|OT| Steam Next Fest - returning October 2024

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prudis

prudis

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SteamFest Feb 22 ended now , so here i am with some of my impression of the ones i tried

Demos Batch 1 :

Turbo Overkill

Extra frenetic boomer shooter with love for chainsaws and chainsaw legs, super satisfying feel of the gameplay , might probably need work on UI

oh and that music


Scathe

This one dissapointed me quire a bit , the description promises bullethell FPS , but it currently was felt super janky and slow. Liked the levels and art direction , but everything else needs a lot of work


The Last Oricru

promising little soulsike with coop ,GUI is dreadfull but despite that the game was definitely fun ,which i didnt really expect from the footages i saw of it before. (it had local corwdwfunding under different name )... It quirte surprised me how solid the gameplay and world design was so potential is definitely there



Fata Deum

Black and whiteish game just without the monster, looks great , but the onboarding at the moment is dreadfull ... pain to get through tutorial , but the game itself seem to be quite primising if a big different that its spiritual predecessor



Neon White

Absolute blast ... speedrunning parkour FPS with cards :face-savouring-delicious-food: Greal levels, solid gameplay and overall just fun.


Conan Chop Chop

Not really sure what to think og this one ... expected soming kinda different i guess
feels like discount Issac with chibi conan skin on top tring to be Castle Crashers


Pharaoh: A New Era

Great looking remaster of the original Pharaoh that doesnt seem to bw fixing its old problems but rather focus to just bringing it back ... so might need to add a bit more QoL stuff before launch



Tombstar

Pretty standard Gungeon-ish twinstrick rogluelike with fantastic Space Western setting



Card Shark
Card Shark is a deception game about playing opponents rather than playing cards.

Definitely quite unique experience fun interesting concepts with charming artstyle. Could be quite amazing upon actual release if it keeps the momentum demo has throughout whole game
demo had some buggy controls at some point


Ixion
Simply said Frostunky game but set in a spacestation traveling in solar system There's more stuff to keep an eye on compared to frostpunk, like resources, so a bit more demanding. The demo only seems to scratch the surface.
Extremely promising title



Kao the Kangaroo (2022)

Basically what Kao always has been , discount Crash with all that comes with it ... i would maybe say it seems to be better polished than original games.... but still as mediocre as the old ones with iffy camera.


Tinykin

Lovely 3d platformer with pikmin inspired elements set in a abandoned house
inhabited bytiny bug people
super fun, you got soap skateboard



TrailOut

its kinda like discount FlatOut 2 (but not really in bad way) ... just with more envirnoment destruction and supercringy story on top. Needs bit more audio feedback
Definitely fun for people whol liked OG flatouts (much much better than the abominations 3 and 4)



Chains of Fury

boomer shooter, with comic book looks n fun gameplyyand 2d enemies and shit in 3d.
Killing your enemies by kicking the doors FTW,



Nobody – The Turnaround

Chinese Debt repaing survival sim , its like pretty dark , mostl resource/time management with minogames as a job . Could be quite cool



Hero's Hour

basically indie take on HoMM formula but just with battles being realtime, the battle itself works different way than i expected (its more of an autobattler with small involvments) but overall great fun and super addicting



BlackTail

This one surprised me quite a lot ... action adventure taking on slavic myths. Tonally and naratively reminded me lot of Hellblade, gameplaywise its more of a survival with lots of bow combat.
Super solid production values for indie title, definitely intruiged for the full game.


Adapt

Its kinda similar to the the creatures stage of Spore, but not as arcadey as that was. (in one of my tests i starved out cause i picked carnicourous mouth and tried to eat herbs )
There is lot of promise (the creature creator is already great , just needs to improve the UX) in it but atm it feels super clunky to play , but i guess it makes sense as its Early Alpha which explains the terrible performance, Might be one to look for (especially for the fans of spore ) , but has long road ahead



Overall from this batch:
  • Highlights: Hero's Hour, Black Tail, Ixion, Turbo Overkill and Neon White
  • Unexpected Positive Surprises: Nobody – The Turnaround, Tinykin and TrailOut
  • Dissapointments: Conan Chop Chop and Scathe
 
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prudis

prudis

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to continue my impressions above here is the middle batch of the demos i tested (will probably writout the finla 3rd one tomorrow)

Demos Batch 2 :

Buccaneers

Lowpoly take on Pirates ... seems ok so far , migth be a bit too limited thx to be ing "also for VR" and the boarding combat is super clunky ... but could be cool.... had fun with it , just not sure if it was by the quality of the game itself or just me missing the genre


My Friendly Neighborhood

Basically Resident Evil but with muppets , extra creepy but really fun with intventive weapons and puzzles. Definitelyy left me wanti ng for more


Pandemic Train

KInda TWOMesque game where you survive with a crew on a train and go on expeditions , that are basically isometric survival twinstick shooting. Really cool idea , gameplay was fun for the span of the demp , but will proably need more variabily than the demo had to hold the full game




The Unliving

Rogulite where you play as the necromancer turning yor enemies into , lovely art , great idea and fun gameplay ... very enjoyable , only thing might be that at some size the minions seemed a bit bugged in the demo and lot of them kept being idle



Hell Pie

this is a wild one , its 3d platformer wuth a demon and angel on adventure to find most disgust stuff ... for examle the literal nazi shits that enslaved some pink abominations, the fighting and platforming are tight and the idea is weird and disgusting in lot of ways ,but had quite fun with it



