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The Joystiq Indie Pitch: The Grave Digger
It's not that there are too many indie games; it's that there aren't enough hours in a day to play all of them. The Joystiq Indie Pitch curates the best indies to play now and watch out for in the future. What's your game called and what's it about? The Grave Digger is a third-person stealth game all about plundering haunted graveyards for loot and escaping without a pissed-off ghost dragging you to hell. There are a handful of different ghost types that materialize the moment your shovel breaks consecrated soil, so there's a chance at the beginning of each level to read the tombstones in search of the most valuable loot and plan potential escape routes before the graveyard becomes "populated." The ghosts have individual AI routines which change the level quite dramatically once they appear, so a big part of it is learning the best ways to outsmart them in any given scenario, be that timing your movements, creeping silently behind low walls or even baiting certain ghosts to different areas. There are no ways to kill or otherwise immobilize the enemy in this game. We've designed it in such a way that hopefully players will find their own strategies along the way using the limited tools we've given them. What's the coolest aspect of The Grave Digger? Unexpectedly, one of the things I find the most fun is running around before the ghosts appear, reading tombstones (hold "Q" near a grave). I think there's something quite serene and civilized about that bit, although perhaps that's just because I know how hectic it'll get when I'm fleeing a screeching ghost-bride. Another thing I love is the humor in the game. That's something we never really sat down and designed so a lot of it was drafted at the last minute and as a result most of the gags crash and burn like any good-bad pun should (case in point: Home Groan Games, our company name), but I find that sort of unrefined comedy funny in itself.
The Joystiq Indie Pitch: Race The Sun
It's not that there are too many indie games; it's that there aren't enough hours in a day to play all of them. The Joystiq Indie Pitch curates the best indies to play now and watch out for in the future. What's your game called and what's it about? Race the Sun is about racing a solar-powered craft toward the sunset at breakneck speed, and trying to keep up as long as possible using various powerups and boosts to keep you on pace with the sunset. When the sun goes down, or you crash into an obstacle, it's game over. The world you race through is created with a combination of hand-designed patterns and a procedural world-creation engine. This forms a unique, endless world that's slightly different each day, and that gets more difficult with each region you pass through. Or to put it more succinctly: It's like Star Fox meets Temple Run. Why develop independently, rather than work for an established company? I worked in a game studio for over seven years, working on some of the biggest franchises out there, most recently Modern Warfare 3. The job was actually great, with good benefits and bonuses, reasonable hours, and great people. But ultimately it was driving me a bit nuts to be working on someone else's games as a cog in a giant machine, with the ultimate purpose of maximizing shareholder value. Being independent gives us creative control, and it also lets us interact directly with our fans, which has been awesome so far. When a dad sends me pictures of his kids playing something that the two of us created ourselves, and tells us how much fun they're all having, that's a really special feeling that's hard to describe.
The Joystiq Indie Pitch: Dungeon Smash
It's not that there are too many indie games; it's that there aren't enough hours in a day to play all of them. The Joystiq Indie Pitch curates the best indies to play now and watch out for in the future. What's your game called and what's it about? Dungeon Smash is about being a heroic champion, surviving insurmountable odds, rescuing the princesses, vengeance, love, duty, lust for power, forgiveness and bringing peace to the kingdoms. The story begins with our champions accompanying their wards, the princesses of the war-torn five kingdoms, to the neutral city of Overkalix to sign a peace treaty. On the eve of the signing of the treaty, Overkalix is attacked by demons and the princesses are abducted. The players take on the roles of the princesses' champions and set off toward the Dark Isles to rescue the princesses. Each player is presented with an individual back-story which may influence how they play the game. Why develop for Xbox Live Indie Games, rather than PC or other platforms? It's relatively easy to get published to a potentially massive market and the hardware is fixed so you only really have to cater for two screen resolutions. Dungeon Smash is a twin-stick shooter and you really need a controller for that. However, development has been stopped on XNA and Microsoft is being coy about self-publishing on the Xbox One80, whereas Unity on the PlayStation 4 is sounding pretty attractive.
