One Foul Note
Member
That's a cool catch for them. I played through that split screen on the lowest settings and we still both had a blast, hell of a game.
Indie Games 2015 [March] Now Voting - Post 329!
- Thread starter Toma
- Start date
That's a cool catch for them. I played through that split screen on the lowest settings and we still both had a blast, hell of a game.
More_Badass
Member
Dad By The Sword - Late 2015 (PC, Mac)
Wulverblade - PC, Xbox One
CODeX - PC, Mac, Linux
Re:creation - ????
Legend of the Knightwasher - ????
Until I Have You - ????
Venturi - late 2015 (PC, Mac, Linux)
Asylum - ????
Previously Mentioned
Desolus
Sunset
Blossom Tales
Megasphere
http://www.dadbythesword.com/
Dad By The Sword is a game about YOUR DAD running around in jorts and slaying Anti-Dads with a claymore. Experience a unique First Person Swordplay experience as you try not to get killed by hot dogs. Outsmart your enemies, destroy weak points in their armor, and then slice right through them. It's Dark Souls meets Gone Home meets some game with a dad in it
Wulverblade - PC, Xbox One
http://wulverblade.com
Wulverblade is a visceral, cinematic, side scrolling beatem-up, bringing a modern twist to the classic gameplay style of the 1990s arcade scene. Theres no hand holding in Wulverblade, its straight into the action, old-school style. Wulverblade skips the starter and tucks straight into the meat!
CODeX - PC, Mac, Linux
http://www.indiedb.com/games/codex
People have been attacked by an enemy race. During the war, people created a powerful weapon, and artificial intelligence to control it. The AI created search drones to find and extract necessary elements in the star system to improve human weapon and rescue them from the enemies.
Re:creation - ????
https://eliasdaler.wordpress.com
Re:creation is a top-down action rpg game influenced by The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past and Earthbound. In this game, you play as an undead knight who tries to show humans, that zombies dont want to hurt people, they just want people to stop killing undeads for loot and experience. Undead warriors also fight with greedy necromants who use zombies as slaves for profit
Legend of the Knightwasher - ????
http://www.detocroix.com
Legend of the Knightwasher is a tactical tale of revenge and betrayal set in world of medieval washing machines. The washers, inhabitants of this world, are painted like banners of chivalric knights. The personification of washers is what makes the world unique and worth exploring, but the tactical washing machine combat is what makes the game awesome.
Until I Have You - ????
http://untilihaveyou.com
Until I Have You is a story driven, fast paced, retro aesthetic platformer. Sporting a weird interface, it's a game based on player skill, the better you are at it, the more impressive you can be.
Venturi - late 2015 (PC, Mac, Linux)
http://www.theventurieffect.com
Venturi features fast paced and rewarding combat, a deep and evolving story that you shape as you play, and arena style multiplayer that will test your tactical skills. Build a loyal party to venture with you while you explore the massive galaxy, alive with intelligent AI controlled denizens with their own schedules and goals. The galaxy is full of mystery and secrets for you to find.
Asylum - ????
http://www.senscape.net/asylum
Decay surrounds you, dread around every corner. You feel imprisoned while traversing the endless corridors
Asylum is a chilling journey through the intricate floors of the Hanwell Mental Institute, in which unimaginable atrocities have occurred in the past. Over four years in production, this horror adventure aims to marry cutting edge visuals with thrilling storytelling to give you the ultimate experience in fear. From the designer of the award-winning and cult sleeper hit Scratches.
Previously Mentioned
Desolus
Sunset
Blossom Tales
Megasphere
MrNinjaSquirrel
Neo Member
I really do need to play this, though it seems like something I'd either try for 5 minutes and not be into or get way too absorbed in and spend a ton of time doing whatever it is you do in it.
More_Badass
Member
Well it's only $1 right now, which is a pretty good deal IMO.
Even if you only spend 10-15 minutes, its worth the $1, since it is a game concept that is rather rare/unique and deserves to be experienced. (I played it for a few hours).
More_Badass
Member
Stuff like this is why game jams are so cool. Synthesizer on the previous page also is really unique.
Rogue AI - Free (PC)
Hellion - Free (PC, Mac, Linux)
Outlaw Space - Free (PC, Mac, Linux)
Rogue AI - Free (PC)
http://www.numeronreactor.com
The object of this game is to create an Artificial Intelligence, and set it to duel against the AIs of other players for a position on the global leader board.
