Kickstarter Games That Deserve Funding Volume 1 - InSomnia, The Deer God and Midora

Written By: Tyler

We live in an age of Kickstarter now, where developers flock to the website and go directly to the gamers to fund their passion projects. Whether this is a good system is hotly contested among gamers, but I thought it'd be interesting to make a feature where I talk about a few games that seem interesting and deserving of your hard-earned (or easily-earned, no judgement) money.

For any of these, it's smartest to go to the Kickstarter page and see a detailed description of their project right from the people making it, but I will use this opportunity to sell you on the game enough that you'll want to click the links.


Midora
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1867607597/midora-0?ref=category

Midora is a throwback to games like Zelda and Secret of Mana. Though I'm not a huge Zelda fan in general, I'm big into Secret of Mana. I'll just let them describe the story:

Midora is a colorful world, crafted by an ancient architect with the elements as his tools. For an eternity after this creation, those elements populated the world, fashioning cultures and kingdoms all their own. They contested each other for land and prestige, and when the world was finally overwhelmed by the strife, the architect came back down to seal the elements away, preserving the world for its lesser inhabitants.

  This harmony lasted for centuries, until even the eldest tribes had only vague memories of the conflict and its participants. The town of Seawind will be the first to remember the Inferno in earnest.
 
  Enter Snow, the lead character of this adventure. A young girl growing up on the edge of Seawind, she embarks on what starts as just a simple chore, only to uncover the catalyst in a war as old as the world she lives in. On her journey, she will encounter help and obstacles in various forms. Elderly town matrons, kings, long extinct races, burly blacksmiths, and the living elements themselves will play a role in Midora's newest story, but it falls to Snow herself to see it to the end.

The main gameplay mechanic is that you can control water. At the beginning you will be weak, obviously, but as the game progresses you will become a lot better at it. I like the idea of being able to manipulate water.

Besides that, it is an action-adventure game like we've seen before but that doesn't mean it's bad. There are no levels but your sword and shield have their own levels, and there will be little stealth elements that allow you to do critical damage.

There is also over 200+ items to get, along with 12 dungeons and 6 towns to go to. Of course, there will also be secret areas that you can find. You can use alchemy to create your own items, or just find them.

It does seem to truly blend together elements from the two main games that influence it, and that's definitely a good thing.



InSomnia
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1892480689/insomnia-an-rpg-set-in-a-brutal-dieselpunk-univers?ref=nav_search

InSomnia is a dieselpunk RPG set on "The Ark" which is basically a gigantic half-deserted space station populated by the race known as "Normans" in which you are a part of. You wake up on "The Ark" only to find that is moving to a planet only known as "The Evacuation Point," in order to start over because the "SORG Regime" are a bunch of pricks, basically.

So why is it interesting? Because it's a dieselpunk RPG, mainly. No, there's actually a lot going on here of interesting, namely:

• No leveling system but instead the game opts for a more Elder Scrolls approach where you use abilities and they get more powerful. There are perks and whatnot as well, but this is a system that is a welcome break from what we normally get (not that I hate levels because I certainly don't).
• 15-20 hours of main storyline with 20+ hours of side-quests. That's not the cool part. The cool part is that that is only the first season and there will be 20 free missions released post-release at some point.
• Did I mention that it's dieselpunk?
• Strategic real-time combat.
• You can also play with friends if you're unlike me and actually have some.
• Not only do you have to fight enemies, but there's a survival element (along with crafting). I'm a little concerned/curious about how the survival elements will co-exist with the sandbox elements because it could possibly get annoying to traverse the land while managing your food. I'm not trash talking the game, but it is literally the only gripe I have and it's not even a very big one considering the developers seem ambitious and I'm sure they'll make it work.

Those are only some of the things to look forward to in this game.

The bottom line is that if the developers can live up to their promises then it should be another great RPG to add to the already excellent canon of the genre. The planned release date isn't for a ways off, however, as it's planned for Q 2015 for PC with Mac and Linux a possibility later on.



The Deer God
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1907053239/the-deer-god-a-game-of-reincarnation-pc-mac-linux?ref=discovery

From dark and depressing to beautiful and majestic, here is The Deer God, a game in which you play as a fawn who was originally a human. Yes, the hunter gets reincarnated as a fawn. You will be a fawn until you gain experience and eat food. You can also apparently made with does.

The Deer God looks like one of those types of games that you will play and be in awe of how beautiful it is. If that sounded too poetic, then let me put it in internet meme form: you will get dem feels. A lot of games use pixel art, but a lot of them fall prey to getting by just on nostalgia. The Deer God does not look like that at all... it looks like a wonderfully crafted world that is full of life and populated by a lot of animals.

The developers say they are influenced by "Metroid, Zelda, Blaster Master, Kid Icarus, Ecco The Dolphin, Joust," and I'm down with all of those games that I've played, but especially Metroid and Blaster Master, which they bolded on their Kickstarter. They are also influenced by that pesky "outdoors" thing that I always hear about.

I know I haven't talked as much about the individual gameplay aspects as I did with InSomnia, but it really does look like it'll be fun to plat form and explore this world. You have to survive and grow into an elder deer (they say there isn't really an end, but there are things like that to make you feel like you've accomplished something), and you have to solve puzzles.

Just watch the video on their Kickstarter page and be inspired by the visuals and atmosphere. Then listen to some of the sample tracks because they've stated that music will be a big part in the game and I believe it.

This Week In Games, June 29 - July 5, 2014

Written By: Tyler

Hello and welcome to another edition of "This Week In Games," a weekly feature where every Sunday or Monday I give a quick preview of some of the games releasing this week that are of interest to me in a good or bad way.


