|OT| Steam Next Fest - returning October 2024

LEANIJA · Mar 2, 2022

BTW the Blacktail demo will stay up for 5 more days, give it a try!

(I think theres some others that kept their demos up a bit longer)

fokkusu · Jun 13, 2022

So I tried Agent 64 demo, was really nice but where is my badge?

Kiru · Jun 13, 2022

fokkusu said:
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).

gabbo · Jun 13, 2022

fokkusu said:
So I tried Agent 64 demo, was really nice but where is my badge?

Have you tried the demo before? Maybe it's only for new demos?

fokkusu · Jun 13, 2022

gabbo said:
Have you tried the demo before? Maybe it's only for new demos?

Nah just downloaded it today

Panda Pedinte · Jun 14, 2022

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.

Parsnip · Jun 14, 2022

These are the demos I grabbed.

Li Kao · Jun 14, 2022

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.

LEANIJA · Jun 14, 2022

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 · Jun 14, 2022

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 · Jun 14, 2022

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.

gabbo · Jun 14, 2022

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.

Dandy · Jun 14, 2022

LEANIJA said:
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.

Panda Pedinte · Jun 15, 2022

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.

xinek · Jun 15, 2022

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 · Jun 15, 2022

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.

Ascheroth · Jun 15, 2022

I downloaded a bunch of demos, now I just have to find the time to try them, lol.
Lots of interesting looking stuff.

are what I have lined up for now, but I'm sure there's a lot more.

manchego obfuscator · Jun 15, 2022

Amzin said:
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 · Jun 15, 2022

Amzin said:
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.

Amzin · Jun 15, 2022

manchego obfuscator said:
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.

Mivey said:
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 · Jun 16, 2022

LEANIJA said:
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.

Virtual Ruminant · Jun 17, 2022

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.

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!

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.

ExistentialThought · Jun 17, 2022

Virtual Ruminant said:
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.

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.

Virtual Ruminant · Jun 17, 2022

ExistentialThought said:
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.

I played with a controller, no drift there (just some inertia).

fokkusu · Jun 17, 2022

FFVII appeared in first keyshop. Cdkeys when...

--

Virtual Ruminant · Jun 18, 2022

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!

Li Kao · Jun 18, 2022

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 · Jun 19, 2022

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.

.

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!

.

gabbo · Jun 19, 2022

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.

Amzin · Jun 19, 2022

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 · Jun 20, 2022

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.

Parsnip · Jun 20, 2022

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.

Virtual Ruminant · Jun 20, 2022

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.

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.

Mivey · Jun 20, 2022

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.

Amzin · Jun 23, 2022

Virtual Ruminant said:
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.

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 · Jun 23, 2022

Amzin said:
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 · Jun 23, 2022

Virtual Ruminant said:
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 · Jun 23, 2022

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.

C-Dub · Jun 23, 2022

prudis said:
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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