Metroidvania 2D Action/RPG Catch-All

The Indivisible prototype demo (~123MB, no install btw) was pretty fun, but I didn't realize one of the characters had a heal move, so I beat my head against the wall of a boss for a while before giving up and looking up how someone did it on youtube.

mrtomaytohead wrote:

The Indivisible prototype demo (~123MB, no install btw) was pretty fun, but I didn't realize one of the characters had a heal move, so I beat my head against the wall of a boss for a while before giving up and looking up how someone did it on youtube.

I haven't played Valkyrie Profile, so the combat style feels unfamiliar. The game certainly looks nice!

I am afraid it might not make its goal, given that it's only around 20% after... 12 days? Still, stranger things have happened!

Indivisible got a Game Grumps bump, for whatever it's worth. It's not quite in the genre of this thread, or at least an outlier, but still looks like a fun game and the animation is super. I hope it makes it, but dang, 1.5 million is a lot.

Odin Sphere is one of my all-time favorite games for the PS2, and it is... sort of a 2D platformer, has RPG elements, and is one of the most gorgeous side-scrolling action games you might have the good fortune to play. It also has quite a bit of dialog and story, some reflections on royalty and godhood, and also a thought-provoking interpretation of paternal power, responsibility, and the danger of only knowing part of the equation before making a fateful decision. I insist the Metroidvania elements are evident in that you can return to previous stages to claim rewards. Proving the devs are no idiots, enemies do *not* scale to your level, so the joy you experience in destroying a boss from a previous level in seconds versus minutes is a testament to their skill. ^.^

RolandofGilead wrote:

Indivisible got a Game Grumps bump, for whatever it's worth. It's not quite in the genre of this thread, or at least an outlier, but still looks like a fun game and the animation is super. I hope it makes it, but dang, 1.5 million is a lot.

~1/3rd of the way through the campaign, and they're ~24% funded. Behind the curve, but the middle portion is always light.

Good Lord Bless Them, Dark Flame has a kickstarter, graphics of playable alpha have improved.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects...
http://darkflamegame.com/
Also on Steam Greenlight
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfile...
KS ends near my birthday, so, please everyone, I think you know what I want

Hollow Knight looks pretty nice. Sadly only planned for PC, Mac, and Wii U at the moment.

Shadow Complex Remastered is coming to Xbox One, PS4... but PC is FREE RIGHT NOW!

Get on it!

https://www.epicgames.com/shadowcomp...

AP Erebus wrote:

Shadow Complex Remastered is coming to Xbox One, PS4... but PC is FREE RIGHT NOW!

Get on it!

https://www.epicgames.com/shadowcomp...

Wonderful, another publisher specific launcher. And, shockingly, I got an error while trying to make an account.

I got very excited but I can't even get to the marketplace tab in the launcher to find the game. Either their servers are being hammered or they have a very buggy launcher.

Didn't even know it came to PC. Was wanting it forever since I never had a 360.

EDIT: Well I got an account created because when I tried to create it it said I already had an account. But still never got a confirmation e-mail and it keeps timing out when trying to log in. *sigh*

gravity wrote:

I got very excited but I can't even get to the marketplace tab in the launcher to find the game. Either their servers are being hammered or they have a very buggy launcher.

Servers are being hammered.

iaintgotnopants wrote:

Wonderful, another publisher specific launcher.

I am getting really sick of this BS.

ahrezmendi wrote:
iaintgotnopants wrote:

Wonderful, another publisher specific launcher.

I am getting really sick of this BS.

Ugh, didn't know that was the case

I should have guessed... probably full of ad's for other Epic things?

AP Erebus wrote:

probably full of ad's for other Epic things?

Like what though? UT? Bulletstorm? Jazz Jackrabbit? I think only Gears 1 was on PC. They aren't exactly a prolific publisher. I don't understand why they felt they needed a platform.

Exactly.

Origin I can understand. Ubisoft I can also understand, to a lesser degree. But when every single publisher wants to use their own platform, with yet another freaking login, it really gets old fast.

