Blogs - gamescroller

Hello fellow gamers and welcome to another releases and Indie Showcase post! The weekly blog post that highlights a weeks’ worth of Steam releases and showcases great Indie games, and makes your wallet twitch with excitement!

This week will seem a little thin due to the recent Steam Summer Sale, (which was immense by the way and choc full of epic deals!) but don’t worry I’ll be sure to find a way to fill the post up and keep you guys interested this evening ;).

Steam Releases for 16/06/2015

Legends of Pixelia [Early Access, £9.89]

Description & Features

Legends of Pixelia is an action role-playing game that combines retro pixelart with modern gameplay mechanics. Tired of left-clicking through hordes of brainless one-hit-KO enemies? Random dungeons, precise controls via gamepad (or keyboard) and a strong fighting game AI provide challenging encounters. Be prepared!

Key features:

• Choose from multiple hero classes with unique abilities
• Procedurally generated dungeons and rooms
• 21 boss fights + 21 crazy boss fights in Game+
• Build your hero with level-up stats and randomly generated items
• Fast-paced combat that favors good positioning and timing
• Plug in some gamepads to enjoy local multiplayer
• Fight against your friends in Versus mode (PvP)

Official Video:

Links:

Website: Legendsofpixelia.de

Twitter: Twitter.com

Facebook: Facebook.com

IndieDB: Indiedb.com

Steam Releases for 17/06/2015

UberStrike [Full Release, £Free to play]

Description and Features

UberStrike is a multiplayer FPS fusing classic arena style gameplay with unique weapons, character customization & more. Wage war in underwater labs, floating gardens, skyscraper offices, lost temples, ancient ruins and more!

Features

• Classic FPS Gameplay set in 16 different battle environments
• Dozens of weapons to unlock and upgrade to
• Hundreds of armor and gear items to customize your character
• Deathmatch & Team Deathmatch game modes
• Create or join a Clan and wage battle with others
• Tons of stats to track your progress

Official Video:

Links:

Twitter: Twitter.com

Facebook: Facebook.com

Website: Uberstrike.com

Indie Showcase

Shallow Space: Insurgency (SSI) by Special Circumstances Games

About SSI

Shallow Space is an action packed Real Time Strategy space game in a true 3D environment.

It’s been 10 years since the true greats of the genre arrived on the scene (Homeworld and Nexus: The Jupiter Incident) and we think that by looking at what made those games great and adding a few twists of originality we can help breath a bit of life into the fairly neglected niché of the 3D movement, space-faring RTS genre.

Players will control a wide variety of heavily customizable ships throughout an in depth story line and skirmish scenarios, in single player and multiplayer throughout a variety of game modes. With a heavy emphasis on gameplay options, Shallow Space: Insurgency’s asymmetrical balance will ensure plenty of variety and replayability.

The scope of play will be a set of planetary systems in which you will be tasked to assemble your battlegroup to deny the opposing force access to your zones of control.

You will do this by mining resources, building stations, acquiring blueprints for ships and weapons assembling your fleet from the individual turrets right up to flotilla organisation. You will complete both structured story and incidental missions for rewards and you will play the game as a battlegroup commander, a small cog in a very big wheel.

Shallow Space’s gameplay will focus on the “macro” style of strategy games. Rather than spending all of your time piloting one ship, or even four or five ships, you will be commanding several flotillas across your designated sector of control. This allows players to focus on the strategy of combat, rather than the tactic involved with piloting a single ship.

Players will have access to a variety of tools to aid them in managing large scale war. Ships will be organized into “flotillas” and “wings,” enabling easier fleet management in the intensity of combat. Furthermore, ships will be have some level of autonomy to them, they are piloted by an entire crew after all.

These ship organizations and intelligence allows players to focus on the big picture strategy.

Features

• Intense Real Time Strategy
• Immersive Single Player Campaign
• Deep Backstory
• Customizable Ships and Fleets
• Wide Variety of Hulls and Modules

There is much more to come from SSI, it’s only in the Alpha stage and updates and tweaks are happening all of the time! Keep you eyes peeled on their IndieDB page (see below) to be kept up to date on all the latest updates.

Game Screenshots (aquired from the official website):

Latest Official Development Video:

Links:

Twitter: Twitter.com

Facebook: Facebook.com

YouTube: Youtube.com

Steam Greenlight: Steamcommunity.com

IndieDB: Indiedb.com

Are you an Indie Game Developer? Do you want some blog time (feature/review/preview) or some Twitch stream time (showcase stream)? Do you not want to spend £££ on paying someone to give you good press and rather have a REAL gamer give his HONEST opinion on your game and give it great praise if it is good instead of pushing it to one side? Then Gamescroller is here to help you grow and develop! Costing NOTHING to have a blog feature/stream showcase I will ldo my utmost to give you the coverage you truely deserve!

Part of the Gamers United network I have connections and reach to many more gamers and with creative use of strong Twitter hashtags I can almost guarantee you wil be seen by hundreds if not thousands of real life gamers and not just AI clickers.

To get in touch simply follow one of the links provided below or send an email to gamescroller@gmail.com to start the ball rolling!

Twitter: Twitter.com

Facebook: Facebook.com

IndieDB: Indiedb.com

Hello fellow gamers! I hope you had a good weekend and start to your week!

A good amount of games got released on Steam over the last week so I’ll get to those right away for you! But before that I have to pre-warn you, rumor has it that the infamous Steam Summer Sale is going to be upon us very soon, so prepare yourselves, lock those wallets away and await further instructions as I will do my very best to bring out the best of this sale and find the best games for your money!

Anyway I’m rabbiting on again, time to showcase some releases!

NOTE: All prices were correct at time of publishing

25/05/2015 Releases

Brutal Force [Early Access, £9.99]

Developer Description: “Brutal Force is a frantic top-down shooter with a giant overworld to explore.
The levels are randomly placed in the overworld, changing your experience each play through.”

Feature List:

• Randomly generated Levels
• Randomly generated items and enemies
• Permadeath
• Each weapon type has a unique power attack including ranged, and weapons
• Giant bosses

Official Video:

Heroes of Loot [Full Release, £4.07]

Developer Description: “Heroes of Loot combines the action of twin-stick shooters with the dungeon crawling of rogue-likes. You’ll find yourself in the middle of hordes of ghosts, skulls, cyclops, critters and much more.. survive using quick reflexes, level up to improve your weapon, and if you have time complete some quests for extra loot and upgrades.

Heroes of Loot get’s a lot of the inspiration from the original 80’s classic Gauntlet games, combined with Robotron and Smash-TV style gameplay. There are various secrets to uncover, hidden rooms full of special items to find, and perma-items to find and collect for extra power.
So, how deep into the dungeon can you go?

Play it alone, or with a co-op buddy.. just be sure to share the loot, healing potions, weapons, and shields…
…or not, and sacrifice your buddy for your own gain ! Heroes of Loot is a dungeon-game like no other: every time you play the dungeon will be different, every time you become better, the dungeon will also grow and become more dangerous..

This game will learn from you! ”

Feature List:

– Unlimited amount of randomly generated dungeons
– Random quests to reward you with extra loot, items, experience, and more
– Four classes to choose from: Elf, Warrior, Wizard and Valkyrie
– Special fifth class to unlock for the real gamers
– Secret area’s
– Special mysterious dungeon items and obstacles
– A large collection of loot and items to acquire and aid you in your quest
– Always changing gameplay

Official Video:

26/05/2015 Releases

Audiosurf 2 [Full Release, £10.19]

Developer Description: “By blending gameplay with music visualization, Audiosurf puts you inside your music in a way nothing else can. Use your own music to create your own experience. The shape, the speed, and the mood of each ride is determined by the song you choose.

What are the biggest improvements from Audiosurf 1?
Ever-expanding new ways to play with over 500 and counting player-created mods and skins on Workshop.. Additional layers of strategy tied to the song’s biggest moments. In-game leaderboards let you compare your score moment to moment against your friends and rivals even when they’re not online. Enhanced graphics quality. Ability to search for music (including online music). Available on Mac and Linux!

What’s new about Mono mode in Audiosurf 2?
In Audiosurf 2 your timing in mono mode is more important than ever. You’ve got to strategize to get your grid full at the most intense moments of songs to get the most points. Look ahead in the distance for corkscrew loops with powerups to know when these moments will occur.

What do I get in the demo?
The demo allows players to play any song they want, for their first 3 songs. After that, they can play the Song of the Day, everyday, as many times as they want.

Is there a mode that focuses on dodging blocks?
Yes, there’s a new Ninja mode. It has a big bonus for hitting no spikes and creates intense spike fields to weave through. It’s faster than regular Mono and the second-to-second challenge of avoiding spikes is harder. For even more challenge there’s ninja turbo. It’s too fast for you.

What’s new about the Puzzle modes in Audiosurf 2:
Just as with Mono mode, your timing on Puzzle modes is now more important than ever. Push, Shuffle, Erase, or Scoop blocks at the just the right moments to take full advantage of multiplier powerups that come at the most intense moments of songs.”

