Indie Developers Dream Come True- A Look At Epocu

Most of the games on Twin Stick Diaries are, in fact, indie games. As amazing it is to see these games get developed by small teams, it is even more impressive that they get press recognition and founded by so many gamers. Getting the world to know you exist is one of the hardest thing to do when you are an independent developer. Publishers help AAA games greatly and we have even seen publishers like Atlus help out developers with these marketing endeavors.

Kickstarter and Indiegogo are a few of the key players in indie dev marketing but sometimes the game developers just need some recognition. This is where Epocu comes in. Epocu is a crowd sharing site as opposed to a crowd-funding. You can choose how many supporters you want to achieve in whatever amount of time you would like. People can support by clicking a link for Facebook, Twitter and/or Instagram. Epocu will also read out how many people you are reaching out based on followers and friends. Not only can your friends see it but gamers and developers on Epocu can share it as well. You can even pay the site to put you on the front page for even more potential shares.

The site is really easy to use but it lacks any real flare to keep people on it. It also is blatantly copying the Kickstarter layout which is not a terrible layout in the slightest. There doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of developers on it either so it isn’t saturated yet which is a good and bad thing. Good because it gets developers seen but bad because it means there aren’t too many people on it.

I have hopes for the website though and I think it is a great idea, especially for developers looking for outside investors. Check out the Extreme Exterminators Epocu page and support Abysmal Ninja!

http://epocu.com/campaigns/extreme-exterminators/

 

I’m back with Extreme Exterminators News!

It’s been months since I last made a post due to life and its many various set backs. I’m glad to announce that Abysmal Ninja has released an updated build on Kongregate and even Gamejolt showcasing some new AI and a whole new grenade type. Extreme Exterminators also has a new camera set up making it completely top down giving players a better view of the action. If you didn’t read my last post about Extreme Exterminators, you can check it out here.

This new update is mainly to respond to players that Abysmal Ninja is listening to your feedback and that they want more! Check out the game and take the survey here!

Kongregate:
http://ow.ly/CGuFZ

Gamejolt:
http://ow.ly/CGuXX

Survey:
http://ow.ly/CGvnu

You can also check them out on the Steam Concepts page!

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=327228641

 

Really Big Sky Preview

Courtesy of PC Gamer and Bundle Stars, Really Big Sky was a free Steam title during the month of July. I jumped to the chance to get my hands on this indie twin stick game with no idea on what to expect. After playing it, I am certainly glad I got it for free. The game isn’t bad by any means but it doesn’t do much to warrant a purchase especially with all of the other great twin stick games Steam has to offer. 

Really Big Sky is all about replaying the same thing but with slight changes. It’s variety of game modes and procedurally generated levels don’t help the monotony of the gameplay as much as Boss Baddie would like it too. However, the game is pretty fun and fast paced. Boss Baddie manages to mix the infinite runner and shoot’em up genre pretty well. There are sections that break up the shooting where you turn your ship around into a drill and go through a planet-like structures to collect points and power ups. The effect is nice and the visuals, in general, are nice. Sometimes the game goes overboard with the effects, like smoke, and make it nearly impossible to see yourself and the enemies around you. 

Enemies are pretty generic but the bosses are great. In my short time with the game, I only ran into a couple of them but they were definitely grand. One had you maneuvering inside it and shooting its core while dodging lasers. The screen is also moving ever so slightly adding to the intensity. The music does a good job complimenting the action and atmosphere as well.

The absolute worst part of this game is its narration. You can tell that they used someone with no voice acting experience and the quality of the voice recording is poor (unless it was altered in editing which would be a bad choice). It tries to do what the Stanley Parable and Bastion did for their indie games but fails miserably. I will give the team some effort for trying something different and I’m sure they had a blast recording but it ultimately falls flat.

Really Big Sky is $6 on Steam which isn’t a bad price but you can definitely do better. Some good ideas fail to keep you interested long enough to complete all of the games’ internal objectives and the constant bickering of the narrator will have you turning the game off altogether.

 

What makes a Game 10/10?

I’ve reviewed a couple games on Twin Stick Diaries using a 20 point scale (0-10 with the inclusion of .5’s). One thing I never really touched on though was how I go about reviewing games in terms of “What score does this game get?” So to help you guys understand how I go about reviewing these Twin Stick Games, I am going to explain to you what I believe is a 10/10 video game without writing a book about it.

