A fast paced 2D dungeon crawler where you assume the role of a powerful wizard on his quest for fame and glory!
Often in games, wizards and mages are designated as support. Powerful but fragile units kept away from the fray, helping out the warriors with magic and healing. Wizard of Legend takes the opposite approach. In the fast-paced dungeon crawler, you're a force to be reckoned with, wielding the might of the elements to decimate enemies.
The set-up is simple. You're a mage facing a series of trials to prove your skill and join the Council of Magic as a new Wizard of Legend. Those trials will take you from dense forests to dank dungeons, each featuring procedurally-generated layouts and dangerous enemies.
But you're more than capable of surviving these challenges. There's a vast array of magical abilities to choose, ranging from chain lightning and devastating fire blasts to summoning meteors and dropping totem turrets. Chaining together your chosen abilities is key to defeating the hordes of undead foes, beasts, and bosses; combat is a spectacle of powerful screen-filling effects, as you control crowds, stun enemies, evade attacks to get into a better position, unleash flame and ice and wind.
Special items and perks will complement your magic, but if the challenge proves too much, Wizard of Legend lets you team up with a friend in local co-op. If you'd rather prove your superior wizardry, you can face your friend in spell-slinging PvP combat.
Wizard of Legend is expected to release in mid-2016, and is currently seeking votes on Steam Greenlight. You can learn more about the game and follow its development on TIGSource and Twitter.
Just a short post for today, but there are a lot of interesting indie releases and projects on the horizon. The gorgeous hand-made adventure game Lumino City is releasing on iPad tonight and frenetic roguelite shooter Galak-Z is finally coming to Steam tomorrow, so you can definitely expect impressions of those soon.
In the meantime, here are some promising Kickstarters to watch, as well as a few games on Greenlight that might interest you:
Doko Roko is a 2D rogue-like, vertical action game with an emphasis on lightning-fast combat and rich atmosphere
Collect strange and ancient magicks to do battle with the more hostile denizens of The Tower. Wield massive swords forged from meteorites and cursed earth to slay the many dreaming demons who climb the tower alongside you. A frenetic and responsive combat system that is easy to pick up, but difficult to master.
Wanderer tells the tale of a man called Rook, a greying convict who wakes from cold sleep aboard a massive orbital prison facility to find that it's crash landed on the ruins of an abandoned Earth.
With the guidance of a hacker named Jin and the aid of a ragtag group of survivors he recruits along the way, Rook must locate and explore the nine cell blocks which have detached from the prison's central tower and scattered across Earth's ghostly wasteland.
In Puzzle Depot, you start out as Todd Torial, Box Pusher 3rd Class, who's just been “volunteered” as a test subject for the facility's CryoFreeze program. When he wakes up, he finds the facility is in chaos. As you navigate your new, more dangerous world, you realize it's not just the facility that's fallen to ruin, but the entire planet.
Join Cally and her friends in this action-packed run and gun platformer, conquering insane bosses, exploring to find secrets, and levelling up EVERYTHING. Use your weapons to level them up and evolve them into their ultimate forms!
Unlock new character abilities like the Triple Jump, Dodge Roll and Water Wings. Use a second playable character, Bera to unleash crazy awesome ninja moves and solve challenging puzzles.
The Mooseman is an atmospheric 2D adventure game set in the mysterious lands of Perm chud’ tribes. The player's avatar is the Mooseman; a mythological character from perm animal style objects, which we were greatly inspired by.
InterSection is a spatially-challenging puzzle game based on manipulating two 2D planes aligned to your player in 3d space. You are linked to two worlds; the dying world of your people, and a young, green world. Use this link to connect these worlds and save your people.
Title: XO Developer: Jumpdrive Studios Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux Early 2016 ---
Command a ragtag fleet of starships to escape an unbeatable enemy and save what's left of humanity
Mankind faces a threat unlike any other: a faceless relentless armada that outclasses us in every way. This unstoppable enemy ravages across the galaxy, abducting humans for unknown purposes. As master tactician and commander aboard the lead battleship of a meager fleet, you must rescue your people and defeat this seemingly unbeatable foe.
