SORRY NO post today (was too busy)
Okay I will say that I have a few reviews and posts lined up that you might be interested in . I'm out. Today, I will go on my own whim and cover a game I received a preview copy of. This will be the first of a series I will coin as the "on the side" series, ones in which I choose of my own accord. The game I will review to kick off this glorious moment is Poly Bridge.
First Impressions To be honest, I didn't know what to expect. Besides the fact it was clearly labeled as a bridge simulator, I had my mind open to pretty much anything. Therefore, I believed that the game would not disappoint me. At the same time, I knew that simulators weren't going to hit my end of the year best reviewed game list (yes I plan on doing one), so the best I bet it could do would make me actually try to build all the bridges before figuring out that it was just another dumb simulator :P But what make me most interested in the game was the title. Poly Bridge may still have the word Bridge in it, but it definitely more inspired and unique than say Bridge-it and Bridge Project among games. Thoughts HOWEVER, after playing it, my first reaction was, this game AGAIN?? Just as quickly, I calmed down and reminded myself that simulators, and bridge simulators in particular, only had so much leeway for uniqueness. Setting aside the premise of the game, I find quite a few merits of the game, yet at the same time quite a few glaring omissions. First off, I have to applaud the devs for the exciting-looking background. While definitely not the best graphics by any means, it blends in well with the game and gives me a sense that getting the physics right wasn't their only concern. The physics, as expected, worked properly, and bridges that shouldn't be able to hold a heavy load collapsed as they needed to. I also enjoyed the variety in the levels. On the other hand, the tutorial was a little abrupt. The only parts that were explained were the materials used for the bridge and the necessity to build a stable bridge for the most part. I didn't get any reason for the need for the bridge's base and supports to be of different materials, or what was the max distance two joints could be from each other. Some of the objectives weren't properly visualized either, making this a hard-sell for those who aren't knowledgeable about bridge structures. In addition, I didn't see any option to switch camera views, as it would have been useful for a bridge-level view as the simulation went on instead of just a side-view. Other features I felt were missing were a "recommended budget", difficulty modifiers (maybe the hard mode would give you a smaller budget or something), and hot-keys (though they are less important comparatively speaking). Overall, the game has a lot of promise. It seems more fleshed out than quite a few simulators I have seem, and the developers definitely seem to have a clear roadmap for their game. There are some interesting if not totally polished scenarios, and I am eager to see more from this game. This was Poly Bridge which will be available on Steam sometime in June. See you next time. This game was the most requested of the three titles I polled (the others being Spoko and Poko and RymdResa (the second of which I will cover at a later point)). Personally, I was also very excited to try out this game. Well then, without further ado, let us dive into this weeks Let's Maybe Play. First Impressions I first heard about this game from the developer of the game, Carl, who was also the founder of a site that supports developers who trying to get onto Steam, Who's Gaming Now. He was curating a bundle for a site I frequent, Groupees, and casually mentioned that he was developing his own game. I was intrigued and decided to apply to the alpha. Just recently, the game reached a playable state, and I couldn't wait to jump into it. From the screenshots and Carl's words of wisdom, I expected a sort of 2D platformer with a cute protagonist which I presume is named Eyas. I was not looking to see too much in terms of features, since after all, the game isn't fully released yet. Thoughts Upon starting up the game and immediately following the intro credits, I was greeted by a tutorial of sorts. While helpful for sure, I am not sure if this feature will initiate every time you start the game. It would be much more helpful to insert as part of the game rather than as an intro cinematic. In terms of the control scheme., it plays well and is very intuitive. However, once again, rebindable keys would be a helpful feature to include. I can definitely see the idea and mechanics that Carl was trying to implement, such as platforming, levels, a best time, etc... I like and appreciate to include them, yet at the same time, I do see room for much improvement. For example, in platforming, double jump and wall jump mechanics should be in the game (unless they already are and I haven't gotten that far). For levels, there should be some sort of storyline that ties them all together. For the time mechanic, I would recommend coming up with gold, silver, bronze medal times as well as implementing steam leaderboards. Other than that, I feel like it is fine as is (from what I have seen). My overall impression is that the game has a lot of promise. Would I recommend it in its current state as a full-fledged title? Not really. However, I would encourage people to try it out and give Carl some feedback. See you next time! I am starting to make my first steps into game development. So far I have looked into Twine, Stencyl, and RPG Maker VX Ace. Having some idea of HTML and a very bare minimum of Java, I am deciding to start with Twine and Stencyl and then move my way up the chains of coding. One challenge I am taking on is the One Game A Month challenge. So far, I have started one project using Twine. Hopefully I would be good enough to make a full-fledged game with at least some action or platforming. That is all for now. See you soon!
