random festival judging games incoming. i’ll start with a couple some people have at least heard of:
Viewfinder
it’s a One Clever Mechanic (1CM) game in 2023! imagine that. see my previous forum thoughts on this genre here if you’re curious. but yeah, other people here have talked about this game already partially because the game got some notice as a demo, but this game really perfectly embodies the sort of prestige puzzle game tropes often published by Annapurna (tho this is, notably, not). the puzzles rely on one gimmick of placing photographs over a landscape and having that landscape change - honestly which is a cool technical gimmick. especially when you start using pictures or photos that are not just of a landscape but are a bit more abstract.
this also went viral a bit for a clip of Vinny Vinesauce muting the voice acting right from the start. that was a good move. the story is not interesting or good, and i also quickly muted the voice acting. the game does the “you can pet the cat” thing to an annoying degree. this is the gamedev twitter pilled version of a One Clever Mechanic game instead of a puzzle mans version. it tries to be a sciency puzzle mans game but in a very “don’t be mean to me, i’m sensitive” Gen Z/Millennial sort of way vs. a “you’re simply too unintelligent and i’m optimizing you out of my reality” Gen X tech guy way.
on a positive side, the setting is pretty nicely realized. it’s very approachable and pleasant looking and without the slightly generic cardboard style of The Witness or whatever. i also think the puzzles were decent to good. the various technical gimmicks really help carry them.
all in all, i’m more positive than negative about this game. but it’s not going to sway you if you don’t already like these sorts of puzzle games.
Lunistice
i grew up with N64 platformers and obviously have a lot of fondness for them, but this current wave of retro indie 3D platformers has been weird to me. i guess it’s just not a genre i feel a great need to revisit outside of childhood especially now since the novelty of making this kind of game has worn off. so when i do see this kind of game, i really hope for it to add something significant or new, or at least be so tightly designed that i feel like this cannot be ignored.
i’m not sure that this game is really it. in general this seems be some sort of compromise in between a N64-style collectathon that emphasizes exploration and a more Sega-inspired speed game with more linear levels. i’m not really sure i understand the compromise, because it’s hard for me to know whether to focus on collecting everything or just trying to beat the level as fast as possible is the better strategy, and which the game really expects you to do.
this is compounded a lot by the controls feeling kind of loose and oversensitive - it’s very easy to fall off surfaces accidentally and i’m not sure holding the “slow yourself down” button they try and give you for tighter jumps really alleviates that. the camera also misses shifting at important points of the level that leads to deaths and randomly smashing into enemies you can’t see. again, would make more sense if this were a more tightly choreographed experience. but it just generally lacks the tightness you want from a game like this - even 3D Sonic feels super tightly choreographed in comparison.
i guess in general neither collecting everything nor getting to the end of the level fast seems like that compelling of a challenge for me to want to pursue either - especially with the controls being kind of slippery. it just makes everything feel a little muddled and confused, i guess, and less really conscious of what makes some of those other games work. there’s a reason why games like Crash Bandicoot or Sonic go in one direction, and games like Banjo Kazooie go in another. you need to commit to doing a specific thing a little harder when designing a game like this.
but anyway i do really like the sort of pleasant pastel color palette and the general visual vibe. it hits something for me that soothes me. and the level design seems to get more interesting as it goes on. it seems like the developer does at least care about making a decent one of these games and this isn’t just a “vibes only” experience. so maybe there’s still something here for me. i just feel like it could be a lot better.
Tenebris Pictura
this is the weird game i played at SBCon that everyone was saying looked like Eternal Darkness or whatever. this is one of those games that feels like one person’s passion project and i just do not know what to make of it. it feels like a modern indie version of the super jank old PC games Ross’s Game Dungeon often plays that have some really interesting ideas but also are kind of hard to parse at some fundamental level, like there’s context missing. your character also has a really hilarious jump animation - one of those things where it’s hard to know how seriously you should take the game.
anyway, in this game you’re like a psychic who can use your ghost powers to manipulate the environment around you. there is like this pink puzzle goo sometimes you have to get around with your ghost powers. but then there are weirder things like paintings you can jump into or these spotlight things you move around that reveal a different version of the environment you’re in to proceed. and then there’s combat that only your ghost self can engage in (which are kind of slightly bullet hell and slightly clunky - but they’re passable). and there are these really cool painterly visual effects that happen throughout the game also.