GUILT: The Deathless

this one is bit weird , the game seems to be very ewarly in dev so lot of it feels super janky and not great, but on other hand the setting deffinitel intruiged me with in shifting rogulite-ish world . Combat seems to be something between soulslite and victor vran-esque combat. Was enjoyable bit veery early


The Iron Oath

Really fun openworld tatics RPG about the you managing a mercenary company in a world with good writing , good art and some nice gore . It has really enjoyable battle system (with quite the emphasis on positioning ), dungeon crawl elements and company management. The UI is bit disjointed , but good enough... Its kinda like Battle brothers mixed with FFT


PuckOFF

weird shit , super chaotic ice hockey thing with the players able to fight violently ... super janky but might be cool in MP , but thats about it


Gibbon: Beyond The Trees

Jungle : Return to manky .... this was just great , anmazing and and great meditative gameplay, you just swing around the forest with your pink money


Drill Deal – Oil Tycoon
voxel oil rig tycoon game, you manage your oil rig while you lookout for dangerous treats (was fire and pirates in my test) .. quite fun and unique take on business sim genre



Overall from this batch:
  • Highlights: My Friendly Neighborhood, The Iron Oath and The Unliving
  • Unexpected Positive Surprises: Gibbon, Hell Pieand Drill Deal
  • Dissapointments: PuckOFF
 
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prudis

prudis

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Welcome to Steam Next Fest - June 2022 Edition, where you can play all the demos you desire!

Save the date!

Next Fest will take place June 13-20, 2022 @10AM Pacific.

See you then!
Games featured in this trailer:
  • Arksync
  • BROK the InvestiGator
  • Cult of the Lamb
  • Daydream Forgotten Sorrow
  • Exophobia
  • Foretales
  • Gestalt Steam Cinder
  • Glimmer in Mirror
  • Harmonys Odyssey
  • King of the Hat
  • LEGO Bricktales
  • Misc. A Tiny Tale
  • Nine Sols
  • Eyes in the Dark
  • Fays Factory
  • Ghost Song
 

Kiru

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So I tried Agent 64 demo, was really nice but where is my badge?
I heard there was one for 10 demos tried? Maybe even more games for higher tier badge?

EDIT: Oh, the trailer states they will be available for playing 1, 5 and 10 demos (3 tiers).
 

Panda Pedinte

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Sep 20, 2018
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Some short impressions:

Frogun: I was already anticipating this game, it plays quite well and the few levels I ran through felt well designed. There are extra objectives besides beating like getting all the coins, finding all the emeralds and so on.

Nine Sols: I didn't played too much as I wasn't able to find the option to switch the language. The game is beautiful and the character felt responsive.

Spark 3: If you like 3D Sonic games give Spark a chance! The songs are a banger too!

Anger Foot: The setting is totally absurd and it feels like a FPS Hotline Miami. Completing some milestones rewards you with news sneakers.
 
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Li Kao

It’s a strange world. Let’s keep it that way.
Jan 28, 2019
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Agent 64 is nice, but I'm really wary of the lack of checkpoints. Replaying the same level each time some little thing goes south gets old.
Cultic new demo felt worse than the first one. The map reworking felt like it mostly added tons of enemies sniping you from a little too far.
Nine Sols is beautiful, the demo is horribly paced, and as a Sekiro inspired game, it's super hard, so I'm good with simply beating the demo boss and calling it a day.
 
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LEANIJA

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I tried these demos:

Above Snakes bored me within minutes

Signalis I had that on my wishlist for a long while but thought it dead, so I was surprised to see a demo. It goes for that slightly clunky old-school 90s gameplay, top-down, dark, somewhat obscure puzzles; but I got hooked and finished it in one go. Recommend it.

The Courier is a game about delivering stuff with a cutesy aesthetic which didnt really appeal to me - and the bike it gives you to drive around was a nightmare to control

Broken Pieces has some unnamed calamity or whatever bring the world into a state of emergency of some sort, and then has you collect stuff in your house in a fixed camera-perspective and head out. however, i couldnt figure some stuff out, got bored/annoyed and went onto the next one. Also, it gives you a first-person option, but you cant move. that was annoying, as i wouldve preferred to just play it that way. give people options, devs!

Master Key is a top-down, black and white old-school RPG that looks like a gameboy game. didnt hook me

Cultic is a typical 90s style shooter. not bad. played it for 0.2 hours and then lost interest.

Old Skies is a point+click by Wadjet Eye games - apparently very known for great point + clicks, and I can see why. Finished it in one go and immediately wanted to play more.... and ended up buying one of their other games, "unavowed".

Selaco is a shooter made in GZDoom that was not bad. but not amazing either.

Moonscars is a sidescrolling/2D souls-like that couldnt keep my interest either...but if you like that sorta thing...

Agent 64 presents itself like a N64 game (obviously) that surely panders to the GoldenEye fans. i never played that so have no emotional connection and therefore Agent 64 left me uninterested. Also didnt like the effects they put over the graphics, but when i turned those off, the game just looked like a dated 90s shooter. and played like one. BUT if thats your bag...

The Spirit and the Mouse lets you control a mouse that makes people feel good. It looks cute, but played wonkey and felt like a doing chores-simulator immediately.

XEL is a isometric puzzle/platforming game that kinda lost me when it introduced combat. Attack button was "H" and that confused me a lot. I dont think you could rebind it. Otherwise it was colourful, reminded me a bit of "Hob". Probably will keep it on my wishlist.


I know a bunch of this sounds cynical, but its just my honest impressions. And these demos are half hour or less, so if they dont hook me right away...
But Signalis and Old Skies were quite great indeed!



