No Money, No Problem: Nested

Title: Nested
Developer: Orteil
Platforms: Browser
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Nested isn't a game. It's hard to even call it a text adventure. At first glance, Nested seems to pale in comparison to developer Orteil's other notable creation, Cookie Clicker. But with each click, diving into another sub folder, digging ever deeper, you realize that the game's simple description - "A Simulation of Everything" - couldn't be more accurate. Nested is exploration distilled to its purest, most minimalist form in a simple text format. An infinite amount of things to discover, from the grandness of multiverses and space to the abstract plane of thoughts and memories.

Nested is randomly generated, so one could browse through its endless worlds forever. It's quite literally an endlessly fascinsting experience. Descend through ever-more-detailed folders, from space, to planet, to continent. Forgotten lands, ecosystems bustling with life, civilizations from the primitive to the futuristic and the outright bizarre. Dig further still, into the memories of a village chieftain or the thoughts of individual nanomachines. Venture deeper, into the chemical make-up of individuals and landscapes and objects and you'll find even more subatomic universes to explore, an endless nesting doll of life.

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No Money, No Problem: 7DFPS 2014 Edition Part 2

I posted about several interesting 7DFPS entries on Saturday, but with 146 games, some were bound to be overlooked the first time. Here's another list of cool, polished, or just plain fun entries from this year's 7DFPS

Paint The Town Red
South East Games' Paint The Town Red is a gory brawler, with a block-headed artstyle that probably brings to mind Gravity Bone. Trapped in a pool hall, use whatever you can grab to survive as long as possible: your bare fists, knives, chairs, and more. The copious blood and cool details like smashing a bottle against a wall to create a makeshift glass blade makes Paint The Town Red an enjoyable experience. The developers plan to expand the game into a larger release; you can vote for it on Steam Greenlight.

Duality
Duality is a dimensional-swapping stealth game. Using the otherworldly prism in your hand, you can move between worlds, taking advantage of barriers and pathways that may only exist in one dimensions to avoid guards and hide from their line of sight. It's stylish, tricky, and definitely worth checking out.

Shootmephrenia
Set in an shadowy landscape of mirrors and alleys, you have one goal in Shootmephenia: shoot yourself. At first, the task is simply, merely ricocheting the bullet between surfaces, but soon you'll have to make desperate leaps over the dark void to catch your projectile. A visually stylish and challenging first person puzzle game.

Motor Money Crash!
A simple fast-paced shooters. Race around the arena, blasting deady cubes with your turret and pistol, and jump off ramps in your jeep. Not very complex, but worth a try

War of Toys
Toy soldiers fight to the death with all manner of weaponry across a massive living room. The shooting is responsive and War of Toys feels quite polished for a jam game. The toy soldier theme allows for interesting level aspects, such as climbing a desk to reach higher ground.

Exposure
A cool multiplayer-only game that's essentially an abstract take on Predator. One player is a visible Hunter armed with traps and the ability to see footprints, the others must avoid him as an invisible Hunted. Really nice particle and lighting effects, and the concept makes for some tense matches.

God Complex
Red vs Blue...meets Giest (or Ghost Trick). Jump from soldier to soldier to influence the war between red and blue soldiers. Pretty simple, but fun, with some nice Unreal Engine 4 visuals

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No Money, No Problem: 7DFPS 2014 Edition

Another year, another 7DFPS. Last year brought us some really unique experiences, such as SuperHOT, Beyond Perception, Probably Archery, and many others. Here's a selection of interesting entries from this year's Seven Day FPS Challenge. You can browse the full list of entries here.

SHIFT
Developer Shawn Beck's last game was the hectic reflex-testing Velocibox, and his 7DFPS entry combines that game's style and speed with some dodge-heavy shooting action. Armed with dual rapid-fire cannons, SHIFT challenges you to race through mazes of tight corridors, teleporting through laser gates and deftly evading turret fire. It's fast, frenetic, and fun.

grepr
grepr is a sci-fi stealth game, where evade guards and collect data as a small drone. Able to stick to surfaces and leap across vast distances, you must avoid enemy line of sight or take them out by colliding with their weak points. It's a short game, but the visuals and acrobatic stealth gameplay makes it worth checking out.

