It wasn’t too long ago when many gamers associated indie console gaming with the Xbox 360. Yet, these last few years have seen fortune favoring Sony PlayStation, especially given the considerable indie spotlight during Sony’s 2013 E3 presentation.
After attending a recent indie software showcase, it was clear the company’s interests in smaller developers have since snowballed. The following are our 10 picks from the 30 games presented at the event, 24 of which we had a chance to play.
It wasn’t too long ago when many gamers associated indie console gaming with the Xbox 360. Yet, these last few years have seen fortune favoring Sony PlayStation, especially given the considerable indie spotlight during Sony’s 2013 E3 presentation.
After attending a recent indie software showcase, it was clear the company’s interests in smaller developers have since snowballed. The following are our 10 picks from the 30 games presented at the event, 24 of which we had a chance to play.
They actually called this game Starwhal: Just the Tip
Grid patterns and neon color schemes go a long way in conveying an '80s aesthetic.
It definitely worked for last year's hit Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon and we're seeing that look again in the dubiously titled Starwhal: Just the Tip. There's nothing distinctly '80s about a bunch of narwhals trying to stab each other through the heart with their tusks, but what period would have been more appropriate?
If you've played games with 18-wheelers, you already have an advantage because Starwhal deals with literal fishtailing physics (yes, we know narwhals are mammals). Much of the replay value lies in Starwhal's arena variety, where some of the most hectic matches are experienced when all four players are flailing in a confined space on the map.
Stabbing your friends in the hearts would be a disturbing premise, but that's all forgotten once you set your eyes on these cute whales. And that's even before you start dressing them with the unlockable outfits.
Yes, there is at least one cat-themed headpiece.
Chase the vanishing point in Race The Sun.
If the endless runner genre is showing signs of evolution, we're seeing it in games like Race The Sun.
It's certainly not an endless runner in the traditional Temple Run sense. Race The Sun offers much more freedom to move left and right (and sometimes up and down) through its randomly generated, fast moving environments. With the sun setting in the far off distance, one of your objectives is to keep barreling down toward the horizon.
If my multiple play attempts were any indication, avoiding obstacles (hitting an obstacle results in instant death) is a bigger challenge than keeping the sun in view. I found its geometric and monochromatic art direction fitting while some of the flying objects reminded me a lot of classic z-axis scrolling games like Space Harrier. The game's fast speed and its pupil-dilating rush also calls to mind 2012' s Dyad and the zone modes from some of the Wipeout games.
Metrico, where infographics are literally playable.
Given the ubiquity of infographics today, seeing a game based on aesthetically pleasing bar graphs and pie charts was inevitable.
Metrico and its infographic world doesn't sound like something that would be appealing by simply describing it. Yet, after surmounting our first obstacle, we knew exactly what developer Digital Dreams was going for.
Metrico has a cyclical charm where you and the environment feed off each other. There are moving platforms that do not simply move left and right-many of your own inputs dictate where objects appear and how they move. Your main character is often able to manipulate these objects without actually making direct contact with them. Since your actions directly impact the game world, you'll often have to think multiple steps ahead.
Fail to do so and you might find yourself with an unreachable platform. Metrico was unquestionably the most meta game of the showcase and we're hopeful it will follow through in having substance to complement its statistics-based environments.
Shoot the core, defeat the Source.
Many of these indie games are impressive just on fact that they're being developed by teams of one to four.
hat certainly applies to the husband/wife team behind Source, an eye-catching, exploratory adventure game that draws comparisons to Flower and a setting not all that different from something out of Tron. You play a bio-luminescent firefly in an alternate dimension, a concept inspired by watching hummingbirds fly from flower to flower in the developers' backyard.
This isn't your typical firefly, though-it has a lock-on and firing capabilities, lightning powers that can pick up objects, and the ability to energize cocoons in order to harvest energy for the firefly. Source also has notable old school influences, as a game named after its antagonist (eg. Donkey Kong, Sinistar) and as you play a protagonist who is the last of their kind.
Axiom Verge is a glitch in the MetroidVania.
Provided Axion Verge's initial screens and trailer are representative of the final game, we might just be looking at the next big MetroidVania game.