The Joystiq Indie Pitch: Papers, Please
It's not that there are too many indie games; it's that there aren't enough hours in a day to play all of them. The Joystiq Indie Pitch curates the best indies to play now and watch out for in the future. What's your game called and what's it about? The game is called Papers, Please and it follows the daily grind of an immigration inspector working in a fictional communist country in the early 1980s. The gameplay is based around detecting discrepancies in the documents provided by entrants. Using the limited resources provided by the Ministry of Admission, you have to sort spies, terrorists, smugglers and criminals from the flow of hopeful immigrants. What inspired you to make Papers, Please? I was inspired originally by my trips through airport immigration in the last few years. In general I try to keep an eye out for new game ideas and figured that whatever rigamarole the immigration inspector was doing behind their desk might be fun. Once that idea started to grow, I noticed other aspects of the concept that could be fun. Instead of playing the cool spy protagonist that slips through a checkpoint unsuspected, you can be the hard-ass inspector that casts their skeptical eye at every grandmother trodding through. That sort of role reversal sounded fun to me and I thought others might like it, too.
The Joystiq Indie Pitch: The Novelist
It's not that there are too many indie games; it's that there aren't enough hours in a day to play all of them. The Joystiq Indie Pitch curates the best indies to play now and watch out for in the future. What's your game called and what's it about? The game is called The Novelist, and it deals with the question of what's more important in life: personal success or a loving family. You play as a ghost that observes the life of a novelist named Dan Kaplan, his wife, Linda, and his son, Tommy. As you learn about their lives you're presented with different situations that deal with the career vs. family question in some way, and you get to decide what they do. Your choices affect their relationships, shape their lives, and ultimately create a personal story. Will The Novelist have a tragically gruesome ending like The Shining, or is that just my own association run wild? I'm afraid that's just your imagination running wild. The idea of a writer alone in a house with his wife and son obviously has a lot in common with The Shining, but while I love that movie (and the book), The Novelist is an altogether more benevolent affair. There's no killing or violence in the game, although if you influence Dan to keep making decisions that are detrimental to his career or his family you can definitely create some ... depressing outcomes.%Gallery-188206%
The Joystiq Indie Pitch: Tower of Guns
It's not that there are too many indie games; it's that there aren't enough hours in a day to play all of them. The Joystiq Indie Pitch curates the best indies to play now and watch out for in the future. What's your game called and what's it about? My game is called Tower of Guns and it's an old school, fast-paced FPS with a ton of roguelike-ish elements. It's not a true roguelike, of course, but it plays kind of like a mashup of Doom 2 and the Binding of Isaac. You can pre-order the game now for $5 and you'll get access to all the development builds. It also just got accepted into IndieCade's E3 Showcase, so you if you want to meet me in person and will be at E3, please swing by! What's the coolest aspect of Tower of Guns? While the game is certainly a return to the fast-paced shooters of yesteryear, I feel what's really making it special is that the combination of random loot, random rooms and twitch gameplay lead to a lot of "surprises" for the player. I try and maintain a no-limit attitude toward development and I try to treat that "delight of surprise" as an actual mechanic, continually throwing crazier things at the player. As a solo developer I obviously can't get too ambitious with visuals or AI, but I hope I can still deliver something to players that they've never seen before.