Endless Express
Endless Express is a short game about exploration and time. You missed your train; now you must take the connecting trains to get home, traveling between varied stations. Holding the Left Mouse button brings up your watch, allowing you to keep track of what trains are coming and going based on the timetable at each station.

Frail Shells
Frail Shells is a game about war and life after war. It's a short yet thought-provoking experience that delves into PTSD

Strange Gravity

If you're familiar with games with Galcon, then Strange Gravity won't feel too alien. The concept is the same: eliminate your enemies by moving your forces and strategically capturing planets. But rather than the 2D style of similar games, Strange Gravity puts you in the middle of the action, directing fungus to defeat the unstable red growth before the sun rises. Simple controls and an interesting take on a well-known concept makes Strange Gravity a game worth checking out.

RADE
A hectic dog-fighting game as you shoot down blimps, jets, ships, and more across a sky filled with arcing projectiles. A simple but fun spectacle.

Where's Tango
Where's Tango is essentially Spy Party for one. Armed with your sniper rifle and dossier of information, you must figure out who your targets are from a list of information, such as skin color, behavior, and more

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No Money, No Problem: Impulse

Title: Impulse
Developer: Mark Zhang
Platforms: Browser
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Yes, it's that time of year again. More than 600 games were submitted for IGF 2015 and that means dozens of interesting and intriguing indies to discover. One such game is Impulse, an unique take on the arcade shooter, revolving around pushing enemies with powerful shock waves rather than shooting them.
You control a sphere, trapped in increasingly claustrophobic arenas, hemmed in by the dark walls of the Void. Enemies encroach from all sides - homing spears, exploding tanks, and other varied foes - and thankfully, the Void is as dangerous to them as it is to you. Without any means to damage enemies directly, you must outmaneuver the incoming shapes and force them into the Void with your short-range concussive blasts. This twist on the usual shmup gameplay puts the focus on movement and positioning, as you consider the angle of your blasts and deftly evade the growing hordes to set up multi-kills and increase your score multiplier. Impulse is challenging, fun, and offers a lot of content between its main campaign and practice mode, complete with bosses to defeat and a Hard difficulty to truly test your skills.

You can play Impulse here.

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No Money, No Problem: "Ludum Dare 30" Edition, Part 2

Ludum Dare 30 ended in August, with hundreds of entries to check out. If there's one thing I love about game jams like this and 7 Day Roguelike, it's seeing the many creative interpretations of the themes. I couldn't possibly play every entry so here's a selection of some of the more interesting and fun entries I played.

Part 1

Rest In Peace
A simple shooter where you must swap between the world of the living and the dead. Enemies will return to life unless you burn their corpses in the alternate dimension.

 

Low Battery 2: Electric Boogaloo

Swing through the levels and switch between dimensions to avoid certain barriers and obstacles. The grappling feels a bit unwieldly and could probably be more refined, but still worth checking out

NeCLiD
A cool Sokoban-inspired puzzle game where you control two characters and must interact by switching dimensions. Certain platforms and switches are only available in one dimension or the other.

Glitched

Glitched is a shooter set in a virtual landscape, where you must clear away glitched growths and defeat enemies. Not the fastest, or most hectic shooter, but the glitch effect is cool and it's an enjoyable experience that grows more challenging as more enemies are introduced

Fluid Perspectives

A puzzle platformer. Control two characters that reside in their own realities but can interact with each other. Some obstacles may be hazardous in one world but not in the other, and the fluid switch between worlds is really well done. 

Signum
A minimalist puzzler where you switch dimensions to navigate through obstacles. Not that challenging, but the visuals and backgrounds make it worth checking out.

Awe

Not much game here, but certainly an enjoyable meditative experience. Essentially you're presented with a revolving globe and by tapping different patterns of colors, you can spawn various environmental items - a tree here, a mountain there - thus offering new colors and new items to spawn. An interesting feature is that you can play solo or with a random anonymous player.

Layer

An interesting shooter with a great visual style, but feels far complete. Switch between the red and blue layers to avoid enemies, but you can only shoot while in the red layer. Definitely has potential for an expanded game.

Computer, Open That Door!

A quick game where you essentially got to play HAL. As the ship's sentient AI, rid the spacecraft of all humans by manipulating the various systems onboard.

