cross-posted from: https://mastodon.social/users/Berin/statuses/112989412208044111

Demo Release: The Songbird Guild, a yuri magical girl RPG/Visual Novel hybrid by YuriSoft

Steam:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1238940/The_Songbird_Guild/

Itch.io:
https://yurisoft.itch.io/the-songbird-guild-demo

VNDB:
https://vndb.org/v52242

@yuri

#Yuri #VisualNovel #Gaming #QueerGames #IndieGame

We tend to think of retro games being old, because that's what retro means, right? Not necessarily, no! "Retro" simply means to imitate or recreate a design or style from an older generation.

There's been a pattern with indie games the last decade that's become very clear in 2024. New indie games are imitating old video games, using their style and mechanics to create new experiences. This is what I call Retro Indie.

cross-posted from: https://mastodon.social/users/Berin/statuses/112879808020498505

Demo released for Detective Instinct: Farewell My Beloved, a ADV/VN inspired by classic detective games

Synopsis:
A woman vanishes without a trace on a cross-country train. The catch? Nobody on board remembers her ever existing in the first place - nobody, except for you. Uncover the story in this detective ADV/visual novel!

The game is to be released in 2024 (no date yet)

Steam:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2689930/Detective_Instinct_Farewell_My_Beloved/

@visualnovels

#VisualNovel #MysteryGame #Gaming #IndieGame #Games

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/18115420

TL;DR This is a review of both Turnip Boy indie games. The first is a sort of classic Zelda clone, the second is a rogue-lite twin stick shooter. Both are short to play and I recommend them but especially the second game.

Tax Evasion Persuasion

The last thing I ever want my veggies doing is paying unjust taxes. The good news is that Turnip Boy does not want to. The first game of these two is one that I played months back and I ended up having a really good time with it. This game is obviously based on some of the older adventure games, particularly older Zelda games, and so you should expect that coming in. It mostly consists of doing small quests for people but the game never gets too elaborate and does not have a huge map making it too complex.

What even is a joke game?

I'll bring this up again later but this game is very lighthearted and most of the mechanics here are in service to the comedy and joking nature of the game and its characters. If you've ever played a game that does this, you'll know already that this tends to polarize the game into being either way too focused on the joke to the detriment of the gameplay, or it ends up with the gameplay being passable but the joke falling flat on its face. I'm happy to report that this game does neither of those things and balanced it pretty well, though not to my full satisfaction.

If only the Triforce was cantaloupe

In totality, the first game is a nice and tidy adventure with a decent amount of fun and jokes and with just enough depth to sell the fun of the game without over complicating it or dragging it on for too long. You can beat this in just a couple of sittings and if "Classic Zelda joke game" sounds like a good time to you, go play it!

He's not done squashing yet

To move on to the second game, Turnip Boy Robs a Bank, this is where I had most of my fun. The game becomes a twin stick shooter on just one map where you break into a bank, take as much cash as you can, leave, and repeat until you've found and defeated all of the bosses and done as many quests as you have desire for. Unlike other rogue-lite games, this one is very approachable and not having a procedurally generated levels means that you get to know where you're going over time. The jokes are also better though the story is lighter here. All of that exists in the shadow of the gunplay though, the weapons here are the real highlight. The first game I didn't really find much challenge at all with, the actual gameplay was almost more about questing than its bosses. Here though, you have some decent boss fights and enemies, very fun mechanics.

Theres a few donut sized holes

The main criticisms here are that despite the mechanics being deeper: There is a gun locker that is almost pointless, the upgrades don't feel balanced, the gun trade in system is not worth utilizing, and the different areas do not do money scaling very well.

A good example is that you have items that cost 10k and you're working towards upgrades that cost 25k. You could buy the upgrades, but it is pointless because the progression item at 10k unlocks and area that lets you get a trophy for 100k with almost no effort. I think that the treasures on the pedestals needed to be scaled better, they kind of undermine the whole game.

This summary is a pickle, or just a vinegar cucumber

Both of these games are worth playing for entirely separate reasons and both will take you no more than 5 hours to beat, I'd estimate 3-4 for most people. They're short but in a very good way and a nice refresher from a long RPG playthrough. As good as these games are though, they don't survive without their specific brand of humor. One is a very short and simple adventure game, the other is a short and simple rogue-lite. I really hope that the developer feels they are able to make a longer game if they feel like doing so because I'd like to see how they could make these mechanics work without just using them as a backdrop to cheeky dialog.

