As a retired UT2K4/Counter Strike enthusiast, there’s nothing more attractive to me than a game that requires precision, quick reflexes and nerves of steel. Enter Deadlock, a combination of puzzle and platforming presented in a first person perspective with a beat-the-clock attitude slapped on top to keep things moving as fast as possible.

Your goal is simple – scale the numerous obstacles each level throws at you in an attempt to finish it in the fastest time possible. Alongside the obvious hazard of falling into the cataclysmic void below you, there’s also giant red force fields, angry mechanised turrets, and giant floating cubes of death to contend with. Did I mention there’s going to be tons of death?

Because of its current alpha state I was given access to three of the game levels, each one featuring more complex and challenging obstacles than the last. What starts out as a simple hop, skip and a jump across a few platforms in the first level soon turns into a spectacular weave of double jumps and lightning-fast dashes as multiple laser grids fly at you from every direction. Of course, we won’t mention the 20 ungraceful deaths and rage-induced shouting that came beforehand, but when you finally manage to pull off that perfect medley of agility the feeling of satisfaction is worth the pain.

I can recall one tense situation near the end of level three forcing me to run down a long narrow beam as laser grid panels flew by. With each panel sporting a slender horizontal gap too small to jump through, you need to try and aim your switch gun at a small pad off the side of these fast moving panels to flip the laser grid and squeeze through the gap. To top off that display of dexterous hell, half way down the beam of Beelzebub is a set of giant fans, with the express mission to knock you and your delusions of skill into the pit of death below.

Freaking lazers man….LAZERS

The scope of Deadlock isn’t entirely certain at this point, but the developers are planning on adding more content over the next few months including two extra levels, extra enemies, power-ups, collectable items, cutscenes for story mode and achievements. From what I was shown in the alpha levels, Deadlock is well on its way to becoming a solid entry in the indie market, where nail biting tension collides with split second precision in a beautifully presented world. Oh and one last thing, F*** these moving blocks!

Deadlock is being developed by 5 Bits Games, and is currently available on Desura in its alpha state. For more information on the game, head on over to their official page. 

© 2013, The Indie Mine. All rights reserved.

Wyv & Keep is a puzzle/platformer game created by A Jolly Corpse, a three-person indie development team that are – in their words – from the hellish underworld. The game’s core puzzle mechanic is focused around the cooperation of both characters to climb up walls, push boxes across and/or down, and reach the end goal of each level. Every level has a final score, and it’s one of the things about the game that doesn’t work, or at least doesn’t give you a reason to care. You’re scored on how many times you die or restart. The problem is that while there are a lot of levels which can be planned out meticulously ahead of time, it’s more likely you’ll go by trial and error. If you end the level with a bad rating, you can go back to achieve a higher score. There’s no real fun in this, though, as repeating levels in puzzle games doesn’t work as well for replay value as other genres do. The game would potentially end up with a poor sense of pacing playing this way. When it’s clear the high score doesn’t account for much, it’s quickly thrown by the wayside.

Fortunately, the puzzles are put together well, the difficulty is set at a reasonable, gradually-increasing pace, and there is a good deal of logic and thinking that is needed throughout. Each level takes place on a single screen, and it never overwhelms you with too much information at once. The trial-and-error approach mentioned above also helps in figuring out tricks the game has hidden up its sleeve – I’ll leave it to you to go and figure them out. The one instance where pacing is an issue comes from the lack of an instant restart button, which seems like a small issue. However, it’s becoming a standard function for games of this type instead of having to pause every time to admit defeat.

Still, even playing by yourself there is a wonderful connection you develop between yourself and the two characters. It’s about teamwork, figuring out where Wyv or Keep needs to be at any point of the level. You can swap between characters at any moment, and the game – at times – feels like a simplified version of Thomas Was Alone, except while you only have two characters to go between, their uses are exponentially bigger. There is the option of playing online or local co-op, and local works with either both players using the keyboard or the keyboard and a wired controller. It lends itself to a co-op game, having two minds to solve a problem is always better than one, of course.

The game looks like many 16-bit retro titles that are becoming the norm lately, but it still looks beautiful and holds up against the best that are currently on offer. Both characters have charming facial features and react when the other ends up in a sticky situation. That’s the best way to describe Wyv & Keep: it’s a charming puzzle game, and is the sort of experience that could be easily introduced to a non-gamer for the first time.

