In early November I had a chance to attend my first Indienomicon meeting in the Orlando, FL area. Three games were showcased at the event including a trailer for Ascendant, a unique title from local studio Hapa Games. Ascendant melds the brawler and roguelike subgenres, and also includes some platforming elements. As the titular Ascendant, the player must battle through a diverse world of monsters and fanatics to overthrow the ancient god ruling over the realm. While it’s only three months into development, you wouldn’t know it from the impressive showing this “broguelike” puts on.

As with any roguelike, this game is going to beat the player down, and I quickly and repeatedly learned that lesson. Health pickups are few and far between, there are environmental hazards to watch out for, and of course there’s a near-constant onslaught of enemies to deal with. Thankfully, the game offers a currency system (influence) so that the player can periodically purchase upgrades, and enemies will often drop treasure chests that contain attack upgrades.

There’s also a socketing system that uses upgrades called Aspects which the player can use to enhance their weapons, spells, or armor. There’s some customization allowed in that different behaviors are achieved depending on where the player chooses to slot an Aspect. Unfortunately, I really didn’t get a chance to see how this system develops over time during the demo, but as a numbers guy, I’m interested in seeing how much you can really beef up the characters.

Player customization is available through the slotting of Aspects.

I’ve played a handful of roguelikes before, so I was curious if there would be something about Ascendant to differentiate itself. Indeed there was because the brawler mechanics sucked me in. Ascendant is not the kind of game where the player can simply run in godlike and mop the floor with everyone. Enemies tend to attack in packs by surrounding the player and coming from all directions. The combat system is set up quite nicely with a variety of melee attacks, ranged spells, and the ability to dodge and parry. I was warned that there’s a bit of a learning curve, and that’s absolutely true. Button mashing will only take the player so far. It took a fair amount of dying before I really studied enemy attack patterns and reviewed the controls to learn combos. Pull off some impressive combos and you can actually convert your enemies into Followers who will aid you. Even after putting in a couple of hours I find that I’m still learning, so I’m hoping that means that I won’t eventually run into combat fatigue.

Ascendant is a visual feast, comparing favorably to the stylistic direction of games like The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker and El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron. It also reminded me quite a bit of one of my favorite animated television series, Samurai Jack. The graphical quality of indie games is an area that often seems to lag behind development, so I was quite frankly amazed to see a game that looked like it had been in development for much longer than three months. It’s just an absolutely beautiful (albeit deadly) world that the developers have created, and I can’t wait to see more of the environments and monsters.

Beautiful landscapes like this concept art exist throughout the stylized world of Ascendant.

My experiences playing Ascendant left me with some mixed feelings. The game is punishingly hard, and success is largely dictated by the player’s familiarity and patience with the inherent conventions of each of the genres involved. The fact that I didn’t stop coming back to try again, though, is a testament to the promise that the game shows. Ascendant is slated to come out in February of next year, and the team has created a Kickstarter campaign to secure licensing for the music. The team has also readied an entry for Steam Greenlight and recently released a gameplay trailer. Keep your eyes on The Indie Mine for continuing coverage on Ascendant, and in the meantime, check out the relevant links and trailer below.

Ascendant on Kickstarter

Ascendant on Steam Greenlight

© 2013, The Indie Mine. All rights reserved.

Unique and quirky characters? Check and check.

Many of the features have already been covered in our initial preview (linked to above), so I’ll only be detailing a few that I wasn’t able to cover until actually playing the game. For those unfamiliar with Citizens of Earth, it’s constructed like an old-school Earthbound-style RPG but with modern sensibilities. Players take on the role of Vice President of the World who’s recently returned to his hometown only to find that things are amiss.  Exploration of the town and its surrounding areas lead to strange events and meeting a wide cast of quirky characters, many of whom the player will be trying to recruit to his/her team.