Line Crossing
A short adventure as you explore a mysterious alien train. Has some lovely pixel art, an intereting story, and multiple endings

Starpiercer

A sci-fi game of avoidance as you evade asteroids and missiles and smash through enemies. The low-poly art style and sense of movement makes Starpiecer an enjoyable experience.

Superdimensional
A visually inventive auto-runner where you manipulate multiple dimensions to allow your rolling sphere to travel safely. The seamless transitions between worlds is very impressive and allows for some unique and interesting level design.

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No Money, No Problem: "Ludum Dare 30" Edition, Part 1

Ludum Dare 30 ended in August, with hundreds of entries to check out. If there's one thing I love about game jams like this and 7 Day Roguelike, it's seeing the many creative interpretations of the themes. I couldn't possibly play every entry so here's a selection of some of the more interesting and fun entries I played.

Part 2

Lethal Reflection
Shoot red things, avoid red things, collect green things. Lethal Reflection's instructions are easy in theory, but a challenge to achieve. A hectic shooter that grows more difficult as the screen becomes increasingly cluttered with hazard and enemies.

Inversion
A simple platformer where obstacles and platforms only exist in certain dimensions. It's a bit buggy and it's easy to die, but the game's still worth a try

ShiftKeeper
An interesting take on the Connected World theme, with some nice pixel art to boot. Your battleground is split into; on one side, you're a staff-wielding wizard, the other, a rifle-firing futuristic soldier. Enemies encroach from both sides and you must move between worlds to survive the waves. The gun feels especially satisfying to use.

The Other Sky
Am abstract first person platformer. By reaching the special zone in each level, the world flips, revealing a new set of platformers to traverse. Not much gameplay-wise here beyond jumping and activating switches, but the inverse environments are cool.

The Legend of Light

An inventive puzzle platformer. Destroy the runes to unlock the exit, but Legend of Light quickly reveals to an involved clever puzzler. With a press of the spacebar, you learn that each level is divided into a various tiles that can be moved around to reshape the environment a la the flash game Continuity. Not only can you move the level around, you can rotate individual parts, allowing you to traverse seemingly impassible corridors by falling through or dropping a platform from one level onto another. Definitely worth checking out,

Legacy of Lamas

A mysterious shooter. The game is a bit unclear on what exactly you have to do, but it involves shooting warp crystals and enemies. The best aspect of Legacy of Lamas is its art style and weird creatures that roam the levels. 

Arktrail

"FTL meets Oregon Trail" is a pretty apt description. Expand your ship, adding new modules such as engines, medbays, and storage, stay mindful of your food and fuel as your crew grows in number and ages with each jump. Simple, but fun, challenging, and one of the few games I can think of that utilizes the generation ship concept.

The Hoverator

Short and simple, you control a weaponized hoverbike as you travel through the level, shoot enemies, and dodge projectiles. Doesn't really do anything new for a shooter, but the bike is fun to control and I liked the visual style

Chipset-0

It's almost like playing The Matrix from the other side; you control a small maintenance drone who must reconnect human pods. The pixel style is nice and detailed and the puzzle mechanic - connecting limited-length cables to open paths and plug pods - is enjoyable and tricky. 

Tangled Mini Worlds

A simple puzzle game where you must maneuver the figure so each end reaches the marked location. Earn three stars by performing less moves. 

Reflections

Guide mirrored character through worlds that are not exactly reflections of each other. Hazards on one side must be avoided by using plaforms that only exist in the other. Spikes, harpoons, and other dangers await. Fun, and stylish, but the lack of checkpoints can be annoying 

Shadows

Another first person platformer, where you can shift from one environment to one composed on the shadows cast by structures. This allows you to bypass obstacles, but be careful not to fall. Short, but interesting

Connect Home
An isometric Sokoban-style puzzler. Push the cubes around to complete the connection. You can't undo moves, only restart levels, which can be frustrating once levels grow larger and more complex, but it's still a fun challenge

Light Year Wars
Strategically capture nodes to control the entire screen. It's not a new concept, seen before in Galcon and Tentacle Wars, but the minimalist style and the visual of your forces arcing across the screen and converging on enemy nodes makes it worth checking out.

HopSlide
One of my favorite entries, HopSlide consists of two games, Hope and Slide, played simultaneously. I won't say more, because learning how HopSlide works is one of its ingenious charms. Highly recommended.

