The latest development update for Tomes of Mephistopheles (ToM) comes with a screenshot overflow, showcasing creeping (not creepy) skeletons, fire throwing and some yearnful treasure chests.

The rise of the roguelikes this year and last has been quite substantial, which is why developers are making them the best they can (not like they weren’t before) – competition breeds quality you see. One of the very fruitiest ones that we have seen so far is ToM from Kot-in-Action, the makers of Steel Storm. Right about now, ToM is starting to take shape, in fact, on the Rolf Harris “Can You Tell What It Is Yet?” scale, it comes in as a “is it a tiger?” – so it’s definitely on the way.

The changelog for the update is longer than the Bible so we’re just going to pick out our favorites and illustrate them with the accompanying screenshot. What we do suggest is that you head on over to this page where everything is outlined by the developer himself in full.

Ah, this would be the first sighting of spell casting, in this case a Thrown Fireball. Other than Thrown spells, there’s also Fly, Guide and Direct.

A Wild Skeleton appears. Developer uses Thrown Fireball. It’s not very effective – enemies will now dodge attacks.

What is this? A skeletal game of Cat And Mouse?! Seriously though, the way they seem to be sneaking up is kind of cute.

Here’s a thing. A treasure chest…with no treasure. Just some bottles of potions and other useless junk.

More information on Tome of Mephistopheles can be found on the official website.

After tearing it up on iOS devices, the challenging 3D roguelike, Pitman, is now available for your purses and wallets to gobble up on IndieCity.

The playable dwarf in Pitman is pretty badass, although the yellow coat puts it off a little bit – what is he a dwarf lollipop man? As you direct him around the environment you will find axes, torches, shields and many other things to help you out when battling the underground creatures of the dark. There’s also a load of pretzels left around which act as health when consumed. Yes, pretzels. Shut up.

The actual game itself is a very systematic roguelike. It’s randombased, turnbased and takes place on a dynamic boardgame that expands when you move in a certain direction – a bit like Bastion but really not at the same time. Shut up.

This means that Pitman is now available on the App Store ($1.99) for you handheld peeps and on IndieCity ($2.99/€2.49/£1.99) for you stay-at-home types, Windows only though unfortunately.

BUT WAIT! There is also a free demo available on Kongregate. Don’t believe me? Go check it out yourself!

More information on Pitman can be foraged for on the developer’s official website.

The Indie Stone have released some new screenshots pertaining to the upcoming Project Zomboid update which reveals a bunch of new locations and a new feature which will make survival that little bit harder.

Why?! Why is the name of the latest blog post from The Indie Stone titled “The Final Countdown”? I am not going to get that song out of my head all day now. So if you’re keeping up with Zomboid avidly you will know that there are only 11 tasks on the developer’s countdown clock left to go. That’s pretty exciting.

Since starting this countdown two and a half weeks ago, the developers have managed to finish 15 tasks. If we churn that through our oversized ETA calculator we are told that the new update will be arriving in the middle of February with any luck. Valentines Day would be a lovely day to jump back in to Zomboid and smother your injured wife; let some of that lovers tension out on that most nerve-racking of annually celebrated days.

Apparently there are a bunch of new features with this new update that The Indie Stone are not going to reveal yet, but they have let one slip through the velvet curtain: a thirst system. Basically, this means your character will get thirsty and automatically drain liquid items in their inventory, or you can use water sources to top them up directly. To make matters worse, the water supply will run out in the city as well so it’s best to keep stocked up.

The other information we have been gifted with is the first sight of the new locations that will be added in the map expansion as part of the big update. These are city locations, right in the heart of Muldraugh (probably) which include shops, restaurants and what look to be office blocks with many floors to run up and away from zombies. Oh and look there seems to be quite a few street lights around for once, that’s a relief!

You can read the update blog here and find out more information on Project Zomboid on the official website.

The boundaries of realism in gaming are seemingly being given a shove once again by the ambitious developers of Forging Life. It seems that at some point, said developers got fed up of a few staple features and expectations of the RPG genre and decided to go about fixing them. They sought to do this by hearkening back to the days of RPG’s old, when survival was tough, NPC’s had a sense of time and dragons weren’t modded into giant flying ponies.

