In Turf Raiders, you play as the leader of a horde of blue kitty commandos (they look more like squirrel…bear…things to me, but hey! Still cute!) on a mission to collect energy cubes known as gluons which power your defenses against the diabolical red dog hoards. In order to do this, you and your enemy take turns playing cards that have a variety of abilities, such as summoning units to the grid-like field, moving your own or your opponent’s units, or even getting rid of your opponent’s units! Each part of the grid yields certain items, such as gluons or cash which is essential to being able to play cards at all. In essence, Turf Raiders is a tactical area control game in a vein similar to the classic board game Risk.

Despite its strategic leanings, Turf Raiders is simple and easy to learn. After a few tutorial levels, the player is thrown right into over forty different missions which all feature different field layouts and enemies that get increasingly aggressive. While it’s a free game, there is an in-app currency that allows you to buy ‘Perks’: one-use items such as extra cash or cards to give you an edge over your opponent. I found that I usually had enough of the currency available that I didn’t really need to opt for actually buying more.

Turf Raiders feels like a game that appears simple but actually hides complex and engaging strategy beneath the surface. If only this were true. The game is awkward, teetering on the edge between something casual and light and something deeper, something that I need to sit down and consider. There are elements which are annoyingly slow, such as having to touch the screen every time both my opponent and I draw a new hand.  The cash as the beginning of my turn takes way too long to auto-gather to me. I end up just touching on the little sprites myself to have them available faster. These are, admittedly, minor grievances, but the constant touching for aspects that should be automatic wore down on me. It was tough to continue in this war of attrition, having to convince myself to play the next mission and deal with the weird slowness of it all.

I like cute games with adorable characters, but maybe Turf Raiders was also a little too cute for me. The bouncy music became repetitive, speeding up to a stressful crescendo at odd intervals, leading me to eventually turning it off. Overall, I was saddened that Turf Raiders became an unpleasant, tedious experience for me. Perhaps some tightening up of certain mechanics and a little more variation in music and animations would improve the experience, but for now this is a game I’d rather skip.

Turf Raiders Card Battle is free and available in the Google Play Store. You can find more information on the developer’s website.

Overall Rating: ★★☆☆☆ 

What does this score mean?

© 2014, The Indie Mine. All rights reserved.

Tactical turn-based future-sports football game Frozen Endzone (holy hyphen spam, Batman) is now available through Early Access on Steam.

By pitting teams of sinister looking robots against each other in a deadly game of ‘future football’ (Not the British kind, but the pretend football you see in America) Frozen Endzone hopes to score the same popularity that its predecessor – Frozen Synapse - received.

Launching alongside its Early Access release, Frozen Endzone will also get a number of updates to the current beta version of the game.

• Players can now have stats: strength, resilience, “burst” (a small burst of acceleration when getting the ball), evade, intercept radius, block radius
• “Handball” (now called “Full Match”) game mode enters beta.  This has been totally revamped to accommodate stats and is now the main game mode.  Lots of turnovers, interceptions, end-to-end action, and new points zones make this really exciting and strategic.
• Team Editor allows you to name your players and set their stats; upload your team to the server and use it in multiplayer or skirmish with it offline
• Completely revamped, much more intelligent AI and a selection of new AI skirmishes
• Easy-to-use tile-based Pitch Editor (alpha)
• Custom Game Mode creator (alpha)
• Commentary system (alpha): commentary makes use of player names; in single player, the AI calculations are also used to allow the commentators to analyse your play-style; in multiplayer, the commentators will discuss your previous history with your opponent
• New animations and some big improvements to camera code
• There is now in-game audio to go with the music!

And if that wasn’t enough, here’s a brand spanking new trailer with developer Paul talking us through some of the new features listed above.

© 2014, The Indie Mine. All rights reserved.

So the story goes, an organization of scientists, in an effort to expand their knowledge, creates the “Chronova Device”, a tool that would enable them to unlock the universal ‘real-time’ and introduce it to their turn-based world. But, as these experiments often do, everything goes wrong, and a vortex sweeps them up from their world. Now it’s up to you, in your little orange “Nova-111″ starship, to rescue the crew.  Will your harmless research vessel be up to the task?

