Zane: Let me start the formal interview process by thanking you for taking the time to have this chat. I really appreciate it.

Joe: I definitely appreciate your time.

Zane: Founding a studio and creating a game of this scope aren’t small tasks by any means. What made you decide to become an indie developer, and found your studio?

Joe: Well I basically learned to write code about 19 years ago or so and started with writing BBS door games and moving on from there. I’ve worked at a few studios here in Toronto and in San Diego but eventually found myself working in other industries. The core game and ideas for Empyrios is actually a design I’ve been toying with for probably 4-5 years before the actual start of development and something that I’ve wanted to build for a long time.

Zane: Ah! Admittedly, I was curious which came first: Empyrios, or Creoterra.

Joe: Creoterra was really born in order to focus attention on building the types of games that we really wanted to play, to be honest. The core ideas and gameplay definitely predate us striking out and founding the studio, and we had a lot of world design and gameplay mechanics to start with. Once we found Jove—our artist—and he came on board with the project, is when things really started to come together from both a design and aesthetic point of view

Zane: Your aesthetic does have that old-school fantasy game feel. There are a number of areas where you’re doing things differently. For instance, I notice you’re not going with the traditional fantasy races. Even the dvergar as ‘dark dwarves’ in concept are very rarely seen compared to, say, dark elves.

Joe: Well that was one thing that we really spent a lot of time on because we really wanted to create a new world for the game to take place in. We do have a human race, the Aduro, and then the Dvergar as you mentioned, but we really wanted to have a fresh feel rather than sticking with ‘old proven’ so we’ve tried to come up with a lot of different concepts. Jove was also a big part of this and we worked very well going between art and design. One example would be the ‘Shade’ race, which our original design had more as a traditional type of undead. Jove wanted to try something new and he took the backstory of them being outcast for refusing to stop playing with necromancy and other dark arts, and tied it into the overall race. So now instead of having, say, the usual skeletal minions you might see elsewhere, the shade are basically a humanoid spirit, but with various parts of different types of living beings kind of moulded together.

Zane: Even the Aduro have a unique feel compared to the tried-and-tested staple of Humans. It’s great to see all these unique options. I can’t resist, though: are there any races that are developer favourites?

Joe: We’ve really tried to give all races, and the entire world for that matter, a really unique feel both through art style and ability design. Regarding favourites I can say that the Lithos are quite popular and we usually feature the Brute character out of game, but beyond that everyone seems to have their own favourite to play. I play a lot of the Caelum (avian race) myself and would definitely say they’re one of my personal favourites. Some people like sticking mainly with one race in their team composition, but a lot of people actually like to select from various races in whichever faction they’re playing.

Zane: I’m glad that you came to the topic of factions. You probably get this question a lot, but what is the Prophecy of Flame, and how does it relate to the two factions and their agenda?

Joe: Well the Prophecy of Flame actually stems from the Aduro race but has ramifications across the world. The human race in this part of the world started to have visits from very strange humans from other lands. They spoke of Pyrios, the god of flame, and began to recruit others into their religion and follow their beliefs. This had huge ramifications as once the Aduro Nation became the largest sect, they went from a passive view to being more aggressive, and banning and outlawing various forms of magic. This is what led to the Shade, as they are actually exiled Aduro who wanted to continue their research and practice into the darker arts. Whether that was a good idea or not is yet to be seen. I can’t go into the actual prophecy itself, as I don’t want to spoil the plot of either campaign, but it encompasses the entire world and story.

Zane: No worries! We wouldn’t want to spoil any surprises. The two factions, the Mystic Covenant and the Shadowlord Pact, they’re then centred around the Aduro and Shade, and their positions regarding Pyrios and his word?

Joe: Well their battle is one component, but every race actually has their own goals in mind, and they the factions are alliances of purpose and convenience. One example is how during their exile a high mage of the Shade actually created the Lithos race through necromancy and spirit magic. This impacts the Dvergar as you now have these wild destructive creations born in the mountains who start attacking the mines and trade routes. On the other hand, you have the Caelum who have forged a pact with the Sylvan to protect the wooded lands, and by making it seem as if the Reptilis attacked them first they’ve drawn the Sylvan into their battle. The Prophecy of Flame also foretold of the ‘beasts from the desert’ which later emerge as the Az’Modai, something the story goes into in more detail. So really the factions are actually created out of necessity, trickery, or something in between. They are much looser than say a conventional alliance where different races are friends for no reason, and it’s always been that way.