Steam is great and all, but it is oversaturated with games that it is hard for individual developers to gain attention and likewise for the consumers to focus on a specific sale. This is especially true for indie gamers and developers, whose sales and interests tend to be overshadowed by the AAA titles. As a way to combat this, a service called IndieGameStand emerged.
History IndieGameStand (IGS) was founded out of Wilmington, DE, in September 2012 by Mike Gnade and Dan Liebner, and later Matt Cangialosi. The site started as promotional service that featured a new indie game every 96 hours (4 days) to purchase at a discounted price. Games that have been featured include Papo & Yo, Coin Crypt, Operation Smash, and currently, Parallax (about 12 more hours at the time of post). Later on, a storefront was added to the service, which included a larger variety of indie games that have daily/weekly sales similar to Steam. Earlier this year, two more features have been implemented to IGS. The first is a subscription service called IGS Elite, which allows for a recurring payment for the deals. The other is a free games section, where developers can place their freely distributed games on the site to download and possibly receive donations. The IndieGameStand Model What makes the IGS service unique is the model implemented. The model used for the deals is a PWYW (Pay-what-you-want) model similar to what Humble implements, in which you can pay a minimum price to have access to DRM-free builds (in this case 25 cents), or 1 dollar (for the most part) for keys for the various platforms (Steam, Desura, GOG). The difference between the Humble and IGS model is how the BTA (Beat-the-average) pricing scheme works. For Humble, an artificial minimum BTA price is imposed, and thus even if everyone went and both the non-bta, there would be a floor that would has never been under 2 dollars. IGS, allows for a true BTA price. At the start of the sale, the BTA would be 1 cent above the minimum for game keys, which would usually equal to $1.01. Further purchases would push the BTA up to the threshold of $2-$3, but there was always a chance for the BTA to drop right back down to $1.01. Which begs the question, why is this type of BTA sustainable for IGS? The key point that needs to be emphasized is that IndieGameStand features ONE game (or a series for that game). For example when Papo & Yo was the featured deal, THAT was the only game you could get for $1 (if you wanted Steam). On top of that, the BTA would always include other products from that game or by the same developer. In the Papo & Yo deal, the soundtrack was included if you beat the average. In the deal for Loot Hero, four of the developer's other games were included in that upper tier. Finally, for a purchase of $6 or more (used to be $10 before the subscription service was implemented), you could purchase a bundle of 3 sales, the previous one, the current one, and the next one. Hence, the average price ends up staying above $1.50 and usually hits $2 or more due to people wanting the extra goodies and/or have missed the previous deal. Other point is that the ONE developer/dev team receives all of the developer cuts in the sale. The split is 70-10-20, 70% going to the developer, 10% going to a charity of the dev's choice, and 20% going to the site. This means that if the sale ended up making $1,000 worth of purchases, $700 would go to the dev, $100 would go to that chosen charity, and $200 would go back to IGS so that the site can continue to function. For the storefront, the split is 75/25 with the charity portion redistributed evenly between the dev and IGS. This feature has been one that developers have praised the service for, since no matter how badly the deal goes, they don't have to worry about splitting that revenue even further with a few other indie developers. Other Features I may decide to come back to my discussion of IndieGameStand since there is so much to go into. Here I will list some other features that the site has:
My Take IndieGameStand is a great site for indie developers and avid supporters alike. It is free of the clutter of AAA titles and spam of "indie" games. For developers, it is a way to have their own games spotlighted and be rewarded for it on a more personal level. For customers, it is a way to pinpoint a single game/developer and interact and support them as a single entity rather than as an afterthought. The gripes that some people have is that the price point for the deals are too high, starting at $1 for Steam/Desura keys, but keep in mind that IndieGameStand isn't a bundle, where a variety of developers split the revenue, and that regardless it may still a steep discount from the average Steam sale. This service isn't for everyone, and even I may pass on a number of deals due to lack of interest. For me, IndieGameStand is a site where the spotlight deals garner the developers and the games the attention and support they deserve. While I don't think IndieGameStand will ever be as big of a service as Steam, GOG, or even Desura, I feel like it can stand its own among the smaller indie game services such as itch.io and Shinyloot. The service has been around for over 2 years, and I look forward to its future endeavors. Alright I have made it through my second week of this blog (with a minor hiccup), so it's time for my second week in review.