The title Forging Life is pretty much a ‘does what it says on the tin’ kind of thing. The idea of the game is that they create a world in which you can explore and adventure in any way you want. Scary real things like diseases that make you projectile vomit, the necessity of drinking and freak baby mutations are all included in Forging Life – you can best get a sense of the developers approach to the game by reading through the features list. There is a lot more planned and on the way too.

You can also get an early look at the game by watching the early alpha demonstration below, do bear in mind that this is months old now.

IS IT NOISY IN HERE OR IS IT JUST ME? Can you hear those birds in the background?! Holy crap, someone needs to shut them up. As you can tell the game needs a lot of work and as it is being created in the spare time the developers can find, it’s going to be a while before it becomes something worth playing.

There is a lot of potential though and I like the “realistic” approach they are going for despite the fact that the Hardcore Mode of Fallout: New Vegas was something I consciously avoided. I guess there’s some strange satisfaction in doing mundane and therefore “realistic” things like drinking water to survive in a computer game that appeal to me. That’s quite odd.

More information and further progress updates on Forging Life can be found on the game’s official website.

Last week, we previewed the latest Beta release of 3079, Phr00t’s block action RPG bonanza. Still not enough info for you? Here’s some more details for you, straight from the lads at Phr00t.

IGM: First thing’s first – could you provide us with a brief outline of 3079 and what sort of experience players can expect from it?

Phr00t (P): 3079 is a futuristic, open-world action role-playing game. I know that’s a bit of a mouthful, but it is a mash-up of all those things! The first thing people will likely notice is the fast paced action, with lots of guns and explosions. However, there is quite a bit more to it, because players can sneak around, practice skills, take on quests, customize items and much, much more.

IGM: Having perused quite a few comments sections on various sites, it seems evident that 3079 is drawing a significant number of comparisons with Minecraft, with some people even labelling it a rip-off of Mojang’s extraordinarily popular sandbox title. To me, though, having played through the beta version of 3079, that seems to be an unfair criticism as 3079 undoubtedly contains many characteristics game mechanics. With that in mind, what would you say to the critics who have already dismissed your game as a Minecraft clone?

P: That’s a great question. The early build of 3079 just simply looked like Minecraft, so I understand why people made the comparison. Fortunately, like yourself, many people played 3079 and realized it is fun in its own right, and nothing like Minecraft.

Unfortunately, however, many people do not go beyond the initial appearance of a game. To address 3079′s image, I’ve made the world less blocky with sloped surfaces; I’ve gotten higher resolution textures (from Deon at the Bay12 forums) and I’ve also increased the polygon count of the characters to give them a less blocky look too. To answer your question directly, I would say this: play the demo. You may like it, and at the very least, you will realize it is nothing like Minecraft. 3079 was never intended to play anything like Minecraft.

IGM: The elements of player freedom, choice and customisation are clearly extremely important components of 3079. Was this a design choice that you were aiming for from the very start of the development process, or have some of them evolved of their own accord and been introduced as new ideas sprang to mind?

P: These were specific design choices early in the game. My previous games, 3059 and 3069, also highlighted these elements. I hope to build on these elements, since many new ideas are always coming in, many from my fans.

IGM: As you’ve already stated, significant adjustments are in the pipeline as the game continues to approach its full release, the most significant of which is perhaps the upcoming texture update. Are there any other major tweaks that you’re planning to implement into 3079 in the near future?

P: The texture update is already in, and it looks pretty good. I give lots of credit to Deon from Bay12 forums! As for major tweaks, well, the next release will have an increased polygon count for characters, which will give them a less blocky look — maybe making them closer to the original Quake look. Lots of new features are also planned, like fortress building (which has been highly requested), spooky caves, military installations and more.

IGM: Now, as we’ve established, 3079 is still very much in its beta phase, meaning that there’s still plenty of time for some of the smaller issues to be ironed out. A number of users have been calling out for smoother controls, improved AI and a few slight adjustments to the inferface. Are these some of the things you’re attempting to address at the moment?

