I Played This Indie Game and You Should Too!

I am fascinated by Miasmata. Everything about the concept sounds fantastic. I just don’t have a sense of whether the gameplay is polished enough to make it worth it. It doesn’t have to be Far Cry by any means, but I don’t have time for something that has cool elements but is clunky to play. Besides the performance, what else can you say about what works and doesn’t work?

I’m pretty sure it is about as far removed from Far Cry as you can get, and it will have ‘clunky’. BUT it is not Far Cry and is unique enough if you have spare cash to spend on something different, and a powerful rig to run it (i’m hoping they can fix some of that issue in patches etc?).

There are a few decent reviews of it around for more details. IGN seemed to like it?

I have only played the demo, so far, but 7 Grand Steps is fascinating. Very curious to see how it unfolds as it progresses.

Like Mousechief’s previous game (Dangerous High School Girls in Trouble), 7 Grand Steps can be described as a narrative boardgame. That’s a pretty weird combo, when you think about it. Well, and “boardgame” might not be quite the right term: It actually has the look of a slot machine or pachinko-like game. Each turn you’re spending precious tokens to move family members on a spinning track (racing NPCs to grab randomly appearing beads that advance history) or adding skills to children (so that your next generation will have a leg up).

Based on the demo, I found that trying to keep my bronze age family Jaliyah the Coward and her husband away from the crocodile of poverty long enough to raise their three children into competent adults (without favoring one over the other because of course that causes debilitating sibling rivalry) using just the choices of what token I want to put in what slot to be, despite itself, pretty engaging. I’m looking forward to the full version.

That looks really interesting. Downloading the demo now.

Having played the demo as far at it would allow me, this is a Day One purchase for me. For the curious, there is an excellent Let’s Play here that clearly explains both game concepts and mechanics.

Seems like it would make a great iPad game.

Wrote this a few years ago. People tell me it’s fun. Free. I didn’t know about frame independent movement at the time, so if you have a fast rig it might be a doozy.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Fa7nA2cHuQk

https://github.com/downloads/alex-shipley/Reflex/Reflex.exe or from alexlynnshipley.com (GitHub has deprecated their Downloads page, though the first link should still work for some forseeable future :/)

I’d also recommend some of Jon Blow’s prototypes, particularly Raspberry
http://number-none.com/blow/prototypes/index.html

And of course Time Fcuk from Edmund McMillen

Super House of the Dead Ninjas is pretty great. It’s like a fast paced Spelunky.
GB quicklook http://www.giantbomb.com/videos/quick-look-super-house-of-dead-ninjas/2300-7094/

Controller support is native now, and READ the comic, it details some things like the super jump which the GB crew missed.

If you didn’t check out Gorogoaafter the last games podcast, you must try the demo.

Beautiful, inspired, surprising. Can’t really compare it to anything else. Like, Loop Raccord is the closest thing, but that’s about video and motion and everything is self-contained. This is an adventure game played by manipulating pictures. Spectacular. Can’t wait until it’s finished.

Time fcuk was great. Really adds to the game how neat the little guy is animated.

Recent(ish) list:

SwordandSworcery
Limbo
Lone Survivor
Waking Mars
Botanicula
King of Dragon Pass
Save the Date

I have to say… Save the Date is a little clever, but I found it to be boring, ultimately.

I absolutely agree! It’s clever, and oh so beautiful. The artwork style is reminiscent of Sean Tan’s picture books :

http://www.shauntan.net/books.html

My 13 year old son and I played through the demo together in about 20 minutes, and we both thought it was wonderful.

Free comes at a price i guess? But yes it is more a curiosity than something you play over and over. Still it is FREE!

Watashi Wa Hijo Ni Yoku Nihongo Hanasenai:

http://7dfps.com/?action=games&id=277

Caught it from rps (it’s a free experimental game):

It’s been out for a while, but I still think the Swapper is great.

This game made me angry towards the end. I don’t think I’ve gotten this annoyed with a game in a long time. Having to repeat things over and over was a chore, and I felt the game was overly pretentious.

And my ultimate indie game is still Terraria. I’ve put so many hours into that thing. I just love to dig. Still waiting for that new damned patch to finally come out.

Yeah, there is a danger of ‘art’ becoming too erm ‘precious’ down this route of game, still for a free thing i found it worth the short amount of my time, and more importantly atleast it wasn’t about blowing a guys face of at close quarters, those types of game really piss me off like you wouldn’t believe!

I’m drooling over Starbound currently.

I’m still into all the Nifflas Games. The original Knytt just got to me in its simplicity and beauty. It’s a platformer but with very nice details. Knytt Stories is in the same vein wheras NightSky goes into another direction as does Saira. They are are platformers but very calm, very playful and with beautiful music.
And then there’s Windosill which is more like an interactive picture book but I found myself smiling while I played it. A very short game but worth checking out.

I’m also a very big fan of Nifflas’s games. Don’t forget to mention the latest Knytt game: Knytt Underground. I love how laid back these games are, although I found Saira to be the exception and that’s why, although I really liked the story set-up, I never got very far in it.