Overall Rating: ★★★★☆ 

What does this score mean?

The Windows version of this game was reviewed using a copy provided by the developer for that purpose.

© 2013, The Indie Mine. All rights reserved.

Much of the game focuses on the player getting deeper and deeper into enemy territory, and avoiding detection from patrolling agents is only part of the challenge. Security cameras must be disabled, computers hacked, doors re-wired, and barriers blown up all while staying out of sight (the enemy agents are apparently all deaf). Checkpoints are few and far between and should be located asap in order to avoid retreading past the same obstacles multiple times. The game offers multiple camera views, but the isometric angle will likely be how the player choose to experience the action since a lot of it takes place indoors sneaking from room to room.

There’s definitely an initial learning curve when it comes to succeeding at Private Infiltrator.  The first struggle I encountered was with the lighting. Although pure darkness interspersed with the occasional computer monitor or wall light is certainly more atmospheric, it doesn’t lend itself to survival as well as turning on the night-vision goggles (an ability available to the default character). I liken it to the experience of having to play Arkham Asylum with the Detective Mode constantly on. The keyboard and mouse controls take just a little bit of getting used to. Figuring out that the on-screen avatar must be facing an object to interact with it is key to not getting caught in the middle of breaking and entering. It also requires some practice to twist the camera angle back and forth between the perils of the current room and getting a look inside the next room before entering. After about half an hour of fumbling through some of these issues I was finally on my way and enjoying the ambience.

Although atmospheric in certain areas, a lack of lighting can be a problem.

The difficulties, however, don’t stop with player inexperience. Private Infiltrator is one of those rare occasions where I recommend the player swallow their pride and try the game on one of the easier difficulty levels first. Even opting for a sub-Normal difficulty doesn’t exactly make the game easy, but it does drop the range at which agents will be able to detect the player, providing a wider window to sneak between the agents’ search radii. I’ll be the first to admit I’m not terribly good at stealth games because of a lack of patience, but this game can be damned hard for even the craftiest Solid Snakes out there. Thankfully, additional settings exist for dropping the number of enemies and for disabling the finite number of lives.

While I did have fun playing Private Infiltrator, there’s an unevenness to the level of polish to be found. The soundtrack does a great job of establishing the tense, but playful noir feel the game aims for. The story is presented in monologue fashion through text and helps drive that pulpy feel. At the same time, that dialogue pops up in the middle of the action which means that either the player has to ignore it for awhile, or gets distracted by it and dies. The menu system presents a confusing array of options, some developer-centric, and typos can be spotted on more than one occasion in various areas of the game. I also failed to find a save game option, though players can elect to start a new game on any level of their choosing. It’s easy to see where the studio did and did not put the bulk of their focus, and it would have served the game better if it had received a more consistent level of attention across the board. It’s also good for the reader to know that the game is still being refined through updates.

Noir meets high-tech gadgetry in Private Infiltrator.

There were some poor design choices made in terms of the openness versus linearity of the game. The first and perhaps best example comes in the first level. That stage includes a number of walls that must be blown up using C4 scattered throughout the area. The walls must be brought down in a specific order, otherwise the player will eventually hit a point where they can’t get to enough explosives to continue. It can be both frustrating and off-putting for players to have to repeat entire levels of a game through no fault of their own. Allowing the player to make a mistake that they can’t recover from is a big misstep. There’s also a lot of tense and/or tedious backtracking involved when finding out that a path has been taken prematurely without the right intel (i.e. computer passwords) having been gathered first.

As it exists right now, Private Infiltrator is a fun, yet flawed game. I love the atmosphere the game is going for with its mix of classic spy story and modern-day spy gadgetry. The developers are trying to get the game approved through the Steam Greenlight program, and they’re continuing to fix and improve the game based on player feedback. Hopefully some of the wrinkles I came across will be ironed out, but it’s still a game worth checking out now, sharing opinions on with the developers, and keeping an eye on its progress going forward.

Overall Rating: ★★★☆☆ 

What does this score mean?

Private Infiltrator was reviewed using a copy of the PC version provided by the developer for that purpose. The PC and Mac versions are available through Desura.

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© 2013, The Indie Mine. All rights reserved.

