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Indie Games [December] Now Voting - Post 741!

jlevel13

Member
My brother made this sort of old-fashioned arcade style game and just published it to gamejolt. It's free.

http://gamejolt.com/games/arcade/all-you-can-do-is-shoot/20207/

I'm biased of course, but I think it turned out pretty fun. The mechanics are really simple. You aim with the mouse and vacuum up energy and power-ups (and red enemy mines, be careful), with the space bar. If you unlock the harder difficulties it becomes pretty challenging.

There's a video trailer too (though there have been a few gameplay and graphics updates since he made the trailer)...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_MbyHQkEy8
 

Toma

Let me show you through these halls, my friend, where treasures of indie gaming await...
Guys, guys, guys.

Maldita Castilla is the current IndieGameStand deal!
maldita3a.png

Fantastic game, Ghost 'n' Ghoblins throwback, challenging
and free if you dl it from the dev website

What a deal!

Edit: Just noticed their 12 days of christmas event. What a stupid event, not sure who expected that people would be paying for these games.
 

Toma

Let me show you through these halls, my friend, where treasures of indie gaming await...
OP impressions: Another Perspective

Very competent puzzle platformer. I very much enjoy the more concise nature of the game, in which you are tasked with solving an increasingly more challenging single room each time. The basic idea of the game is to move around copies of yourself, which the other copies can use to stand on. That sounds rather limiting, but die to the fact that each copy can have his own "world" to navigate in, this quickly becomes a surprisingly challenging and engaging task. They also have some nice ideas for the narrative aspects, where different copies might have different takes on the standard narrative text, which seems to further deviate each individual copy from the "norm". Obviously not through the game yet, but its a neat touch that is interesting to follow on top of the level challenges.

Its also comparably cheap at $5, though I dont know how much content it has. Still, if its not super short (played it for ~45 minutes now), its definitely recommendable.
 

I picked up Verdun when it was a flash deal on Steam last night and I'm having a lot of fun with it. The game is set during WW1 and since there aren't many of those around I figured it was worth looking into. The game is somewhat realistic in that guns can kill you quick, but the devs are not afraid to tweak things for the sake of making the game fun to play.

Right now the game supports up to 24 players and each player is split up into squads. Each squad contains four classes: the rifleman, the sniper, the machine gunner and the officer. They function as you might expect, but the officer has the ability to direct players and call in mortar strikes with their binoculars.

There are currently two modes in the game Frontlines and riflemen deathmatch. Frontlines operates like any other capture and hold type gametype, but your having to run into a hail of bullets while trying to reach the safety of a trench or crater. Rifleman deathmatch is exactly how it sounds, it's a free for all gametype with rifles.

The game is currently in early access, but it is slated for a February release.

*edit*

I want to add that the optimization is a little poor right now. Game is running at about 20-30 FPS and tweaking the graphics settings doesn't seem to have much effect. The devs have stated that this is something they are working on though.
 

Toma

Let me show you through these halls, my friend, where treasures of indie gaming await...
OP impressions: Blade Rush

SuperMeatBoy-esque speedrunning platformer with Stealth aspects. The level design and gameplay execution is very satisfying, unfortunately you need to fight the game controls rather frequently and especially the wall jumping dynamics can be a bit frustrating since the timing is extremely fiddly. The game could be more polished, but the stealth dynamic with the enemy kills/jumps is rather satisfying. Definitely an interesting game, but it controls are sooo important, especially for these games, it would be a bit of a hard sell with many similar games. Thankfully its free, so that any fan of the genre can just see for himself.
 

Toma

Let me show you through these halls, my friend, where treasures of indie gaming await...
Anyone tried DataJack? Tutorial and New Game simply stop for me because I die 1 second after starting the game. Looked promising, but seems hella buggy.
 

Toma

Let me show you through these halls, my friend, where treasures of indie gaming await...
The controls were definitely a turn off for me.



I played it, and yes it's really buggy.

Thanks, will just move on to Didgery then.

Edit: goddamnit. Didgery just gives me a black screen upon start up. Not my day. Contacting the dev about it, but seems like a waste of $2 for now.
 