Zane: Wow. Suffice to say, there’s been a lot of preparation and fore-thought. All of this no doubt creates a rich back-story to set the current campaign’s events against.

Joe: Each faction’s campaign story isn’t actually just a linear point A to point B narrative. Sometimes you might have 2-3 options open to you on the map and you have to make a decision. Do you help the Dvergar town or the Aduro town, or do you ignore both to support the Sylvan on the front lines in the forest? Each campaign is different depending on the choices you make and the outcomes of the battle.

Zane: Strategizing well is clearly a big part of the game, and using your environment to your advantage is a core component thereof. What are some of the key elements of Empyrios’ tactical combat?

Joe: Well you hit on one key component which is trying to take tactical advantage by using the environment. Some units can set traps or alter the environment in small ways. To that effect. map control and positioning is pretty big. Another is that each unit has a set of 3 skills that vary in power cost, so you have to decide on whether you want to use ability X now, or wait and use something that costs less until you can get into a better position for a larger ability. Ouside of the battles the units in your army gain levels, have a skill mastery tree, and even one additional customization system that we’re still working on. So just because an enemy is using a Lithos Brute, you can’t be sure if he’s using it as a traditional ‘tanky’ type build, crowd control, or focussing on raw damage. And of course setting up team synergy and combos and planning your strategy is something that gives a nice edge.

Zane: Wow. Multiple campaigns with non-linear story-lines and player controlled outcomes, and then full control in a tactical environment with a myriad of options…have to say, you guys have put a lot of thought, effort and passion into this project.

Joe: Yeah it’s actually been quite the undertaking! As I mentioned early the core game concept and ideas were coming together for years before development started (actually using HeroQuest miniatures on a cardboard map), and we’ve been in full production for quite an insane amount of time.

Zane: What have been some of the major challenges of going Indie and working on Empyrios?

Joe: Well the biggest challenge for me has been the switch over to production. I spent the majority of my career, both in and out of games, in software engineering and technical direction. So while I worked hand in hand with producers, artists, and designers, I was still heavily tech focused. I had a million and one things to learn, and a lot of mistakes to make, but having someone like Jove on the project was absolutely huge as he took care of the aesthetic direction and really helped bring this idea and story on paper to life. Also, scope was a huge issue as the amount of work was pretty staggering on all fronts, whether it be code, design, art, anything! Although on a positive note we knew going into the project that it wasn’t something we would be building quickly and that we were in for the long haul project… so it wasn’t like we were surprised or hammered by scope creep.

Zane: I can imagine with something like an RPG, where you have to cater for every individual player contingency, as well as test to ensure the combinations are compatible, that it’s a huge undertaking.

Joe: The testing is actually a major part, especially with the team composition and customization. I build a lot of in-house tools and we’ve basically had bots playing the game 24/7 against each other for over a year constantly collecting data. It was quite fun, actually, because the bots were building teams and combos based on statistical analysis. Quite a few times the AI created some monster teams where we immediately knew we had to go in and fine-tune some abilities. The bots came up with a few team compositions that we never would have dreamed of using… but if the AI found them, players definitely would have at some point.

Zane: In that case, mental note to self: only play against other humans. You mention a variety of game modes, including the campaign and multiplayer. What are the modes on offer for the release?

Joe: We have the campaign mode, which is has a full non-linear campaign for each faction individual faction. Then there’s online multiplayer, local multiplayer, and practice. With online games we have a full infrastructure and matchmaking system so you can play ‘ranked’ games or just friendly games against friends. There are even unlockables and achievements. Local multiplayer is just what it sounds like: multiple friends against each other, playing on the same device. Practice mode is essentially local multiplayer versus bots.

Zane: Whom we’ve just established might be much nastier than your friends, depending on your difficulty level (and friends).

Joe: Hehehe very true.

Zane: I know this is probably your least favourite question as a developer, but the journalist code of honour dictates that I ask. Without us forcing you to commit to it, do you have a rough release date in mind?