During this week, bundles popped in and out. Groupees started their newest edition of WGN with all greenlight titles as well as a video game music bundle. There were 7 greenlight titles included in the WGN bundle, but the highlight was the soundtrack for Shroud of the Avatar, which will be an interesting listen. (Edit: While not the best bundle I have seen from WGN, for 1.25 it was a nice deal). In the Video Game Music bundle, the soundtracks for FTL, Amnesia: Machine of Pigs, and Shadowgate were the top billing titles, along with a collection by Viking Guitar, Souleye (who composed the soundtrack for VVVVVV), and more. In that, while I already owned the FTL soundtrack, I did not in fact own the Amnesia Machine of Pigs soundtrack despite owning the game. Let us continue to gloss over Bundlestars and IndieRoyale, who were underwhelming as expected for the most part (now your opinion may vary but I have not been impressed with Bundlestars most of the time, and same goes with IndieRoyale), and head over to Humble. The unimpressive bundle full of over-bundled Paradox titles was continued to be filled with over-bundled Paradox titles. The weekly, however is worth a mention. The games included ranged from classics such as Syberia (an over bundled yet impressive game), Broken Sword 5 (mind you they STILL need to bundle the 4th title), and Night of the Rabbit to newer titles such as the Novelist, The Raven, and Blackwell Epiphany. I personally am eager to try out the Novelist and partake in the soundtracks of Syberia and others. All in all, it was a decent week for bundles. On the end of game pickups outside of bundles, I took advantage of the weekly sale last week and bought Puzzle Dimension (and a generous friend bought me Terrorhedron). I also bought Parallax from the current IndieGameStand deal, which channels the vibe of Antichamber. I look forward to playing all of these and possibly reviewing them if enough interest is gauged. Finally, more of the indie games I supported in the past finally hit Steam. These include Downpour and Spoko and Poko. I am glad for all of these titles, and I am most excited about trying out Spoko and Poko. In the comments, please talk about what bundles or indie games you picked up this week. I would love to hear about your favorite new releases and make conversation with you guys. Anyways, see you next week. Okay I goofed up on my post scheduling for this week (most likely to post my post on a gaming service on Saturday). If I can't keep this schedule, I may have to tweak it around. Anyhow, since you guys suggested me take a look at Victim of Xen, here is my take.
First impressions Like many of you, I thought it was going to be a generic RPGmaker game, with very little assets. After all, the screenshots didn't look like much, and the description was pretty generic. At first, I was planning to never play it, but my curiosity took the better of me, and thus I installed and dived right in, and boy I was glad I didn't simply dismiss the game as shovelware. Just some thoughts After experiencing a bit of the game, I felt like I had a slight change in heart about the game. The plot wasn't as predictable as expected, especially with the twist that occurred with the main character. While not necessarily very relate-able on the whole, there are themes that we can understand. A prominent theme is that depending on your gender, a NPC may react to you in a different way. The protagonist goes through such conflict in the plot and interaction with others (and no I won't spoil anymore). Other parts I thought the developer did well were the move away from just using the base sprites and the cliche fetch quests. If the game was just judged on this, I would heartily recommend it to others. However, not everything is great. In the end, it is still restricted by the usage of RPGmaker. Thus the choices and amount of variety and interaction really depends on how much time and expertise the developer has. Being the first game by this developer, it is understandable how the really only big change is the themes and just a few custom sprites. If there was one thing I would consider stuck out like a sore thumb, it would be the dialogue choices. While the concept was great, the actual execution of it completely failed in my eyes. The game was very linear, and the speech choices and interaction was no different. Recap Looking back on this game, I actually enjoyed it to some extent. I most likely won't be playing it much, and may even forget that I did a review on this, but to say that it was the run-of-the-mill RPGmaker game is stretching it a bit. Would I recommend to others as a must-play or nominate for best game in category? Bluntly put, definitely not. But is it worth a look if you wanted to play an RPGmaker game? Absolutely, and put in that mindset, you might be pleasantly surprised a bit. All in all, I give kudos to the developer for making a game that is at least half-good and stands out in the slew of RPGmaker games. Postscript: Upon further investigation about the development of the game, I found out that it was developed by a Belgian-born American who at the time was struggling with his own citizenship issues. Perhaps this situation helped inspire this work that deals with the double standards of gender identity. Regardless, it was an interesting tidbit I learned. (Shortly after he released the game he ended up in court about this issue in immigration and citizenship, but this is an issue for another day.) Alright I have finally made it through one full week of my blog following my schedule, so I guess it is time for my long hiatus... Just kidding, I am not going to quit on you guys. So this will be my first week in review.