Toma

Let me show you through these halls, my friend, where treasures of indie gaming await...
:-o

IndieRoyale Bundle:
http://www.indieroyale.com/

Includes:

PixelJunk Monsters
Fester Mudd
Prime World: Defenders
Dungeon of Elements
Legend of Fae
Monsters

I'll buy the bundle for Dungeon of Elements alone, which usually costs $20 and is currently featured in the OP. Pixeljunk is a great tower defense game, but no clue about the others yet.
 

arcanadei

Member
Not sure if it fits this thread exactly, but it is an interesting premise you guys may appreciate. DARPA has created a few games that are a crowd sourced effort to identify bugs in code by creating solvable mathematical systems in the form of games.

StormBound

carousel-pic1.jpg


A level consists of streams of symbols running across the screen. A pair of streams can be related according to one of three patterns: coinciding streams (Stack), one stream always higher than the other (Above), or interwoven streams (Tangle). The challenge is to break down the streams into the most valuable patterns. Stack is the most valuable and Above is the second most valuable.

CircuitBot

carousel-pic2.jpg


Each mission starts with a collection of robots that have hidden one-way links between one another. Click on a robot and watch how the other robots move into place on the left and right. Robots on the left point to the selected robot, and the selected robot points to robots on the right. Once the robots are arranged in a way that is compatible with the current Comlink command, click on the command to activate the links. Execute all Comlink commands to complete the robot network and finish the level.

Xylem

carousel-pic3.jpg


Travel through the island of Miraflora by classifying plants using formulas. Complete the formulas by selecting the correct plant species, mathematical function and number needed. You’ll have images of plants to compare and multiple math symbols and numbers to choose from. Select the right combination that solves each image problem to move to the next classification.

Ghost Map

carousel-pic5.jpg


The primary display shows a network of synapses called the Mind Map. Each synapse is a one-way link from one node to another. The secondary display at bottom right shows one or more smaller networks called Locks. Notice that each colored link in the Mind Map corresponds to a link of the same color in each Lock. By crossing a link in the Mind Map, you can cross links of the same color in the Locks. To complete the level, navigate the Mind Map in such a way that all Locks end up at the red target node.

Flow Jam

carousel-pic4.jpg


An electrical network is made of widgets connected by cables. The cables plug into openings in the widgets called passages. If the width of a cable doesn't match the width of a passage, you lose points. Maximize your points by matching up as many connections as possible. You can click on a blue widget to modify the connected cables or passages that are colored anything but gray.

More info on all at VeriGames.
 

Dascu

Member
Not sure if it fits this thread exactly, but it is an interesting premise you guys may appreciate. DARPA has created a few games that are a crowd sourced effort to identify bugs in code by creating solvable mathematical systems in the form of games.

Humble DARPA Bundle incoming?
 

Toma

Let me show you through these halls, my friend, where treasures of indie gaming await...
Humble DARPA Bundle incoming?

This seems relevant to my interest. Will def look into these. No Humble bundle necessary though, they seem to be free games.
 

Toma

Let me show you through these halls, my friend, where treasures of indie gaming await...
Seemed interesting in the tutorial but the actual game levels were not fun or rewarding.

Horrible UI, and the game mechanics seemed a bit... pointless.

iPad only.

One of the more intriguing concepts, but I'll need to try it again because I havent fully understood it yet.

The concept I liked the most, it seemed like a proper programming themed puzzle game, but I didnt quite understand yet how to solve these puzzles without trial and error.
 

arcanadei

Member
Thanks for the feedback on those Toma. Between Payday, Killing Floor, and KoL's Xmas events going on, I am not getting much of anything else done right now. I was kind of dubious as to how the concepts could be gameified, but it certainly got me curious to find out.
 

Toma

Let me show you through these halls, my friend, where treasures of indie gaming await...
OP impressions: Dungeons of Elements

Dungeon of Elements is cute, and I played it for ~1 hour. Its basically the Dr. Mario formula crossed with some puzzle quest overworld/RPG elements where you find equipment that helps you in the individual levels. It "works" but I wouldnt say the game is anything special that anyone "needs" to buy. Its decent though, if you like the basic gameplay, you probably will enjoy this as well, but $20 as the usual price seems waaaaaaay overpriced. Overall, Puzzle Quest did about everything better, from a more pleasing art style, more cohesive gameplay, more focussed level play (the first levels took me ~8 minutes, which seemed kinda overkill for the second level of such a game), extra features, player freedom etcetc. The levels start interesting, but stop being engaging half way through, which makes the game feel a bit more like a chore than fun. Too bad.
 