Official Video:

Magnetic: Cage Closed [Full Release, £11.99]

Developer Description: “You are a prisoner trapped in a strange facility, filled with deadly traps and whispered secrets. At first the facility and its inhabitants all seem like a mystery to you, but soon you begin to understand: Your only chance to survive is to master the Magnet Gun and stay out of harms way. If you make yourself useful they will let you live a little longer, and sooner or later you will get your chance. As the Warden keeps on telling you: “There is always a way out…””

Feature List:

Unique Tool – The magnet gun is a unique tool that can transform the environment, launch you through the air or assist with complicated box puzzles

Diversity – The challenges in Magnetic come in many forms, and blend logical puzzles with skill based movement in a unique combination

No playthrough is the same – Each choice has an impact on what comes next. New secrets and paths are just waiting for players to find them

Official Video:

27/05/2015 Releases

Tree of Life [Early Access, £14.99]

Developer Description: “Why aren’t there any fun games when we live in a world full of MMORPG games? It’s because these games require infinite hunting and quests to complete; and there are many easy mobile games that let you watch auto-hunting. These are not the kinds of games I felt excited about. When we realized that we decided to develop ‘Tree of Life’.

Tree of Life isn’t the kind game that you just watch to play, instead it gives you a real RPG experience. Thousands of players live in an immersible game world and every passing movement your character will be affected in real-time. It does not give you boring continues jobs to do, rather you will be involved in a complex economy, a dynamic life and you will also be able to communicate with other users very closely.”

Detailed Feature List:

• A world created by the player

  ‘Tree of Life’ is a Sandbox MMO Survival Game with the characteristics of a traditional RPG. Players are put on an unfamiliar continent and will experience the fun of survival, settling, development and competition.

• Real-time changing of the environment

  The world of ‘Tree of Life’ changes with the passing of time and based on every action of the players. This will be a new kind of experience compared to the worlds in already existing online games. Trees growing and developing into forests, acquiring new dungeons, and etc. shows the changing environment with the passing of time. If the players plant seedlings and take care of it well enough it can develop into a forest, and cutting down enough trees will expand land.

• Creating your own, personal village with the freedom construct however you want

  Anywhere in the world you are free to construct buildings and you can use the functional abilities of it with other players. By partnering with other players to create villages, make a few small ones into a large country could form into. You could become the mayor, or the king of a country.

• A variety of content and high flexibility

  Hunting, woodcutting, mining, gathering, fishing, farming, herding, and etc. are the variety of ways you can obtain items. Obtaining rare items is a very difficult and tiring challenge. Because you can only get one specific item from each region, players will have to leave their areas to search for the item they need or trade with other players. Carpenter, blacksmith, pensioner, cook, and etc. are the types of occupations that exist where you can learn to make all types of items. Also, if you become a master at whatever occupation you can make a job-specific, special item. With the 24+ different jobs, acquire the skills and create individuality for your character.

• Battles using strategy and tactics

  As the village prospers, monsters that are after your resources will attack your village to steal these items. You will be required to defend their village by creating high walls and watchtowers or use guards to fight off the monsters. Reversely, you can attack the monsters or their village and raid their resources and get revenge.

Official Video:

Trackday Manager [Early Access, £14.99]

Developer Description: “Trackday Manager is a Steam exclusive 3D simulation/manager multiplayer game where you are in charge of managing a racing team. You are not the driver but the team chief! You control your driver during races by issuing commands while monitoring the race carefully in beautiful 3D surroundings.

Your goal is to guide your driver and team to victory!

Before hitting the track, you must purchase cars, upgrade them, and manage a myriad of day-to-day tasks that comes with managing a racing team. When you finally hit the tarmac, you must lead your driver to success by issuing the right commands. When, where and how you perform the different commands is the key to being successful. One command given at the wrong time may lead to your driver losing ground, the car breaking down or other serious incidents that may cost you the trophy. On the other hand, a command given at the correct time will bring you closer to a podium finish! Other means to ensure success includes pit stop strategies, component upgrades, buying new cars, team & driver experience progress and sponsorship deals.

Trackday Manager uses real life sponsors which you have to please by winning races or satisfying other criteria set out in the sponsor agreement. Your success is always updated on the online leaderboard, both in-game and on the Trackday Manager website, which tells you how well you are doing compared to your friends and the rest of the world.”

Feature List: Trackday Manager features fully rendered 3D environments with a default top down look, but you can zoom all way in to enjoy the action from the cockpit of your car. The tracks and cars use advanced real-time physics, giving an exciting aspect to this heartpounding multiplayer racing game. As you progress through the game you will carefully chose which elements of your car and crew to upgrade to best fit your style as you climb on the international leaderboards. During races you must select the ideal time to do pitstops for fuel and new wheels, and also continuously decide how your driver should behave – from tailing others, overtaking, going into overdrive or try to block – every choice costs or wins you fuel or position in the race! If you are feeling confident for a victory you can leave your driver be, lean back and enjoy the race as it unfolds. Every race is around 10 minutes in length.

Other features:

• Race day Central with team orders.
• Perform real-time pit stops to fix and optimize your car.
• Day and night races with dynamic weather system provides atmosphere and immersion.
• In-game and web leaderboards with statistics shows how you are performing against your friends – and the rest of the world!
• Each race can feature up to sixteen players at the same time.
• Advanced car customization with a vast amount of unique paints, sponsor placement and patterns.
• Six unique cars with more than 60 different parts to customize as you see fit.
• Improve the skills and experience of both your drivers and pit stop crew through your career.
• In-game sponsorship deals featuring real world sponsors.
• Exciting in-game economy simulating the challenging world of racing management.
• In-game events hosted by the developers.

Official Video:

28/05/2015 Releases

Servo [Early Access, £14.99]

Developer Description: “Servo is a sci-fi real-time strategy game from some of the key creative talent behind the Age of Empires series, which marries Diablo-like progression to intense RTS gameplay. Players design and equip their giant war machines, called Servos, with parts earned in battle, then jump into a variety of competitive and cooperative scenarios to battle for supremacy.”

Feature List:

• Design your ideal team of giant war machines with parts earned in battle, from Nemodium Blades to Void Beams and much more
• Deploy your Servos into a variety of co-op and PvP scenarios, alongside the AI or human opponents over the Internet
• Destroy the opposition using traditional RTS tactics from rapid expansion, army recruitment, forward base-building, and aggressive creeping
• Learn the game in story-based, interactive tutorial missions
• Help shape the future of Servo with gameplay and balance feedback

Future Features:

• Advanced multiplayer support: Leagues, ladders, matchmaking, and more
• Story-based campaign: Uncover the mystery of Old Earth across more than 20 single-player missions
• More content: Many more maps, parts, pilots, and scenarios are in development
• Even more to be announced!

Official Video:

NOTE: The following video is a lets’ play and is roughly 30mins long, skip around 10mins in to start getting gameplay!

Indie Showcase

Sirius Online by PlaySirius.com eK/Back to Basics gaming [Early Access, £6.99]

Developer Description: “Sirius Online is a Freelancer-inspired MMO, garnished with a grain of EVE and a self-evolving universe. Combat your friends, harvest ores and explore the outer rims of the Sirius systems. But beware – not every player is a friendly one. Sirius Online is, as the name says, an Online Game and requires an internet connection. Enjoy the Mouse/Keyboard controls of classics like Starlancer, Elite and Freelancer in a fresh and new Universe to explore and populate.”

Detailed Feature List:

Discover a unique universe!

Sirius Online has its own, unique universe, ready to embrace your playstyle. Be it Mining, Combat, Exploration or Creation – This game awaits your input and the whole universe changes due to your decisions…

Travel the Sirius System!

Use the easy to access tradelane system to get to locations fast and secure or forge your own path woth boosters and engines – and maybe find riches more than just worth your time…

Combat your Enemies

Build an empire, defend it against malicious forces deemed to cut you off your resources and prosper thorough your wealth. Have intense face to face dogfights or just snipe someone off the tradelanes. Everything is possible…

Explore an endless Universe

Sirius will feature an endless filled universe. Test your luck by venturing out into the unknowns of space and fin wrecks, new asteroid belts or even more. Lure enemies into your own set traps or get insanely rigch by being the monopolist of this resource.

Find your own path among the stars

Fight. Build. Explore. Create. Trade. There are many different ways of being a space farer. Choose one of the preset ones, or dare to forge your own path. its completely up to you…

In-Game Screenshots (Sourced from the Sirius Online IndieDB page)

Official Video:

Gamescroller thoughts:

I like where this game is going, it sounds big, it looks big, and with the rumor of it heading towards the Unreal4 engine if it does well it certainly has the potential to go as big as it damn well likes! I will be doing a special Indie Showcase twitch stream tomorrow to show it off to you guys so you can make your own minds up! be at twitch.tv/gamescroller at 7pm gmt to see what the fuss is about!

Sirius Links:

Steam Store Page: Store.steampowered.com

Website: www.playsirius.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/playsirius

Twitter: twitter.com/PlaySirius_com

YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/D3Xifier

IndieDB: www.indiedb.com/games/sirius-online

Hello my fellow gamers and welcome once again to another releases and indie showcase post!

There has been some great releases via steam this week so prepare yourselves a drink and get comfy as there is a lot to get through!

At the end the usual Indie Showcase will appear and for this and the next 2 weeks after I have some great games lined up for you so be sure to keep an eye out!