The Joystiq Indie Pitch: Bam fu
It's not that there are too many indie games; it's that there aren't enough hours in a day to play all of them. The Joystiq Indie Pitch curates the best indies to play now and watch out for in the future. What's your game called and what's it about? Bam fu is a two-, three- or four-player game on one device where you tap on pebbles – a fancy word for the buttons in this game – as quickly as you can to make them your color. Other players are trying to do the same and the colors change in a cycle, so the pebbles will definitely not stay on your color for long. The game goes on with you trying to reclaim your pebbles as fast as you can, until all, or almost all, pebbles are your color. That's when you win. What's the coolest aspect of Bam fu? We think that the coolest aspect of the game is that you can play it with everyone. Any gender, age or language; literally everyone! The rules are so simple that it doesn't take more than a second to get them. In fact, we are yet to find a player who doesn't skip the the tutorial. Plenty of thought has gone into small details to keep things simple. For example, we are using the fingers on the hand to count your points, so it's immediately clear that you play to five. We have also made the game accessible to colorblind players, which was a challenge for a game than distinguishes between players by color. This is why the pebbles were designed to point toward a player's corner.
The Joystiq Indie Pitch: Jamsouls
It's not that there are too many indie games; it's that there aren't enough hours in a day to play all of them. The Joystiq Indie Pitch curates the best indies to play now and watch out for in the future. What's your game called and what's it about? Our game is called Jamsouls. We took inspiration from the famous tale of Pandora's Box to create crazy battles between naughty evil creatures in a vivid and colourful arena! How have sales and visibility been on XBLIG? Is $1 a good price point for Jamsouls? XBLIG has poor visibility compared to other games featured on the Xbox Marketplace. We feel that the platform is dying slowly, and that Microsoft is not really interested in this indie scene anymore, which is a shame. We chose the price of $1 because we wanted the game to have maximum exposure. The price of 80 points is very reasonable for anyone wanting to try the game out.
The Joystiq Indie Pitch: Guacamelee
It's not that there are too many indie games; it's that there aren't enough hours in a day to play all of them. The Joystiq Indie Pitch curates the best indies to play now and watch out for in the future. What's your game called and what's it about? Guacamelee! is all about kicking ass and saving the girl. Sell Guacamelee in one sentence: Guacamelee is a Mexican-themed cross-platform cooperative multiplayer metroidvania dimension-swapping brawler. Warning: reading this sentence out loud may cause seizures or loss of bowel control.%Gallery-185263%
The Joystiq Indie Pitch: Signal Ops
It's not that there are too many indie games; it's that there aren't enough hours in a day to play all of them. The Joystiq Indie Pitch curates the best indies to play now and watch out for in the future. What's your game called and what's it about? Signal Ops has you assume the role of a handler, in charge of directing field agents on somewhat questionable missions. You do the bidding of one of the government's church divisions, seeking out traitors among other dirty work. As a seasoned officer, you stay back at base while the recruits go out and handle the dangerous bits. You won't be relaxing, though; these field operatives need constant supervision and someone to tell them what to do. It's a darkly comedic tale of clandestine operations, treachery, and doing what's wrong because it is right. What's the coolest aspect of Signal Ops? Just take a look! Signal Ops tasks the player with simultaneously controlling up to four agents from multiple first-person perspectives. Not only that, but they must also progress through missions strategically by seeking out power for your squad's radio, which is their lifeline to you. This coordination and tactics-first gameplay leads to tense and often challenging decisions on how to approach the many obstacles and puzzles that are thrown your way.%Gallery-187393%
The Joystiq Indie Pitch: Survival Horror Story: Catequesis
It's not that there are too many indie games; it's that there aren't enough hours in a day to play all of them. The Joystiq Indie Pitch curates the best indies to play now and watch out for in the future. What's your game called and what's it about?Survival Horror Story: Catequesis tells the story of Daniel, meeting his girlfriend's parents for the first time. His girlfriend, Sophie, confesses to him that her father suffers from an incurable disease and the only way to save him is to perform a religious rite led by her neighbour Isabel. Something turns out badly, weird creatures seize the building and Sophie and Isabel disappear. Fate makes Daniel walk along the floors of that old structure and its core, facing different horrors on his attempt to rescue Sophie and end the curse.What's the meaning behind the game's name? Do you worry an unfamiliar name might prevent fans from talking about it?Catequesis is the Spanish word for "catechesis," which in the Catholic religion is education in the faith and doctrine. So imagine how interesting the catechesis can be in a different, horrible and hideous new religion. Anyway, I wanted to put a complete name, more explicit and clear, with "Survival Horror Story," a great definition of our game.