Joe: Well our target is Q4 this year, but depending on development we may run into Q1 of next year. We’re actually 100% art complete at this stage (and we’re working on the first update actually), and majority code complete. Right now a lot of the work is in continuing to work on unit balancing, story/campaign, and heavy polishing across the board. Of course no promises with time as we want to make sure everything is extremely polished and as perfect as we can build it in our view.

Zane: That’s exciting news! Is there any way our readers can help show their support or keep up to speed with the latest progress reports and news?

Joe: Well we always massively appreciate support on Twitter and Facebook which we’ll be updating with news much more often. We’ve been ‘working in a dark cave’ for the last about 5 weeks while trying to get our latest alpha build ready and in testing so we haven’t had the stream of updates I’d like to see but there will be a lot more in the coming weeks. Also we’re hoping to have both the empyrios.com website and steam green light page online within the next 3-4 weeks or so. And of course players can check our company site where there is more information on the game and will be continually updated

Zane: Thank you very much, Joe. Do you have any final words of advice or inspiration you’d like to share with any aspiring indie devs who might be reading?

Joe: Well for me I think the biggest thing is that if you have a great game idea that you’d like to realize, you have to build it. In some cases, like with Empyrios, the design morphed from tabletop gameplay builds over the years, and writing the backstory as a hobby, into building out the entire game in production. Just be very mindful that if you haven’t produced a AAA or indie title in the past, you are going to learn a million new things, your time estimates will be derailed, and you’ll probably hit a host of unforeseen problems. As we’re wrapping up development on Empyrios I am definitely really happy with the overall process and what we’ll have achieved in the end, and I hope that players will feel the same way.

© 2014, The Indie Mine. All rights reserved.

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.

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.

Survivalist is an isometric 3D sandbox RPG zombie survival game, with great emphasis on the survival aspect. You begin the game as Joe Wheeler who has been hiding in an underground bunker in an attempt to avoid the spreading zombie virus. Supplies have run out after a year, thus you must venture out and procure food and water in order to keep on living. Simple enough, until you realize that there are zombies running around and civilized life is all but wiped out. What follows next is your daily struggle in the search for food and supplies in order to keep you alive and safe from the hazards of a devastated, zombie-infested, gang-ridden land. This being an open-world game, you are free to roam anywhere you please in the search for more supplies. The further you stray from the safety of your bunker though, the more dangers lurk around every corner.

Survivalist focuses on a more realistic tone to the genre than most games do. While you do have the usual gunning and scavenging aspect as seen in similar games such as DayZ, the core mechanic of Survivalist focuses on community and humanity as a whole. When exploring Survivalist’s desert wasteland setting, you will often come upon other survivors of the zombie uprising. Each encounter can easily shape the outcome of your playthrough as every person you meet has their own personality, relationships, and personal goals and needs. Your actions upon meeting this person can easily determine whether they are a friend or foe, and they will remember your choice as well. Rob a passerby early in the game and later on in your next meeting they will remember your face with a seething look of hatred pointed your way and possibly the barrel of a gun as well. Begin friendly trades with a well-armed group and they will welcome you happily to their camp for further use and trade. The amount of work put into the AI to simulate a living and thriving community among the NPCs was simply amazing to see. The fact that I can slowly work my way into the good graces of a community by buttering up one or two members and see the results of my goodwill spread among the rest of the members left me amazed.

Speaking of community, it is not solely limited to pre-established NPC clans. The option is there to build your own community as well. With enough supplies, manpower and skills, you can build your very own fortress to house yourself and any friends you make on your travels. One key member you will come across very early in the game is a woman named Alice who is a diabetic and requires a daily dose of insulin in order to keep her alive. With her among your group, not only do you need the basic necessities but you also need to procure a regular supply of her medication. In a world devasted by a zombie plague, modern medication such as insulin does not come readily available, with the few caches coming in at a steep price. Do you keep her with you and attempt to save what humanity is left, or do you simply abandon her, leaving her to a grim fate?

In my playthrough, I decided to let her tag along with me and did the best of my abilities to keep her regularly supplied with her much-needed medication. I will have to admit that this hit a lot closer to home than I was expecting from a game. I come from a high-risk group of people for diabetes and my family does have a history of the condition. The fact that I got a small glimpse of what I may have to resort to if the collapse of civilization actually occurred, left me in contemplative silence. Not many games I have played have managed to evoke a feeling like this from me, it is both humbling and frightening when I think about it.