Inspired by works such as Battlestar Galactica, The Lost Fleet, and FTL, XO offers strategic space fleet combat, driven by desperation and overwhelming odds. Forget negotiations or colonizing or empire-building; your only goal is survival and enduring long enough to gather your forces. Jumping from planet to planet to collect necessary resources like air and fuel, rescuing disabling ships to add to your fleet, and dealing with the stress and tough decisions of being a leader fighting a war of attrition. You will face mutinies and rebelling generals, will need to make sacrifices, and keep your people strong and focused, if you want to save humanity.
XO's combat occurs on a 2D plane, where you set waypoints and select targets in real time. Time is an important factor in battle; using an ETA slider, you can designate units to flank enemy vessels at the same time from multiple angles, or have your forces attack in waves, among myriad other strategies. The game's vector-art aesthetic turns each encounter into a vibrant spectacle of fleet-to-fleet combat: enemy vessels releasing swarms of fighters and massive harvesters clamping onto disabled ships to extract humans, as your fleet retaliates with point defense cannons, particle accelerators, and defensive sandcasters.
One of the most fascinating aspects of XO is the developer's hard sci-fi approach to every aspect of the game, from ship design to combat. Momentum and physics must be taken into account while setting waypoints. Collecting resources requires you to send diveships to gather fuel from gas giants or water and air from habitable worlds. Planets are procedurally-generated based on their location in a solar system, so distance from a sun determines if a planet is frozen over or a barren molten rock. Even the ship design and weapons tie into this realistic approach: your battleship's large radiator fins at its rear are there to shed heat waste generated by powerful laser cannons.
Against gorgeous backgrounds of nebulas and shattered planets and other extraterrestrial debris, Lagrangian Point promises tactical battles between customizable armadas. Missiles and projectiles streak across the void, flaring against energy shields and tearing through asteroids and hull armor alike. To counter these onslaughts, a deep customization element opens the door for a wealth of potential tactics, from drone launchers and mine layers to cloaking devices and fleet command modules.
These subsystems can be controlled individually, allowing you to fire weapons independently or manually face shields to protect damaged areas, or attacked to disable enemy ships. Lagrangian Point will even include a hull editor to create completely unique ship designs. The ship creation element will feature heavily in competitive and cooperative modes; if online gameplay isn't your forte, there will also be an open-world solo campaign, where you make allies and enemies in a reactive world inhabited by various factions.
Lagrangian Point is aiming for release later this year, and is currently on Steam Greenlight. You can learn more about the game on its official site, as well as the developer's Twitter and Facebook pages.
Impact Winter is a post-apocalyptic survival adventure set 8 years after 'The Catastrophe': an asteroid collision that's ravaged Earth's population and buried the planet under perpetual snowfall
The world as we knew it is over. A white shroud of endless snowfall blankets the landscape, the aftereffect of a devastating impact event. This is the world you inhabit in Impact Winter, a dynamic survival game in development for PC
Your situation is dire; holed up in a dilapidated church, with help arriving in 30 days. Supplies are scare, and the scavengers lurk in the darkness beyond your shelter. As Jake Solomon, you are the leader of a small group, each member acting independently with their own strengths and stats. While the NPCs are AI-driven, it's your responsibility as leader to resolve disputes, assign tasks, and make the tough decisions that could mean life or death for your group. Hunt for food or weather the incoming blizzard? Welcome a stranger in? Venture into the darkness to search for a missing person?
The world of Impact Winter is one of danger and desperation. Fuel and food are critical in this winter wasteland, and similar to the recently released game This War of Mine, starvation and other elements can affect the moral of your group. To remedy this and survive for the 30 days, you'll need to venture out into the harsh environment, braving scavengers and wildlife. Combat is possible, but like everything else, ammo is limited so a safer choice could to be scare threats away with a warning shot. But the greatest danger is the weather itself; unexpected storms, freezing temperatures, poor visibility, strong winds that slow your movement, can kill you just as easily as another human. Your AKO-LIGHT drone can track the temperature, scan the environment for areas of interest, and provide night vision when darkness falls...but be wary of battery usage or you'll find yourself without a map or illumination in the snow-swept landscape.
Impact Winter is planned to release sometime in 2016. You can follow its development on TIGForums and the developer's Youtube channel. Impact Winter was recently Greenlit.
Title: Elsinore Developer: Golden Glitch Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux Release: 2016 ---
Elsinore is a time-looping narrative adventure game set in the world of Shakespeare's Hamlet.