P: I hope to get to all of the smaller issues people have with 3079. I encourage people to e-mail me or post ideas they have on my forum so I can address them. All that I ask is that people are a bit more specific – just saying they want “smoother controls” is difficult to address because I need to know what they believe isn’t smooth. I do plan on introducing some AI improvements, especially things like pathfinding.

IGM: How about the free demo version of the game? Some of our readers have expressed concerns that the demo in its current state is a little too short and that it doesn’t offer a substantial insight into what the game has to offer. Do you have any plans to release an updated demo, perhaps with a multiplayer component?

P: I believe the biggest problem with the demo was how it ended. It just said, “this demo of 3079 has ended; press ESC to quit.” I have since modified that message to tell people they can start a new game when their previous one ended. This allows people to effectively play endlessly, even though you just can’t play an individual character endlessly. As far as multiplayer features in the demo are concerned, this is a key feature of the paid version, one that I worked very hard at implementing, and I’d prefer it to stay a benefit to paying customers.

IGM: Early impressions of the game have been largely positive, and that was underlined by 3079’s early success in terms of sales figures and review on Desura. How important do you feel that the growing support for indie games on such digital distribution platforms as Desura, and now Gamersgate, who have recently started selling the game, in terms of helping projects such as yours to reach out to gamers who might otherwise not hear about some of the lesser known upcoming games?

P: The difficulty in growing an indie game is making it known to gamers. Desura and GamersGate already have gamers looking to buy and play games. So, getting your game on a distribution system like Desura and GamersGate is very important. It isn’t essential, though, since using services like BMT Micro can get you up and running without any pre-approval – you just need to do your own marketing. There are also lots of forums to share your game with and get help. It is really best to hit all the potential places to get your game out there.

IGM: Can we expect to see 3079 appear on any other digital distribution services in the future?

P: Yes, I’m working on some more and news will be shared via my Twitter page!

IGM: During your time as a game developer, what would you say are the most important lessons you’ve learned? Is there anything from your experiences that you can pass on to any potential developers out there?

P: There are lots of players out there, and they all want and value different things. Have a good vision of what you want your game to be and listen to your supporters, especially those with constructive criticism.

IGM: 2011 was certainly a great year for indie games, with Indie Game Magazine’s Game of the Year Awards flooded with masses of great games. Do you feel that the rise of the indie games market can continue into 2012 and beyond?

P: Of course! Indie games are where the innovation is. So many developers now have amazing tools, like jMonkeyEngine,  to see their own ideas come alive. I believe the indie market will only continue to grow!

IGM: With regards to these great indie titles released during the past year, are there any recently released games that you’ve been playing yourselves?

P: I wish I had time to play games! Not only do I spend lots of time developing 3079, but I also have a 4 month old son to take care of! I have to recommend Towns, which is on Desura, and Stellar, which is on IndieCity – two great indie games!

IGM: Thanks very much for giving us a bit more insight into your game. We wish you all the best will in the world for the game’s continued success.

More information on 3079 can be found on the official website and the game can be purchased on Desura and Gamers Gate.

MicroTale is an indie game being developed by Jenito Games. As of now, it’s still in beta, with no full release scheduled. In my fairly limited time with the game, I’ve been left with a mostly positive outlook.

At first glance, it is easy to see the similarities between MicroTale and Terraria. They both have building and free world elements found in Minecraft and both feature a side scrolling, two dimensional world where you control a character within it. If you’ve ever played Terraria or Minecraft, you’ll at least know that creativity is the goal. Having said that, MicroTale takes some liberties with the design to make the game quite unique.

For starters, the presence of a controllable character feels far less important. By that, I mean in order to mine or build all you do is move your cursor over a tile and click. Your character has absolutely nothing to do with the actual mining and building process.

Instead, your character is used mainly to limit your movement and progression. What you see on your screen is based on whether or not you can get your character there. In other words, it still retains that exploration element found in Terraria while giving you much more building freedom.

