Ambush? No, of course not…would you believe me if I said I was selling these fine leather jackets?

Players can choose to create either male or female Mukashi, ultimate warrior-scouts chosen for their supreme combat and exploration ability. They’ll journey to Kanoko Island in search of the Scrolls of Hope, which are rumored to contain the location of a safe haven where their people can escape the rising ocean that threatens to destroy them all. Mukashi are customisable with items picked up in game or gained through completing quests.

In an interesting move, the developers have announced that they intend to keep the title as an OUYA exclusive, at least initially. The console supports indie developers and has an extensive list of experimental titles which they feel would be a perfect fit for the type of game they’re trying to create. OUYA is itself an indie console successfully funded through Kickstarter, and a platform the developers are keen to support. The game will be developed using the Unity 3D engine, a tool traditionally popular among indie developers for its multi-platform support. Once a fixed term of exclusivity has passed, Mukashi should then be available on other platforms.

Mukashi and the Scrolls of Hope is currently set for a release early in 2015.

[Editor's Note: As of August 20th, the game has now shifted to a PC exclusive.]

© 2014, The Indie Mine. All rights reserved.

Currently in beta, Fire With Fire mixes up the tower defense formula by adding in offense. Whether in online multiplayer matches or in the not-yet-available single player campaign, players must defend their own base with towers while also destroying their opponent’s. The former is achieved through customizable defenses and the latter via sending creeps at your enemies.

The ability to attack is limited by a one-minute cooldown timer which gives players a brief respite to focus on their own defenses. Placing towers can redirect the path that incoming creeps take, with the goal being to lengthen that path as much as possible. Individual towers can be upgraded using points earned through continuing to build more towers, and stronger tower types can eventually be unlocked in each group. There’s a fairly standard tradeoff when it comes to the tower specializations like offense firepower, range, and single-target vs. splash damage. However, there are some other interesting side effects thrown in like the ability to make the enemies pop up in the air.

The offensive system is just as entertaining as protecting your own base. Players choose the types of creeps they want to send from a handful of varieties and also the order in which they’ll come in. This adds an extra layer of strategy in that some creeps are damage soakers, some are weak but speedy, and others are offensive beasts. Running them in a particular order can be much more effective once you get a feel for the enemy’s defenses. Repeatedly sending creeps of a specific variety will also evolve them into a more ferocious version. Once combat actually starts, the game moves into a passive mode where the player is either watching their own base get attacked or seeing the outcome of their own offensive onslaught. The break is brief, though, and players will need to be ready to quickly resume focus on attacking and defending.

An area where the game shines – quite literally – is in the graphical style. The environments, towers, and creeps are all drawn in a cartoonish manner (think Castle Crashers with extra texturing), and there’s a definite ‘wow factor’ in the particle effects seen on the battlefield. Flaming explosions, singeing electricity, and other effects look downright beautiful. It’s really impressive, and it will be interesting to see whether all of that activity bogs down future mobile versions of the game.

Perhaps one of the best features of Fire With Fire is that it offers multiplatform and cross-platform play. You’ll be able to take on your PC-loving friends from the comfort of your couch or recliner. While PC and Mac will be the early recipients of this title, plans also include releases on OUYA, Android, and iOS. Although the current version is focused on multiplayer – and thankfully so – a single player campaign is also in development that will include leveling up by completing specific goals.

Fire With Fire is currently in closed beta, but appears to be progressing quite well. Skull Skill Studios has placed the game on Steam Greenlight, and their Kickstarter campaign is just about to end. Kickstarter backers will receive access to the closed beta, so check it out asap.

© 2014, The Indie Mine. All rights reserved.

The game will have a strong focus on story, focusing on compelling plot, a rich world, and mature overtones for the band of misfit characters that the player will follow. Piecing together information from around the world will allow the players to track down powerful treasures guarded by behemoths as part of the game’s ‘Legend System’.

The developers intend to build a multi-layered combat system, allowing strategic players to use various mechanics that play off of each other to let them take down seemingly impossible odds. Characters also have non-linear progression, allowing players to build them to their preferred style, and bonus battle goals offer optional challenges for additional rewards, such as resources, rare items, and additional side-story.

Punchbag have yet to launch their campaign, but anyone interested can keep up through their website and via Twitter @PunchbagEnt.

© 2014, The Indie Mine. All rights reserved.

Greetings and welcome back fellow strategists and gunners. Hope you have kept your wits sharp and your trigger-finger ready to go, because we are going back into Interplanetary for some more planet-bombardment action. The folks at Team Jolly Roger Games have made many improvements to the game since we last looked at it, including graphical fixes, network improvements, more weapons of mass destruction, a tech tree and research mechanic, a working spying mechanic, and other improvements and goodies. I have been purposefully keeping myself in the dark about the game’s development, so that way each iteration can become more of a surprise for my next skirmish. Boy I must say, they really have made some great strides since my initial preview, which you can read here if you haven’t already.