Although there have been more releases than there are shown below, the games listed here are games I either find interesting or I think that you guys will enjoy :)

NOTE: All prices displayed were correct at the time of publishing

18/05/2015 Releases

Steredenn [Early Access, £5.99]

Developer Description: “Steredenn is a frenetic and chaotic space shooter, carved in big beautiful pixels, with insane boss battles. Embark in your ship and engage the fight against dreadful space pirates in a never-ending combat for your survival.

Steredenn is at the crossroads between a shmup and a rogue-like. Enjoy the infinite replayability of the game with its unforgiving gameplay, intense boss fights, (almost) randomly generated environments, twisted space events and a surprisingly large arsenal of weapons.”

Feature List:

• Beautiful art and spaceships.
• Awesome boss fights.
• Addictive, ruthless.
• Endless arcade gameplay.
• Quick and intense sessions.
• INFINITE REPLAYABILITY: levels are (practically) randomly-generated.
• SCORING: beat your friends and be the best!
• CHALLENGES: Try to pass all the hard hand-made challenges.
• ARENA: Unlock a boss by defeating it in the normal mode. Then, train against it in a 1 to 1 duel. Your guns, your laws, your fight.

Official Video:

19/05/2015 Releases

The Curious Expedition [Early Access, £9.89]

Developer Description: “Curious Expedition is a roguelike expedition simulation set in the late 19th century. Together with famous personalities you will venture on unprecedented expeditions to regions never explored before for fame, science and treasures. Put on your pith helmet and khakis and make your way through a lush, procedurally generated world full of wonder and mystery. Now go explore, adventure awaits!”

Feature List:

• Experience your very own adventure through a procedural story which makes every game unique.
• Explore procedurally generated worlds, each with its own distinctive set of challenges for the ambitious explorer.
• Plan and equip your trek. A good explorer is prepared for any eventuality.
• Manage your resources to keep your trek alive and sanity high. Balance your needs with the desire to carry all that precious treasure back home.
• Visit and interact with the land’s natives. Enter villages, trade and communicate with local tribes and civilizations that are unknown to mankind.
• Loot mysterious temple ruins to gain fame and treasures, but watch out for deadly traps and curses that will compromise your trek and the world around you.
• Equip and utilize miraculous treasures to gain advantages, but be wary of unforeseeable side effects.
• Fight and defend your trek against a wide range of wild animals, mystical creatures and even dinosaurs.

Official Video:

H-Hour: World’s Elite [Early Access, £18.99]

Developer Description: “H-Hour: World’s Elite™ (H-Hour) is a tactical, team-based military shooter in which cooperation among players is required for success. The game uses a third person perspective to enhance the player’s situational awareness. Players can see where they are in relation to the world. This battlefield perspective allows for more strategic game play. A run and gun lone wolf approach very quickly results in death; only by cooperating with the team can a player hope to achieve victory. The design philosophy is simple: bullets are lethal and any character not working with their teammates will not last long, just as it is in the real world.

All characters and locations are presented in a plausible, authentic manner. The game is inspired by real world events—the personal stories of Special Operations Forces—repurposed and staged in new and equally deadly locations for the purposes of preserving national security. The art style is hyper real—photorealism is the foundation but is exaggerated to a level of vivid, dramatic tones, grittiness, and dramatic lighting in which the color palette tells as much of a story as the mission briefings. Environments emphasis all the filth, chaos, and visual disruption that is common to many of the places where savages plot and launch their insurgencies or terrorism campaigns.”

Official Video:

20/05/2015 Releases

Lethal Tactics [Early Access, £13.49]

Developer Description: “From the developers of Age of Empires II: The Forgotten and Age of Mythology Extended Edition, SkyBox Labs presents Lethal Tactics.

Lethal Tactics is an online multiplayer, turn-based tactics game in which player turns are resolved simultaneously. Take control of a squad of armed units, each with their own specialized weapons and strategic advantages.

Matches play out on visually stunning maps that are custom designed for tense showdowns, surprise attacks and quick getaways. Learn the different character types and special abilities to formulate traps and coordinated attacks – use The Shotgunner to breach walls to launch a sneak attack, or choose the The Gunman’s Scout ability to track opponents behind walls to avoid an ambush.

Predict, plan and execute orders to outwit your opponent.”

Feature List:

Create a squad of combat experts:

• 4 distinct character classes work as a team in squads of up to 6 units
• The Gunman – Quick on the trigger and master of the mid-field. Scouting abilities make it hard for opponents to launch a surprise attack.
• The Bomber – Launch devastating grenades to flush opponents from fortified positions and deny key positions.
• The Sniper – Strategically lock-down open lanes from key line of sight positions.
• The Shotgunner – A master at close-quarter combat in closed off areas. A good choice for front line assault tactics.

Choose Special Abilities to match your strategy.

• Each match is an opportunity to alter your strategy by choosing Special Abilities for each unit.
• Create coordinated attacks by pairing units with complementary skills and abilities.
• Special Abilities such as Breach allows you to break through walls to open paths for your teammates or to attack from unexpected locations.

3 Unique, Custom Designed Tactical Maps

• Rich, detailed locations that highlight the dramatic cat-and-mouse armed encounters
• Destructible environmental objects – Destroy doors and cover objects to change the balance of the match.
• Learn the maps to formulate strategies to find ideal sniper locations, quick getaways and lanes to lead your opponent into an ambush.

Competitive Online Multiplayer Play

• Jump into a match or create a custom game
• Play Head to Head matches asynchronously – submit your turns at your own pace.

Skirmish Mode

• Play full matches versus AI
• Practice your tactics and test out unit combinations

More To Come in the Full Release Version of Lethal Tactics

• Additional Modes of Play
• Additional Custom Designed Maps
• New Units and Abilities
• Additional Character skins
• Steam Achievements
• Leaderboards
• Steam Notifications when it’s your turn to submit orders.
• Steam Friends

Official Video:

Vagrant Hearts 2 [Full Release, £3.49]

Developer Description: “Published by Aldorlea Games (Millennium, Moonchild, Asguaard etc.) and developed by Warfare Studios (Valiant), this game is the direct sequel to Vagrant Hearts.

Azulel can once again enjoy a peaceful era, after Valmor was defeated the Brotherhood has restored it’s reputation and the Kingdom has never been so praised. However, difficult times are approaching in lands not too far away… Weeks after disappearing Scarllet and Wyatt are found in Dark Azulel, a land forgotten by the government, separated islands governed by no one. A mysterious and dangerous sect called Black Scepters are pursuing Scarllet for unknown purposes… could it be related to Scarllet’s new found gift?”

In-Game Screenshots (Sourced from the steam page):

21/05/2015 Releases

Interloper [Full Release, £7.19]

Developer Description: “Interloper is an online multiplayer real-time strategy game with matches that take only 5 minutes. Instead of destroying your opponent, you win by claiming domain. By predicting your opponent’s movements, you corner them to claim the entire map.
Interloper distills RTS mechanics to their essence, bringing a focused, stripped down, fast-paced, and accessible strategy experience.”

Feature List:

• Fast-paced strategy that’s easy to learn, hard to master.
• Short, intense matches taking no longer than 5 minutes.
• Compete in online multiplayer, or against AI of various difficulties.
• Extensive singleplayer content revealing the depth of the game.
• View replays of other player’s matches and upload your own.

Official Video:

Drive Any Track [Early Access, £9.34]

Developer Description: “Inspired by some of our favourite games like Wipeout, Trackmania, Vib-Ribbon and Audiosurf…

Drive Any Track is a high octane music based racing game where we create racetracks from the songs in your music library.

Action on track is synced to the audio, you literally have to race the music to stay in time and score points.

You’ve seen other music powered games, Drive Any Track takes the concept to the next level with our innovative MEGA engine. It takes any song, analyses it down to its core components and creates a unique racing experience from it.

Verses, choruses and drops become checkpoints, and the environment and cars are styled to the genre of music you’re playing.

Experiment with your music collection and find out which songs make the best racetracks!

• Be the first to ‘create’ a race-track from a song and have your name forever enshrined on the track’s leaderboard.
• Multiplayer features – Challenge your friends’ ghosts to your favourite tunes and beat their high-scores on the track!
  ***Please note DAT does not support live multiplayer / split screen at present during Early Access***
• Score big for staying in sync, whilst performing stunts, jumps, drifts and rolls!

Drive Any Track is currently in Early Access

There are currently three genre styles already included (Dance, Rock, Urban), and a selection of unique cars and liveries (and some secret cars you have to work out how to unlock!)”

Official Video:

22/05/2015 Releases

Pixel Star [Full Release, £1.79]

Developer Description: “Pixel Star embodies arcade philosophy; brutally challenging, fun and rewarding. With a focus on progressively intense fast-paced action, player freedom, and solid gameplay, Pixel Star reimagines the shoot-em-up genre. From black holes to space centipedes, nebula storms to stray satellites, there is always something new to discover.”

