Quick Fix: IGF 2014 Finalists (and my personal choices)

All the way back in October, I told you about IGF 2014 and the many indie games submitted to be judged. Today, the finalists have finally been revealed; you can read the full list here. Congratulations to the many titles selected, ranging from the innovative IOS adventure Device 6 to the witty and meta Stanley Parable and the document inspection simulator Papers Please. Even one of my favorites, the stylish SuperHOT, was an honorable mention for the Nuovo Award.

Personally I wanted to nominate the games I considered worthy and certainly excellent in the various finalist categories. I'm only considering games I've played or had seen footage of.

Excellence in Visuals
Hero of Many uses its subdued visuals and otherworldly atmosphere to tell a wordless tale of desperate survival against overwhelming odds and relentless predators.
Icycle: On Thin Ice impressed with its weird and abstract level design, only made more interesting by the constantly shifting and moving environments
I haven't played Myriad yet, but the footage I've seen show an experience of explosive color and psychedelic visuals that only enhance the shoot-em-up gameplay
Shelter's angular and pleasing visuals breathed life into the game's tale of motherly protection and survival. 
Cuphead is another game I'm eager to play, but the footage has proven one thing: the developers have absolutely perfected the old 1930's cartoon look and animations.
Type:Rider used the history of typography to craft an endlessly inventive, unique, and atmospheric world of fonts and letters.

Excellence In Design
SuperHOT is still merely just the genesis of a upcoming expanded game, but this early version is still incredibly well-designed, down to the slick slow motion effect, the minimalist visuals, and the puzzle-shooter gameplay
The Swapper combines so many polished elements in a single package, all working in harmony: the unsettling atmosphere, the visually cool uses of the Swapper device, its tactile clay art style
Rain World is a game that has grown and evolved since its early concepts, but its vision has remained true: crafting an atmospheric world to survive in, a unique organic pixel style, impressive AI, and subtle narrative.
Badland may be simple to control, but that's what makes the game so impressive. Not only does the game have a style all its own, the diverse, varied mix of physics puzzles and fast paced action was molded from a one touch control scheme.

Excellence in Audio
Sounddodger+ is probably an easy choice, and if this was 2013, Hotline Miami would surely have a place here, but for me, it was Sounddodger's fantastic soundtrack that made the game more than just twitchy evasion. It's rare for me to seek out the whole soundtrack of a game after playing, but Sounddodger's music was excellently crafted.

Excellence in Narrative
Gods Will Be Watching was like reading a short story. It was a confined and taut experience, laser-focused on delivering its bleak hopeless tale, but that only made its moral quandaries and tough choices that much more tense.
The Swapper impressed me with its subdued storytelling. The story is never in-your-face, aside from the rare moments of dialogue from another individual, but for the most part, the story was told through the ominous atmosphere of the ship you traversed and the unsettling consequences of your Swapper device. Even the logs you found were never clear or straightforward, giving the whole game this tense and creepy tone.
The Stanley Parable was a two-fold narrative; on one hand, it presented the ever-twisting mobius strip that was Stanley's journey and on the other, it was your story. Only a subtle line separated the two, and the game expertly knew how and when to blur that line, to engaging and humorous effect.

No Money, No Problem: From Hell's Heart

Title: From Hell's Heart
Developer: One More Turn
Platforms: PC, Mac
Free
---
The Old Man and The Sea and Moby Dick are classic stories of conflict and struggle. From Hell's Heart takes those timeless tales, gives it a steampunk aesthetic and drops you into a hunt on unfriendly waters.

After a quick (maybe too quick) screen showing the controls, you find yourself on a rickety boat under an ominous grey sky. An expanse of ocean spreads out all around you, icebergs jut from the choppy waters. But you're not alone and you're on the hunt. Armed with harpoons, mines, and a small cannon, you must traverse the rolling waves in search of your prey: a monstrous shark-like beast that lurks beneath the surface, only exposing itself briefly, sometimes lunging from the icy depths. Chasing the beast across the ocean would be fun by itself, but you must all hunt whales for oil to fuel your ship; rounding out the experience are journal entries you can find to gradually piece together the story. What makes From Hell's Heart so fun and promising at this early beta stage is the sense of immersion and dread. Alone, with nothing but icy black water around, icebergs just visible in the haze, the screen rocking up and down in the rough current, you truly feel like you're in the midst of a desperate struggle.

You can download the free beta for From Hell's Heart here.

Quick Fix: Ushering in another year of indie games

A belated Happy New Years to readers and indie gamers worldwide! Once again, thank you for reading Indie Game Enthusiast and participating on this journey through the unique and inventive world of indie games. 2013 was a great year, with some incredible releases like Gone Home, Badland, Outer Wilds, and far too many quality games to list here. And 2014 promises to continues this impressive trend.

