At that price point it’s a day one for me. I hope it’ll be cross buy on PS4/Vita, since Sony’s handheld is my indie machine of choice, but I would like to play with friends on a big screen too!
What the heck? Hyper Light Drifter will be out March 31st. Who knew.
Tom provides a lengthy explanation of Gremlins, Inc. gameplay.
Nicely done, Tom! On their Steam forum, the developers are very responsive to player input and even maintain a roadmap thread. I’d suggest posting your video there and/or voicing your recommendations, since you have some good ones.
I have to admit, watching Totalbiscuit’s video on the same game and looking at the new, final tutorial, I’m enjoying the single-player game a lot more.
Just saw the trailer for Tokyo 42. DO WANT.
Tokyo 42 is an isometric action game inspired by classics such as Syndicate and GTA1.
Developed by SMAC Games and published by Mode 7
Well THAT looks awesome, thanks for the heads up! Me also do want.
Also, I found it kinda funny that I saw the developer’s name was SMAC Games, and I thought “Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri is developing this?! What?”
And you were not the only one to think that. ;)
Anyone know anything about Soviet City Builder, launching later today on Steam? Apparently the twist is you have to build an infrastructure that keeps people oppressed enough to be fearful of the government, but not so oppressed that they actually revolt.
Intriguing idea, and while I like the look of what appears to be cutscenes, I’m not crazy about the art direction of the game itself.
Everything I’ve found so far seems to be in Polish, but it looks like it’s only 10 magic beans, which is pretty much my “why not?” threshold, so I may just grab it later today for the heck of it.
I’m curious about it as well, if you take the plunge let us know.
Plunge taken. It’s very rough around the edges, and lacks some of the things we take for granted in a city builder (map can’t be rotated and roads have to be placed one tile at a time). I get the impression it’s a one man show.
Money is generated by creating saleable goods, importing them to a warehouse, and then exporting them off the map. There doesn’t seem to be a large variety of buildings, but each of them allows you to enact a policy that either increases or reduces Terror (if it falls too low or climbs too high the game ends). In short, it seems like a stripped down version of Tropico, but much, much darker. That said, it makes Tropico look like a masters thesis in Latin American studies.
I’m no expert in the history of the Soviet Union, but I’m pretty sure not even Stalin killed random pedestrians and sent their bodies off to be used as fuel and food (Soylent Red!!!).
The overall goal is to build a rocket and send it to the sun (???). I’m not clear on whether or not more missions will be added as the game is developed, as there is definitely a language barrier. Most of the descriptions and tool tips are in broken English, which would normally annoy me, but given the theme of the game it just adds to the immersion.
My biggest issue right now is that there doesn’t seem to be any way to save the game. Every time I’ve gone back to it I’ve had to restart from the first tutorial. I’ve posted about that on the Steam forums, but if I’m right that would definitely be a deal breaker and I’ll be putting in for a refund. I’ll keep y’all posted.
Anyone played XenoShyft? It’s a real-life (i.e. nondigital) deckbuilding game that’s also available for Android and iOS, and now it’s on Steam. Multiplayer sounds as if it’s a bit glitchy, but the dev is working on a patch.
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Axes and Acres drops later today. I’ve watched several developer videos, and while it seems an interesting concept (dice-and-card based puzzly city-builder thing) it also seems a little click-heavy. (Click to place a hunter on the board, click again to activate, click to move to the space where the bunny sits, click to kill the bunny, repeat with the gatherer to get the food you just created).
Then again, if priced similarly to the devleoper’s previous game (Militia), it will be coming in around the $5 mark, and that makes it worth getting, if only to support a developer with original ideas.
Well, each click is a action. It’s no more click heavy than any turn-based digital boardgame with numerous discrete actions. :) It has some really weird interface peccadilloes, but I quite like it. I think the main problem is sussing out some of obscure gameplay elements that aren’t explained very well. But once you get past that, it’s a really nifty solitaire boardgame.
Did you play Milita? How was that?
-Tom
It struck me as an uninspired flip-cards-and-compare-them design with space marines vs bugs theming. It didn’t do much for me, but I confess I didn’t explore the card interactions very far. If anyone knows any better, I’d be curious whether it’s worth sticking with.
-Tom
I only played it once, at a friend’s. With only 3 classes of unit (melee, ranged, and magic, iirc) each with a specific movement radius and angle of attack, it seemed like a series of chess puzzles. I thought it was OK, but didn’t put a lot of time into it.
Are kickstarter’s allowed here? This is an old school adventure game developed in Romania. Looks great and there’s a demo available: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/777841902/gibbous-a-cthulhu-adventure
Thanks for mentioning Axes and Acres. Sounds interesting.
I grabbed it and played the tutorial up to the first mission where the developer no longer holds your hand. Looking at the more advanced units/buildings there seems to be a lot more depth than meets the eye. And I love, love, love the soundtrack.
The only thing I’m a bit wary of is the (apparent) inability to save mid-game. In fact, the game goes out of it’s way to warn you it will be counted as a loss if you quit in the middle. That could be mitigated somewhat if it auto-saves after each stage, but I haven’t played enough to tell yet.
[edit]I guess the first part was just the basic tutorial. I just finished the advanced tutorial, and I’m getting hooked, but I’m not sure I grok the whole tamale yet.
Here’s hoping Tom does a video similar to the one he did introducing Gremlins, Inc.
Oh, I had a quick try of Axes and Acres. Interesting. Makes me want to go hunting in the closet to find Roads & Boats.
Some chaps I know through the local indie scene have announced All Walls Must Fall. It’s being described as:
All Walls Must Fall is a tech-noir spy thriller set in a Berlin of 2089 where the Cold War never ended. A game in the isometric action tactics genre, you command secret agents using time travel, social stealth and combat.
There’s some brief prototype footagehere. It’s their first major project after leaving Yager, however, their Ludum Dare project The Mammoth also has received a bit of press coverage earlier last year.