Feature List:

• Loads of power-ups and customization options
• Unique, varied enemy AI
• Merciless boss battles
• Progressive difficulty and intensity
• Open-space environment
• Gorgeous particle effects

Official Video:

Indie Showcase

Rubber and Lead by Omega Point Games [PC, in development with playable demo]

Developer Description: “This game is an homage to AutoDuel, a fantastic game from 1985 that didn’t age very well, on the 30 year anniversary of that games release Rubber & Lead is here to show that its gameplay can still be fresh and exciting! ‘A Mad Max style RPG’ is a decent way of describing it.”

Game Details (sourced from developer)

Price: Not set but will be somewhere between £8.99-£12.99 Platforms: PC, will be ported to other systems after initial release (assuming it doesn’t completely flop) Engine: Unity Release: August 2015 Feature List:

• Fight In Arenas
• Run Missions
• Level Your Skills
• Buy A New Car
• Upgrade Your Car
• Buy Perks
• Earn Traits
• Blow Raiders Up
• Have A Lovely Day

In-Game Screenshots (sourced from steam greenlight page):

Gameplay Footage from Gamescroller

Game Links

Website: www.rubberandlead.com

Steam Greenlight Page: Steamcommunity.com

IndieDB Page: Indiedb.com

Developers’ Twitter: @OmegaPointGames

Good evening fellow gamers and welcome once again to another releases and indie showcase post!

As it’s been a while since I last described what this post is all about let me inform you.

The post is split into two core segments, Steam Releases and the Indie Showcase.

The Steam Releases segment is mostly about the most (in my opinion) interesting/fun games I think you will enjoy that have been released on Steam over the past 7 days, these could be anything from Indie games, Early Access or full release games, information will be laid out in the game title before you get hit with the main information and under this I try and include a gameplay/release trailer for you, if not then screenshots. Note that sometimes there are jumps in the dates, this will either be that there was nothing released in between the dates or I found nothing that I deemed worthy of your eyes.

The Indie Showcase is an area where I feature an Indie Developers’ game that may not be necessarily be either released on Steam or indeed even be available for purchase yet and is designed to get the developers extra promotion for their game. Although the features are generally more like a preview, I am NOT in any way shape or form paid by said developers for doing this feature, I do this for free and will always fully disclose if a game has been gifted to me or I have indeed been paid for the feature/donated to by the company (that would be nice :P).

So with the debrief done with, on with the post!

NOTE: All prices were correct at time of editing

11/05/2015 Releases

Inside My Radio [Full release, £8.79]

Developer description:

“Can you beat the beat? Journey as a green LED mysteriously trapped inside a dying boombox and play the ultimate musical experience. In this rhythmic platform adventure where your every action needs to be right on the beat, bring electro, dub and disco music back to life!

FEATURES

• Rhythmic awareness is vital when you jump, dash or slam. You have to hit that beat! Never under any circumstances should you play on mute!
• Feel creative, play with the music and unleash your inner musician! Inside My Radio lets you compose the track: YOU are in control, either with your actions, movements or jam zone, where you can freely choose and mix the tracks the way you want.
• The game is a mix-tape where every level is a different track: every level brings different variations to electro, disco or dub!
• Enjoyed the experience but want more? Try to finish the levels before the clock expires, in Time Attack mode. It’s rhythm or die time: the more you hit the beat, the higher your score multiplier goes, the better your score. Don’t miss a beat or you will lose your multiplier AND get a time penalty!“

Official Video:

Toren [Full release, £6.99]

Developer description:

“Experience the mysterious, timeless world of Toren, the first adventure game from Brazilian indie developer Swordtales. You are Moonchild, destined to climb the tower (known as Toren) on a hauntingly solitary journey to find your purpose. You must solve puzzles and face monsters as you struggle to climb to the top of this beautiful, yet treacherous environment, driven by the will to find your freedom.

A Journey of Learning & Fulfilment – As the story progresses your character will age from a mere infant to grown woman creating new mechanics and challenges for each learning experience and phase of her life. In addition, the Tree of Life within the tower grows as she does, providing access to new areas to explore and new items to find.

Poetry brought to Life – Toren features dark fantasy storytelling in a universe filled with symbolism. The mysterious, fantastical atmosphere is conveyed through an award-winning art design and original score. As your journey unfolds you will discover scrolls of poetry, which reveal the story and true origins behind Toren and aids the Moonchild in discovering her purpose.

Rich Puzzle Solving – Every stage of the game features new and progressively more deadly challenges for the player: solving environmental puzzles, how avoid and survive attacks from dangerous creatures, and eventually defeating the end boss.”

Official Video:

12/05/2015 Releases

Lemma [Full release, £9.89]

Developer description:

“Immersive first-person parkour in a surreal, physics-driven voxel world.

Lemma enables creative building through movement. Spawn structures just by moving through space. Extend platforms, smash through walls, and build new ones, all through parkour moves.

• Non-linear story – four possible endings
• Oculus Rift support
• Time trial mode
• Built-in level editor with Steam Workshop support
• Xbox 360 Controller support“

Official video:

Windward [Full release, £9.34]

Developer description:

“Designed from the start to be a fully procedural co-op game, Windward can be played both by yourself and with friends. Start by generating a procedural world that will be unique to you, then sail forward fighting pirates, trading with towns, doing quests or simply exploring — it’s up to you how you want to play.

As you sail about you will find resources you can make use of, upgrades for your ship, new towns that will ask your assistance, and as you get farther out from the starting area — various pirates that will attempt to take what’s rightfully yours. Combat experience will let you unlock new talents and abilities to make that particular line of work easier.

As you take up consignments with towns and fulfill their production shortages, the towns will grow, offering more quests, more resources and better items. As the towns continue to grow they will offer you a choice to upgrade your ship itself. Would you prefer a fast Schooner to explore the world, or a heavy Galleon that’s able to take up 5 consignments at once? Or perhaps a massive Ship of the Line to take the fight with the pirates to their heartlands?

As you explore the world and get farther away from your starting area, the game will become progressively more difficult — but so will the rewards. Throughout all of this you can expect the pirates to put up a fair fight, as the AI is bound by the same rules as the player: they have sight, and must explore the map before they can know what’s there.

Speaking of AI, build a fearsome reputation and the AI will respect you, even fear you — avoiding you if at all possible. Some friendly AI will even choose to follow you and assist you in your own adventures.

And so, on the topic of adventures — ready to have yours?”

Official video:

14/05/2015 Releases

Skyhook [Early access, £6.99]

Developer description:

“Skyhook is the local multiplayer platformer where you fight with grappling hooks and fly pirate ships! The core mechanics are easy to pick up, but arenas in the sky, mid air combat, and intense ship battles make it difficult to master. No platform is safe! Your opponents can dodge through platforms from below or grapple you as they swing by from above. Stealing a pirate ship will grant you some serious air power, though you might find all your enemies banding together to dethrone you from the sky.

Skyhook is a unique blend of platforming, chaos, and best of all, playing as a shark!

Current features

Local Multiplayer Arena Combat for 2-4 Players

• Choose from four characters, all with the same skills but each with a unique personality.
• Three worlds to choose from each with multiple variations in the stage layout.
• Watch for chests that fall from the sky, stuffed with powerups like the berserker helmet, the shield, and the doppelganger mirror.

• Play with controllers and/or keyboard.

Multiple Game Modes

• Deathmatch – Fight to the death until the last man, woman, shark or cat is standing.
• Team Deathmatch – 2v2 or 3v1 battles where you can hook onto your teammates for gravity defying swings.
• Steam Tank – Fight more tactfully with a limit of three hooks that only regenerate when you’re on solid ground.

Planned Updates

Single player/co-op quest mode

• 40 new levels where you solve challenging grappling hook puzzles to try to collect the most treasure and get the highest score.
• Unlockable quest content, achievements, and hidden secrets.

Tons of new versus mode content

• More characters to unlock and choose from.
• More levels, hazards, and environments for versus mode.
• More powerups and environmental effects.
• New kinds of vehicles and mounts.
• Continuous polish to gameplay, music, sound, and art.”

Official Video:

15/05/2015 Releases

room13 [Early access, £5.59]

Developer description:

“Faceless Nightmare

You have no face…..they have no chance. Travel room by room emptying your magazine into hordes of the undead as you unlock the secrets of the labyrinth you find yourself trapped in. Unlock new faces, customize your weapons, collect zombie chunks, battle bosses, and unlock the mystery of who you are.

Created by a one-man development team, room13 is a non-stop action-platformer, blended with exploration, weapon crafting, face swapping, and the undead.

Gameplay

You begin each game trapped in a room that is overcome with zombies, while armed with just a basic handgun that you can customize and tweak between rounds.
Each room has its own, unique, Killtrap that is randomly activated at the beginning of a round. Killtraps can harm both you as well as the undead horde. Surviving a round with a Killtrap unlocks the room adding it to the list of random, possible starting rooms for your next run.

When you terminate zombies you will need to gather their gibs/chunks (remains) which, after you have gathered enough, will earn you a battery. Get three batteries and the round ends, the doors open, and you can venture into the next room.

Endless mode An endless, arcade mode. Offers additional faces and weapon upgrades to unlock that can be used in other game modes.

