Indie Games [February] Now Voting - Post 808!

Length doesn't matter to me, but if it felt really short does that mean you weren't satisfied that it didn't feel natural when it ended or you just wanted more?

I'm torn on how to feel about this. On one hand the story kind of wraps up in its own way. On the other hand it felt like things were just getting started. I probably shouldn't expect more out of such a small team, but that I did is probably a testament to how well the game is made. It felt much bigger budget than a game made by a pair of people usually feels.

I'm satisfied with the product as it stands. It's absolutely wonderful. But for some reason it ending felt like a pie to the face. Unexpected and delicious, but still a shock.
 
It's looking good!

I am still annoyed that I was in the Beta, but they never sent me the game. They apologized 2 times for forgetting to mail me the Beta infos. Grah.
 
They released a free version of that at some point? I remember playing a fairly similar looking game this last year sometime, but I can't place it.

Yup, we featured it march or april last year in these threads.
 
So Onion Games believes it's hard for Japanese indie game developers to get word out about their titles outside of Japan. I thought I'd direct them to this thread to see if they can maybe get more exposure for themselves and other Japanese indie developers.

https://twitter.com/oniongames/status/431451127058415617

If anyone there reading this, we'd love to know about Indie Games we havent heard about yet (as long as its not japanese only and text heavy :p ).
 
So Onion Games believes it's hard for Japanese indie game developers to get word out about their titles outside of Japan. I thought I'd direct them to this thread to see if they can maybe get more exposure for themselves and other Japanese indie developers.

https://twitter.com/oniongames/status/431451127058415617

They should have a place to gather and promote their games. Then promote the community instead of going rouge by themselves. Language barrier is a big thing so they must start posting in English as well.

GAF is alright but not marvelously good for marketing and they need non-public email to post so that's the extra problem they have to solve.
 
Not to bring this up again, but I thought about a concise way to sum up what I was talking about, re: early access etc.

First off, I think it’s of the utmost importance we create as many possible avenues for devs to bring their creation to reality. If that includes early access or whatever venue that may be, by all means! I think it’s super important to give people insight into this part of the process and let fans understand the passion and hard work that goes into creating the game.

However, I also think there is something truly beautiful in playing an independent piece of art, a complete vision. From beginning to end- the developer made the choices they wanted to make - to create the game they wanted, ”warts and all.”

So I guess what I’m trying to say is - I appreciate both. There is something beautiful about experiencing someone else’s vision in it’s entirety without the concept being spoiled, an entirely organic discovery. There is also something beautiful about supporting a game or an idea to fruition that may otherwise, have not ever happened.
 
And more thoughts/reflection on Heroes of a Broken Land.

I just finished the third dungeon, and while the game manages to offer incentives to continue playing it and wanting to improve your equipment.. the random dungeons are really not as well thought out as they probably should be. There are a few issues with the progress and player motivation in that regard, that I just want to mention, in case the dev is still reading the thread from time to time:

1. Other than the art style, the dungeons dont differentiate themselve enough to allow for an interesting challenge.

Its always: Look on the floor for a trap, look at the walls for a hidden trigger, find all switches, open all doors, kill all monsters. While it sounds like this is the basic formula for most other games in the genre.. it is really not. You are missing setpieces that make these dungeons stand out. I remember a floor in paper sorcerer that had me opening a set of 8 doors in a single hall, and each door would present a greater challenge than the one before and it was up to me to see how much I want to risk.

If its completely random generated, moments like these are hard to emulate, but there are 2 quick and dirty solutions I can come up with:

- have your random generation create "setpieces", meaning rooms or halls with puzzles/tasks/challenges that you created before by hand and that you can spawn with a 1/40 (or whatever) chance in a dungeon. If possible, make these setpieces somewhat dynamic (for example slightly different puzzle setups for a specific puzzle idea) so that they arent identical all the time.

- dungeon parameters that require the player to rethink their strategy. "no healing allowed", "melee does x% less damage", "monster strength 30% higher", "poisonous air" or whatever.

