Inspiration 2: More Interesting Stuff I Found on Steam

I've been digging through the entire Steam library so I can know what is really there.

Here are some interesting games that I thought might also be helpful from a game dev perspective.

KINGDOMS

Bit Shifter

Dungeon Warfare (very cool twist on Tower Defense)
I generally check out several different videos and the one I choose for my posts there is a reason for that. Sometimes it is because it is just the best all around video. Other times it is because it provides very solid coverage and some other tidbit such as the very end of this video. He says "loads of fun don't get it at full price though I kinda feel this isn't necessarily worth the what 10 bucks they are asking. Hey get it on sale though. Loads of fun! Lots of replayability. Like I said I've already played 50 hours+ of this game!"
Just sharing this as an example of how people devalue games even if they don't intend to. He has a great video covering it and then wraps up by saying a game isn't even worth 20 cents per hour of great fun.

Orc Slayer
Super example of making a tremendous foundation for what could have been a really fantastic game and then just stopping. From what I've read of reviews this has an extremely solid core but there is just nothing else to it. They've done the bulk of the hard part... so a person could make this game and then add something... maybe add 2 to 3 different orc enemy types. Maybe add 1 more weapon. Or even different classes such as the archer, a warrior for melee and a wizard for magic. Then you just might end up with a Steam review saying "this is what Orc Slayer should have been!!!!"

Monsterland

The ultimate example of something I have long believed. That graphics can be simplistic and ultra minimalist to the point where many people would say it has none.... and with a good story, gameplay and audio a very awesome atmosphere and game can be made.

This game has singlehandedly made it so I no longer feel the need to have to make such a game myself to prove it. So thank you devs whoever you are. I think this shows how much more powerful audio is at creating an immersive experience than graphics. I've seen and played many awesome looking games that don't come anywhere close to creating the immersion found here.

Well that's it from this batch of finds. I hope some of you found something useful you can apply to your own games.

 

It's the first time I've heard of Kingdom and it looks particularly interesting to my gaming taste. I wish Mount & Blade had such kind of an open world system and NPC behaviors (possibly with some elements from Skyrim+Requiem), as it would have been my idea of what an ideal medieval RPG game to be.

 

There are so many games on Steam and they are released so quickly only a very tiny amount get enough coverage to be widely known so I didn't recall hearing of it before either. I thought I had but it was likely one of the many other games with Kingdom in the name.

That's exactly why I am going through the entire Steam library. So many games are there that have only a handful of reviews at best not enough to even generate any kind of rating indicator yet all reviews are positive. It is these hidden gems I am most interested in finding. Such games I consider as being great games that failed on marketing. And with marketing being something not many devs like to do and even less are good at I expect there are a large number of these unknown great games out there.

Anyway I agree with you the NPC focus and world building in general in this game caught my attention. A world that "lives" and changes with or without the player doing things is something rpgs have needed to explore deeply for a long time. Some have of course but this one stands out as having done in a quite accessible and very noticeable way.

 

why dont you keep it to 1 thread since it will be hard to find them if you got 52 parts

 

I could do that. Wasn't sure how many I'd share though since I have no idea if people find it helpful or even interesting other than @mysticfall posting and another person thanking me in a message for the first post I made covering some interesting games.

Either way they will be buried though. Pros and cons each way. This forum has posts coming into it all day and night every day so I don't see where making these separate causes any problem and I link to the last one. Probably will update all of them to point to the first and update that one to be an index to them all.

 

Orc Slayer... hmm
Maybe a better name would have been Steam Powered Crossbow - cause that's all I see in that game.

 

Yeah I don't get the steam coming out of the crossbow at all. Figured that was just some "artist thing" or there is some background for it I am unaware of maybe even something that was axed.

The main thing with this game is it represents a very solid foundation. Could make a great game from this. Add some story maybe you are an orc bounty hunter. Maybe a map. Travel around.

From what I read there are already different weapons and different types of magical bolts. XP is gained from orc slaying and weapons can be upgraded. There are also different types of orcs and their minions although I didn't notice that in the video.

So maybe add some obstacles, flying enemies, etc. I hope they revisit it or someone else does. It is a great idea just needs fleshed out more.

 

I would say please stick to one thread, because if someone is looking for a specific "inspiration" related thing with that as a keyword for their search query, and checks the "only search title" option, there would be a ton of your threads listed, potentially burrying the thing they might be looking for. I'm in favor of you just sticking to one thread and necroing every time you want to share something new.

I don't play many indie games anymore, but I'm looking forward to this one:
http://store.steampowered.com/app/268130/Heat_Signature/
because the guy who made it gave one of the most insightful gdc talks I've seen so far. He's very big on "efficient" gamedesign ideas. I believe you've seen his talk when I posted a link to it.

I think the trailer to his game and the second video about launch promo are worth watching. I think they are very well done and the promo thing he's doing is a pretty clever alternative to pre-order bonus. It's like an early adopter bonus.

 

Are you "sick of/burnt out on" indie games? Reason I ask is I've been seeing that posted by gamers in various places from time to time and seemingly more often as time passes. Remember a few YT videos where the person said something to the effect of not sure how much longer they would keep doing those.

Reason being what was a rare and "special" thing now as one put it there are "indie games everywhere you look and even when you're not looking for them they are there". Lol Sounds like some people are finally starting to get burnt out on it all. Made me think of the videogame crash. Ha ha.

I don't think that is so much happening as just two things really that will sooner or later cause game sales to drop way down (actually I think that has already happened) are 1) there are just too damn many games. And people have made games in so many different styles. Exploring emotions, unique art styles etc.

