go for the spray and pray types weapons or explosives and all-out offensive power-ups.

I haven't even touched the survival modes that much so I haven't really tested out any perks. The campaign alone is fun and difficult and constantly throwing fresh challenges at you, with interesting combinations of enemies
 
More_Badass said:
Okay, yeah, unless something else amazing comes out this month, Crimsonland will definitely by my number one game for July voting. I think the coolest aspect is how the varied enemies require you to totally change your tactics and influences everything from the weapons and perks you'd wanted to use. It's not like some shooters where you can just get the most powerful weapon and kill everything.

If you're facing fast spiders that replicate when they die, then you're going to want a weapon that's accurate and precise but that fires and reloads fast enough that they won't close the gap, and power-ups that focus on crowd control and defense. Hordes of zombies? You'll want to go for the spray and pray types weapons or explosives and all-out offensive power-ups.

I haven't even touched the survival modes that much so I haven't really tested out any perks. The campaign alone is fun and difficult and constantly throwing fresh challenges at you, with interesting combinations of enemies
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Told ya! Really glad to see your money wasnt wasted ;)
 
More_Badass said:
Okay, yeah, unless something else amazing comes out this month, Crimsonland will definitely by my number one game for July voting. I think the coolest aspect is how the varied enemies require you to totally change your tactics and influences everything from the weapons and perks you'd wanted to use. It's not like some shooters where you can just get the most powerful weapon and kill everything.

If you're facing fast spiders that replicate when they die, then you're going to want a weapon that's accurate and precise but that fires and reloads fast enough that they won't close the gap, and power-ups that focus on crowd control and defense. Hordes of zombies? You'll want to go for the spray and pray types weapons or explosives and all-out offensive power-ups.

I haven't even touched the survival modes that much so I haven't really tested out any perks. The campaign alone is fun and difficult and constantly throwing fresh challenges at you, with interesting combinations of enemies
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See, now aren't you glad we recommended it to you? :)
 
Not sure if the studio is indie (makers of Triple Town), but they announced Road Not Taken at E3.

Abzu showed up during Sony's conference but we haven't mentioned it, yet. Looks very interesting. Underwater Journey?

Also, Two Brothers is coming to WiiU, PS4 and XBO as Chromophore: Two Brothers. I think the PC version will get that much needed update, as well.

Obviously a lot of indie ports resurfaced or were announced which is always good to see. Tons of them on Nintendo platforms (most of which we knew about but still nice to have it reinforced).

Another one is La-Mulana for Vita. Game needs to be on everything, frankly.
 


So.. we are probably launching our Kickstarter for Twin Souls: The Path of Shadows next week!

There's still some work to do with the video, character animations and so on, but I think we can launch before the Steam Summer Sale starts.

If any of you follows our TIGSource Dev Log you'd have already seen some sneak peeks on the different pledge levels + rewards. There will be an $15 Early Bird pledge level with the Steam key + DRM-free download, and ALL backers get access to Steam Early Access.

We talked with Shapeways to deliver 3D printed figurines for mid-tier pledge levels. Teelaunch covers t-shirts and posters. Humble Bundle works with us to make DRM-Free versions of the game available to every backer.

We work with Unity and we'll focus on PC/Mac/Linux. Lince Works is a Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft registered developer, so we might talk a bit more about console versions mid campaign :)

Any questions, here I am.
 
Moobabe said:
Great to see! So since I played through your original release I haven't followed the development at all.

What's changed? (I'm assuming a lot has :p)
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Summarizing a lot..

  • Story driven single-player campaign
  • New engine with real-time dynamic shadows and improved visuals overall
  • New Stealth Kills
  • New Shadow Powers
  • Enemies can cast Light Powers
  • New enemy types (like archers and magic users)
  • Big scenario playgrounds with multiple approaches
  • Verticality (Climbing to roofs, aerial kills, etc)
  • Scenario challenges
  • Controller Support
  • Windows, Mac and Linux systems.
  • ....
 
Tried some of Tom Francis' Floating Point (the free game he released) and wasn't impressed. The one thing he would have to nail with this kind of game are the physics, but they felt weird and unpredictable, imo.
 
xDavidLeon said:
Summarizing a lot..

  • Story driven single-player campaign
  • New engine with real-time dynamic shadows and improved visuals overall
  • New Stealth Kills
  • New Shadow Powers
  • Enemies can cast Light Powers
  • New enemy types (like archers and magic users)
  • Big scenario playgrounds with multiple approaches
  • Verticality (Climbing to roofs, aerial kills, etc)
  • Scenario challenges
  • Controller Support
  • Windows, Mac and Linux systems.
  • ....
Click to expand...

That sounds awesome!

daydreaming said:
Tried some of Tom Francis' Floating Point (the free game he released) and wasn't impressed. The one thing he would have to nail with this kind of game are the physics, but they felt weird and unpredictable, imo.
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I liked the look of it and the music, but I feel the same way as you.
 
Moobabe said:
Gone Home is on sale today guys.

It's really really damn good.
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I didn't care for it, the setting and narrative wasn't really appealing to me at all. I really like the interactivity and environmental story-telling focus though, which is a main reason why I loved System Shock 2 and Deus Ex. And something I've applied to my own game. But for me to get invested into such a thing the narrative or setting has to grab me and Gone Home didn't. Probably doesn't help that it was spoiled so heavily that when I got the chance to play it I already knew a lot about it. It's definitely a type of game you want to go in blind.

Not sure if it was mentioned yet, but Tale of Tales is also taking a similar approach with their upcoming game but with a more interesting setting and premise. They have a page for the game up on Steam which is fairly informative: http://store.steampowered.com/app/287600
 
OP impressions, Unmanned:
2342883-unmanned.jpeg
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Surprisingly smart short story with minor adventure game elements through conversation choices. Dont want to spoil too much, but I thought that all parts of this came really well together to create an original little experience. I suggest playing it twice to get some different impressions from some choices of the game, but I'll likely write up a more in-depth post about the meaning behind this game next month. For now, I dont want to spoil you since its really rather short.



>----------< Highly Recommended >----------<
Grid Legion, Voyage
Jet Force
Epic Flail
Shipwreck
Unmanned
>----------< Recommended >----------<
Antisquad
Fearless Fantasy
400 years
Shütshimi
Kitsuni
Icebound
Ascendant
>----------< Decent-ish >----------<
8BitBoy
Among the Sleep
Steam and Metal
Deity Quest
For Science!
Farsh
The Hot Dog Parable
Prisoned
Social Justice Warriors
>----------< Bleh >----------<
Pyroeis
Crashed Lander
AnimalAlbum

Notes:

- TimeFrame dl and web player is borked. Anyone got this to work?
 
Devs just cancelled the Icarus Proudbottom campaign.

Timing it around E3 was maybe not the smartest move. Hope they'll give it another shot.
 
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