The gameplay itself is broken down into familiar action-rpg style mechanics. You have skills ranging from fitness, guns, farming, and construction. Each one can be leveled up by using that particular skill, with successive levels adding more benefits for your continual survival. More fitness for example can allow you to run further and carry heavier loads; better gun skills will allow you to aim more accurately, taking down zombies with ease. The zombies, while not as deadly as the human threats you may come across, are no pushovers themselves. Zombies in Survivalist come in various strengths which have been thoughtfully color coded as virus strains. The virus strains infecting the undead hosts range from a mildly annoying green, stronger blues, dangerous reds, and a rumored instant-death white. With skills you can manage each one with various difficulty, greens offering the least amount of danger and whites the most. Thankfully all the viruses save for the white strain can be combated with syringes called antigens in order to cure yourself of viral bites. These of course will further add to your list of much needed supplies. Getting bit by a zombie will mean death if the required antigen isn’t applied soon, so always carry a syringe or two while out scavenging.

I have to say I love this game. It’s a robust game filled with moral and physical obstacles while giving a grand look on the narrative of humanity and the choices we make. The graphics, while not the best looking, did the job well of playing out a world devoid of modern civilization. Abandoned towns looked eerie and foreboding, the game’s day/night cycle made you welcome the sun. Zombies looked grotesque and dead as they should; the interface offering multiple views and providing vital info when needed. The music in game added the appropriate amount of atmosphere, some more than others I might add. Having an easy, synthesized guitar track guide you along as you explore the vast desert inexplicably changing to a strange electronica tempo just felt jarring. Thankfully the majority of them fit right in and it didn’t distract me too much from the immersion of the game.

The game is so close to being perfect, it has all the aspects I ever wanted in a survival game as well as adding in zombies and a well-defined “living world”. The sheer depth it offers with the narrative separates itself from the other similarly-themed games. With it’s glowing gameplay and mechanics I do see a rather major problem coming up during the endgame, that problem being a gentle downhill slope into repetitiveness. In my playthough one of my endgame goals was to have at least one survivor with maxed out skills. Once you form a basic community and you have people cordoned off and specialized to do certain work, you begin using those members solely for their best skill and rarely anything else. I had one member who was the main builder of the group while I was a skilled marksman and scavenger. I would need to grind construction skills with useless buildings and dwindling supplies just to be able to “win”. Thankfully I have yet to experience this part of the game, perhaps it may not be as bad as I think when I eventually do get to that point. Either way this is a cause of concern for me as using timesinks in order to win does not seem enjoyable in the least.

Despite that, I think that Survivalist is great beyond all expectations and it has become my favorite game among all the titles being offered on XBLIG. It is nearly perfect and it outshines any other title I have played with the survival-horror-sim aspect. If you want a great survival game for a low price, get Survivalist as soon as you can. I guarantee it will keep you busy for hours. While it may not be as eye-opening to others as it was to me, I assure it will give you much food for thought.

Simply amazing.

Overall Rating: ★★★★★ 

What does this score mean?

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

Other reviews:

Survivalist on theXBLIG

© 2014, The Indie Mine. All rights reserved.

Platformines is confused. It doesn’t know what direction it wants to take, and the result is a mash-up of RPG and platforming that never really commits to either genre. Instead what we get is a timid approach to its inspirations, and whilst the combination of an RPG/Platforming hybrid may sound like a game we all want to play, the truth is much more disappointing.

The game starts off with you creating your chiselled action hero. A grizzled veteran that conforms to all 80s super-macho aesthetics, and rightfully so considering you’ll be watching him gun down everything in sight. Once you’ve selected the perfect shade of hot pink for your afro, it’s straight into the fray.

And for the first five or ten minutes things seemed to be looking good. There’s a hint of Spelunky oozing through the 2D cartoon aesthetics and, when combined with the smoothness of controlling your avatar, initial hopes for the game were high. It felt as though there might just be a promising platformer waiting to be unearthed. But that was not the case. Instead what you’re left with is the result of procedurally generated obstacles scattered across your path in the hope that it will make a world worth exploring. Whether it’s a randomly placed buzz-saw blocking off the dead air above you or an automated turret aimlessly shooting two blocks into the floor below it, there are obvious flaws in the design. It doesn’t make for a meaningful experience, and by expecting the game to generate something worthwhile, a lot of the magic that goes into making a challenging platformer is lost.