From what I have learned about playing, writing and designing games, I learned that a video game needs to have one of two things. It needs to be either fun, or it needs to be interesting. A game that is fun, revolves around how you are playing it and how the game progresses with the way you are playing it. The fun doesn’t have to be simple or easy to pick up like a platformer or twin-stick shooter. RTS’s like Civilization and Starcraft are extremely complicated but they are fun because you get a sense of accomplished as you, the player, progress through the game. The graphics and sounds that revolve around the gameplay may enhance the fun, but they don’t need to be exceptionally great for their to be a fun game.

An interesting game is one of the key differentiators between one reviewers’ 10/10 vs. a reviewers 5/10. The interest that comes from the game may be generated from the story, graphics, music and/or the gameplay mechanics. A game’s story may be the driving force of the video game. Point and Click adventures tend to be more story centric. A favorite of mine, To The Moon, would be nothing without its story and if you don’t like this game’s story, than you would probably give this game a low score. The graphics of the game can make it more interesting as well. The retro look is very popular now in the indie scene as well as cel-shading. AAA Studios have been creating realistic look games that have been stunning gamers, especially the pre-rendered cut-scenes Square Soft and Square Enix have been creating for years. Crappy looking games tend to be forgotten or remembered by how bad they are. The music and sound effects can make a game more interesting too, believe it or not. Most horror games use the music to bring in a specific atmosphere as well as enhancing scares with sound cues. Guitar Hero, DDR and Rock Band would be no where without the music as well as the interesting way you control the game. Speaking of gameplay mechanics, Braid utilizes its time mechanic in multiple interesting ways. Braid uses them to solve puzzles which may or may not be fun for players so in some instances, interesting and fun can go hand in hand.

A game that is fun and interesting can create a 9.5 video game but without the final component, which I am calling polish, you will never get a 10/10 game. There is a reason why first party Nintendo games are so well-reviewed and loved. Not only are they fun, but they are nearly glitch free and they control extremely well. Glitches and unpolished gameplay and graphics break player immersion. Games developed by Bethesda (Elder Scrolls and Fallout 3) tend to be glitchy and have poor textures. As fun and interesting as these games are, the lack of polish these games have break player immersion and sometimes the game itself. The lack of polish can also feel like the game is cheating you are you are cheating the challenge.

So what games do I find to be 10/10 games? Well there are very few that I do find to be 10/10 and they may not even be in my top ten list. A 10/10 game should be considered a game you should try, but don’t expect to love it just because of its score. For example, The Legend of Zelda: A Link To the Past is a game I would consider a 10/10 but it is not my favorite Zelda game. However, my favorite game of all time, Paper Mario, is but may not be to someone else. Sadly, I don’t think I’ve played a 10/10 twin stick game but I have no doubt that there will be one soon. They are already fun and tend to be very polished but the interesting factor has yet to push any of them to 10/10.

Can you think of any games that would be 10/10 but weren’t or do you feel that my definition is a little off? Feel free to leave some comments and tell me your favorite games!

 

Narco Terror Preview

Narco Terror is a twin stick shooter developed by Keen Software. It has a really cool 80’s film aesthetic and does a pretty good job modernizing the arcade style shooter. As I was playing the demo, it reminded me of the old Midway classic, NARC but not quite as over the top. With that being said, this game is still pretty crazy and fun.

The game starts you off with a cutscene of the main character punching the helicopter pilot through the window and seeing it crash as you fell off. The goal is to get to the pilot to see who stole your daughter (from what I could tell.) The story is clearly action film inspired and that’s okay with me. The real selling point is the gameplay. Like most twin sticks, all you have to do is point in the direction you want to shoot people with the right stick and you will shoot. You can switch between a pistol and a shotgun in the demo and their strengths and weaknesses are easily observable. The camera is pretty far out making it easy to see the short range of the shotgun and the noticeably longer ranged pistol shot. I was also able to use a rocket launcher for a limited of time and was able to man a turret that had a cool down which was a little too quick for my tastes. You can also throw grenades that have an unknown trajectory which is frustrating because you never know where they will land, especially since the camera is so far out and the grenade is so small.

Some minor additions to gameplay Narco Terror added were the ability to jump and use melee. Jumping was used to go up small ledges and melee was pretty useless. There was never much of a reason to use melee because you never got crowded in this game. The most enemies on screen would show up when their was a turret where it was most obvious to use that.

The most satisfying part of Narco Terror is how easily things explode in the environment and seeing all of the numbers float above objects and enemies as you shoot them down. It really makes you feel like you are really good at the game. These colorful numbers combined with the 80’s filtered graphics make the game a pleasure to look at and the music and sound effects fit the mood perfectly. The game also has two player, drop-in/drop-out co-op which sounds like a blast too.

