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[Tribune]

I'm playing Dwarf Fortress at the moment and it makes me feel psychopathic. 

[Boreal]

-He was a random grunt that killed me
-I killed him
-He came back to life and killed me again
-I burnt him alive, and killed him
-He came back to life and killed me again, this time with horrible scars
-I killed him again
-He came back to life, with burn scars, a hook for a hand, and a bag over his head to cover up his deformities.  At this point I gave up trying to kill him

Sounds like our favourite "too big for Smash" Space Pirate commander.

[s0]

What i heard is that the nemsis system works well but is kinda underused in the game and the vast majority of it is open world by numbers (this seems to happen rather often with "AAA" games). im mildly interested but gonna wait for a sale.

[Cristiano Vitorino]

Just finished Portal 2 (yeah I know, I do have a massive Back Burner...). And what an art master piece of a game, just f****** awesome.

Currently playing Thomas Was Alone.

I've been into Puzzle Platformers lately, going to play Quantum Conundrum after TWA.

Any game recommendations in the likeness of those games? I need more haha.

[SirNiko]

Any game recommendations in the likeness of those games? I need more haha.

I thought Gateways was cute and reminiscent of portal, without the narrative and with relatively simple graphics.

QUBE was excellent, with reasonably high production values.

Anti-Chamber does some neat things with impossible spaces, but also relies on some non-logical puzzles (eg, staring into a window causes you to teleport to another room).

Not a platformer, but I always like to plug Deadly Rooms of Death: King Dugan's Dungeon or Journey to Rooted Hold for adventure/puzzle games. It manages to combine discrete logical puzzles with story telling and exploration better than any other game I know, possibly better than Portal does.

[gimymblert]

@sirniko
The "walking" sim part was a joke in that post (hence we need to get past it lol but it did add to the general atmosphere)

However even though it is a joke, I think (western) dev are more conscious of things like that, I do hope we got into more "nemesis system" build on top of narrative so it's more interactive. I hope nemesis system got cloned and expended over script. Right now it's a rival/revenge dating sims simulator.

[s0]

Right now it's a rival/revenge dating sims simulator.

u mean a pro wrestling storyline generator

[jiitype]

u mean a pro wrestling storyline generator

Holy shit

WWE Shadow of Summerslam

[Fallsburg]

The problem is that beyond that example, there just isn't much to it.  Most of the time, either you kill the orc and they stay dead, or they kill you and get a little bit more powerful.  It also feels a bit decoupled from the game.  You can spend a bunch of time in the sandbox, going around taking down captains, but it has little effect on the game at large (except for occasionally removing warchiefs' bodyguards).  Or you can just go straight through the narrative of the game (except it might be a little more difficult because the warchiefs will have bodyguards). 

That being said, I think that this type of social simulation will become a much larger part of games in the near future (or at least I hope so, since this is a focus area of my phd).

[gimymblert]

Yeah but the point is teh make believe like in dating (the ren ai aka romance type) games, the system is simple but it's about creating a personal chain of events that drive emotional attachment to a character.

The system does not only rely on the sim but also the presentation, each orks (uruks) have personality, mannerism and weakness of their own, they also, they remember what they have done to you and what you have done (with graphical marker such as scars, etc ...) to them and exist also in a bigger social hierarchy autonomous of you where they evolve (represented graphically and through behavior) outside your input.

It's worth noting it is a new idea, this kind of idea has been implemented before under faction or relationship, but they refine it much further by tying the whole package together. But the biggest win seems to be the interface using a board like feedback system. I have been trying to deal with this issue for a long time and they solve it quite elegantly, it both contain known information and unknown information and makes "intel" gameplay both rewarding and functional. It makes the blend between the social layer and the action literally seemless and aligned.

I guess they didn't go full progression system with it because there was a risk inherent with innovation (also target the broad action gamer where mindless player thrives) so they have a normal gated progression system just in case.

Of course there is dozen of way you can expend on it, but they laid down a great package basis, as much in term of mechanics as they do in presentation, which makes it a great package to witness!

I hope it spurs a new ages of game design where the motto is no more "don't show, do" but "don't do, BE!" even though we are still stuck with "don't tell, show" (and yet too many games ship with too much tell, that's telling )

[Alevice]

i kinda appreciate such possibility of a stepping stone, and hope this sort of emergent side narrative progresses further into mainstream and drop the overly scripted bullshit

[DJFloppyFish]

playing demon's souls for the first time. the art direction makes it feel more magical than dark souls, but with the gameplay its clear this was the precursor to dark souls. the weight restrictions are unnecessary, the health items are convoluted, the enemy placement is a little uninspired in spots, there's a weird lack of sound effects, and the melee combat lacks some of the responsiveness and meaty feel of the latter games. still totally enjoyable though, and the nexus has got to be one of the coolest hubs ever, even if its a bit vacant. i just got to the flamelurker, and i think the environments alone may be my favorite part.

