SGC 2015 Indie Game Evaluation!

  Every time I attend a convention that consists of indie games that I have not played the latest build, prior to convention (disqualifying Disastr_Blastr, Super Win The Game, Raising Hell, AVGN Adventures 1, Disorder and Jump N’ Shoot Attack), I will write an evaluation, sharing my personal thoughts on the demo I’ve played as well as whether or not I am anticipating the game based on the experience I had in the playable build. This is NOT a final verdict, just a first impression.

  Please understand that I am fully aware that most of these games are still a work-in-progress, but all of these games are trying to sell themselves to the public eye, therefore are wide open to criticism. It won’t matter that your game is a work-in-progress if what you are showing isn’t convincing. You must also have a clear base to show so I know what your game is going to be like in the future. There are indeed other ways to present what you are currently working if you don’t have the core basics jotted down (like the Dallas Society Of Play, or show off a trailer, followed by concept art).

What is Crystal Brawl?: Take Gauntlet’s core combat with an NBA Jam-like multiplayer. You would choose your character in a 2 vs. 2 capture the flag, the flag being a glowing ball. Each character has their own set of attacks that can sometimes manipulate sections of the map or cause a status effect to throw off enemy players. Your goal is to score more glowing orbs than your opponent!

What platforms will Crystal Brawl release on?: PC, MAC, LINUX, WIIU, ARCADE

My Thoughts: I like it! The perception perfectly matches with the execution and it becomes a silly fun e-sports beat’em up! Part of the fun comes from fighting over the ball and causing havoc with your character-specific abilities. The smooth, cartoonic animations give it a vibrant theme that keeps the action exciting! It also seems like there’s a good variety of maps and characters to mix up the action. However, the fact that this game cannot be played at all alone or with online support renders the game unplayable for me, outside of public events.

I also find it weird that there’s apparently a demand for this game on Steam, considering that Stardust Vanguards & Towerfall Ascension were heavily criticized on PC for the strong lack of single player or online multiplayer support (of course, I gave Stardust Vanguards a free pass, but we don’t speak of that stupid review and I have disqualified the game from participating in my best of 2015 indies as a result of my embarrassing review and that Stardust Vanguard’s isn’t really a solid 9/10…yeah…). The game itself is pretty darn promising, but the absence of single player or online multiplayer kills any coverage it could possibly get from me (besides an interview of course).

Excitement Level: Low

What is NIKA?: A two-sided tug-of-war board game, themed after the ancient Greek battles. You must coordinate movement with your faction to push back the enemies to the “routed pieces” area in order to gain victory. One side will be pushed back when the other has more pieces on one lane. Of course, this is all turn-based and how many spaces you move per turn is determined by what your formation is. You can either set up an offensive tactic (more than one piece on one lane), or a defensive tactic (at least one piece on each lane). The goal is to get all of your opponent’s pieces in the routed area, but be warned, pieces can get out of the routed area if the opposing team gains the advantage.

What platforms will NIKA release on?: Board Game, IOS, ANDROID, WINDOWS 8/PHONE, IPAD, KINDLE FIRE, CHROME, FIREFOX, TIZEN, WIIU

My Thoughts: Pretty interesting concept! This would create a fun, civil rivalry between me and a friend of mine or someone else. The digital versions will not support online multiplayer or bots, but if this can get distributed to Roll2Play, I can be totally fine with that. I attend a lot of local conventions, and I can see myself grabbing a convention buddy and dueling each other with this game in the board game sections of the convention. However, like Crystal Brawl, I will have to shove this aside as I currently have no one nearby to review anything with me. Still, it would be an interesting friendly board game for anyone who’s looking for a decent tug-of-war competition!

Excitement Level: Medium(at conventions anyway)

Both games are being developed under the same company: Studio Mercato

What is GRUMBLEBUGS JUGGLN’?: An arcade juggling game where you have to try your very best to juggle a certain number of bugs (using the touchscreen) until the timer runs out. The more bugs you juggle, the more points you’ll receive. There are online leaderboards and different stages with different obstacles to be aware of.

What platforms will GRUMBLEBUGS JUGGLIN’ release on?: IOS, GOOGLE PLAY

My Thoughts: It’s okay I guess. I’m not really into the overly simplistic types of games, where success is determined by how fast and how long can you perform one action. In other words, this is for the audience who are into games like Flappy Bird, but are looking for something more colorful and flashy. The obstacles can occasionally throw you off by either screwing with the bugs or the screen, but it didn’t prevent me from losing interest. Simply put, this is a game for casual mobile gamers, which isn’t me.