the plot seems kind of generic and whatever, but in a way that feels slightly weird and as such doesn’t bother me. for every element that feels slapdash or generic or default asset store there’s another that feels really clever and well done in way you don’t realize right away. the stages are really weirdly varied too.
and especially compared to the game immediately below this one, the weirdness is actually still reasonably approachable and feels like it can be completed by a normal person
overall i can’t exactly say it’s a fully polished or even fully comprehensible game, but it is something that is nonetheless compelling and doing a combination of things i’ve never really seen before. it also currently only has five reviews on Steam, so maybe at least worth keeping on your radar. it is difficult though because i’m not sure i’d recommend it at 20 dollars unless you’re feeling adventurous, because the jank factor just makes it difficult to call it an essential experience or whatever. so i doubt most people are ever going to play this. which is a huge shame.
Dead Ink
Exhibit A why Soulsborne games have become a poison on the indie space.
i DESPERATELY wanted to like this game because the whole idea of this huge brutalist tower you’re gradually moving down appeals to me a lot. the massive weird vertigo-inducing top down visuals is really cool. it feels very dreamlike. the whole idea that you’re made of ink and depositing/regenerating yourself is a very neat way to approach moving further down this tower. so many things about this game feel right on the money. in so many ways this is the sort of game i’d want to make. but then…
i can’t get anywhere!! the first enemy with a shield i died to about 20 different times (you have to beat him to progress) and i genuinely don’t know what to do to beat him. after i somewhat randomly managed to kill the shield guy and what was after was more frustration, more combat where it feels like you move too fucking slow and all the enemies you fight just instantly kill you. i would like to hope that there is something i’m missing - maybe there is! but i just think the combat is too annoying for me to want to keep playing, which feels like massive wasted potential to me.
tl;dr a super interesting game ruined by a half-assed hyper difficult version of Soulsborne style combat. maybe worth looking up a playthough if you can find it. this also doesn’t have very many reviews on Steam at all. a real fucking shame if you ask me.
IguaRPG
another game by Hubol, who has been around making games since he was a teen and whose game ‘2’ from almost a decade ago i swear i posted about elsewhere on here this summer, but i mysteriously cannot seem to find the post anymore. possibly it got deleted or lost somewhere.
this is very reminiscent of a lot of web games in the 00’s people made in flash and game maker. it was definitely a more innocent time, and i think this game captures that. it feels like something a kid could make, but in a good way. which i guess is extra resonant because Hubol has been making games since he was a kid and it was inspired by a game he saw as a kid in 2006. with the enemy design in particular in places i was reminded of Kero Blaster. just kind of a fun whimsical little adventure in a very barebones but approachable setting. i like the character creator too.
it’s slightly hard for me i guess to recommend this over 2, because that game does a lot of similar things and also has a really crazy visual style going for it. but i guess the difference is instead of trying to be a more pure Metroidvania or “search action” game like 2 does, this is trying to go for more like a sort of game like The Iconoclasts where it’s open world but there’s a larger emphasis on going into buildings and interacting with characters. though this is kind of a very naive/stripped down version of that.
but there is something to the simple spirit of creativity that a game like this brings up which is still cool to see in a time where Aesthetics and Marketing and Professionalism have really taken over so much of the game dev space. maybe in another decade people will start to feel more profound nostalgia for these sorts of games, but as it is this definitely feels like the sort of experience that rarely gets made or highlighted anymore which is sad.
Isles of Sea and Sky
this hasn’t come out yet, but when it does early next year i definitely recommend it to people here. it looks like a simple top-down 2D Zelda and has kind of a Link’s Awakening sort of feeling to it, but it’s actually kind of an open-world puzzle game. my closest comparison to it is Salad Fields which still has individual delineated puzzles to it and is a bit more weird and all over the place vs. this feeling tighter. the presentation is a tiny bit Family Friendly Wholesome, but in reality it’s just a really unpretentiously well designed and the environments contain this feeling like you’re unlocking their larger mysteries when you solve stuff. i like the choice of music, and how they don’t do with chiptune but something that also helps convey that sense of mystery and wonder… not to be corny about it.
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anyway, videogames - once again, they exist. i also played COCOON but that one has been discussed on here already - maybe i will save larger thoughts until i finish that game.