The player will be faced with a series of obstacles, such as alien enemies and puzzles. Your vessel won’t be completely helpless, as collectible upgrades and abilities will allow it to defend itself and fight back. As you advance, the world will slowly shift from turn-based decisions to making the player react in real-time environments. And gosh, what environments they are. If you’re not already interested, the visuals should definitely hook you. The game simply looks splendid, and the character portraits are to die for, really. The mix of pixel and painterly styles makes the levels truly shine. And the music ain’t too shabby either, apparently being dynamic and suiting itself to your individual play style.

Though no set date has been announced, Nova-111 is supposed to be released some time later this year for Windows, Linux, and Mac. To find out more, visit Funktronic Labs’ website for the game. You can also follow the developers on Twitter, Facebook, and Tumblr.

© 2014, The Indie Mine. All rights reserved.

Magicians and Looters pays homage to old Metroid-esque side-scrollers and does it well. It has a beautiful 2D high-definition pixel artstyle, real time map system, items to discover, and skills to unlock. You play as three apprentice sorcerers aiming to save their mentor from the ominous castle Looter. In Magicians and Looters you switch between  Brent, Nyn and Vienna. Each character has access to the same magic abilities, but also have their own personal abilities. After the epilogue is finished you are able to switch between the three at any save point.

Brent using in-game map

Brent is a classic warrior type, toting a sword and shield. He is the slowest of the three, but can use his shield to block incoming melee and projectile attacks from any direction. He later gains the ability to wall jump, a useful skill for solving puzzles, gaining loot and reaching hidden areas. Brent’s personality is very straightforward. He has good intentions but is very oblivious at times.

Vienna is the sister of Brent, and she’s a headstrong fighter type who specializes in speed and hand-to-hand combat. She is by far the fastest of the three and her only weapons are her fists. She can also equip the most accessories and has more abilities at her disposal than the other two. Vienna is my personal favorite because she has an “in your face” attitude that matches her fighting style. She has abilities like a high jump, wall run and a falcon kick (a likely nod to the Blue Falcon). Nyn and Brent occasionally mention that Vienna may have a screw loose. The fact that she unlocks abilities from her talking cat isn’t helping her case.

Nyn is a hardened ex-child mercenary that doesn’t back down from a fight, and she would be considered the rogue of the group. She can equip two swords, is speedy and has an evasive roll. She later attains the ability to slide, furthering her usefulness in evasion and obstacle clearing. She was my least favorite to play as, but I loved any of the dialog involving her. She is sarcastic, quick-witted and doesn’t pull punches when it comes to her opinions.

While I did find the game’s dialog funny, the actual plot lacked a bit. The story played off the popular cliches of older successes. A majority of the game’s talking has a satirical undertone that I loved, often taking jabs at current games versus the older ones. In one instance, two sorcerers converse about how sorcerers nowadays always use tutorials and teleporting instead of backtracking. I found this hilarious and spot on as today’s games have a tendency to spoon feed players. On random occasions and at save points, the main characters might have a chat with one another. This would at times provide backstory to one or more of the characters in a witty fashion.

King of Looter

Exploration is encouraged and necessary. Rather than grinding to gain levels you must collect a certain number of orbs. These orbs are usually well hidden, and each time you level up the number of orbs required increases. This is a nice reward system for completionists and makes backtracking that much more worthwhile. Orbs aren’t the only things you will discover while exploring; weapons, accessories and even the occasional dungeon wall chicken are out there, ripe for the picking.

The gameplay is easy to get a feel for, and fans of older Castlevania games will feel at home here. For this review I played the PC version and used an Xbox 360 gamepad. The controls are pretty standard with jump, attack and ability buttons. The ability varies depending on the character selected; a block for Brent, back dash for Vienna, and roll/slide for Nyn. Activating the map is done in real time and fills in as you discover new areas. Holding down the right trigger gives you access to any magic abilities that you’ve unlocked including shooting fruit. Yep, in this game rapid fire fruit is a magic spell, attained from defeating the devious Fruit Magician.