The Joystiq Indie Pitch: Spate
Indie developers are the starving artists of the video-game world, often brilliant and innovative, but also misunderstood, underfunded and more prone to writing free-form poetry on their LiveJournals. We believe they deserve a wider audience with the Joystiq Indie Pitch: This week, Eric Provan dissects the beauty of rain, hallucinations and mystery with Spate, coming to PC, Mac and Linux in Q3. What's your game called and what's it about?My game is called Spate. Spate is the journey of one man's descent into madness that is fueled by his addiction to absinthe, following the tragic death of his daughter. He is hired to investigate mysterious disappearances that have been occurring on an island offshore, and figures that he has nothing left to lose. The detective hopes to uncover some of the island's mysteries, but is finding it increasingly difficult to battle his own pain. As his absinthe use increases it becomes harder and harder for him to tell reality from fiction. Soon he finds he is fighting for more than just the missing people – he is fighting against the madness as well.Out of all the drinks someone can be addicted to, why absinthe?Truthfully, absinthe began as an excuse for me to make weird stuff. I love abstract art, and needed a logical reason to include it in the game. Today it is mostly debunked, but for hundreds of years it had been thought that absinthe caused hallucinations. This works for the steampunk theme, the gameplay, the story and the visuals.%Gallery-181301%
The Joystiq Indie Pitch: Back to Bed
Indie developers are the starving artists of the video-game world, often brilliant and innovative, but also misunderstood, underfunded and more prone to writing free-form poetry on their LiveJournals. We believe they deserve a wider audience with the Joystiq Indie Pitch: This week, Klaus Petersen and Bedtime Gaming talk about artistic IGF student finalist Back to Bed. Check out the Kickstarter here. What's your game called and what's it about?Our game is called Back to Bed. It is a 3D puzzle platformer, wherein the player has to help a sleepwalker reach the safety of his bed by navigating him through a surreal and dreamlike environment.How did you hear that Back to Bed was an IGF Student Showcase finalist and has that changed how you approach the game's development?Well, we just read it on one of the game news sites, when the student showcase "winners" were announced, which of course caused celebration.But yes, the IGF nomination changed alot of things. Besides giving the team a giant boost, it also gives us the great window of opportunity to show our game to a lot of people. It also builds up a little pressure, I guess. But it's just things like this that makes the long hours during crunch worthwhile.%Gallery-179506%
The Joystiq Indie Pitch: Gratuitous Space Battles
Indie developers are the starving artists of the video-game world, often brilliant and innovative, but also misunderstood, underfunded and more prone to writing free-form poetry on their LiveJournals. We believe they deserve a wider audience with the Joystiq Indie Pitch: This week, English developer Chris Harris talks about the good ol' days of being indie and the continued success of Gratuitous Space Battles. What's your game called and what's it about?Gratuitous Space Battles is a strategy/management game that plays in an unusual way. It's a "hands-off" battle simulator for giant space fleets, which puts the player in position of the designer of individual ships and entire fleets, and in control of the orders those ships will use during battle, but the actual battles themselves are out of your hands. You can watch your fleet fight, but cannot change anything mid-battle (although we have recently added direct control as an option).The game is all about ship and fleet design, rather than arcade action, and plays more like a puzzle game or tower defense game than a conventional RTS.Do you see yourself as part of a larger indie movement?Kind of, although I am not a typical part of it. The indie scene seems to be younger, cooler and much more American than me. I find it weird that indie games are suddenly hip and cool, and acceptable to buy, and make millions of dollars, because this is a very recent thing, and there is no guarantee it will last.When I started making indie games, there was no Steam, relatively few online stores and the majority of people were still buying CD-ROMs and downloading from sites like download.com. The scene has changed dramatically since then and I'm always slightly wary of the fact that it could change again. Some indie games now make tens of millions of dollars and that is definitely going to change things in the long term. How, I don't know.%Gallery-178806%
The Joystiq Indie Pitch: Kentucky Route Zero
