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Indie Games 2015 [July] Now Voting - Post 280!
- Thread starter Toma
- Start date
More_Badass
Member
A look back at July 2014 and how indies have progressed (or not) in a year
Angels Fall First - New video posted in March
Beacon - Regular development
Behind Nowhere - On hold, devs working on The Last Night
Blackhole - finished and released
Bloodcrusher II - no updates since July 2014
Convoy - Successful Kickstarter, finished and released
Iron Fisticle - finished and released
It Lurks - Chapter One available for free
Jotun - Successful Kickstarter, regular progress, alpha access coming soon
Laser Fury - Kickstarter canceled, last update in March
Lightfall - Just finished a successful Kickstarter
Narcosis - Regular development, coming to Oculus Rift
Neon Struct - Finished and released
Nimbatus - Slow but steady progress, was Greenlit in May
Penarium - Finished, releasing this month
Rigid Force Alpha - Last update in August 2014
Seaworthy - Kickstarter failed, no updates since March
Subterranea - now titled The Ruins of Old Earth, slow progress
Super III - Kickstarted failed, put on hold, devs working on Ink
That Which Sleeps - Successful Kickstarter, regular progress, last update in June
TinyKeep - finished and released
Vane - Slow progress
Warden - releasing "late 2015" for PC, consoles
And a quick glance at July 2013 reveals that:
Angels Fall First - New video posted in March
Beacon - Regular development
Behind Nowhere - On hold, devs working on The Last Night
Blackhole - finished and released
Bloodcrusher II - no updates since July 2014
Convoy - Successful Kickstarter, finished and released
Iron Fisticle - finished and released
It Lurks - Chapter One available for free
Jotun - Successful Kickstarter, regular progress, alpha access coming soon
Laser Fury - Kickstarter canceled, last update in March
Lightfall - Just finished a successful Kickstarter
Narcosis - Regular development, coming to Oculus Rift
Neon Struct - Finished and released
Nimbatus - Slow but steady progress, was Greenlit in May
Penarium - Finished, releasing this month
Rigid Force Alpha - Last update in August 2014
Seaworthy - Kickstarter failed, no updates since March
Subterranea - now titled The Ruins of Old Earth, slow progress
Super III - Kickstarted failed, put on hold, devs working on Ink
That Which Sleeps - Successful Kickstarter, regular progress, last update in June
TinyKeep - finished and released
Vane - Slow progress
Warden - releasing "late 2015" for PC, consoles
And a quick glance at July 2013 reveals that:
- Blackwell Epiphany, GhostPatrol Inc., Morphopolis, Permutation Racer, Volgarr The Viking have all been finished and released
- Spy Party, Energy Hook, Liege, Regret, Routine, Sarcia, Toryansé, The Wild Eternal are still in development with recent progress
- Gods Will Be Watching and Futuridium got expanded releases
- Beat Beat Shooter, Every Time my Time, Murias, and numerous others are abandoned or have made little progress
Fragamemnon
Member
Ran through a couple of games over the weekend:
Sproggiwood - This is a very simple roguelite that is clearly designed with mobile sensibilities in mind (i.e. , "pick up and play"). There is some hints as to a strategy city management layer from the screens but that's not really the case-the upgrades you get in the town are reflective back on buffing your characters for their dungeon runs.
I found the game has engaging combat (please play it on the new Savage difficulty, its just stupid simple if you aren't) but if you are a roguelike veteran you will find the game very narrow and small in scope. So while the fighting is OK, I can't help but wonder why I should be playing this vs. a game with equally engaging combat + more advanced feature set. The only reason might be the clean art and UI but if you can handle The Pit, DCSS and TOME there really just doesn't feel like there's a need to play this game.
Freehold has Caves of Qud coming soon on steam and that game should be more up my alley. This was a disappointment not because it is a bad game-it's fine-but because my tastes and the game don't overlap.