All of these things were unique at one time but now there are so many people making games and exploring and copying other games it is becoming well I guess maybe it's like walking on a beach and seeing a sea shell. And it actually being kind of rare. Compared to walking down the beach and it is covered in sea shells of all different sizes and shapes. At first it is really exciting. Then it becomes either overwhelming or just "ah who cares they're everywhere if I want one I can get one easy enough. I am going to do something else".

And 2) I think so many people have got into this indie thing and just milked the hell out of it. Indie expo here. Indie meetups there and everywhere. Indie books. Indie movies. Game engines targeting the Indies. Game sites for indies. YT filled with people covering indie games. Indie success stories covered by the mainstream media. Just indie, indie, indie, indie, indie. And I think that caused a lot of excitement at one time but too much of anything is not a good thing and that may well end up burning people out on it. Like people probably will enjoy playing games but maybe they will just get sick of hearing about indie.

I was kind of getting that way a year ago but since then I got my second wind plus Steam Direct made it so there is more variety now. So for me it is exciting time in gaming.

Whew what a ramble. lol

 

I'd say yes, although one could question whether I ever was hyped for them at all. The thing I primarily want out of games is immersion, and on average AAA games are a lot better at giving me that. A friend of mine is almost the opposite, he can't get immersion from games that are realistic and story focused, he can only get immersed in more arcady gameplay focused games, which on average indies are better at delivering. He also went through the entire steam discovery queue like you plan to. He pestered me many times about how I really should try Infested Planet, and I never wanted to, because on screenshots it looked like a node-based towerdefense game, and I hate those. But when it was in a humble bundle for 1$ I bought it just so I could "get it over with" and he'd stop bothering me about it, and I'd learn whatever gamedesign lessons from it he thought I could learn from it. And it turns out it is one of those very rare indiegame diamonds that I really like. The gameplay feels nothing like it looks like on screenshots. It's more like an extremely streamlined and tightly designed RTS with no fluff, and you can constantly switch your troops and buildings around because you get 100% cashback for everything that dies or that you sell. It's great gamedesign all around, perfectly balanced and paced, and with enough narrative context to make you care about your progress.

I much more often think "what should I play, nothing interests me anymore" than I think "when should I play all these hundreds of games that I own?". 99% of the games market to me is just colorful noise that I don't care about. Any given time there's maybe roughly a dozen or so new games I look forward to playing some day, and of those usually more than half are AAA or comparable.
Right now the indie games I'm looking forward to are Into the Breach (from the FTL devs), and Heat Signature.
The "AA" games I want to play at some point are BattleTech, Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice, Everspace, and Player Unknowns Battlegrounds.
And the AAA side would be: Rise of the Tomb Raider, Doom, Prey, Dishonored 2, Sniper Elite 4 (not sure about the studio size but I count that as AAA), Dark Souls 3, Metro Exodus, Wolfenstein 2, Dishonored: Death of the Outsider. Fun fact, all these AAA games that don't have a number in the title actually should have one, because they all belong to franchises.

 

Are you prepared for any surprise AAA titles?

http://www.ign.com/articles/2017/09/07/bethesda-has-an-unannounced-game-due-for-release-in-2017

 

Since I don't easily get hyped and I rarely buy AAA titles close to launch, I indeed feel adequately prepared .

 

Huh. I'd been under the impression that he went back and denied that statement, but apparently he denied his denial...

https://www.pcgamesn.com/bethesda-next-game

 

The main thing is... who cares if Bethesda will be releasing a new game this year? I guess I don't understand what the excitement is in that idea. There are many games released every day. Unless it is something that has been anticipated for years... maybe the next game in the Elder Scrolls line but that doesn't seem to be the case. So to me it is just another game dev (okay large team) making another game. Hardly newsworthy at this point. lol

 

It's newsworthy because Bethesda is a proven game company who makes games many people like.

It's the same reason people are excited about Cyberpunk 2077. CDProjekt Red has, at this point, proven themselves to be a quality developer who makes games a lot of people like (and their seemingly consumer-friendly business approach helps a lot). They announced that game like three years ago with a CGI trailer, and there's still absolutely nothing out about it. But people got excited when it was announced.

It's the same for pretty much any game being released. It's the same for that game you were talking about months back, Nidhogg 2 or whatever. The developer's previous work gave these people something to compare potential work to, and thus some became interested in it.

 

Yeah in those cases people know to some degree what they are excited about. What I mean is how can a person get excited over "a game is coming out this year"? There seems to be nothing known about it. How does anyone know it is the kind of game they would even be interested in?

Just a matter of personal views I guess. I like Blizzard a lot and have enjoyed many of their games but if they announced we will release an unknown game this year I would say well when you let me know what that game actually is then I might care. Until then it is meaningless to me.

 

I'm starting to believe I enjoy the hype just as much or even more than the games. It's fun discussing possibilities, watching the little snippets that are leaked or released, trying to connect the dots, trying to determine if the latest website related to it is a hoax or is legitimate, and so on.

 

After 10 years of Final Fantasy Versus / XV, I can say the same. Same goes for Star Citizen...though it's less "hype" and more "drama" at this point.

Because people form expectations based on a company's previous work, not just on quality but also on the type of game.

At E3 this year, EA announced Bioware's newest IP. The fans have known about it for years, and have been anticipating something interesting. An RPG set in modern times, perhaps. None of them were expecting a Destiny clone, a loot-based online coop shooter, with NO hint of the RPG mechanics Bioware is known for. There was some amount of murmuring, because people form expectations based on a company's previous work.

 

Ah ha so it is kind of like a whole different game around the possibilities of the unknown game.