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Buy 740 games for $5+ and help Black Lives Matter

Started by Mister Six, June 06, 2020, 11:01:42 PM

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Mister Six

Quote from: Sin Agog on June 11, 2020, 11:54:17 PM
Think I'll have that Emma Goldman one.  Her autobio, Living My Life, is one of the greats.

"As to killing rulers, it depends entirely on the position of the ruler. If it is the Russian tsar, I most certainly believe in dispatching him to where he belongs. If the ruler is as ineffectual as an American president, it is hardly worth the effort. There are, however, some potentates I would kill by any and all means at my disposal. They are Ignorance, Superstition, and Bigotry — the most sinister and tyrannical rulers on earth."

Are you just clicking on random games?

I just trawled through the list and saw what took my fancy. Thought I should try some of the daft/cheap/wanky indie stuff as well as the more polished trad gubbins.

So far I've downloaded:

DMT
2000 to 1: A Space Felony
2064 Read Only Memories
A Mortician's Tale
A Short Hike
ART SQOOL
Back To Bed
Beacon Itch
Bearly There
Catlateral Damage
Celeste
Conversations With Emma
Death Preposterous
Dr Langeskov, Tiger Heist etc etc
Factory Hero
Far From Noise
Headliner Novi News
Hidden Paws
I Have Low Stats But My Class Is "Leader", So I Recruited Everyone I Know To Fight The Dark Lord
IMSCARED
Minit
Mu Cartographer
Night in the Woods
Not the Robots
Oikospiel
Overland
Pet the Pup
Plana Gravitatis
Pumpking
Quadrilateral Cowboy
Satan Loves Cake
Wheels of Aurelia
WitchWay

Also downloaded a couple of actual Spectrum games, on .tap files and everything, so I'll need to get a Speccy emulator from somewhere too.

Mister Six

Quote from: Famous Mortimer on June 11, 2020, 11:56:23 PM
There's a "Democratic Socialism Simulator" which looks fun (given if you buy it straight up, they give the proceeds to Bernie Sanders, I reckon it'll be pretty easy).

There's also Super Bernie World. Why the hell isn't it called Super Bernie Bros?!

Mister Six

IMSCARED is great so far. Highly pixelated horror game that I don't want to tell you too much about for fear of spoiling the surprises. Conceptually brill though, and eerie despite the deliberately crappy graphics. Because of them, in fact - there's a lot more atmosphere in this glitchy, freaky little world than in PT's slick jump-scares.

MojoJojo

Quote from: Famous Mortimer on June 11, 2020, 11:56:23 PM
There's a "Democratic Socialism Simulator" which looks fun (given if you buy it straight up, they give the proceeds to Bernie Sanders, I reckon it'll be pretty easy).

I tried this. It's in the style of "Reigns" - a series of yes/no questions presented as cards which you swipe left or right, tinder style. They've added a few mechanics to make it a bit more interesting, and the presentation maintains the basic Reigns charm, but it's still at heart a minimal engagement time waster. This genre is OK on a phone to play while waiting for a bus but I find it hard to imagine sitting down at a computer to play it.

There's another Reigns style game called Cromwell which I've not played yet. I wonder what you get to do to Ireland in that.

Handy site here where you can filter the games by genre and stuff - https://randombundlegame.com/browse

Oh, shit, they added Jet Buster, grab that, it's amazing!

Famous Mortimer

I was just flicking through the lists and saw "PAGAN: Autogeny", and I downloaded it because I liked the idea:

QuotePAGAN: Autogeny is an experimental first person open world role playing game set in the digital ruins of a largely abandoned MMORPG. It is heavily inspired by long-forgotten bargain-bin 1990s adventure games, and by a general ethos of user-hostile design.

The thing that's impressed me the most is how many different sorts of game there are, the sheer amount of creativity.

