OP impressions,
Offworld:
Not much to say because there is not much to it. You start the game and are immediately thrown into a sky arena in which you are battling with other players. No highscores, no challenges, no campaign, just simple, plain old skirmish. However, the game does seem a bit light on features considering you can control the whole game with only the mouse and there isnt much of a weapon variety to choose from and the weapons that are in the game end up feeling not all that interesting to use. Not sure where they'll go with this eventually, but currently at least not fun for me.
Painters Guild:
Cute game concept concept in which you are balancing your own ressources (manpower, money) to create pictures and build up your guild rooms. Currently very limited because it is in very early alpha, but it is charming. It also has some serious balancing issues still, plus it feels rather repetetive at the moment since you dont do much with only 2 people and limited upgrade options (Basically a very simple Game Dev Story variant). I do like the pixel art of classical art works however. Since the game has a tendency of getting rather hectic at times, I couldnt admire them as much as I want to, but very nice touches. My enjoyment in future versions will likely stem from the amount of options and campaign progress. With the current setup, I cant see them building HUGE guilds, as you micromanage everything.
Not all that good currently yet, but I'll definitely check back for future versions.
Probably Archery:
I havent played the full version, but judging from the demo this game can be very fun TRYING to execute moves/shots probably (similar to QWOP) and also equally frustrating. It was certainly worth a look eventually considering free form arrow shooting isnt all that common to come by but not something I can play for very long.
Principia:
"The Incredible Machine x Little Big Planet" would probably be an apt description. Initially the OP said nothing about a free demo but it DOES have a free demo which seems to be almost the full game with the exceptions of certain limitations regarding downloadable levels and some "buy?" popups. There are plenty of building games out there, but this might be among my favourites based on the versatility of the tools and the community contests, but more to that later. The game offers different modes, which in turn also have a slightly different focus. There are puzzles (basically single levels in which you need to use available tools to fulfill a goal, which... can be anything really and is achieved by "simulating" the tools that you prepared), adventure mode (in which you are traversing a level from left to right, overcoming obstacles by actually jumping/running/shooting and building the level on the fly), creative mode (in which you can build anything you want) and the possibility to quickly delve into the creations of others.
While this game is in itself already very neat, the monthly community contests are giving it an actual profile. Players are challenged to create levels/machines to fulfill a certain requirement, which in turn helps showcasing the possibilities this game has to newcomers AND keeping the community together without the constant nagging for updates. Examples?
Here some pictures for best houses, pinball machines, moon rovers and a transformer:
...yeah. The game still has some flaws though. Apparently the adventure mode is incredibly short for now and also not very well polished, the "platforming" itself seems rather loose and it seems quite daunting to actually build something from scratch. I also need to admit that I wish it had more challenge/puzzle levels. However, considering I just spent almost 2 hours with the 40 challenge levels, the dozens community creations and the editor, this one definitely deserves a look, even if its not yet fully realized. And again: Free Demo on their website after registering. Some more simple Gifs coming after the break.
>----------< Highly Recommended >----------<
1. Card City Nights
2. Cubesis
3. Glitchspace
4. Nothing to Hide
5. Black Ice
6. Lennas Inception
7. Mirage
8. Cosmochoria
>----------< Recommended >----------<
9. Banished
10. Principia
11. Box Out!
12. Probably Archery
13. Heroes of Steel
14. Blue Saga
15. Action Painting Pro
>----------< Decent-ish >----------<
16. MagicMaker
17. Lift
18. Izbot
19. KiloBite
20. Clockefeller
21. Painters Guild
22. Bosses Forever
23. Astrovoid
24. Maverick Bird
>----------< Bleh >----------<
25. Magic Book
26. Offworld
27. Guild of Dungeoneering
28. Grabbles
29. HOMEunculus
30. Cubrick
31. Goofball Goals
32. Cloudbase Prime