- By Ash
- in Indie Games
[Update]: DUSK has now added modding support, just in case you needed even more levels to play through!
If you're feeling nostalgic for the classic FPS games that marked the 90s, you might want to check out the recently released DUSK. It's a Doom and Quake inspired FPS with retro visuals, a variety of devastating weapons, absolute tons of low-poly gore, aggressive metal music, and naturally, heaps upon heaps of secrets to discover. Or in other words, it's pretty damn awesome!
Since this is one of those games where trying to explain things through words alone is woefully inadequate, allow me to instead share with you the launch trailer. Have a gander, it's quite an explosive one:
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
[Update]: Iron Harvest now has a free demo available, though only until June 22, 2020.
Iron Harvest is an upcoming real-time strategy game set in an alternate history version of the 1920s. As you might expect from the image alone, this offshoot of history will contain clunky but extremely deadly robots, heavily armored and surprisingly mobile bunkers, sword-wielding mechs, as well as variety of other imaginative technology.
While Iron Harvest is still in early alpha, the developers have recently shared a gameplay preview showing off some of the aforementioned mechs, as well as the base-building mechanics. Have a look, they're certainly a charming bunch:
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
Skytorn was supposed to be a Metroidvania action-adventure game from the developers behind the rather excellent Celeste, but unfortunately it would appear that the project has ran into some significant trouble and has now officially been canceled. The reasoning, as is often the case with these types of games, was that the procedural world design clashed heavily with the Metroidvania gameplay.
"To its core it was a procedurally generated adventure game without permadeath, but the procedural elements always clashed with the Metroidvania themes, and I didn’t know how to design around that," reads the developer update. "Taking out the procedural parts felt like it defeated the purpose of what the game was, so as it shifted towards a more linear adventure, the procedural map stayed but simply got more and more constricted, until the proceduralness of it didn’t really mean anything - it was just… there."
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
If you're up for something a bit out of the ordinary, you might want to check out the upcoming Feudal Alloy. Not only is it a hand drawn action-adventure set in medieval times where pretty much everyone seems to have a battle-ready mech, but all of the killer robots are controlled by tiny fish!
Since this is one of those things you have to see in order to fully comprehend, allow me to share with you the recently posted launch trailer. Have a gander, it's certainly an unusual combination:
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
After an extremely successful and productive stay in Early Access, the rogue-like card game Slay the Spire will be officially released this January 23rd. In order to pave the way for the full release, as well as add even more longevity to Slay the Spire, the developers have now made it significantly easier to access mods.
As you might imagine, this means that Slay the Spire now fully supports Steam Workshop. So if you're up for playing around with new characters, cards or even mechanics, simply install a couple of mods and see how it goes for you. Adding or removing mods is both extremely simple, so don't be afraid to experiment until you find a combination you like.
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
Dead Cells already has pretty high replay value given that it's a rogue-like, but if you're looking to extend those hours even further, you might want to check out the most recent Pimp Your Run update. It has rebalanced the vast majority of items, removed enemy auto-scaling, placed time doors in-between levels, and perhaps most importantly of all, added a new Custom Game mode.
As you might imagine, the Custom Game mode gives you the ability to tweak your experience in a variety of ways. You can unlock all of the loot immediately and just bypass the progression system, mess around with the loot tables in order to create custom challenges, and naturally, pick and choose your starting items. It's a fairly simple concept, but also a pretty darn entertaining one.
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
[Update]: Celeste's free Chapter 9 update has now arrived with over 100 new levels, and they're pretty good!
The excellent indie platformer Celeste has recently managed to reach a rather momentous milestone - more than 500,000 copies sold in a single year! In order to celebrate, as well as give Celeste the sendoff it truly deserves, the developers have now announced that they will be soon adding a bunch of free new levels.
The details are still few and far between, but as you might expect from an update that comes an entire year after launch, the new levels will be hard as nails! As for the release date, nothing specific has been said just yet, but you can expect to see the new levels in early 2019.
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
[Update]: Dolmen has now arrived, though sadly with a whole array of problems.
Like many games in the past few years, Dolmen is an upcoming Dark Souls inspired action-RPG with a heavy focus on challenging difficulty, exploration, and small-scale duels against tricky enemies. However, instead of the usual dark fantasy setting that comes with most Souls-like games, Dolmen has chosen to style itself after sci-fi and cosmic horror. As such, expect to see some outlandish environments, bizarre aliens, and plenty of killer robots!
Visuals aside, the biggest difference between Dolmen and the Souls-like genre is in the use of ranged weapons. Rather than simply have the whole ranged combat system be entirely separate from its melee counterpart, Dolmen will require you to constantly weave melee and ranged attacks together in order to take down some of the tougher enemies. According to the brief description, each enemy will be vulnerable to a particular element or attack combination, so if everything ends up being well balanced, it should make for some pretty diverse gameplay.
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
Despite saying they were done with Prison Architect quite a few times now, the developers have returned once more with a major update. This time around they have added the much-requested multiplayer feature, meaning that you can now build and manage a prison with up to four players at the same time! The system is still in its early days so you won't be able to play maps that require mods or mess around with the Escape or Warded game modes, but thankfully all major features are currently working in multiplayer.
As always, if you're wondering what all of this looks like in-game, as well as what the developers are planning for the future, you should check out the most recent update video. It's a bit lengthy, but I'd say it's still well worth watching. Have a peek:
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
[Update]: Ashen devs are working on a Souls-like RPG with skeletons, guns and magical canine companions - Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn!
As you would imagine from any game that draws inspiration from Dark Souls, Ashen is an action-RPG that will have you explore an intricate world, fight against difficult enemies with a variety of unique weapons, and naturally, repeatedly die against giant bosses. It should be a fairly familiar formula to any fan of the genre, which is why I am glad to say that Ashen has managed to pull if off quite successfully - it's thankfully not just a Dark Souls clone!
When it comes to the multiplayer, however, Ashen has a bit of a different idea compared to its predecessors. While Dark Souls intentionally tries to make you feel isolated from the world, Ashen will occasionally have you come across random players doing their own thing in the wilderness. You can choose to work together in order to solve a quest, head on into a dungeon and see how far your new partnership will take you, or simply ignore the other player entirely and continue on your merry way. A simple, but rather nifty idea to help breathe some life into the world itself.