Hellion - Free (PC, Mac, Linux)
www.pnjeffries.itch.io/hellion
Hellion is a mashup between a roguelike and a third-person bullet-hell rail-shooter. Imagine Starfox but turn-based and you might get the idea.
Outlaw Space - Free (PC, Mac, Linux)
PandaPedinte
Member
There Came An Echo - It's always a pleasure to me try a game with a new or barely used mechanic, in this case the voice commands, though it didn't work very well for me because I'm lacking a proper microphone (I'm using the laptop's integrated one) and my English pronunciation is disastrous. However the game also can be played using normal a mouse.
The setting and the plot are working very well to keep me interesting in playing more of it, so I hope to spend more time with TCAE when I'm done with other games I'm currently playing
The setting and the plot are working very well to keep me interesting in playing more of it, so I hope to spend more time with TCAE when I'm done with other games I'm currently playing
SerTapTap
Member
You can play it pretty passively, especially if you leave the simulation speed on low. It can actually get pretty hard to maintain an extremely lively planet, but IMO it's best played like a little ant farm you leave open in a window and poke around in every 5-10 minutes.
I highly recommend it though IMO it's a bit too hard, oddly enough. There's a new patch I'm sorta-testing out, new plants and bugs and stuff, and terraforming. What I mean by too hard is the equilibrium if you leave it alone sometimes just ends up in everything dying which is annoying. Depends on which species you have though, a world with all snails and pink mold is pretty easy to keep lively, but carnivorous plants/bugs are harder to keep alive (or sometimes, they live too long and screw up your other bugs).
One Foul Note
Member
My voice and that game hate one another. I never knew this but I apparently have real trouble keeping the volume and pace of my voice even when I speak. Entire missions are just Val yelling at me for not speaking evenly enough. I think my talking speed is just a little uneven and that with my questionable mic means only like 60% of the commands get through at any point.
Also, brought Earthtongue yay.
More_Badass
Member
Lithium City - 2015 (PC, Mac)
Project CQB - Free alpha (PC)
http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=46894.0
Lithium City takes the shooting action of Hotline Miami and places it in a Ghost in the Shell-like cyberpunk setting,
with art inspired by Tron and 80's Neon for some reason.
Project CQB - Free alpha (PC)
www.nicotuason.com/project_cqb.html
It is an isometric real-time squad-based tactics game where you can slow down time to give orders.
More_Badass
Member
Oh man, Rain World dev's are doing darkness
So good...
Since this is the best community on GAF I thought I'd ask you guys a question.
So I've written for a couple of websites over the years; both I helped to set up but neither I've owned. Now I'm in limbo; I'm doing 90% of the work for the current website, a lot of which I don't want to do.
So I want to set up a site to call my own. I don't want to be forced to post news; I want to focus on criticism and longer form writing. With way more original content like interviews etc - unfortunately my biggest stumbling block is the name (I'm crap at naming anything - feel sorry for any future kids I might have.)
Do you guys have any ideas? Any help is mega appreciated
So I've written for a couple of websites over the years; both I helped to set up but neither I've owned. Now I'm in limbo; I'm doing 90% of the work for the current website, a lot of which I don't want to do.
So I want to set up a site to call my own. I don't want to be forced to post news; I want to focus on criticism and longer form writing. With way more original content like interviews etc - unfortunately my biggest stumbling block is the name (I'm crap at naming anything - feel sorry for any future kids I might have.)
Do you guys have any ideas? Any help is mega appreciated
CheesecakeRecipe
Stormy Grey
It's funny, I've been in a similar situation lately. With RGZ.ca shutting down for good soon, I had to start thinking about what I was going to do next. I wanted to get away from the world of needing to sweat about wordcount per day and covering every little thing for the sake of doing it - it just isn't very rewarding to do and every other site does it. I want to focus on my opinion pieces more, and provide some coverage for things I feel are within line with my interests.
And then came the realization that I would need to spend money on web space and build up a brand. And a brand needs a name. I have been unable to settle on one. @_@
Mad Max and the Videodrome? LONG LIVE THE NEW GAMES
It's actually why I've always envied Baddy a little - he does an AMAZING job, way better than I could - but I've always ended up going down a different route. One that I was never super comfortable with!
And just go for it man! Why not!
More_Badass
Member
Thanks for the kind words. I do my best! Output had slowed down lately, mainly because I don't have a laptop at the moment, but I've been getting back into the groove
As for a name..that's always tough. Took me a while to narrow it down to Indie Game Enthusiast. What I did was make a list of words and descriptives (Indie, Game, Gaming, Watch, etc.) and mixed and matched until I found combinations that sounded good together. I think you'd want to make your focus apparent at a glance so you might want to incorporate words that bring to mind the tone of your site. Critic, Critique, etc.