Play those! Or not. Im not yer dad.
 

gabbo

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I got this one more because my wife loves turtles than I did because I wanted to play a puzzle game.
That said, it's actually a competent and cute puzzler with turtles (she loves it, as expected)


What would Hotline Miami be like if you had a health bar and a more straight forward, as far as that goes, plot?
Probably this. Third person/isometric brutal brawler/shooter. Having trouble with the block/reversal system, but it's fine otherwise. Just, kinda bland in terms of gameplay as it's literally kill anything that moves and repeat as you enter new areas
 

Li Kao

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Cult of the Lamb looks solid, but what’s the deal with no saves, is it a demi thing ? I see it tagged as RogueLIKE.
 
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gabbo

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This could be a fun stealth game, and is clearly aiming for some MGS-vibes, but the controls just feel to sluggish and the AI inconsistent/'detection'' mechanic not that well explained. With some time it could be a fun romp, but it's not quite there yet



A retro shooter that actually tries something a little different. Sure you're still shooting things with a gun, but instead of killing enemies you're simply making them more fashionable. Also, there is a fashion show of your 'victims' where they strut their new stuff on the catwalk at the end of the level. I'm sure I'd be a low level villain in this with how I dress irl, but this is still a lot of fun



Grid based games aren't my thing, but even I was drawn in by the pounding soundtrack and nazi shovel slaughter.
 
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Dandy

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Old Skies is a point+click by Wadjet Eye games - apparently very known for great point + clicks, and I can see why. Finished it in one go and immediately wanted to play more.... and ended up buying one of their other games, "unavowed".
Nice! Unavowed is great.
 
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Panda Pedinte

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Kaichu - Wholesome VN where you play as a kaiju dating other kaijus, from the demo the gameplay was very simple, no lewd scenes included.

Pocket Wheels - Drive a toy car, complete missions and get batteries to unlock other parts of the house. Steering the car felt too sensible but maybe it was my shit controller

Cursed Golf: This one has some serious potential! A 2D golf game where you need to reach the hole with a certain number of moves but there cards with abilities, shortcuts and so on.
 
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xinek

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I played these so far:

Metal: Hellsinger - absurd, but really fun and satisfying gameplay. When I wish the demo was longer, that's a good sign. Already on my wishlist.

Cult of the Lamb - did not expect to like this one, but I really enjoyed the look of it, the music, and the gameplay isn't exactly what I expected. Wishlisted.

King of the Hat - this was on my wishlist already, although I don't remember adding it. Really fun gameplay. I'm not super into party games, but I'm going to keep it on the wishlist since the gameplay and presentation were both top notch.

Terra Nil - seems like a cool idea, but the gameplay wasn't engaging enough for me. It seems to simple? I'll watch this one develop, since Devolver knows what they're doing.

I also added both Anger Foot and Sapiens without playing them yet. Sapiens is an ambitious builder game, and I'm a sucker for those. And Anger Foot's trailer made me literally LOL. I'll probably end up adding Trepang2, since it's full of horror movie style violence and gore. How can you not love that?
 

Amzin

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Ugh. I complained about this already in the Steam thread, but the very first demo I try this fest is a metroidvania riddled with tedious "souls" inspired stuff. Ghost Song has potential but in 40 minutes of playing, I died 7 (!) times, because there is no transparency at all on how to avoid enemies attacks until they actually do the attack. There was 1 save point that entire time. The first upgrade I found was a dash but is also has a fairly arcane usage - it doesn't use stamina, unless you do it too often, but how often that is isn't clear, and then it uses half your stamina so it's of middling use for moving around the massive rooms faster (if there are no enemies around). It also offers some frames of invulnerability on a cooldown (which is clear) but the amount of invulnerability was so short I never was able to avoid any damage (or it's bugged on high framerates). The upgrade system is also just souls, so when you die you lose everything (and part of your max health until you pay souls to repair) unless you get you corpse back (which often means backtracking to somewhere you were trying to leave, half the map away from the ONE SAVE POINT).

I would be interested in the game if it was less built around stamina and had actual fucking save points. I didn't see any options in the upgrade / save spot for fast travel either but that could be because I never found another one. Games need to get over this idea that dying isn't its' own punishment - the bare minimum is it costs you time, AND you failed to progress. In games like this it can add hours of wasted time over the course of a game - time that literally achieved nothing except to add tedium. I appreciate difficulty and challenges, but wasting time isn't fucking difficulty.

Anyway, rant over I guess. I won't likely be giving that game another shot but I'll try to leave some less-harsh feedback although the game is clearly designed how it's designed.
 

manchego obfuscator

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Ugh. I complained about this already in the Steam thread, but the very first demo I try this fest is a metroidvania riddled with tedious "souls" inspired stuff. Ghost Song has potential but in 40 minutes of playing, I died 7 (!) times, because there is no transparency at all on how to avoid enemies attacks until they actually do the attack. There was 1 save point that entire time. The first upgrade I found was a dash but is also has a fairly arcane usage - it doesn't use stamina, unless you do it too often, but how often that is isn't clear, and then it uses half your stamina so it's of middling use for moving around the massive rooms faster (if there are no enemies around). It also offers some frames of invulnerability on a cooldown (which is clear) but the amount of invulnerability was so short I never was able to avoid any damage (or it's bugged on high framerates). The upgrade system is also just souls, so when you die you lose everything (and part of your max health until you pay souls to repair) unless you get you corpse back (which often means backtracking to somewhere you were trying to leave, half the map away from the ONE SAVE POINT).