Memoir Run Unlock the secrets of your past, and ultimately, unlock room13. In this mode you will learn your characters history, unlock weapon attachments, as well as summon 13 bosses to battle. Defeat a boss and you can wear their face in future runs. in development

Boss Battle Unlocked upon the completion of Memoir, a speed run through the 13 bosses. in development

Additional Features

• Nonstop pulse-pounding action
• 13 uniquely dangerous rooms to survive with 13 even more uniquely dangerous bosses (in development) to battle
• Over 26 faces to earn, unlock and wear as your own in development
• 100’s of possible weapon configurations to assemble each time you play
• Original soundtrack composed by Orb Soundwerx
• A reanimated Shark’s head because why not“

Official Video:

Indie Showcase

Puzzle Go Mine by Joshdbb [early stages, expected on all popular platforms]

Developer description:

“Puzzle Go Mine is a simplistic puzzle game. I started making it during Ludum Dare 29 where the theme was ‘Beneath the Surface’ and liked the puzzle mechanic so decided to continue developing it. I have taken a pretty relaxed approach to development and have two other games that I’m actively developing (alongside earning a living) so it is hard to say when the game will be 100% finished. I’m currently trying to get a feeling for what people think of it, If I get a good response (going well so far) then I’ll focus more time on it and get it done faster.

I’m just working on an in-game level builder so that I can start making lots more levels and also allow for user generated levels. You can expect many more levels and I also have lots more puzzle mechanics planned to keep things interesting (explosives for example). I’m developing this with the intention of releasing it on all mobile platforms but I think there will always be a browser version as well; It is built using Unity3D so I can potentially release it on nearly every platform; I will aim to release on PS Vita as well. I haven’t really thought much about pricing yet but it definitely won’t be expensive on mobile devices.“ There is no official video as of yet but here is an in-game screenshot and GIF for you to see! Gamescroller thoughts: I like the look of this game, I do enjoy the odd puzzle game from time to time and this has some great particle effects and a nice art style, I’ll be sure to keep an eye on this as it develops! Until then if you wish to take a look yourself you can go to the following links:
Website: Joshua_burr.itch.io
Twitter Page: Twitter.com

Reservwars by Triplett Studios

Developer description:

“Gather your friends to enjoy this fun real time strategy game with single and LAN multiplayer. The land is drying up, your home is in danger and it’s up to you to protect and solve your problems. Fight for water and territory in multiplayer battles with your friends. Multiplayer game types include possessing territory, control critical resource points, subdue all your opponents and destroying specific targets before the other team does. Learn about the game’s creatures and importance of water as you play through single player story campaigns as super evolved mammals, plants and constructs. Unlock playable creatures, maps and rewards as you complete the game.”

At present I cannot find any sort of gameplay video or screenshots however I can share some of the excellent concept artwork!

If you would like to find out more about Reservwars then you can do so by following these links!

Website: reservwars.com

Twitter Page: Twitter.com

Facebook: Facebook.com

Hello fellow gamers and welcome to another installment of the releases and indie showcase!

Yes I’ve changed the name from indie update to indie showcase, why? Well because that’s what the end of the blog is, an indie showcase where I “show” you an indie game that’s worth your coppers/silvers/notes (delete where appropriate :P)!

Anyway with that bombshell out the way, let’s get started with the last 7 days worth of releases and what I think you should put your cash down on!

Note: All prices listed below were correct at the time of writing.

04/05/2015 Releases

Box Out! [Full release, £3.74]

Developer Description: “1 box, 6 transformations, 120 levels of increasing difficulty for skilled players who love challenges.

Help Boxy escape its factory and survive the outside world by mastering its 6 transformations: Rocket, Steel, Bubble, Spikes, Vapor and Fire.

More than a hundred levels of increasing difficulty will put your skills, reflexes and cunning to the test. Die, retry, perfect your run and dominate the competitive leaderboards.

– 6 transformations meaning 6 different types of gameplay
– 3 game modes (Classic, Time Attack and Survival)
– 10 worlds to explore, from a cold factory to a hot volcano or a watery jungle
– 120 levels, skill-based or puzzle-based”

Official Trailer:

Warhammer 40,000: Regicide [Early Access, £9.89]

Developer Description: “Warhammer 40,000: Regicide is a brutal take on one of the greatest turn based strategy games of all time. Regicide fuses multiple phases of combat with dynamic action. Manoeuvre your army into place and unleash a devastating array of tactical abilities to crush your enemies. The game offers two distinct modes:

REGICIDE – Plan the attack and command your soldiers through two phases of combat. Open fire on your enemies, utilise tactical abilities and unleash psychic powers to crush your foes. Fight your way through violent single and multiplayer battles to destroy everything that stands between you and certain victory.

CLASSIC – Sharpen your tactics in both single and multiplayer games based on traditional chess rules, executing brutally violent kills in dramatic battlefield terrains. Select your race and go to war online against opponents from all over the world in the fully cross-platform multiplayer mode.

This is only the beginning. The universe spans untold galaxies to conquer.
This is not just war. This is REGICIDE.”

Official Trailer:

05/05/2015 Releases

Apollo4x [Full release, £13.49]

Developer Description: “Apollo4X is a turn-based science-fiction business, trade, and governance simulation.

Do you like Tycoon games? Are you weary of every 4X game being based on the same “labor, famer, scientist” production system? We made an alternative to that.

Colonize planets, invest in their infrastructure, and make your fortune linking exported commodities on some planets with import demands of other planets in your empire. You then take your profits and re-invest into society, to win through philanthropy, political influence, or raise a private military and defend the colonies from an encroaching alien menace. Keep the citizens happy by meeting their societal needs, keeping them safe, and interplanetary commerce flowing.

We strove to make every turn significant, with interesting decisions and no long idle stretches waiting on things to get built. For combat, we went out of the 4X realm and built in a tactical card game inspired in part by some of our favorite tabletop combat games. Morale, combined arms, and multiple possible tactics for each of the very unique units to choose from every turn. Four different enemy clans to battle, based on the four horsemen – death, war, pestilence and famine. Each has an entirely different set of units and tactics and requires a completely different battle plan to beat. War fights with brute force, while pestilence attacks with morale crushing horror weapons, and death gave up their bodies for machines and now are the unliving reapers.

We dared to be different in a genre full of excellent but too similar titles. If different is what you need, this is it.

Digi-Ent and Dog Rescue Charity

Ten percent (up to $100,000) of the profits from the sales of the Apollo4X will be used to help save rescued dogs. It will donated to 501(c)3 non-profit organizations that rescue dogs and finds them Forever Homes. Rescue groups pull the stray or abandoned dogs and pups from high-kill shelters (typical in rural areas) where they have little chance of getting adopted. These dogs and pups are then transported to receiving rescues located in urban areas who foster and shelter them, put them up for adoption and find them Forever Homes. The owners of Digital Entertainment will vet the groups to ensure that the money donated will be put to good use.

“I typically fly them from high-kill shelters in GA, AL and the Florida Panhandle to central FL where they are put up for adoption. Amazing as it may seem, all the dogs you see in each shot all fit into my plane. The most I ever took was on 1 Feb 2014 where I had 25 dogs and pups.” — Mike Young, President Digi-Ent.

Official Trailer:

06/05/2015 Releases

Super Indie Karts [Early Access, £14.99]

Developer Description: “Super Indie Karts is a 16-bit style kart game, similar in style to Kart games from the early ’90s, updated to a HD resolution with smoother controls, particle effects, and a modern physics engine. SIK features crossovers with other Indie Games from around the world, shoving their characters into karts and providing their worlds for racetracks. Indie Games like Canabalt (the original endless runner), Fist Of Awesome, Toto Temple Deluxe, and Whispering Willows. In-development unreleased games such as Aegis Defenders, Lobodestroyo, and Adventures Of Pip, which were also recent KickStarter successes, and many more with other upcoming crossovers yet to be revealed. It’s currently in development for Windows and MacOS through the game delivery service Steam, and on the Android micro-console OUYA (one of KickStarter’s biggest success stories), to be released in June 2015.”

Kickstarter Video (has since been funded on KS but is the best showcase video):

07/05/2015 Releases

Dex [Full release, £13.49]

Developer Description: “Discover the truth behind an enigmatic AI striving to reach the Singularity, a theoretical “event horizon” in which artificial intelligence will surpass human intelligence and all bets about the future will be off. How will you play your part in the story?

Explore the futuristic city of Harbor Prime and meet its many inhabitants, answer the challenges the city has to offer, roam the neon-lit streets, and augment your character with skills and implants.

Designed as a tribute to the classic RPGs from the ‘90s, updated for a modern audience, Dex invites you to become part of a living, breathing cyberpunk universe as you decide which ultimate path you will embrace.”

Official Trailer:

08/05/2015 Releases

Yomi [Full release, £6.92]

Developer Description: “Yomi is a fighting game in card form. Learn your character, practice combos, and read the opponent’s tendencies. 10 characters to choose from, plus 10 more expansion characters available inside the app.

Yomi captures the mindgames from fighting games such as Street Fighter, and was created by the lead designer of Street Fighter HD Remix, who was also a long-time fighting game tournament player. Yomi itself is a strategy card game that has held up to many years of tournaments. Start practicing now!”

