The developers have been kind enough to share their alpha gameplay footage, saying, “We’re making an effort to be more open about development – about the progress we make, the lessons we learn, and the incredible fun we have building this game.”

Check out the footage below, or visit the game site at www.emberconflict.com.

© 2014, The Indie Mine. All rights reserved.

Its TD aspect shines through as an efficient method of crowd control, defense, and at times even allows for players to be that much more aggressive. The goal for each level is to go from alien base to alien base, disabling and capturing them, so that you may move on to the next, while defending all previous bases. Towers greatly help with this effort, especially in later levels where things become frantic.

In general, there is a ton of strategy involved in the game. You must manage your resources appropriately so that you have the units, structures, and upgrades you need to beat every level. After the first couple of levels you are also forced to spread out your units and decide which alien bases to attack first. Units also have effective counters, weaknesses and strengths. Altogether this leads to interesting strategic gameplay for each level.

Because Infested Planet is an indie game, some part of it had to suffer due to budget. I would definitely say that the graphics did in this case. While the graphics do serve their purpose they are far from nice. I don’t think that the standard argument of “stylized graphics” can be applied here either since the textures themselves aren’t even good quality. But the graphics don’t get in the way of the highly enjoyable gameplay, so they can and should be forgiven.

Story was another blip in this game’s perfection. However, I really don’t think the developers ever meant for it to be anything more than a reason/setting for players to kill a bunch of aliens. The story basically just serves as a way for the game to explain why all the gameplay is developing the way it is (new enemy types coming in, objectives, and new units to make use of).

Overall, Infested planet has surprisingly fun gameplay filled with varying enemy types, plenty of options for killing said enemies, an okay filler story and graphics that serve their purpose. I had a lot of fun with this game and I think you can too if you can get over its mediocre graphics and story. Rocket Bear Games have made the game available for PC and Mac now at the fair price of $14.99.

Overall Rating: ★★★★☆ 

What does this score mean?

© 2014, The Indie Mine. All rights reserved.

Multiple armies will be available for players to command in either 1v1 or 2v2 matches. Each army will feature units that fit within the classic roles of Infantry, Ranged, Cavalry, and Support. Substantial Games is trying to make every unit in the game as unique as possible, like the Berserker who constantly regenerates health, or the “Puglings” who spawn a new Pug every time they kill an enemy unit, to help ensure that no two battles play out the same.

Matches are won by eliminating the opposing army, or by controlling Points of Capture (POCs). While complete annihilation is the most likely way you’ll win or lose a match, be on the lookout for crafty players who seek to control all of the POCs on a map, which will result in an immediate victory.

The Ember Conflict has a lot of potential to offer an engaging and innovative mobile gaming experience, and I’m looking forward to getting my hands on a playable demo in the future.  A release date hasn’t been announced yet, but the developers are aiming for Fall 2014. Until then, you can check out some screen shots, enjoy the amazing concept art, and sign up for updates on the game’s website, www.emberconflict.com

© 2014, The Indie Mine. All rights reserved.

Fortify: Special Edition puts players in charge of defending a castle from marauding monsters commanded by a an evil overlord. Enemies approach in waves from all directions of the top-down map, and units can be placed within or outside the castle’s walls to stop its destruction. The campaign mode requires the player to keep the castle standing for the in-game duration of a couple of weeks before finally facing the big, bad, boss man himself. Two additional game modes, Arcade and Multiplayer, extend the playability. Arcade mode ramps the difficulty up to the highest setting to see how many rounds the player can last. Multiplayer (LAN-only) tasks each player with attacking the other player’s castle while still defending their own.

The player’s combat units are represented by various soldier types – including ranged and melee – with different abilities for range, attack power, skills, etc. They are purchased using gold earned by defeating enemies as well as with resources collected on the map (more on that later). Because enemies approach from different directions and each unit has a limited field of view, they must be moved either individually or as a group. This is where a lot of time is spent in the early part of the game, and it is a source of frustration as combat units are fairly dumb. Units will only attack if the enemy is within their f.o.v, even if the enemy is standing right next to them. It eventually becomes less of a problem once enough soldiers are purchased for maximum coverage in all directions.