I would be interested in the game if it was less built around stamina and had actual fucking save points. I didn't see any options in the upgrade / save spot for fast travel either but that could be because I never found another one. Games need to get over this idea that dying isn't its' own punishment - the bare minimum is it costs you time, AND you failed to progress. In games like this it can add hours of wasted time over the course of a game - time that literally achieved nothing except to add tedium. I appreciate difficulty and challenges, but wasting time isn't fucking difficulty.

Anyway, rant over I guess. I won't likely be giving that game another shot but I'll try to leave some less-harsh feedback although the game is clearly designed how it's designed.
Didn’t try the demo yet, but that’s disappointing to hear, especially given that this has been in development for close to a decade. There’s apparently an easier difficulty available, which hopefully mitigates this somewhat
 

Mivey

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Sep 20, 2018
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Ugh. I complained about this already in the Steam thread, but the very first demo I try this fest is a metroidvania riddled with tedious "souls" inspired stuff. Ghost Song has potential but in 40 minutes of playing, I died 7 (!) times, because there is no transparency at all on how to avoid enemies attacks until they actually do the attack. There was 1 save point that entire time. The first upgrade I found was a dash but is also has a fairly arcane usage - it doesn't use stamina, unless you do it too often, but how often that is isn't clear, and then it uses half your stamina so it's of middling use for moving around the massive rooms faster (if there are no enemies around). It also offers some frames of invulnerability on a cooldown (which is clear) but the amount of invulnerability was so short I never was able to avoid any damage (or it's bugged on high framerates). The upgrade system is also just souls, so when you die you lose everything (and part of your max health until you pay souls to repair) unless you get you corpse back (which often means backtracking to somewhere you were trying to leave, half the map away from the ONE SAVE POINT).

I would be interested in the game if it was less built around stamina and had actual fucking save points. I didn't see any options in the upgrade / save spot for fast travel either but that could be because I never found another one. Games need to get over this idea that dying isn't its' own punishment - the bare minimum is it costs you time, AND you failed to progress. In games like this it can add hours of wasted time over the course of a game - time that literally achieved nothing except to add tedium. I appreciate difficulty and challenges, but wasting time isn't fucking difficulty.

Anyway, rant over I guess. I won't likely be giving that game another shot but I'll try to leave some less-harsh feedback although the game is clearly designed how it's designed.
Wasn't super impressed with Ghost Song either, just didn't control very well and the few fights felt more about being very lucky about evading attacks, rather than something you can learn to do more reliably.
It is still a demo, so hard to say how the final game will look like. I think tweaking the animations and enemy behaviours a bit could make a huge difference here.
 
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Amzin

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Didn’t try the demo yet, but that’s disappointing to hear, especially given that this has been in development for close to a decade. There’s apparently an easier difficulty available, which hopefully mitigates this somewhat
Personally the difficulty wasn't an issue. It mitigates the max health penalty and how much resource you lose on death (if you don't go back to where you died) but the combat wasn't really the issue. The fact that you have to walk 10+ minutes back to an area you were exploring because there's no save points doesn't get mitigated unless you straight up never die.

Wasn't super impressed with Ghost Song either, just didn't control very well and the few fights felt more about being very lucky about evading attacks, rather than something you can learn to do more reliably.
It is still a demo, so hard to say how the final game will look like. I think tweaking the animations and enemy behaviours a bit could make a huge difference here.
I thought it controlled fine except for the manual aiming - there needs to be a way to aim and move. Evading attacks seemed like a readability thing, although the spore attacks were really bad with the heat system meaning you can't shoot them all down and have to run 2 screens away for them to self destruct. Just basic design stuff like that is where so many of these games faceplant because they just don't evaluate what a choice actually is supposed to do.
 

Ascheroth

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Moonscars is a sidescrolling/2D souls-like that couldnt keep my interest either...but if you like that sorta thing...
I quit it after 5 minutes. I like the visuals and the controls felt good, but the UX is miserable, it's full of nonsenical "hold button to activate thing/confirm interface prompt" and that just drives me crazy. And it's not even consistent, some prompts can be closed by pressing, some require holding but they all look the same.
 
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Virtual Ruminant

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You control a nymph floating through streams, singing to the fishes, swimming with the frogs, herding lost little ducklings back to their duck mamas and harassing lumberjacks by sicking wasps on them. Wholesome+++. Yes. :love:



The in-universe spiritual successor to Golf Club: Wasteland, but this time it's a platformer and you play one of the mutant children left back on Earth. And the radio station is back, too! Gorgeous high resolution pixel art and animations. Not a metroidvania as far as I can tell, but individual levels have multiple paths and some pretty cool secrets to find in them. Yes! :love:



Mouse gets possessed by a benevolent spirit of electrical energy and must help out the power-fairies to help fix the appliances and devices of people living in a French rural village. Pretty bonkers scenario, but really it's a 3D puzzle platformer that marries the spirit of PS1 era titles with modernized gameplay and a non-cartoon animal player character. Wholesome+++. Will of course be completely overshadowed by the infinitely more polished Stray, but I will definitely play it. Yes. :love:
 

ExistentialThought

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You control a nymph floating through streams, singing to the fishes, swimming with the frogs, herding lost little ducklings back to their duck mamas and harassing lumberjacks by sicking wasps on them. Wholesome+++. Yes. :love:
I just tried this one for a minute, did the controls feel like it would automatically drift you one direction or the other? I could not tell if it was my keyboard or how it just controls. Felt strange, but I like the idea of the game.
 
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fokkusu

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FFVII appeared in first keyshop. Cdkeys when...