One of the bigger changes Minecraft and Terraria veterans will notice is that nearly every resource you mine will turn into cash. While there are a handful of other resources in the game, they are only used for a few items like airships. Considering you can create stackable cash farms fairly easily, MicroTale leans away from a mining emphasis, instead focusing on letting you build and create effortlessly. It even includes a color menu to let you customize your creations, as well as a Prefab mechanic that lets you create personal templates of your own choosing.

The most welcome element that differentiates itself from Terraria is the tutorial. In Terraria, the game simply drops you into a world to fend for yourself. While allowing players to familiarize themselves with the game world in their own way isn’t a bad thing, a tutorial can make a big difference to new players. The tutorial is currently optional and consists purely of text that you can access at any point. I, for one, certainly benefited from the guidance MicroTale’s tutorial offered. That being said, the tutorial could be improved with better writing and typo fixes, both of which the developer is aware of.

Thus far, the battles are an interesting affair. They grant you ‘Teknika’ which seem to act much like magic. Otherwise, your only defence against randomly generated enemies is your main attack. This attack generally consists of you clicking once on your enemy while within a certain distance. Your character then continuously lobs a sword at them. It’s simple – perhaps too simple.

Probably the coolest feature is the inclusion of creatable airships. You choose the shape and size, then attach the appropriate features to create the aircraft. One wheel, enough engines and fuel cells to lift the particular size and weight of the aircraft. It’s completely controllable in the air, and can simply devastate anything it runs into.

As of now, I’ve progressed little into the actual game. Instead, I spent multiple hours simply building and playing around with the mechanics. While, on the surface, the game certainly has many aspects that can draw similarities to Terraria, it also does enough different to warrant a look. It’s not perfect, but MicroTale is looking to be a worthy addition to the recent surge of creativity-based games.

You can find out more information on MicroTale on the official website, where the beta can be downloaded.

A tried and true method for creating new games is to take mechanics from several previous games and combine them into one. This technique has given us such titles as Mirror’s Edge and InMomentum (platforming + FPS), Dungeon Defenders and Orcs Must Die (tower defense + FPS), Nuclear Dawn, Natural Selection, and Savage (FPS + RTS), and now, for better or worse, Sequence (Dance Dance Revolution + Puzzle Quest). Of course, summing up our subject like so would be a little unfair. It’s one of the most peculiar games ever produced, primarily do to the harsh contrast between number-crunching battle and rhythm-matching-button-pressing.

If you’re a dance game veteran, (particularly Stepmania) you’ll have a head start on Sequence, since you’ll already have a sense of rhythmic timing. However, even with this head start, you’ll have a fair amount of adjusting to do. For example, levels in Sequence are structured not so much as endurance tests but as combats with monsters that will continue until one of you dies or the song runs out. The way you fight the monsters is the next big difference. In a typical rhythm game there’s only one stream of arrows or notes on the screen at a time. This limitation has proven manageable and enjoyable in a wide variety of games.

Where Sequence departs from this formula is in having three arrow tracks for you to cycle between. The first allows you to cast spells by selecting them with your non-finger-dancing hand which sends a short sequence of arrows down. If you hit them all, then the spell is complete and does damage, heals you, or any of the other typical magical effects. The second track is enemy attacks—hit the arrows and don’t take damage, much like traditional Dance Dance Revolution. The third track is the mana track, and if you hit any of the constant stream of arrows here you’ll regain a small amount of mana for your spells.

But of course what would any decent game be without some context for the action. Our unlucky hero this time is Ky, a twenty-something student ripped from reality to play a survival game – perhaps he could say hi to Neku Sakuraba along the way. Upon waking up, Ky finds himself in a giant tower divided into 7 floors of difficulty, to the summit of which he must battle using the aforementioned arrow tracks. Helping him out is the voice of an apparently lovely lady named Naia, guiding his actions through a network of loudspeakers – a sort of reverse jigsaw killer.