2. The player progress in the dungeon is highly anticlimactic.

Dungeons should get harder the deeper you get in, but it seems like they actually get easier once you decimated 50% of the dungeon population. You might have adjusted that in later dungeons, but it would really help if there are elite monsters of the current versions (like elite-rats) or something that could spawn deeper in the dungeon. Or Bosses, mid-bosses or even almost unbeatable foes that require retreat. Or even better, all of the above and slowly raising their strength/number over the course of the game.

3. Tedium

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If it takes a few minutes to fully traverse a dungeon, its not exactly fun if I arrive at a closed door at G, need to look for the switch at C, only to walk all the way back to G. And this is not a single occurence either. Doors and their switches seem completely randomly placed, and considering switches are super easy to find and dont require any sort of skill, it just feels like padding. It would probably be a better practice, if doors would be connected to either puzzles somehow, or if the switch was harder to find, but close by, which would make searching for them actually rewarding.

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I guess the reason I am thinking so much about it, is because I actually like the concept and basic execution, but its definitely something that still has a lot of potential left unfulfilled.
 
Vertiginous Golf is coming to Early Access in March
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They should have a place to gather and promote their games. Then promote the community instead of going rouge by themselves. Language barrier is a big thing so they must start posting in English as well.

GAF is alright but not marvelously good for marketing and they need non-public email to post so that's the extra problem they have to solve.

Gaf is horrible for Indie marketing. You'll likely get a bit of attention here, but it is nowhere near able of replacing actual community work for themselves. The Playism guys are working their asses off to get some recognition, and I think they are already basically trying everything.
 
I think it's unfair how some devs can get around Greenlight, while others have to sit there for weeks and months, or somehow get lucky and get Greenlit in two days. There's no consistency; if you're going to make indie devs go through Greenlight, then all indie devs should require it. A favored few shouldn't be able to get around it (no matter how much I'd like to see Gods Will Be Watching, Darkest Dungeon, etc. on Steam)
 
Gaf is horrible for Indie marketing. You'll likely get a bit of attention here, but it is nowhere near able of replacing actual community work for themselves. The Playism guys are working their asses off to get some recognition, and I think they are already basically trying everything.

Playism is solid!
 
Playism is solid!

These guys are doing a great job at basically everything. They deserve every bit of support for their actual work on the games AND the community work they are trying to keep up.

And yet they still are fighting against endless waves of "dont care".
 
These guys are doing a great job at basically everything. They deserve every bit of support for their actual work on the games AND the community work they are trying to keep up.

And yet they still are fighting against endless waves of "dont care".

agree wholeheartedly
 
Gaf is horrible for Indie marketing. You'll likely get a bit of attention here, but it is nowhere near able of replacing actual community work for themselves. The Playism guys are working their asses off to get some recognition, and I think they are already basically trying everything.

I remember hearing about Playism when watching Indie Game The Movie. Completely forgot about it until now although I pay quite a bit of attention from the scene. They should work on getting their presence notice to public eyes more. Their contents are also lacking TBH, having news and upcoming notice is nice but what I like about GAF Indie thread is the review and input from you guys that gave me an impression that I should look into some game more than I thought. Editorial piece like on Indie Statik and Indie Games are pretty great as well. Guess I'll be checking out the site occasionally from now on :)
 
Completely forgot about it until now although I pay quite a bit of attention from the scene. They should work on getting their presence notice to public eyes more.

The problem is fighting against an immense media presence (by big publishers and even more western focussed Indie Games) with only a couple of hands. There is only so much you can do, if you are localizing, publishing, running your own store, collecting feedback for developers and suggesting features, doing the marketing and keeping up the public presence in forums and communities if you only have a few guys to work with.

You notice they love what they do, and despite it not being super profitable keep doing something that we all can end up enjoying. It would have been a huge pity not to get One Way Heroics localized for example.

Great guys.
 
Our target here at Nerd Monkeys, besides the international marketing and all the usuall indie suspects, is the local community.
It is easier and faster to get local support for our studio+games and sell it here (Portugal) and only after we have a good solid base we try the international thing. We do this and go back and forth with it.

Steam Greenlight is a good example. We are at 80% and I bet most of our votes are from Portugal. We got featured in 3 magazines over here, something almost impossible to do with a small game like ours in the USA for example, but regardless we managed to get reviews on a Spanish and Estonian magazine through sheer effort of comunication.