VoidExpanse - A pretty barebones SPAZ/Escape Velocity riff. I bought it because Space Rangers 2 and Drox Operative are GOATs in my canon and I'm always up for trying new stuff out that's like it. VoidExpanse has a big problem though-the world is largely lifeless. There's a host of neat systems from a character development and the framework for ship customization and combat are solid. The problem is that none of these systems are realized in the content of the game-there's no randomly generated items or systems, very limited consumables, no active perks on the skill tree (just a bunch of +% passives and some equipment gating unlocks) , and the faction system doesn't actually have any real simulation behind it to war for space. Compared to the two games mentioned above, it just feels dead and dull. It's good enough to veg out and play , but really that's a pretty low bar for entertainment given the riches we enjoy today.
Sproggiwood - This is a very simple roguelite that is clearly designed with mobile sensibilities in mind (i.e. , "pick up and play"). There is some hints as to a strategy city management layer from the screens but that's not really the case-the upgrades you get in the town are reflective back on buffing your characters for their dungeon runs.
I found the game has engaging combat (please play it on the new Savage difficulty, its just stupid simple if you aren't) but if you are a roguelike veteran you will find the game very narrow and small in scope. So while the fighting is OK, I can't help but wonder why I should be playing this vs. a game with equally engaging combat + more advanced feature set. The only reason might be the clean art and UI but if you can handle The Pit, DCSS and TOME there really just doesn't feel like there's a need to play this game.
Freehold has Caves of Qud coming soon on steam and that game should be more up my alley. This was a disappointment not because it is a bad game-it's fine-but because my tastes and the game don't overlap.
VoidExpanse - A pretty barebones SPAZ/Escape Velocity riff. I bought it because Space Rangers 2 and Drox Operative are GOATs in my canon and I'm always up for trying new stuff out that's like it. VoidExpanse has a big problem though-the world is largely lifeless. There's a host of neat systems from a character development and the framework for ship customization and combat are solid. The problem is that none of these systems are realized in the content of the game-there's no randomly generated items or systems, very limited consumables, no active perks on the skill tree (just a bunch of +% passives and some equipment gating unlocks) , and the faction system doesn't actually have any real simulation behind it to war for space. Compared to the two games mentioned above, it just feels dead and dull. It's good enough to veg out and play , but really that's a pretty low bar for entertainment given the riches we enjoy today.
One Foul Note
Member
Put some time into the Odallus beta. It is basically a early Castlevania inspired 2d platformer by the team that did Oniken. Mixed feelings about it, the game still has its slightly jerky un-smooth movements it had from the demo and the cliff hanging feels needless in a 2d game. Also, it just isn't that hard, you have a mountain of health and the frequent healing items mean that you don't really need to play very carefully. That said, it is still fun to explore the levels and combat is getting increasingly engaging when you unlock more sub weapons so overall I would say it is a solid game, but not one that is gonna turn people who are not already platformer fans into ones.
Short on time for today, but I'll try to make a release tag for it tomorrow when I get the chance to.
Short on time for today, but I'll try to make a release tag for it tomorrow when I get the chance to.
PandaPedinte
Member
Work and house chores plus the fact that I'm trying to play some of the games that I bought past month.
Venus Van Dam
Neo Member
Is Beacon that rogue-like biopunk one?
More_Badass
Member
Venus Van Dam
Neo Member
thanks man, that's the one. I forgot to bookmark their website and lost it until today. really looking forward for this one.
Work mostly on my part. Oh and I finally digged myself through to the end of Witcher 3 with a 16 hour session on the weekend. That plus sleep
But yeah, I guess we need to recharge some batteries now from the recent releases.
Man, I need to follow these threads more. That looks great.
PandaPedinte
Member
I'm all over it once it hits EA. Seems like it'll be soon and I have funds already in my wallet. Plus I'm already neck deep in one of those games of Civ that feels like it'll last a month.
Also glad to see some love for Invisible, Inc. Such a brilliant game that I hope can find some more exposure.
