Little Indie Games Worth Knowing About (Probably)

INSOMNIA The Ark has a trailer up and Steam page! I kickstarted this like 4+ years ago.

Been waiting on this one for a while and hoping it is good.

One Deck Dungeon has exited Early Access.

It now features the meta character progression.
I finally grabbed it, and it proves to be quite a thrilling RNG fragfest. For some reason, it brings me the same sort of light hearted excitement I enjoyed in Monster’s Den, although the two games are completely different formats.
As usual with Handelabra, the port is top notch. Some little sound glitches but that’s about it regarding the annoyances here.
I almost won for the first time in the tutorial dungeon just now. I failed against the final dragon while I was totally maiming it. I felt so strong, so prepared… But because I lacked a single purple “5” faced die out of a dozen — after using rerolls and stuff, I was devoured in one single bite by Smaug’s digital cousin.


It left me quite cheerful and laughing at the twist, but if that sounds like something that’d me you ragequit, you’d better stay away!

Couldn’t you turn the two 6-yellows into a 6-black? I only have the physical version, but that’s a rule I think.

I just completed INFRA, the game you mentioned a while back. It’s an interesting game and I particularly enjoyed the story pieces as I went along. Some of the puzzles were extremely frustrating though. According to this Steam achievement, not many players seem to reach the end. :)

I don’t think it gives enough guidance as to what you’re meant to be doing, alas.

I think I saw a skill similar to that, but sadly, my warrior didn’t have it. I blame my last potion of clarity which didn’t turn any of the die to the proper face!

You made me go look it up. “Any two dice (even from two heroes) can be discarded to make a Heroic die, equal to the lower of the two dice”. Does the game really not have that? Because… that would make it really hard. And it’s already really hard.

Nice! It is still on my wishlist, I’ll get around to buying it eventually.

Dang. Then not only would i have survived, i would even have had inflicted one extra hit with this hand.
Shocked.

I’ve played over 16 hours of Dead in Vinalnd. The aunt committed suicide on Day 6 of the first game, and if any of the four family members die it is game over. The Epilogue explains why. I’ve prioritized making a Tavern (simply a table with a little beermaking station) in my second game to help with the rampant depression. I got it done just in time as the father and daughter are both getting suicidal in my second game.

Yes, the four family members are always the same, but their interactions with the environment and other characters can lead to very different developments. I brought a young monk into the group in my first game, but have an old witch in my second. It was a nasty comment from the witch that made the daughter suicidal. Beer will help! Also, I’ve seen just a few different conversation initiations on my part resulted in pretty different outcomes.

@Nesrie may be really interested in this game because of all the similarities with Thea. Anyone who likes Thea’s crafting, King of Dragon Pass’ text adventures, or good tactical combat might be interested as well.

Thanks for mentioning this to me. I have looked at briefly in the path and my only hesitation is I was not thrilled with Dead in Bermuda. It’s the same dev, so I assume the two would be too similar. Did you ever play the first one. They gave it away for free on Origin which is how I got my taste.

I haven’t played their first game, but @Mysterio did, and found Dead in Vinland imporved upon it.

DIV addresses this and adds more to the game, including the aforementioned Darkest Dungeon-like combat. From what I’ve read, you always start with the same four family members (father, his wife and daughter, and the wife’s sister). But the encounters on the map you explore are randomly generated, as is the loot you find. The main story line is the same (like Darkest Dungeon), but interactions between the characters will vary depending on their mood towards each other. Each character (others will join your camp) starts with two hereditary traits (one positive and one negative) and two random negative traits.

It’s a deeper game than DIB and the better game overall. Plus, it’s gorgeous to look at, and the devs are taking suggestions and have already promised to continue expanding it. You can grab it for only $15 (25% off) in the VIP section on GMG using the personalized code. If you enjoy managing your heroes in Darkest Dungeon, I think you’ll enjoy managing the characters in DIV as they try to survive after being driven from their home and shipwrecked.

It also has a demo.

I never played Darkest Dungeon. I have so much in my backlog it’s not funny, but I always felt like it wouldn’t take much to push Dead in Bermuda from my kind of don’t like sphere into the will enjoy sphere so… consider Dead in Vinland added to my wishlist for now. I am sure I will get to it eventually, and you’re dead on, this theme is definitely more to my liking too… It’s definitely pleasing too look at for sure.

I played my first game of it the other day. It ended after a little less than 4 hours and what I guess was almost a month of game-time. The scaling of the demands surprised me, it was quite insane.
It is really a masochistic game, and unlike other rough games like Massive Chalice, I am not sure I’ll find the heart to try again for some reason. Maybe because the story bits felt a bit too sadistic? I am wondering whether picking a lower difficulty might help? Did you try that, or kept hanging onto the standard one?
I wasn’t very fond of the “modern” writing (the Bruckheimer approach to mythology, if you wish) which is where the game really takes a very different path from King of Dragon’s Pass, but I kind of liked the overall juggling of the needs. While the interface lacked a bit of info (I didn’t find a quick way to tell whether somebody would make a good use of a station versus somebody else), overall the game felt much more intuitive than KODP and its ethereal Koei-ish numbers.

I’m still plugging away on Standard difficulty, but I think I am only two weeks into my second game. The demands are increasing, but I’ve picked up a couple of people that are really helping meet the demands. I still haven’t gone back to Frostpunk because of it being so sadistic, but I certainly see where you are talking about.

I do agree the modern language is off-putting, but I do like some of the themes they’re tackling.

Determining best fit for a station is sort of tedious, but I try not to shuffle them around too much. The wife has been crafting almost non-stop these two weeks.

I’m enjoying the mechanics of the game so much, that I still highly recommend it with the caveat that taste is very subjective. As you mention, the “quests” are usually pretty well defined on their requirements. I’m really enjoying knowing the odds of an encounter and then holding my breath as the game waits to tell me the outcome.

As I was skimming the thread unsure what game you guys were talking about (conversations can carry on several posts at a time without anyone mentioning the name of the game they’re talking about), this caught my eye:

I wondered what boring-ass crafting MMO you were subjecting your wife to. I had to scroll up to see the conversation was about the family in Dead in Vinland.

-Tom

My real wife only does Crosswords on her iPad. She wastes all the rest of her screen time doing “real work.” My charisma is too low to corrupt her beyond Crosswords, and even they are done therapeutically to help with her verbal recall.

Anyone played Wizard of Legend yet? It looks like a top-down Dead Cells in terms of the combat impact, speed, and enemy/encounter design. Plus of course the roguelite structure, but I don’t care about that.

I’ll probably pick it up at the Steam sale even if it’s only 10% off. No time for it now.

I have, and it’s great fun. Very difficult, but very visceral, as it should be.