IndieStatik's Top 100 of 2014
Recently, IndieStatik published a pair of fantastic articles that I'll definitely be looking back to as the year progresses, listing their 100 most anticipated upcoming games as well as a whole separate article of honorable mentions. You can read them here (Top 100, Runner-ups). Distance! Hyper Light Drifter! SCALE! And so many more. Yes, 2014 is going to one hell of a year

2014 Kickstarters
2013 was not only a fantastic year in terms of releases, but also in promising and successful Kickstarters. From the hair-breadth success of Windforge and Neverending Nightmares' eleventh hour funding to the Hyper Light Drifter's and Rimworld's impressive final hauls, we saw myriad projects find success. 2014 is getting off to an impressive start, with four promising campaigns in January alone:

Proven Lands - "mid-January"
Galactic Princess - "mid-January"
Mighty Tactical Shooter - "No, not early January"
MTB Freeride - January 14th

Then throughout the 2014, expect Kickstarters for Edgar, Witchmarsh, Darkest Dungeon, Path of Shadows, Oblitus, possibly Rain World, and others.

The Watchlist: Catacomb Kids

Title: Catacomb Kids
Developer: FourBitFriday
Platforms: PC, Mac
Releasing 2014
---

Catacomb Kids is a brutal platformer roguelike that pits you against the deadly Catacombs aided only by magic, steel, and your quick reflexes. Traverse procedurally generated dungeons and hack, slash, burn, and blast your way through hordes of things that want to kill you.

After a successful Kickstarter last month, Catacomb Kids continues to make progress. The game promises to combine roguelike and platforming elements in a pixel art package. Recently the alpha was released for Kickstarter backers, and after playing for several hours, it's say to safe that Catacomb Kids achieves those promises, even at such an early stage.

Currently, there are two modes to choose from: the main game and Versus. In the main roguelike mode, you choose from a number of classes (only two of six are in right now). Bully is the brute class, starting with higher strength but lower defense, while Poet is the magic class with higher magic but lower strength. Then you choose from a class-specific set of randomized characters, each with positive and negative traits (stealthy, loud footsteps, weak swimmer, etc.) and different starting equipment. After you choose, you enter the Catacombs, and like true roguelike fashion, the goal is to descend as far as possible, level up, and survive. Maybe you'll even defeat Abys, the powerful demon that lords over the Catacombs and its enemy-infested depths.

Gameplay is where Catacomb Kids shines. Compared to Spelunky, Rogue Legacy, or Towerclimb, Catacombs Kids is all about careful exploration and smart planning. Platforming is a means to an end, a skill to be used, rather than the focus. Your character is very agile, able to roll, hang from ledges, crawl along the ground, swim, lunge at enemies from afar. Finding spellbooks allow you to choose a spell to learn, from flight to teleporting, fire wave to plague, chain lightning to enhanced speed. Mana recharges slowly and each spell costs a certain amount to use, so you need to plan how to best use your weapons and magic. More often than not, it's better to avoid conflict, and you can distract enemies, avoid their line of sight, and maneuver around them. But if conflict can't be avoided, combat revolves around timing, knowing your weapon's range and speed, and evasive dodging. You never have much health and potential death lurks around every corner.

What makes Catacomb Kids feel so fun is how reactive the world is; as the trailer and gameplay videos had shown, you can use the environment to your advantage in unique inventive ways. Knock down a torch to burn enemies without getting close or throw a mushroom into a pool to poison the water. Lure enemies into traps, or throw rocks to reveal a trap's location. Boil potions on fiery surfaces to turn the contents into a area-effecting cloud. Eat corpses or even your own severed limbs for health. 

I haven't even touched on Versus mode yet. Here, you select a randomized character and then three spells. You can fight another player or the computer in a number of different arenas, and it's just hectic addictive fun, There's a ton of strategy in combining magic, countering different spells, using the environment to your advantage, and more.

Despite feeling so playable, Catacomb Kids is still in early alpha and will only grow and evolve in the coming months. You can follow the game's progress on the developer's blog, and vote for it on Steam Greenlight.

IOS Spotlight #38: Jet Car Stunts 2

Title: Jet Car Stunts 2
Developer: True Axis
Platforms: IOS Universal
Price: Free ($4.99 for all content)
---
I'll be honest. The first Jet Car Stunts was my first IOS game, one of the few that has never left my device, and the sequel was probably one of my most anticipated titles. So my opinion might be somewhat bias. But then again Jet Car Stunts 2 deserves the praise; it's a fast challenging platfomer that improves on the original in every way.

Despite outward appearances, Jet Car Stunts 2 is not a racing game. You may control a vehicle and drive fast, but outside of the handful of Racing levels, the game is a high-speed precision platfomer with rocket cars. In the majority of the game's levels, the goal is to reach the finish with as few retries as possible, a goal easier said than done when the track consists of massive gaps, loops, gravity-defining turns, grind rails, narrow hoops to pass through, and more. There are a number of different vehicles to play as, from the familiar physics of the original vehicle to the Jet, which is more plane than car, and each needs to be learned and mastered if you want to perfect every level. You control your vehicle with a combination of tilt controls and on-screen icons; now I know some IOS gamers are wary of tilt controls, as am I, but the controls in JCS2 just feel finely tuned and precise. If I crashed or overshot the track, it was never because of the controls but because of my own performance. 