What about Pixel Judgement? PixelJudgement.com isn't being used; I just checked Google. Judgement is a synonym of critique
Phawx
Member
Item names are always good.
indie/pixel + wrought, forge, shape, sculpt, monument, pillar, apex, ceiling, (other things that are beacons/a place to craft/ polishing)
More_Badass
Member
Made a thread for Aer
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1011475
Aer - 2016 (PC, Mac, Linux, PS4, Xbox One)
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1011475
Aer - 2016 (PC, Mac, Linux, PS4, Xbox One)
http://forgottenkey.se
An adventure among the clouds.
Turn into a bird and fly to explore a shattered world of floating islands, nomads and secrets of old. Aer is a game in which you play as a girl with the ability to transform into a bird. You will fly to explore and experience a world of floating islands, where exploration will be the key to unlock secrets and progress through a story leading you to the end of the world. Ultimately, you will challenge the Gods and save reality itself.
More_Badass
Member
I never even heard of the term "alt games"? Is that supposed to be experimental games like Plug & Play? Because I just call them experimental/weird games or interactive art
Phawx
Member
As far as I can see, Alt games are fundamentally different from traditional games. That's pretty much it. Some people also add that it can only be sold on itch.io and such. It's supposed to be for the community but also allows the dev "artist" to live.
I'd argue that altgames technically already exist in many senses. But considering that the term has different meanings per individual, it's going to in limbo for awhile.
Well, it seems the movement is only partially about the games themselves and very much tied to certain socio-economic factors pertaining to the creators. It could become something of great historical importance (depending on how it catches on) but it shouldn't pose any difficulties for academic games criticism as it stands.
At the same time, the more steam movements like these pick up, the more urgent the demand for professionals becomes.
Anyway, on a not entirely unrelated note, I wanted to recommend this excellent essay outlining a (post-)phenomenological approach to video game criticism by means of a "cyborgian" understanding of playing: http://gamescriticism.org/articles/keogh-1-1
I've not read that website just yet (currently working through Keogh's article linked above) but I think I take issue with what you've described (again, maybe it's your paraphrasing of it.)
I don't see how you can marry the "art" (in this case the game) and the socio-economic factors into one movement. If I buy a game on itch.io, that subsequently releases on Steam, is it no longer an alt game? And what if the develop is a multi millionaire? Should his financial security, or otherwise, have an impact on how we describe something?
I also think it raises an interesting question about what "traditional" games might, and should, be. Still - it's interesting, and I'll read it once I've finished this lengthy Keogh piece.
More_Badass
Member
Woofle is out of Early Access
http://store.steampowered.com/app/281940
---
VoYD - Free (PC)
Daemmerung - Free (PC, Mac)
Little Party - Free (PC, Mac)
Warlocks - $13.99 (PC, Mac, Linux)
StarCrawlers - $19.99 (PC, Mac, Linux)
Oceanhorn: Monster of Uncharted Seas - $14.99 (PC)
http://store.steampowered.com/app/281940
---
VoYD - Free (PC)
http://gamejolt.com/games/arcade/voyd/54050/
VoYD is a minimalist, ultra-fast arcade hack & slash.
Featuring tight, simple gameplay and brutal speed, dash and slice your way through abstract randomly generated levels for the highest score you can achieve.
Daemmerung - Free (PC, Mac)
Little Party - Free (PC, Mac)
http://turnfollow.itch.io/littleparty
Little Party is a short story video game about your daughter's all-nighter party.
Warlocks - $13.99 (PC, Mac, Linux)
http://store.steampowered.com/app/330270
Warlocks is an action RPG/brawler game set in a fantasy world invaded by shadow monsters. Playing as an incredibly powerful Warlock and, by using magic skills and weapons, you fight through hordes of enemies. The game places great focus on co-op and versus play between players, where you can fight in 1-4 player DeathMatch or in teams of 1v1 or 2v2.
StarCrawlers - $19.99 (PC, Mac, Linux)
http://store.steampowered.com/app/318970/
Build a crew of renegade adventurers on the fringes of space, taking jobs from megacorps to hunt bounties, sabotage rivals and conduct corporate espionage. If you can navigate the intricate politics of wealth and power, you might just survive long enough to spend your hard-won credits.