Consider, for a moment, the Shakespearean tragedy. Tales of betrayal, death, love, prophecies, mystery, ruin. These stories have influenced literature and other mediums for centuries, and now Elsinore promises to combine Hamlet's story of revenge and murder with the adventure game genre, as you attempt to prevent a massacre witnessed in a prophetic dream.
As noblewoman Ophelia, you find yourself caught in a four-day time loop during a period of political tension in Elsinore Castle. Using knowledge gained over multiple loops, you can influence and manipulate events and individuals. However, this interactions are more than simple branching dialogue parts, as each character has their own schedules, desires, plans; thus your actions can have ripple effects that influence other character's behaviors and fates. Perhaps you'll learn more about the Denmark-Norway conflict in the Great Hall or end up locked in the dungeon. Perhaps you'll betray and assassinate or be killed yourself. Discover secrets, witness new events unfold, and experiment across loops to prevent the foreseen tragedy.
Elsinore is planned for a 2016 release, and is currently seeking support on Kickstarter and Steam Greenlight; stretch goals include voice acting, additional animations, an iPad version, and new areas and characters such as Fortinbras' War Camp. You can learn more about Elsinore on the developer's Tumblr page.
Title: Slain! Developer: Wolf Brew Games Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux, Xbox One, PS4, PS Vita Releasing May 2015, consoles planned for September and December ---
Prepare to be Slain! Our homage to the gory hack and slash games of the 80's and 90's. We promise stunning visuals with gore galore.
There's something so satisfying about playing a brutally difficult game. Be it Volgarr The Viking or Super Meat Boy, succeeding where you failed myriad times before, mastering a game's seemingly insurmountable challenge, is always rewarding. Slain! harkens back to the days of brutal games like Shadow of The Beast and Ghosts 'n Goblins, a lone hero against grotesque odds, across Gothic landscapes of blood and death.
At a glance, Slain stands out due to its lavishly detailed pixel art. Clouds drift above and fog rolls across the swamps and underbrush. Torch lights flicker and sway in the breeze. The otherworldly abodes of werewolves and spirits and undead beasts drip with blood, walls choked with vines. Gruesome creatures, from skeletons and witches to more dangerous horrors, are displayed in grisly detail, all decayed flesh and tattered clothes.
But Slain! promises more than just wonderfully-realized Gothic environments. As the reawakened hero Bathoryn, you must traverse these lands and free seven towers from the grip of their monstrous overlords. From the crimson halls of Blood Tower to the lupine effigies of the Wolfwoods, Bathoryn strikes down creatures with his sword and mana abilities, while also dealing with each tower's puzzles and deadly traps. Master your skills, know your enemies, or die.
Slain! is estimated to release on PC, Mac, and Linux in May, with console releases rolling out in the months to follow. You can learn more about Slain! on its official site and TIGSource devlog, as well as support the game on Kickstarter and Steam Greenlight.
A Fighting game combined with a BRAWLER! With a huge sword, rocket launcher and a FLAMETHROWER!The game is a 3D, third-person, arcade-style, action-game that combines the tactical and skill-based combat of a Fighter with the progression, overwhelming odds, and awesome boss battles of an old-school Brawler!
The two-man team behind Ivent Games is getting a second chance. Two years ago, they released their hard-as-nails 3D brawler Strength of the Sword 3 on PS3, where it slipped into obscurity. In their own words, they "were basically invisible in the store. We weren't even featured in the indie section." Now through the nature of Kickstarter, the developers hope to bring their game to PC, expanded far beyond that initial Playstation release.
Strength of the Sword is all about gameplay. The loose story of defeating an ancient evil is merely a framework for challenging, flashy combat against punishing enemies. Playing the PS3 version reveals a game where knowing your enemy, learning their patterns, mastering countering and parrying, when to block an attack and when to dodge then move in for a combo, is all critical to success. Button mashing is only a quick way to die; this isn't God of War. Mastering Strength of the Sword requires precision and practice. Rather than facing hordes of enemies, you only fight a few at a time, the challenge coming from handling each enemy's strengths and skills. Armed with a selection of swords, shields, support items like throwing knives and grenades, and your repertoire of combat maneuvers, you dance around your foes, rushing up with leaping stabs, deftly dodging and blocking, moving in to deliver combos and mana-charged attacks on staggered enemies. It's fast-paced, tough, and satisfying.