The most notable aspect of the duo’s interactions is that they are both sarcastic in the extreme. Although these two are unflappably sardonic, the story sections are frequent enough to advance the story at a steady pace and short enough to keep the whole experience from getting tedious. As a plus, the voice acting is quite good with one possible exception in the first floor’s boss. One thing that could be called lacking is the musical selection. About an album’s worth of songs are used to populate more than twice as many battles, and some of the themes might get tiresome if you just sprint through the story. Since the heart and soul of any game based around counting to music is music, this is a little worrying.

Given the above, can Sequence be called a good game on its own merit? Certainly. While some of the more sluggish elements of console RPG’s seem a little out of place next to the more immediate goal of pushing arrow keys, the gameplay functions well as a combination. Long-term planning in item and spell selection gives tangible advantages when facing a giant bug skeleton. Plus, being able to decide when and what you want to fight allows for a greater sense of control than stereotypical random encounters. Sequence is a fresh experiment in design and worth a look, particularly if you’re an old hand at rhythm games. Just don’t try to play it with a dance pad and controller unless you intend to take pictures.

More information on Sequence can be found on the official website. Purchases can be made on Steam and the Xbox Live Marketplace.

]]> http://www.indiegamemag.com/sequence-review-getting-down-with-your-bad-self/feed/ 0 http://www.indiegamemag.com/crusaders-of-yore-might-be-the-cutest-roguelike-you-will-ever-see/ http://www.indiegamemag.com/crusaders-of-yore-might-be-the-cutest-roguelike-you-will-ever-see/#comments Mon, 23 Jan 2012 11:00:49 +0000 Chris Priestman http://www.indiegamemag.com/?p=16477

Kevin Glass of Legends Of Yore fame, has revealed his next project to be Crusaders of Yore, which is to be a variant on the roguelike gameplay that made Legends so popular.

Lots of you enjoyed Legends of Yore for its simplicity and addictive gameplay but mostly because it was free, we imagine. If you wanted more of the same kind of thing for your mobile gaming fix then you’re in luck as the developer of Legends of Yore is coming out with another game of the same style, the aptly named Crusaders of Yore.

Kevin Glass says the main difference between Legends of Yore and Crusaders of Yore is that the former is of a traditional roguelike view, with long game play and save game characters that last for ages. The latter is a turnbased side scroller where the game session is much shorter, the goal is quite simply to reach the bottom of a tiered structure.

Playing as a crusader it seems the main foe is a bunch a green goblins or orcs, some generic fantasy creature at least, and combat is initiated in the traditional way of just walking into foes. While the game is in its prototype stages, an inventory is displayed and random item boxes provide some variation in the gameplay. Presumably more features will be added in time such as other enemies. Crusaders of Yore is intended for mobile devices but no release date or pricing has been set at this early stage.

More information on Kevin Glass and his other projects can be found on his official website.

]]> http://www.indiegamemag.com/crusaders-of-yore-might-be-the-cutest-roguelike-you-will-ever-see/feed/ 0 http://www.indiegamemag.com/3079-preview-worlds-of-opportunity/ http://www.indiegamemag.com/3079-preview-worlds-of-opportunity/#comments Fri, 20 Jan 2012 12:30:58 +0000 Richard Glenn http://www.indiegamemag.com/?p=15987

Take a quick look at the screenshot above. What do you see? Minecraft, by any chance?

If your response was something along the lines of, “Yes, Captain Obvious,” I can’t blame you. But to dismiss 3079 as a cut-and-paste Minecraft rip-off is to underestimate the characteristic charm that its developers are clearly working so hard to forge.

3079, currently in Beta status, opens with considerable aplomb as the player character, armed with an arsenal of firearms fit to make Ratchet and Clank gasp in awe, flies through a gaseous atmosphere resembling outer space, with a veritable plethora of planetary systems littering the bewitching evening sky.

Unfortunately, things soon go south of Sod’s Law Boulevard when you encounter a horde of scarlet, blocky ragamuffins, labelled simply as “Red Demons,” who proceed to blow you out of the sky, forcing you to crash land on the surface of a nearby planet.