Excitement Level: Low

Find out more from: Wonderfling

What is Super Rad Raygun?: A 2-D action platformer homage to the cult-classic 8-bit action games like Mega Man, Castlevania and Contra, while also forming an accessibility to modern gamers who may not have heard of any of these games. The story is a parody of the cold war, where you take control of a live Gameboy and must defeat the evil communist robots in every stronghold that they possess. There’s a full campaign, along with additional challenge modes to keep you coming back for more.

What platforms will Super Rad Raygun release on?: PC (for now at least)

My Thoughts: Super Rad Raygun seems extremely promising from the demo that I’ve experienced! The game is way more than a trade on nostalgia so far, as it seems to be inheriting the best of 1980’s action platformers, while taking out the things that didn’t work for those games and adding in a mind of its own. I love the Gameboy theme too, where the presentation uses simple green colors, but the animations and sprites are far more characteristic than what an actual Gameboy can process.

The level I played had solid pacing, great variety of challenges thrown at you and a refined Mega Man-inspired combat. The only complaint I could give out of what I played would be that there’s a couple of game-breaking bugs that I witnessed from the build. Still, so far so good and I love the chip tune soundtrack by the way!

Excitement Level: High

Find out more from: Trufun Entertainment

What is Hoven The Sages Spinal?: A story-driven, classic JRPG-like game, where you are a young traveler who’s out on a dangerous quest to find his missing father. The gameplay is a mixture of Dragons Quest’s combat and classic Legend of Zelda exploration. The visuals and sounds are inspired by the Gameboy Advance era.

What platforms has Hoven The Sages Spinal released on?: PC (itch:io, Steam Greenlight)

My Thoughts: More or less a trade on Nostalgia, Hoven doesn’t provide a terrible experience, but does nothing interesting or different with its set goals. You can probably find five games on Steam that are also inspired by Dragon’s Quest and Legend of Zelda, done either better or worse with a retro look & feel. As far as the story goes, its failed to grasp my interest as you are thrown right into the plot with no introduction to the characters or set up for the main quest.

When I realized that the game is already finished and I’m playing the full game’s introduction, I felt very underwhelmed. Once again, this game does a pretty decent job at being a Dragons Quest’s meets Legend of Zelda, but it doesn’t try to be anything more, which turns Hoven The Sages Spinal into an identity crisis. The game has also been sitting on Steam Greenlight for over a year. Considering how its being visually advertised, I don’t actually blame the community for not voting for this game. (Not trying to be rude, but your trailers can’t be convincing with the Bandicam logo and windows tab being revealed in the trailer. Plus, please show screenshots of in-game footage instead of character sprites.) I wish them the very best though!

Excitement Level: Low

Find out more from: Hoven Indies

What is We Slay Monsters?: A procedural generated dungeon crawler with a poker-based combat system and a theme of children’s imagination.  There’s two rival schools that have decided to create a competition to see which school has the better dungeons & dragons club. You would explore each dungeon in a turn-based fashion, finding loot, fighting enemies and completing objectives. There are different missions to tackle in a mixture of main and side quests.

Each success and exploration can be rewarded with goodies and gold that can be transferred for upgrading your character. Enemies consist of bizarre creatures with each one holding their own specific behaviors. When you go into combat with them, you coordinate your attacks through the cards you have in your hand. Each card is a spell that you can cast and if you hold more than one of the same card number, you can cast a stronger spell, or more than one type of spell. Be warned, there is permanent death within each playthrough, so you’d want to be careful with where you go and heal yourself when most necessary!

What platforms has We Slay Monsters released on?: Steam Early Access (maybe mobile later on)

My Thoughts: It seems like We Slay Monsters has greatly expanded since the last time it was shown at SGC. You can now play as either a wizard, rouge or warrior with each having an expanded skill tree. Areas won’t be revealed until you enter the passage way to them. You can now find the graves of your fallen adventures and grab their gear. The environments are more detailed and varied, with the enemies, objectives and spells sharing the same description.

Of course, for the most part, there’s just more of everything and the game looks to be a pretty good dungeon crawler. The exploration and combat are still one of We Slay Monster’s greatest strengths…but could easily become one of the game’s biggest downfalls over one major flaw that the game is still carrying to this day, fine tuning. For example, you are still dead meat to your enemies unless if you choose to camp in the passage way.