Oceanhorn: Monster of Uncharted Seas - $14.99 (PC)
http://store.steampowered.com/app/339200/
Oceanhorn: Monster of Uncharted Seas combines captivating storytelling, breathtaking 3D visuals and exciting gameplay into one epic action-adventure experience. In the game you explore the islands of Uncharted Seas, a world filled with many dangers, puzzles and secrets.
MrNinjaSquirrel
Neo Member
Probably unlikely, but does anyone here want and not have Spacechem? I got a gift copy of it from Ironclads in the new humble bundle and pretty much my entire friends list has it already so I figured I'd ask here in case someone had somehow missed it.
More_Badass
Member
Added Garbage In, Garbage Out to the big 7DRL post on the previous page. Of all the 2015 entries I've checked out, I think this one is my favorite so far
http://jonathanwhiting.com/games/garbagein/
http://jonathanwhiting.com/games/garbagein/
Dog Problems
Banned
Dad by the Sword sounds neat, but what's going on with Death Road to Canada? And the PC port of Wayward Souls? I can't seem to find any recent info on either of those.
PandaPedinte
Member
Bionic Bliss - Short but fun little game about working for a customer service on a future where everyone is augmented. It plays like a visual novel/text adventure and you need to pay attention to the augmentations that each of the customers have, the situations are somewhat hilarious.
[encrypted] - Roguelike that wants to be as minimalist as possible, including not explaining anything about the game or what how the abilities you get work, though I'm not in the mood for this type of game right now so I need to revisit it later.
[encrypted] - Roguelike that wants to be as minimalist as possible, including not explaining anything about the game or what how the abilities you get work, though I'm not in the mood for this type of game right now so I need to revisit it later.
More_Badass
Member
Keyboard controls for encrypted for "Cursor keys, z, x, Return, Escape" if that helps
PandaPedinte
Member
I got the controls xD. What I didn't understand is how some abilities works, in one play through I was able to place "blocks" to stop enemy advance and this one was pretty easy to understand, then in another run I got some teleporting ability but I wasn't able to fully understand how it worked and since I'm not in the mood to dive more in-depth on the game I di put it aside.
SerTapTap
Member
Finally played iO, liked it a lot. It's got it's own weird sort of physics but you pretty quickly get a hold of them. Great tutorial that teaches you the mechanics. Gonna have a video soon. It's got a demo too which I didn't know, pretty solid demo of most but not all mechanics.
Phawx
Member
Didn't mean to offend. I was trying to consume and aggregate the idea in a short span of time. There were many meanings from people (specifically the capitalist side of it) on Twitter as well as people scratching their heads wondering how/why it's different from indie.
Personally I have no skin in the distinction. I like all games regardless of how you want to label them.
Well, I don't really crave to play sports games, not since 2k5.
Oh not at all, sorry if I came across all confrontational. I'm the same - I just play stuff regardless, so it feels like I don't have a horse in this race, some people seem to be desperate to label stuff. Would certainly liven up the PS+ threads with people complaining about "alt games" and "indie games" in one go.
Also - I know they're both not indies - but Grow Home and Ori and the Blind Forest are both great.
More_Badass
Member
Why isn't Ori an indie game? It was developed by Moon Studios and published by Microsoft, unlike Grow Home which was developed and published by Ubisoft. Broforce, Axiom Verge, and Rain World are all in the same boat as Ori
Well my understanding of independent as a term is that these games release independent of a publisher. I guess that's where clarification is required; when I see "Playstation" or "Microsoft Game Studios" I guess in my mind it stops being indie?
I don't know man!
SerTapTap
Member
I think the lack of external forces' influence on development is the primary relevant factor in "indieness" even if it isn't the easiest to define. I don't think Pub Fund ever affects development beyond accelerating it, which is very different from something where EA comes to you and says "you're going to make a game about Rabbids". Individual deals can be a bit hard to parse since the fine details are probably NDA, but I have no problem calling Pub Fund games indies, or games from "indie publishers" like Devolver, especially when they act more like PR support than initiating and funding development.
For instance, Axiom Verge was in dev for years before Pub Fund. It was probably going to be basically the same game we'll be seeing on the 31st, but it would have taken far longer because Pub Fund let Tom quit his job to work on it. Also Pub Fund is like an advance on royalties not a straight payoff. To me the part where you're clearly no longer indie is when someone else owns the IP--I'm pretty sure Sony owns the exclusive publishing rights for Resogun for instance. I'd call Housemarq indie, but not Resogun. I'd call both Tom Happ and Axiom Verge indie. Not as familiar with Ori's situation.