And that’s where 3079 begins in earnest, thrusting you into a sprawling, voxelated abyss with no weapons, no resources and no knowledge of the surrounding landscape. From here on in, you’re tasked with finding a friendly NPC leader with whom to convene, but, in reality, it’s anything goes from here on in. You’re free to explore the more than spacious sandbox in search for materials, side quests, weapons and buildings, opening up a virtual metropolis of potential horizons and explorative avenues.

While this sense of freedom is the fulcrum of the game’s commercial hook, it’s also the basis of one of its most immediately evident flaws. With such a huge array of possibilities for adventure on offer, 3079’s unintuitive control scheme and apparent reluctance to explain some of its most vital facets to the player does a disappointing job of complementing the game’s overall scope and ambition.

Equally concerning are some of the game’s technical shortcomings. Although taking a visual leaf out of the Minecraft book is forgivable, and perhaps even understandable, the often jerky, stuttering character animations, coupled with the rather disjointed AI behaviour among both friendly and antagonistic NPCs certainly isn’t.

3079’s sound scheme is hardly an inspirational cacophony of aural wonder, although its simple, base form sound effects admittedly lend themselves well to the game’s minimalistic graphical style. Aside from the iconic “pew, pew” blasts emanating from the guns you acquire on your travels and the frequent explosion effects that could easily have been lifted from a mid-1990s first-person shooter, there’s not an awful lot to speak of as far as a definitive soundtrack is concerned but, for the simplistic, no-nonsense adventure that the game appears to want to be, it’s more or less sufficient.

But perhaps the most fundamental area that the developers would be well served to address doesn’t even concern the full, paid Beta release, but rather the free demo. Clocking in at just two in-game days (around ten minutes), the trial version of 3079 draws to an all too abrupt end, not even offering players enough a glimpse into the game’s expansive world to ascertain what it’s supposed to be about. Given the sheer area of 3079’s realm and the range of its most subtle nuances, it’s likely to take most players a good half-hour or so to feel genuinely comfortable with the game’s interface and overall purpose. Even then, there’s so much more to see and do that the surface of its magnitude has barely been scratched. Yes, it’s a nitpick, but it’s hard to make a case against the argument that such a short, dizzying demo is unlikely to entice what could so easily be a huge paying user community in the long term.

These, however, are hopefully little more than minor bumps in the road that can be flattened out before 3079’s full release. There’s no doubt that it’s a considerable distance from being the next revolutionary step in indie gaming development, but its wealth of potential is certainly difficult to ignore.

And why should we ignore it? 3079 has enough strings to its bow to make it worthy of any open-minded gamer’s time and effort, and it would be amiss of any such player not to give it a tentative place on their radar.

You can find out more information on 3079 on the official website where a playable demo can also be downloaded. Purchases of 3079 are reduced under Beta and can be made over on Desura.

]]> http://www.indiegamemag.com/3079-preview-worlds-of-opportunity/feed/ 2 http://www.indiegamemag.com/smuttlewerk-interactive-releases-ios-time-of-heroes/ http://www.indiegamemag.com/smuttlewerk-interactive-releases-ios-time-of-heroes/#comments Thu, 19 Jan 2012 15:29:24 +0000 Meg Stivison http://www.indiegamemag.com/?p=16114

Smuttlewerk Interactive, a German indie studio, has released a new strategy/RPG blend for iOS called Time of Heroes.

Time of Heroes is a story-driven turn-based strategy game, with themes of Nordic myth. The game tells the story of prince Minos and his followers, who set out in search of a new land when their previous homeland was covered by ice and snow. This band will meet strange characters and dangerous enemies as they find a new place to settle. Players will use their wits and their combat strategies, as well as skill trees and items, to defeat the enemies of Minos.

With a fun and goofy trailer like this, we can hopefully expect a creative and engaging storyline.

A player’s progress in Time of Heroes will be saved in the iCloud, so players can switch between iPad and iPhone without losing their progress.

Smuttlewerk is currently working on the next installment, titled “Time of Heroes – The Prophet’s Revenge”, for fans of the story-driven strategy game.

More information on Time of Heroes can be found on the game’s official website.

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