As with many tower defense games, there’s a decision to made between trying to overwhelm the enemy with sheer numbers versus using valuable resources to purchase upgrades. What helps separate Fortify from lesser games in the genre are the vast number and types of upgrades available. On the lower end of the scale, players can boost the castle’s defenses and add towers to improve offensive stats. Perform enough of these upgrades and that unlocks the ability to move the game – and castle – to newer ages of technological advancement. With those evolutionary changes come new soldier types, new player-executed attack options (i.e. catapult, oil slick), and buildings that open up even more upgrade paths.

Advanced upgrade options will leave foes feeling the heat.

One of my favorite twists on the genre turns the game into a bit more of an RTS. There are three outposts that are located on the map. Each outpost is associated with a different resource – lumber, iron, and stone – and can be mined for that resource with the proper care and attention. A building must first be built on the location, and then workers must be purchased and sent there. Resources are mined incrementally over time as long as there are one or more workers at that location. This all sounds well and good, but it’s not as easy as it seems. These outputs are typically fragile, and since they’re outside the castle’s confines they are open to attack. Workers caught inside when the walls fall are killed. As with the castle, outposts can be upgraded with tougher walls, stronger defense measures, and increased capacity for workers.  So with all of the other issues for the player to contend with, they must also repeatedly decide whether to dump valuable resources – as well as the player’s attention – into the main castle or these outposts.

This factors into the game’s biggest weakness:  the pacing of the difficulty. I’m normally a default-to-Normal kinda guy, but I highly recommend starting at the easiest difficulty setting to get a handle on how the game plays. The early game tends to be the hardest part because the need to constantly adjust the combat units can keep the player from making much – if any – progress towards the longer-term objectives. Some of the individual combat units have special skills or stances that the player can activate, but I found I never had time to use them while they were still useful. There’s simply too much to micromanage, not enough time to assess, and it can lead to frustrating failures. The player can pause the game anytime to get a better look at the battleground and read all of the upgrade options, but that goes against the natural flow of playing an action game. On the flip side, if the player can manage to survive the early onslaught, build and maintain some outposts, and start mining resources, the game pretty much plays itself during the last few days. This problem is nothing new to the genre since the goal of most tower defense games involves creating an undefeatable juggernaut.

Sit back, player. We’ve got this.

Fortify: Special Edition is one of those games where I quickly thought I had my mind made up about it. During the first couple of times I attempted the campaign, I lost and was left with a sour taste in my mouth. It’s easy to become overwhelmed, especially when overestimating one’s own ability to take on a new game in a genre they’re well acquainted with. After easing myself in at a lower difficulty, learning how and when to work towards the long-term goals, and generally just figuring out how to actually play the game, I came away much more satisfied with the experience. I don’t know that this is a game that I’ll keep coming back to once I’ve conquered the harder difficulties, but it’s a solid tower defense game in spite of some issues with the difficulty pacing.

Overall Rating: ★★★★☆ 

What does this score mean?

This game was reviewed using a PC copy provided by the developer for that purpose. Version 1.02 was used in this review. It is available for PC and Mac through Desura, GamersGate, and IndieGameStand. The original Fortify is available as a free download from Holgersson Entertainment.

© 2013, 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.

Machines at War 3 is a real-time strategy game made by Isotope 244 in the vein of Command & Conquer. It’s a sequel to Isotope 244′s last game, Land Air Sea Warfare. You collect minerals and harvest power to build units and structures to crush your enemies. Unlike LASW, MaW3 comes with online multiplayer, a campaign mode, and infantry units.