In fact, I care more about having one less password in my pass vault than I do about a free game. Epic can keep it.

iaintgotnopants wrote:
AP Erebus wrote:

probably full of ad's for other Epic things?

Like what though? UT? Bulletstorm? Jazz Jackrabbit? I think only Gears 1 was on PC. They aren't exactly a prolific publisher. I don't understand why they felt they needed a platform.

UT has a marketplace (due to its F2P nature), so they presumably need a client for that. I assume Fortnite also uses their launcher too. I'm baffled as to why they couldn't use Steam but I wouldn't be surprised if they wanted to roll their own solution since they're a cross-platform developer.

ahrezmendi wrote:

Origin I can understand. Ubisoft I can also understand, to a lesser degree. But when every single publisher wants to use their own platform, with yet another freaking login, it really gets old fast.

You know, it's interesting. Stardock used to talk about how they expected everyone to have their own platforms, but then Steam just took off like crazy.

Speaking of Stardock, everyone remember when Gamestop bought Impulse from Stardock and then shuttered it a couple years later? That was a good purchase, Gamestop.

Well I got logged in last night but the Shadow Complex tab in the launcher never loads. Doing the same thing this morning when I tried it, although I was able to login easier.

Just a loading bar across the bottom (I assume). Doesn't seem like it's downloading the game or anything. I think you have to get to the page first. Pretty annoying. Here's a free game, if you can ever click on it.

EDIT: I decided to restart the client since it never did anything. It logged in immediately, the Shadow Complex page loaded, clicked install button. Downloading at over 2 MB/s.

I'm not sure I understand the issue here.. are we expecting publishers/developers to HAVE to use established digital distribution methods? And exactly what are the approved platforms they are allowed to use? Just Steam?

That seems fairly arbitrary.

Of course it's arbitrary, but they're talking from a consumer perspective and it's much easier to use Steam to house everything than it is to have 35 different launchers.

garion333 wrote:

Of course it's arbitrary, but they're talking from a consumer perspective and it's much easier to use Steam to house everything than it is to have 35 different launchers.

It's this issue precisely, but it's not arbitrary. The reason is it's not beneficial to the customer. Every small, medium, or large publisher having their own platform does not give me any better purchasing or game playing experience, in fact it worsens it. If I play into the way they are setting things up, then as a consumer the following must be true:

- I have to maintain more username/password combinations.
- I have to clutter my computer with yet more launchers, possibly running background processes.
- I have to provide my payment & personal details to more parties (incidentally, I believe this is the true reason why they are doing this)

If I do this, what am I getting out of the deal? And what do I get out of it down the line? Lastly, is what I'm getting, if anything, outweighing the value I would get out of simply having these games on Steam where I have 99.9% of other games I own? Those are the questions I ask and in this case the answer to all is a resounding nothing, outside of a free game I already played 6 years ago.

I fully expect each publisher to explore their options. I just think in this case, and in the case of most small publishers, that it's the wrong choice. And I'm going to tell them that by not participating.

Edit: Nah, not a good idea.

It's weird because the scenario you describe means you basically want one platform for all your video games. No choice but a single platform holder that completely dominates with zero competition.

That ironically is the exact opposite of consumer friendly since it leads to essentially a complete unfriendly experience for the consumer (eventually).

I for one am happy we have choices and competition.. I think a world that features a single platform sounds awful. I like having Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, as well as all the PC players doing their own thing. For example Sony being the only source for video games sounds bad.

SixteenBlue wrote:

Edit: Nah, not a good idea.

Yup.

Anyway, I hope you all enjoy it. If you haven't played it before it's a great game, I played it to 100% back on 360.

TheGameguru wrote:

It's weird because the scenario you describe means you basically want one platform for all your video games. No choice but a single platform holder that completely dominates with zero competition.

That ironically is the exact opposite of consumer friendly since it leads to essentially a complete unfriendly experience for the consumer (eventually).

I for one am happy we have choices and competition.. I think a world that features a single platform sounds awful. I like having Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, as well as all the PC players doing their own thing. For example Sony being the only source for video games sounds bad.