It’s all due to the fact that the game is entirely turn-based. So when you are taking on multiple enemies at once, you can only hit one target at a time, but multiple hostiles can hit you once on the same turn. Usually, the monsters can hit you harder and faster than you can keep up with in your limited supply of potions. The game itself shows promise, but I worry that the lack of fine tuning will ruin the quality of the product.

Excitement Level: Medium

Find out more from: Furiously Inactive Games

What is Ostarragon & Unnatural Brawl?: Ostarragon is a spy first-person shooter in the inspiration of the James Bond games. The levels play out like a randomly generated dungeon crawler, but in the form of an enemy facility. You need to infiltrate, kill hostiles and complete whatever objective you are given. There are destructive material and hidden objectives to keep tabs on, during your exploration. Assignments will also be randomly generated, but you can permanently fail an assignment upon death or objective failure. You can select which perks to take with you on each assignment to mix up the risk/reward factor.

Unnatural Brawl is a 3-D beat ’em up with a huge world to explore and strange monsters to beat up. You have a deep combat system revolving around your light, medium and heavy punches, as well as your magic spells. You must time your moves right to create an epic chain of creature-beating. Dungeons can be discovered as special side activities and will contain hidden goods and unpredictable encounters. You can also level-up your character and branch their skills to fit your play style.

What platformers will Ostarragon & Unnatural Brawl release on?: PC (possibly MAC & LINUX as well, but no confirmation)

My Thoughts: Now, the reason why I’ve grouped these two together is little to do with the fact that both come from the same studio. The real reason so happens to be that both games have given me the exact same impressions, despite being two completely different products. I feel like these games will be awesome when they are finished or on early access and you can tell exactly what you are going to get into, if you were to support these titles down the road (unlike a couple that I will mention further down this article). I can tell by the demos that both games have fresh ideas that are actually well-executed and hold some enjoyment into playing (and I don’t care how many times I say “both games” in my thoughts…so deal with it…please).

At the same time, both games look visually unappealing and buggy. They also feature weak enemy AI, random difficulty spikes and unfavorable camera movement. (Ostarragon contains way too sensitive directional rotation. Unnatural Brawl uses a weird directional rotation key lock that would be better as an options menu feature.) Ostarragon has no music and Unnatural Brawl contains no sound. At the very least, these games are showing a decent, though not terribly fantastic progression. These are very flawed demos that are revealing great experiences in the future, and that’s enough for me to at least be interested!

Excitement Level: Medium (for both)

Both games are being developed under the same company: Pressure Spike

What is Inner Space?: According to the developer, Inner Space will be a open-world flight exploration game. You would be adventures through inverted planets, discovering their history, collecting resources and fighting huge beasts. Where you go, what you find and what you’ll encounter is entirely up to you.

What platforms will Inner Space release on?: PC, MAC, LINUX

My Thoughts: So far, nothing of what the director was hyping up for translates to what I was playing. In fact, if no one was at the booth, I could be easily convinced that this is another one of those walking or flight sims on Steam, where you have a beautiful scenery that you hold zero contribution to. The fact that I felt so disconnected from the gorgeous-looking world made me feel incredibly bored. This isn’t like That Dragon, Cancer, where you have a story that’s guiding you through the world, or Endless Ocean, where you are just peacefully interacting with the environment and its habitat. You are simply flying through nothing and if the world were to be replaced with just a plain black box, the experience wouldn’t change at all.

At least the developer was being honest that the demo was only about learning the controls. In that regard, the general flying controls are spot on, but the menus and transition between sea to air is far from it. I had to battle the left stick to be able to select something other than “start” or “exit”. While you can transform your vessel into a submarine when landing in the water, getting back up in the air required me to cheat the game’s physics and crash into a rock while in standby phase. The demo I played left me believing that the game might be a similar situation with what Ubisoft’s 2014 games were known for, more hype than execution. I really hope Polyknight Games can prove me wrong and deliver a great mash-up of Crimson Skies and Shadow Of The Colossus, because the demo made me feel like it was rather Wander meets Dragon: The Game.