The best thing about MaW3 is the size of the battles. There are over 130 different land, sea, and air units, each with its own strengths and weaknesses, and you can command thousands at a time. I had a few battles that were absolute chaos. I can still hear their screams.

I didn’t find the tutorial very helpful. It didn’t explain hotkeys, which was really frustrating. It took me the whole tutorial and a few missions of the campaign before I figured out some essential controls like how to make a hotkey for a group of units and how to move them by clicking on the mini-map. The campaign could have had the tutorial built in, and still kind of feels like it does. The first few missions are nearly impossible to fail. It’s a good thing, too, because I was still reacting very slowly to enemies I came across.

I didn’t know there was a way to attack an enemy on sight until I looked it up on the Wiki page. That means my units would have to finish going to the exact spot I clicked before they started firing at enemies, giving the enemies a nice head start. That’s something that should be covered in the tutorial. Hotkeys should be displayed when you hover the mouse over actions, but they aren’t. I had to go out of my way to figure that stuff out.

The default controls are confusing. For some reason, instead of right-clicking to move, you left-click – unless you’re using the mini-map, then you have to right-click. Yeah. What’s brutal about having left-click as move is it’s also what you use to select units. So, if you accidentally click and drag when you’re trying to move units, you’ll deselect them. It happened to me several times. Thankfully, you can change the controls in the options menu. This didn’t fix my issue with clicking and dragging though.

I found structures were often more useful than units. Minerals are automatically generated, so units are disposable, and as such, they die quickly. Defensive turrets seemed like a much better investment. When I skirmished the computer (and lost), I noticed the AI would creep up on me with buildings, not just units. I lost a lot of good men and women just trying to command the area around my own base.

I would recommend learning the units before you get into multiplayer. There is a unit index, which is handy, but I find it’s best to just play and get a feel for it. You begin to learn how fast certain units move, how much damage they do, and what support they need. Pay attention to the speed of units. I lost so many wasps, because they’re so much faster than other units and they’d arrive at the battle well before their ground support. Oh, the humanity!

MaW3 was programmed by one person, James Bryant. His hard work pays off with some great details, like how terrain gets scorched during fights and it stays scorched throughout the game. Unfortunately, and perhaps unfairly, I couldn’t help comparing it to games like StarCraft, to which it can’t possibly hold up. It’s important to mention MaW3 isn’t supposed to hold up against StarCraft. It’s a throwback to games like C&C, but when I play a game that’s similar, like this one, I really notice how well done StarCraft is.

I played the Windows version of this game, and I can’t help but feel like it would be better on iOS (which it is due for release on later this year). It doesn’t give off that impression that every second counts, so I think it would be more suited to using your finger to click through options. It’s also worth mentioning that LASW was a huge success on the App Store.

You can buy MaW3 for Windows and Mac right now, right here!

Overall Rating: ★★★☆☆ 

What does this score mean?

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

© 2013, The Indie Mine. All rights reserved.

For many of our readers, it’s likely still winter outside. However, the premise of Drip Drip is focused squarely on the rainy season. Players bounce from one U.S. city to another as they attempt to save buildings from an onslaught of leaky floors and busted pipes. Each locale focuses on a 2D cutout of a single building over the course of a short period of time. Throughout that period, rain will lash the house at various intensities producing dripping water from random spots on ceilings. It’s up to the player to ensure that as much of the water as possible is caught using everything from buckets to barrels to trash cans. Those containers must also be emptied in order to earn money and prevent overflows from occurring. If too much water pools on a floor, it can collapse and set off chain reactions that the player may not be able to recover from. If the basement gets completely flooded, the stage is lost and the player must retry.

As stages are completed, additional tools are unlocked for purchase. Containers like buckets generally hold more water than pans and have to be emptied less frequently. Hammers are used for fixing floors and sealing broken pipes or holes. The better the tool, the more expensive it’s going to cost. The player must weigh picking the shiny, new tool over buying a higher quantity of a less expensive one. The latter part of the game rewards the player with fewer new toys, but more money with which to purchase them. Although I like unlocking new stuff as much as the next person, I wish the early portion of the game would’ve spaced the rewards out a bit more.  Some of the earliest items I never used more than once or twice.

