500-Word Indies

[derboo]

This week: Of Light & Shadow

[derboo]

Last Week:

Sturmwind

This Week:

Tobe's Vertical Adventure

In other news, Adventures of Shuggy, which we covered a while ago, is currently on Sale on Steam. It's $1.24 in the US and €1.24 in Europe. Only 42 hours left.

[AfroRyan]

Jun 1, 2013 17:16:53 GMT -5 derboo said:

Last Week:

Sturmwind

This Week:

Tobe's Vertical Adventure

In other news, Adventures of Shuggy, which we covered a while ago, is currently on Sale on Steam. It's $1.24 in the US and €1.24 in Europe. Only 42 hours left.

Heads up! Tobe's Vertical Adventure is [was] not an XBLA release; it is [was] an Xbox Indie Games release. There are advantages and disadvantages to the service, but it is an altogether different beast than the XBLA platform.

[derboo]

Stay Dead

[Narushima]

Gunman Clive article:
"there is only a spread shot a gun"

[Gendo Ikari]

I'm sorry to see that the column has slowed down after the first articles, but right now, when I find enough free time, I rather dedicate it to relaxing and playing than writing. I may post the games I had in store in the sticky thread in the General board, hoping someone may be interested in picking them up.

[Dracula on a bike]

Page 6 currently isn't linked to from the index or page 5.

[nightdreamer]

Just read the capsule review of Gunpoint. That game was really short and I felt that it ended too soon; like, just when the game stops being brain-dead easy, and just when I'm starting to really dig the banter between missions. It's still a pretty good game anyhow, one rare indie title I rather felt more engaged with because I hardcore dig the noir vibe.

Probably should give out some kudos to the soundtrack. Those are spot on with setting the noir mood. There's a bandcamp page for all of it (my personal fave is 'Round Gunpoint, which feels a lot like Miles Davis' rendition of 'Round Midnight).

[elektrolurch]

Oneiric Gardens was nice, but could the article please include that it runs natively not only on Windows, but also MAC OS and Linux?
I almost did not try it because i didn't want to fiddle with wine aigan, but then i went to the developers page and saw there was a Linux aviable.hooray.

[jjmcjj]

Jun 1, 2013 17:16:53 GMT -5 derboo said:

Last Week:

Sturmwind

As neat as these homebrew games made for discontinued consoles are, just... why? Or, rather, why the exclusivity? And of course because they're such small dev teams releasing these in physical form they can only sell so many copies and usually for high prices. 

Will we ever see games like these make the jump to PC? I know I would like to see that.

[jjmcjj]

Oh, and I also just played through Oneiric Gardens. I'm glad I didn't pay for it. Is really those four buildings and the surfing area the only things to visit in that game? I indeed got a Crypt Worlds/LSD/Yume Nikki-ish vibe from it but it's like they got tired of working on the game and stopped after making the first couple areas and released the demo as a completed game. Such squandered potential. I did dig the weird video store, the blocks making funny/creep noises as they carelessly bounce around when you jump on them, and the surfing area as well, even though what few things you get to see there are so barren (you have a tall building, but you can only go inside the one, empty floor. Are you telling me that adding a staircase, even if to other barren floors, was too much within your budget constraints?). And those platforms leading to a seeming entrance into a cave through a waterfall... what a tease. Kinda like the Ice Key in Banjo-Kazooie that haunted my childhood for so long only I don't really give a shit here.

But... yeah, what little that exists there is cool and all, but please, devs, this is clearly an incomplete game. Finish it, FFS.

[dskzero]

This week's game, Lifeless Planet showed so much promise. Sad to hear it wasn't as good. It reminds me so much of that game, Brain Breaker in it's environment.

[Gendo Ikari]

Stay Dead has been released on Steam with the subtitle "Evolution", but beside that fancy word, from the trailer it seems only some behind-the-scenes stuff has been added.

[Gendo Ikari]

So, it seems that something has changed in Stay Dead Evolution. The player now has "true" energy to be carried between rounds. Inputs often do not require a specific direction while the dot crosses a square, but tapping a direction twice initiates a combo you have to keep up, while doing three inputs as suggested by a small window makes a poweful triple combo; also, in defense phase, if the square is yellow, by tapping the direction twice a "breaker" is performed to counterattack. There is even an "Humiliating Victory" condition: the fights ends early if you perform flawlessly. It flows even better than originally.

The best bonuses are the special video modes: so far I've seen the 90s one, which puts a 16-bit style interface, restricts the movies to half the screen with big energy bars, and puts a lot of grain and blur on them - you play the game as if it's on a Mega CD! And there's an 80s mode unlockable...

Bizarrely, or maybe intentionally in a nod to Street Fighter 2, most names have been switched around: only Yama retains his, the nazi has become Dagon, the karate guy is Dukerg, the tattoed man is Iblis, and Iblis has become a no-name and degraded to a bonus stage. And here lies the big problem: beside maybe some "lost stage" that has to be unlocked by doing excellently at the highest difficulty, there is no new footage at all, so the foes are actually reduced to four, fought in any order, then it's "The End".

[nerdybat]

To be honest, One Way Heroics feels too much like Half-Minute Hero, another kinda-sorta RPG with a fast paced gameplay and emphasis on replayability. Not really a rip-off (both games play different in terms of a gameplay), but the style is similar, humor is the same, and even characters are kinda look-alike.