Hi, I’m the Italian Skeleton, just a guy that likes to talk about retro and indie games; I make #video content on #YouTube related to #gaming and #videogames
@ampersandrew @simple Whenever someone says that X ruined Y, I always hypothesize that it may be the opposite case: the reason why so many copied its addictive nature is because the publishers themselves were already searching for ways to maximize player engagement, and therefore increased revenue through monetization.
COD itself didn’t ruin multiplayer games, it only showed an easy and replicable way
If you may forgive the metaphor: a weed can only spread if the soil itself is fertile
I’ll wait for its release and read the reviews, assuming they don’t screw it up like they did with Battlefront, 15 bucks is a fair price
@mesamunefire What are y’all going to buy in this sale? I’m thinking Space Tyrant, to satisfy my itch for a more laid back 4X focused on combat; the Metal Gear Solid master collections; and maybe some indie games below 15 bucks
@Tekkip20 Lunacid, King’s Field like with many modern accomodations l
The Big Catch, a coming low poly 3D platformer
Anodyne 2: Return to Dust, a surrealist action adventure
@setsneedtofeed it frustrates me how Embracer fumbled over this franchise without giving it a proper classic collection
@games Wild Bastards
Procedurally generated FPS, from the creators of Void Bastards
The neon/cowboy/scifi setting works, the shooting is way slower paced than I imagined, the unique abilities for the characters are interesting, and the fact that you’re constantly chased and need to pick your battles carefully gives a nice tension to the whole.
The demo definitely left me wanting to know more about this project, I’ll take a good look at it in the months before its release
@games Warcana
Half pseudo-turn based Tower defense, half autobattler/deck builder, with the caveat being that opposite armies go directly for the enemy base, not each other.
The spectacles are great, the sprite work is fantastic, the UI is a bit of a mess, why would you put your resource display on the right side of the screen instead of on top, and the gameplay needs to involve the player more during the action, not just limited to casting spells.
It could be good, but needs more mechanics.
@games Technotopia
City-builder card game with an interesting premise, you are an AI created to manage a city for the betterment of its citizens, having to balance your resources so that none goes into the negatives, dealing with various dilemmas of the residents, lest you lose.
However, requires better pacing for the time being, with a smaller area to deal with at the start, I will definitely retry the demo on another fest if I get notice of significant improvements on this front
@games Edge of Sanity
One genre that I can’t get into no matter what are survival horrors, I like to murder stuff, and the idea of hiding until the scary thing goes away is unappealing to me.
Every time a game like this comes out, I try to figure out whether it’s a survival horror with action elements, or an action game with survival elements.
Unfortunately for me, with its camp management, resource scavenging, and too strong creatures to overcome, this game belongs to the former category
@games Byte the Bullet
A 2D platformer that I classify as the comfort food of the retro gamer:
Tight controls, lots of references, a great degree of polish, and some tricks to make it unique.
However, one thing bringing it down and something I loathe about this type of games in general is the artificial difficulty: you can’t shoot upwards or in diagonal, and you can’t even duck, it would have been appreciated in the Castlevania style sequence
I hope the devs improve it for the release
@games Beacon of Neyda
Another Kingdom Two Crown-like, however, here the protagonist can shoot, scavenge, and build, and the setting is based in a futuristic post-apocalyptic world with killer robots.
There are also elevators leading to bunkers where you can find items and lore bits, watch out for the robot hordes!.
Personal irks include the lack of a map, the control scheme not optimized for mouse and keyboard, and the fact I could not issue to the bots, apart from this, it looks promising.
@games Voidwrought
This MetroidVania (or as I like to call them explorative platformers) belongs to the birthing category of Hollow Knight-likes, the graphic style, the subtle narrated story, and even the combat, resemble that of HK, the whole judgment hinges of whether the devs are going to be able to match its level of quality, if they will, that’s going to be great! If they don’t, it’s going to be forgotten faster than the failed vessels thrown into the abyss
@games Sacre Bleu
Oh boy, it’s absurd to pretend completeness during a demo showcase, but for this one … I feel like it was released a bit too early for its sake: missing sounds, finicky controls, and overall not a good impression, one positive note is that it manages to blend 2d sprites with 3d environments better than others, but I do believe that the dev should have waited the next event and spent a bit more time cooking, because as now, it feels too much half-baked, even for a demo
@games Pipsqueak!
There is a niche set of developers who produce games under certain limitations, mechanical or thematical however may it be, I suspect that this project was born of a similar cloth, specifically from those who create games as if they were to run on a GBA, kind of like Goodboy Galaxy, it’s an interesting way to create games, it has that feeling to it, and luckily, it also has the charm and a feel of polish for a game from such a console
@games And for today’s theme: 2d platforming
With Ghost Knight: A Dark Tale
This charmingly Halloweeny game is a project I’ve been waiting for 4 years, since its reveal in 2020, and while we may still be far from its release, even in this small slice I could see the potential of a sweat little gem, this is a passion pet project through and through, and I can’t wait for its maturing
@games Warden’s Will: now, there is a lot of potential in this 3rd person shooter, to fly cape flapping in the air superhero style is something that few games can claim, however, I’m afraid the devs may focus so much on the Co-op aspect that they may neglect the single-player balancing, it felt way too slow to conquer the radar points, I’ll have to take a second good look once the project matures a bit
@games The Big Catch: Man, with a little graphical change, this demo would fit right into the Game cube catalogue, the level of polish of this 3d platformer is astounding, and the dreamlike desert setting/music reminds me a lot of the desert chili-induced visions of Homer from the 8th season of The Simpsons, my favorite sketch from the series, I can’t wait to see what else this game has to offer
@games Glyde the dragon: when I first found out about Glyde, I was sure it was a Spyro-like, and I was half correct, because it’s closer to the Eternal Night series than the classics of the PS1, less 3d platforming challenges more rpg stuff, there are even 2 elements diamonds, the graphics are a little rough, especially the stiff animations, as matter of fact the whole package is slightly off, but this is merely a proof of concept, as even the kickstart was open just a few days ago, so we’ll see
@games Ash & Adam’s Gobsmacked: cute little goblin FPS that embraces the gremlin nature of the gobbos, the art design is great, the gameplay works, considering it’s rougelite nature, fast climbing and jumping around, and challenges taking place in small arenas, it’s clear that is designed for playtimes of up an hour, I am afraid that it can fall easily into a repetitive grind, but I am cautiously optimistic
@PlzGivHugs Unciv, neat open-source turn-based 4X, obliviously inspired by the Civilization series