During this week, bundles popped in and out. Groupees started the 19th rendition of their flagship bundle Be Mine 19. This included the well-received Woolfie: Red Wolf Diaries as its highlight, with other great indie titles such as Dokuro, Ubinota, and the cute gem Jones on Fire. I might cover a few of these over time if people so desire. Let us gloss over Bundlestars and IndieRoyale, who were underwhelming as expected for the most part, and head over to Humble. The horror that was Uplay was finally ended and it was transitioned into a better but still unimpressive bundle full of over-bundled Paradox titles. I did help a friend snag the Beat the Average Tier tier though. What were the highlights from Humble were the two weeklies. The previous weekly was curated by publisher Surprise Attack Games, which had Metrocide, OTTD, and Oscura: Lost Light in the first tier, which I picked up without hesitation. I in particular am excited to try Oscura: Lost Light, though the other two are great as well. The current weekly is a RPG bundle, featuring the likes of the Fate games, the highly reviewed Paper Sorcerer among games. Finally, many of the indie games I supported in the past finally hit Steam. These include Blue Rose, Trigger Saint, and Ballad and Remus: When the Bed Bites. I am glad for all of these titles, and I am most excited about trying out Trigger Saint. In the comments, please talk about what bundles or indie games you picked up this week. I would love to hear about your favorite new releases and make conversation with you guys. Anyways, see you next week. Okay I will admit, if you have friended me on Steam (letsmaybeLP92 if you weren't aware), you will know that I didn't just start playing The Binding of Isaac yesterday or even within the last few months. In fact, it is one of my most played games on Steam. You may ask, then why are you covering it in a Let's Maybe Play... series. Well, what better way to start off a series of reviews than to cover the indie game that I am most familiar with. This would also serve as a gauge to see if people would want to see a mix of first plays vs retrospectives. Now that this is out of the way, it's time to dive into this inaugural entry of Let's Maybe Play... This entry will be the first of several posts I will spend covering the Binding of Isaac, with this part discussing how I came across this game and my initial impressions of it.
Beginnings I suppose you all are wondering how this game of all things has become one of my favorite games. Well to explain that, I will need to start from the beginning. Growing up, one of my favorite game franchises was The Legend of Zelda. That sense of procedural generation and dungeon exploration thrills me. In January of 2013, I discovered the marvel that is PC gaming. Sure I had played games like Freddie Fish and Oregon Trail when I was younger, but it was on a family computer and less than modern systems. Now that I had a proper PC capable of gaming, I was searching for games that invoked that kind of feeling I had when playing Zelda. When I chanced upon NorthernLion playing the Binding of Isaac, I knew I found the game. I found a nice sale for the game and its DLC Wrath of the Lamb and eagerly installed it. While I knew I would enjoy the game, I would never imagine just how much time I would put into the game. Initial Impressions I knew what I wanted from the gameplay of the Binding of Isaac, but what blew me away was the amazing soundtrack by Danny Baranowsky. That epicness really put me even more so into the mood to play the game. Many people agree with me about the music aspect, but the next part is where many people may differ with me. I honestly think that the art style of the original Binding of Isaac was incredible at the time, and still am of that opinion. That sorta of design is hard to duplicate and while not necessarily the smoothest of animation, still gives a sense of being able to relate to the characters. I can admit that I found the game very challenging the first couple of times I played it. In fact, I was't even able to beat the first floor boss after a week of play. This obstacle only served to motivate me even more and allowed me to appreciate the gameplay mechanics that the developer and coder placed into the game. Coupled with all the subtle and obvious religious themes in this Zelda-inspired game, looking back I can surmise why I was so engrossed in the game. In future parts, I will dive into a more in-depth analysis of the game, including what I feel was done well and needed improvement, as well as what I have gained from it. In the comments, let me know if you like this type of blog entry and what you would like to see in future renditions of this. See you soon! Okay I will admit, if you have friended me on Steam (letsmaybeLP92 if you weren't aware), you will know that I didn't just start playing The Binding of Isaac yesterday or even within the last few months. In fact, it is one of my most played games on Steam. You may ask, then why are you covering it in a Let's Maybe Play... series. Well, what better way to start off a series of reviews than to cover the indie game that I am most familiar with. This would also serve as a gauge to see if people would want to see a mix of first plays vs retrospectives. Now that this is out of the way, it's time to dive into this inaugural entry of Let's Maybe Play... This entry will be the first of several posts I will spend covering the Binding of Isaac, with this part discussing how I came across this game and my initial impressions of it.
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About MeHi, I go by letsmaybeLP92 on many sites on the Internet. I enjoy reading and testing out the newest and oldest games out there, as well as sharing my passion with others. Archives
March 2023
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