Monthly Archives: March 2014

Steam Indie Game Reviews 3

Here’s another batch of reviews! You can click the images to check out the games on Steam.

Botanicula

Botanicula is now my favorite point-and-click adventure game, because it’s the only one I’ve ever managed to beat without a walkthrough! Well I lie, I had to use a walkthrough ONE time. But yeah, it’s quite easy compared to similar games I’ve played, and as a result, I found it much more enjoyable, because I wasn’t lost all the time.

It’s also made in Flash, and shows that Flash games can look and sound really good. If you like games with unusual art styles, you should check it out.

ss_7ddb79946ee9fc240c6ef8f5204038d7ceb9f6f9.1920x1080

This game is really pretty!

Wizorb

This is a fun game as far as Breakout-clones go, but I didn’t think it was anything special. I checked it out because some of the animations were done by Paul Robertson, but it wasn’t his usual style, and there wasn’t that much animation either. I guess it would have been more fun if I was into these games, but I found that it quickly got boring for me. I still played it to the end though, but only on easy mode.

wizorb-001

This game has an RPG theme to it.

Super Amazing Wagon Adventure

I think this may be the funniest single player game I have ever played. On my first attempt, I was laughing the whole time, up until the point where my last dude was picked up by a tornado and gored by a flying buffalo. The humor is just incredibly over the top and ridiculous, and I recommend NOT watching any gameplay videos before playing, as to not spoil anything.

The game’s really short, but there’s plenty of replay value, so it can keep you busy for a few hours. The music is also incredibly catchy.

xblig1

Pew pew pew!

Nimble Quest

This was originally a mobile game, and it really shows in the grindy upgrade system. So maybe you should play this on your phone, instead of on Steam. It’s still fun despite that though. It’s basically Snake, but instead of a snake, you control a line of warriors, where each has a unique attack that they spam at enemies. It’s actually quite a fun concept, and I played it longer than I thought I would. It would have been nice if they expanded on the game a bit for the Steam version though, as it really does feel like a mobile game.

It's kinda like Snake!

It’s kinda like Snake!

Aqua Kitty

Aqua Kitty is a shoot-em-up that’s heavily inspired by the old arcade game Defender, which I’ve played quite a lot. Basically, you shoot down waves of enemies while protecting your kittens from being abducted, while making heavy use of your radar. It’s a fun game, but it feels a bit repetitive. Some more variations between the levels would have been nice. Maybe some more bosses or environmental hazards.

But still, it’s a retro shoot-em-up about cats. That’s enough to check it out.
The survival mode is also quite addictive, and has been keeping me busy.

Pew pew pew! Meow!

Pew pew pew! Meow!

Puzzle Dimension

Not much to say about this one. It’s kind of a generic puzzle game, I guess. You’ve got to move the ball to the end of the level, while traversing a maze of various traps, like ice, fire, spikes, sand, and all that sort of stuff. I usually like puzzle games at first, but once the difficulty increases, I quickly tire of them. And it was the same with this one.

It’s been a long time since I played a puzzle game that wasn’t a Flash game, so the modern graphics were quite nice. It also gave me a few puzzle ideas that I could perhaps use in some of my future games.

Roll the ball to the end!

Roll the ball to the end!

Tidying Up After Steam

Yo, it’s almost been two weeks since EBF4’s Steam launch, and things have been kind of hectic, but they’re calming down now.

Here’s some of the stuff I’ve been up to:

Dealing with technical problems for customers.
There’s not been very many people with problems, but it only takes a few to become annoying. And there’s still a few issues that I have no idea how to solve. I’d rather give out refunds than deal with this stuff, but Steam doesn’t let me do that personally. D:

That’s another reason why I don’t want to release the game on Mac and Linux. It’s hard enough for me to help out people on Windows! Imagine trying to do tech support for operating systems you’re not familiar with… hah! I’m not going to put myself in that position. Nope. No way.

Fixing bugs.
There’s not been a lot of serious issues, but there’s still a few things that I’ve had to fix, including one broken achievement. I’ll be updating the game within a day or two with these fixes.

Giving out free copies.
I’ve given out over 500 free copies of EBF4 already. To YouTubers, Fan artists, reviewers, and people like that. But the biggest chunk went to groups that do game giveaways.

Reading reviews and watching Let’s Plays.
It’s interesting to see what people think of the new content, especially those playing on Epic difficulty. It was supposed to be incredibly hard, but perfectly managable if you use some strategy. And that seems to be more or less what people are reporting.

Looking for other distribution platforms.
Good Old Games turned me down because they felt that EBF4 wouldn’t sell well, since there’s already a free version. Fair enough. The Humble Bundle guys seem to be more interested in the game though, and it should show up on the Humble Store sometime soon.

I’ve also been contacted by a few of the lesser known bundles, and I’ll try to stick EBF4 into some of those too.

Anyway, I can’t wait until all of the above is out of the way, and I can finally work on something new.