IOS Spotlight #54: Monument Valley

Title: Monument Valley
Develop: ustwo
Platforms: IOS Universal
Price: $3.99
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I shared my thoughts on the Monument Valley beta in January, but even that small taste was enough to make the game one of my most anticipated of 2014. Now that it has finally released and I've experienced the full finished product, I truly believe that Monument Valley is the epitome of what IOS gaming should be.

This is an experience that puts visual artistry and atmosphere first, a complete journey without filler or padding. Each chapter feels distinct, unique, special in its own way. As you guide Ida through this abstract world of long-abandoned structures, you'll encounter impossible mechanisms and structures to push, pull, and rotate, utilizing Escher physics to navigate this mysterious world. Without the touchscreen, Monument Valley just wouldn't be the same; the tactile nature of IOS devices allows for an intimate connection with the world as you manipulate the environment with your fingertips. The whole experience is a masterfully-crafted mix of wonderful artistry, compelling music, immersive tangible mechanics, and subtle narrative.

My trip through Monument Valley lasted two hours, but it was a journey that I didn't want to end in a world I wanted to see more of. It's a game that uses the tactile tangible nature of the touchscreen to its fullest potential, that is simple yet engaging and compelling. At a time when clones and clones of clones flood the charts and tear the spotlight away from the games that deserve it, where IAP and free-to-play practices are rampant and only seem to grow more and more ubiquitous, Monument Valley is not just a great original premium IOS game. It's a great game regardless of system or platform.

You can purchase Monument Valley for $3.99.

PC Spotlight #87: Cloudbuilt

Title: Cloudbuilt
Developer: Coilworks
Platforms: PC
Price:  $19.99
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I've been looking forward to Cloudbuilt since I previewed the game and interviewed its developers last year. The rocket-powered precision platformer is now out on Steam and it definitely lives up to its promise of hard-as-nails freeform speedrunning.

Personally, more than even the gameplay, the most impressive aspect of Cloudbuilt is its visuals. The vibrant colors and hues mixed with the sketched style gives the levels a rugged textured atmosphere, that's just a joy to explore. But the gameplay is the star here and in that aspect, Cloudbuilt does not disappoint. Each level is a network of walls and platforms and ramps, that through practice and improving your skills, reveals better, faster routes. You will die. You will overshoot jumps, and get shot down by turrets, and slide off into the abyss, but like Dark Souls, each death is a learning experience and a new chance to become a better player and learn the levels. There are no upgrades to acquire; you already have all your abilities from the start. Only through practice can you shave off seconds and decipher faster paths from the open environments. If mastering the levels themselves wasn't difficult enough, the game also offers special modifiers that present new challenges, from unlimited boost to no gun to damage equals a restart. These modifiers subtly mix up the gameplay, and require you to refine your routes.

Cloudbuilt's controls and camera may take some time to get used to, but after acclimating to the controls, I found them to be precise and responsive. While the repetitive nature of speedrunning and replaying levels to find faster routes and attain better times may not appeal to everyone, Cloudbuilt is a fantastic addition to the 3D platforming genre, thanks to its impressive visuals and gameplay. You can purchase Cloudbuilt on Steam.

Quick Fix: Frog Sord Successor, PAX East 2014, Kickstarters

Indie News

Frog Sord lives...well, in spirit anyway
In my last Quick Fix article, I mentioned the unfortunate fate of promising action platformer Frog Sord. Well, developer Zack Bell has revealed that while Frog Sord is dead, a new game is in the making, similar in gameplay and style.

In his own words,

This game should feel like Frog Sord, but it definitely isn't the same game in almost any way. So far it looks pretty though.

 You can still dash and chop things up. And look cute. (Twitter) 

So Frog Sord as we know it is gone, but its gameplay and vibrant style lives on this still unnamed experience.

PAX East 2014
The next big gaming expo is less than a week away and the Indie Megabooth and Minibooths will be jam packed with well known games and upcoming indies. You can find the full list of games here, but some personal highlights include:

• Aztez
• Fract OSC
• Framed
• Mushroom 11
• Relativity
• Source

As well as Gods Will Be Watching, Darkest Dungeon, Distance, Luftrausers, and many more. PAX East 2014 starts April 11th.

Ongoing and Upcoming Kickstarters

As I mentioned before, I'm managing the 2014 Kickstarter thread on NeoGAF so I've probably keeping a closer eye on campaigns than I ever have before. Here are some promising campaigns going on now or starting soon

Apexicon

In this RPG, words are your weapons as you face powerful enemies in Puzzle Quest-inspired combat. Quests, town building, skills, and other RPG elements flesh out the experience.

Four Sided Fantasy

From the level designer of Perspective (seriously, play it if you never have) and The Fourth Wall, Four Sided Fantasy is a puzzle platformer where you can manipulate screen wrap to solve puzzles and maneuver around obstacles.

Habitat

Build a battle-ready station out of space junk and craft a new home for mankind, managing resources and fighting enemy habitats with physics-heavy combat. Yes, that's a spaceship made out of the Statue of Liberty's head.

The Breakout

A point-and-click adventure set in a WW2 POW camp. If the vibrant cartoon visuals and a setting that's quite rare in gaming wasn't intriguing enough, the developers also hope to deliver a mature adult story

Let's Go Camping (Starts April 7th)

A dungeon crawling action roguelike where you must traverse and survive the expansive wilderness to reach randomly generated dungeons. The low-poly art style and mix of gameplay elements make this one to watch

Prisonscape (Starts April 8th)

I've been following Prisonscape for months and I'm highly anticipating its Kickstarter next week. This is an RPG adventure about surviving prison life, with a gritty uncompromising atmosphere 

The Watchlist: Serpent in the Staglands

Title: Serpent in the Staglands
Developer: Whalenought Studios
Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux
Releasing late 2014
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The vision for Serpent in the Staglands is a mix of the addictive build customization of ARPGs and party control and role-playing elements of games like Baldur's Gate and Darklands. A throwback to cRPGs of the past with fresh new role playing designs and combat mechanics.