Here's a couple of properly formatted posts for the thread. Yes they're for my own projects, but I want to keep y'all updated
Frog Force - WIN/MAC
Shutshimi: Seriously Swole - PS4, Vita, Wii U, Steam (Win/Mac/Lnx)
Frog Force - WIN/MAC
Prototype available here through GameJolt
Play as Bernie, Hansel, and Mac to clear each stage while collecting goodies and finding secrets. Control your gamepiece to get powerups while avoiding hazards! Utilize each frog's abilities and work as a team to defeat the nefarious Death Moose. Frog Force is still in development so there's a lot more in store for the final game! We're eager to hear your input and opinions about the Frog Force so far! Thanks for playing
-John Bell, developer
Shutshimi: Seriously Swole - PS4, Vita, Wii U, Steam (Win/Mac/Lnx)
The super-official Choice Publishing page
Endless waves, endless fun! 10 second bursts of shmup action!
Five different, upgradeable weapons to choose from! Over 30 upgrades to collect! Combine upgrades with different weapons for interesting combinations!
Hats! Over 30 of them! Some hats unlock hidden "Hattributes" which modify gameplay even further!
Full keyboard and controller support! Play any way you like, as long as it's either of these two options! You can smoke underwater!?
Leaderboards! Compete with friends and foes for the top score!
Local Co-op! Work together or screw each other over when competing for the top score. There's also a remarkable number of cats!
Coming out before summer's end, published by Choice Provisions!
More_Badass
Member
Devouring Stars was featured back in February, now it's released. Anyone check it out?
Devouring Stars - $9.99 (PC, Mac, Linux)
Devouring Stars - $9.99 (PC, Mac, Linux)
http://www.devouringstars.com/
Devouring Stars is a celestial strategy game with some exploration and a lot of Greek gods. In Devouring Stars you play a tribe of godlike entities trapped in Tartarus, a corner of the universe as far beneath hell as heaven is high above the earth. Hunted by 4 other tribes, you have been given the ability to draw your own fate. But to what extent? Devouring Stars uses a couple of unique mechanics to create a different experience on the RTS and space exploration genre. Your entities have the ability to "devour" starfields, creating dynamic nebulas that will protect them. There's no tech tree or building facilities in Devouring Stars: your entities are able to merge in order to create advanced units with special abilities. Depending on the set of entities you start the game with, you will be able to go for different strategies that will evolve during the game.
Fantastic news - day one. The Alpha was absolutely great.
I need this yesterday
More_Badass
Member
Somerville continues to be awesome
More_Badass
Member
It's an episodic cinematic platformer, where you play as a normal guy that becomes a famous hero of the war. Story is told through the framework of a teacher reading her class the tale of this historical figure post-invasion. Dev wants to juxapose the idealized heroic tale with the brutal reality of what really happened during the war
Here's the TIGSource devlog: http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=45926.0
Yes, good to see it coming along, man! Can't wait for a release date.
Frog Force also looks neato. It randomly reminded me of Frog Sord. I wonder how that game's doing.
Milky Tea Studios
Neo Member
Coffin Dodgers - $10.99(PLAT)
http://coffindodgersgame.com/
Pimp up your mobility scooter and take on the Grim Reaper and his Zombie army in a race for your soul. Armed with a variety of homemade weapons and gadgets, battle your way through 13 unique & exhilarating tracks. Can you survive the retirement village?
Thanks for this. This one is definitely on my radar now.
Thanks man! Shutshimi's been a ton of fun to make, but we're so glad to be nearly done with it. Nothing but the porting left to complete. We're showing off in Toronto for Bit Bazaar this weekend and we'll have a presence at PAX Prime if anyone is going to be there.
As for Frog Sord, unfortunately the devs cancelled that a while back. Which breaks my heart because the demo (which is still available here was awesome. They're working on Super III now.
Right, I remember them cancelling it but I also vaguely recall them picking up the pieces again after taking care of some internal quarrels. Seems like they dropped it for good, though. Shame.