 

Xenoraptor Preview

Xenoraptor is an arcade twin stick shooter that is currently being developed by Peter Cleary. The game was green lit and is currently available as an Early Access game on Steam. I tried out the demo version and I am liking what I am seeing from Mr. Cleary. As someone who has a soft spot for the vastness of space and its natural beauty, Xenoraptor does a great job recreating the beauty of space with its colorful yet dark backgrounds and floating asteroids. The games various weapon and particle effects are also gorgeous and contrast very well with the dark backgrounds. Enemies are also interesting in design and varying from standard space ships to skulls with chainsaw mouths. Bosses are just as varied and crazy making it fun to guess what will be your next victim or executioner.

Xenoraptor is very easy to pick up but it is difficult to master. From what I played of the demo, you have two ways to destroy things. Your standard weapon that can overheat and your missiles that are limited in ammo. In the beginning of the stage, your weapon will overheat frequently unless you pick up coolant. Near the end, your weapon will become powerful enough to essentially ignore the overheat which is really useful considering the difficulty these levels get to. Missiles are extremely useful because they home in on enemies and are very powerful. Games like these, I intend to save these for the boss at the end which is probably what most players will or should do.

Xenoraptor has tons and tons of weapons that you can unlock and customize your ship with. It is surprisingly complex for a mindless twin-stick which is pretty nice. The game also includes up to eight player co-op meaning players can create the best combinations of weapons’ strengths and weaknesses to create the ultimate team.

 

Halo: Spartan Assault Review

Time sure does fly when you are playing and making games! Back in April, I wrote out a preview of Halo: Spartan Assault. Summer is here and so is the Steam sale allowing me to finally get my hands on 343 Studios twin stick shooter. Does it live up to the it’s first person predecessors or is it a pocket sized version of the Halo series?

Halo: Spartan Assault feels like a pocket sized version of the Halo series. This is not always a bad thing though because the levels have a clear focus and doesn’t waste your time. The campaign is pretty long and has a great amount of re-playability to get the highest points. You can also add skulls to your campaign making it even more challenging and will give you more experience points to use better weapons.

The games story is perfect for fans of the lore but as someone who hasn’t followed it since 3, it really didn’t mean much to me at all. You essentially go through the missions of Spartan Palmer that involve killing X number of this and defend this for X amount of time. The level structure isn’t all that inspired and the level designs aren’t all that interesting. The graphics, however, are fantastic and a lot of polish went behind the particles and textures. The music is also well orchestrated but most of the time I ignored it because they never really fit with what was happening in game. Unlike the other games (that I’ve played) the music was punchy during combat and really fit the mood while in Spartan Assault, the slower music would be taking place during fire fights which just felt bizarre.

The gameplay itself is really solid and works well with the feeling of the FPS Halo’s, but top-down. As I said in my preview, it would be nice to jump around in order to dodge enemy attacks are traverse the areas that seem to be able to be traversed. The game limits itself to one plane which focuses gameplay nicely but flying enemies and certain points of elevation make it difficult to not want to jump around. Spartan Assault is also a much more slower twin stick game in pace which makes the game feel longer and less chaotic than it is. There will be points where you are being shot at all angles but the game doesn’t feel like you are in any danger because the enemies are slow and low in numbers. Certain levels, like the vehicle levels and defending levels, are very fun but their are some exceptions. One level in particular was designed so poorly that I didn’t have to move away from my turret throughout the entire level. A rare occurrence but in game with a great amount of polish makes this very noticeable.

Halo: Spartan Assault is a good game but could have been so much more. It is disappointing to see 343 Studios make a game that has a great amount of production value in cutscenes but little in-game. I’m hoping to see more game studios take this route with their IP’s though.

 

7.5/10

 

 

Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris E3 Thoughts

I’ll be honest with you, I was really surprised to see this game announced at E3. Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light came out almost four years ago and was very fun from what I played. Crystal Dynamics and Square Enix seems to be really pushing the Tomb Raider license. To be fair, this is probably the best time to do so considering how popular and strong the IP is.

The biggest change I saw was the inclusion of the two extra characters to finally have four player co-op.  From what it looked like, they seem to be generic characters but I’m hoping to see some four player puzzles scattered across the game. Thanks to Pocket-lint, it seems that there will be some dynamic puzzle solving based on how many players are in the game. I’m very interested to see how this works out and how creative these dynamic puzzles could be.

The game also appears to be taking place in Egypt and will have enemies and bosses based off of that mythos. In fact, it appears that there is a new version of Totec that could change the way puzzles are solved. The enhanced graphics to the game really make animations and particles pop and the four player inclusion appears to make the game more chaotic.

The game is said to be coming out soon, which makes me want to play through Guardian of Light now.