--

 
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Virtual Ruminant

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I feared the worst when I saw the screenshot of that topless buff wolf character, but I couldn't have been more pleasantly surprised: A wonderfully wholesome game in which Uncle Topless Wolf (who happens to be a writer of cheesy pulp fiction down on his luck and novel sales) and his little nephew go on an adventure in a spooky mansion (he also puts some clothes on). Fantastic pixelart all around, great characters, good writing and a very accessible mechanics mix of visual novel, point and click and platformer, and that was just the two hours of the demo! Yes! :love:
 
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Li Kao

It’s a strange world. Let’s keep it that way.
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Ahahah, thanks for posting here, I got the notification and this reminded me….

I had the ‘pleasure’ to try the most butchered localization I encountered ? To the point it’s funny ?
’Depersonnalization’, I think it’s titled. Chinese game I would guess, machine translated, total wreck, and the cherry on top is that I’m pretty certain it’s machine dubbed ! Really funny to see. Well for 50 seconds before closing and uninstalling this trash to oblivion.

I get translation may be costly, but you are not cute, you don’t get an at least you tried medal. It’s just bad. And a little vexing to think that you deemed that appropriate.
 

Virtual Ruminant

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This one is such an intriguing mix - part Benoît-Sokal-style adventure, part Resident Evil, and part Kojima-level bonkers scenario. Really fantastic environment graphics, too, but married with character animations which clearly are of the "the best you can do without having access to motion capture equipment" variety. Very 2020s indie. Personally I could do without the ResE-style combat and the game actually has a combat-reduced mode for those who are of a similar persuasion. Great soundtrack, too, with original songs (with lyrics and everything). Yes. :love:.



If the game's description doesn't quite pull you in yet, let me add that the humor really works and there is great voice acting to deliver it, too. Yes! :love:.
 
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gabbo

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If you ever thought: "You know, I'd like more of The Movies, but with a more streamlined approach to gameplay" then my oh my does

ever scratch that itch. It could still be a little more transparent with things (might just be demo limitations), but I blew nearly 3 hours on it last night until 2am.



Felt a little too hand-holdy with gameplay, but it certainly had tension. Voice-acting doesn't seem to really align with my own idea of what an SCP team member would be, but I managed to look past it. I feel like it would be more mundane (like Southern Reach), but it works none the less.
 
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prudis

prudis

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ok did some too , no going nuts like last time ,so will just post small doses as i go


this thing slaps and even more when you hit the 16x combo :-D realyl fun combination of doom and music


this is a weird one , they try so hard to be the true flatout 1/2 successor , and they have some great trucks , but the driving physics is noway neard that even after the time they spent tweaking in during the demo. It started super heavy that it was super pain to even turn , but drifts were at the same time overdone ... when i tried it before they took the demo down , it was already imprived a lot , but still not even halfway there to the glory of first fallouts ... lets hope they manage to nail it till launch as everything else was a ok


another proof that devolver has golden hands... really fun and weird shit .... especially for people with foot fetish :p
Its not really as hotline miami as some poeple would want , but when it clicks its absolute blast just kicking around crocodiles around the levels. Also the boss of the demo was glorious
 
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Amzin

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Glimmer in Mirror - the translation stays about that janky level. The demo is pretty short, the jumps are floaty, and the polish is pending, but overall I liked it. It feels very Ori-inspired in aesthetics. Hard to say what a full length game will feel like but I'll check it out.

Midnight Fight Express - kind of a slow clunky start, I played with M+KB which I think is a mistake if it has controller support, but got the flow eventually. The demo doesn't really "end", the next level just doesn't unlock. Overall very fun, seems frantic, and honestly reminds me of the old Die Hard arcade brawler that my friends and I played to death. Definitely checking it out on release as well.

Metal: Hellslinger already mentioned, won't add much beyond I love rhythm games but am super, duper bad at beat based ones, but still had fun with it and it's incredibly engaging when you lock it in.

Anger Foot - also mentioned, it feels very Hotline Miami 2-esque to me, but since you don't die in 1 hit it's much more fun. The "nonsense" level is off the charts. I don't know if I'd get it for like, $30, but if it's cheap or wait for a sale, will enjoy it.

Common'hood - I didn't actually play until the demo stopped me because I figured I got a feel for it. I do like it, and it's a sort of novel take on survival / building, and certainly agree with the general message of "fuck capitalism". The building framework felt really clunky but I think it just requires more precision to start with. Also it kind of eats resources if you aren't careful. Overall, again, with a touch of polish I'd be maybe day 1, as is I might see what the longer-playtime impressions are.

Agent 64 - I played the shit out of Goldeneye 64. I unlocked every cheat, completed every challenge (even the bullshit ones), my friends and I played it so much we had to remove certain weapon modes. But I didn't really enjoy this that much. Don't think I'll follow up on it.

Retreat to Enen - I felt like I should like this more than I did. It's just clunky all around, and didn't quite have that "grab" that these games do, but it has a lot of potential and I like the premise of a less colonial survival experience. It's a maybe.

Escape Academy - Had fun with this, and looking forward to local co-op escape room game. Maybe on the easy side? But just the intro to the game really, and easier is better than too opaque with these things.

Cult of the Lamb - Biggest surprise for me, hadn't heard of it and loved the art and the gameplay is very fun. Absolutely looking forward to this. Hopefully it doesn't turn too tedious later on.

Moonscars - Despite my griping about Souls-vanias being on the rise, this didn't feel like it made the same poor design choices a lot of them did. You start off with an air dash, which is already better than most. Fast travel exists. Had 3 save points in the demo which is better than most metroidvanias I've played lately. I was skeptical but I really enjoyed it overall. Do agree that the UI is pretty bad.
 