Phawx
Member
Humble Bundle is running a gamedev bundle. Think I might do the $12 one just for the sprite apps.
https://www.humblebundle.com/
https://www.humblebundle.com/
Was thinking about that too - about to head over to the gamedev thread to see if its been mentioned!!!
One Foul Note
Member
Here is a release tag for Odallus, as promised.
Odallus: The Dark Call - $14.99 (PC)
Odallus: The Dark Call - $14.99 (PC)
http://joymasher.com/odallus/
Odallus is a classic exploration/action game, inspired by Ghostsn Goblins, Demons Crest and Castlevania. Player takes place of Haggis, a warrior tired of fight who must wield his sword once more to rescue his son from Darkness.
More_Badass
Member
Don't Starve and This War of Mine are coming to mobile this month
Don't Starve especially is an insane deal. All the vanilla content + the Reign of Giants expansion for $4.99. That releases this week
TWoM will be $9.99, should be out before the end of the month
Don't Starve especially is an insane deal. All the vanilla content + the Reign of Giants expansion for $4.99. That releases this week
TWoM will be $9.99, should be out before the end of the month
One Foul Note
Member
I read your post way too fast and thought you said that This War of Mine had some new DLC called Reign of Giants
Very confused for a couple of seconds.
More_Badass
Member
Project Maiden - Free (PC, Mac, Linux)
http://supertry.itch.io/projectmaiden
Project Maiden is a narrative-focused puzzle-platformer where you start with all the powers and abilities and lose one in each level.
Demon Lizardman
Banned
Hey guys, just letting you know that I am working on a game project with some guys. Maybe I will post it in one of these threads when it's ready to be shown.
More_Badass
Member
What kind of game is it going to be?
Demon Lizardman
Banned
Sort of a sci fi/escape from alien planet type game. It's being made in UE4. I am not allowed to say a lot about the project, but I was just asking if it is alright if I could post it here when it's ready.
More_Badass
Member
No need to ask, devs posting about their games are always welcome here
toythatkills
Member
Hello indie game people.
How's Big Pharma? Saw it in the OP and it looks ace but $20 is a bit much to spend on it blindly. Anyone got it? How does it play, is the balance as good as its blurb implies?
How's Big Pharma? Saw it in the OP and it looks ace but $20 is a bit much to spend on it blindly. Anyone got it? How does it play, is the balance as good as its blurb implies?
We had this so far as far as impressions go:
I will likely check it out too this month though. Will of course post impressions then.
Demon Lizardman
Banned
Thanks, will be glad to show it here. I am the conceptual artist for it btw. Nice to see threads dedicated to indie games, some really nice looking stuff here.
Played through the tutorials of Big Pharma. It scratches the SpaceChem itch, while adding some new elements to the formula, which is very, very interesting. The actual processing mechanic doesnt seem as deep, but the game makes up for it with an economic touch that I didnt anticipate to be as enthralling as it turned out to be.
I'll play some more to see how the challenges hold up, but this gets a thumbs up from me.
Another huge bonus point: the missions actually present themselves hugely replayable. I was a bit sad about the omission of leaderboards at first, but it actually makes sense considering the individual values, effects and solutions need to be figured out and researched from scratch every time. This game is really intriguing and has much more going for it than the cutesy look implies.
I'll play some more to see how the challenges hold up, but this gets a thumbs up from me.
Another huge bonus point: the missions actually present themselves hugely replayable. I was a bit sad about the omission of leaderboards at first, but it actually makes sense considering the individual values, effects and solutions need to be figured out and researched from scratch every time. This game is really intriguing and has much more going for it than the cutesy look implies.
First actual mission:
BEHOLD THE POWER OF MY SUPERDRUG.
It sooths rash and treats bronchitis at the expense of a little bit higher blood pressure and its raking in the MONEY$.
I am playing it now for... 4 hours straight? Addicting. I wonder if I can make an addiction cure
BEHOLD THE POWER OF MY SUPERDRUG.
It sooths rash and treats bronchitis at the expense of a little bit higher blood pressure and its raking in the MONEY$.