Mister Six

Yeah, looking through them made me feel rather inspired, and I thought, "Ooh maybe I should try to make a something" before I remembered it would take months, if not years, of learning coding before I could make even the smallest, shittiest little game.

peanutbutter

Quote from: Mister Six on June 12, 2020, 06:30:12 PM
Yeah, looking through them made me feel rather inspired, and I thought, "Ooh maybe I should try to make a something" before I remembered it would take months, if not years, of learning coding before I could make even the smallest, shittiest little game.
Dude, if you're okay with sticking to 2D then GameMaker Studio really isn't that hard to get a hang of

Mister Six

Cool, I'll look into it. 2D is fine by me. Thanks!

Zetetic

Along those lines:
https://dragonruby.itch.io/dragonruby-gtk
is part of the bundle!

(But GameMaker might be a better shout.)

Uncle TechTip

Quote from: holyzombiejesus on June 12, 2020, 12:04:45 AM
Is it better than this?



Was so disappointed when my mate would let me copy any cassette but that one. Said i should go and buy it.


oustropique

Neversong - child with odd head shape wakes up in grim world #46 a short (2-3 hours) puzzle platformer story game with some easy bosses thrown in. I'm quite near the end and stuck on a puzzle, but I like it a lot. Really charming stuff.

Resistance is Fruitile - Enter the Gungeon but with anthropomorphic fruit sprites and less bullets. I struggle with these games to the point where I don't even know if there's bosses in this. Not sure if this is a recommendation if you've already got Gungeon available, but I'm playing it a fair bit.

Mentioned by Sin Agog earlier:

Soundodger - dodge beats on a soundscape. Loads (and loads) of electronic / ambient techno (?) songs that you unlock by playing through them all and - crucially - you can plug your own mp3s in. Simple to learn, hard to master.

Headliner:Novinews - More Papers Please, essentially, but instead you pick stories for the news channel of an isolationist state. Bit more of a visual novel flare and you can run around with your character. Only played this through the once but it's your multiple endings type thing - stick true to yourself or be evil for $$$$ and job security. 'Headliner' on its own is an earlier, shorter experience that I'm yet to go into, but probably similar.

Mister Six

Played and enjoyed Signs of the Soujourner, mentioned upthread. It's a card-collecting thing, but rather than combat, the cards represent your responses in a conversation, and the purpose is to match the tone and personality of the other person to find an accord rather than DOMINATE THEM WITH FIRE TROLLS or whatever. I rather like that. There's a story that unfolds but it's early days yet and I'm still basically in the tutorial. Nice stylised pastel graphics too. Worth checking out.

ART SQOOL is adorably cute and cheerful, although probably more fun if you actually have a drawing tablet and aren't all thumbs when it comes to art. You wander around a playfully bouncy-looking campus (the titular sqool) washed in vapouwave pink/blue hues[nb]Yeah I know vapouwave is about seven years out of date but people still seem to like it.[/nb] picking up colours and brushes for your little art tablet and drawing things to impress an AI "tutor". I don't know how convincing that AI is or how it actually grades anything, but people with a bit of actual drawing talent might enjoy it.

Witch Way is a super cute puzzle-platformer with lushly animated little sprites. Probably a bit basic for you Meat Boy players, but I'm a simple soul with crap reflexes, so this works for me.

Oh, and I'm still playing Overland, which I find gripping - definitely check it out if you like puzzly strategy things and don't mind a bit of tension.

Have downloaded Novi News, and I reckon I'll check that out next. The bundle has now raised $6 million, BTW.

Sin Agog

Quote from: oustropique on June 13, 2020, 05:08:29 PM
Neversong - child with odd head shape wakes up in grim world #46 a short (2-3 hours) puzzle platformer story game with some easy bosses thrown in. I'm quite near the end and stuck on a puzzle, but I like it a lot. Really charming stuff.

Resistance is Fruitile - Enter the Gungeon but with anthropomorphic fruit sprites and less bullets. I struggle with these games to the point where I don't even know if there's bosses in this. Not sure if this is a recommendation if you've already got Gungeon available, but I'm playing it a fair bit.

Mentioned by Sin Agog earlier:

Soundodger - dodge beats on a soundscape. Loads (and loads) of electronic / ambient techno (?) songs that you unlock by playing through them all and - crucially - you can plug your own mp3s in. Simple to learn, hard to master.