Also, who the publisher is is an important factor--Velocity 2X's publisher is Futurlab (well...it was, now it's Sierra for the other releases), just like Axiom Verge. Pub Fund doesn't require publishing rights. If the publisher is the developer that's pretty much indie to me--when someone else owns the game is when it's more iffy.
For instance, Axiom Verge was in dev for years before Pub Fund. It was probably going to be basically the same game we'll be seeing on the 31st, but it would have taken far longer because Pub Fund let Tom quit his job to work on it. Also Pub Fund is like an advance on royalties not a straight payoff. To me the part where you're clearly no longer indie is when someone else owns the IP--I'm pretty sure Sony owns the exclusive publishing rights for Resogun for instance. I'd call Housemarq indie, but not Resogun. I'd call both Tom Happ and Axiom Verge indie. Not as familiar with Ori's situation.
Also, who the publisher is is an important factor--Velocity 2X's publisher is Futurlab (well...it was, now it's Sierra for the other releases), just like Axiom Verge. Pub Fund doesn't require publishing rights. If the publisher is the developer that's pretty much indie to me--when someone else owns the game is when it's more iffy.
More_Badass
Member
Pretty sure we've had this discussion before in one of these threads
idk, I tend to focus on how the game was created rather than the distribution. Talking to the Rain World devs for example, yeah they're being published by Adult Swim Games, but it's still just the two guys working on the game independently. The publisher helps with stuff like marketing and access to expos like PAX.
Or how Axiom Verge is being made by one guy. I don't see how being picked up by Sony towards the back-end of development makes it any less "indie game" than if the dev had been Greenlit and released it on Steam
With the rise of indie friendly publishers like Devolver and Adult Swim Games and the flood of indies coming to consoles, personally I think the old perspective is kind of outdated
But that's just me
SerTapTap
Member
It's definitely a bit of a relic of an era where publishers were pretty universally an extremely controlling force. The big ones still mostly are, but it's now possible to be "published" in a few ways without external/negative input from the publishing entity, without giving up IP rights, without giving up the right to self publish on other platforms--those are the relevant issues with being indie, even if being truly, purely, financially independent isn't quite the same.
IMO there should be some sort of third word for "indie publisher". Like "accelerator" or something, if only that didn't bring to mind startup accelerators. But there's definitely quite a few "funded indies" that don't seem worse for wear in any sort of big corporate way.
IMO there should be some sort of third word for "indie publisher". Like "accelerator" or something, if only that didn't bring to mind startup accelerators. But there's definitely quite a few "funded indies" that don't seem worse for wear in any sort of big corporate way.
Little Nightmares - PC
https://littlenightmaresthegame.wordpress.com/
The game is played as a seven year old kid, in a big house with dim lightning. There is something lurking in this house, and as you progress through the story you find out more and more about what it is.
We want to bring back the imagination of being a kid, where a silhouette of a shadow can distort into some weird scenarios. Remember trying to fall asleep, and you could see some kind of shadow forming in the corner or at the door, and what you imagined it could be? Well we want to do the imagining part for you, where all these scenarios come true and haunts you. This is just a tiny part of the game which focuses on visuals and an interactive environment, combined with smooth mechanics.
Ok I've done it. I've made my own site. It's not live JUST yet (behind the wall of Square Space anonymity for now)
If you guys want to follow me I'm the iconless Twitter account here - https://twitter.com/permanentbetauk
Thanks chaps!
Edit
Thanks for the follows guys - the website is now LIVE - http://www.permanent-beta.net/
If you guys want to follow me I'm the iconless Twitter account here - https://twitter.com/permanentbetauk
Thanks chaps!
Edit
Thanks for the follows guys - the website is now LIVE - http://www.permanent-beta.net/
More_Badass
Member
Dude, that presentation is lovely. Looks great. Clean, concise, uncluttered
And holy shit, I'm honored to be mentioned in the Peers section. That was unexpected to see and I really appreciate it.
Super neat presentation :-o Congrats on getting it started!
MrNinjaSquirrel
Neo Member
Looks really nice (now I'm wondering if I should have gone with Squarespace for my own site). The only thing that seems off is the archives page for different categories, on which the text seems really odd: http://img.prntscr.com/img?url=http://i.imgur.com/CJ0c6Kh.png
Congrats on starting the site. Will be keeping up with it.
SerTapTap
Member
Wow, looks great! Mine's probably just going to be one of the standard Wordpress plugins for a while...gotta do content first