I thoroughly enjoyed my time with Magicians and Looters, and I honestly hope that Morgopolis Studios puts out another one. With a $7.99 price tag it’s well worth the money. Magicians and Looters is available for PC and Xbox 360, and you can purchase your copy here.

Overall Rating: ★★★★☆ 

What does this score mean?

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

© 2014, The Indie Mine. All rights reserved.

How do you put a fresh spin on a 35 year old classic? You’ll be hard pressed to find a way to do it, all while keeping the heart and soul of the game intact. I have to give Industry Entertainment a lot of credit for their game, Astroids: Space Game of The Year. Although they do put the game out there as “NOT ASTEROIDS”, the game looks like a reboot of the 1979 classic. This game is far more than that though, and if you don’t believe me take a closer look at the teaser trailer.

Visually speaking, this game is stunning – no detail has been overlooked in the creation of this game. The result of their in-house 3D engine is outstanding. Every object flows smoothly in the fully 3D space they have created. They were going for best overall visuals and in my opinion, they nailed it. Now the teaser only shows glimpses of the full game experience, but some of the still images show real promise. I’m really interested in how the other aspects of the game will flow into the visually amazing environments that they have crafted.

Based on the teaser trailer, the game play seems to move quite a bit faster than the original, and this itself is a double-edged sword. While you might move faster, so does everything else. Overall, the game feels almost identical to the original. Don’t count Astroids out just yet – it does have a few tricks up its sleeve. Shields could make all the difference in those hairy situations. That’s just a minor addition compared to the others. The weapons available to you will hopefully make for some interesting situations. A few of the clustered asteroids should act very different if hit with a rocket over the standard lasers. The most interesting thing Astroids has to offer is co-op. I’m a big fan of the 1979 version, but I never liked waiting for my turn. Co-op brings new challenges to the table. Not only do you have someone else to watch your back, you have to have to keep an eye out for their destructive collateral. Maybe even having to watch out for friendly fire, this will be something that players shouldn’t take lightly.

Are these few things enough to put Astroids in the space game of the year category? Only time will tell. I feel that Industry Entertainment has done something great with this game. I know that I’ll be looking forward to its release in late 2014 on the PC.

For further information, check out the following links:

http://www.indus3.org/

http://astroids.tv/blog

© 2014, The Indie Mine. All rights reserved.

Khaba at first seems like a simple enough puzzle game. Using statuettes and mirrors, players reflect and direct a beam of light onto a door which leads to the next level. It is a simple and logical concept that would probably become boring after a while if not for all the little tricks and additions Hello There pulls off. There are other doors acting as obstacles in your path that can only be opened by directing light towards certain orbs. Some of these doors remain open, while others close up again if the direction of the light is changed.

A few levels in, another type of light is introduced as well: dark light. The beam of dark light can only be activated if the beam of sunlight continually hits a blue orb. Both of these kinds of light must be used in tandem to reach the final door, but there are a few conditions. There’s only a limited amount of reflecting statuettes and mirrors, and the dark light and sunlight cannot use these objects simultaneously. What at first seems like a simple game ends up offering a satisfyingly cerebral challenge as players have to test out different set ups and figure out in what order to open certain doors and other obstacles. Unfortunately for some, the sheer level of challenge might put them off. Khaba has a few tutorial levels followed by some levels with a fairly reasonable difficulty curve, but then suddenly ramps up the difficulty to a point that might end up causing a lot of frustration. A few levels definitely forced me to walk away for a bit and try to come back later with a different perspective. This isn’t exactly conducive to quick bouts of gaming on the go, but might appeal to someone looking for a hard puzzle when they have a meatier chunk of time available to them.