June 30

Divinity: Original Sin

Coming Out For: Windows, Linux
Genre: Role-playing
Gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDaYWfqJD3g

This is the big release of the week for me, and it's strange because I didn't know anything about it and I only played Divine Divinity briefly years ago... so I'm not a series fan. However, this prequel to that looks incredible.

It looks like a dense (as the gameplay video says) RPG, with a neat robbery system that actually affects your reputation if you get caught. You can cause a distraction with one character by talking to somebody and then use another to steal. The crafting seems simplistic but it appears that there are a lot of things you can craft. The combat is turn-based but I like the idea of your action points carrying over to the next turn so you can have a big turn. It looks like there's a lot of variety in your attacks.

The leveling system looks like it has depth, with the different perks you can put points into and all the other things that you can level up, and there's a lot of story to read and things to do. My only complaint from what I know is that there isn't a marker telling you where to go so questing will be extremely difficult. NPCs will tell you, but then you have to remember. There is a dialogue diary but it looks like it's hard to filter through.

If you're playing co-op, you can make decisions together and depending on how you interact with your partner your stats will be affected.

There's also an RPG kit to make your own adventures! The game isn't even full-priced but looks huge. $40 on Steam.


July 1

Guacamelee! Super Turbo Championship Edition 

Coming Out For: PS4 (July 1), Xbox 360 (July 2), Xbone (July 2), Wii U (July 2)
Genre: Platformer
Gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVQbAtAQzj8

Guacamelee! sees its debut on the systems listed above in an enhanced edition. I'm not really sure why I never played the game because I love luchador wrestling, and the game is zany and colourful. I reckon now is probably a good time to try it out, and if you have Xbox Live Gold it is the free Games With Gold for July, so pick it up.



Child Of Light

Coming Out For: PS Vita
Genre: Role-playing
Gameplay: http://ca.ign.com/videos/2014/05/20/child-of-light-psvita-trailer

I really enjoyed Child of Light because JRPGs are where my heart is. They're my roots.

You can fly around in this game, which is different, and the turn-based combat has a spin on it with the fact you can use your companion to slow down enemies and just generally interact with things. The story is told entirely in rhyme, and the visual style is gorgeous. It looks like the Vita version hasn't suffered so if you haven't played Child of Light, here is another chance to do so.



Sniper Elite 3

Coming Out For: PS3, PS4, X360, XboneGenre: Third-Person Shooter

Gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1yg9jffjxI

It's already out on PC, but it sees its console release. Here's what I said about the PC version.

This one doesn't interest me at all, and since I don't get paid to do reviews I'm not sure if I'll get around to this one or not. It's not that it looks terrible, but it doesn't look like it brings anything to the table that we can't get a million other places. The kill-cam idea doesn't really make me feel like I'm seeing the damage I'm doing, it just seems annoying, and the action looks okay but there are so many shooters it just doesn't stand out.

Tim Schafer Returns! A Broken Age Act 1 Review! Exclamation Marks!

Written By: Tyler Selig

Rating: 8/10

Verdict: Tim Shafer’s first point-and-click adventure game since the legendary Grim Fandango is another great addition to the genre, with memorable characters and jokes, but may be a little easy for adventure aficionados. 

                I have to start this review by saying that the only reason I don’t rate this game higher is that I’m not exactly a big fan of the genre that it’s in. I’d say it’s one of my least favourite genres, but I don’t hate it by any means. I love games like Grim Fandango, but the amount of point-and-click adventure titles that I can say that about are slim. So with that bias out of the way, you can adjust your rating by about a point or so because it is truly a great game.

                What makes it great? The story and characters, much like the classics in the genre. This is something I’ve always respected about point-and-clicks because the story isn’t often a centerpiece for most video games. If it is, developers often sacrifice the gameplay and admittedly the mechanics that operate the genre aren’t preferable for me. Maybe it’s because I’m too stupid to figure out the puzzles, but the gameplay in the genre doesn’t entice me as much as it does others. I wonder how many times I can say genre in this review?

                The story in Broken Age Act 1 is whimsical, odd, intriguing and creative. You play as two different characters, with two different stories that end up connecting at some point. How they connect is a pretty magnificent thing, and both stories offer a good degree of humour, absurdity and darkness. I was pretty invested in Vellas story especially because it focuses on sacrificing yourself, whereas when you’re playing as Shay you’re essentially trying to free yourself from a bored life that was created for you when you were a child and still has that structure of immaturity.

                If you want to laugh, this is a great game. There are many characters with funny things to say, like a tree who keeps calling you a murderer. Broken Age is filled to the brim with memorable lines and the voice acting is superb, which really brings the characters to life. Despite the seriousness of the events that engulf these characters, it’s nice to see it treated with finesse and hilarity.

                The art work also helps in that regard. It’s like a story book brought to life, with beautiful images flooding the screen at all times. It’s a joy to just look at the game in action.

                Where serious adventure game fans may have a problem is with how easy the game is. Even I can figure out the puzzles, so smarter people shouldn’t have a problem. The genre often tests the intellect of people and while there are definitely some head scratching puzzles here, and some are nonsensical, players shouldn’t have a hard time figuring out what to do next. The game is short, so experienced point-and-click adventure gamers should complete Act 1 pretty quickly.

                Some have criticized the ending because it’s abrupt, but I think it does a good job of making you crave the next act. More gameplay is always welcome so long as it’s interesting, and I think the game is a little overpriced, but Broken Age Act 1 managed to get my attention. I look forward to Act 2, which comes out later this year.