The indie game boom over the last few years has thrust indie games to the forefront, especially in PC gaming. But while there’s a growing consumption of indie titles, it hadn’t necessarily translated to an increase in indie-devoted distribution platforms until last year, which also brought forth even more indie bundles.

It wasn’t until after the success of the Humble Indie Bundle that developers/publisher wannabes saw the commercial viability of an indie-only digital distribution service. Before that, we had only indie-mainstream hybrid platforms like Steam. But there are still many developers who still can’t get their games on Steam or even into the various indie bundles out there. That’s why I’ve compiled this list of indie-centric digital distribution sites for indie gamers and developers alike to explore their different options.

Note: I had the privilege of asking Francois Guibert from Frozax Games and Jay Margalus from Lunar Giant Studios – the guys of Delve Deeper fame — to give their experience on working with Desura and Little Indie. For Indievania and IndieCity, Anthony from Flaming Hammer Games and Ido Yehieli, maker of Cardinal Quest provided their inputs.   

Desura

Notable games: Serious Sam, Mount & Blade, Penumbra, Braid, Machinarium, Trine

The most established and well-known of all the services in this list, Desura is also the first to support all three major desktop operating systems in Linux, Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows. After first riding on the coattails of the Humble Indie Bundle — by offering free keys for games in the bundle for anyone to augment their purchase with — it has since developed into a legitimate service that seeks to define itself by being DRM-agnostic and building a strong community around it.

Download Client needed: Yes/No – Desura provides direct download links for those who don’t take a fancy to unneeded bloat, something I wish Steam provided. For those who love their community features, fear not, the Desura client comes decked with almost the same tabs as Steam’s client and more. There’s also a developer tab that provides the tools that could be useful for game developers.

Supported OS Platforms: Windows, Mac and Linux

Payment options: Credit card/Paypal

Gifting: Yes

Percentage cut: The traditional 30%. Also, they only let you withdraw your fund after you accumulate $500 in your account. Not a biggie, but notable.

Alpha Funding: Supported- subject to Desura’s approval

Getting developers’ games up: Games goes live after around a day and the general process of getting it up and running seems to be plain sailing–smooth and easy peezy was how Francois and Jay put it. Desura’s staff also provides lots of support for your game running on their service although developers still retain most of the control over content(pricing, upload screenshots, trailers..)

Tools/Functionalities for developers: Desura certainly appears to justify their share of the 30% by providing an array of tools, including auto patching, mods and beta testing. The big draw though, as pointed out by both Jay and Francois, is Desura’s integration with their sister sites, IndieDB and ModDB. It really speeds up the process of getting your game live since you can draw from the same pool of assets. Not only that, you can cross promote your game on those sites. Even if your game doesn’t get through the approval process, you can be assured it will find a place among IndieDB/ModDB.

Desura’s strength seems to lie in its community. “Their customers are, by and large, some of the best we have.  I’m not sure if that’s because people buying games on Desura are already used to the ‘rough edges’ that many indie games have, but I’ve really enjoyed interacting with folks who buy our game off their service”, mentioned Jay even though Delve Deeper focused more on their Steam fanbase. Francois on the other hand says, “They seemed to care about the developer and like the fact that they can talk to the developer directly.” Francois also pointed out that this interaction is not Desura-specific but more indie-specific. Nonetheless, who’s got a bigger indie user base in the first place?

Little Indie

Notable games: The Journey Down: Episode 1, Dark Scavenger, Telepath RPG

For a portal that’s been around for almost as long as Desura, the amount of titles on Little Indie is pitifully small; 18 to be exact. The fact that they don’t even bother to categorize their games should give you a clue about the variety of games on offer. Little Indie is powered by Jade:DS, a CMS platform developed by one of the three German game/software companies that are behind the running of Little Indie.

Download Client needed: Yes. A client is needed to download and play Little Indie games but similar to Desura, it’s up to developers to decide if they want DRM on their games. If developers choose to integrate their games with the Jade:DS system, players will get access to leaderboard and achievements.

Supported OS Platforms: Windows only

Payment options: PayPal

Gifting: No

Percentage cut: 20%

Alpha Funding: Supported

Getting developers’ games up: The duration of seeing your games go live depends on whether you wish to integrate with the Jade:DS system and the level of integration. It should typically take about a day without integration and up to three days if there’s integration, according to their site. Developers will get technical support through emails to help their games get incorporated into the Jade:DS system.