In-Game Screenshots (I couldn’t find an official trailer I could embed sadly):

Indie Showcase

Songbringer by Wizard Fu Games [PC, Mac, Linux]

Developer Description: “Explore millions of unique and lush worlds rife with re-awakened evil, forgotten artifacts and heroes jailed for centuries. Songbringer is a Zelda-like action-adventure RPG in which you journey through procedurally-generated worlds overflowing with recently awakened demons, virus androids and other sullied creatures. Along the way you will uncover long lost devices and combine them into powerful artifacts. If you are skilled with the nanosword you will vanquish giants and save a planet from being overrun.”

Songbringer Features:

• Single-player realtime action adventure RPG
• Procedurally generated – over 300 million possible worlds
• Deterministic six-letter world seed always creates the same world on any platform
• 1 world seed uniquely generates: 1 overworld, 9 dungeons, 9 bosses, 25 combinable items and at least 200 secrets
• Roguelike-inspired permadeath option with extra rewards for players who dare so greatly
• Online leaderboard highlighting the top players based on completion time, percentage of secrets uncovered and game mode (regular or permadeath)
• An epic science fiction narrative featuring a spacecutter named Songbringer, its crew of art-warehouse comrades, psychedelic cacti, an ancient evil army, and the Second Great War of Wizards
• 8-bit pixel art fused with 32-bit shaders and 3D effects
• Original soundtrack
• Gamepad support

Official Trailer:

In-Game Screenshots (used with permission):

Useful Links:

Website: Songbringer.com

Facebook: Facebook.com

Twitter: Twitter.com

YouTube: Youtube.com

Kickstarter (Has been funded but still 2 days to go as of the date when this post went live): Kickstarter.com

Hello fellow gamers and welcome to another review!

Name: Nitro Nation Stories

Developer and/or Publisher: Creative Mobile

Platforms: Google Play

Cost: Free w/ micro payments

Type: Racing

Offline play: Yes

Version that has been reviewed: V1.0.32

Device used to review game: Samsung Galaxy S4 (GT-I9505) running Android 5.0.1

Time played: Several hours over the course of a few weeks.

Note: All screenshots have been taken by myself using my smartphone and have not been provided by the developer.

The quickest way I can sum up Nitro Nation Stories (NNS) is a stunning looking story driven semi on-rails racing game…but of course you aren’t here for a quick summary! Also, no screenshots? let’s change that shall we fellow gamers!

This is the Garage screen, the first screen you are met with upon loading NNS. it is for all intensive purposes the hub of the game, you can go upgrade your ride, customise the look, spend cash/in game currency on item packs, fiddle with the game options and of course…race!

Here is the options menu. Obviously with it being a mobile game you aren’t going to get a huge amount of options but its nice to see separate options for music, sound AND vibration as that can really put a drain on the device battery. Also a nice feature that I wasn’t expecting is the option to flick between metric and imperial units. Nice touch!

Hammering the shop button will bring you to well…a shop where you can buy cars! Although even with my current playtime of approx. 6/7 hours I still haven’t been able to amass enough $$$ to buy a new car, keep spending on upgrades!

If you poke the + icon in the top right of the screen you’ll be taken to a currency store where you can purchase in game coins to spend on various things like item packs and cars. The payment system looks pretty fair if I’m honest, for example let’s say we buy the “small pack” at £2.41, the previous image showed the mini at an in-game cost of 10 of these coins. We get 50 coins for our hard earned cash meaning the mini only costs you £0.48p! Now obviously there are many other cars you can buy that will cost more in game currency but even the “large pack” is £12.96 for 350 coins so that’s going to get you something with some punch!

The upgrades screen gives you the opportunity to tune up your ride to make your life easier come race time, again upgrades can be bought via packs in the upgrade shop during the game.

Upon the first press of the Race button you are taken to a map where you can opt to do various challenges like Division races, story mode races among other types like street racing (that comes a bit later). Races are colour coded to show you how difficult they are in the current car you have selected. Upgrading will obviously lower the difficulty. Racing is also the main way to earn $$$ in NNS.

Gameplay itself is fairly simple and is largely reaction based, you start of by having to time your revving to get a good start on your opponent, some stages even get you to wheel spin for more traction.

Once the race kicks off you don’t “drive” as such but switch between lanes by tapping the arrows on screen when you need to dodge traffic/obstacles or get behind another car to slipstream them. Although accelerating is done automatically you have to gear change at the right moment, think of it like reloading your gun on Gears of War, you can do it too slow and the car will change but accelerate slower, change just right and it will speed up as normal or you can do it perfectly and it’ll keep the cars’ momentum going and you’ll stand a chance of beating the opposition. This is represented by 3 lights near to the end of the rev meter. Worth noting that you can over rev the car which will not do you any good at all.

I’m really impressed with the look and performance of NNS, it’s possibly one of the best looking games I’ve played to date on my current phone, motion blur, bloom and flare and decent particle effects are all present along with edge smoothing to give the game a more console-like feel. And to date I’ve had no performance issues in the way of framerate, smooth as silk!

Of course I couldn’t finish without answering the obvious question of “what happens when you hit another car/wall/etc?”, well see the image above! if you fully hit another car or obstacle you forfeit the race as “crashed” and you will have to start again (which will used up your fuel aka energy but don’t worry it doesn’t take long to regenerate). Unfortunately there appears to be no visual damage to the cars when they hit things which would be awesome to see after you just hit an oncoming car at 130mph, I can forgive it though as that probably requires a LOT more coding ;). Maybe with coming patches we might just see it :P

Gamescroller thoughts:

Nitro Nation Stories has been a very welcome addition to my devices’ gaming library. Races are short enough for a quick 15-30min session while on your break at work but there is also more in depth features such as upgrades to keep you interested for that little bit longer.

Oh yeah, did I fail to mention that thoughout my entire playthrough thus far I have yet to encounter any ads? Sorry my bad ;).

If you are a bit of a petrol head or just enjoy your racing games and are looking for something for when you are on the go then I recommend you try this out fellow gamers!

Gamescroller score rating:

Looks: A* Gameplay: A*

Sound: A

Price: A*

Enjoyment: A*

Overall Rating: A*

Hello fellow gamers welcome to another releases and indie update post! Once again there has been a butt load of steam releases over the past 7 days and I’m sure you’ll be having trouble what to go for!

Don’t worry though as I am here to sift out the diamonds from the crap pile, the list below is made up of game I think you would find interesting or fun and do not resemble my own personal taste in games :).

NOTE: All prices listed below were correct at the time of writing

28/04/2015 Releases

Verdun [Full release, £15.29]

What the devs say: “Verdun is the first multiplayer FPS set in a realistic First World War setting. The merciless trench warfare offers a unique battlefield experience, immersing you and your squad into intense battles of attack and defense.
The game takes place on the western front between 1914 and 1918, in one of the bloodiest conflicts in world history. The developers were inspired by the infamous Battle of Verdun France in 1916. The game includes many historically accurate features such as realistic WW1 weaponry, authentic uniforms and maps based on the real battlefields of France and Belgium.

The Frontlines game mode is unique in its tactical complexity. The realistic trenches are challenging to fight in and require tactical cunning to capture and defend. The Entente and Central Powers strive to gain control of frontline sectors. One battle you’re rushing the enemy trenches during an offensive battle in order to gain ground. In another battle you might be defending your recently conquered ground against an enemy counter-attack.

Players can choose to be part of one of the many squad-types in the game, each of whom have their own distinct tactical role. By working together with your friends, you can earn experience that improves the power and versatility of your squad. As you gain more experience fighting and get promoted in rank, you also earn Career Points which you can use to unlock specializations, weapons and equipment.
The Rifle Deathmatch is a free-for-all game mode, where all players are pitted against each other in a thrilling contest of skill using only bolt-action rifles.”

Ys VI: The Ark of Napishtim [Full release, £11.99]

What the devs say: “Red-haired adventurer extraordinaire Adol Christin has finally reunited with his best pal, Dogi, and is eager to set sail for new adventures in Afroca. It seems fate has other plans for him, however, as a pirate captain named Ladoc makes him an offer he simply can’t refuse: a chance to explore a dangerous, uncharted archipelago in the Atlas Ocean that may hold treasures of heretofore unseen value.

Never ones to back away from a good mystery, Adol and Dogi both agree to join Ladoc on this expedition aboard his ship, the “Tres Mares” — but no sooner does it weigh anchor than the Romuns, their sights set on the same curious islands of Canaan, attack the wayward pirates and ultimately knock Adol overboard, leaving him for dead.

Some time later, he washes ashore in Canaan itself, alive but weakened, rescued and resuscitated by two young girls named Isha and Olha who sport long ears and bushy tails. They are of the native “Rehda” tribe, and it seems Adol is not the first human to arrive here — nor are humans particularly welcome…

Come experience the very first 3D Ys game as you’ve never experienced it before! Already the foundation upon which Ys: The Oath in Felghana and Ys Origin would later be built, this version of Ys VI: The Ark of Napishtim comes equipped with an original translation and brand new, entirely unique gameplay features such as the addition of a super hardcore “Catastrophe Mode” for fans of the later titles, full widescreen support, map warping, Steam achievements and leaderboards, and even a full digital art book packed with concept sketches, hi-res character portraits and original production PSDs.