But that's it, I hope that you go play one or both of these games if you have time. Both of these are also simple enough that they'd be welcoming to newcomers to their genres.

People who have played these games, feel free to throw in what you like and didn't like below. Thanks for reading and let me know what you think!

cross-posted from: https://discuss.tchncs.de/post/19362696

I'm really excited about this since the devs have been heavily promoting the game on the fediverse. The game itself looks very high-budget with its polished artstyle and animated sprites as well!

If you're interested you can play the demo here

Duck Detective is a fantastic puzzle game that hearkens back to the days of point and click adventure games. It's got all of the charm, wit, excellent writing, and clever deduction-based puzzles you'd expect from a game during the prime of the genre. This retro styled adventure comedy game is one of my favorite games of 2024.

Steam Next Fest is not over yet! There's still time to try demos, including these incredible retro-style indies!

Tiny Terry's Turbo Trip is the kind of game you like, but want to love. It has a great story, witty humor, great art, and an interesting setting, but its missing something...

House Flipper 2 is good and all, but is there a better house building game? From realistic simulators to rebuilding Europe after WW2, to dice playing chickens... it's a complicated question.

Atari has been terrible for decades at this point. But over the last three years, they've slowly begun to turn things around. With the recent release of Lunar Lander Beyond and the upcoming Yars: Rising by WayForward, they're about to take their next step to becoming a good publisher.

(I am an author of this game. I am not a shill, game is 100% free, there is no premium content, full game is avalaible without paying - this is work of passion and feedback is my main motivation).

"Dominion of Darkness” is a strateg/RPG text game in which the player takes on the role of a Sauron-style Lord of Darkness with the goal of conquering the world. He will carry out his plans by making various decisions. He will build his army and send it into battles, weave intrigues and deceptions, create secret spy networks and sectarian cults, recruit agents and commanders, corrupt representatives of Free Peoples and sow discord among them, collect magical artifacts and perform sinister plots. Note – one game takes about 1 hour, but the premise is that the game can be approached several times, each time making different decisions, getting different results and discovering something new.

Game is avalaible for free, online: https://adeptus7.itch.io/dominion

I am constantly improving the game, adding new content and mechanics, so Your feedback would matter.

If you are hesitant to play the game, I invite you to watch/listen to the reviews:

Indie Sampler (video): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LM6f4UCEgWU

[BOKC] BlancoKix (video): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgNpSKToOSg

And here is the source code: https://www.mediafire.com/file/vvnouok03mop8n7/Dominion_of_Darkness_1.7.html/file

So excited for this - a sequel to Star Control 2.

The reason I am sharing this here is because there are a lot of indie/small games on the 3DS and Wii U which do not have their SpotPass DLC archived and the servers are shutting down on April 8th! I see a couple have downvoted, so please understand why this is here; this relates directly to Indie gaming, but is just not about a single game.

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/28549378

(MAJOR UPDATE: ONLY 10 HRS REMAIN BEFORE SHUT DOWN AT TIME OF WRITING THIS UPDATE)

Hello everyone. For everyone who owns a 3DS, 2DS, or even a Wii U, I'm sharing this out to as many places I can think of, where the awareness can make an impact. Please read if you own a 3DS or Wii U at all, or know anybody who does:

The SpotPass servers by Nintendo will be shutting down on April 8th, 2024 (4PM PDT). The SpotPass Archival Project has been created by the 3DS and Wii U Homebrew modding community, to make sure as much SpotPass data as humanly possible is preserved for the foreseeable future and not lost forever in the coming few days. A huge amount of SpotPass content is essentially free DLC for various games and apps, and they could have been installed without your knowledge. They are not required for most games to play, but without their archival, many games will lose DLC content permanently and some features may no longer work. This archival project can only be made possible by the donations of any individuals owning a 3DS or Wii U (not a donation of money, but rather a donation of SpotPass data stored on your system)

This data can only be collected before April 8th. Any and all dumps made or sent after the end-date will be useless due to the nature of how the archive process works. The dump does not require you to have a modded or Homebrewed console, and can be done completely unmodded. All you need extra as an unmodded user, is a PC or laptop. There is also zero risk of having your console banned; so rest assured. The guides can be found here: https://spotpassarchive.github.io/#guides.