Platformines’ idea of character progression is naught but a gear grind and not a fun one either.  The idea is by progressing further out from the starting zone, you will encounter tougher enemies who are likely to drop bigger and better guns. Whilst this is the case, the enemies rarely differ between difficulty tiers, instead simply becoming more powerful re-skinned versions of their weaker incarnations. What’s worse, the same can be said for the weapons. Half way through my play session, I stopped caring about the minuscule differences between my current bazooka and the one that had just dropped. They weren’t very interesting and any desire to seek out better loot is all but lost.

The objective for the game is pretty simple; gather a number of coloured cannons that have been scattered around the game world and use them to repair your spacecraft. It’s not an overly complicated scenario to wrap your head around. In fact it’s quite the opposite. It’s too simple. So much so that after the third or fourth cannon has been obtained you’re likely to stop caring about the enemies that litter your journey, choosing instead to rush down each cannon in the hope of finding something new to do. Once all of the cannons have been collected, you’re tasked with rebuilding your ship by shooting the right coloured blocks into the correct positions on a template. Your mission is complete and you’re left with a sense of dissatisfaction as things come to an end.

You can probably tell by now that the game didn’t sit too well with me. In fact, I’m somewhat annoyed with the end result. Mechanically, the game is sound. The animations are smooth and feel responsive enough for the demands of a platformer, and through all of its faults, it’s a well built game. What irks me the most is the lack of focus. The idea seemed to be a combination of RPG progression by way of procedural loot – akin to games like Borderlands – whilst simultaneously providing a lashing of platforming that saw you jumping across tight gaps as you fight off the hordes with your big guns. Instead what we get is a lacklustre adventure through a meaningless world, as two genres collide to make something less than the sum of their parts.

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.

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.

You’ll control up to six units in strategic combat that looks intense, even in the game’s clean, vibrant, and endearing art style, as you progress through a story that’s driven by action and performance, not dialogue choices.

Kyn is scheduled for release on Windows, Mac, and Linux in Summer 2014. Until then, head over to the game’s website, or check out the announcement trailer below.

© 2014, The Indie Mine. All rights reserved.

This was part of my experience with Quest of Dungeons, a 16-bit, turn-based RPG which tasks players with navigating through multiple levels of a ruined mansion to find a magical lantern that has been used by a powerful sorcerer to steal the light from the world. The artistic styling is everything you’d expect from a roguelike game, the controls are smooth, and I didn’t encounter any bugs or glitches (which is hard to say about a lot of indie games). However, the repetitiveness of both combat and level progression dragged down an otherwise entertaining experience as I kept waiting for another element to emerge and provide a new challenge.

Players can choose between four characters: The Warrior, The Wizard, The Shaman, and The Assassin. The Warrior relies solely on melee combat to defeat enemies, while The Assassin is able to take out enemies from afar with his bow. Both characters are able to implement a variety of special abilities to do area damage, increase stats, and deal extra damage for a time, but these abilities are rarely more effective than their standard attacks. The Wizard and the Shaman both rely on magic and spells to defeat their enemies, but they do so in different ways. The Wizard’s abilities focus on direct damage, while The Shaman uses black magic to weaken and disorient his foes before moving in to finish them off. The enemies all rely on melee attacks and aren’t much of a challenge on the two lower difficulties. On the hardest difficulty, you’ll need to rely on both skill and luck to survive as the enemies take more hits to kill and large groups will surround you if you’re not smart.

As I progressed through the procedurally generated levels, some enemies would taunt me and my character would occasionally remark on his surroundings, but there wasn’t much of a storyline or plot to follow. I know first-hand the difficulty in programming a linear story in an otherwise non-linear environment, but the lack of a cohesive story outside of the singular main objective didn’t provide much incentive to explore the entirety of a level. The occasional quest and boss would pop up, but the quests simply tasked me with finding and killing a “special” enemy, and the boss battles lacked the formality required to be considered a true “Boss Battle”. If it wasn’t for my loot-happy, “completionist” OCD, I would have descended through the mansion with reckless abandon, defeated the sorcerer, and grabbed that lantern in an hour or two.