There is a leveling-up component that may encourage players to go back and use some of the weaker items. As items are emptied or used, a sort of experience meter fills up. Once the meter is filled, the characteristics of that item changes. Containers will hold more water and move faster. Hammers and brooms tend to cost less when using them to repair the building. Leveling a particular item up to level 10 unlocks a “super-power” that can make it extremely valuable.

There’s more to the challenge than simply making sure that all of the leaks are taken care of and that containers are emptied when necessary. The game throws a variety of distractions at the player to take their focus away from the main objective. There are the aforementioned busted pipes that can occur, spewing out water at an alarming rate. Lightning can target specific items which, if not moved, will be destroyed. Then there are stranger occurrences like UFO’s and ghosts that can steal your items if you don’t pull them away, or the dancing tiki mask which can summon a lightning storm. These last few don’t exactly fit from a thematic or realistic perspective, but they certainly do their job of giving the player something else to manage, often at the worst possible time.

Things can get out of hand quickly if players fail to make repairs and empty buckets.

One gripe I have with the game is that when there’s a lot going on, it can be really difficult to tell when one of these events is happening. Buildings are often multiple floors tall and require the player to scroll up or down to bring the different sections into the field of view. There IS a mini-map of the building located in the bottom left corner of the screen that will show the locations of these impending events. However, I feel like the intuitive player behavior is to keep his or her eyes focused on the main building as they scan for new leaks and water containers about to overflow. Although there’s generally an audible cue when there’s a mishap about to occur, it can be covered up by the cacaphony of the other chaos going on. On the easy difficulty setting and earlier stages it generally does not lead to catastrophe. In higher difficulty situations, most players  are going to have to fight their natural tendencies and train themselves to use the mini-map more frequently. Truth be told, I had a tough time kicking the habit.

Without getting too profound, so much of our adult lives relies on our ability to adapt to new problems and to handle multiple responsibilities at one time. Drip Drip really taps into that way of thinking and reacting. Not unlike the circus performer who must keep all of the plates spinning atop their poles, players are charged with inspecting the situation for impending disaster and quickly acting to fix it. Plans must be quickly made and then re-made as they are dashed by some new crisis. The player must continue repeating the process again and again and again until the performance is over and the day is saved. There’s an addictive magic in that formula. Perhaps it’s the years of real-world training, but what seems like work is actually a lot of fun. Just remember to blink once in awhile.

Overall Rating: ★★★★☆ 

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

Drip Drip was developed by Imminent Games and is available for purchase on PC and Mac through their website, as well as through a number of distribution services like GamersGate, Desura, and the Mac App store. The Imminent Games website also offers a downloadable demo for both platforms. The studio has an iOS version in the works for later this year.

© 2013, The Indie Mine. All rights reserved.

The overworld map mode is multi-purpose. One aspect is resource collection which involves moving the player’s mother ship to new planets which can then be mined. The more conquered planets adjacent to the mother ship, the more resources that get acquired. The mother ship can also send out fleets to explore and set up strategic positioning. Warp gates can be created to allow the mother ship quick access to any planet nearby a gate, but also has the liability of making the ship more vulnerable to enemy attacks. It is while exploring that your own ships may come into contact with those of the enemy and initiate the battle mode. The player must continue to gather resources and build new ships to counter the movements of the enemy.

Battle mode is where the player’s choices and those of the enemy come to a head. This mode functions like an RTS with each side continually selecting a particular ship type and a location on the screen to send that ship into combat. Different ships like fighters, mine layers, and missile launchers all have different strengths and weaknesses against each other. The ships fly horizontally across the screen through a few different lanes, and it’s up to the player to figure out which ship to send where in order to wipe out the enemy fleet, destroy the enemy mother ship, and protect the player’s own mother ship. The mode is frantic, but looks like it’s going to be a lot of intense fun.