The first topic I wish to talk about is possibly the biggest and most influential of them all, the spying mechanic. Previously you could view your opponent’s planet and see where all cities and developments have been placed, allowing precision-based weapons to take a huge advantage and dominate the weapon selections. With the recent changes, you no longer have all that info readily available. In order to view possible enemy weak points, you must construct buildings which will allow you to view planet infrastructure. Depending on your planet’s level of intelligence – the number of spy buildings you have – the possible targets available range from a couple low-value locales up to the entire planet. To keep away prying eyes, you can counter by building “cloaking” or counter-intelligence buildings in order to hide your planet’s infrastructure. This feature alone adds much more strategic gameplay and flow to the system, as players are no longer just racing to get the biggest and best guns. Priority is now split between getting your planet ready for conflict and keeping your cities and important structures hidden, creating both an arms and intelligence race.

Along with intelligence comes the research aspect of the game. You now need to research technology in order to access the bigger and more advanced weaponry. No longer are you able to build missiles and laser weapons right from the get go. Now you must allocate time in order for research to be done. This is done via a simple tech tree, where various tech and bonuses can be researched and applied to your advantage. Techs include giving permanent boosts such as more power production or spying levels as well as the ability to manufacture one of the two new weapons of massive destruction.

Now we are getting to the juicy parts of the new additions, the new weaponry. A new laser and artillery weapon have been added in the form of the ‘Solar Laser’ and the ‘Asteroid Diversion’ respectively. Once I noticed these weapons in the tech tree, I just HAD to acquire them and give them a shot (pun intended).

FIRE THE LASER!

The Solar Laser is a satellite parked in the sun’s orbit which focuses the sun’s power into a giant solar death ray, obliterating anything you set its deadly sights on with pinpoint precision. I couldn’t help but feel like an evil genius, pinky to mouth, when I set loose the focused wrath of the sun onto my enemy.

As cool as the Solar Laser is, I felt that the Asteroid Diversion was more “in tune” with the sci-fi nature of the game. As the name implies, the Asteroid Diversion weapon takes an asteroid from the local asteroid belt and diverts it to a course of your bidding, into say perhaps a nearby planet that you dislike. Nothing beats the sight of an asteroid hurtling out of space at full speed and slamming right into your enemy’s precious home planet. Numerous blockbusters and B-movies have been made on that premise, and now it is in your hands to unleash upon your foes. So set an asteroid loose on that pesky planet and whip out some popcorn for the show (3D glasses not included).

Recreate a B-movie disaster film on your enemy’s home planet

While all these additions are great, I have merely touched upon a few of the major updates to the game. Many other improvements have been made to the game such as improved multiplayer networking and graphical fixes, all showing that Team Jolly Roger have been putting a lot of effort and love into this project. I was blown away by my first look into the game many versions ago, and the current build they have on offer is no exception to that statement. I look forward to the next iteration of the game. If the additions they have made so far are any indication of the future trajectory of the game, we are in for an Earth-shattering (pun intended) release once the full game is out.
You can check out Interplanetary on Steam Early Access for those interested in some tactical fun. Let’s get those guns primed and lasers flying!

© 2014, The Indie Mine. All rights reserved.

First glances would paint Zoon as a more action-oriented take on the Faster Than Light formula. Using the tools provided, you’re tasked with building your own ship and piloting it throughout deep space, shooting aliens and avoiding various instances of space debris as you go. At least, that’s what the plan is for the final version; right now the demo version only consists of ship building and space flight with not a single enemy or asteroid in sight, but that might have something to do with my complete inability to build a ship that doesn’t rotate faster than the speed of light.

I’ll confess I’m no rocket scientist, but I spent a large portion of my time in Zoon trying desperately to install various thrusters and engines throughout my strange U-shaped ship in an effort to counter balance the constant death spiral I’d somehow found myself locked into. Unfortunately my efforts were in vain, and after 20 minutes of uncontrollably rotating through the black abyss a feeling of nausea called an end to my suffering.  And yet, despite now acknowledging that I’ll never be an astronaut, those frantic twenty minutes revealed a great deal about how things can go terribly wrong, and how entertaining it is to watch as everything collapses around you.

This demo build seemed to focus specifically on the ship building aspects, which allowed me to create several odd designs before finally settling on the ill fated U-boat I mentioned earlier. After the walls and floor tiles are connected up, it’s simply a matter of adorning the interior with a variety of machines and devices that allow you to control a number of functions like piloting the ship, long/short range communications, and even armour racks that let you remove your trusty space suit when you want a bit more freedom to roam around your ship.