Indie developers are the starving artists of the video-game world, often brilliant and innovative, but also misunderstood, underfunded and more prone to writing free-form poetry on their LiveJournals. We believe they deserve a wider audience with the Joystiq Indie Pitch: This week, Jake Elliot and Tamas Kemenczy of Cardboard Computer discuss the mad horse race of artistic game development and IGF nominations with Kentucky Route Zero. What's your game called and what's it about?Kentucky Route Zero is game about exploring a secret highway in Kentucky that runs through Mammoth Cave, and meeting the unusual characters who live and work there. We call it a "magical realist adventure game." Like most magical realist literature, it blends realism and fantasy pretty evenly. Like most adventure games, it's focused on story and characterization over tests of skill.How did you find out about your IGF nods – including one for the Seumas McNally grand prize – and what was your reaction?We released the game the same Monday morning that the IGF finalist announcements were made, with very little sleep the whole weekend prior, so it's kind of a blur! We're really honored to be in such fine company. Some of the other finalists – particularly Anna Anthropy's Dys4ia and Richard Hofmeier's Cart Life – have been our favorite games of the last year or two, so it's very meaningful for us to be placed alongside them in the IGF this year.
The Joystiq Indie Pitch: Guns of Icarus Online
Indie developers are the starving artists of the video-game world, often brilliant and innovative, but also misunderstood, underfunded and more prone to writing free-form poetry on their LiveJournals. We believe they deserve a wider audience with the Joystiq Indie Pitch: This week, Howard Tsao, founder of Muse Games, talks semi-MMO, steampunk, co-op airship battles with Guns of Icarus Online. What's your game called and what's it about?Our game is called Guns of Icarus Online. It's a multiplayer airship-to-airship combat game where you battle it out in the skies on customizable ships with your friends and against other players, all set in a steampunk- and dieselpunk-inspired post-apocalyptic wasteland. Imagine if World War I never really ended; that's where we're at.How does Guns of Icarus Online continue the narrative and gameplay of Guns of Icarus?In the original game Guns of Icarus, you take on the role of Gabriel, who is basically an early pioneer of airship flight centuries after the Great War has laid waste to civilization. He builds his own airship out of scavenged parts and goes traveling across this hardscrabble post-apocalyptic landscape, visiting scattered settlements and fighting off sky pirates the whole way. Even though he doesn't survive the voyage, his doomed flight is an inspiration to the people he encounters, a brush of contact with the wider world and a sign of hope that things can get better.Guns of Icarus Online takes place almost 100 years later, when Gabriel has become a legendary, almost mythic figure. With the rapid development of airship flight in the intervening years, the once-isolated towns have come into much closer contact, bringing both trade and warfare. It's a time of unprecedented prosperity, but also renewed conflict. In Guns of Icarus Online you are one of this new class of aeronauts, young men and women who have left their hometowns behind and signed up to serve aboard one of these airships in search of glory and adventure, seeking your fortune in the skies.%Gallery-178189%
The Joystiq Indie Pitch: Pocket Fleet
Indie developers are the starving artists of the video-game world, often brilliant and innovative, but also misunderstood, underfunded and more prone to writing free-form poetry on their LiveJournals. We believe they deserve a wider audience with the Joystiq Indie Pitch: This week, Tolga Ozuygur of Overdose Caffeine talks massive online mobile battles with Pocket Fleet, out for iOS, Android and browsers. What's your game called and what's it about?It's called Pocket Fleet. It is a real-time multiplayer online battle game designed for mobile that takes place in an intergalactic conflict between three races. And it's free-to-play.What's the coolest aspect of Pocket Fleet?It is very hard to define that, because I think the coolest thing about this game is a weird feeling. It's something like, when you first enter the game without much expectation, you launch from your mother ship and find yourself in a battlefield filled with mad players tearing each other apart with a plethora of high-tech weaponry in outer space. Just at that split second before you get hit by a positron missile and blow up for the first time, you pause and say to yourself, "What the hell am I doing here?"In my opinion, that specific feeling is the coolest thing about this game.