Set in the cold mystical forests of the Staglands, Serpent in the Staglands is an isometric real time action RPG. Playing as the moon deity Necholai given human form, you must gather your party and venture out into a dangerous landscape of expansive wilderness and grand halls. The core of the gameplay is combat: real time party control, with the ability to pause and issue commands, designing varied builds with dozens of skills, magic types, and gear, micromanaging your team and planning strategies in the thick of battle. Perhaps most appealing to me is the game's wonderful pixel style, that combines detailed designs with vibrant effects and crafting atmospheric environments.

Serpent of the Staglands will be released in late 2014. You can learn more about the game here and support it on Kickstarter (funding goal achieved).

PC Spotlight #86: David.

Title: David.
Developer: Fermenter Games
Platforms: PC, Mac, (IOS soon)
Price: $2 (currently on sale for $1)
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I discovered David. while browsing IndieGameStand and was instantly intriguing by its unusual combination of inspirations: "Limbo + Shadow of the Colossus + Angry Birds". While I still think the Limbo influence is slight at best, David. certainly is a fun physics-heavy game with a focus on boss fights and large dangerous foes.
David. presents a abstract world of shapes and angles. Your little square is embued with a powerful weapon and tasked with destroying nine dangerous bosses. From a hub area, you travel to these arenas and face these enemies. They are large angular masses of shapes, moving with oddly animalistic menace. One is a lunging, almost bull-like enemy, another a flying cluster that hones in on you as you deftly evade it. Skillful maneuvering, precise aim and timing is needed to succeed; even just learning how to use your weapon takes some practice, as you need to find the rhythm of charging your shot, catching the pellets as they return to you, and utilizing the slow motion effect to your advantage. Each level can be played in normal difficulty and a hardcore mode in which you only have one cube of health. Alongside these boss fights, David. features a survival mode with light RPG elements, that lets you collect gold to level up your character as you face more challenging and varied waves. 

David. may not seem that impressive from screenshots, but in motion and when playing, it's revealed to be a fun varied stylish game. While I really like the abstract minimalist visuals, the gameplay is what truly shines here: discovering each new boss, lining up shots as you fly through the air, the intense close calls. You can purchase David. on its official site and IndieGameStand, and follow the developer on Twitter here. The game is also coming to IOS soon.

IOS Spotlight #53: Sometimes You Die

Title: Sometimes You Die
Developer: Kamibox
Platforms: IOS Universal
Price: $1.99
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I only knew Kamibox due to its excellent precision arcade game Cyro, so I wasn't sure what to expect when starting Sometimes You Die. A unique puzzle platformer, I enjoyed my time with this unique game

Sometimes You Die is quite minimalist. There isn't even a menu; the game starts and you're simply playing. Right off the bat, the game stands out visually with its Limbo-esque visuals contrasted by the stark white letters highlighted in the background. While Sometimes You Die is a puzzle platformer, it's also delivering a story, one any gamer can appreciate, as it presents questions about the nature of gaming. Fans of The Stanley Parable will appreciate the philosophical musing about what defines a game. However, Sometimes You Die is also an actual game. While the game is short (I beat it in a little over an hour), the gameplay is fun, controls are responsive, and the mechanics are linked to the subtle narrative being told. The game is not actually that difficult; death is never an end but a tool to be used. Your dead selves stay behind, stuck on spikes, jammed against saw blades, to be used as stepping stones and protection from hazards throughout the game's eight chapters. Completing the game once unlocks a new ability and the challenge of completing it with as few death as possible.

If you're looking for a hardcore precision platformer or a challenging puzzler, you might be disappointed. But if you're looking for a stylish game that combines gamplay with story and has a message to tell, one that will appeal to gamers especially, I think you'll enjoy Sometimes You Die. You can purchase the game for $1.99.

The Watchlist: Son of Nor

Title: Son of Nor
Developer: Still Alive Studios
Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux
Releasing mid-2014
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Enter the desert world of Noshrac. A harsh desert world where humankind is at the brink of extinction. You are a Son of Nor, a human mage with telekinetic powers and the ability to control natural elements. A mage trained to defend what is left of your race after the Great War with the Sarahul Empire. Solve puzzles, venture through long forgotten temples, terraform the desert and fight in challenging battles alongside your friends in this single player and co-op fantasy action adventure.

Successfully Greenlit and Kickstarted mid-2013, Son of Nor has been in steady development for almost a year now. Set in the desert fantasy world of Noshrac, you control the powerful Son in his quest to save humanity from a dangerous new threat. Blessed by the goddess Nor, you can wield the environment as a weapon; with these powers, the world becomes your tool, allowing you to swallow enemies with the ground itself, create cover and tactical positions from the sands, move boulders and objects with your mind, lay waste to your foes with fire and wind, and combine these elements to craft new spells such as a devastating flaming tornado. These abilities are not only useful in combat, but also in traversing the environments, solving puzzles, and evading traps. You even play cooperatively with four other players, assisting each other and combining magic.

Son of Nor will release in mid-2014, with support for Oculus Rift and Emotiv EPOC (translates EEG activity to in-game actions). You can learn more about Son of Nor, as well as preorder the game, here.