Having a fan base that supports you and follows around wherever your game pops up around the world hels pushing it forward and get it out in front of people's eyes.

On the other hand, it is kind of strange (but cool) that the 4th country with more sales on Desura is Japan.
 
The problem is fighting against an immense media presence (by big publishers and even more western focussed Indie Games) with only a couple of hands. There is only so much you can do, if you are localizing, publishing, running your own store, collecting feedback for developers and suggesting features, doing the marketing and keeping up the public presence in forums and communities if you only have a few guys to work with.

You notice they love what they do, and despite it not being super profitable keep doing something that we all can end up enjoying. It would have been a huge pity not to get One Way Heroics localized for example.

Great guys.

That's the biggest thing I've learned while trying to market Shutshimi. It's so hard to carve out a name for yourself in such a crowded market with no money and limited time.
 
That's the biggest thing I've learned while trying to market Shutshimi. It's so hard to carve out a name for yourself in such a crowded market with no money and limited time.

Yeah, I am really not envying all of you guys doing that job, but I'll lend you my ear, eyes and fingers to try and judge your products fairly and talk about them. Best we can do here :)
 
Yeah, I am really not envying all of you guys doing that job, but I'll lend you my ear, eyes and fingers to try and judge your products fairly and talk about them. Best we can do here :)

I appreciate any and all attention the game has received so far, and you're included in that list :) Part of our problem is we created a game that's really limited in terms of what audience it's going after, and it's kind of a 'try it to see what it is' situation. Because I know it doesn't sound like it works. Also, it's probably better suited for mobile, which we've talked about but have no current plans to port yet. There are other, more deserving games than ours that get next to no attention as well, and it's really sad.
 
I appreciate any and all attention the game has received so far, and you're included in that list :) Part of our problem is we created a game that's really limited in terms of what audience it's going after, and it's kind of a 'try it to see what it is' situation. Because I know it doesn't sound like it works. Also, it's probably better suited for mobile, which we've talked about but have no current plans to port yet. There are other, more deserving games than ours that get next to no attention as well, and it's really sad.

I thought about that as well. Your game really isnt suited for the shmup audience, but its hard to convey that in pictures or video. Mobile probably would be a good idea.
 
Yeah. It's very much an arcade challenge type game disguised as a SHMUP. Like, it's possible to get a good combination of items and ride out into a long and prosperous run of 25-35 levels deep, especially once you start getting extra lives due to the score, but most people don't take the time to learn the intricacies of our powerup system (we know it so well because we made it haha). I learned a lot about how to, and how not to communicate with the player making this game, from both a marketing perspective and a design perspective as well. But that's the beauty of first projects. It's all a learning experience.
 
Yeah. It's very much an arcade challenge type game disguised as a SHMUP. Like, it's possible to get a good combination of items and ride out into a long and prosperous run of 25-35 levels deep, especially once you start getting extra lives due to the score, but most people don't take the time to learn the intricacies of our powerup system (we know it so well because we made it haha). I learned a lot about how to, and how not to communicate with the player making this game, from both a marketing perspective and a design perspective as well. But that's the beauty of first projects. It's all a learning experience.
What game is this? Sounds right up my alley

Edit: nvm
 
has anyone mention or played Teslagrad? can i get some impressions please?
Here you go
Right off the bat, Teslagrad impresses with a wonderful art style and animations that immerses the player in its steampunk world. Rain falls in torrents, molten steel glows ominously in the depths of the tower in which you explore, and electricity crackles and hums. It's a world of mechanical beasts that can destroy you in a moment, of dangerous traps and puzzles, of strange gadgets and weird machinery, and at the heart of this world is you and the Tower.