It comes single-handedly from programmer, artist, designer, composer Tom Happ, who is also getting considerable help from Sony's Pub Fund. From what we've gathered, Axiom Verge is heavily inspired by a multitude of 8-bit and 16-bit adventure games without being an homage-intensive greatest hits package. Furthermore, Axiom Verge looks to differentiate itself by way of a unique glitch mechanic. It's more than the just a novel simulation of a Game Shark-inspired hack. Glitches will not only allow you to manipulate your surroundings and open hidden areas, but will also play into the game's narrative.
Jamestown Plus: steampunk shoot em ups from Mars!
Nope, Jamestown Plus is not a Civilization-inspired city-building game set in The New World.
If there were ever a genre that could be the complete opposite of a RTS, it might as well be the scrolling shoot 'em up. It's all the more amusing that Jamestown Plus is set on 17th century Mars pitting the Spanish, Martians, and British colonists against each other. It's a crazy enough premise that we're also willing to play along with the idea that this is a Mars with floating landmasses.
This shooter plays less like the 16-bit scrollers that saturated the Sega Genesis and the SNES and more like the bullet hell games that have kept the genre relevant the last 15 years. And if there were ever genre that suited the steampunk aesthetic, it's the scrolling shooter (eg. Steel Empire). Like many of these first-time console indie games, PlayStation owners get to experience the definitive edition of Jamestown, hence the "Plus".
Prepare to die, Nidhogg comes to PS4.
The gold standard in fencing games is making its way to the PlayStation 4.
Developer Messhof figured out that the key to great fencing is to reward the victor with DEATH, specifically as food for a Norse serpent, the game's namesake. It starts off as a fencing duel where you can hold your foil at three different heights. It snowballs from there, as you're also able to run, slide, jump, dive kick, wall jump, throw your foil, crawl, and even fistfight.
It commands the same level of improvisation, adaptation and skill set of the best fighting games while your goal is to progress across several screens, while your respawned opponent tries to stop you at every section. We think its key ingredient is it breakneck pace. Matches can be won and lost in seconds, a very dicey prospect if money were involved.
Anime inspiration does good in Galak-Z: The Dimensional
For as much as I claim to be a lifelong Anime fan, it was only through Galak-Z that I learned that there's a term known as the "Itano Circus"-when fighter planes or spaceships unleash a gratuitous barrage of missiles flying in curved trajectories.
There are very, very few Western developed games that manage to effectively capture the Anime look, Monolith's Shogo being the first that comes to mind. From its TV show logo to its spiky-haired pilot to the obligatory launch tunnel, Galak-Z manages to tick off many Anime check-boxes. It's also a rare roguelike-influenced shooter.
And while it looks like an exploratory take on Asteroids, Galak-Z is much deeper than that, right down to the intentionally high learning curve. It features an engaging upgrade system where the collection of loot and money encourages the player to take paths less traveled.
This obviously leads to more enemy encounters against adversaries who exhibit squad-based behavior. Imagine Far Cry 3 on a 2D plane.
The Witness and the key of knowledge.
As creator Jonathan Blow as expressed before, "The traditional method for opening locked doors in games is to find a key. In The Witness, knowledge is the key." As corny as that sounds, he does have a point. The Witness looks absolutely nothing like his critically acclaimed Braid, but they do share an effective approach to concise tutorials while giving you every tool you need to succeed. The main gameplay of The Witness is centered around a massive collection of line puzzles, and the game's initial puzzles provide you with all that you need to know in order to understand how to solve The Witness' later roadblocks. And this is all set in a colorful and uninhabited island in which you can free roam. This juxtaposition of disturbing solitude against the beauty of the island makes for an intriguing backdrop and a story that the player has to piece together by collecting audio logs. Given that there's no set order in which players can pick up the logs, Jonathan Blow hopes that players will have different interpretations of the island's history.
Transistor doesn't know the meaning of sophomore slump.
Supergiant Games' Greg Kasavin is the first to admit that it's often challenging to talk about Transistor without mentioning Bastion, the game that put his studio on the map.
And that's ok because Bastion was a great game and Transistor has the potential to being a worthy follow-up. Yet, the more one plays Transistor, the more it actually doesn't have anything in common with Bastion, save for the isometric camera. Red, a songstress and the game's protagonist, comes into possession of a sword known as Transistor.
It's a sentient weapon that comments on her actions, and provides her with advice, advice that she's not always willing to comply with. Compared to Bastion, Transistor is a more tactical affair, where you're encouraged to take your time and strategize during every enemy encounter. Lastly, it exudes a sci-fi film noir look with the gameplay polish of a studio twice the size of Supergiant Games' modest 10-person team.