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chuckroThe Silent Age - A surprisingly delightful sci-fi puzzle adventure game, set during the cold war and starring a hapless janitor named Joe. You end up with a time machine, but it’s set to two specific time periods, so in practice all the puzzles are bouncing between the two, gathering items (like a good kleptomaniac hero) and using them to progress. You never have to combine objects, and there aren’t any fish-broom-rope moon logic puzzles. The ending twist is very well-foreshadowed (I think I figured it out around the halfway point), but it was still fun to see how we got there.
Super Motherload - Obviously intended for co-op multiplayer, this is a digging/collecting game in which you’re constantly carefully maneuvering back to the surface (because hitting tunnel walls at speed will blow up your ship) to drop off minerals, refuel and repair. It seems like there’s a plot and things to discover, but I found the basic gameplay rather repetitive. Maybe it’s better with a team?
TransPlan - A clever little puzzle game with a “sketches on drafting paper” aesthetic. You need to get a block into a specific space, within the rules of dropping and pinning existing materials. It’s nothing amazing, but there’s some clever stuff and the difficulty curve / tutorial levels are very well done.
Velocibox - An unpleasantly fast runner game without any real learning curve—i.e., I played a dozen games that lasted less than ten second each because this starts at full speed and a single touch of anything kills you. I am not here for that nonsense.
QbQbQb - A relatively simple puzzle game: Rotate the planet to catch the falling blocks, and match the colors to make them disappear. Simple and elegant concept, but not enough to hold my interest.
Retro/Grade - A rhythm game disguised as a space shooter. You’ve just defeated the alien armada, but now you need to do it all in reverse to keep the space/time continuum intact. So you need to fly backwards, dodging enemy fire that comes up behind you, and “catching” the lasers you shot in the first place. Your health meter is instead the health of the space/time continuum.
Megabyte Punch - A side-scrolling platformer with some Metroidvania elements, but broken up into distinct levels. The graphical scheme reminds me a lot of Sonic the Hedgehog, though it’s hard to articulate exactly how. I’m not sure why, but it just didn’t grab me.
Heroes of Legionwood - An RPGMaker game currently in three “chapters”. In a world slowly dying as the “darkness” spreads across it, the island with humankind's last stragglers finds a source of hope. A group of adventures sets out to retrieve the shards of lore and try to restore the Weave that sustains life in their world. Passable class and skill system. Speed really matters in terms of which skills you upgrade, because taking two turns to an enemy's one can break a battle. They tried to implement a lot of things: A day/night cycle (with fatigue concerns), varied responses in conversations that slightly alter the story, and a lot of variety in story/system interaction options. Three difficulty levels, which I always approve of. I got distracted by other RPGMaker games, but may revisit this at some point.
Overall: There were a couple of gems in here. The Silent Age was a lot of fun. TransPlan and Retro/Grade were decent concepts for an hour or two. Heroes of Legionwood may get revisited.
Super Motherload - Obviously intended for co-op multiplayer, this is a digging/collecting game in which you’re constantly carefully maneuvering back to the surface (because hitting tunnel walls at speed will blow up your ship) to drop off minerals, refuel and repair. It seems like there’s a plot and things to discover, but I found the basic gameplay rather repetitive. Maybe it’s better with a team?
TransPlan - A clever little puzzle game with a “sketches on drafting paper” aesthetic. You need to get a block into a specific space, within the rules of dropping and pinning existing materials. It’s nothing amazing, but there’s some clever stuff and the difficulty curve / tutorial levels are very well done.
Velocibox - An unpleasantly fast runner game without any real learning curve—i.e., I played a dozen games that lasted less than ten second each because this starts at full speed and a single touch of anything kills you. I am not here for that nonsense.
QbQbQb - A relatively simple puzzle game: Rotate the planet to catch the falling blocks, and match the colors to make them disappear. Simple and elegant concept, but not enough to hold my interest.
Retro/Grade - A rhythm game disguised as a space shooter. You’ve just defeated the alien armada, but now you need to do it all in reverse to keep the space/time continuum intact. So you need to fly backwards, dodging enemy fire that comes up behind you, and “catching” the lasers you shot in the first place. Your health meter is instead the health of the space/time continuum.
Megabyte Punch - A side-scrolling platformer with some Metroidvania elements, but broken up into distinct levels. The graphical scheme reminds me a lot of Sonic the Hedgehog, though it’s hard to articulate exactly how. I’m not sure why, but it just didn’t grab me.
Heroes of Legionwood - An RPGMaker game currently in three “chapters”. In a world slowly dying as the “darkness” spreads across it, the island with humankind's last stragglers finds a source of hope. A group of adventures sets out to retrieve the shards of lore and try to restore the Weave that sustains life in their world. Passable class and skill system. Speed really matters in terms of which skills you upgrade, because taking two turns to an enemy's one can break a battle. They tried to implement a lot of things: A day/night cycle (with fatigue concerns), varied responses in conversations that slightly alter the story, and a lot of variety in story/system interaction options. Three difficulty levels, which I always approve of. I got distracted by other RPGMaker games, but may revisit this at some point.
Overall: There were a couple of gems in here. The Silent Age was a lot of fun. TransPlan and Retro/Grade were decent concepts for an hour or two. Heroes of Legionwood may get revisited.