Besides its difficult and cerebral puzzles, what sets Khaba apart from a lot of mobile puzzle games is that it features a fully voic-acted narrative tied into the puzzle mechanic. Players take the role of Michael, an explorer seeking vast treasures and excitement within the pyramids. Mysteries abound as Michael ventures deeper into the pyramids, and it actually ends up being a neat little story. Besides small “cutscenes”, collectable scarabs are introduced which not only add another element of challenge to the puzzles, but also give up more tidbits of the overall narrative. These aren’t mandatory to collect, but offer an extra reward for players that find interest in the story. Probably my only nitpick story-wise is that Michael’s voice acting is a bit cheesy, but not so much that it really detracts from the game.

However, my biggest issue with the game is its touch controls. I have small hands and I still found myself getting frustrated when the game would misinterpret my finger touches and I would end up moving statuettes entirely when I just wanted to change the direction of the light beams. Certain parts also required an amount of precision that had me re-doing things so many times because objects would move when I lifted my finger up from the screen. This is mainly a problem with playing Khaba on a mobile device with a smaller screen though–playing the game on a tablet was significantly easier. Nevertheless, I found myself wishing there was also a desktop version as the idea of playing this game with a mouse really appeals to me.

So, while not for folks looking for a lighter puzzle game to play on short car rides or on quick breaks in between other obligations, Khaba does provide for folks looking for something with a little more substance in their mobile gaming needs. If you can get past the sometimes frustrating controls, Khaba is a real treat. The game is available for both iOS and Android tablets and mobile devices, and more information about it can be found on the developer’s website.

Overall Rating: ★★★★☆ 

What does this score mean?

An Android review copy of the game was provided by the developer for that purpose.

© 2014, The Indie Mine. All rights reserved.

Released on Steam as an ‘Early Access’ build last month, Maia started as a Kickstarter and Indiegogo project. Developed by Simon Roth, who previously worked in AAA game development and on Terry Cavanagh’s VVVVVV, Maia is a colony-building and management sim set on a hostile, but habitable planet located about twelve light years away from Earth. Taking inspiration from games like Dungeon Keeper, Dwarf Fortress, and The Sims, the player must work to ensure the colonists survive in their harsh new environment. Build shelters, construct power sources, regulate food production, keep a careful eye on the mental and physical health of your colonists–everything you would expect from a good simulation is there. What’s also neat is that, being on a volatile planet, the colonists are not only subjected to the more routine aspects of survival, but also foreign toxins, alien flora and fauna, dangerous geological events such as volcanic eruptions and earthquakes, and extraplanetary hazards such as solar radiation and meteors of a much more violent nature and frequency than that experienced on Earth.

While the construction of the facilities in which the colonists will live initially starts underground, the player will be able to explore the planet’s surface and conduct research and experiments which will expand their knowledge of the planet and their colonists’ chances of survival. Robots and a first-person mode seem like it’ll make this facet of the game extra interesting, especially considering the look of that mode. Despite the fact that I normally don’t care for first-person perspective in games, I’m actually pretty excited to try this mode out when it’s added to the game. The visual style of it is a total blast and I hope Roth introduces more elements which will emphasize its uniqueness.

Speaking of style, there’s more that will make certain sci-fi fans–me included–salivate at the mouth: Maia also takes a lot of influence from the aesthetic and functionality of 70s science fiction. The technology in the game will be reminiscent of the era in many ways, and the look and music will surely bring folks back to their favourite 70s sci-fi movie. I know when I first heard the haunting sounds of the Kickstarter trailer I was flung back to when I first watched Alien.

Anyway, Maia looks to be a highly ambitious game. The map will be 2km x 2km and procedurally generated. The colonists you manage will all have distinct personalities and skills which you’ll have to pay close attention to in order for the colony to thrive. Like any good game that even mentions terraforming, the player will be able to change the environment and change certain settings which will influence the difficulty and direction of the game. But everything will have its trade-off. Want more minerals? You’ll have to contend with increased geological activity which will put your colonists at risk. Playing around with the amount of light that reaches the planet from its star? Plants will grow faster, sure, but that might also attract more wildlife, and where the prey is, there are predators. This attention to detail is incredibly enticing, and I sincerely hope Roth is able to pull off everything he hopes for in this game. Simulation games are great for creating unique stories, and a story about colonists hashing it out on a hostile planet is too good to pass up.