Update: For those who can't recall the difference, what we're archiving here is SpotPass, not StreetPass. The difference between the two are: StreetPass: Is a 3DS exclusive offline wireless tech which connects your 3DS to other systems and shares various bits of data with random people you pass on the street (in the real world). For example, in the game StreetPass Mii Plaza, the data sent to random passers are your Mii, along with your most recently played game, and your Mii can be played with in the various minigames that StreetPass Mii Plaza offers, and vice versa. SpotPass: Is an online wireless tech available on both the 3DS and Wii U. Unlike StreetPass, it does not connect to other 3DS systems directly, but rather connects to Nintendo's SpotPass servers online. The data sent could be anything from notifications, to in-game content. This is what we're archiving; not StreetPass data. Streetpass is not an online service, and thus does not lose content after April 8th; but SpotPass data will be lost after the 8th if it's not archived. Wikipedia article.

Even if you make the dump before April 8, and send it to them afterwards, the dump will be useless regardless, this is why we are frantically trying to spread the word about the project as quickly as possible, as there is a lot of data that is still going to go away permanently regardless of the efforts of this project. The data is stored offline locally on your 3DS and Wii U, so you may be confused as to why you can't just make the dump after the date. For a better explanation, here is a Discord message from the official Discord server which explains things. I am not a developer of the project, I'm just someone who is passionate about gaming and technology preservation, and wants to get this out there, and the 3DS was a wonderful part of my late childhood.

The data is going to be used by the developers to put towards developing a replacement for the SpotPass network, similar to what was done by the Homebrew community who created the Nintendo Network replacement, dubbed "Pretendo Network".

Even if you don't think you have much data on your system, please help dump it towards the archive as soon as possible (within the next couple of days), because you likely have some things you don't know about. The process does not require a modded console at all, and the official site here, has instructions for both users of modded consoles, and users of unmodded consoles. You can ask for help in the official Discord server of the project here and people will be very willing to help.

There are also many many niche, lesser known games, which have absolutely no data archived for them still to this day, so any help archiving them is vital. Thanks for reading, and I ask you to also share this out to as many people as you possibly can. Even if you don't own a 3DS or Wii U, please share this out to anyone you know who owns one, or even those whom you suspect might have one.

Edit: added some extra information, removed some no longer relevant information, fixed some typos, improved some wording slightly.

2023 was an incredible year for 3D platformers and this year and next are shaping up to be even better. This year I’ve compiled a list of seven (and three honorable mentions) incredible looking upcoming 3D platformers that you need to keep an eye on. I reached out to some of the indie developers behind these games for more information – and I even got to play some of them!

Balatro is a roguelike deckbuilder and my favorite game in years. It's all about using unique and powerful Joker cards to create insanely high-scoring hands and is super addictive. You're going to want to play this one!

So, I decided to start learning how to use Godot and GDScript, and I've been building a little (currently) mobile / browser game to go along with my lessons.

3 levels are currently complete-ish, and I have been doing a little bit of visual cleanup/mechanics polishing before moving on to my next goal.

I guess I'm just looking for ideas to finish-out the overall look and feel of the game. For instance, I'm missing any sort of settings page, so all of the volumes are currently premixed - and poorly so. All of the gameplay sound effects are either my mouth or a Pringles can, jsyk.

Anyways, if nothing else, I hope you try it and find it somewhat amusing. I have big plans for it, including several genre swaps - just depends on when I learn what right now, really.

I appreciate your time.

I saw this game already years ago and was interrested. Seems they finally got near to release.

Just released a collab game on steam with a few friends that we've been working on over the past couple of months. Simple game, but check the blog post for the deets.

#indiedev #indiegame #gaming #retrogaming #pixelart @indiegaming @indiedev

https://itch.io/blog/685985/new-collab-game-released-on-steam

Steam Next Fest began earlier this week and a tidal wave of incredible demos left many of us unsure what to play. I played over 50 demos and compiled a list of my favorite, and the most interesting games for you.

Looks pretty great to me.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2464530/VOIN/

Just published the initial release of a game i've been working on for a bit now. A retro-inspired point and click horror game. Check it out and let me know what you think!

https://eerongal.itch.io/urban-legends-hide-and-seek

@indiegaming @indiedev #indiedev #indiegame #gaming #retrogaming #pixelart

cross-posted from: https://programming.dev/post/6969301

cross-posted from: https://programming.dev/post/6969300