Development is expected to wrap up in October of this year, and the duo has released an entertaining video for their Kickstarter campaign to help see it through. Pledges guarantee the usual gamut of rewards including copies of the game, copies of the musical soundtrack, and beta access. The Sidius Nova t-shirt and messenger bag also look pretty nice. Should the campaign goals be exceeded, the team has plans to implement player vs. player and a persistent game world as additional features. Be sure to follow the developers via Twitter for updates on the team’s progress and chances to win copies of the game when it releases.

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

India-based indie studio BlueGiant Interactive has officially unveiled their upcoming RTS Tryst. Based in a futuristic setting, humans battle the Zali, a mechanical alien species. Just in case you assumed the story is one-sided, you can actually pick which faction you’re going to take control of.

There’s more to worry about in Tryst than just the enemy. Environmental dangers will appear and players must react or perish. There’s also a tactical element in that you can use the environment to ambush the enemy.

One of the features touted in Tryst is the A.R.M. or Augmentation Research Mechanism. It’s basically a system which allows the player to customize load-outs on their units to give them specific advantages if, say, a particular situation would benefit from some tweaking. This pairs with the ability to give your individual units unique upgrades to help diversify their roles.

Customization is key in Tryst

8-player pvp is included in the game, and should a teammate need to drop out, they will be replaced by a “competitive and intelligent” AI member. Tryst will have a matchmaking lobby, clans, stat tracking, Steam achievements and leaderboards, replays, and more. The map editor will allow players to create and share new team-based and free-for-all battlefields with friends. It sounds like they’re really pushing a solid multiplayer experience that will hopefully keep players around for awhile.

No release date or price have been revealed for Tryst, so stay tuned to The Indie Mine for future updates and announcements. In the meantime, check out the teaser trailer below.

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

Eufloria

A disembodied voice commands you to plant trees and spread seedlings around a white, featureless universe. ‘Go forth and multiply’ is the command, and you’re tasked with establishing a presence on big round asteroids found all throughout space. But you’re not the only plant life form in the world, and so you’re challenged to fill the emptiness and not to surrender to the other plants who are encroaching on your property.

It might not be fair to compare Eufloria to other RTS games. It’s not aimed at the market that plays Warcraft, Starcraft, or any other imitator. Abstraction is the order of the day, in that every mechanical component of an RTS is stripped down to the most basic presentation. Units are ‘seedlings’ that look like dots until you zoom in on them, and even then there’s very little customization to do. Bases are ‘trees’ whose function differs depending on where you build them, and again you can’t otherwise customize the type of base that gets built.

The main strength of Eufloria is also its most glaring weakness, in the way that information about your success or failure is communicated. By centering combat around bases only, it becomes very easy to evaluate how well you’re doing. Units are always associated with a base, and while they can travel from one base to another they don’t actively engage enemies except in the context of attacking or defending an asteroid. So moving your cursor to an asteroid immediately tells you how many of each unit are present and whether you’re winning or losing. While that makes for efficient play, it also robs the game of the nuance that’s unique to the genre. Without the complexity of customization, without the build-up and gathering of varied resources, the whole affair becomes a binary, black-or-white decision making process. That will divert but not hook new players, and will do nothing to retain veteran RTS gamers.

Other RTS experiments on consoles have produced deviations from the standard play format that might some day come together in a transcendent game. Tom Clancy’s Endwar has a method of geographic delineation similar to Eufloria. Robocalypse had a unique icon-based command system that hasn’t been imitated. And Sega’s Stormrise has a imperfect but inspired method of moving units around. Eufloria will be considered another one of those stepping stones in the long run. There’s a demo you can try first before you decide if it’s worth the full $9.99.

© 2011 – 2013, The Indie Mine. All rights reserved.