As mentioned previously, Maia is available on Steam as an ‘Early Access’ title, which means you’ll be able to follow its development first-hand and receive future updates to the game directly through the client. A word of warning, though: Maia is still in very early Alpha, so it’s still got a hardy amount of bugs and is far from polished and feature-full. The developer seems to be consistently putting out updates, however, so if you’re interested in seeing the game grow as you play it, check it out on its Steam page. You can pre-order the game on its official website as well as find out more information about it on there and on its Facebook and Twitter accounts.

© 2014, The Indie Mine. All rights reserved.

There’s always been a sweet spot in the indie ‘scene’ for horror games. With titles like Amnesia and Outlast proving the genre is very much alive and up for grabs for those willing to weave tension and terror into the mix. Blinding Dark – a ‘First Person tactical Horror game’ from solo developer Radu Ungureanu – is aiming to keep the spirit of indie horror alive.

Blinding Dark will throw you into the darkness of an abandoned manor, filled to the brim with cultists, demons and apparitions. Unfortunately for you, amnesia has taken your memories, so don’t expect to know who you are or how you managed to end up in such an unfortunate predicament.

Not wanting to give anything away, Radu was tentatively offering me small bits of information behind the game’s story, revealing that “the main character is a psychic investigator. His passion made him re-discover the ancient and occult ritual of scrying (gazing into the past and future and also, on rare occasions, opening portals to other planes of existence). This discovery brought him the unwanted attention of a religious sect that was protecting the secret of these kinds of rituals. Things go bad and our character finds himself in this place, which seems to be an abandoned manor.”

Radu was unwilling to give away more on the story surrounding the game, but did admit that he was heavily inspired by Clive Barker’s Undying, drawing heavy influences from the works for the story and lore in the game.

What pointy teeth you have…

This isn’t a game about delivering pleasant baskets of cookies to the ghastly inhabitants though, and as awesome as that idea sounds the game will most definitely require you to defend yourself from the denizens of this mad house. Things won’t be quite as simple as swinging an axe in every direction though, as each monster comes with its own set of strengths and weaknesses. Radu explains that “The monsters have physical constitution, ethereal constitution or a mix of the two. Based on this, they will be susceptible/immune to certain weapons and items. For example, the Spiked Horror is a demon, so it has high physical constitution, thus it will be susceptible to damage from revolver and axe. While the Spiritform is a spirit and it has ethereal constitution, thus it is susceptible only to damage from the Egyptian Trap (a special trap that can only detect and damage spirits).”

This concept is what makes the combat mechanics stand out for me. The idea of making things more ‘realistic’ is far from groundbreaking when you think about it, but by restricting the player to this ‘Rock, Paper, Scissors’ combat system you’re much more likely to take things slower and be more afraid of your encounters.

All he wants is a hug.

Even death isn’t the end of your troubles in Blinding Dark. In fact, it’s only just the beginning of your problems. As Radu explains, “In Blinding Dark, as all the pain and hatred piles up each time the player dies at some point all of this negative energy will transform into a demonic form of the player himself. A doppelganger if you wish. For this entity, the only purpose is to liberate itself from the continuous torture that consumes it and the only way to do that is to kill the one from which it originates, which is the player.  How the player manages to escape this new enemy is up to him to find out.”

It’s hard to resist thinking about what you will have to do in order to kill your ghostly twin, and as usual Radu was very secretive of the inner workings behind the game. It’s clear there’s more to the game than it would seem at first glance, and you can expect even more secrets to be hiding in the recesses of the manor.

