Wow, it's been a while! In less than an hour at 5pm ET / 2pm PT, I'll be chatting with gamedevs Abhi of Venba, Marina Ayano Kittaka of Sephonie, Natalie Tin Yin Gan & @remysiu of 1000xResist!
We'll have a profound talk on how our respective games and characters explore cultural memory, hope, and trauma.
You can watch the panel here, as part of Fellow Traveller's #LudoNarraCon !
I'm not one for "New Year's resolutions", but I am one for overly ambitious projects.
For 2023, Project365 is "One New Game Per Day".
Given that I have 634 unplayed games in my Steam account and {mumble} unredeemed bundle Steam keys, there's a reason my unplayed collection is tagged "Pile of Shame".
I'll pin this to my profile, and give a brief summary here each day (or x, if I miss x days due to work or stuff).
I'll play 15-30 minutes of (at least) one new game I've never played before (or played less than 15 minutes of). I'll give every game at least 15 minutes, even if I hate every minute of it.
I'm also open to suggestions; if you reply to this thread with a game, I'll schedule it, or tell you what I thought of it.
One of the things that's come up is that I have a bunch of games that I've played once, and not touched again.
Apr 3, 2023 - Day 93 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 100
Game: Demon Turf
Platform: Steam PC
Release Date: Nov 4, 2021
Library Date: Apr 2, 2023
Unplayed: 1d
Playtime: 30m
Firstly, an apology if you watched this #NewPlay live on Twitch.
Something was applying a voice-effect to my mic, and I was unable to work out the source, which is why it was so heavily reverbed.
This is another game from March 2023's Humble Choice.
It was not initially obvious to me what kind of game I was playing; Demon Turf is a 3D platformer.
The thing about a new game, is that if I need to go through a tutorial to familiarise myself with the controls, I have to want to finish the tutorial.
I did not want to finish the tutorial. I kept going because I was streaming it, but I didn't enjoy this game. You play Beebz, a demon girl with the goal to take over the Demon Turfs and wrest control away from the Demon King to become the Demon Queen, and I just don't care.
I can't quite explain why this game grated on me, but after 30 minutes of frustration, I was done.
Was it fun? Not for me. Would I play Demon Turf again?
Sometimes I encounter a game where the visual design is gorgeous, the music is perfect, and then the gaming elements seem to be tacked on.
Unfortunately, Scrap Garden feels like one of these games.
Scrap Garden is a 3D-ish platformer. You control a small robot, apparently the only robot to survive a calamity that has wiped out robot society, and needs you to find out what went wrong and fix it.
The character design and atmosphere all blends together beautifully; it feels like all of the love and affection by the devs were poured into these elements, then the gameplay was just kind of pasted over the top, with a voiceovers & voice acting meant to patch over the cracks, that feels more annoying than informative.
It's not a bad game, by any means, but there are enough rough edges in the gameplay to leave me feeling just mildly frustrated.
The controls feel muddy, which is not great for a platformer; I felt like I was constantly fighting with the follow camera. Then in some sections of the game, it becomes a 2.5D platformer with a fixed camera, and a new set of frustrations with controls & obscured angles.
It looks like a gourmet meal, but tastes like McDonalds.
I'd played through all of my unplayed games up to 2020, and this was the only 2021 non-VR game that's unplayed, so that's a goal knocked on the head.
Papo & Yo is a 3D platformer-puzzler, with something deep to say, that isn't preached at you; it's built right into the core of the game.
If you'd told me this game was released in 2023, not 2013, I'd have believed you.
The graphics & atmosphere are lush, and gorgeous. The game's setting is a surreal representation of a Brazilian "favela" or slum.
As your character Quico runs across cobblestones, sheets of corrugated iron, and terracotta tiles, the sound of his footsteps change to reflect the surfaces, with the terracotta particularly breathtaking.
The game opens with a still frame dedication from the designer to his mother & siblings, on surviving their own monster; at this point I decided to stream it.
It took my breath away multiple times, but particularly as the storyline delved into the character's trauma. It took me to a place emotionally, that I had to end the stream to deal with the feelings.
Papo & Yo is lovely & deeply moving; quite simply, it's: