Lets talk about indie games.

Links234

All indie games are retro platformers and walking simulators supposedly.

This was an attitude I've run into in a few discussions recently, I saw one criticism that indie games were all mechanically simplistic, which I don't think is always the case at all, but I get this sense that people think all indie games are more or less the same, so it kinda inspired me to start this topic. Now there is of course a lot of truth to that, there is a lot of unoriginality out there, and common threads are retro graphics, platformers, various silly simulators and crafting survival games. But as a firm believer of Sturgeon's Law (90% of everything is rubbish) it doesn't seem worse than anything else.

I think the indie scene, kickstarter, and Steam early access has produced quite a lot of absolute diamonds, and are kinda revitalizing a lot of floundering genres. Now, you'll have to excuse me if I'm a bit loose with the term indie, the definition seems a bit up in the air, so if I talk about a game that you don't think qualifies, lets not make a thing out of it. I remember some back and forths about whether Hotline Miami counted as an indie game or not, I had always thought it was, but many didn't. Does Bastion count? Or Dust: An Elysian tale?

Some of my favourite games in recent years have been indie. FTL is one I absolutely adored, I can still boot that up on occaision and have a lot of fun with it, it's just such a good game. Banished was incredible, it was such a fresh and chilled out gaming experience, and graphics wise it was pretty good too. I got a good chuckle out of Surgeon Simulator, it mightn't have had any longevity as a game, but I did appreciate the novelty a lot. Mark of the Ninja is great from what I've played of it, haven't hugely sunk my teeth into it yet. Besiege was the only game I've bought on Early Access, and it is absolutely wicked fun, I've heard it described as Kerbal Space Project for sociopaths. Well recommended. I don't think that any of these games are all that simple mechanical, and although retro graphics might be the case in Hotline Miami or FTL, a lot of indie games can have quite decent production standards and look very polished indeed. Case in point, The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing, a game I was very fond of indeed last year. Graphically it was very nice indeed, but the voice acting was amazing, and the soundtrack was just gorgeous!

I also think that we're seeing genres that had almost disappeared being revived. Having been a fan of the likes of Baldur's Gate and Planescape: Torment back in the day, Pillars of Eternity is pretty high on my wishlist. Ok, I know that's not really indie, but it's a perfect example of a successfully crowdfunded game. I also loved a lot of top-down strategy games back in the day like Syndicate and Cannon Fodder, so my hunger for those types of games is getting well fed these days, and Satellite Reign is another game that's seriously high up on my wishlist. I'm going on about The Red Solstice quite a bit in the "what have you been playing thread", it's really good, and was made by a small developer in Croatia. One of my favourite games that I picked up this year was Infested Planet:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sS8NbNrUZwY

Seriously awesome game, and I had an incredible amount of fun with it, picked it up for peanuts too. I'd heartily recommend it to anyone here, it got seriously tough once you got into it and I loved it. Doorkickers is another that's on my wishlist, I know that went on sale recently, but I didn't pick it up because I've still got too much to be getting on with. It'll be grabbed at some stage, no doubt.

I also seriously love that 2D isometric is a thing again, one game I'm really excited to pick up once I've got the backlog pared down a bit more is Stasis, which is a sci-fi horror game, and it looks amazing:



I also really want to get around to playing Shadowrun Returns and Dragonfall.

I think most of the games on my wishlist are indie titles. Aside from Witcher 3, Dark Souls 2, Alien Isolation, Shadow of Mordor and Devil May Cry, and some that are probably up for debate (does Talos Principle and Pillars of Eternity count?) it's a lot of indie titles. Darkest Dungeon, Sunless Sea, Transistor, Papers Please, This War of Mine and so forth, as well as the aforementioned Satellite Reign, Doorkickers and Stasis.

Anyway, I really dislike this notion some folks seem to have that indie games are all one thing, there is a lot more variety out there. And that's not knocking retro platformers and walking simulators either if that's your thing.

So, what are your thoughts, esteemed PC gaming folks? What are your favourites, and what are you looking forward to?

Maguined

It's true to a certain extent but not in a way that matters. Being an indie game they do not have the funds or the staff to be creating triple A levels of graphics so it has become quite common to use the retro/pixel art style of games. This makes total sense as an indie developer can invest their time and money into developing the other aspects of game development that they feel will give better results and make their game stand out more.

We also have to be honest and say that triple A's are just as it not moreso formulaic and predictable. COD's entire success was built around this. Releasing 90% the same game content with only small deviations. Different weapons and different maps with only a fractional graphics improvement is still just as formulaic as the next rogue-like indie game release.

I absolutely adored Bastion and can think of few other games that gave such a genuine emotional reaction. The music, narration and plot was so sublime. Finishing that game left me with the same sadness I feel when finishing a great book as you are sad there is no more, it's over. Most triple A's don't give me that same feeling, it's less sadness and more optimisn about what to play next.

Even if all the negative crticism is 100% true it still is a positive thing for the games market. We have more choice than ever and choice is rarely ever a bad thing. I would prefer to have 100 indie games where 95 of them are the same repetition and 5 great gems of games rather than have practically no indie games like it was in the passed. Having more choices for the consumer is better for the consumer.

nesf

The problem has been: a few of the early retro platformers and pixel art games were incredibly successful. For a small team, a retro platformer or pixel art game is a much mangeable task than many other popular game types.

So we've an unending wave of meh efforts of both kinds of games. So for a lot of people indie = pixel art retro platformers that aren't anything special.



Good indie games are still coming out and have always been coming out it's just a) harder to get noticed and b) they tend not to be in the overpacked indie genres. Cute things like Bastion. Big things like Divinity: Original Sin. Unusual spins like Darkest Dungeon or (if you accept them as indie and you should) very complex strategy games like Europa Universalis and Crusader Kings.

Potatoeman

The market is just too saturated at the moment. Steam greenlight is a joke with no quality control. I only put money towards lord of the underworld and its underwhelming. Still very slowly being made. I doubt Ill do it again.

There are good indie games but many of them are niche. I didn't like the time element in papers please. I enjoyed ftl but the rougelike element can have its own problems. You spend two/three hours and then realise you had some bad random events that mean you may as well restart from the begining. This is kind of the problem with rougelike games. Darkest dungeon is by far the best. It's a persistent rougelike dungeon crawler and it can be brutal but you usually have some fallback.

The other thing is the price of these games on release, sure it's only 20 bucks but you could get a AAA game on sale for the same price. So on value for money there are only a handful of games that are worth it.

Links234

Maguined wrote: »

It's true to a certain extent but not in a way that matters. Being an indie game they do not have the funds or the staff to be creating triple A levels of graphics so it has become quite common to use the retro/pixel art style of games. This makes total sense as an indie developer can invest their time and money into developing the other aspects of game development that they feel will give better results and make their game stand out more.

We also have to be honest and say that triple A's are just as it not moreso formulaic and predictable. COD's entire success was built around this. Releasing 90% the same game content with only small deviations. Different weapons and different maps with only a fractional graphics improvement is still just as formulaic as the next rogue-like indie game release.

I absolutely adored Bastion and can think of few other games that gave such a genuine emotional reaction. The music, narration and plot was so sublime. Finishing that game left me with the same sadness I feel when finishing a great book as you are sad there is no more, it's over. Most triple A's don't give me that same feeling, it's less sadness and more optimisn about what to play next.

Even if all the negative crticism is 100% true it still is a positive thing for the games market. We have more choice than ever and choice is rarely ever a bad thing. I would prefer to have 100 indie games where 95 of them are the same repetition and 5 great gems of games rather than have practically no indie games like it was in the passed. Having more choices for the consumer is better for the consumer.

I don't know, as far as graphics go I think there's plenty of games that not only buck the trend, but can rival the big studios. The Vanishing of Ethan Carter may have pissed me off with it's infuriating save system, but there's no denying it is one of the most visually impressive games there is. That's not to say that there's anything wrong with pixel art either, because there certainly isn't, and as an artstyle and design choice it can really work for the game. I can't imagine Hotline Miami working as well if not for the retro graphics. Not that indie developers don't choose a retro style simply because it's easier or they're lazy, I'm sure plenty do.

That said I don't that 2D graphics should be considered a retrograde throwback, a lot of games work well because of the art style, not in spite of it. As you mention, Bastion is a fantastic game (I've not finished it yet though) and every aspect of it gels together, the graphics, music, narration, story and gameplay all work to bring you into the game's world in an incredibly engrossing way. And it is a downright gorgeous game, playing it feels like being plunged into a Miyazaki movie. Rather than high quality, realistic 3D graphics being the ideal, whatever works best for the game should be the ideal.

