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Indie Games [November] Now Voting - Post 720!

G

Gazoinks

Member
Gave The Consuming Shadow a go, it was very cool. It's got a great creeping horror feel, and the roguelike elements fit really well with the horror. Also the Sanity mechanics seem cleverly implemented. As my Sanity decreased, the buttons started to flash "Shoot myself". I actually ended my playthrough by clicking on one right when it switched to Shoot Myself. XD Dungeon exploration is a little confusing because it has the Lone Survivor problem of navigating a 3D map from a sidescrolling viewpoint (actually the whole dungeon gameplay is quite Lone Survivory).

I'll give it another couple runs, but this seems like it has the potential to be pretty awesome.

EDIT: And then I realized you can stop yourself from shooting yourself by rapidly clicking! Good to know!
 
T

Toma

Let me show you through these halls, my friend, where treasures of indie gaming await...
Soooo, Two Brothers impressions incoming.

Its better and worse than I expected. At the same time. The explanation that will follow is very likely interesting to everyone who considered grabbing it.
 
T

Toma

Let me show you through these halls, my friend, where treasures of indie gaming await...
Two Brothers
(On sale for another 4 days over at the dev website: http://ackkstudios.wordpress.com/)

twobrothers9.png
i8DapJi.jpg
Click to expand...

I'll divide these impressions in 2 parts, because it will make it easier to make these two contrasting points very clear.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lets start with the good:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Despite the low res nature (you can drag the window borders to make it bigger), the game looks great and sometimes rather outstanding. The game can be really pretty, like the panda inn in the above picture or the play it does with colours. Speaking of which, the "story hook" in the game is the quest of the main character to find... color in the world. It sounds a bit...weird at first, but its actually really refreshing to see a game that builds a story, progress and mystique around such a seemingly simple concept, instead of the usual save-the-world fare. They did a really good job at mystifying that concept and manage to actually create interest and curiosity in the player and actually pulled it off instead of making it feel like a tacked on gimmick (I am thinking of a certain Steam RPG here that had a similar idea with videogame styles but ended up being all gimmick, no substance).

The game is also endearingly wacky and charming. There are quite a few concepts that managed to surprise me, starting with some quests, the inventory system, small details like the main character "throwing" arrows instead of using a bow (a "skill" he starts with), bosses you need to enter to defeat them, random unexplainable characters that ambush you on the world map to... talk with you or the fact that you constantly die but death isnt ready for you yet, which is also an area that serves as hub and game map. The game is a collection of charmingly weird things, which I really, really like. The inventory system especially deserves another mention, but lets just say... I dont want to spoil it for you because its really cool to... explore it yourself (after you got it).

The game also seems to offer a good variety in the map design, meaning towns, open areas or dungeons offering different experiences. It also doesnt seem to be too easy since some of the fighting rooms or puzzles can be rather challenging.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lets continue with the bad:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Smaller stuff:
The game isnt actually open world, which is a bit disappointing. Its not a big issue, but the game seems more focussed around areas that you are visiting in a rather strict order. You can then later backtrack to these areas to get some additional items you might have missed, but calling that "Open world" is a bit farfetched. The combat "works" but isnt exactly overly competent either. You have light/strong/combo attacks can find/buy a variety of different weapons, but sometimes it doesnt "perfectly" work if the game doesnt seem to give you fair means of defeating a certain enemy or if its a bit wonky and you'll just end up running away in these encounters (which is a perfectly valid solution). Its not a big issue to me, but you shouldnt expect a big combat focus or play these games mostly for the combat.

On to the big stuff, I'll just c/p the mail I sent to the dev on that matter:
I played the most recent version and after playing for ~2 hours, I needed to restart the game about 4-5 times just so it got reset and continued working after being stuck. One example was the first time entering the house of Bivare, and then after the first sentence the game froze. The auto save alleviates that a bit because you can restart and pick up where you left off immediately, but its still rather unpleasant.

Even more problematic however are clear gamebreaking bugs that put my position randomly on the screen. I had the pleasure of exploring a lot of "Black" off screen space, for example:
1. Directly after the intro (I had the game tabbed and running because I already saw the intro)
2. After leaving the first village with the panda inn, you will go enter a passageway north of that on the world map. Shortly before finishing that part and entering the world map again, the game froze and upon reloading it set my position north of the exit zone where I found two more chests and a few enemies in black space.