Arkham City has probably the most aggressively dumb story that I have encountered in a videogame since 1992.

oh god yes, after that ra's al ghul fight, i went from liking it to being totally meh on it. also, the joker stuff is terrible and makes no sense

[InfiniteStateMachine]

yeah I'm not a big batman guy. I was warned about those stealth sections too.

ya i'm not either, so i was lukewarm about the game (even tho i enjoyed and finished it). but i could totally see how it would be a batman fan's dream game. i mean, as a fan of spaghetti westerns i kinda feel the same way about red dead redemption haha.

Not a big fan of westerns but I loved RDR. Minus some slower parts in Mexico. I'm glad I powered through that though because everything after was awesome.

I'll keep plugging away at it but I'm very close to getting my 3DS back from my partner so I can start playing Zelda again :D

[bitserum]

Someone mentioned it here, so I'm playing Hammerwatch solo (warlock) and 2player co-op with shared health (wizard, the other guy's a ranger).
Loads of fun. Warlock especially feels powerful, with all the regen and destructive spells.

[Cristiano Vitorino]

Any game recommendations in the likeness of those games? I need more haha.

I thought Gateways was cute and reminiscent of portal, without the narrative and with relatively simple graphics.

QUBE was excellent, with reasonably high production values.

Anti-Chamber does some neat things with impossible spaces, but also relies on some non-logical puzzles (eg, staring into a window causes you to teleport to another room).

Not a platformer, but I always like to plug Deadly Rooms of Death: King Dugan's Dungeon or Journey to Rooted Hold for adventure/puzzle games. It manages to combine discrete logical puzzles with story telling and exploration better than any other game I know, possibly better than Portal does.

Thanks for the recommendations SirNiko, I'm definitely gonna check those out.

[SolarLune]

Any game recommendations in the likeness of those games? I need more haha.

Seconding Antichamber. It's really good. The aesthetic, the puzzles - it's really polished and unique. I like that the puzzles are, like mentioned before, mostly psychological puzzles about figuring out the nature of the game world over obvious puzzles (get this thing, put it there), though there are those puzzles in there, too. It's not everyone's cup of tea, of course, but I like it a lot.

Mirror Moon EP kinda gives me that "first-person puzzle feel" too. I mean to go back to it, but haven't for some reason. I hear that it's kinda random or something in terms of the levels you approach, so I'm not sure if the levels really are randomly designed or if they're puzzles, or if it's just a little single puzzle in a series of random levels... I only played the first few levels or so and it felt deep, if I recall. It didn't explicitly tell me what to do, and the puzzle itself just consisted of a few elements, but figuring out just what to do with the pieces you've been presented was the real enigma. It was quite good.

Oh, and there's a time machine-related mod for Portal 2: Thinking With Time Machines.

If 2D physics-y puzzle platformers are as equally pleasing:

Limbo and Braid are both really good 2D puzzle platformers. Limbo just oozes style, and while the puzzles weren't nearly as difficult as Portal 2's, I still like it a ton. Braid was pretty much my first game in this vein (2D puzzle platformer), and it did it exceptionally well. The puzzles were all really interesting and engaging, and a lot of them didn't have obvious solutions. Sometimes the solution to the puzzle wasn't to look for it (like, the stage wasn't designed around "solve this puzzle" so much as just "get over there", with a mechanic being in your way). It had nice pacing and overall style, and there are additional puzzles that are pretty tough, even if you know what to do.

Fez might be your cup of tea as well. It's kinda slow and "free-form" compared to the more focused Limbo and Braid, which hurts it to me, but a lot of people liked it.

Out There Somewhere's a really nice 2D puzzle platformer centered around teleportation. Not quite as physics-powered as the other games; it's more of a standard 2D game with solid pixel art and a really effectively used puzzle mechanic. Unfortunately, it's a bit short, which is a nice complaint to have.

Teslagrad's centered around magnetism. It resembles Braid in terms of its art and style, and the puzzles are a bit similar (where Braid dealt with time, Teslagrad deals with position). I'm oversimplifying things, but the games do feel similar in ways.

Oh, and La Mulana, which is... Hard. The puzzles can be difficult and obtuse, and the world's massive, but it's really unique. The themes and overall "mystical" style of the game world and its inhabitants may not appeal to everyone, though.

[Cristiano Vitorino]

Any game recommendations in the likeness of those games? I need more haha.