The Ultimate version seeking funding on Kickstarter expands on the game in myriad ways. More customization and new weapons in the campaign will allow for greater combat depth and online and split-screen co-op means you can tackle the increasingly challenging enemies alongside a friend. But the biggest additions are PvP and Dark Mode. The developer's plans for PvP sounds similar to the Nidhogg formula, as you and your opponent push back and forth across connected regions to reach the opposing player's castle. Dark mode expands on PvP by introducing the ability to enter matches as a Dark Swordsman, a powerful boss-like enemy with random and devastating abilities.
Strength of the Sword Ultimate is estimated to release later this year. You can support the game now on Kickstarter and Steam Greenlight; the original PSN game is available for $4.99 on the Playstation Store.
Title: Greebroll Developer: ThoseSixFaces Platform: PC Price: $6.99 ---
You've probably played a ball roller before, perhaps Super Monkey Ball or a mobile game like Orborun and Gears. So in that sense, Greebroll will feel familiar: roll your sphere around, avoid obstacles, don't fall into the abyss. But the game stands out thanks to its abstract style, unique and varied levels, and interesting mechanics that open the door for a plethora of inventive challenges.
Greebroll separates itself from other games in the genre from the get-go.
Rather than long windy tracks, levels here are compact and dynamic, abstract shapes hovering in the abyss or structures based on fonts and pixel. The goal here isn't to beat your time or reach the finish line, but to simply survive for an certain amount of time. Easier said then done when levels rotate and twist, forcing you to jump from ledge to ledge or stay balanced on off-kilter spinning platforms. Equipped with a double jump and the ability to fire projectiles, the levels grow more complex as you blast through barriers, activate platforms mid-jump, or deal with clones and multiple spheres at once. In fact, I'd say Greebroll is closer to a game like Super Hexagon than Super Monkey Ball, as you will die and restart again and again until you've perfected your skillet and mastered each level's challenges. The vivid colorful style completes the abstract minimalist presentation.
If the 200+ levels aren't enough, Greebroll also allows you to play every level co-operatively as well as test your skills in a competitive multiplayer. You can download free demos and alpha builds of Greebroll on IndieDB. The game is also available to purchase on IndieGameStand and looking for votes on Steam Greenlight.
Title: Phantasmal Developer: Eyemobi Platforms: PC Releasing 2015 ---
The crux of horror games is the unknown, never being able to rely on your previous experiences. Welcome to the world of Phantasmal, a procedurally generated game that will feel like a new experience every single time!
Ah...horror games. The thrill of good scare, tensing in your seat, that creeping dread. If there's one flaw, it's that once you've died or restarted at a checkpoint, you know what to expect; the scare has lost its potency if you're expecting it. Phantasmal hopes to sidestep that by blending first person horror with procedurally generated levels. Set in an university plagued by some Lovecraftian evil, you play as Vietnam war veteran John Hope. Drawn into the haunted place by dark voices, John finds himself in a struggle for survival and sanity against nightmarish creatures, Armed with impromptu melee weapons like pipes and brooms or perhaps the rare gun, you'll also need to fend off the darkness with limited flares and your flashlight. The most unique aspect of Phantamal is its procedurally generated levels, meaning new layouts, new enemy and weapon placements every time you play. However, there will be a persistent element, through earned XP that allows you to upgrade John between playthroughs.
Phantasmal is currently aiming to be released mid-2015; you can download early alpha demo here. Learn more about Phantasmal on its official site, support the game on Kickstarter, or vote for it on Steam Greenlight.
Title: Noct Developer: Chris Eskins Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux Releasing 2015 ---
Noct is a 2D top-down multiplayer survival horror game that blends arcade combat with RPG survival elements. You are a survivor of the apocalyptic purge that formed the desolate wasteland now known as Noct. Explore a ruined world filled with ancient nightmarish creatures from a time long forgotten.
Seen through the grainy muted display of a thermal imaging satellite, Noct tasks you with traversing and surviving procedurally generated landscapes filled with monstrous beasts. It's a survival horror action game; while you may be armed with guns and melee weapons, the roaming creatures are relentless and ruthless and fleeing may often be the better option. Elements such hunger, hydration, and fortifying locations will also play a role, as the player scavenges for food and supplies. The developer plans to not have a heavy focus on survival mechanics, but rather for supplies to act as currency for trading. You won't have to face Noct's terrors alone; the game will feature online co-op so you can explore and fight enemies with a friend.
