OP impressions:
Bewilder House
..is a first person puzzle game which mostly relies on clues you get from the labyrinth layout. Tedious controls and I didnt appreciate the way the gameplay is set up at all. The setting could be interesting though with some more polish and work. Might have been not really in the mood for this when I tested it, if someone has other impressions please share.
Bickadoodle
...is a very endearing adventure game that unfortunately has a bit too many bugs and since there is no "fast" walking, the traversal gets annoying very quickly. Short game, but double clicking an exit area to instantly switch would be better than waiting 60 seconds for a scene change.
Black the Fall
...is a 2,5D sidescrolling action adventure game, mixing some nice blac/white&grey environment design with annoying move and combat mechanics. Not extremely bad, but not particulary interesting either. This game has a lot of potential if they iron out the issues and add more interesting content eventually for the full release, but going by the current ingame content, its probably not worth it atm.
Claire
Very atmospheric 2D Horror game. I really liked they way they are using the horror elements and set up the story in this game. Definitely among the better games in the genre. I felt like they missed a bit of an opportunity by not using more animations for different situations as that sometimes took me out of the experience, but its a very carefully crafted game with a ambient sound work. This game definitely gets you in the mood, if you like these 2D Horror games, you should check this out.
Cubic Roll
Mechanically very simple, but incredibly challenging action/reaction based highscore game. The mechanics of changing the sides with the arrow keys works fine, and if you are into these small highscore games that get deviously fast, you'll like this.
DYNETZZLE
Smart little puzzle game about the all too well known dice nets. In this case, these dice nets even intertwine making you use the properties of a certain dice useful to determining the layout of another dice (a little bit reminiscent of how solving a certain Sudoku line might help you in a certain row). Surprisingly well thought out and fun, its just missing more variety in the kind of challenge the game could present to you. Still, definitely recommended, check out the free prototype if you like puzzley games.
Ender
Rather bland shmup, with boring progression and uninteresting enemy patterns and visually annoying explosion. Not much else to say really.
Error City Tourist
Rather pointless. A cool glitch skybox, an endless city with silent strangers, PCs with scrambled messages and a monorail which you can ride for all eternity. The end.
Freedom Planet
I havent played the full version yet, but based on the demo, this is basically the best Sonic clone game I ever played. I dont mean to use "clone" as a negative here, but it really is the same base mechanics. However, they work quite well too, great sense of speed, interesting level design, boss encounters, decent variety of enemies and challenges. If you like Sonic and you wont vall it a sacrilege for someone to copy the formula, you dont get around this one.
Glitch Dungeon
Cute little puzzle game which will have you learn several glitch powers, which are needed to progress through to the end. I sort of felt they didnt do enough with the theme on a mechanic level and there really could have been a more intriguing setup (full fleshed metroidvania anyone?), but I definitely enjoyed playing through it just now and overcoming the obstacles here.
Jazu
Cool concept, in which you basically only talk to people and figure out what they have to say based on the imagery shown. Unfortunately, there isnt much here either, its basically a micro story instead of a game, cute idea still though.
Metagolf
I am not particularly fond of this one. Instead of only being a classic golf game in 2D, they added a ton of action elements, which probably makes for a frantic golf MP session as everyone is constantly moving, trying to move their ball to the goal or being the one to first score the ball, but I dont think the action elements (spikes, jump&run courses) add anything to the concept of golf for me, this game really frustrates me more than anything else.
Lavapools
These guys are onto something here. Described as Modern hardcore Pacman, it actually fits that bill quite nicely. You move around, try to avoid danger and collect gems, and while doing so, the difficulty increases, enemies change their patterns, new enemies get added and so on. Its not quite as polished yet as it should be for a full release, but with a good amount of content, the full version could be quite interesting. Currently, its not going to light anyones world on fira in the alpha, and I do have some issues with the controls, but I guess the future depends on the devs and how much they'll be able to do with the concept.
Lexicopolis
While there are some better games this month, this is easily the biggest surprise I've played so far. The screenshot looks incredibly boring, and I wouldnt have given it another look if it werent for the fact that we included it here. This game concept is soooo good, it would be a shame if the dev wouldnt follow up on it with a proper release and leaderboards integration. The game is basically testing your inventiveness in coming up with town buildings, which you need to collect letters for by placing said buildings and the placement, rarity of the letters and position of the buildings itself, governs the amount of points each building gives you, accumulating into an overall value score of your city. You basically need to a) come up with buildings in a city (preferably the ones that you have the least of among the three categories of population, jobs and fun), which gives extra points , b) strategize your buildin placement to get access to the correct letters for the stuff you want to build, c) place buildings in a way that will give you the maximum amount of points. And its oh-so satisfying to come up with certain words to add to your city, see that they actually exist in the game, have their own graphic and give you a shit ton of points after placing them over a multiplier (I love my Pyramid and am going to build that in every city I make). The picture above is my first fully built city and my highscore for a small city. I really should make a thread about this and see if it catches on, please try the game yourself and let me know if you'd be interested in some GAF highscores. Inventive, addicting, fun.
>----------< Highly Recommended >----------<
Eidolon (if they resolve my technical issues)
Claire
Lexicopolis
Freedom Planet
Lovely Planet
>----------< Recommended >----------<
DYNETZZLE
Glitch Dungeon
Cubic Roll
>----------< Decent-ish >----------<
Lavapools
Bickadoodle
Black the Fall
Avorion
Metagolf
Jazu
baseless
>----------< Bleh >----------<
Bewilder House
Ender
Error City Tourist
Stuff I should take a look at eventually but skipped for now and I wouldnt mind someone else posting impressions on:
Abyss Odyssey, Crypt of the Necrodancer, Deadstone, Cataegis, Bik, Lifeless Planet