In a public demo, the player should know what they are going to get into, if they were to support your game. Otherwise, the consumers won’t have a reason to be excited and invested in the game if they are unable to tell what they are getting into from playing the demo build. My advice, try to hold off showing your game in public until you have at least one of your gameplay mechanics (or at least world interaction) jotted down. It appears though my colleague Matt seems to have way more interest in Inner Space, so I’ll leave the coverage to him.

Excitement Level: Low (Medium for Matt)

Find out more from: Polyknight Games

What is Beneath?: According to the developer, Beneath will be a story-driven, puzzle-strategy game where you will use portals to guide your golem from point a to point b, while avoiding danger. There will be multiple types of obstacles and puzzles that will mix up the challenge. You can only send two portals at a time and your golem is on auto-drive.

What platforms will Beneath release on?: PC

My Thoughts: A similar case of a game not ready to be shown yet. At least you can tell that the game requires portals to be placed in order to progress and there will be hazards that you must avoid, using portals to guide your character out of danger. Otherwise, I had no idea what the heck I was getting into and there was no indication from the demo that this was a story-driven game.

From what I’ve played, it seems like the game maybe way too simple for its own good. The obstacles that were shown seemed way too basic and easy to avoid. Outside of the two traps, there wasn’t anything interesting going on in the demo. Puzzlers require heavy or smart thinking and planning, yet getting through this demo didn’t require much thought at all. The greatest issue would have to be that if you don’t place the portals in a specific spot, the game will crash. Not a great start, but hopefully, they can do better!

Excitement Level: Low

Find out more from: Bard Games

What is #REKT?: A free-to-play multiplayer arena shooter, in the vein of Unreal Tournament, Painkiller, Hexen and Quake. The game mixes these elements with parkour and an over-the-top cyberpunk theme. Like those old-school classics, #REKT will feature extremely fast movement, no reloading or iron sights, a health bar and a ridiculous arsenal. On top of all this, the game will also feature magic spell-casting, much like Hexen. The game will center most of its multiplayer sweet on team objectives and will allow dedicated servers. More weapons, maps and power-ups will also be added in the future.

What platforms will #REKT release on?: PC (maybe MAC & LINUX)

My Thoughts: Say what you will about multiplayer first-person shooters, but boy did I have a blast playing this demo! Bouncing all over the map, while firing flaming skull rockets at my opponent felt very ridiculous indeed, but in an extremely positive manner. The core gameplay felt very refined on its nostalgic inspiration, while being very accessible and fun to play. I can easily see shooter fans who’ve never played Quake or Painkiller getting into this game! The game also looks visually stunning and that is probably thanks to Unreal Engine 4. Outside of the lack of gun-firing animations, there’s currently nothing I have experienced in the demo that the game should improve on.

I only had curious questions about the game’s progression in the future. For one, the game is free-to-play, but how will they be able to monetize & keep the online servers up and running for a long time, without turning the game into a forced pay wall service. Secondly, there is a new Unreal Tournament coming out that will also be free-to-play. It seems like the gameplay in #REKT does separate itself from Unreal Tournament, but how much can they differentiate themselves from Epic Game’s smash hit? From what I’ve played, I believe both issues will be taken care of! #CAN’TWAIT

Excitement Level: High

Find out more from: Hella Legit Games

What is Super Slam Dunk Touchdown?: A throwback mash-up of the old-school sports games. You can play as a hockey, football, soccer, roller derby, bowling or basketball player with each holding their own statistic differences and ways of scoring. If two rival sports players collide, it will turn into a cartoony brawl to see who can have the upper hand. The goal is to simply score on the opposing side with the ball and there will be half-time between quarters of the match to switch players. Each map will have their own theme, obstacles and scalable sizes. Additional multiplayer modes and a season mode is planned.

What platforms has Super Slam Dunk Touchdown released on?: Steam Early Access

My Thoughts: First, I’d like to compliment the enthusiasm of the developer for dressing up as a sports referee! As for the game, its brilliantly random and beats the snot out of today’s sports games in terms of both quality and understanding of the gameplay mechanics & controls. I am no sports fan, yet I had so much fun playing the demo of this game. In fact, I had way more satisfaction out of this demo than I could ever get out of today’s patch updates for Madden, Fifa or any modern EA SPORTS games!

Just fighting over the ball and avoiding knock back from the truck that comes out of no where is a minor example of why I love games. I don’t want to learn how to realistically pass the ball to a specific team member, I just want to have fun and Super Slam Dunk Touchdown’s demo was fun! Best of all, the game supports bots and Gamecube controllers, heck yes I’m excited!