See what you’ve been missing with this definitive version of the game that brought Ys into the modern era!”

29/04/2015 Releases

The Weaponographist [Full release, £5.59]

What the devs’ say: “The Weaponographist is a high-speed, top-down dungeon-crawling arena combat game. Cool kids might call it a “Roguelike”.

You play as Doug McGrave, famous demon hunter for hire. Highest level, bestest gear, ruggedly handsome, and unrepentant jerk. For refusing to aid one stinking demon-infested town, you are immediately – and deservedly – cursed. Your powers, your wealth, and your weapons… Poof! Gone. To overcome the curse, you’ll need to make use of whatever weapons you can find.
Swords, chainsaws, machine guns, pogo sticks… Use them while you can.
Because they’ll all fall apart in your hands.”

Exanima [Early access, £9.34]

What the devs’ say: “This game features a very deep, truly physics based combat system. This is not just some animation feature, it is a fundamental difference that is central to gameplay. Real momentum, forces and collisions are always at play here, every nuance of your inputs is crucial to the outcome. This will likely be unlike anything you’ve played before and may take some practice, but can be hugely rewarding and the skill cap is virtually infinite. It is not particularly fast paced or difficult but it does require you to pay attention, it is very tactical and just casually pressing buttons won’t get you very far!

Our goal is to create a deep and immersive RPG world based on a more advanced simulation supporting an unprecedented level of dynamic and emergent gameplay. All of the technology we use including the game engine is our own, developed from the ground up to realise this vision.

Exanima is born as a prelude to Sui Generis (SG), our ambitious open world RPG that has been in development for over two years following a successful Kickstarter campaign. Exanima is a smaller yet complete game in its own right, a dungeon crawler that takes place in SG’s Underworld some twenty years prior to its events. Both games are being developed in concert, many of SG’s more ambitious features will make an appearance in Exanima as development continues.

Exanima provides a reasonably complete and meaningful game experience, but many more features are on their way! We have met our most challenging and significant development goals, now we are ready to bring new features to light and make an even more fun and compelling adventure.”

01/05/2015 Releases

Survivor Squad: Gauntlets [Full release, £4.19]

What the devs’ say: “Survivor Squad: Gauntlets is a Strategy-Action game where you command a Squad of Survivors in a world where Line of Sight is extremely important, you cannot shoot what you cannot see. Develop your formations, move as a unit and cover every corner. Leave no man behind!

Use your weapons and gadgets to slaughter hundreds of infected in a series of levels with unique events. Gather your group, build your base, craft your gear, level your squad and get to the extraction!

Complete 20 Puzzle-like Editor Challenges that will test your brain and problem solving skills while teaching you the power of the editor

Survivor Squad: Gauntlets also features a very powerful Editor that has been used to build all the Developer Content you see in the game. It lets you place all kinds of Objects and interact with them through hundreds of possible Event Actions and manipulate them with Variables and Event Triggers. Anything from Lasers to Sentry Guns to Buttons and even Custom Interfaces!
The editor is essentially a visual programming language so if you can imagine it, you can build it!”

Indie Corner

Nitro Nation Stories (NNS) by Creative Mobile [Android 4.0+, £FREE w/ micro payments]

What the devs say: “The coolest Android racing game series shifts into high gear with Nitro Nation Stories! Join our hero Justin Carr as he races through stunning 3D environments in this thrilling race for revenge and glory.
This offline racing adventure challenges you to race, speed and crash your way to victory while you protect your turf and uncover a string of mysterious accidents and deaths in the racing community.

AUTHENTIC CARS
Choose from a selection of 30+ cars from the hottest manufacturers like Alfa Romeo, BMW, Cadillac, Chevrolet, Chrysler, Dodge, Ford, Honda, Infiniti, Jaguar, Koenigsegg, Mazda, Nissan, Pagani, SSC, VW.

ENGAGING STORYLINE
Explore 3 unique high quality race environments and play through 5 chapters of storyline that follows Justin and his friend Da Fly with a cast of characters in the dangerous world of illegal racing.

INCREDIBLE RACING
Choose between 5 Game Modes (Story Mode, Street Race, Underground, Division and Pro Street) to earn prizes, cash and upgrades

UPGRADE & CUSTOMIZE
Customize your car with a selection of discounted stock colours or make your own custom paint jobs.
Upgrade your car (Engine, Turbo, Gear Box, Intake, Body, Wheels, Nitro) with 5 levels of upgrade kits.”

Gamescroller thoughts:

I could give you my thoughts right now fellow gamers, OR you could wait until Friday when I release my full review of this game at 2100gmt! I’ll see you there, but until then perhaps go give NNS a try yourself by clicking the linked title above!

Hello fellow gamers and welcome to another installment of the Steam releases and Inide update! Where I show you some great looking games on the Steam platform that have been released over the last 7 days and also feature Indie games for you to go take a ganders at!

NOTE: All listed prices were correct at time of writing

21/04/2015 Releases

Convoy [Full release, £9.99]

What the dev says: “Convoy is a tactical roguelike-like inspired by Mad Max and FTL in which you cross a wasteland in search of parts for your broken ship.

Presented in pixel art and set in a future post-apocalyptic setting, Convoy is a squad based tactical roguelike-like in its core. You travel with your combat vehicles and convoy across a wasteland to find parts needed to repair your broken spaceship. During your journey you will encounter strangers in randomized scenarios by picking up radio signals.

Depending on the choices you make, signals can either lead to tactical combat, text based dialogue or chance based role-play. Whatever choice you make, you need to keep your convoy and its cargo safe from raiders, privateers and other enemies. Keep upgrading your vehicles, as death is permanent in Convoy.”

Trine 3: The Artifacts of Power [Early Access, £13.49]

What the dev says: “Trine 3: The Artifacts of Power is a fairytale journey which takes you on a quest with three heroes: Amadeus the Wizard, Pontius the Knight, and Zoya the Thief.

This tale of a grand adventure as well as the additional challenge levels provide true tests to the three heroes’ skills in combat and of solving puzzles in the most creative ways.

Playable either in singleplayer, and with friends online or in local co-op.”

23/04/2015 Releases

Light Bound [Full release, £6.99]

What the dev says: “Get thrown into randomly generated arenas that can only be seen by the light of the players and their weapons. Explore, collect weapons and upgrades, and do battle against your friends or the computer. Customize each game using a variety of configurable options.”

Kaiju-A-GoGo [Full release, £8.99]

What the dev says: “Kaiju-a-gogo is a strategy/action title featuring GIANT MONSTERS. The player takes on the role of a fledgling Mad Scientist who has built the first human-controlled Kaiju in the world. While your rivals race to catch up with your genius and build their own Kaiju to compete with you, you have a five-year-window to use your Kaiju to achieve TOTAL WORLD DOMINATION.

Start off the game Mad Scientist Dr. Norman E. Farious and his Kaiju creation, Ginormasaurus! You will then start play at your Secret Lair, an uncharted island, and launch your first attacks upon the unsuspecting world. As you crush city after city with your magnificent creation, the resistance of the people in that region will weaken, until eventually they bow to the inevitable and admit that you’re in charge. When you have conquered all of the regions on the globe, you win! You are the world’s supreme dictator and number one monkey. Simple as that.”

24/04/2015 Releases

Dungeons 2 [Full release, £34.99]

What the dev says: “The Dungeon Lord is back – and this time he’s serious! In Dungeons 2, fulfil the Dungeon Lord’s insatiable quest for vengeance by recruiting fearsome new monsters from all corners of the underworld in order to undertake his evil bidding. Taking over the underworld isn’t enough though – this time The Dungeon Lord will extend his dominion over the puny humans and attempt to conquer the overworld too!

Take control of the mighty Dungeon Lord and craft a network of unique and terrifying dungeons, recruit an army of fearsome creatures and command two new factions. Prepare to defend your Kingdom against those pesky heroes, go above ground to wage war on their human cities and use the ‘Hand of Terror’ to take direct control over your minions, issue commands, and even dish out a swift slap to keep them in line.

The extensive campaign story mode is packed with even more of the dark humour which made the original Dungeons a hit and is peppered with numerous references to various fantasy books, movies and TV shows. Additionally, you can test your strength in four different game modes in multiplayer for up to four players with other Dungeon Lords over LAN or online.”

The Cosmos is MINE! [Early Access, 6.99]

What the dev says “First off, thanks for checking out The Cosmos Is MINE! Set in an alternate 1950s universe, The Cosmos is MINE! is a multiplayer RTS where you control a galactic prospecting team in an interstellar resource war against other greedy space miners. With an engrossing two-method system to victory and amusing tongue-in-cheek setting of space-faring super-capitalism, get ready to make the cosmos yours!

As the game is in a very early stage of development, the Australian dev team at Playcorp is launching the game on Early Access with the full intent on using Early Access as it should be – to gain valuable user feedback and use suggestions from players

It should be noted that the game is in an early stage of development with current features limited to focus on multiplayer balancing:

1) Online play is a huge focus for the game and it is HIGHLY recommended that if you plan to play the game, to play online in multiplayer games with the Steam friends you recruit! :)

2) The single-player Solo Play mode currently does not have any AI opponents – it should be used to get first time players acclimated to the basic game and camera controls.