If you’re looking for game that’s fun, easy to jump into, and offers plenty of incentive to replay the adventure using each character, Quest of Dungeons is perfect for you. Quest of Dungeons provides a great, retro-style gaming experience that will bring back fond memories of past eras, but some repetitiveness in its combat and lack of story prevent it from living up to it’s full potential.

Quest of Dungeons has been Greenlit by the Steam community and is tentatively scheduled for a February 2014 release on PC, Mac, and iOS. To see the game in action, check out the website or watch the trailer below.

Overall Rating: ★★★☆☆ 

What does this score mean?

This game was reviewed using a pre-release build provided by the developer for that purpose.

© 2014, The Indie Mine. All rights reserved.

3089 is a first-person RPG in which you assume the role of an experimental android, sent down to the strange planet ‘Xax’ to be tested on your performance whilst under the watchful eye of a shady omnipotent figure called the Overlord. You’ll be expected to traverse the sprawling, randomly generated world as you complete quests, gear up your character, and eventually begin building your own base on the planet’s surface.

Explosions on my first day…

You begin your adventure by choosing from either one of the predefined classes – ranging from the typical melee, gunner, and thief choices to more unorthodox options like pilot and leader. Being offered the choice on how you want to play is a nice touch to help accommodate different play styles, but there’s way too little information available on this screen for you to make an informed decision on what some of the classes offer. The Pilot class, for example, offers a large boost to the piloting stat which allows you to drive the various ships found on the planet’s surface. Without picking this option and diving in, there’s no way a new player would know what kind of play style they are committing themselves to.

The planet Xax will be your ultimate test, providing you can survive the hostile inhabitants that roam the surface. While you may attempt to seek refuge inside one of the safe zones scattered throughout the world, your safety isn’t guaranteed as alien ships will frequently wander in and begin to slaughter the friendly inhabitants of your town. Luckily, turrets are commonplace in these safe areas so for the most part you can use the shop and workstation nodes without too much fear.

The nodes found in each town are used to purchase new weapons, armour and special gadgets like grappling hooks and hoverboards – the latter of which is highly recommended as it not only makes you feel badass, but makes travelling the world a whole lot faster. While each node serves a specific function, it can be somewhat frustrating to have to constantly run between the huts that house each node, especially when there’s usually a huge distance to cover between each house. It seems odd that the various shops and functions couldn’t have just been gathered together in one place, effectively cutting out this need to tediously trek between posts just to get your gear sorted.

The crux of activities in 3089 are handled with randomly generated quests that you pick up from the safe zones. Each quest is a mash-up of objectives which usually ask you to perform a number of tasks like diffusing bombs, spying on hostile NPC’s or being a courier for important info discs. While the questing system serves a valid purpose to help generate content for you to earn cash – which you then use to upgrade your character – it’s unfortunate that most of the objectives are repeated after completing several quests. It soon becomes more of a chore to complete these necessary side missions just so your character doesn’t fall behind on its progression for bigger and better equipment.

[Spoiler warning: If you want to avoid any story spoilers, skip past the next paragraph.]

Alongside the side quests is 3089’s main plot, centred on the shady goings on with the Overlord, the omnipotent entity that sent you to the planet in the first place. After jumping through a few hoops, you soon learn that planet Xax was once inhabited by another race of creatures, which were all but killed off. With their planet taken, they hid underground waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike back against their attackers.  By enlisting your help, this hidden faction hopes to use you in their secret war against the Overlord. You’ll have to piece together most of the story via transmissions received whilst completing quests and defeating the various boss monsters at each interval as you progress, but the plot is engaging enough to encourage you to push forward and learn more about this secret war.

The Matrix, only with 100% more robots.

How you fight in 3089 depends entirely on your play style. There’s a full stealth/sneaking system in place to allow those who like to flaunt their melee and backstabbing prowess, whilst still accommodating the big guns and awesome firepower gun nuts will no doubt crave. What’s more, weapons are modular, meaning you can swap and change the individual parts of each weapon with newer pieces, allowing you to freely customize the stats of each weapon, or even add attachments like silencers for extra functionality.