There was another one, but I forgot where. The issue is that the game autosaves this crazy position which makes it almost impossible to reenter the normal map. I could only fix these by editing the character position in the save file to a safe location to continue playing. There was also the case of Mark leaving my party and after entering the bay area (where you find the axe), he would randomly climb up a ladder and be with me again. I assume thats not how it is supposed to be, especially because he was gone again after reloading that save and then not appearing anymore. And I just remembered a bug in the first "big" dungeon (where you get the moving cog): There are these rooms with these big buttons that you need to press that will activate/deactive pillars on the floor. You can step on a button and at the same time still partly stand on the pillar that is rising from the ground, which will make the char stuck.

On top of that, there are some other small annoyances, for example that the game doesnt save my resolution/gamepad options which means I need to constantly input these again after each freeze/restart. I would estimate that I was restarting the game about 8-9 times in 2 hours, including editing the save file 3 times to get back to the normal area, so setting my options again every time doesnt sit well with me either.

I really hope you can sort these out eventually, but it seems to me you need some serious bug testing still.
Click to expand...

The dev is apparently currently still fixing issues, but from what I can see the preorder ends in 4 days, which coincides with the full release of the game if I understand that correclty and I dont think they will have everything fixed by then.

Despite that.. the biggest compliment I can make the game right now is that I consider the game interesting enough to make me want to play it even WITH these issues. The above mentioned bugs/glitches I could usually solve within 10-15 seconds, despite them being annoying, so I got around to dealing with it. However, this WILL be a deal breaker to many and I probably wouldnt have bought the game at 10$ (even considering its 5$ off) if I had known that before. I have certain... issues... recommending the game as it is now for 10$, especially considering most other games in these threads are way, way more polished, but IF you have 10$ lying around and know about these issues (and how to deal with them), then you might as well throw it at this game which definitely is a labor of love, even though it is hard and very rough love.
 
C

CheesecakeRecipe

Stormy Grey
This reminds me that I've been sitting on Two Brothers since I bought it a week or so ago, might have to boot that up this weekend and see if I agree.

Also Gone Home is $5 as a flash sale on Steam guys, you know what to do.
 
T

Toma

Let me show you through these halls, my friend, where treasures of indie gaming await...
CheesecakeRecipe said:
This reminds me that I've been sitting on Two Brothers since I bought it a week or so ago, might have to boot that up this weekend and see if I agree.

Also Gone Home is $5 as a flash sale on Steam guys, you know what to do.
Click to expand...

Would be nice to see someone else's take on it. I also entered a puzzle room in which I would have loved to ask someone else about their solution because I couldnt beat it.

(Non)Spoiler how I beat it:
The game glitched me through the door with a jidder effect and I completely skipped the puzzle. Still no clue how to solve it.
 
T

Toma

Let me show you through these halls, my friend, where treasures of indie gaming await...
And reply from the Two Brothers devs:
Hey ! We are still working on the game actively an polishing each day. We have fixes for many of the bugs you listed already! :D we plan on having it a lot stronger by the time we release on steam early next month. You can mark our words that it will soon be what it deserves to be.
Thank you for the bug report! Make sure you play with the latest build which is 1.121
-Andrew
Click to expand...

That sounds good, if anyone wants to take their word for it, you can still grab it for 33% off and then play the by then hopefully fixed version next month. I am inclined to believe them as they already patched the game since the preorder releaseon 11/11 for a few bugs.
 
P

PandaPedinte

Member
Toma said:
And reply from the Two Brothers devs:


That sounds good, if anyone wants to take their word for it, you can still grab it for 33% off and then play the by then hopefully fixed version next month. I am inclined to believe them as they already patched the game since the preorder releaseon 11/11 for a few bugs.
Click to expand...

Thats cool.

Naeval said:
This game for Xbox Live Indie Games / PC and then mobile looks nice:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsmDD8xa1sE#t=41

Or... what do you think?
Click to expand...