Wow, so I finally learned about the Nether "controversy". Feel bad for Phosphor Games. They've made great games, Horn was fantastic, I was eagerly anticipating Project Awakened, and still people on Steam are confused and spreading misinformation about how they're really scamming with another War Z iteration. Can't imagine how the devs must feel
 

rybrad

Member
OP impressions: Dungeons of Elements


Dungeon of Elements is cute, and I played it for ~1 hour. Its basically the Dr. Mario formula crossed with some puzzle quest overworld/RPG elements where you find equipment that helps you in the individual levels. It "works" but I wouldnt say the game is anything special that anyone "needs" to buy. Its decent though, if you like the basic gameplay, you probably will enjoy this as well, but $20 as the usual price seems waaaaaaay overpriced. Overall, Puzzle Quest did about everything better, from a more pleasing art style, more cohesive gameplay, more focussed level play (the first levels took me ~8 minutes, which seemed kinda overkill for the second level of such a game), extra features, player freedom etcetc. The levels start interesting, but stop being engaging half way through, which makes the game feel a bit more like a chore than fun. Too bad.
Thanks for the impressions. I had been keeping an eye on this game but Puzzle Quest 2 got WAY too tedious for me after awhile and this sounds like it falls prey to the same issue.
 

daydream

Banned
No doubt that Tiny Thief was a fun game on IOS, but $14,99 for the PC version is pushing it.
Especially when their reasoning is:


So some graphical changes and updates are the only differences. I usually don't complain about this stuff, but this is ridiculous

The iOS version is free right now btw.
 

Toma

Let me show you through these halls, my friend, where treasures of indie gaming await...
OP impressions: Ex Amante

Hm. Its not that gamey actually, and not even interactive. Its more like a short story that ends with a certain "message". Its really short, so you can get through it in a few minutes. Its unfortunately a bit wasted potential considering your choices dont have any impact, which makes the whole experience a bit pointless. The end is interesting for a quick "aha"-effect, but you wont miss out by not playing it since there were games that executed way better on basically the same premise.
 

Wok

Member
Groupees is closing the year on a high note, with their new Build a Bundle offer. Pay 0.50$ per game (Min 2 games). All games are DRM Free and have a Steam key, except when noted. Options are:

- Q.U.B.E. (Mac/Win)
- Blood of the Werewolf (Windows)
- Driftmoon (Mac/Win + Desura key)
- Gateways (Mac/Win/Linux)
- Gentlemen! (Mac/Win/Linux)
- Avernum: Escape from the Pit (Mac/Win)
- Ethan: Meteor Hunter (Windows, Currently on Greenlight, Mac and Linux versions will be released at a later date)
- Doctor Who: The Adventure Games - Season 1 (Windows, Already Greenlit but not yet available on Steam)
- Draw a Stickman: EPIC (Windows, NOT DRM Free)
- 9.03M (Windows)

Link

At least, Gateways and Ethan: Meteor Hunter are good games. I think both were featured in previous threads. Try them for cheap for the Indie GOTY thread.
 

Toma

Let me show you through these halls, my friend, where treasures of indie gaming await...
At least, Gateways and Ethan: Meteor Hunter are good games. I think both were featured in previous threads. Try them for cheap for the Indie GOTY thread.

Avernum too.
 

Toma

Let me show you through these halls, my friend, where treasures of indie gaming await...
Oh, Fjords is currently on a 1.31 sale! (usually 7$)
Impressions coming up.

OP blurb:
n6j9tsM.png

“Fjords is a game in which you pretend to hack into the game and its world to alter it so that you can surpass it. There’s no single solution to each of the screens as you can experiment with true and false settings and end up with different ways to navigate the world. Some do involve more skill than others. Fjords never explains itself.” (IndieStatik)
 

Toma

Let me show you through these halls, my friend, where treasures of indie gaming await...
Guys, Fjords.


