Indie Game of the Week 13: Combat Free

Week 1.
Hyper Light Drifter



Trailer

About the Game: It's a former kickstarter project which was looking for $27,000 to bring to Windows and OS X but ended up passing $600,000 and due to this Alex Preston, an animator and lead developer for the title managed to hire more staff that it's now coming to Windows, OS X, Linux, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, Wii U, Xbox One and even Ouya early this year.

Why should I be excited? Well Heart Machine (The Devs) are making a 2D action-RPG which resembles a cross between Link to the Past & Diablo with a story that's been compared to Castle in the Sky by Studio Ghibli but Preston how ever cites the studio's Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind as inspiration for the game's world. The story also reflects on Preston's own personal struggles with serious health matters throughout his life.

The Drifter (Who you play) is equipped with an energy sword, but can gain access to other modules that expand his weapon and ability arsenal, but often require power from rare batteries to be found in the travels. Weaponry will include traditional console role-playing game archetypes, including long-range guns and area attacks. The player will face increasingly-difficult monsters, both in number and ability, requiring the player to hone their tactics to succeed in the game. Preston's goal was to replicate the experience of playing on a SNES, noting that the unit had "amazing, almost perfect games designed for limited environments" which he challenged himself to simulate in Hyper Light Drifter. One facet of SNES games that Preston has captured is that there will be no spoken dialog, placing more emphasis on the game's music and visuals to tell a story.

Extra Info: Disasterpeace who did the music FEZ, is doing the music it for HLD, The game has been delayed from it's 2014 date to 2015 due to expanded scope and developer's health issues. The game was named as an honourable mention for the Excellence in Visual Art award for the 2015 Independent Games Festival.[9]

My thoughts: reminds me a bit of Transistor the art style, the music seems great from the little I've heard and so does concept of being like a stylised SNES game sounds great along with how the story is going to be told though Music and Visuals.

Here's a link to the kickstarter page



Week 2: Life Is Strange
Week 3: Shantae and the Pirate's Curse
Week 4: Inside
Week 5: Titan Souls
Week 6: Talos Principle
Week 7: White Night
Week 8: Hotline Miami 2 & Week 9: Ori and the Blind Forest
Week 10: Melancholy Republic Interview
Week 11: The Song of Seven Interview
Week 12: Beyond Flesh and Blood Interview
Week 13: Wander

Good thread idea Mas.

Oh, I love that art style! Reminds a lot of another indie, Superbrothers: Sword and Sworcery.

Titan souls also has a simliar art style also just from a more top down perspective.

screenshot:

Oh also I assume it'd be allright to put our own games of the week in here as well?

@Jay heart machine actually said that came inspired them.

@Jas yep anything that gets people talking and posting about game's, so if anyone wants to do a week just message me I guess like with the music threads or just post away as I might post HLD & then you post more on Titan Souls for instance.

Great idea for a thread, mas!

The protagonist (and the art style, somehow) reminds me of Boktai: The Sun is in Your Hands, which was a very SNES-looking game:

I can't bloody wait for HLD. Looks like a class act: Zelda in neon.

Thanks for the support,

I did forget this exists; it does look super pretty, and I do think that, unless Zelda appears, 2015's going to be indie-centric. It's nice to know that someone's being a bit more clever than just "pixel art".

Make sure someone mentions Affordable Space Adventures one week. The law.

Jimbob wrote:

Make sure someone mentions Affordable Space Adventures one week. The law.

YES!

So I've just been looking at games coming across all formats as there is two Xbox One games worth talking about, I have a list of 30 titles or 30 weeks but hardly any have a date.

As the plan is or was that when a game is coming out in let's say 2 weeks time let's feature that, which might not work now in till we hear more about some.

But I do have next weeks lined up.

HLD is now my most anticipated downloadable game. The shots I'd seen made it look a bit Amiga-y (graphics snob alert!), which I feel is not a graphical style anyone should seek to ape, but having just seen the trailer, it's more than that. There are notes of Zelda and Secret Of Mana, and no self-confessed SNES man should be unhappy with that.

Looking forward to seeing what this thread produces in the future!

Week 2:
Life Is Strange



About the Game: Life Is Strange is an episodic adventure game coming to Windows, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Xbox One, Xbox 360 with the first of five coming out on the 30th of January.

LIS is from Dontnod Entertainment an independent studio out of Paris, France best known for Remember Me which was published by Capcom, LIS is being published by Square Enix.

Dev diary trailer

Why should I be excited? The game's plot focuses on Maxine Caulfield, a photography student who discovers that she has the ability to rewind time at any moment, leading her every choice to enact the butterfly effect.  She returns to Arcadia Bay, Oregon. She reunites with her estranged best friend Chloe Price, and discovers that Chloe's father had died the year Maxine left town. Since then Chloe has lived with an irreparable sorrow. Despite having found support in a girl named Rachel Amber, her friend eventually went missing under suspicious circumstances. Max and Chloe decide to jointly investigate Rachel's disappearance, and thus make their way to unravel the city's hidden secrets.

The game is played from a third-person view. You  can rewind time which allows you  go back and redo any action other than what is done past a checkpoint (however long a checkpoint lasts).The choices made will alter and affect the story through short, mid or long-term consequences. Dontnod creative director Jean-Maxime Moris added however that "for each one of your choices that you make there's no definite answer. Something good in the short-term might turn out worse later".

Dialogue exchanges can be rewound while branching options are used for conversation; you can also examine and interact with objects indicated by a system of hand drawn icons, which enables puzzle solving.