Excitement Level: High

Find out more from: Tipping Goat

What is Circuit Breakers?: A top-down shooter with rouge-like elements and a weapon power-up system, inspired by Cave Story. Up to four players can band together and destroy a large horde of killer robots for crystals, which can be used to level up the power of your arsenal. Levels are randomly generated and there will be multiple ways to challenge yourself and your friends.

What platforms will Circuit Breakers release on?: PC, Steam Greenlight, Kickstarter (maybe MAC & LINUX)

My Thoughts: Reminds me a lot of R.I.P. 3, which was alright. The weapons had a nice punch to them and there was a relentless amount of destruction and enemies. Though R.I.P.3. was incredibly repetitive and dated by controls, design & graphics, placing you in the same exact location and fighting the same enemies a couple of times before moving on to a new area. It seems though that the developers maybe taking what did work with R.I.P.3 and adding in their own spin, though the improvements weren’t drastic from what I’ve played.

I do however, feel like Circuit Breakers can become a better experience over time, given the randomly generated stages and multiple layers of play styles could help refresh the top-down shooter genre. If the game can succeed on its online co-op and squad-centered single player, then Circuit Breakers could be one of the stronger games in the top-down genre.

Excitement Level: Medium

Find out more from: Triverske

What is Push & Pull (student version)?: A 2.5D exploration platformer that uses the physics of magnetics to manipulate objects and navigate the environment. There’s a simple story about a robot trying to escape a laboratory to discover freedom and life outside of the lab. Levels are semi-linear, sometimes containing multiple paths that can hold rewards upon discovery.

What platforms has Push & Pull released on?: PC (student version)

My Thoughts: What an amazing, adorable platformer this is. Probably one of the few demos that I played twice, Push & Pull has given me the level of charm and excitement that was previously held by the reveal of Unravel. The controls may be simple, but the gameplay mechanics and challenges are far more complex. Using magnets to create a path and climb on walls made me feel…happy. The entire time I’ve played the demo, I was feeling a sense of joy that’s normally seen out of the works from Nintendo or Media Molecule. I enjoyed the challenges I’ve faced, the environment I was manipulating and the story that I was unfolding.

Nothing out of the Push & Pull demo felt tedious, bland, uninspired, broken or generic. I was only experiencing a great puzzle-platformer that while unique in its execution, it’s very familiar in giving such positive impressions. Even at a technical standing point, Push & Pull is still something to be truly inspired by. Now comes the sad part, the game is only a student project at the moment. With enough support however, the director plans to turn this into a full game, greatly expanding upon the student version’s concept and giving more reasons to keep coming back! It seems though that the possibilities are very strong, considering its favorable reception at SGC 2015! I sure hope the school decides to allow an expansion of Push & Pull, because they sure won’t regret saying yes!

Excitement Level: High

Find out more from: Push & Pull Game

What is AVGN Adventures 2?: The grand sequel to the popular AVGN Adventures 1 and based off of Cineamassacre’s Angry Video Game Nerd. Not much info has been given by demo, other than its once again a hardcore retro platformer that tackles iconic and creative scenes from the famous YouTube show, while taking gameplay cues from Mega Man.

What platforms will AVGN Adventures 2 release on?: PC (probably WiiU & 3DS as well, potentially PS4 and XBOX ONE)

My Thoughts: From the demo I’ve played, it seems to be more of the same. However, I’ve started to see the differences when I went to AVGN 1’s booth and then back to the sequel. Respawning is instantaneous, the AI contains more elaborate behaviors and the  sprite animations are much nicer. The level I’ve played also seems to be parodying off of classic board games this time around. I am convinced that the enhancements will be even more noticeable in the future, considering that this game is in its early pre-alpha stage and despite that so far, it is more of the same (and that’s both a good and bad thing when you compare contrast with all of the other Mega Man-like games).

That being said, the nerd rant jokes are still not nearly as clever as the original show. I’d be interested to see where this goes as I am a fan of a good majority of the Mega Man games and I am a fan of the nerd himself! I believe this sequel could take an interesting route, but only time will tell!

Excitement Level: Medium

Find out more from: FreakZone Games

That concludes my SGC 2015 indie game evaluation! What did you think of these games? Leave a comment down below on your thoughts for this evaluation or anything relating to SGC or indies. Till next time folks!