Fleeing into this mysterious Tower, you'll work your way through its many rooms and floors, each offering new and inventive puzzles and obstacles to surmount. The game doesn't waste any time in throwing complex platforming puzzles at you; within the first 30 minutes or so, you'll already be equipped with a gauntlet able to reverse an object's polarity and blink boots that allow you to teleport a short distance. The puzzles and platforming all revolve around utilizing and switching between magnetic fields, causing objects to attract or repel. In this way, you turn platforms into barriers or elevators, move along ceilings or float over gaps, and more. Surviving the challenges require both puzzle solving and tight platforming as you time teleports between moving hazards or switch your own polarity to navigate around electric barriers. Some of these areas had me stumped for a quite a while but that only made that aha moment only more satisfying. Overall, I found the game felt first and foremost like a platformer, with puzzle elements adding to the complexity and challenge, rather than being puzzle-focused like some of the other games I've played. Hard to reach batteries offer replay value, as there's usually an optional extra challenge between you and the collectibles.

If there was one minor flaw, it would be the lack of checkpoints in boss fights. While these fights simply revolve around pattern recognition and aren't that lengthy, it can be annoying to die and have to start fighting a boss from the beginning. But the boss fights themselves are fun and varied and use the mechanics in cool ways. They're more like mobile action-based puzzles, as you learn the patterns and evade their attacks and use your abilities in inventive and challenging ways to defeat them. There were also a few areas that I found quite frustrating, like a portion where you have to ascend the tower while evading electric barriers. However, that could be just my skills as a player, and not a fault on the game itself.

Rain Games has crafted a fun and challenging puzzle platfformer that not only offers exciting gameplay but a fantastic art style as well.
 
I'm torn on how to feel about this. On one hand the story kind of wraps up in its own way. On the other hand it felt like things were just getting started. I probably shouldn't expect more out of such a small team, but that I did is probably a testament to how well the game is made. It felt much bigger budget than a game made by a pair of people usually feels.

I'm satisfied with the product as it stands. It's absolutely wonderful. But for some reason it ending felt like a pie to the face. Unexpected and delicious, but still a shock.

Hmm, I do like pies. Maybe not on my face. Thanks for the non-spoilery impressions :)
 
What game is this? Sounds right up my alley

Edit: nvm

Shutshimi, a game I worked on with two other friends and are really close to releasing. Demo and trailer at official site. It's only gonna be a dollar. Toma did impressions a page back, which I'm grateful for. I've been trying not to bombard GAF with self promo for it.
 
Why such a low price?

Did you play the demo? They are probably going to have trouble getting people to play it at $0, not because the game is bad, but because people wont expect the kind of gameplay and because it seems rather wacky, which shouldnt appeal to too many people.
 
Why such a low price?

1. We just want people to play it. It's our first game and we just want to get our work into people's hands. We figured a low pricepoint would help draw people in.

2. While the powerup system is pretty deep, I feel like most people aren't going to spend a lot of time maximizing what they're capable of while playing. Plus there aren't very many modes. We have three difficulty settings, an unlockable boss rush mode and some pretty in-depth awardments, but even that might not be enough for some. In reality, it really is just a SHMUP with 10-second levels. Therefore, to many, I feel like they're going to think the game is disposable, and if it cost more, would be considered a ripoff. I look at games like Limbo and people complaining about the price, and then I look at ours and see how much more complex that is. I feel like we could have maybe did $3, but we might be pushing it.

3. What Toma said. It's really out there, and I have no idea how to market to people who like WarioWare haha
 
Probably Archery - $11.99 (PC, Mac, Linux)
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Steam Store
With controls inspired by games like QWOP and Surgeon Simulator 2013, you must overcome a series of ridiculous challenges like shooting a hangman's rope, exterminating flying eggs in a china shop and stopping an apple-headed warrior in space.
 
Did you play the demo? They are probably going to have trouble getting people to play it at $0, not because the game is bad, but because people wont expect the kind of gameplay and because it seems rather wacky, which shouldnt appeal to too many people.
Not yet. It's more of a personal thing. I just don't like seeing developers pricing their games so cheaply. I guess it comes from being an IOS gamer and seeing developers having to make their games a dollar or free to get sales, when their games are worth so much more, in terms of the effort they put in and the overall experience.
 
Not yet. It's more of a personal thing. I just don't like seeing developers pricing their games so cheaply. I guess it comes from being an IOS gamer and seeing developers having to make their games a dollar or free to get sales, when their games are worth so much more, in terms of the effort they put in and the overall experience.