Extra Info: The soundtrack is inspired by indie folk music and plays an important part on game. Also a lot of publishers didn’t want to touch this game like with Remember Me due to a female leads, "We’re just making the games we want to make and characters that are suitable for the story; in this case with 2 female characters" said creative director Jean-Maxime Moris

From the Soundtrack

My thoughts:  After playing bits of The Walking Dead by Telltale and the looks of this from trailer it reminds me of David Cage’s games as well. I like both of them and the idea of episodic games but Remember Me had some good ideas but wasn’t that great to play that this might also might also have some good ideas with the rewinding but might not much else but at $4.99 (that be about £4.08) for EP1 that I might give it a go.



Next week is a game coming to Wii U

Remember Me did have some great ideas, and I loved the artstyle, but it was just a bit dull to play. The best part of that game, the memory remixing, only featured once or twice.

This does sound promising, but I'm skeptical about how far they can take this branching path mechanic. I'm concerned that despite the promise of many branching paths that it'll end up railroading the player pretty badly. Great concept though for an adventure game.

Week 3:
Shantae and the Pirate's Curse



Trailer

About the Game: Shantae and the Pirate's Curse is a platform game by WayForward for the Nintendo 3DS & Wii U launching in PAL regions February 5th and the 4th in the series.

Why should I be excited? As this is the 4th game in the series’ most of you will know about and maybe that’s why you should be excited for more half-genie girl Shantae.

Anyway the game follows on from Risky's Revenge one day, Shantae is approached by her old nemesis, Risky Boots, who informs her that the Pirate Master, a powerful evil tyrant who was sealed away long ago by the genies of Sequin Land, was preparing to return and spell doom for all of Sequin Land.

Despite not having her powers, Shantae strikes up a reluctant alliance with Risky to thwart the Pirate Master's revival.
Due to not having genie powers Shantae must seek out various Pirate Gear to progress through the game. These items include pistols, scimitars and cannons.

Pirates Curse is meant to be twice as large as Risky’s Revenge and thanks to this incorporates more Metroidvania elements.  



Extra Info: As this game has been out for a while stateside,  I can see how well it’s been received critically The Wii U version hasn’t had many reviews might be due to the games handheld heritage but Hardcore Gamer did give it a 4.5/5 and said this  "Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse is another exemplary entry in a short but long-lived line of exploration-driven platformers. The gameplay is fun, varied and challenging, and will test the skills of even the most hardcore platforming fans." The 3DS version currently has a Meta score of 83% along with being nominated in a few of IGN’s end of year awards.

My thoughts: I’ve not played any of the games myself and I’ve always heard good things about them apart from Cappa and I do like what I’ve played of wayforwards games which some of them have mixed reaction on here.

I think I will check out the game on Wii U though, there is a thread for this title which can be found here for when you do play can talk about it.

Also you might notice no music this week well that’s coming elsewhere.

Next week’s game Jay has picked without actually knowing what it is.

4.5/10?

That aside, I'm a big fan of Metroidvanias. Up for this as soon as I clear my backlog.

Sorry 4.5/5 lol

masofdas wrote:

Next week’s game Jay has picked without actually knowing what it is.

I have? Intrigued!

Also, never played any of the Shantae games, but they look decent. WayForward put out some great games in amongst the licensed tat.

I am looking (way)forward to Pirate's Curse. There's going to be an excellent Shantae game

DIGRESSION ALERT: Just realised! Shantae = Shanty!

at some point and it might be this one. I'll pick it up on the 3DS (which will then contain all the Shantae games)... in fact, I might wait and make it my first n3DS download.

Drift stage



About the game: Drift Stage is a modern evolution of the classic arcade racer, bringing the gameplay up to date a bit while keeping the late 80's style intact.

In these street races, speed reigns supreme. The art of the drift is easy to learn and immediately fun, but it's true depth and challenge are hard to master.

Drift Stage will feature a roster of cars inspired by the mid-late 80's and early 90's racing on tracks ranging from city streets to coastal beaches and many in between. The game comes fully loaded with single-player modes including a character oriented career mode, circuit races, and leaderboard chasing time trials. Local splitscreen and online multiplayer races will also be in full swing.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=794NSkRWQJ0

My Thoughts: There's very few racing games about these days that keep the emphasis on good old arcade fun & this looks to have it in spades, it's also great to see it's catering for every player whether they prefer a solo or multiplayer experience.

I just hope it will make it to consoles.

I love the art style so much! That late 80s aesthetic (Hotline Miami did it really well too) is right up my street.

Aye it really does look fantastic.

Week 4:
Inside


About the Game:Inside is a Xbox One timed exclusive coming first half of 2015 from Playdead Studio creators of Limbo.

Why should I be excited?Inside is another moody 2D platformer, though this time the graphics are rendered in 3D with more complex backgrounds. It's set in a dreary grey world, where one boy is seemingly infiltrating a factory where everyone else seems to be brainless and broken.

Extra Info: Trailer

My thoughts: Not much really everyone says how great Limbo is and this does look like a great indie exclusive for the ONE which will mean when I pick up a ONE will have more then a few games to play.

Not much info on this weeks, was used as Jay picked without knowing and a few indie games on my list do have dates but a while off and the rest TBC. So used this one and next weeks also let you guys pick next weeks, so pick a number 5, 18, 26, 32, 36 which are all Q1 games allegedly.

Those are some of the oddest reasons to be excited for a game I've seen in a long time. Not my cup of tea, but I hope One owners enjoy it.

Balladeer wrote:

Those are some of the oddest reasons to be excited for a game I've seen in a long time.

I think if it follows the Limbo formula of being really damn atmospheric, it'll do fine.

Hope so,