Little Indie Games Worth Knowing About (Probably)

Bobtree · 2019-02-13T02:23:09.713Z

KristiGaines · 2019-02-13T04:04:33.245Z

That looks like a Tom non-request Monday game to me.

Sonoftgb · 2019-02-13T14:55:22.217Z

Evolution is a joy, and one of the most polished board game adaptations I’ve played. Great single player campaign that gradually unlocks new cards.

LeeAbe · 2019-02-13T15:08:41.847Z

Good to hear. Did you get the iOS version @Misguided?

Matt_W · 2019-02-13T15:12:53.468Z

Sonoftgb:

Evolution is a joy, and one of the most polished board game adaptations I’ve played. Great single player campaign that gradually unlocks new cards.

Oh that’s what that was. (My workplace blocks all content from Steam, so I can’t see embedded links or images from there.) Yeah, it’s pretty good. My kids and I play the physical game all the time, so I’ve been interested to see how the digital version stacks up, and it’s pretty slick.

Misguided · 2019-02-13T15:51:27.100Z

I did. It’s free to try. 9.99 full unlock on sale for 7.99.

One annoyance. No text rules I can find. If you want to go back and check on how something works, you have to watch a video. We had a rough day here yesterday (car got stuck in snow) and this was pissing me off in an irrational way. I’m sure I can find the rules online, but for all the polish in this thing it seems like a silly omission.

Thraeg · 2019-02-13T19:01:00.994Z

Does it have async multiplayer?

tomchick · 2019-02-13T19:58:22.443Z

Thraeg:

Does it have async multiplayer?

Apparently not. I can understand why, since the round robin process of feeding your species would really slow things down if you were passing around turns among players.

But that and the lack of a rules reference are a pretty big strike against it given how good the rest of it is.

-Tom

Thraeg · 2019-02-13T20:01:23.032Z

tomchick:

Apparently not. I can understand why, since the round robin process of feeding your species would really slow things down if you were passing around turns among players.

Ah, makes sense I guess. Thanks.

Mysterio · 2019-02-13T20:28:21.192Z

tomchick:

Apparently not. I can understand why, since the round robin process of feeding your species would really slow things down if you were passing around turns among players.

Pixelated Cardboard – 12 Feb 19

North Star Digital Studios Interview - Pixelated Cardboard

We spoke with the president of North Star Digital Studios about their Evolution port. We cover a range of topics in the great interview.

[PC]: Onto the game…We will be posting this interview along with our review on release day, so readers can hop over there to check out the details, but let’s just say we’re impressed with the feature list of Evolution. Having said that, we will, naturally, harp on the one missing feature…asynchronous online play. This feature is always a discussed topic in the community, could you elaborate on why the decision was made not to include this as an option?

[SR]: We’ve heard this one loud and clear, and Asynchronous (and pass and play) is coming soon, likely a few weeks! We didn’t plan for it originally as we thought the game wouldn’t play as well asynchronously; we were worried the feeding part would be slow. We’ve got a design now though where the AI can assist with feeding and speed it up, if desired. We also focused a ton on ensuring real time games are fast, including adding the ability for folks to act early and take their turn before their actual turn comes, without showing these plays to opponents. This allows folks to play simultaneously and speed things up. We assumed the fast real time games would be preferred, but we’ve heard our community and know some people just prefer to play async, so we’ll get it in there!

tomchick · 2019-02-13T22:10:54.257Z

Great news! I wondered if there might be some way to just push through the feeding in a more simplified manner, similar to the way the Through the Ages port pushes through colony bids.

Now if they’d just provide some way to reference the rules, they’ll be all set!

-Tom

Sonoftgb · 2019-02-14T01:57:32.787Z

Bring on the Tomsplaining.

TurinTur · 2019-02-20T15:46:00.618Z

Any opinions on Sundered? It had good review when it was released. I kind of remember some people weren’t super hot on some aspects of the game, but it seems it had a good number of updates.

rhamorim · 2019-02-20T15:54:01.710Z

I love it, but then again, I’m early in the game. But of the recent metroidvanialikes, it’s the one that got me hooked the most.

JoshoB · 2019-02-20T18:00:22.449Z

Yeah, Sundered is all right. The thing that bothers me the most is that enemies ignore walls entirely, whereas you cannot. So it’s possible to be shot repeatedly by foes that aren’t even on the same screen as yourself, and which you cannot reach because they’re behind a locked door.

tomchick · 2019-02-20T23:20:16.998Z

JoshoB:

The thing that bothers me the most is that enemies ignore walls entirely, whereas you cannot. So it’s possible to be shot repeatedly by foes that aren’t even on the same screen as yourself, and which you cannot reach because they’re behind a locked door.

It is annoying, but if I recall correctly, you always get a bit of warning. Like from the sniper guys who point a laser that gets brighter before it fires. But then there are the little flying guys who just run through walls and you have to wait for them to come back where you can hit them. I’m sure it’s an intentional way to differentiate the enemies, but I can totally understand how it might be annoying to some folks.

But, yeah, I like Sundered as far as Metroidvanias go.

-Tom

Bobtree · 2019-02-23T22:07:07.226Z

Edit: this link was to Space Expand, which has been disabled on Steam.

LeeAbe · 2019-02-23T22:41:03.069Z

Is that an endorsement or a “this looks cool” post?

Bobtree · 2019-02-23T22:55:01.851Z

I just thought it looked appealing.

BrianRubin · 2019-02-23T23:43:25.817Z

Nice find!