 

PixelJunk Shooter- PS Vita Preview

PixelJunk Shooter is the fourth installment of the PixelJunk series developed by Q-Games. PixelJunk Shooter rethinks the twin stick shooter in multiple ways. Like Square Off, the game is more of a side scroller but still acts as a twin stick shooter using the right stick to shoot and the left to control your subterranean vehicle. PixelJunk Shooter also contains a lot more puzzles and exploration than shooting actual enemies but still has its fair share of intense moments.

The goal is to collect all the scientists in each small section of the map.  You also need to make sure to explore each section to obtain as many diamonds as you can which can be pretty difficult to find. You collect diamonds and scientists with a homing grapple hand and each level will be filled with enemies and various obstacles. Playing through the first area and part of the second, I was able to encounter quite a few interesting puzzles and sections that require a good amount of timing and patience. Whether you are using water to cool down lava and exploding it or getting lava to explode flammable gas, you are going to have to make sure you cleared the area of enemies as well as scientists. Killing enough scientists will end the game and force you to redo the section. Other than cooling down lava, water can be used to cool your vehicle down so you can shoot more homing rockets as well as shoot this rockets almost infinitely. If you become overheated through lava or a missile, you can save yourself by going into water which is really nice but the opportunity to save yourself doesn’t happen often.  The ice area will have you melt ice with lava and you can even replace your missiles with a lava shooter. As cool as it is, it is very dangerous if you shoot straight up because you will die immediately. There are sections when it is necessary to take out lava on the ceilings which is kinda tedious.

Thank you TGN!

I was also able to encounter a spider like boss that had multiple stages to it.  First you would have to shoot missile launchers on its back and then you had to shoot its face. while it spawns enemies that crawl on land masses that get pretty close to you. The boss took me quite a few tries but I managed to take it down to get to the ice area.

I played the PS Vita version and it travels very well. Sections are small enough to complete on a bus ride and it is free for Playstation Plus members. I plan on playing more of it because I am interested to see how much more variation to the puzzles they have created.

 

Why I Love and Hate Hotline Miami

Dennaton Games’ Hotline Miami is perhaps one of the greatest games to come out of the Game Maker engine. It combines the twitch reflexes of twin stick games and combines an intense layer of rogue-like stealth. When you die, it’s your fault and the consequences are very minimalistic. Each level takes less than three minutes but it will take you a lot longer than that. The premise is interesting and makes you feel like a gangster with something that resembles a heart. The graphics fit that 80’s Miami Vice look and the soundtrack compliments it perfectly. The limited ammunition for guns make sense and having them has their ups and downs. The game is over the top gory and red pixels never looked so good. That tiny window of peace between missions is like finding a save room in Resident Evil. As soon as you walk out that door it’s go time!

If you haven’t figured out why I love and respect Hotline Miami than you should reread the first paragraph. There is a reason this indie game became a cult classic but there are a few reasons why I really can’t stand this game. I’m sure a lot of it has to do with my lack of skill, but I can’t help but notice details in the game that make me want to range quit because the game feels like it cheated on me. For starters, I understand that this is a top down video game but as I put myself in the role of the player I have to wonder if my mask is obscuring my vision or if I need a pair of glasses because I should totally be able to see that dog or two guys with guns across the hall.  I understand that I am supposed to learn the first time, but there are cases where these goons are patrolling and my timing is not always the same. Being able to zoom the camera out would have helped greatly and seeing how the world outside the building is already barren, I already know it isn’t detailed. Perhaps this edition would have made the game too easy and was somewhere on the drawing board but giving the player the option to do so would be nice. Even taking the option out on a hard difficulty would have been nice.

Another thing I hate about this game is the super human AI. If you shoot your gun at someone you better be prepared. Funneling guards through a door works but not always. Locking on is the best way to kill enemies with a gun but the lock on doesn’t work to well with multiple bad guys. Even when you think you have your gun aimed directly at the door way, that AI will probably see you first. I’m sure there are huge stealth fans that love this edition but I don’t care for stealth in games. It’s strange why I even gave Hotline Miami a chance in that regards. Either way, the doesn’t feel human when the rest of the game does.  I’d play a different game if I wanted to fight supernatural creature or robots but in a game that aims to feel realistic, this crazy AI breaks my immersion.

With all that being said, I still need to finish my play through of Hotline Miami but boy do I suck at it. I am pretty excited to see what Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number brings to the table in terms of advancing the gameplay. So I ask you, what games do you love but hate with a fiery passion? Think about all those games you play but make you want to throw the controller out the window or smash your keyboard because it’s frustrating or hard.