Besides the Platforming tracks, there are also Time Trials where you must use your boost and beat circuit times, Race tracks where you race AI-controlled vehicles, and Tony Hawk-esque Stunt arenas where you're given free reign to pull off the best stunts and grinds for high scores. Technically, the game offers 120 levels, but the number is closer to 220 because all the Platforming tracks and Time Trials have alternate Hard versions that add tougher obstacles and bigger gaps. Aside from all this content, you can also make and share your own tracks in the level editor. 

Now I know some of you may be worried that a premium game is getting a free sequel with IAP, but on the contrary, True Axis's IAP scheme is one of the fairest and most reasonable I've seen. You get a handful of levels to try for free, and then the full game is $4.99, or you can simply purchase different level packs suited to what interests you. If you don't like time trials or never plan on using the editor, then only buy the platforming levels. There's no freemium elements like currency or timers here.

In my opinion the only major flaw is the level editor. Now the editor is fun to use. You drive and the track forms beneath your vehicle; you can create gaps and loops and big drift-friendly hairpin turns. I spent two hours just messing around. But the key words there are "messing around." It just seems too difficult to make something that feels planned out and intended. However I will say this is the first editor that becomes easier to use once you become a better player. I think once I've gotten better at playing the game, the true depth of editor will be revealed, but for people who just want to jump in and create a complex track or create something with some artistic vision in mind, it will feel too hard and random. Thankfully the developers are listening to player suggestions and plan to improve the editor.

Jet Car Stunts 2 is a huge improvement and evolution over the first game, not just in sheer content but in variety and challenge as well.. Everything that made the first Jet Car Stunts so satisfying is back, and bigger than ever before. You can download the game for free.

The Watchlist: Monument Valley

Title: Monument Valley
Developer: Ustwo Games
Platforms: IOS Universal
2014
---

A game about beautiful impossibility

I was lucky enough to get into the Testflight beta for Monument Valley and after playing through the current beta, I have to say that no game I've played has offered such satisfying and fun perspective-twisting mechanics since Fez. Set in an abstract world of a long lost civilization, you traverse these isometric environments, solving puzzles and slowly unraveling the mysterious fate of those who resided there before. While the minimalist art and Escher-esque environments are always pleasing to explore. what truly makes Monument Valley shine are its mechanics. Each chapter offers a new twist of the perspective-shifting and spatial manipulation, from levels where you can rotate the entire level and transition from floors to walking across walls to the Box, a nesting doll-style environment where you flip open different sides of the box to reveal different puzzles and areas. Some levels you need to manipulate enemies to activate switches, other levels you're moving a pillar to bridge impossible gaps.

While the developers hope to eventually bring Monument Valley to Android and PC, currently it's only set to release on IOS and honestly I feel Monument Valley without a touchscreen would diminish the experience. There's something quite satisfying and tactile in moving portions of the level around, dragging sections to complete illusions, and other functions that could only be accomplished with a touchscreen. Monument Valley will release some time in 2014. You can follow the game's progress on the development blog.

PC Spotlight #63: Mr. Bree+

Title: Mr. Bree+
Developer: TawStudio Entertainment
Platforms: PC, Mac
Price: $9.99
---
Mr. Bree doesn't innovate the precision platformer, or reinvent the genre, but that doesn't mean it isn't fun. The game is challenging, with a great art style, a lot of content, and is well worth your time.

Mr. Bree+, the revamped version of the browser Mr. Bree, isn't as hyper fast paced like Super Meat Boy or Electronic Super Joy. The game also has a slight Metroidvania vibe compared to those games; as you journey to find your family and recover your memories, you gradually remember new skills, allowing you to complete previous levels faster and gather special collectibles that you couldn't reach before. In fact in the first level, you can't even jump, but soon you'll remember how to jump, run, duck, and more. You'll need all these skills to evade the game's myriad obstacles. Levels are well designed, with the usual assortment of spikes, saws, collapsing platforms, swing blades, and other pig-skewering traps. There are some cool touches that add to the game's aesthetic such as the background changing hues and colors, rainfall as the day progresses, and  text that displays Bree's thoughts as you advance through a level. Besides the main levels, there's also a set of hardcore levels that are unlocked by gathering the hard-to-reach collectibles.

Mr. Bree+ is a fun and challenging platformer with a pleasing art style and interesting story. If you enjoy tough platformers, you'll definitely enjoy this game. You can purchase Mr. Bree+ on Desura and through Humble, and vote for the game on Steam Greenlight.