And yes, the so-called AAA industry is just as guilty of formulaic trash as the indie scene, I think Sturgeon's Law is just as relevant. I don't really like pitting indie vs. AAA, but I can think of quite a lot of big studio games in recent years that I absolutely loved, Wolfenstein: The New Order, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, The Evil Within, Borderlands 2, the Bioshock games, and many more. A good game is a good game in my books.

I do think that there has been somewhat of a stamping out of different genres at the hands of big studios though, I remember being excited about a new Syndicate game, only to find out it was going to be made into a generic FPS and I lost all interest. It might be decent, but for me making a shooter defeated the purpose of a Syndicate game in the first place. That's why Satellite Reign on the other hand is a game I seriously want, and why I'm enjoying The Red Solstice so much. There seemed to be serious homogenization going on, and the usual "Call of Medal of Battlefield: Ghost-Fighter VII 2 - Collector's Microtransaction Edition" is just not my thing at all. I could go on about ****ty practices, day one DLC, microtransaction and pre-order BS, but that's a whole different topic. While there's nothing wrong with a generic military shooter if that's your bag, something like This War Of Mine takes an indie developer to make.

And yeah, if only 5 out of 100 indie games are any good, that's still a great thing. As it stands, there might be a lot of absolute junk out there, but there's still more games that I'd like to play that I'm able to get through playing. Wasteland 2 looks amazing, dunno when I'll get around to getting it or playing it.

Links234

RopeDrink wrote: »

My steam list likely contains quite a few indie titles - but the one off the top of my head right now is "Darkwood" by Acid Wizard, a (yes, pixelated) survival horror rogue-like - and an intriguing one at that. Very tense.

Ah, that's one I really liked the look of before but couldn't remember the name of, thanks!

Potatoeman wrote: »

The other thing is the price of these games on release, sure it's only 20 bucks but you could get a AAA game on sale for the same price. So on value for money there are only a handful of games that are worth it.

You're not really comparing like for like, indie games often go on sale too, looking at my Steam account, I got Bastion last year for €2.24, Infested Planet was €3.74. The Red Solstice was only released in July and it was already down to €9.99 (50% off) in a daily deal. Besiege was under a fiver. Super Meat Boy and The Binding of Isaac were both less than a euro each.

Potatoeman

Links234 wrote: »

You're not really comparing like for like, indie games often go on sale too, looking at my Steam account, I got Bastion last year for €2.24, Infested Planet was €3.74. The Red Solstice was only released in July and it was already down to €9.99 (50% off) in a daily deal. Besiege was under a fiver. Super Meat Boy and The Binding of Isaac were both less than a euro each.

I mean the launch prices can be too high. That said darkest dungeon was well worth it.

Links234

Potatoeman wrote: »

I mean the launch prices can be too high.

€50-€60 AAA games offering different pre-order editions for an even higher price, and season passes tagged on at €20 or more, and then they have the cheek to have microtransactions on top of that?! And even at that, you're not guaranteed you're getting a finished game the way the big studios are so lax with quality control, it could be a broken unplayable mess, or have half the story cut out (looking at you, MGSV!). I think €15-€20 at releast for indie games is fine, especially seeing as they seem to offer decent enough launch day discounts, sometimes 33% off or similar.

Besides, I think that as long as you feel you've gotten your money's worth out of a game, that's a decent price to have payed.

nesf

Links234 wrote: »

€50-€60 AAA games offering different pre-order editions for an even higher price, and season passes tagged on at €20 or more, and then they have the cheek to have microtransactions on top of that?! And even at that, you're not guaranteed you're getting a finished game the way the big studios are so lax with quality control, it could be a broken unplayable mess, or have half the story cut out (looking at you, MGSV!). I think €15-€20 at releast for indie games is fine, especially seeing as they seem to offer decent enough launch day discounts, sometimes 33% off or similar.

Besides, I think that as long as you feel you've gotten your money's worth out of a game, that's a decent price to have payed.

I don't think another indie puzzle platformer is going to sell much at €15. There's already a bunch of excellent ones going on sale constantly. Darkest Dungeon got away with its price tag because so many of us saw it on Twitch or Youtube and went: "Oh, that looks interesting and different." Imagine how well Darkest Dungeon would sell if there were a half dozen very similar titles that had been received well already selling at a discount on Steam.

Maximus Alexander

I'm really enjoying the upsurge in indie gaming over the last few years. Sure, there are tons of duds and unfinished, bug-ridden, poorly-conceived, generic turds infesting the likes of Steam Greenlight, but it's usually easy enough to sort the good from the bad.

The upshot is that where AAA games have been involved in a technological arms race for the most part, whilst playing it safe on gameplay and plot, Indie developers by and large are not afraid to be adventurous, to try new things or revive an old genre with a new slant.

I'd say the the majority of what I've been playing over the last few years have been indie games. And yeah, I've been caught out a few times, but it's been worth it. In fact, it's pretty much worth it for Kerbal Space Program alone.

Robert ninja

More than indie games I just find myself playing older games. Not exactly retro usually just early 2000s. It's extremely important as a gamer to find your niche. Most people don't think they have one because they don't get exposed to them. I'm personally in love with older psychological horror type games. The Cat Lady, Harvester, stuff like that. I've found a few other niches too thanks to some sales on GOG. I have a friend who exclusively plays AAA games on his PS4 and he is the biggest SONY fanboy I've ever known. Just the thought of playing only appeal-to-everyone games on a console makes me sick.

The increase in indie games popularity is primarily caused by publishers not taking any risks or filling these niches anymore. Doesn't help that many companies seem to be completely disconnected as to what their audience likes or ever liked about their games to the point where the decision makers in these companies probably don't even like or play video games. I think we can see this through how much they're trying to nickle and dime their consumers at every turn with DLC done in a really distasteful way. Just look at how badly EA dropped the ball with Sim City and got turned inside out by two different city building games actually filling that niche in ways the audiences wanted.

Well anyway back to space station 13.

dreamers75

I look at Indie games as being the same as the 2.99 games on C64, there can be some gems but some are either unfinished or not very good.

Any sort of research tho and it can be worth it, its good for choice that these games exist.

Links234

nesf wrote: »

I don't think another indie puzzle platformer is going to sell much at €15. There's already a bunch of excellent ones going on sale constantly. Darkest Dungeon got away with its price tag because so many of us saw it on Twitch or Youtube and went: "Oh, that looks interesting and different." Imagine how well Darkest Dungeon would sell if there were a half dozen very similar titles that had been received well already selling at a discount on Steam.

I think puzzle platformers are in a bad place because that's mainly where the oversaturation is, but whether one is going to sell really does depend on the product itself, not the genre it belongs to. Case in point Ori and the Blind Forest, which was a huge success, had a €19.99 price tag, and was released in a year when the platformer genre had already been well oversaturated. You had all your Mark of the Ninja, Shovel Knight, Super Meat Boy, Dust: An Elysian Tale and whatever else, but it justified itself because it looks like (yeah, I've not played it yet) a really good game, got really positive reviews and it sold incredibly well. Likewise, something else that's been on my wishlist for a while is The Swindle, a stealthy platformer in the same vein of Mark of the Ninja but with a steampunk visual style, where the objective is to steal as much cash as you can. Released in July with a €14.99 price tag, and quite a success for the devs.

So even in a severely oversaturated market, a good game is a good game and it can stand out. Would Darkest Dungeon justify it's price if there was already similar games? Quite possibly I'd say. Hell, Victor Vran seems to have done alright despite there being quite a lot of other Diablo clones/Action-RPGs, and it even looks strikingly similar to the Van Helsing games. Still, it seems to have piqued the interest of fans of the genre and was a success.

And there's certainly indie and crowdfunded games that have price tags to rival AAA studios, Wasteland 2 and *The Talos Principle both cost €39.99 currently, and *Pillars of Eternity's got a hefty €41.99 price tag.

* Debatable if this counts as Indie, I know.

Links234

Anyone had a look at Planetbase yet? Looks like Banished in space, and seems to have been a bit of a surprise hit, one of the top sellers currently on Steam.

nesf

Links234 wrote: »

I think puzzle platformers are in a bad place because that's mainly where the oversaturation is, but whether one is going to sell really does depend on the product itself, not the genre it belongs to. Case in point Ori and the Blind Forest, which was a huge success, had a €19.99 price tag, and was released in a year when the platformer genre had already been well oversaturated. You had all your Mark of the Ninja, Shovel Knight, Super Meat Boy, Dust: An Elysian Tale and whatever else, but it justified itself because it looks like (yeah, I've not played it yet) a really good game, got really positive reviews and it sold incredibly well. Likewise, something else that's been on my wishlist for a while is The Swindle, a stealthy platformer in the same vein of Mark of the Ninja but with a steampunk visual style, where the objective is to steal as much cash as you can. Released in July with a €14.99 price tag, and quite a success for the devs.

So even in a severely oversaturated market, a good game is a good game and it can stand out. Would Darkest Dungeon justify it's price if there was already similar games? Quite possibly I'd say. Hell, Victor Vran seems to have done alright despite there being quite a lot of other Diablo clones/Action-RPGs, and it even looks strikingly similar to the Van Helsing games. Still, it seems to have piqued the interest of fans of the genre and was a success.

And there's certainly indie and crowdfunded games that have price tags to rival AAA studios, Wasteland 2 and *The Talos Principle both cost €39.99 currently, and *Pillars of Eternity's got a hefty €41.99 price tag.

* Debatable if this counts as Indie, I know.

Sorry, I missed this with all the trouble the site's been having.

All the games you mentioned are either held up as examples of near perfection within the genre (Super Meat Boy), a very unusual/interesting aesthetic (Ori) or are unusual for some other reason. Victor Vran actually was a welcome release in a genre that lacks them, Diablo clones aren't common. With Darkest Dungeon I mean sell as well not justify its price (which doesn't mean much really).

When I say "indie puzzle platformer" I mean exactly that, a game that is *just* that. No unusual aesthetic that makes me want to play it, no weird or new mechanic that makes it feel different etc. Just having a working game in that genre is no longer enough to get noticed, we've a few dozen such games every year, almost all fail to sell much/any.


I'm *not* saying Indie games can't command high prices. I'm saying it's going to be very hard to release games in some of the more oversaturated genres at the 15-20 Euro mark unless you've pulled off something special with them.

Links234

nesf wrote: »

Sorry, I missed this with all the trouble the site's been having.

Not to worry, the site has been a pain.

nesf wrote: »

All the games you mentioned are either held up as examples of near perfection within the genre (Super Meat Boy),

Well, yes. That's the point of that statement, those games are the standard, the pinnacle of the genre that has since then become saturated. My point being that there's still great examples of the genre released after that.

nesf wrote: »

When I say "indie puzzle platformer" I mean exactly that, a game that is *just* that. No unusual aesthetic that makes me want to play it, no weird or new mechanic that makes it feel different etc. Just having a working game in that genre is no longer enough to get noticed, we've a few dozen such games every year, almost all fail to sell much/any.

But that's not what you said earlier, you said: "I don't think another indie puzzle platformer is going to sell much at €15." Now you're saying you only meant the bad, mediocre and uninteresting ones? Well of course not, a game that brings nothing new to the table, looks boring or otherwise doesn't stand out isn't gonna sell. But that's not a point anyone was making, nobody said a lazy copy&paste job is worth €15, or is going to be successful.

Lets step back a moment and look at the context. It was another poster saying why buy an indie game when you could buy an 'AAA' game on sale, and that €15-€20 was too much for an indie game on release. I disagreed, I think that's an ok pricetag on release compared to what big studio franchises were charging, and that if the game is really good, it's a price I'd consider worth it.

Does that mean every indie game will sell at that price? No, of course not. That doesn't even mean ones that are really great games will sell, there's too many other factors as well. I was watching this Totalbiscuit video just last month that covered this very, that sometimes a game won't sell even if it is good at what it does, even if it's standout and critically well recieved. Happens all the time with movies, plenty of greats that deserved better.

That said, I'll almost always wait and buy my games at a discount, indie included.


By the way, anyone seen this? Looks really cool!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0LtsUGhaW8

nesf

Links234 wrote: »

But that's not what you said earlier, you said: "I don't think another indie puzzle platformer is going to sell much at €15." Now you're saying you only meant the bad, mediocre and uninteresting ones? Well of course not, a game that brings nothing new to the table, looks boring or otherwise doesn't stand out isn't gonna sell. But that's not a point anyone was making, nobody said a lazy copy&paste job is worth €15, or is going to be successful.

Sorry, I was unclear, I mean games that if the market wasn't oversaturated could sell well as there's nothing wrong with them as games, they're just not different enough from that other platformer that launched 6 months ago and is now 50% off to sell well at full price.

Your game could be a good example of a puzzle platformer, it's just that so are a load of other games so it's hard for you to justify being a lot more expensive than them and sell a lot of copies. Being just a good example of an established genre has often just not been enough for as long as I've been playing games. Look at MOBAs atm or console shooters in the last generation.

Links234 wrote: »

Lets step back a moment and look at the context. It was another poster saying why buy an indie game when you could buy an 'AAA' game on sale, and that €15-€20 was too much for an indie game on release. I disagreed, I think that's an ok pricetag on release compared to what big studio franchises were charging, and that if the game is really good, it's a price I'd consider worth it.

Does that mean every indie game will sell at that price? No, of course not. That doesn't even mean ones that are really great games will sell, there's too many other factors as well.

I misread you what you were saying as 15-20 being where indie games should try and sell at. Sorry! My argument was it'll vary hugely by genre and whether we're starved for games in it or not (i.e. PoE and Wasteland 2 don't exactly have much competition, ditto Victor Vlad, new Diablo clones are rare these days).

I think if you make a decent puzzle platformer you're probably going to be better off starting by discounting it from the start, there's just too much competition there. Kind of like how trying to do a subscription MMO is very risky but for different reasons.

Links234

Well, this looks seriously promising!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05a45k2uUkM

megaten

Finished playing undertale recently and really enjoyed it. The world need more high quality short rpg's. Wish it had better controller support though, would have liked to have played it on my pc.

Links234

Undertale is one I really want to play while it's still fresh, so I might look into picking it up around Christmas or some time.

Links234

12 is better than 6 looks seriously interesting, like a wild-west Hotline Miami. This'll be one I'll definitely pick up when it's going for 75% off.

Links234

Looking back at this thread, I've actually gotten around to playing a lot of the games I mentioned that I was looking forward to, Undertale, Hard West, Darkest Dungeon, Satellite Reign, Stasis, and then some. I've even played a little Sunless Sea during the free weekend, but I was sadly way too into Darkest Dungeon to give it a proper go. It'll be snapped up at some stage I'm sure. Anyone who's seen what I've been raving about in the "What Are You Playing?" thread will know that I had been, eh, a little bit enthusiastic with how much I liked 'em.

So, here's some more indie titles that have been piquing my interest as of late.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZeO58qENIOI

Tharsis has gotten some very, VERY mixed reviews, a lot of folks absolutely hated and it's supposed to be an absolute RNG hell, but on the other hand a lot of people love it and I find the whole core concept absolutely fascinating. So, at some point I think I'll snap this up, because in spite of the negative reviews, it really looks like something I'll have a lot of very frustrating fun with.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0JPB4b3Zck

Convoy looks like a very cool FTL inspired game with a Mad Max style setting. Consider me sold.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyrZthOF8kc

Party Hard is one I'm really looking forward to getting at some point, the concept alone makes me grin from ear to ear, the idea of a murder simulator where you kill everyone who's partying late at night at keeping you awake. Unlike the cynical controversy bait that was Hatred, there's a great sense of humour there and taps into something that I'd say a lot of people might have experienced, the loud party next door that keeps you awake all night, it takes that and runs with it. And also unlike Hatred, it looks like there is a great game there.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DIV8Hwy4n0

Armello is one I really want to pick up. I'm a wee bit of a tabletop gamer, so this has me intrigued from the get go.

Links234

So this looks seriously fascinating!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcJ5Ni92QI8

Links234

So, last month I picked up Slime Rancher. Then I refunded it. It was a bit of an impulse buy, and although it's definitely a good game, I think it just wasn't for me. It was seriously cute, and I get why people found it so good, the game's currently sitting with a 95% Overwhelmingly Positive score on Steam so it must be doing something right. It was a really easy game to chill out to, but unfortunately I felt as if I'd exhausted my enjoyment of it pretty fast. A friend of mine also felt there wasn't enough to do in the game either. I wasn't as gone on it as most people, but it might be worth a look for some folks here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAfP-JCjrmc

The refund money went pretty damn far, I picked up Devil Daggers, 12 Is Better Than 6, Alpha Protocol, as well as DLC for The Red Solstice and Hard West, and the last of it I just spent on Hand of Fate. That went pretty damn far! Devil Daggers is seriously interesting, it plays like an FPS bullet-hell and is just an experiment in masochism, can't say I've played anything like it. 12 Is Better Than 6 is a Hotline Miami clone set in the wild west, with a hand drawn comic style, and a seriously good soundtrack. Basically Hotline Juarez, it plays exactly like you think it does.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPFzo3r6MhU

nesf

My son (9) really likes Slime Rancher. Personally I think it'd be like Minecraft for me and I'd play it a lot at the start but get bored very quickly after that.

Links234

nesf wrote: »

My son (9) really likes Slime Rancher. Personally I think it'd be like Minecraft for me and I'd play it a lot at the start but get bored very quickly after that.

Yeah, I was like that with Terraria, just wasn't my jam. It's like, I could really see the appeal of Slime Rancher, but I ended up enjoying it for a while and then got completely disinterested in it, so I just thought, nah... Lets get a refund. Really happy I did tbh because I got a lot of other cool stuff for the price.

I was in 2 minds about whether I should grab Hand of Fate or not, but I pulled the trigger on it because it's one I've been interested in a while and is much more my type of game. It's like a deck building card game dungeon crawler where instead of rolling dice to decide the outcome of an encouter, you have a real time fight instead, and it has a fantastic narrator Darkest Dungeon style. I love the whole tabletop gaming but in a videogame format, it can be fantastic when done well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1m8XoKANoKE

Links234

So, been a while since I've posted in this thread, but now is as good a time as any, because I have been absolutely enamoured with Steamworld Heist. ACG's review is absolutely spot-on, so I'd recommend giving it a look:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3P6X9uTyLk

I do seriously enjoy these turn-based strategy games, and Steamworld Heist is just absolutely wonderful, people are describing it as Worms meets XCom, and it's definitely an apt comparison in a lot of ways. So much of the charm of the game is just how well it channels a Firefly feel, there's a lot of similarities other than just the space western setting, and it's pretty glorious. There's also that infectious soundtrack. Normally I wait for discounts on games, but this year I seem to have been just buying quite a few games on release, and I am seriously pleased about it.

Which brings me to something I was absolutely in two minds about picking up earlier this year, Hyper Light Drifter:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWufEJ1Ava0

I was going back and forth on this, saying should I buy it, should I wait for a sale, should I buy it, and generally driving my girlfriend nuts until she said just buy it already and I did, and thoroughly adored it. It's very much Zelda meets Dark Souls via way of Studio Ghibli and Evangelion, absolutely gorgeous 2D visuals, and some very interesting visual storytelling where there's no dialogue and plot is infered through pictures and the environment. Easily one of the games of the year for me. Did I mention how breathtaking it looks?

And speaking of Dark Souls-esque, another release buy for me was Salt & Sanctuary:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EyDuRUiNqgI

While graphically not as impressive as either of the above games, S&S definitely takes it's place beside them in my estimation as one of the best games of the year so far, it's not just an extremely competent Soulslike, it's hands down the best Metroidvania I've played, and easily the best thing I've played since Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. While the visuals aren't amazing, there's a bit of muddiness amidst the predominantly grey and brown colour palette, and the music is quite lacking, but the gameplay makes up for all of that.

I also picked up Armello during the Humble Summer Sale, there was a pricing issue so I got it a bit cheaper than intended! :pac: That was one I posted about wanting previously, and I've only put a couple of hours into it so far, but so far it's pretty much exactly what you'd expect from what is a tabletop game on a PC. The artstyle and visuals are pretty damn wonderful.

kevovek

Well there's two more games added to the wishlist before the sale! HLD and armello were already on it. Armellos one I've wanted to try for ages looks really interesting gameplay wise

Links234

kevovek wrote: »

Well there's two more games added to the wishlist before the sale! HLD and armello were already on it. Armellos one I've wanted to try for ages looks really interesting gameplay wise

Sweet! I'm a bad influence on people! :pac:

I wouldn't expect a huge discount on Steamworld Heist, as it was just released last week, likewise Salt & Sanctuary last month, but both are just so fantastic they're well worth the asking price as is. Steamworld Heist is currently sitting at 99% postive on Steam, and I can see why, over 10 hours in and I can't get enough. It is ridiculous fun.

kevovek

Even a small discount should tempt me during the sale, I keep forgetting about gang beasts too it looks like a brilliant game to play with 3 other friends.

This game caught my eye a while ago

http://www.codagames.com/

not entirely sure why its split into parts though.

Mal-Adjusted

I should really stop reading these kinds of threads before a sale, HLD added to wishlist