Tools/Functionalities for developers: Since Jade:DS is also a full CMS, perhaps the biggest plus point Little Indie can provide developers is having your own site with full support of the Jade:DS backend with no extra costs. Your game will be available on your own site and on Little Indie too.

IndieCity

Notable Games: Brand, A Valley Without Wind, Trauma, Project Black Sun

There was a lot of buzz when IndieCity was first announced. It was part of their announcement that a major feature would be a recommendation engine that gives each gamer a personalized homepage of titles that appeals to their interests. It was a soft launch though, and by the time they finally came out of private beta it had allowed Indievania to be launched before it. I recently got another buzz about IndieCity when I found out they were partnering with indie developers from my home country to bring our games to you guys. So go follow the link and play some awesome Singapore indie games for free guys!!

Download Client needed: Yes. As with Little Indie, IndieCity requires a client to download and play games, and again it’s up to developers if they want to use IndieCity’s ICELib wrapper. There’s your standard achievement and leaderboards, and since IndieCity is still in beta expect more features to come. Two unique things about their client is the fact that it uses P2P sharing if you turn it on and of course the much talked about recommendation engine. Turning on the P2P setting will also get your games auto-downloaded and installed. Demos that gamers might be interested in will also get auto-downloaded.

Supported OS Platforms: Windows, Mac and Linux

Payment options: Credit card

Gifting: No

Percentage cut: 15% – if developers integrate with their wrapper
25% – if developers choose not to integrate with their wrapper

Alpha Funding: Supported

Getting developers’ games up: A panel of developers identified by IndieCity are responsible for approving any games that get sent through their way. Both Ido and Anthony indicated that the approval process can be a little tedious and take up to a few days, but there’s support. The FAQs are there as well which helped Ido and Anthony get their games running on there. There’s a lack of transparency about what it takes to be on that approval panel, but there’s a clear checklist of criteria at their forum which gives you an idea of what is needed to get your games approved.

Tools/Functionalities for developers: “They all suck in various degrees and are pretty cumbersome to use”, was how Ido thought of the tools and functionalities, while Anthony didn’t think too much of it as well. “For the most part things just seem like they were tossed together and don’t provide anything that’s useful to me.” To be fair, IndieCity is still in beta so that could be why their tools are still very basic ones like viewing stats (page views, downloads, etc).

Indievania

Notable games: Wizorb, Ichi, Blocks That Matter, Squids, Cthulhu Saves the World

Indievania was set up by the guys behind Capsized. What started out as a way for the two-man team to sell their own games, it has since evolved into a full-fledged distribution service for indie titles. Skepticism arose over two of their prominent designs for the site in which there is no screening process for games submission and the fact that all the profits go to the developers. One might be worried whether no screening might lead to having to trawl through lots of rough stones before finding the polished gems, but a quick glance over at Indievania indicate there’s still a certain quality about the games there — I’ve even managed to find one or two freeware gems. Since Indievania is entirely funded by optional donations each time someone buys a game — there’s not even ads on there — there’s good concern about the longevity of the service.

Download Client needed: No. A email with a one time download link for the game you purchased will be sent to you. To re-download a game, all you have to do is to visit the account section of the site.

Supported OS Platforms: Windows, Mac and Linux

Payment options: PayPal

Gifting: No

Percentage cut: None. Indievania pays directly into developers’ PayPal accounts with no need to wait until developers accumulate a certain amount in their account before they can withdraw funds.

Alpha Funding: Supported

Getting developers’ games up: “Indievania’s process was more straightforward and intuitive to me.” Anthony was able to get his game, Collaptris, live on Indievania within 24 hours. Due to having no screening process, Indievania is the quickest option to get your game up and running on a distribution service and the process is pretty easy as well, as Ido told me. Developers get to put their Twitter feed, website, Facebook link, etc….on their game’s page and retain full control over how their games are sold.

Tools/Functionalities for developers: None

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

Terraform from Holgersson Entertainment is a turn-based strategy/puzzle game that challenges players to physically alter planets by using a variety of tools and the weather itself. Although the sheer number of variables involved in the gameplay can be overwhelming at times, Terraform is enjoyable enough in both its premise and presentation to keep players coming back for the next challenge.