Seconding Antichamber. It's really good. The aesthetic, the puzzles - it's really polished and unique. I like that the puzzles are, like mentioned before, mostly psychological puzzles about figuring out the nature of the game world over obvious puzzles (get this thing, put it there), though there are those puzzles in there, too. It's not everyone's cup of tea, of course, but I like it a lot.

Wow, thanks for the comprehensive answer.

I had that in my library by chance, probably from a Bundle, on my playlist now.

Mirror Moon EP kinda gives me that "first-person puzzle feel" too. I mean to go back to it, but haven't for some reason. I hear that it's kinda random or something in terms of the levels you approach, so I'm not sure if the levels really are randomly designed or if they're puzzles, or if it's just a little single puzzle in a series of random levels... I only played the first few levels or so and it felt deep, if I recall. It didn't explicitly tell me what to do, and the puzzle itself just consisted of a few elements, but figuring out just what to do with the pieces you've been presented was the real enigma. It was quite good.

Seems exactly something I would like to play, definitely gonna check that one out, I love Sci-Fi.

Oh, and there's a time machine-related mod for Portal 2: Thinking With Time Machines.

Thanks for the info. Gonna check it out.

If 2D physics-y puzzle platformers are as equally pleasing:

Yes they are, I like some of them.

Limbo and Braid are both really good 2D puzzle platformers. Limbo just oozes style, and while the puzzles weren't nearly as difficult as Portal 2's, I still like it a ton. Braid was pretty much my first game in this vein (2D puzzle platformer), and it did it exceptionally well. The puzzles were all really interesting and engaging, and a lot of them didn't have obvious solutions. Sometimes the solution to the puzzle wasn't to look for it (like, the stage wasn't designed around "solve this puzzle" so much as just "get over there", with a mechanic being in your way). It had nice pacing and overall style, and there are additional puzzles that are pretty tough, even if you know what to do.

Limbo I played just a bit of it, It's on my now long playlist, I need to get back to it sometime. I was not interested in Braid, but I'll double check, the points you said seems nice.

Fez might be your cup of tea as well. It's kinda slow and "free-form" compared to the more focused Limbo and Braid, which hurts it to me, but a lot of people liked it.

It's very unique, and innovative with their trixel method of implementing the mechanics. Also beautiful art style. I played some hours of it, but the backtracking put me off a bit, I plan to give it another try sometime in the future.

Out There Somewhere's a really nice 2D puzzle platformer centered around teleportation. Not quite as physics-powered as the other games; it's more of a standard 2D game with solid pixel art and a really effectively used puzzle mechanic. Unfortunately, it's a bit short, which is a nice complaint to have.

I never paid the derserved attention to that game, I plan to change it now. It's pretty well known here where I live since the devs (Miniboss) are from the same country as me. The teleportation was ''discovered'' by chance by Pedro while he was teleporting to some specific spots in the game for debugging haha.

Teslagrad's centered around magnetism. It resembles Braid in terms of its art and style, and the puzzles are a bit similar (where Braid dealt with time, Teslagrad deals with position). I'm oversimplifying things, but the games do feel similar in ways.

Heard of it, never paid the necessary attention. Sounds good, gonna check it out.

Oh, and La Mulana, which is... Hard. The puzzles can be difficult and obtuse, and the world's massive, but it's really unique. The themes and overall "mystical" style of the game world and its inhabitants may not appeal to everyone, though.

I heard a lot of good things about that game, time to check it out.

By the way, I know you from Blender Artists Org Forums from back in the day when Valchion didn't even had a name haha. I started there in 2009. I like your videos also, I just don't post or reply very often but I do like your work and is cool to see your progress and Gearend taking such a interesting shape.

Thanks again for taking the time to give such a comprehensive answer.

[Julien]

Just started Child of light.. Seems very good !

[baconman]

Lately, I've been playing SanctuaryRPG, a surprisingly deep and tactical game that utilizes... stuff you wouldn't expect from a terminal RPG to give it a really good, solid flavor. Yes, it's full of satire too, but the satire is after the substance, not there in place of it.

Started Trails in the Sky as a recommendation from someone wanting to replicate some elements of it's battle system, too.

But honestly, I've been bouncing back and forth between trying to wrestle code into place, and Facebook, while listening to music on YouTube.

[SolarLune]

By the way, I know you from Blender Artists Org Forums from back in the day when Valchion didn't even had a name haha. I started there in 2009. I like your videos also, I just don't post or reply very often but I do like your work and is cool to see your progress and Gearend taking such a interesting shape.

Thanks again for taking the time to give such a comprehensive answer.

Oh, wow, haha. Thanks! Hope you find some cool games you'll enjoy.

@baconman - I like the effect and style overall of SRPG, but I didn't really get the appeal with the linear-feeling approach to the levels. I probably should revisit it...