Being the experimental robot killing machine that you are, you also come full equipped with a special device that lets you pause time briefly. This allows you to set up elaborate precision strikes on enemies, or perhaps just escape a tricky situation unscathed. This super power is balanced by making you seek out collectible clocks, scattered throughout the game world which replenish the charge that fuels this ability.

Perhaps I can build a bridge outta here?

Once you’ve progressed far enough into the main plotline of 3089, you’ll gain access to the building tools. This equipment adds a whole new layer to the gameplay, shifting away from the character progression and more towards building structures, turrets and useful utilities. This feature is quite robust, and easy to use for the most part with on screen cues helping you to place and shape your structures any way you wish. It’s a strange concept, as for the most part this feature didn’t feel like it was in any way attached to the main concept of the game. It didn’t seem in any way necessary for me to dive into this aspect, and yet I was drawn to it simply because of the new level of control over the world that it gave me.

3089 is a strange mash-up of genres, and one that is quite common place in gaming today with so many titles opting to meld genres in an attempt to mix up the formula and make something interesting. While this is an impressive feat pulled off by such a small development team (a single fellow by the name of Phr00t), it doesn’t quite hit all of the buttons to make it anything more than a fun sandbox adventure to sink a few hours into. The extra gadgets and the handy building tool help liven up the standard ‘run & gun’ aspects somewhat, but with the tedious quests and unnecessary ferrying between shop nodes it is easy to become annoyed at the feeling of repetition.

Overall Rating: ★★★☆☆ 

What does this score mean?

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

For more information on 3089, check out the developer’s website or Steam page.

© 2014, The Indie Mine. All rights reserved.

Drox Operative: Invasion of the Ancients offers a lot of new content for players. There’s a new race, the Scavengers, which is available to play as or against. There are also three new monster races; the Talon, Hezog, and Overlord join the roster for galactic domination. Any of these three races can suddenly appear on any planet (including already occupied ones) making them unpredictable and very dangerous. Space stations are a new strategic structure which you can help defend for your allies or destroy those of your enemies. New components for your ship are available, including new chips to be fitted into them. There are nineteen sub-races that can be unlocked, new quests including the Drox guild quest, and the responsibility of guiding the evolution of persistent galaxies. Of course, you have the Ancient invasions, but let’s get a better understanding of this race.

Before the Drox ruled the galaxy, before they were even sentient, there were older races now known as the Ancients. Using their Operatives, the Drox crushed and enslaved most of these races. The rest fled known space. When the Drox turned on their own Operatives, the Drox were utterly destroyed. Newer races emerged and thrived in the power void, never knowing the menace waited. Seizing their chance, the Ancients are invading to take their rightful place in the galaxy, as rulers! Thirsting for revenge, the Ancients can’t harm the extinct Drox, but they can crush the next best thing, the Drox Operatives.

So what we have here is a good old fashioned case of revenge, and the Drox Operatives are only a conduit for the Ancients’ rage. Ancient ships emerge at any given time, and will stop at nothing to destroy a Drox Operative. The Ancients have the fastest ships by far, making them very hard to keep up with. Their armor and weaponry make them near impossible to kill, unless you have an upgraded ship and/or allied races to fight by your side.

For this review, I decided to play as the new Scavenger race. Their ships are well-rounded  focusing on both defense and damage. The addition of the three new races makes diplomacy even more challenging, though the Talon tend to be a bit more diplomatic in comparison to the Hezog and Overlord. The latter two are extremely aggressive, adding an extra layer of difficulty to an already challenging game. They can appear suddenly, wage war at a moment’s notice, and are strong and relentless. Things can escalate rather quickly.

Overall, there’s a lot to like about the expansion. One of my favorite features is that it supports the use of a gamepad. The controls take a bit of getting used to, but for space battle it’s my preferred method. A good combination of diplomacy, exploration, and upgrading your ship is essential to being a successful at the game. At times the game borders on the realm of challenging and frustrating, but overall Drox Operative: Invasion of the Ancients is a great first expansion. The original game and expansion can be picked up for around $30, and I recommend it. You can pick up both games as well as Soldak Entertainment’s other games here.

Overall Rating: ★★★★☆ 

What does this score mean?

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

© 2013, The Indie Mine. All rights reserved.