Except Steam is consumer friendly. Sales every damn day, all year. Expandable friends list, unlike Origin, consoles or portables. It's the only place I can keep 300+ of you people on my friends list. Hell the other launchers don't even bother with groups, which would at least help. Voice chat built into the friends list, so you really don't need Curse or Vent or whatever.

Screenshots, video streaming, big picture mode, wishlist, gifting. None of these other clients is ever going have all those features. They're never going to have the library. They're never going to have a fraction of the great user experience that Steam has.

People have suffered through Origin's growing pains because of exclusive games. Mass Effect, Dragon Age, Battlefield, etc. were all already successful series before Origin, with built in fan bases. It's still an inferior product to Steam in almost every way. One of the few "better" features is that it's tied in across EA so you can get friends from your consoles on your PC, and have one ID across platforms. But as far as PC-only features go, Steam is still better.

Battle.net isn't a great client either, but likewise, people already liked Starcraft or Diablo or Warcraft and there's no other way to play. So people suck it up. Nobody likes it. Nobody says "I wish other publishers sold games on Battle.net" like everyone says on Steam.

I have no built up love for Ubi's products, so I don't own a single U-play game, and don't plan to. I have plenty of games from GoG, but there's no way in hell I'm installing their client. Likewise with GMG and Capsule. Thank god Impulse went away. But even before it did, I rebought Sins of a Solar Empire when they started selling it on Steam so I'd never have to use Impulse again. I'll uninstall this Epic thing as soon as I'm done with Shadow Complex. Companies are just wasting time and resources with these clients. Steam is out there. Origin isn't going away. There's little reason to clutter up the market with more inferior products.

There's little reason to clutter up the market with more inferior products.

I would certainly agree with that.. but I didn't think that was what was being said.. rather the outrage was that Epic even is trying with a DD platform. Steam did not become Steam magically overnight.. the Steam client we have today took years to get there.

Every Dictator starts out "benevolent"

The Steam application is sh*t. The website is barely responsive on the best of days; the UI's responsiveness is, well, not; Valve has been glacial in putting out features that everyone else in the world has done(Valve added download speed throttling in 2013). The friends list is... ok. but their voice implementation and codecs have sucked(and they haven't bothered trying to make them better at all). The updating/installing downloader is basically a 5 year old with ADHD after eating a candy store because it can't just focus on the thing I told it to install and wants to switch to something else every 10 minutes. All of the social features have fallen out of use because you can't really control them. Game discovery has completely fallen apart, and the recommendation system is pretty much sh*t unless your interests align exactly with someone else.

Origin's interface, by comparison, is a joy to use. Things happen when you click on them. And I HATE EA.

Let's be real about this. The only reason why Steam is preferred is because they're the cheapest during sales and provide the biggest range of stuff.

While intellectually I agree with the "one platform is a bad thing" thing, I was excited to read that this was a free release and then instantly decided not to download it when I read that they had their own launcher. Just don't want it. If they don't want Steam taking a slice of their sales (well, eventual sales, since this is free), then I'd be happy to do a digital download of their games from their website, and then simply install and run them without a launcher.

Launchers suck. Steam I tolerate because I have so much content there and it was first, and Blizzard I tolerate because I am weak. Haven't installed any others since the fresh Win10 install and don't plan on doing so.

Had a great time with the game back when it came out, and the NG+ time racing is really fun. Cool to figure out how to more quickly traverse the world once you have all the goodies.

Mr Crinkle wrote:

While intellectually I agree with the "one platform is a bad thing" thing, I was excited to read that this was a free release and then instantly decided not to download it when I read that they had their own launcher. Just don't want it. If they don't want Steam taking a slice of their sales (well, eventual sales, since this is free), then I'd be happy to do a digital download of their games from their website, and then simply install and run them without a launcher.

Launchers suck. Steam I tolerate because I have so much content there and it was first, and Blizzard I tolerate because I am weak. Haven't installed any others since the fresh Win10 install and don't plan on doing so.

Had a great time with the game back when it came out, and the NG+ time racing is really fun. Cool to figure out how to more quickly traverse the world once you have all the goodies.

Yea I was going to grab it despite not playing PC games until I saw that it wasn't on Steam.