I was very impressed with the combat system. It was one of the question marks I had back when the game was announced. Battle takes place in a turn-based system once the player encounters enemies by running into them. While the team is technically made up of four characters at a time, the VP is only there as a commentator while his three companions do all of the dirty work. Each character has their own power meter with some abilities refilling that meter and others (typically more powerful) using up the power. It produces a nice balance of having to leverage different attacks at different times, and it keeps the player from ever being too overpowered. Getting the jump on enemies by basically hurling the party at them will give an immediate boost to each fighter’s meter, whereas getting ambushed produces an initial penalty.

Speaking of the enemies, the demo included a nice variety which quickly change depending on the locale of the party. Many of the enemy designs are even more bizarre than the human personalities the player meets during exploration. There are also a few bosses in the demo for good measure. While the individual enemy battles were not that difficult, I did find the bosses to be a good challenge in terms of having to balance attacks, buffs, and debuffs amongst the party.

Leveling up can increase nearly a half-dozen stats, and specific stat bonuses come into play when different characters are paired together. Party members can be swapped out at any time between fights allowing the player to experiment more liberally. New individual abilities are introduced every few levels which keeps the battling from getting stale, and it’s a nice touch that the abilities are tied to the character’s job or personality.

The stylish artwork may be the most defining aspect of CoE.

I grew up playing RPGs like Dragon Quest and to a lesser degree the more light-hearted Earthbound series. I’ve also played Zeboyd Games‘ modern takes on the genre like Breath of Death VII and Cthulhu Saves the World. While those newer titles would be the most apt comparisons to Citizens of Earth in terms of tone, what really separates this game is the visual style. There are no retro sprites to be found here. The artwork is sharp and well-defined, and it’s such a beautiful change from what I’m used to in this type of game. It might have left a more indelible mark than any other part of the experience playing through the demo.

Despite there being a few technical issues due to it being an early build, what I’ve been able to play so far has certainly whet my appetite for the full game to be released. The team is still deciding if and when to release a demo to the public. So if these impressions have you curious, unfortunately you’ll have to wait. Again, no release date has been officially announced so keep checking back here or on the CoE website for updates.

© 2013, The Indie Mine. All rights reserved.

Whispering Willows was recently entered into the OUYA Create Game Jam and were picked as finalists for three separate categories including Grand Prize, Most Immersive, and Best Visuals. The developers are also seeking to get the game approved through Steam Greenlight.

Although the game isn’t expected to launch until Q3 of 2013, an alpha demo has been released to help drum up interest. The demo is brief (about 5 minutes or less), but offers a glimpse into what the game is all about. The lead character, Elena, has a connection with the spirit world and is trying to find her father who many believe is dead. She can create an astral projection of herself within the land of the dead, and the player must alternate in between these two forms in order to open up new paths and help ghosts within the 2D environments. The game features some quality artwork that looks inspired in design from a number of Japanese-animated films and cartoons. The background music also helps set the somber mood for the story. The only nitpick I have is with the browser-based controls in terms of the odd choices for the keys assigned to different actions. The game is still early on, though, and it’ll be interesting to see how the final product turns out.

Swap between this world and the land of the undead to aid spirits and further your own quest.

Whispering Willows will be headed to a variety of platforms including Linux, Mac, OUYA, and PC. The studio has launched a Kickstarter campaign to bring in additional artists to help get the first chapter of  this multi-platform game out the door. Give the demo a try, and if you like what you see, you can reserve your copy of the game through Kickstarter for $10. You can also receive updates on the game’s progress through Night Light Interactive’s Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube accounts.

© 2013, The Indie Mine. All rights reserved.

Team Disaster have released a demo for their game, Captain Disaster In: Death Has A Million Stomping Boots. The game is reminiscent of the point-and-click adventure games of the 80s and early 90s. Captain Disaster has a retro feel to it in both gameplay and design. With 320 x 200 resolution graphics, players take a trip back to a time when adventure games ruled the PC gaming market and the console mascot rivalry was fought between a hedgehog and a plumber.