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No Money, No Problem: Terrance The Flying Eyeball

Title: Terrance The Flying Eyeball
Developer: Aiden Bains
Platforms: Browser
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Terrance The Flying Eyeball is the first indie project from developer Aiden Bains. It's a short fun precision flyer that's worth a try.

You control the titular airborne eye, as it weaves through four stages of varied hazards. Narrow corridors, lasers, turrets, and more combine in devious patterns and configurations to test your timing and skill. The developer's focus was on teaching mechanics organically through level design and color, and to that effect, there are no tutorial or tips; you learn how obstacles and hazards behave through trial and error and simply playing through the stages. I found the controls finicky in some spots, but overall Terrance was an enjoyable experience for the 30-40 minutes it took to complete.

The developer is looking for feedback and impressions so I recommend giving Terrance The Flying Eyeball a try. It doesn't take long to complete and remains challenging throughout. You can play Terrance The Flying Eyeball here.

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No Money, No Problem: Colony Assault

Title: Colony Assault
Developer: Dejan Poje
Platforms: PC
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Colony Assault is a top down sci-fi tactical action game, as you guide a team of elite soldiers against a deadly alien threat throughout various facilities.

Solo, or with a team, you're equipped with powerful weapons and vehicles and tasked with decimating the alien hordes hallway by hallway, room by room. While I felt the gameplay was a kind of slow and sluggish at times compared to similar games, the variety of gear at your disposal allows for some fun intense fights: classics like flamethrowers and motion trackers to your APC's extraterrestrial-shredding turret, remote guns, and airstrikes. Colony Assault won't wow anyone with its visuals, but they're competent and the game itself is an enjoyable strategic shooter.

You can download Colony Assault for free here; an advanced edition can be voted for on Steam Greenlight.

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No Money, No Problem: Pocket Robots Test Chamber

Title: Pocket Robots Test Chamber
Developer: echa
Platforms: PC, Browser, Android
Price: Free, $0.99
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I'm no programmer; I just pretend to be one. Between Glitchspace, Hack n Slash, SpaceChem (kind of), and other games, there's a certain appeal to messing with Not, And, Or variables to initiate actions. Pocket Robots Test Chamber is another welcome addition to that category.

Pocket Robots Test Chamber is essentially a platformer. Your robot can move left, right, and hover with a jetpack to reach the exit of each level. That task quickly becomes more complicated than your usual game, since you don't control your robot directly, instead coordinating its actions through a simple drag-drop visual programming interface. The game starts out (relatively) simple, providing a six interval set-up to coordinate behaviors. It took me a few levels to wrap my head around how the system worked, how to best utilize And gates and Not gates; there are a few tutorials, but half the fun is figuring what to do and how to accomplish that and what isn't working.

Soon PRTC introduces colors and a variety of other twists on the base programming mechanic, and each time, it feels like a return to the square one. Not in a negative way, but a chance to learn and master something new. With 56 regular levels and a handful of user levels as well as a level editor, Pocket Robots Test Chamber has a nice amount of content. Don't dismiss the game for its simple style, or else you'll be missing out on this fun challenging puzzle game. You can download the game from itch.io or play it in your browser for free. The Android version is $0.99

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No Money, No Problem: Epic Flail

Title: Epic Flail
Developer: Spacenoize
Platforms: Browser
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Epic Flail is still only in alpha, but it takes a simple mechanic and turns brutal gladiatorial combat into gory twitchy fun.

It's the kind of simple but addictive games that I love and one of the few gladiator games on PC that I can think of. In terms of controls, Epic Flail is quite minimal. Using the arrow keys, you aim the direction of your dash and a button press sends you slashing in that direction. An enemy in your path? Heads will roll and bodies will get bisected. The flying blood and body parts, accompanied by a few moments of slow-mo, makes each kill very satisfying. The simple controls turn the arena combat into twitchy mid-air chaos, as your enemies become more challenging, with armor and shields and various weapons. The game has a really cool lives system, where you collect armor and weapons that you've knocked off of enemies. It's fun and fast and there's also a special arena mode to unlock.

The developer plans to expand Epic Flail with bosses, a story, lots of physics-based contraptions, and more complex levels. You can play the game here.

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