Well, One Way Heroics would be the best example for that, but I totally agree with OnPoint. They are doing better by getting the game out there and making a name and small fanbase for themselves instead of pricing it alienatingly high. And the game IS a 10 second shmup, so its definitely easy to get people to think paying more might not be worth it.
 
Spacebase DF-9 is part of the current Double Fine Humble Bundle
Here's Toma's review, if anyone was interested in the game
Spacedate 9118.5: Normal life was settling in after we got the O2 supply and refineries running. Our technician Carl had some spare parts from the refinery construction and managed to build a fusion reactor from these scraps, which is kinda incredible. No one had the heart to tell him that all our machines are, for some strange reason we've yet to discover, running without any power supply, though.

Spacedate 9118.10: We needed some bed rooms, and though totally unnecessary, we decided to build an orbital ring around our station in which the bed rooms are supposed to be located. Construction work started. Carl is constantly repairing the useless fusion reactor. Hopefully, we'll find him something else to do before he realizes that there is no food stored on the ship, except... us.

Spacedate 9118.15: The good news: We got visitors! The bad news: They are trying to kill us. For no apparent reason, as they just told us over the intercom. No one is trained as a guard, so we'll need to rush everyone through a quick 5 minute briefing, give them some weapons and hope for the best.

Spacedate 9118.17: We managed to defeat the intruders, but 4 of our crew died fighting them. Carl is currently still trying to put out the wildfire in the main hall. I need to go help him immediately or we might run out of oxygen.

Spacedate 9118.18: YOU HAVE REACHED THE LAST ENTRY OF THIS PROTOCOL


Spacebase DF-9 is a simulation game which takes more than a few nods from Dwarf Fortress. Before your fear of ASCII makes you run in away in panic, let me tell you though that the newer Dwarf Fortress style simulation games are actually rather accessible (the fantastic Gnomoria would be another example for this). Everything you want to do, can be done with a few simple mouse clicks through very self-explanatory menus.

Build walls -> click the built room -> select room type.
Click build room objects -> select room type -> build objects for that room.

I have a hard time imagining someone would ever feel lost with the way the UI is set up and I think Double Fine did a marvelous job at making it "work" intuitively. There are some kinks here and there, but overall its already surprisingly polished and workable. The developers also put an astounding amount of charm into the game through fitting flavor text and character animations. It is simply endearing to notice how Kevin tries to socialize with the other crew members, only to write down in his personal log later "Wont somebody be my friend? ;_______;". The gameplay itself will be familiar to those who already played similar games. The general premise is to expand your station, which you either do to build defensive measures and a bigger/better infrastructure, or to improve the life of your crew members. Enemies are, once again, the driving force behind the players construction plans. After you overcame the first enemy, your shrinking oxygen supply, you will likely be visited by raiders and pirates who are attracted to your space station. If I didnt mention it yet, the game is trying to kill you. Quite much.

Spacebase definitely already works as a means to experience a story, because it makes you attached to what you are building, the people you are guiding and will make you experience loss, be that in the form of expensive materials being destroyed or lives lost. However, it currently does not work all that well as a "game", not because there is no way to win (which is very common in this genre), but because the game doesnt have enough options to create a balance of fairness and because it is missing longevity. You will learn to overcome some odds while creating your space station, but the odds are still massively stacked against you, because the player has not enough means to prepare for any danger. At its fundamental level, Spacebase currently has 4 different rooms with 1 object each and the desire to play Spacebase is largely driven by a creative desire to create a decent looking space station with people running around and to discover random relicts, other space ships and space stations which are filled with secrets. And those secrets are deadly, and usually come in the form highly trained raiders that take out half of your crew. Experiencing that once is fun and makes for a good story about heroic deaths, however experiencing that twice with no way to do anything about it is frustrating, because the current version of the game doesnt allow for learning from past strategies or mistakes and you are likely to die from the same dangers over and over again:

There are some more technical issues like path finding and glitches, but while I do think it is fair to tell the potentially interested customer about the shortcomings of the current version of the game, it also needs to be considered that the game is currently in alpha and therefore missing a lot of features and polish that we are going to see added over the next few weeks and months (years?) as it is currently far from being feature complete. A very good example of that would be how the game ends when you die. You will idle in space without any sort of screen telling you that your crew died. In fact you might not even have noticed that that the crew died if you were busy watching another part of the ship. If you want to get an idea of where the game might be heading in the long term, here is a long list of interesting features they are currently considering: http://spacebasedf9.com/devplans

This game shows a LOT of promise and has some very talented developers behind it that will likely not disappoint their customers in the long run, even if the early weeks might be a bit rough. Should you immediately go out and buy it? Probably not if you feel ripped off if you don't get enough content on day 1. Don't if you aren't prepared for the occasional bugs and instabilities. But if you aren't too tight on cash at the moment and like what you see and like the idea of revisiting a constantly changing game, offering new opportunities after every update, then join me and Double Fine on our way to conquer die in space.
 
Just finished that game that's coming out this week and I'm shocked to report that it was really, really short. I only had one level left after my last post. Maybe two hours or a little more of game here for a first play through. It was a great two hours, but holy cow was it short. There's a lot of stuff I didn't get to actually accomplish according to the credits, so there are reasons to maybe go back, but as it stands, it's something to consider.

Where I'm at right now, I'll take short and sweet over, well, long and sweet. Thanks for letting us know, though!

Here's the Giantbomb QL if you're looking to get hyped.
 
I am still annoyed that I was in the Beta, but they never sent me the game. They apologized 2 times for forgetting to mail me the Beta infos. Grah.

Holy moly. Goes to show how much of what we are talking is just between "us":

Just received a longer mail from the FRACT dev that started like this:
I came across your post on Neogaf mentioning that you were never sent a beta, even though you were part of the beta-testing group. I wanted to make sure that it wasn't a mistake on our part, because that would really be unfortunate.

Well, now thats looking out for your community. I am massively amused and impressed. Props to the FRACT devs.
 
Hey MoreBadass, you still playing Door Kickers? It updated super recently so you can strut around with snipers and shield troops (and a few others but who cares about them.) It's pretty wild now.
 
Finally updated my email address on GAF - I'm also building a new website! I'll get into the hows and whys in the Journo GAF thread, but I'm pretty excited by it all.

If you guys can follow the twitter it'd mean a lot, badass already does!

Here it is!

I'm gonna try looking into Early Access games in a different way, but I'm still ironing that out too.
 
:)

I'd say it's probably best described as Parodius-meets-Warioware, but I'd love your impressions on what you think of it.

That is an apt description, I must say. Love both Parodius and WW so I absolutely did enjoy this. Great idea to combine those two, love the random items. Had even more fun just picking one without looking at the description. Is this the first game that does this? I can't think of another one. Great soundtrack, as well.

One small thing I noticed is enemies sometimes spawning off-screen but you can still see a small part of their sprite (happened maybe two times in three games with the shark enemies, right at the beginning of the game iirc). Not a big deal, of course, just letting you know.

So yeah, looking forward to the XBLIG version (if that is still happening)! Hope you guys make it into the next Greenlight batch, I did my part.

And if you run out of ideas, Shütshimi 2: Shüt härder is totally possible. Add more characters, more items, and there's a LOT of room to expand on the shooting sections, maybe aim for 3DS/Vita. I'm sure you guys have had enough fish for now, though. :P Congrats on making it this far, anyway. Love it when devs post here.
 
Alpha footage from Frontiers's prologue.


Finally updated my email address on GAF - I'm also building a new website! I'll get into the hows and whys in the Journo GAF thread, but I'm pretty excited by it all.

If you guys can follow the twitter it'd mean a lot, badass already does!

Here it is!

I'm gonna try looking into Early Access games in a different way, but I'm still ironing that out too.

I'm curious about your new project.
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TySLd5UnZQc

From TIGForums
We've been working on a crafting and building game that may be a possible Minecraft and Star Bound killer

I was honest and told the guy in the thread that making such bold claims would probably do more harm than good in the long run and to make his own identity rather than piggyback off these games

On the other hand, the game looks kind of impressive. But I'm skeptical, some of it seems more like conceptual footage than actual gameplay. Anyone agree?
 
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