Discovering that last item was a mistake though, as I soon learnt I had forgotten to plug a hole on one side of my ships wall. Venturing too close to the gaping hole promptly saw me sucked out into deep space, and without my spacesuit on I was quickly snuffed out of existence. After regaining my life in space and rebuilding the U-boat to its former glory I soon made the same mistake of hastily ignoring the gaps in my vessel, only this time I was still wearing my suit. As you’d expect, I was sucked out into deep space again, but it was to the sight of the U-boat casually flailing across the stars in its spiral of shame, leaving me behind to waddle around while contemplating if perhaps my ship had gotten sick of my antics and intentionally ejected me because of it.

When it comes down to it, Zoon is still very much work in progress. Some of the items available to place inside your ship provide absolutely nothing, and right now there is little to do other than rotate furiously through space. With that said, there are some interesting plans listed for the game’s direction. Player-made missions will provide the bread and butter of objectives for would-be space dwellers, mods will be fully supported for extra customisation, and there’s also a multiplayer mode for those who want to sail across the stars with their friends. For now, though, the game does an excellent job of creating an existential crisis amongst those willing to ponder the aimless journey across the stars, if you’re into that sort of thing that is.

© 2014, The Indie Mine. All rights reserved.

Gravity sucks. Like that annoying kid on the playground who likes to trip you because he thought it would be funny, gravity is always there waiting for its time to strike. A silent guardian of physics, gravity is the cause of every dropped biscuit wasted, every painful trip you’ve taken, and every pen that’s escaped your grasp.  I hate you, gravity.

0RBITALIS is all about gravity, or perhaps more accurately it’s about figuring out how to exploit the forces of gravity to get a small red ball to stay in orbit for as long as possible. If you’ve ever played Angry Birds: Space, you will already have a good idea how the controls work.

Each level presents itself as its own unique puzzle, with large red stars and smaller white asteroids liberally dotted around in their own orbits. Changing the angle and force of your shot can yield wildly different results, and by using the gravitational pull of each celestial body you’re able to pull off some crazy ‘skill-shots’ that leave your projectile soaring through the stars for what seems like a lifetime.

Of course, getting a trajectory that lasts longer than a few seconds isn’t always easy. If you apply too much force on your shot, you’ll end up flying straight off the map and into a world of failure. Shoot too softly, and you’ll be sucked straight towards the closest object. It’s all about finding that sweet spot for each level.

There’s little to dislike about 0RBITALIS. It scratches an itch for physics puzzling without overcomplicating things. The levels are varied enough to keep you occupied for a good while and the leaderboards can help create healthy competition between you and your friends. The game is essentially feature complete despite launching as an Early Access title, and if you’re in the market for a new puzzle game you can’t go wrong with shooting things into space for fun.

0RBITALIS launched on the 16^TH across Steam Greenlight as an Early Access title.

© 2014, The Indie Mine. All rights reserved.

Over the past few years horror has been making great strides in the gaming community. With releases like Amnesia: The Dark Descent - which made a huge impression on the survival horror genre – it is no surprise that many others wish to make their own mark in the community. One of the more newly announced titles is Monstrum, a game by Team Junkfish and created in the Unity engine.

Monstrum sets you aboard an abandoned derelict ship filled with traps, environmental hazards, and another “passenger” who is not exactly friendly. From there you must find an escape route among the vast, dark, and claustrophobia-inducing confines of the ship’s procedurally generated corridors. Be sure not to meander too long because your fellow passenger is out to get you, and you have no way of fighting back. Run, hide, and use distractions and your wits in order to survive your pursuer’s relentless onslaught.

The ship generates a new layout each playthrough.

Monstrum incorporates permadeath, so if you unfortunately come to your untimely demise, you have to start over again with a brand new ship, new layout, and possibly a new hunter hot on your tail. With three unique monsters, each with their own behavior and hunting techniques, one method of escape or distraction may work on one hunter, but not on the others, forcing you to adapt your escape and survival strategy.

Does that not intrigue you enough? Perhaps the inclusion of Oculus Rift support would heighten your interest. Now you can experience the grit, claustrophobia, and terror first-hand as you attempt to flee your doom.

Monstrum is set to release in late Q3 2014 for Windows, Mac, and Linux. If you love horror games with a roguelike procedurally generated map, Monstrum is the title to look out for. With native Oculus Rift support planned, a unique map generated each playthrough, and three different hunters to chase you down, it seems like a no-brainer for any survival horror junkie.