But even a friend may not be enough to protect you from Noct's nightmarish otherworldly creatures. Personally it's the creature designs that drew me to the game; the slow predatory movements, the washed-out glow of the eyes, the hulking size compared to your small human. From swarms of spiders and burrowing worms to creeping sinewy...things lurking within building interiors and massive room-filling bosses, Noct's bestiary promises a diverse array of monsters to flee and fight.
Noct will be released mid-2015. You can learn more about Noct on its official site, and support the game on Kickstarter (currently 117% funded with 70 hours left) or vote for it on Steam Greenlight.
Human Extinction Simulator is a turn-based tactical space combat game designed as a "training program" against the inevitable alien invasion we all know is coming. The game focuses on tactical decisions made on the battlefield and each move can make the difference between victory or defeat.
Mankind has made contact with extraterrestrial life, and the odds aren't looking very good for us. Thankfully we have the ultimate tool at our disposal, allowing us to simulate the coming invasion and encounters and prepare fleets for battle. Human Extinction Simulator is a turn based tactical strategy game, set across hexagonal maps as you command your ships against attacking aliens. There really isn't any guessing here. You always know which hexes will put you in harm's way, where enemies can move, what you can accomplish from any possible maneuver. This knowledge places the focus on positioning and movement, as you stay out of your enemy's range while maneuvering into the best positions to attack. The variety of vessels to deploy, from heavy slow cruisers to fast but weaker fighters, offer a wide array of strategies against the alien threat. Playing the beta, I enjoyed the slower pace and methodical, Chess-like gameplay, and definitely want to see the developers expand on and improve Human Extinction Simulator in the coming months.
You can try Human Extinction Simulator for yourself; the beta is available here. Machine 22 plan to release HES later this year; you can learn more about the game on its official site and vote for Human Extinction Simulator on Steam Greenlight.
Title: Colony Assault Developer: Dejan Poje Platforms: PC ---
Colony Assault is a top down sci-fi tactical action game, as you guide a team of elite soldiers against a deadly alien threat throughout various facilities.
Solo, or with a team, you're equipped with powerful weapons and vehicles and tasked with decimating the alien hordes hallway by hallway, room by room. While I felt the gameplay was a kind of slow and sluggish at times compared to similar games, the variety of gear at your disposal allows for some fun intense fights: classics like flamethrowers and motion trackers to your APC's extraterrestrial-shredding turret, remote guns, and airstrikes. Colony Assault won't wow anyone with its visuals, but they're competent and the game itself is an enjoyable strategic shooter.
You can download Colony Assault for free here; an advanced edition can be voted for on Steam Greenlight.
Title: Cavern Kings Developer: Vine Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux Releasing late 2014 ---
Inspired by action-packed games like Vlambeer's "Super Crate Box" and the increasing difficulty aspects in "Risk of Rain", Cavern Kings aims to explode with special effects in classical arcade fashion and create interesting synergies with its powerup system.
Cavern Kings isn't coy about its inspirations. Risk of Rain, Super Crate Box, even a little Spelunky, the influences are clear but Cavern Kings doesn't feel like a ripoff or derivative. I lost an hour to the beta; this is a fun challenging action platformer with a lot of potential and promise.
In Cavern Kings, you have one destination: down. Armed with randomly selected ranged and melee weapons, you tunnel your way through the ground into increasingly difficult arenas, filled with enemies and hazards of all kinds. Collects gems and gold from crates and defeated enemies allow you to unlock chests, maybe granting you a new power up or a new weapon to the overall armory. Similar to Risk of Rain, power-ups stack, so an especially successful run might end with your guy able to triple jump, fire missiles at random, be protected by a shield, or countless other permutations. Take too long, and a massive grinder begins descending from above, forcing you to move on or die.
Gameplay is fast paced and frantic, as you desperately evade and shoot the enemies encroaching from all sides, blast flying worms out of the air, decimate the arena with TNT, jump over saw blades and spikes. Your arsenal is varied and satisfying to use, from the blade-throwing Sawdriver and Nailgun to the ground-pounding Kinetic Fist. Even the Shovel is an effective weapon; each feels different, requires different strategies, and the power-ups only allow for more diverse play styles.
Cavern Kings is currently in beta, with more enemies, playable characters, weapons, power-ups, levels, and bosses to come. You can download the beta here, support the game on Kickstarter, and vote for Cavern Kings on Steam Greenlight.
