Tape to Tape has launched in early access. I played the festival demo a couple months ago. A random event let me trade a player for the legendary “Gawain Gurtsky” the green knight, who wears medieval armor and has a bent sword for a hockey stick. Fun stuff.
This launches tomorrow with 3 DLC scenes for The Case of the Golden Idol.
I have no idea what you actually do in the game, from watching the video or looking at the images.
I’m always baffled by indie game videos on Steam. They have one chance to impress me (and also everyone else), so why don’t they show what it is you actually do. Is it a management game? Do you control a player? What?!
Presuming you mean Tape to Tape, the entire trailer is gameplay. Arcade ice hockey, some player/equipment/skill management, some path choices and artifact picks.
Steam only shows a handful of tags by default, but you can click the edit ‘+’ to see the full list which is often more informative.
Not related to Tape to Tape, but in general I agree with you. I can’t count the number of indie videos that start out with about 45 seconds of a slooooowly moving cutscene when all I want to see is gameplay and the UI. Feels like promo videos have all transitioned to trying to be movie like as opposed to showing actual gameplay.
So much this. I check out the new games on the Xbox Console store every week. The layout of the store is fine, and when you hover over a title box, it automatically starts playing a trailer, like Netflix (I have the sound muted in options for this). I can’t count how many start with a black screen for 10 seconds or so, then slowly fade in the developer logo, then the publisher logo, then go into an animated cutscene. I watch for a minute, and I have no info for what kind of game it even is. It’s maddening.
I’ve looked up some real footage (e.g. here) to compare and the “trailer” on the Steam page doesn’t actually show in-game footage. It has all of these weird camera angles and doesn’t indicate which hockey player you’re controlling, which is exactly the sort of thing I’m complained about.
If I cannot see how to play a game from the video I’m not going to buy it.
I imagine most other people do the same for indie games, because there’s 10,000 of them and they can only get a fraction of my time to impress me.
A minute? You’re much more generous than I am. If I see those fading logos I just assume that if the developer can’t use their brains correctly to make a simple video then they presumably also failed to make a decent game, and I just move onto the next on in the Steam queue.
Here’s an information rich indie trailer to clear the air. Thought about this the other day for the “great trailers” thread.
I can’t believe you folks have spoken more about bad trailers (I agree btw) than GOLDEN IDOL DLC. What a wonderful surprise!
Heat Signature was so good. They could have easily milked a few DLC out of me for that one… Can’t fault developers with a clear and concise vision.
Well, there was quite a bit of aftercare for Heat Signature, but the guy went on to the next game, and that one has been stuck in development limbo for quite a while now.
Looks vaguely similar to Into the Breach, plus added defenestrations.
I wouldn’t say it’s in development limbo… if you follow @BreachWizards and @Pentadact on Twitter, that is.
Reus 2 was announced.
You control giants in a strategic god game, placing resources to create effects and synergies. Judging by the description Reus 2 will be more open ended rather than the scenario-goal structure of Reus 1. Also included, advancement up to space travel in a whole solar system.
Little more info currently, not even a rough release estimate.
I really liked the original Reus but their next two games, Renowned Explorers and Godhood, were duds for me. I’m curious to see how this turns out.
Six Ages 2, the third of the King of Dragon Pass games is coming out this year and just released a demo.
Just as you would expect if you played the previous two, mechanically the same game just set in a different era with new events and “world story”. This time the gods die and the world ends.
UI could use some improvements but it’s at least serviceable, unlike the terrible mobile-abomination of the second KoDP version.
Yet another demo for one of the games in my wishlist dropped, Laysara the Summit Kingdom.
Relaxed city builder on a mountain. Production chains and transport networks (route-based, no walkers).
The Demo is pretty short and basically just the well made tutorial, but gives a good overview about what to expect mechanically.
There are avalanches to prepare for and manage, and a mountain temple monument goal. Your towns on different mountains with promised unique traits trade with each other (Sounds like along the lines of the great Anno 2205 flow based trading system).
I’m pleased to see Abbey still making games, I’d thought Godhood killed them. I adored Renowned Explorers but never really got much out of Reus.
I’ve been having fun lately with Path of Achra which has just come onto steam in early access. The game’s unique feature is that you don’t ‘cast spells’ but rather spells/skills are effects that are triggered by attacking, moving or standing still. It works surprisingly well and keeps the game simple and fast-paced.
Well worth checking out if you like roguelikes and testing out different skill combos. There’s a demo available as well.
Ran across this game on a weird youtube channel the other day and added it to my wishlist. And today this video showed up. It’s a unique puzzler and I can’t speak for you but I personally was visually stunned by it!
The first 12 minutes of this video by Drae below shows it in action. He talks about a demo but I couldn’t find one.
I’m not sure when this happened, but I’ve very pleased by the return of demos for PC games. They disappeared from our lives for a decade+. Though I’m not so sure why they’re all “prologues” these days – I think that’s trying to game the Steam algorithm.
Steam Next Fest really pushed demos back, and I’m happy about it as well.
The reason for separate entries, time limits and otherwise odd aspects is indeed various issues with Steam.
Digging the vibes.