Anyone of you liked Starseed Pilgrim? Same basic premise, you are exploring this game but dont know ANYTHING and need to find out what to do, where to do it and how the game reacts to your actions. Its mysterious and can be considered a big "puzzle" where you are tasked with finding out how to navigate/progress through this world. Everything is held simple, from graphics to sounds, but the dev put enough polish into it so it doesnt feel "cheap" by any means. Surprisingly mystifying animations, really well done soundtrack design and the dev fully succeeded in giving the players several tools to explore the world, which feel rewarding to figure out.

Currently on sale for 1.31 instead of 7$ (though it might only be buyable with credit card, didnt look too closely into that yet), but this game seems fabulous. If you have any means of grabbing it, it likely wont disappoint at the current price.

Seriously, pick it up if you can. Its not somehing you can enjoy if you cant sit down for an hour and just dive into an unknown realm and just... figure things out. But I wish there were more games like this.

Edit: I just found a Paypal purchase option:
http://moonmagic.itch.io/fjords
 

rybrad

Member
I dont get how its meant to be played. First you needed to click on "Play" but then the "this is you" screen doesnt allow me to click or write anything. I am supposed to set the value to false i guess but the game doesnt explain its controls all too well.
Try the arrow keys.
 
Deadlock

Demo contains the first level of the game. The controls are tight and it's just satisfying to maneuver through the level. You can double jump, later get access to a dash move, and even though the level took about 35-40 minutes, I could see dozens of ways and shortcuts to shave my time down a huge amount. The visual style is very cool and I specially like the look of your device.

Overall it's pretty fun and it's first person platforming done well. The first level was pretty lengthy and offered replay value for those who want to improve their skills, so even though there will only be five levels, that actually would offer a nice amount of content. There's also a speedrun mode that presents smaller chunks of each level as mini-challenges.
 

Toma

Let me show you through these halls, my friend, where treasures of indie gaming await...
Still playing Fjords btw. Its on track to enter my GOTY list considerations.
 

CheesecakeRecipe

Stormy Grey
Still playing Fjords btw. Its on track to enter my GOTY list considerations.

I'm really glad someone, in particular you, has picked this up and is loving it so much. It's been on my review backburner for a month or so, seeing it getting some love out of the blue does the heart good.
 

Gazoinks

Member
Guys, Fjords.



Anyone of you liked Starseed Pilgrim? Same basic premise, you are exploring this game but dont know ANYTHING and need to find out what to do, where to do it and how the game reacts to your actions. Its mysterious and can be considered a big "puzzle" where you are tasked with finding out how to navigate/progress through this world. Everything is held simple, from graphics to sounds, but the dev put enough polish into it so it doesnt feel "cheap" by any means. Surprisingly mystifying animations, really well done soundtrack design and the dev fully succeeded in giving the players several tools to explore the world, which feel rewarding to figure out.

Currently on sale for 1.31 instead of 7$ (though it might only be buyable with credit card, didnt look too closely into that yet), but this game seems fabulous. If you have any means of grabbing it, it likely wont disappoint at the current price.

Seriously, pick it up if you can. Its not somehing you can enjoy if you cant sit down for an hour and just dive into an unknown realm and just... figure things out. But I wish there were more games like this.

Thanks for the recommendation. I love exploration games, so I'll definitely check this one out.
 

OnPoint

Member
Guys, guys, guys.

Maldita Castilla is the current IndieGameStand deal!
maldita3a.png

Fantastic game, Ghost 'n' Ghoblins throwback, challenging
and free if you dl it from the dev website

What a deal!

Edit: Just noticed their 12 days of christmas event. What a stupid event, not sure who expected that people would be paying for these games.

Have it on my Ouya. So good!
 

Toma

Let me show you through these halls, my friend, where treasures of indie gaming await...
I'm really glad someone, in particular you, has picked this up and is loving it so much. It's been on my review backburner for a month or so, seeing it getting some love out of the blue does the heart good.

Thanks for the recommendation. I love exploration games, so I'll definitely check this one out.

Just finished it, great experience.