Parsnip

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Terra Nil, it's very chill. The demo is basically what I assume is the very first tutorial map. You get a bunch of tools unlocked as you progress through it, to teach you how to clean the land. Very curious if the full game has more unlocks than the demo, since it basically gives you everything you need to restore the map. Maybe the full game has more hazards you need to clean so different stuff is needed. Hard to say.
 
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Parsnip

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Also tried Moonscars. Could be interesting, but I'm not feeling the combat, right now at least. It seems very combo and parry reliant, and I usually don't really like parry systems. It also seems like there's very little if any feedback on when you get hit. Just kind of doesn't feel great to me overall.
Great art though.


Also, reminder that the event ends soon. Some games may be playable from the install folder after the event ends, but some (like Moonscars) won't be. I actually did a quick test and tried to launch the rest of the games I've downloaded just to see if I can still try them after the event ends, and since only Moonscars failed that test, I tried it first and left the rest for later.

Also, as I was testing the games, Broken Pieces did a weird thing where when I launched it, the intro logo and stuff played fine, but then it I guess picked some weird resolution or something and my TV lost signal to the gpu. Tabbing out of the game brought the signal back, but going back to the game made it lose it again. Killed the process, tried again, same deal. Managed to get it working with some random alt tabbing, just fyi if anyone else runs in the issue.
 
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Virtual Ruminant

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Last two demos for me for this fest:



This one really throws in everything known today in the genre of side-scrolling action platformer: A bit of roguelite-ness (death means you get to start the current level over from the start, but with stats and (some) inventory retained), a bit of souls-ness (you do not retain weapons if you die and have to start over), a bit of metroidvania (levels are fully backtrack-able, with fast-travel checkpoints), a bit of procedural randomness (levels subtly change in layout and collectible content on every restart), collectible weapons + upgrades, stats upgrades for the player character, etc, etc.

The setting is cyberpunk, but Hong-Kong Kung-Fu style, the presentation is very polished - and if you happen to have one of those megawatt-t0-pixel-converters called RTX30x0, you can turn on raytracing and things get really shiny (sadly too awesome for my poor old RTX2070).

Definitely a keeper. :love:



Epic-bacon-game-publisher Devolver Digital is back with another one-gag-comedy-act. The presentation is really good as usual, but unfortunately it's just yet another Devolver-style meme-game with very little substance. If you're a fan of those, you will like it, but me, I think I'll pass. :sleep:
 

Mivey

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Here are my thought on some of the demos. Actually ran all these on the Deck, and they all ran pretty well.


Absolutely loved it. It reminds me a lot of Ruiner, honestly, and I think there's a strong influence from Hotline Miami in the music department, though it's not copy of either of those games. The actual combat reminded me most of the Batman Arkham games, with a focus on melee and pressing Y to intercept the next attack. Very enjoyable.


Basically Child of Light, but from a Chinese dev, but it actually has cool combat mechanics. Liked my time with it, def. something I wishlisted.


An FPS, except it now stands for Fashion Police Squad. The enemy are poorly dressed smucks who ruin the fashionable look of the city, and it's your squads job to teach them proper fashion sense. Your weapons fix their clothing, giving them better colour coordination, better fit, and whatever other sartorial emergency comes your way.
Loved this, it's Doom, but with a really fun silly spin on it.


Pretty neat puzzle game where you fold parts of the map to reveal new paths, solve puzzles and advance the game. Simple idea, and will give the final game a try. Puzzle games like this really live from the level design, and I hope the final game will be able to really explore this concept fully and keep things interesting. The demo was surely very promising in that regard.


The new game from Wadjet Eye (developed, not just published by them). The setting and new interface was really nice. The new sprites didn't impress me yet, kinda hope the final game will look a bit more polished in that regard. Not a deal breaker, of course, will surely buy this when it comes out.


Enjoyed this one. A slow puzzle game where you explore a large 3D map as a tiny mouse with magical super powers (not as exciting as it sounds, it can just make some sparks, basically). Enjoyed my time with it, very relaxing.

Agent 64 wasn't really my thing. The game is not super interesting, seems to just coast on its nostalgia factor. Also played a bit of Naiad. This one was maybe too relaxing, to the point of being outright boring. I dunno, it was super pretty, but didn't feel like the game needed me for much of anything.




Also played a bit of Metal Hellsinger and Melatonin, but I really don't have much of a rythm sense, and quickly gave up on those demos. That's really not saying anything about those games, just not my thing.
 
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prudis

prudis

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so event is over and i barely tried anything :-D still most of the demos remained active ... so will post my impressions here in coming days :evilblob:


really fun and addictive take on match 3 , definitely recommended



seems pretty clear Dune RTS successor, the UI needs a tn of polish but the demo mission was fun if bit too slow, promising



pretty fun fighting rogulite deckbuilder , challenging with nice animation and artstyle , recommended





arcade snoboard racer with trash pandas , toucans and capybaras .... only two in the demo with the city one being bit worse , but really arcade racer and already super playable especially in splitscreen, lets hope there is enough content in final game , recommended



mix of rogulike and tetris , you build a room tetris style while you move with the hero and clean the dingeon ou are building , a bit confsuing and hard to focus on both , but fun in the end when it clicks , very promising
 
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Amzin

No one beats me 17 times in a row!
Dec 5, 2018
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Last two demos for me for this fest:



This one really throws in everything known today in the genre of side-scrolling action platformer: A bit of roguelite-ness (death means you get to start the current level over from the start, but with stats and (some) inventory retained), a bit of souls-ness (you do not retain weapons if you die and have to start over), a bit of metroidvania (levels are fully backtrack-able, with fast-travel checkpoints), a bit of procedural randomness (levels subtly change in layout and collectible content on every restart), collectible weapons + upgrades, stats upgrades for the player character, etc, etc.