3) After you finish playing an online game, if you should have problems connecting to players in a new online game, it’s recommended you restart the entire game.

4) There’s a good chance you’ll run into a bugs with an Early Access game – should you encounter a bug in The Cosmos is MINE! please post a report in Steam Community Forums here: Steamcommunity.com

The development team wants to hear constructive criticism and great suggestions; for this purpose they have setup very effective feedback system through UserVoice. We strongly recommend visiting The Cosmos is MINE! UserVoice page to be involved with frequent voting of newly introduces ideas and features for the game!”

Inide Corner

Star Gunner by CoStar Studios [iOS £FREE, Android Coming soon]

What the dev says: “Star Gunner is a third person interactive outer space game that involves tilting the device to move your ship from side-to-side and tapping the screen to use weapons and other upgrades. It is designed for iPhones/iPads but with additional funding, we plan to make it available for Android devices in 2015. It is a free game on the App Store and we are in the process of developing levels for each planet. The game will have in-game purchases to take the star gunner experience to another level.

A space adventure game as you fly through the asteroid belt to find useful resources for life on Earth. The journey is treacherous as you weave your way through asteroids and satellites while you collect dark matter to purchases weapons and upgrades. Avoid running into asteroids to preserve your shields in order to continue the journey through the universe. A wide array of weapons and other upgrades are offered to help you survive the perilous flight through the galaxy.”

CoStar have also let me now that they are planning to bring Star Gunner to the Android Google Play store and to aid them they are launching an Indiegogo campaign around the 2nd May 2015. When this goes live I’ll be sure to let you fellow gamers know!

Screenshots (taken from the CoStar Studios website, used with permission)

Video/Trailer (taken from the CoStar Studios YouTube Channel, used with permission)

Gamescroller thoughts:

As a first game I think CoStar have done well, the different levels look great and it seems there are different modes to be played which makes the game last longer which as a free game is important. By the look of the gameplay videos (I cannot play this yet as I only have Android devices) it does look a little bit slow on the pacing side but I don’t know if that changes the further into the game you get so I could be wrong.

If you have played this game already fellow iOS gamers then let me know what this is like in the comments below, perhaps you have ideas you would like to pass onto the developers? If so I will happily pass them on!

CoStar Studios Links

Website: Costarstudios.com

Twitter Page: Twitter.com

Facebook Page: Facebook.com

Hello fellow gamers welcome back to another releases and indie update!

Perhaps your eyes got glazed over by GTAV and Mortal Kombat X being released? Maybe you went gibby and missed releases due to the recent Star Wars VII trailer? Well fear not because I am here yet again to (try) and save your gaming sanity! Follow me into the abbyss as we delve into the last 7 days of game releases on Steam!

NOTE: All prices shown in this blog post were correct at the time of writing.

13/04/2015 releases

Grand Theft Auto V [Full release, £39.99]

What the dev says: “When a young street hustler, a retired bank robber and a terrifying psychopath find themselves entangled with some of the most frightening and deranged elements of the criminal underworld, the U.S. government and the entertainment industry, they must pull off a series of dangerous heists to survive in a ruthless city in which they can trust nobody, least of all each other.

Grand Theft Auto V for PC offers players the option to explore the award-winning world of Los Santos and Blaine County in resolutions of up to 4k and beyond, as well as the chance to experience the game running at 60 frames per second.

The game offers players a huge range of PC-specific customization options, including over 25 separate configurable settings for texture quality, shaders, tessellation, anti-aliasing and more, as well as support and extensive customization for mouse and keyboard controls. Additional options include a population density slider to control car and pedestrian traffic, as well as dual and triple monitor support, 3D compatibility, and plug-and-play controller support.

Grand Theft Auto V for PC also includes Grand Theft Auto Online, with support for 30 players and two spectators. Grand Theft Auto Online for PC will include all existing gameplay upgrades and Rockstar-created content released since the launch of Grand Theft Auto Online, including Heists and Adversary modes.”

Mortal Kombat X [Full release, £34.99]

What the dev says: “Who’s Next? Experience the Next Generation of the #1 Fighting Franchise.

Mortal Kombat X combines unparalleled, cinematic presentation with all new gameplay. For the first time, players can choose from multiple variations of each character impacting both strategy and fighting style.”

14/4/2015 releases

Titan Souls [Full releases, £10.99]

What the dev says: “Between our world and the world beyond lie the Titan Souls, the spiritual source and sum of all living things. Now scattered amongst the ruins and guarded by the idle titans charged with their care, a solitary hero armed with but a single arrow is once again assembling shards of the Titan Soul in a quest for truth and power.

Colossal Titans: Explore the ancient ruins of your forefathers and uncover extraordinary and unique titans, each with their own savage attacks and hidden weakness. Find and exploit their faults to slay the beasts and consume the primeval power that lies within them.

Simple Combat: Loose your solitary arrow at the monstrous titans and summon it back to your hand to unleash another forceful strike. Dash and run from the titan’s attacks but do not fear death, as it is both inevitable and plentiful in Titan Souls.

Arcane Secrets: This realm is not without its secrets. Long forgotten titans are hidden in the shadows and prowling through the furthest corners of the land – find them, destroy them, and take their souls for your own to discover the true extent of the power that resides here.”

16/4/2015 releases

Telepath Tactics [Full release, £9.89]

What the devs say: “The indie lovechild of Fire Emblem and Super Smash Brothers, Telepath Tactics is a strategy RPG with destructible battlefields, bridge- and barricade-building, and the ability to fling enemies off cliffs and into lava.

Play through a story-driven campaign with dozens of unique characters in a steampunk fantasy universe filled with telepathic generals, tribes of bipedal komodo dragons, and knights who ride atop giant, armored praying mantises.”

Gratuitous Space Battles 2 [Full release, £18.99]

What the devs say: “Have you ever wanted to be admiral of a huge, sprawling space battle-fleet of your own design? Ever wanted to design a fleet of battle-cruisers so powerful they can rip all who oppose them into space-dust? Ever wanted to build a battleship with purple rotating radars and 64 engines? Well we have good news for you…
Gratuitous Space Battles is back! and it’s approximately 50,000 times more gratuitous than before. A completely new ground-up rebuilding of the custom ‘Gratuitous Engine’ gives the game a completely new look, with beam-lasers 10x as ‘beamy’ as explosions 10x more gratuitous.

You now have complete control over the appearance of your ships, and can build them from a base hull and a bunch of adjustable visual components so you have control of both the composition AND the looks of your deadly starships. GSB2 retains the core gameplay of the original. This is NOT a standard RTS game, but a management/simulation game about building space fleets and giving them orders. You aren’t the dumb schmuck who actually flies into battle and gets lazered. Leave that to those patriotic and keen young dudes from the outer-colonies. Nope, your job is as supreme commander in chief. Sit back at fleet HQ and watch the fireworks as you reduce the enemy to space-dust.

Using it’s amazingly asynchronous multiplayer online ‘challenge’ system, GSB2 lets you put together a whole fleet and upload it, orders, formations and custom ship designs in one, up to a server where fellow GSB2 players can download it and pit their own fleets against it in glorious combat.”

17/4/2015 releases

Storm United [Early access, £14.99]

What the dev says: “Storm United is a class-based multiplayer First Person Shooter that aims to bring top tier fps fun and smooth sensations with the help of our unique procedural physically simulated weapon and camera movements tech. If you are a FPS fan, please try and feel it for yourself, we really worked a lot on the gameplay fluidity and hope you like it as much as we do!

Storm United comes with a built-in development tool called the “United Developer Hub” (UDH) allowing players to
1. submit ideas, recommendations and bug reports
2. Choose development priorities based on submissions
3. Participate to tweaks and fundamental decisions through a voting system.

With an ex Counter-Strike pro-gamer at the head of the project, a talented indie team and UDH, we empower players to build a competitive game with innovative mechanics.
Join us in this endeavor, be part of our friendly community and help us build the FPS of your dreams.”

Indie Corner

Sol Ark by Bathyscaphe Games LLC [PC, iOS, Android]

Expected release date: Mid-2016

Current status: Pre-Alpha and prepping for Steam Greenlight

What the dev says: “Survive in the shifting sprawls of A.I. controlled interstellar space where chaos and adventure run rampant. It’s here you’ll chart the depths of unknown quadrants, discover lost secrets, and forge the ever-searching platform of humanity’s last hope.

Sol-Ark is a 2D Space RTS with sandbox and rougue-like components. Expect gameplay mechanics designed with player choice in mind and an immense universe to make those decisions in. Missions and storylines drift from seriously somber to hilariously violent with every new area explored, and random events punctuate these encounters to make a dynamic experience that’s part procedural, part handcrafted indie space. ”

Features:

• Crew Morale System.
• Random Events.
• Sandbox-style construction.
• Maintain every aspect of a fully crewed ship including the crew.
• Space battles with ships, stations and crew!
• Research new tech for your ship.
• Freedom to explore the game world and storylines.

Screenshots (sourced from solark-game.com)

Video (sourced from Sol Ark YouTube)

Find out what I thought of Pig Grinder by Pixal.Inc for Android by clicking the direct link to my site below!

Gamescroller.co.uk