I did not even find everything I think, but I got the end scene, so I guess I am done :p

Still need to check stuff for my list, but good chances I might put this on my voting list somewhere. And I just found a Paypal purchase option:
http://moonmagic.itch.io/fjords
 

Hofmann

Member
A supplemental for Night in the Woods came out, kinda like what KRZ did.

It's quite cool and simple, you get to see a lot of dialogue and just pick out some constellations.

head.png

NITW SUPPLEMENTAL #1 : LONGEST NIGHT. Gather round the bonfire and trace the constellations.

Windows | Mac | Linux

http://www.nightinthewoods.com/
Sooooooooooooooo slooooooooooooow.

Is there any mirror? Looks like it's getting a lot of love - 4 hours to download a 70 MB file is crazy.

And Fjords is so bought. I've been wanting to check it out from the moment I saw it on the Jake Elliot's twitter.
 

Toma

Let me show you through these halls, my friend, where treasures of indie gaming await...
Oh, hey, Isomer is on Desura


Toma, I remember you saying the game felt lackluster. Has it improved since then?

I wanted to check out the newest version, but I noticed that the Humble version hasnt been updated for 4 months, and I didnt yet get a Desura key...assuming there is a newer version on Desura.

Not to mention, that the issues I had with the game back then were rather... fundamental and I'd be very surprised if they actually managed to fix it.

OP impressions: Meatballphobia

Competent puzzle game. The gameplay revolves around editing the level design by deleting certain blocks and changing the direction of these push arrows. If you like the sound of that, you'll likely enjoy this game as well and its easily worth the $2 asking price. The only downside is that the game seems a bit trial and error sometimes due to its physics based gameplay solutions since you cannot always perfectly guess how the ball might behave just judging based on the push arrows and level geometry. It wouldnt be so annoying, if the layout wouldnt completely reset each try, which makes it a bit tedious.

Still worth the $2.
 

SapientWolf

Trucker Sexologist
I dont get how its meant to be played. First you needed to click on "Play" but then the "this is you" screen doesnt allow me to click or write anything. I am supposed to set the value to false i guess but the game doesnt explain its controls all too well.
Oh, you control it with WASD. You're a little '@' symbol. You interact with the code by 'bumping' into variables to change them. You will get different changes depending on where you bump them. The object is to make changes that satisfy the win conditions.
 

Toma

Let me show you through these halls, my friend, where treasures of indie gaming await...
Oh, you control it with WASD. You're a little '@' symbol. You interact with the code by 'bumping' into variables to change them. You will get different changes depending on where you bump them. The object is to make changes that satisfy the win conditions.

Yeah, got it after your last hint with the arrow keys. I thought it was meant to be played with mouse only, so I was a bit stumped.
Anyway, fun little game, did we feature that in one of the threads already?
 
Just beat Shadow Warrior (2013), and did not care for it. I though the guns were weak and many of the bigger enemies and bosses were tedious to fight. On top of that, I felt the game went on for far too long.
 

SapientWolf

Trucker Sexologist
Yeah, got it after your last hint with the arrow keys. I thought it was meant to be played with mouse only, so I was a bit stumped.
Anyway, fun little game, did we feature that in one of the threads already?
No, I found it in Indiecade. It don't think it was mentioned in this forum. It's an early demo concept that might end up as a educational game.
 

Toma

Let me show you through these halls, my friend, where treasures of indie gaming await...
No, I found it in Indiecade. It don't think it was mentioned in this forum. It's an early demo concept that might end up as a educational game.

Could you make a properly formatted post then please so I can add it next month? :)
 

Toma

Let me show you through these halls, my friend, where treasures of indie gaming await...
Anyone tried Paper Sorcerer?
 

Gazoinks

Member
Anyone tried Paper Sorcerer?

I played the demo at the start of this thread. Oozes style, combat is kinda clunky and kinda simple, but solid. Worth checking out if you like dungeon crawlers.

I need to hurry up and play enough games to fill up a 20 game list so I can vote for One Way Heroics. xP

Speaking of which, anyone else here play Blade Symphony? Got it when it went on flash sale and have been having a lot of fun with it.
 
Just bought Stanley Parable. How long is it? Gotta play it before I give in the GOTY votes. That and Shadow Warrior and finishing Metro Last Light.
 
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