Captain Disaster was created by Dave Seaman as the protagonist for his ebook sci-fi adventure series, which is full of high antics and slapstick humour. From the demo, one can expect the game to utilize both these themes in abundance. I was particularly fond of the satirical humour that referenced other overused science fiction tropes. The Flash Gordon and Star Wars text crawl intro scene made me laugh, as did the name of the ship from The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy, which Team Disaster unapologetically admits to using. And I couldn’t help feeling that the dense protagonist was a clear homage to Roger Wilco of the classic point-and-click adventure series Space Quest.

I won’t spoil the details of the demo here, due to the fact that I believe players should get their hands on it themselves. If you’re up for a sci-fi adventure to satisfy your inner nerd, or even just a promising adventure game, then I would urge you to try the demo for Captain Disaster In: Death Has A Million Stomping Boots.

© 2012 – 2013, The Indie Mine. All rights reserved.

Canadian developer Deirdra Kiai has created something that quite frankly no one’s likely ever seen: a stop motion musical adventure game. Kiai has created a demo for the upcoming Dominique Pamplemousse in “It’s All Over Once the Fat Lady Sings!” Quite the name to match such a niche title, but that’s the essence of the indie spirit. The game is also targeted at multiple platforms including iPad, Mac, and Windows PC’s.

A detective mystery frames the plot of Pamplemousse, but in a unique twist it is told like a stage musical complete with singing dialog that the user can control. Characters are animated through stop motion using art assets made from real objects created by Kiai herself. When you add in the brass music, I honestly can’t remember seeing this amount of variety in creative work included in a game by just one person.

Some of the puppets used in the stop motion animation

As promising as the game looks, Pamplemousse is in need of financial assistance. As with previous title Life Flashes By, the developer is seeking crowdfunding to help complete the game. In this case, Kiai has turned to Indiegogo to campaign for those much-needed funds. The campaign page includes a video showing off the game, but also a link to the free, playable demo that’s now available. Rewards for helping fund the game include everything from the basic copy of the game and early access to more creative souvenirs like a piece of scenery or puppet from the game. The perks really mirror the creativity of the developer herself, and it’s pretty neat that she’d be willing to part with the physical pieces that helped make the game. There are only a few days left in the campaign, so give the demo a try and decide for yourself  whether the fat lady has sung on Pamplemousse.

© 2012 – 2013, The Indie Mine. All rights reserved.

Indie developers Box Jellyfish Studios have released a demo for their upcoming platformer Reflexio. The game originally started as a college project and was so well received that the five members decided to make it a full-fledged commercial game. It even took two category wins at the Cornell GDIAC 2011 Showcase.

I took the opportunity to play through the PC demo which includes around a dozen or so levels. The goal of each level is to collect all keys on the stage which will open a door to get to the next level. The game does a good job of slowly walking you through the controls which start as basic directional movements and jumps, but eventually work their way up to manipulating the majority of the stage. The hook of Reflexio is that you can pivot certain types of blocks, keys, and the exit across axes. Each stage has different horizontal, vertical, and diagonal axes that you can swap between in order to shift those objects and yourself towards your goal.

Flip the world on its axis to avoid perilous obstacles

There’s an experimental factor when you combine the jumping platforming elements with the environmental changes that favorably compares to games like Portal or to a lesser extent a strictly environmental physics game like Cut the Rope. While the tutorial stages do a good job of showing you how the mechanics work, there’s still a bit of a learning curve when you mix in timed jumps to the equation. That’s not to say it’s painful. I very much enjoyed the trial-and-error aspect when filling in the gaps the tutorial doesn’t cover. The demo has some clever uses of the mechanics and I’m interested to see whether they extend the bag of tricks throughout the full game.

The presentation in Reflexio trends towards cutesy. Your main character is a koala carrying an umbrella and wearing a diaper. The music is upbeat. warm, and cheery, but that completely belies the difficulty involved in mastering the game. It all works though. Aside from the initial reaction, I never felt like I was playing a children’s game.

I had a lot of fun playing the early build of this puzzle game and I’m anxious to see what the full version has in store. The Reflexio demo is available right now for PC, and that version will release on May 1st through Desura, IndieCity, and directly through the Reflexio website. The release date for the planned Xbox version is still TBD.

© 2012 – 2013, The Indie Mine. All rights reserved.