I am playing it now for... 4 hours straight? Addicting. I wonder if I can make an addiction cure
More_Badass
Member
Looks more like Factorio than SpaceChem IMOFirst actual mission:
BEHOLD THE POWER OF MY SUPERDRUG.
It sooths rash and treats bronchitis at the expense of a little bit higher blood pressure and its raking in the MONEY$.
I am playing it now for... 4 hours straight? Addicting. I wonder if I can make an addiction cure
Yeah, but Factorio and SpaceChem are basically the same sub genre to me anyway. Does that genre have a name? It totally should have.
You are right though, its a bit closer to Factorio in how you process the wares, but as I said, the economic spin gives it its own unique touch.
More_Badass
Member
So is the economic angle just like resource management or is there a deeper element to it? Like rival companies, boosting public opinion, hiring new staff, stuff like that?
Yes, no and yes.
There are multiple elements that effect the price of your products. If other rival companies buy more of the same ingredients, those ingredients will become more expensive. If rival companies make a similar product, people will buy less of yours. On top of that, there are some random events, which can change the demand for products. It all works pretty logical too. I found an ingredient, which basically printed money for me as I could use it for several things. In the beginning it cost me 20$ per unit, after 2 years the cost was at 35$ per unit because my rival also bought more and more of that resource. I still made money with it, but I did notice how some of my production chains became less feasible as time went on due to some economic changes.
However, the money you get for an individual drug does not only depend on these external factors, but also on your own production cycle. You can spend more resources trying to figure out the most optimal concentration of a drug, which raises your rating and in turn the price people are willing to pay. Additionally, you can combine multiple drugs or try to work out negative effects from your drugs, which in turn would raise the value of the drug. This in turn becomes a question of feasibility, as negating effects also costs you money, so you need to carefully evaluate what might be more advantageous for you.
You need to spend money on researchers and explorers, who will allow you to build better tech and find more ingredients.
timetokill
Banned
LISA is up for midweek madness on Steam right now.
http://store.steampowered.com/app/335670?snr=1_41_4__42
Impressions? Worth it at $4.99? Or the deluxe edition for $7.49?
http://store.steampowered.com/app/335670?snr=1_41_4__42
Impressions? Worth it at $4.99? Or the deluxe edition for $7.49?
The music and art in the game is pretty interesting stuff if you have the few dollars extra to spare for the Deluxe Edition. I absolutely love this track Summer Love.
LISA is a turn-based RPG and the actual combat is serviceable but you're really playing this game for it's story, writing, and humor. People make comparisons between this and the Mother/Earthbound series as they both share similarities in regards to surrealism, humor, writing, nostalgia, etc. The game goes to some really dark places but manages to balance it out with some of the funniest moments you'll ever see in gaming this year. You'll also find yourself having to make decisions/choices in the game that have some actual consequence behind them which totally stressed me out.
It took me about 13-14 or so hours to beat the game but it really left an impression on me and never outstayed its welcome. I'd really recommend if you're up for it. The sequel is coming out pretty soon called LISA: The Joyful as well which I'm really looking forward to.
Edit: The game can be somewhat difficult for a number of reasons on occasion due to occasional difficulty spikes and other random occurrences which I don't want to delve into due to spoilers but I felt it appropriate with the tone of the game. I didn't really have to grind in this game which was somewhat convenient so you should be fine.
More_Badass
Member
Game is excellent, I highly recommend checking it out
Some good impressions from the Lisa OT
timetokill
Banned
Thanks for the impressions, guys! Decided to jump on the deluxe edition of the deal.
More_Badass
Member
Vernacular - Free (Browser)
Impact - Free prototype (PC)
http://gamejolt.com/games/vernacular/37935
At first I thought that this game will be about a sadistic psychopath who tortures his victims. But then everything go out of control.
Impact - Free prototype (PC)
http://impacteam.itch.io/impact
IMPACT is a game where the goal is to search the structures to find their weak points in order to destroy them, in a world that repairs itself.