The Joystiq Indie Pitch: Gunslugs
Indie developers are the starving artists of the video-game world, often brilliant and innovative, but also misunderstood, underfunded and more prone to writing free-form poetry on their LiveJournals. We believe they deserve a wider audience with the Joystiq Indie Pitch: This week, Pascal Bestebroer of OrangePixel talks mobile development as a career and the draw of Ouya with Android and iOS action game Gunslugs. What's your game called and what's it about?The game is called Gunslugs, and it's all about over-the-top action, very much like the old action movies of the 80s. One man or woman taking down a complete army.Gunslugs has a unique co-op system. Describe that and how important it was to have in the game.The co-op is really like the good old days when you both grabbed a joystick and played together on a single computer. Or even worse, shared a keyboard in an uncomfortable way.I also designed and added it to the game knowing the Ouya, an Android-based console, was coming. I figured it would be awesome to have Gunslugs on that console, playing it on your TV together with a friend. And since I'm a big supporter of another gadget, the iOS Game Dock, I made sure the iOS version of Gunslugs has the same two-player mode built in.
The Joystiq Indie Pitch: No Time To Explain
Indie developers are the starving artists of the video-game world, often brilliant and innovative, but also misunderstood, underfunded and more prone to writing free-form poetry on their LiveJournals. We believe they deserve a wider audience with the Joystiq Indie Pitch: This week, the team at tinyBuild take the time to describe their rollercoaster of crowdfunding before it was cool and being Greenlit, with No Time To Explain. What's your game called and what's it about?It's called No Time To Explain and is about giant enemy crabs, time paradoxes and jetpack guns. We're fans of the whole wacky concept of time travel and wanted to make a game where we can get away with pretty much anything and make that funny.How did you find out about being Greenlit and how did you react?I was obsessively refreshing our Greenlight page for a couple of hours until finally the big green sign, "This game has been Greenlit," appeared. I had tears in my eyes at that point. We were losing hope to get onto Steam, and this felt like winning the lottery. You know the moment where you realize something great just happened and you don't entirely believe it? I called Tom, who apparently threw his dog out of happiness (the dog is fine).
The Joystiq Indie Pitch: Potatoman Seeks the Troof
Indie developers are the starving artists of the video-game world, often brilliant and innovative, but also misunderstood, underfunded and more prone to writing free-form poetry on their LiveJournals. We believe they deserve a wider audience with the Joystiq Indie Pitch: This week, Pixeljam co-founder Miles Tilmann discusses the philosophy behind Potatoman Seeks the Troof, which we learned about through this intense trailer. What's your game called and what's it about?The game is called Potatoman Seeks the Troof. It's about an anthropomorphized potato that decides to leave the comfort of his family farm in search of enlightenment. Although, for some reason, almost everything he meets along his journey is trying to kill or mislead him.What inspired you to make Potatoman?The Potatoman character himself. Rich (Pixeljam's lead artist) had created him as just an animated gif years ago, and it was hard to look at him and not want to give him his own game.Also, in October we had just finished a very long series of games for other companies (Adult Swim, etc.), and were itching to release something of our own. We were working on multiple things at once – Glorkian Warrior, Gamma Bros iOS, Dino Run iOS – but none were anywhere close to completion, and at the time it seemed that we would run out of funds before any of the games could reach a state acceptable to us for release. So we tried something we had always talked about: pour our time and hearts into a very short game and get it done in about two weeks. Several months later, the game was done.