The setting is cyberpunk, but Hong-Kong Kung-Fu style, the presentation is very polished - and if you happen to have one of those megawatt-t0-pixel-converters called RTX30x0, you can turn on raytracing and things get really shiny (sadly too awesome for my poor old RTX2070).

Definitely a keeper. :love:
I tried this as my last demo for the event and loved everything about it - until I got to the combat. I think the combat, as-is, is awful. Enemies are hitstunned until suddenly they aren't (and near-instantly hit you back), you can't move through enemies but can dash / jump over them, but both use stamina so you can find yourself in a situation out of stamina completely unable to move (which happened to me) because enemies also seem to hitstun you and didn't seem like my stamina recharged while being hit. Basically every death I had was something I couldn't see or because none of my buttons (dash/jump/hit) did anything to stop it. You also get hit by enemies for free when climbing up ledges or using the grapple, which is terrible.

There's a lot of promise to the underlying system, with a variety of tools (ranged + melee + misc + ability) but enemies attack so fast, are so beefy, and you die from so much random stuff that it is never going to flow well if enemies get more complicated than "shrimpy melee guy". The enemy voice lines from getting hit / killed also got repetitive and annoying in the demo. It has promise but it is coming out in a few weeks and combat, to me, needs an overhaul which there's no way it's getting by then.
 

Virtual Ruminant

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May 21, 2020
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I tried this as my last demo for the event and loved everything about it - until I got to the combat. I think the combat, as-is, is awful. Enemies are hitstunned until suddenly they aren't (and near-instantly hit you back), you can't move through enemies but can dash / jump over them, but both use stamina so you can find yourself in a situation out of stamina completely unable to move (which happened to me) because enemies also seem to hitstun you and didn't seem like my stamina recharged while being hit. Basically every death I had was something I couldn't see or because none of my buttons (dash/jump/hit) did anything to stop it. You also get hit by enemies for free when climbing up ledges or using the grapple, which is terrible.

There's a lot of promise to the underlying system, with a variety of tools (ranged + melee + misc + ability) but enemies attack so fast, are so beefy, and you die from so much random stuff that it is never going to flow well if enemies get more complicated than "shrimpy melee guy". The enemy voice lines from getting hit / killed also got repetitive and annoying in the demo. It has promise but it is coming out in a few weeks and combat, to me, needs an overhaul which there's no way it's getting by then.
All of those points are valid - I worked around the resulting unfairness by playing on baby difficulty (story mode) (and still managed to die to the mid-level boss once) and then just exploring and waiting for the next wonderfully cheesy dialog or collectible lore drop made it fun. You're probably right that this game will not succeed on the merit of the core gameplay.
 

Amzin

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All of those points are valid - I worked around the resulting unfairness by playing on baby difficulty (story mode) (and still managed to die to the mid-level boss once) and then just exploring and waiting for the next wonderfully cheesy dialog or collectible lore drop made it fun. You're probably right that this game will not succeed on the merit of the core gameplay.
Ah yea I think I was just on normal, I usually default to default difficulties (or slightly higher if it's too easy). This actually does feel like a game that might be fun if you're almost invincible
 

Mivey

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Sep 20, 2018
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Steam not letting me log in with the app, kinda annoying as I'm trying to sell some cards
At this point Valve seems like they are a bit cheap about their infrastructure. I get that Steam is growing, but it's gotta be possible to anticipate the peak demand a little.
 
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prudis

prudis

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At this point Valve seems like they are a bit cheap about their infrastructure. I get that Steam is growing, but it's gotta be possible to anticipate the peak demand a little.
probably same reason as why my university's servers always crashed when the opened class signing .... just not worth to significantly specially ramp up servers for few hours twice a year
 
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C-Dub

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probably same reason as why my university's servers always crashed when the opened class signing .... just not worth to significantly specially ramp up servers for few hours twice a year
Yup. I work in learning design and the servers we host our e-Learning on always crashes when we have a big intake of new officers all trying to get access at the same time.

Never been worth trying to scale up because our daily users are usually only 10-15% of those infrequent peaks.
 
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prudis

prudis

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bit late , but finally went through few others of my Next Fest June demos that stayed playable (25 left to go through after this batch :D)


this is a weid one , basically whacky physics game about thr tital exhausted man and you move him around with a small twist that you also occasionaly "build your next levels" (Unpacking style) and "pick tasks on the level" before playing it to progress story - could be fun



rogulike cartoony ice hockey , weird idea but the demo had none of those mechanis , basically only was just single match .... supririsngly well done , reall reminded me of the old days of ice hockey on PC , just more arcady and cartooney .... has quite the potential



Surprisingly complex tycoon where you build military camp , while also doing mission/ordering suplies on over world map , demo was basically just a tutorial --- but definitely has quite a potential



qute adventure game based on dioramas and puzzles with easy riddles and minigames... not really my genre but seemed pretty fine , needs a lot of work on UI , demo one was quite messy



terraforming game by devolver .... i would also say quite improvemnt on previous demo, realyl fuun but surprisingly tricky puzzle game - recommended



basically standard deckbuilder rogulike with mecha setting ... the demo seems bit too erly as it felt like all the basic stuff for deckbuilder is there , but something is missing , so as itself the demo was quite dissapointing (art is nice , but mechanics very basic) , but then i went to check the forums .... and the devs said the demo was basically old alpha and they are improving reworking prett much everything, adding tons of unimplemented mechanics, atm including fixing some of my complaints (aka too much emphasis on heat mechanic) - so gotta stay hopefull here