Title: Valzar Developer: Mike Craft Platforms: PC Releasing 2014 ---
Valzar is an action platformer with roguelike elements. A randomized world of humanlike enemies, grumpy gods, magic fruit, and mistakes.
Valzar immediately hooked me with its visuals. It's true that pixel artstyles are quite prevalent recently (and that's not a bad thing), but Valzar's weird enemy designs, vibrant color palette, and hectic display of magic attacks and flying blood makes for a intriguing compelling look. You play as a young girl, traveling across a vast world, fighting dangerous enemies and worshiping powerful gods. After equipping your preferred attacks and weapon from a varied selection of spells and equipment, you venture out into this dangerous world. Valzar is set up differently than other roguelike platformers; rather than your usual progression from area to area, you're presented with a map to explore as you see fit, each section of the grid offering a new level to fight through.
Thankfully, Valzar's gameplay is as equally polished as its visuals. Aside from the spells and weapons you can equip, there's a large array of items and perk slots that can adjust your playstyle. Headgear and auras, fruits and potions, pets, class, all can boost different stats or provide the player unique abilities. Deities discovered throughout the map can be worshiped to increase certain stats and be rewarded with gifts. Outfitted with all these augmentations and special gear, the player is thrust into hectic fast-paced combat against surprisingly smart enemies. You won't find any calm planning here; you'll need to evade deadly projectiles and enemies while landing strikes of your own. The enemies are just as well equipped as you, with the same magic and weapons, and can even adapt to your tactics. Fond of leaping over an enemy's head and attacking from behind? Don't be surprised if that enemy intercepts your jump and attacks you in mid-air
Valzar combines challenging fast-paced combat with a sense of exploration in its weird colorful world. You can learn about this roguelike platformer on its official site and vote for the game on Steam Greenlight.
Title: The Sun At Night Developer: Minicore Studios Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux Price: $14.99 ---
Many games give you a canine companion. Fallout, Fable, Dead To Rights, even Metal Gear Rising. But it's much rarer to play as the animal itself. In The Sun At Night, you play as a heavily-armed Russian space dog, in a sprawling world filled with dangerous enemies, cool upgrades, and intense combat.
As the intelligent Laika, you're augmented with powerful armor and an array of weaponry as you explore the caverns, jungles, various military camps, laboratory, and other facilities of an alternate Earth ruled by an all-powerful USSR regime. The Sun At Night set across a large interconnected map, and as you explore and discover secrets, your canine warrior becomes a far more formidable fighter, thanks to a wealth of upgrades. From increasing your health and speed, to improving your shields, to granting your weapons new functions with modifiers, you can customize your playstyle in various ways. You'll need all the improvements and enhancements to succeed, as The Sun At Night is a challenging experience. A mix of bullet hell action as you evade enemy fire and fast-paced platforming and shooting as you fight dozens of robots and massive bosses makes The Sun At Night a satisfyingly difficult game. Skill trees and secrets offer a nice amount of replay value and an story told through dialogue, journals, and cutscenes kept me interested throughout the game.
The Sun At Night is a an expansive, action-packed game, with a unique protagonist and intense gameplay. You can purchase the game here, and vote for it on Steam Greenlight.
Title: inSynch Developer: Them Games Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux Price: $4.99 ---
Gameplay-wise, inSynch is simple. Four lanes converge at a center pit, and various shapes travel towards the middle. It's your job to bounce these shapes into the pit with a button press. Timing is key here. So as a game, inSynch isn't very deep.
But as an experience, an audiovisual experience, inSynch shines. The stop-motion animations give the game a wonderful textured look, and the shapes move towards down the lanes, not as static figures, but imbued with life, dancing, unfolding, reforming, flapping, twisting and turning like abstract dancers. Their graceful movements add to the gameplay, requiring you to learn the patterns if you want to time your bounces. The music building as you progress, changing with your performance, a smooth soothing soundtrack that draws you into the experience. inSynch is a relaxing game; in fact, in Explore mode, it's impossible to fail. Complete a track in Explore and you unlock its more challenging Exploit counterpart, where you can fail and the seemingly sedate gameplay becomes a test of skill and reaction.
InSynch's simple gameplay is bolstered by its finely crafted aesthetic, a playful mix of stop-motion animation and reactive music. You can purchase the game here and vote for it on Steam Greenlight.