© 2014, The Indie Mine. All rights reserved.

Still Alive attempts to distil this popular ‘survival sim’ formula, removing some of the more hardcore elements of games like DayZ and Rust and introducing a bigger focus on player combat. By pitting up to 10 players against each other in a last-man standing deathmatch mode, players are expected to scavenge the supplies and weapons necessary to fight against their fellow humans in an attempt to be the sole survivor.

Today’s apocalypse is brought to you by way of a meteor shower raining molten fire and rock-based destruction across the earth. The planet is left scarred, most life has ceased to exist, and everything is generally looking bad for the remaining survivors. What’s worse, the meteor shower seems to have implanted an alien species onto the planet; a hive mind organism that can mutate any life form it is able to inhabit. Naturally, humans become a perfect home for these alien bacteria baddies, and genetically spliced mass murdering humans begin to flood the landscape seeking out the tender flesh of whoever remains.

It’s an interesting concept that I’m surprised we haven’t seen sooner. By amalgamating the best features of a number of games, Still Alive seems to be highlighting a specific element that makes these kinds of games great – the emergent play that comes from conflict between players. However, only time will tell if that alone is unique enough for it to achieve its $45,000 Kickstarter goal.

© 2014, The Indie Mine. All rights reserved.

It’s not all about surviving, though, as the game will present players with an opportunity to maintain and improve the colony’s base. Construction/upgrade of base modules, delegating tasks to individual workers, and of course exploration make up just a few of the player’s responsibilities as they battle the harsh, life-or-death conditions. It reminds me a bit of the old Sierra game, Outpost, which I played extensively, so naturally I’m curious to see how this compares.

Construct, maintain, and upgrade your Mars colony to survive and thrive.

A few weeks ago, TBA Games created a Kickstarter campaign to help fund PeriAreion‘s development. With weeks left in the campaign, the studio met its initial $3000 goal back in mid-March, followed soon after by hitting the first stretch goal: expanded artwork. There are still a few  stretch goals remaining including a new game map, custom base placement, and improved animations. With just over a week left, it’s not too late for backers to get on the bandwagon, and there are plenty of tiered rewards left including copies of the game, stickers, posters, and the chance to be turned into a playable character.

For more information on PeriAreion and to stay on top of updates, be sure to check out the game’s official website.

© 2014, The Indie Mine. All rights reserved.

Late last year I wrote a preview of Orlando-based Hapa Games’ Ascendant, a self-proclaimed ‘broguelike’. The intense brawling and harsh roguelike rules combined for a tough, but entertaining experience while playing an early build. After a successful Kickstarter campaign in November, the developers have put in a lot of work over the past few months. The fruits of their labor were recently showed off in an updated build at local indie events Indienomicon and Game Developer Night, and I had a chance to have another look at the game along with some of those changes.

One of the biggest changes to the game is the addition of multiplayer. Two players can team up to take down zealots and gods in local cooperative play. The players aren’t necessarily working together (i.e. no combo attacks) so much as they’re battling simultaneously, giving the game an old-school beat-em-up feel. After talking to the devs, there are still some decisions to be made about how to handle balancing the difficulty with two players and what to do when one of the players dies. I had mixed feelings about the multiplayer only being for local play, but the experience does tend to lend itself better to a couch session with a friend.

Cooperative multiplayer and an improved map UI are just two of the latest changes to Ascendant.

Another area of improvement is with the overall polish of the presentation. A shining example are the new boss fights. While bosses were included in the early demo, this latest build includes big baddies that require some interesting combat mechanics to take down. They are also introduced in video sequences akin to the Legend of Zelda series. I did end up fighting the same first boss over and over again during my many playthroughs (it IS a roguelike afterall), so I’m curious to see what other villains the developers have in store for us. An improved set of map views make traversing the world a bit easier to handle as well.

The game’s areas are all season-based. The Summer-based areas that I saw – but didn’t play – look very close to what the team envisioned in their concept art released during the Kickstarter campaign. Since I spent most of my play time in some aesthetically-beautiful Spring-themed areas, I can’t wait to see what the artists are going to do with the environments and enemies for the other seasons.

Let’s see some more of this.

Ascendant was originally planned for a February release, but that time frame has obviously passed. The developers are still shooting for a Spring release, possibly as soon as April. There’s still room for small improvements as evidenced by the fact that the devs are still taking in player feedback from these indie events. The game continues to look more and more promising, and the devs hope that players will see that as they push for a successful Steam Greenlight campaign. Hapa Games plans to release a new trailer soon, so stay tuned to The Indie Mine for new details about Ascendant in the coming weeks.

UPDATE: New teaser trailer released!

© 2014, The Indie Mine. All rights reserved.