Kingdom rush turnbased rpg spinoff , could be interesting , but the demo was basically just a tutorial and not much else , so hard to judge the mobile origins are quite visible but should be still great , like normal kingdom rushes - could be cool




walking and working simulator in basically space amazon warehouse but automated ... great writing , fun VOs , Left me wanting more even though its not really my genre - quite promising




this was a weird one ... basically psychadelic rogulike where you play as always runnign buny and try to survive the levels (demo was missing the progression, so basically just set of levels) ... was quite fun but really hard .... really curious about end product , gonna keep eye on it




black and white roguelite platformer about girld fighting monster infestation with a flashlight, amazing artstiye ,solid gameplay overall fun demo - promising
 
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prudis

prudis

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another batch (
16 titles to go
)

This was weird one , kinda like mix of Dungeon Keeper, RTS Citybuilding and Orcs must die.
You build your own dwarven city , mine stuff, set traps for fights with evil orcs . Really intruiging mix , just the demo felt super early , needs a lot of work (pathfinding is messy, performance was horrible , quite bunch of bugs ) ... but the base gameplay loop is solid and puts some nice twits for old formulas. Super promising



Deckbioler rogulike mixed with world exploration on a train setting ... feels kinda like mix of Monster Train and Battle Brothers . You travel on a train around the world and clear some goels , (love that there is more there than just "kill everything") .... you go explore on foot to gather suplies or fight monsters (tactical combat on a board arenas where using deck of cards) - Recomemnded and not just to deckbuilder fans



Wholesome adventure wher you drift downstream as a water spirit . Lovel water paint art and very relaxing music. Art!



top down comedy adventure where you move your character through the world build of paper and solve puzzle by folding the screen like a paper , great concept, gread sountrack and art, felt bit too easy , but i guess its just start of the game - really promising



weird ass low poly RPG about a princess tired of princess shit and just doing what she wants :-D Really funny and sometimes 4th wall breaking ... for examply just at the begining || the 2D princess excaped the prison just by turning sideways in 3d world and the with the help of annyoed talking throne escaped, but throne got stuck in the door cause too thick , overall surprisingly really fun - promising for sure and releasing soon aswell



cyberpunky pixely RPG with turnbased combat , you play as a vigilante hacker searching for a missing father in vile dystopian society.
great atmospere, excelent spritework and fun gameplay , reminiscent of old jRPGs - recommended



This one was awesome , basically hollow knight mixed with sekiro with story of a vengeance. Tight gameplay, amazing art and nice soundtrack . - just glorious especially for something thats year from release


Its like weird boardgame , tactical strategy mix about historical chareacters fighting reptilians
oood on concept and presentation, but kinda feels weird , needs much more polish and maybe some time spent on QoL - promising if they polish it a lot



another turnbased strategy this time with rpg mechanic and carased exploration ... fights are on topdown arenas ... overall seems unfinished a lot , needs more polish especially in presentation department and needs to add tons of QoL improvements -promising , but too early state of the game
 
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prudis

prudis

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second to last batch :smiling-eyes: 8 more to go after this one


alchemist roguelike , its kinda like Slay the spire , but instead of cards you use alchemists recipes and fight using combinging materials to make attacks/potions/.... it was quite hard and confusing at times , so they definitely need to work on QoL, UI and balancing a lot .... promising



pixelart twinstick action roguelike , seems liek pre-alpha with jsut basic loop and mechanis , a bit too lowres pixelart to my liking , but could be fun on deck ... seems to follow the isaac roguelike formula , just the fight and movement is much more flexible - very basic in the demo but qiiote promising



action RPG where you play as plague doctor fighting mysterious plague.
The action seems to be straigh Binding of Isaac style with one stick for movement , other for 4-wa attack just with jump to dodge. The gamepaly loop seems to be i battling bosses in small arenas fighting against abominations. Tthere seems to be bit of a story , and where you are getting contracts on the bosses. (its not rogulike)
Demo was super short though - i would say recommended for bossrush fans and those that dont mind Isaac like combat



J-RatPG about tiny rat seeking revenge , glorious artwork, cool soundtrack and the prologue to the story in the demo felt intruiging , only thing i hope is for them to implement mouse controls of the menu - high recommendation




really fun story about child imagination ,bizarre, sentimental, with unique art and really fun narrative style . Reminded me bits of amaanita stuff in its gameplay but in other ways like childernbooky visal novel .... overall - really promising



Chinese child of like looking metroidvania that plays more like megaman mixed with Ori :-D
Really cure art and great soundtrack, but the demo felt bit rough with combat and platformig and derpy english translation stops me for giving it full on recommendation (the patch the demo had yesterday quite improved it though and it will fo through early access ) so i would say really promising and one to look for when v1.0 is around the corner




Stardew valley inspired game aboout being chemist in a city that hates chemists . really intruiging start of the story makes me imo even more involved with the characters than in SV . Gameplay is good mix of different quests, interacting with townies, making potions and harvesting ingredients.
From what i played pretty solid take on a genre , needs to improve on some QoL stuff , but pretty damn wine - recommended , especiall for the fans of the genre
Also you got a doggo :smiling-eyes:



Shmuppy rogulike with space bears , quite hard but solidgameplay loop with really fun bosses, very early in dev but definitely promising
 
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