Play begins in tutorial stages descriptively named “University” in the game. These levels introduce players to the general premise and mechanics of the game. Early on, each level provides a new lesson which then culminates in an exam at the end of each year. There are five virtual years in all that are spent going through these University stages before the story advances. While I like the fact that they place the instructional stages within the context of a virtual school, after a couple dozen of the 30+ University stages it can begin to get as wearisome as the real thing. Although players will be immediately applying what they’re being instructed on, the fact that the University is such a large portion of the game may induce learning fatigue while waiting to see how the story opens up. It’s a double-edged sword though, as I feel all of the instruction is necessary in order to succeed. Terraform continues to introduce new tools and rules throughout the entirety of the game, but the bulk are taught early on.

Goals and mechanics start off simple enough in Terraform…

Each hexagonal tile map starts with each tile occupied by some natural landform, whether it be soil, a tree, a hole, etc. A variable number of spaces on that map must be converted or returned to a particular state within a specified number of turns. Tools are introduced one by one to the player, along with an explanation of what effect they will have on the environment. Basic weather patterns like rain or excessive heat, as explained by the instructor, will affect the state of the map and can even bring on larger scale weather phenomena like hurricanes or fires. Once the player has finished performing operations for a particular turn, he  must choose to kick the game over to the next turn and see how their actions unfold in the world. The effect is not quite Rube Goldberg-esque, but it’s still interesting to see rivers flow or settlements demolished based on one action performed or left undone. Thankfully the game grants unlimited retries and a few undo turns on each map, because there are bound to be unintended results.

It’s fairly easy to catch on to the goals of Terraform, but the turn-based structure can take some getting used to as you must anticipate how changes to the environment will spread when you advance to the next turn. Terraform is a difficult game, and players who aren’t accustomed to failing may get frustrated even on the earlier levels. Each level does include a hint, but even the hint is just a general guideline, not specific information on which turn to perform which actions. In terms of strategy involved, I believe Terraform is a good match for players who enjoy chess. The ability and patience to picture the game state multiple turns ahead of time is a huge advantage. I must stress that I don’t believe the difficulty is a detriment to the enjoyment of the game – though it certainly is a pain for review deadlines! Instead I feel like it makes the game more like a crossword puzzle in the sense that it’s something players will want to come back to for a new challenge every day, rather than play in a binge gaming session.

… but eventually you’re going to need hints and a committed brain to succeed

The presentation quality of the game is adequate in most areas and quite excellent in a few cases. While playing the game, the UI contains pretty much everything players will need, and this helps avoid frequent trips to the menu. Options to undo turns when mistakes are made and even an option to change music on the fly are present. Speaking of music, the songs range from ambient to soaring, the latter of which nicely set the tone of a player reshaping planets. I just wish there were more track selections than the three or four included. The visual design is pretty simplistic in nature. I would prefer higher-res images for the various map tiles. But because there are so many of them, I understand why more detail would be difficult to see in such small, repeated spaces. For a good chunk of the early game, there’s not much to the story aside from the instructor who guides the player through the educational process. Later on, there are cutscenes and dialogue exchanges thrown in with other characters to advance the story. It would’ve been nice if these started a bit earlier in the game to draw the player in.

Terraform is a solid puzzle game and I think it will be fun for most gamers once they get used to the pacing. Like a fine wine it should be sipped rather than gulped. In playing this way, I believe gamers will find real enjoyment in tying together cause and effect as they transform one planet to the next. The ability to upload your scores to a leaderboard and an unlockable level editor are added incentive to keep playing. For those interested in picking up Terraform, it’s currently available through Desura, GamersGate, and Holgersson Entertainment’s online store. Any way you choose to purchase, it’s not a bad deal for a game that will likely provide many hours of brain-intensive challenges for those tough enough to move mountains.

Overall Rating: ★★★★☆ 

This game was reviewed using a copy of the game provided by the developer for that purpose.

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

Spanish developer DreamSoftGames has announced the release of their shmup(shoot-em-up) Arkhelom 3D for PC.  Inspired by classic games in the genre, DreamSoftGames promises horizontal, vertical and side-scrolling levels, over 70 types of enemies and bosses, 22 levels, an online world ranking, the ability to upgrade your ship, and more.

Arkhelom 3D is available now on Desura for $5.50.  While you’re thinking about picking up the game, check out the trailer below that shows off the frantic gameplay and ship upgrades.  There’s also a demo available on the Arkhelom website.

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