What is the game name? I cant watch the video now.
 
G

Gazoinks

Member
More_Badass said:
How does M&B With Fire & Sword compare to Warband?
Click to expand...

It's a weaker game, definitely. I'd only really recommend With Fire & Sword if you've played the crap out of Warband and want another M&B game with a different feel. It's not bad, but Warband always felt much better to me.
 
O

One Foul Note

Member
More_Badass said:
How does M&B With Fire & Sword compare to Warband?
Click to expand...

It's not nearly as good. Guns (despite being a novelty at first) quickly disintegrate the more charming blade combat and the singleplayer is cut down and streamlined to make way for more narrative which is not nearly good enough to be worth the sacrifice. On the positive note though some of the UI changes are quite nice and the multiplayer was rather special although I dunno how active it all is now. Overall I would still put Warband head and shoulders above it.
 
M

More_Badass

Member
Gazoinks said:
It's a weaker game, definitely. I'd only really recommend With Fire & Sword if you've played the crap out of Warband and want another M&B game with a different feel. It's not bad, but Warband always felt much better to me.
Click to expand...

One Foul Note said:
It's not nearly as good. Guns (despite being a novelty at first) quickly disintegrate the more charming blade combat and the singleplayer is cut down and streamlined to make way for more narrative which is not nearly good enough to be worth the sacrifice. On the positive note though some of the UI changes are quite nice and the multiplayer was rather special although I dunno how active it all is now. Overall I would still put Warband head and shoulders above it.
Click to expand...
Guess I'll stick with Warband then

And I got to ask, did I miss an Overgrowth sale when the Humble Store launched?
 
T

Toma

Let me show you through these halls, my friend, where treasures of indie gaming await...
Crub said:
Any estimates on the length? I've read it's supposed to be pretty long. Anything above 10 hours is a big turn off.
Click to expand...

I have absolutely no way of saying. Perfectly possible that you can do it below 10 hours if you dont go around exploring everything/trying to find every item. I think I explored about 1/4th of the map so far after 2-3 hours of carefully exploring, but no way to make a guess about the length of the later dungeons and such.

Considering the map size I dont think its much over 20 hours either btw, if that is any help.
 
T

Toma

Let me show you through these halls, my friend, where treasures of indie gaming await...
For some reasons, my thread files for december got deleted. No clue whether I did it myself somehow (cant remember deleting it) or whether Dropbox messed up because I had some PC issues, but sucks mightily.
 
P

PandaPedinte

Member
Toma said:
For some reasons, my thread files for december got deleted. No clue whether I did it myself somehow (cant remember deleting it) or whether Dropbox messed up because I had some PC issues, but sucks mightily.
Click to expand...

D:

Need any help doing collecting the info again?
 
T

Toma

Let me show you through these halls, my friend, where treasures of indie gaming await...
PandaPedinte said:
D:

Need any help doing collecting the info again?
Click to expand...

Already busy for the past 5-7 hours recollecting the info (with a short break for a gaf EU session), just needed to vent a bit. Redoing the same work is annoying.
 
T

Toma

Let me show you through these halls, my friend, where treasures of indie gaming await...
Naeval said:
Btw... some friends are making this game. And I WANT YOUR FEEDBACK :D

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lS8bTSUfoQ
Click to expand...

Omg, haha.
I met the dev in a pub after Gamescom and he showed me his games while we drank some beer together at the Rovio party. Its a small world, isnt it? Relay my best wishes to the Drakhar devs! Hope their game ideas and releases work out and they made some progress since then!
 
W

Warren Ellis

Banned
well i am playing one way heroics now (finally!)

http://playism-games.com/games/onewayheroics/

and it's so good.

In my third playthough i was doing well, but unfortunately apparentely friendly bears (they even gave advices to me. Everybody in this game give advices to you, and they are all helpful ) killed me after i tried to obtain new skills from a godness statue.

after you die you can unlock a new class o a new starting skill (perks) Better yet, you can unlock a special vault where you can save the best items that you found in the last playthough. Fucking awesome.