Because the game is in such an early stage of development, Radu plans to release a free demo in the next month or so, containing a small demo area that showcases the combat and overall ‘feel’ of how the game is played. There are also plans to launch a surprisingly small Kickstarter campaign in February in which he hopes to raise $4000 to cover the costs of resources. A March/April window has also been earmarked for a tentative release date of the first of the six acts that make up the full game, with the rest of the acts to launch sequentially afterwards for PC, Mac and Linux.

© 2014, The Indie Mine. All rights reserved.

Hive is a board game like chess, but with colorful insects in place of the the traditional pieces. Published by Blue Line Game Studios, it’s available on Xbox Live and Steam, with Macintosh and Linux releases planned for the future.

As the title indicates, you’re building an insect hive not unlike a colony of bees, with a single queen supported by many workers. This structure leads to a number of logical rules: Your queen must be placed in the first four turns; no piece can be moved until the queen is in play; when placing a piece, it must be next to one of yours and cannot be next to the opposing team’s pieces; pieces must move in a sliding motion and can not move into a space where it wouldn’t naturally fit; and no piece may break the Hive, which means a piece may not move if it connects two or more other pieces. The rules aren’t too cumbersome making it easy to pick up, but a challenge to master.

Hive is played on a dynamic hex map, and each game creates a unique board as pieces are placed. Once you learn the rules, play proceeds naturally and quickly.

Like the king in chess, the queen is the weakest piece and moves only one space at a time. The objective of the game is to surround the opposing player’s queen using any pieces, yours or your opponent’s. One move by the queen can turn the tide of the game.

Other pieces have their strengths and weaknesses. The ant is powerful because it can move anywhere, but frequently gets in the way of your own strategy as well as your opponent’s. The beetle can move in three dimensions to occupy a hex over other pieces, but only one space at a time. The grasshopper can move any distance through any other piece, but only in a straight line. And the spider, like the knight in chess, must move in a specific pattern over a specific number of spaces. An upcoming expansion will introduce a mysterious new pill bug piece to add more strategic options.

The Steam version AI has four different difficulty levels, and provides a satisfying challenge. When playing I started off with a very aggressive tactic, going straight for the opposing queen. Over time I learned that I had to also protect my own queen in order to be successful at higher difficulties. I enjoyed the level of depth that can be applied once you master the basics.

My only complaint is that playing the AI can get dull after a while. Blue Line Game Studios plans to release their multiplayer patch soon. Player vs player is where I know this game will shine, so I was a bit sad that I didn’t get to experience that since the human factor is really a key element to games like these.

All in all Hive is both interesting and challenging, and will appeal to people who enjoy games like chess, checkers or other classic board games. You can get early access to the Steam version here.

Overall Rating: ★★★★☆ 

What does this score mean?

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

© 2014, The Indie Mine. All rights reserved.

Drone Invaders

Drone Invaders is a shoot ‘em up in the same vein as the original Space Invaders except with a small twist–there’s no ship on-screen. Instead, the game is over when at least one drone reaches the bottom of the screen. It’s a simple change, but it makes the game work effectively on mobile devices and frees up space that would otherwise be occupied by way too many fingers. The only really obtrusive element on display is the ammunition and subsequently the reload button which sometimes obscure incoming drones, making them difficult to parse and hit.

Done for a LudumDare challenge and completed in only 23 days, Drone Invaders has a nice level of polish. The music is catchy and the visuals are decent. The drones are actually pretty cute, especially the bosses. Eventually the player will spot the patterns in drone arrangements, but they never feel monotonous.

Other than that, Drone Invaders has all the regular trappings of a free mobile game. There are missions, daily challenges with bonuses for completing them all in a row, weekly hunts, upgrades that use in-game currency, and real money microtransactions. The bonus in-game content is actually fun to try and beat. The microtransactions luckily remain non-invasive and, if the player so chooses to spend money for in-game coins, actually provide a good enough amount to justify the purchase.

If you’re looking for a free shmup to play every so often, try out Drone Invaders. It’s completely free on the Google Play Store. You can also find out more about the game on the developer’s website.

Overall Rating: ★★★★☆ 

What does this score mean?

© 2013, The Indie Mine. All rights reserved.