Title: Prisonscape Developer: Heaviest Matter Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux Currently Kickstarting, late 2014 release ---
Prisonscape was among the first games I previewed all the back in September. Now the RPG is aiming for a December release and progressed leaps and bounds since last fall.
Prisonscape is an adventure RPG set, not in a sci-fi future or the grand halls of some fantastical world, but in the gritty grimy corridors of prison. Through bloody violence, sharp tongue, intimidation, intelligence, or a combination of all those elements, you must navigate the various gangs, the racial factions, the guards, friends and foes alike to endure prison life. While the gameplay discussed in the last preview remains intact, new details have emerged. The player will progress from county jail to state-of-the-art Miranda Unit, followed by two other areas. Crafting is far more realistic than other games, a layered deep process even to make something as simple as a basic shiv. Drug addiction and withdrawal, working with guards as a snitch, the ever-looming threat of a cell shakedown, Prisonscape promises to offer a "gritty, uncompromising atmosphere", compared to other prison games such as The Escapists or Prison Architect.
Prisonscape is currently seeking funding on Kickstarter. You can also vote for the game on Steam Greenlight. If you're going to be PAX East this weekend, the developers will be showcasing the game there as well.
From the level designer of Perspective comes a successor to his award-winning game The Fourth Wall, a game about limits of the screen.
The first thing about Four Sided Fantasy that caught my attention was its dev team, since it composed of DigiPen students. From games like Nitronic Rush (and its successor Distance) to Perspective, DigiPen talent has proven to always deliver innovative quality experiences. Actually it was DigiPen students who developed Narbacular Drop and TAG: The Power of Paint, two indie games that inspired the acclaimed Portal series. Not only that, but the level designer of Perspective is developing the game; Perspective remains one of my favorite freeware games, a mindbending mix of 2D platforming and 3D perspective that I don't believe has been attempted since. It's those factors that attracted me to Four Sided Fantasy, a puzzle platformer about screen wrap.
Four Sided Fantasy is the successor to developer's Logan Fieth's freeware game The Fourth Wall. The core mechanic is the ability to manipulate screen wrap. At any time, you can freeze the screen, allowing you to loop around the edges. Something as simple as screen wrap might seem like it would be difficult to craft a diverse game around, but playing The Fourth Wall proved otherwise, using that mechanic to create a variety of interesting puzzles and challenges. Four Sided Fantasy builds off that original version, introducing vibrant colorful visuals and a story of discovery and exploration as a seemingly normal business trip turns into something more mysterious. The trailer hints at new mechanics, such as gravity fields and moving between background and foreground.
Four Sided Fantasy will be released in early 2015. You can support the game on Kickstarter and vote for it on Steam Greenlight. Play the original prototype The Fourth Wall here, as well as Perspective.
Grave is a first person, open world survival horror experience. Explore an ever-changing world filled with frightening creatures. Grave is a hybrid of environmental exploration and combative horror, creating constant tension as the player balances exploration and survival. Our goal is to revitalize the survival horror genre with modern techniques seen in current horror games, while retaining the survival and inventory elements of classic titles.
Grave is an upcoming survivor horror game set in a surrealist nightmare. You awaken on a mysterious desert plain, an endless landscape that shifts with each sunrise. Inspired by the work of Salvador Dali, this world is ever changing, new areas, biomes, and structures appearing with each passing day. From ruined cities and displaced forests to a sudden downpour, you can never be prepared for what weird misplaced area appears over the horizon.
But this world isn't void of danger. Otherworldly beings emerge as night falls and light is your only defense against these grotesque enemies. While this may bring to mind Alan Wake, Grave puts an interesting twist on the mechanic by offering a variety of tools from flashlights and flares to matches and gasoline and making each enemies behave differently to light. Some are easily destroyed, others are merely stunned, while others are attracted to the illumination.
I was able to play the early press demo and even at this early stage, Grave delivers a tense atmosphere. Roaming the windswept plains as haunting music plays. Stumbling upon a derelict town when night falls, a flickering match your only illumination in the suffocating black as an unearthly shriek pierces the darkness. The satisfaction of finding a generator or a gas can, or setting a patch of gas aflame with a flare to kill an approaching creature. Finding some mysterious object out in the world where there was just empty plains the night before. Grave is already scary and fun, and the creatures, weapons, and environments to come will only flesh out the game's solid foundation.