You can find dungeons (they were all closed though...) and little houses in the ever-scrolling world. Inside the little houses you can find merchants and other people. You better buy that map, it's really useful. Oh, and you can cheat or kill people too, because in the ending screen it was written that i didn't do it

you can even save your playthough, which is unusual for a rogue-like.
 
C

Chainsawkitten

Member
Toma said:
For some reasons, my thread files for december got deleted. No clue whether I did it myself somehow (cant remember deleting it) or whether Dropbox messed up because I had some PC issues, but sucks mightily.
Click to expand...

If you go on Dropbox you can see previous versions of files. There might be a backup still. (There's a button on the webpage called "Show deleted files".)
 
T

Toma

Let me show you through these halls, my friend, where treasures of indie gaming await...
P

PandaPedinte

Member
Warren Ellis said:
well i am playing one way heroics now (finally!)

http://playism-games.com/games/onewayheroics/

and it's so good.

In my third playthough i was doing well, but unfortunately apparentely friendly bears (they even gave advices to me. Everybody in this game give advices to you, and they are all helpful ) killed me after i tried to obtain new skills from a godness statue.

after you die you can unlock a new class o a new starting skill (perks) Better yet, you can unlock a special vault where you can save the best items that you found in the last playthough. Fucking awesome.

You can find dungeons (they were all closed though...) and little houses in the ever-scrolling world. Inside the little houses you can find merchants and other people. You better buy that map, it's really useful. Oh, and you can cheat or kill people too, because in the ending screen it was written that i didn't do it

you can even save your playthough, which is unusual for a rogue-like.
Click to expand...

Thank you for the write up.
 
E

elyetis

Member
Warren Ellis said:
well i am playing one way heroics now (finally!)

http://playism-games.com/games/onewayheroics/

and it's so good.

In my third playthough i was doing well, but unfortunately apparentely friendly bears (they even gave advices to me. Everybody in this game give advices to you, and they are all helpful ) killed me after i tried to obtain new skills from a godness statue.

after you die you can unlock a new class o a new starting skill (perks) Better yet, you can unlock a special vault where you can save the best items that you found in the last playthough. Fucking awesome.

You can find dungeons (they were all closed though...) and little houses in the ever-scrolling world. Inside the little houses you can find merchants and other people. You better buy that map, it's really useful. Oh, and you can cheat or kill people too, because in the ending screen it was written that i didn't do it

you can even save your playthough, which is unusual for a rogue-like.
Click to expand...
Also playing it (finally!), now did 3 run on the same world and got to 287 km ! /happy/

I love the fact there is feature like replay, and online ( as limited as it is, it's fun to see where other player are in the same world ).
 
P

PandaPedinte

Member
One Way Heroics - PC

bandicam+2013-11-27+12-42-06-840.jpg


In One Way Heroics, you take on the role of an intrepid adventurer who must travel across the land and face the Demon Lord before a mysterious darkness engulfs everything.

Darkness always approaches from the left, and with each movement, attack and action you take, the darkness creeps ever closer. Forced to run right, you'll encounter any number of monsters, allies, thieves and shops on your desperate journey to stop the end of everything.

Playism $1.99
Click to expand...
 
T

Toma

Let me show you through these halls, my friend, where treasures of indie gaming await...
PandaPedinte said:
I haven't played the game just formated it because it's not the first time this game is mentioned on the Indie threads.



I don't know why Doujin games are priced cheap. We need someone who understand the Japanese indie market to explain it.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the formatting :)
 
F

flowsnake

Member
PandaPedinte said:
I haven't played the game just formated it because it's not the first time this game is mentioned on the Indie threads.



I don't know why Doujin games are priced cheap. We need someone who understand the Japanese indie market to explain it.
Click to expand...

But Carpe Fulghur games and say, La Mulana don't seem to. Oh well, I shouldn't complain. It looks like an interesting game and they'll get at least one impulse buy from me for being so cheap.
 
W

Warren Ellis

Banned
flowsnake said:
Why is it so cheap? Is it really short or something?

I'll be picking it up later today.
Click to expand...

i don't know why it's so cheap but the game surely isn't "short", there is an big amount of things to do and see.

one of the most original features is that you can replay the last random world that you created as long as you like thanks to the history screen.
 
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