Headliner:Novinews - More Papers Please, essentially, but instead you pick stories for the news channel of an isolationist state. Bit more of a visual novel flare and you can run around with your character. Only played this through the once but it's your multiple endings type thing - stick true to yourself or be evil for $$$$ and job security. 'Headliner' on its own is an earlier, shorter experience that I'm yet to go into, but probably similar.

Really adore Soundodger.  It's just pure, elemental gameplay- usually in a chilled way, and not in a mental shmup with a lolita pic on the side kind of way.  Was playing some autogen'd Julian Cope arenas yesterday.  Unfortunately, those levels aren't as much like a well-curated fireworks show (where you dodge the fireworks) as the set levels or the user-generated ones (the Galaxiga level was insane), but that'll probably be the mode I mostly end up using.

And, interestingly, Neversong isn't on the list anymore, even though I snagged it just before it got taken off.  Someone in the submissions forum started a username just one letter off from the real dev's and tricked the itch io dudes into putting it into the bundle.  They must really love their depression-themed platformers.

oustropique

Quote from: Sin Agog on June 13, 2020, 06:20:03 PM
Really adore Soundodger.  It's just pure, elemental gameplay.  Was playing some autogen'd Julian Cope arenas yesterday.  Unfortunately, those levels aren't as much like a well-curated fireworks show (where you dodge the fireworks) as the set levels or the user-generated ones (the Galaxiga level was insane), but that'll probably be the mode I mostly end up using.

And, interestingly, Neversong isn't on the list anymore, even though I snagged it just before it got taken off.  Someone in the submissions forum started a username just one letter off from the real dev's and tricked the itch io dudes into putting it into the bundle.  They must really love their depression-themed platformers.

I did notice that they can shift the beats around / rewind the song in their own levels, so the auto-gen ones feel a bit hollow by comparison. Like you say, I'm still going to be playing my own stuff more.

Just came here to post about the Neversong thing. Feel a bit bad now that I'm playing some guy's recently released hard work for peanuts. As I'm about to beat it, might just buy it. Read earlier that on launch day he sent a .txt of 3500 steam keys to his 2700 Kickstarter backers, so clearly this has gone well for him.

peanutbutter

Looks like they added another load in the last 24 hours, I see GNOG which I've heard lotsa good things about

Mister Six

Ooh they have No Name now. I actually got that for the Switch during the January sales for a couple of quid. Basically a very simple, rather hypnotic twitch-action racing thing where you zip around a track (only turning at 90 degree angles) while a spooky voice saying weird non sequiturs like "Your shoes are shiny". Oddly compelling - give it a crack.

Although it probably works better as an odd little thing you can blast through for a few minutes when you snatch up your Switch than as something you have to sit down at your PC to play.

Sin Agog

Do you mind posting a link to that one, MS?  Can't find it for the life of me.  There seems to be a dearth of anything even a little bit racery in this bundle.  But that's OK.  I, too, am getting that sweet creative buzz from so many of these.

Quote from: ImmaculateClump on June 12, 2020, 10:33:19 AMOh, shit, they added Jet Buster, grab that, it's amazing!

See if you can get used to Arashi's speed (the ninja that throws the shurikens) as he's way more powerful than the fox lass.

The main scoring system is that you collect the see-through medals to build up your "medal value" gauge and then cash out by using the focus shot to turn the see through medals into opaque medals that are worth the value you've built the gauge up to.

The medal value gauge, you have to fill up entirely before it gets to the next value level as it resets to empty at the beginning of the next stage, so it's all about pushing your luck and knowing when to cash out.

Pink Gregory

So last I looked they'd raised $5 million or so.

This is really quite good isn't it.  Nice to see anyway.

Sin Agog

Really loved Wide Ocean Big Jacket about a young aunt and an uncle taking two kids on a camping trip.  It's just a little over an hour, without much gameplay, but it really nails the four characters.  I bet there's a lot of cringey, memey dialogue in this bundle (not encountered it yet, luckily), but everything felt completely charming and real in this game.

peanutbutter

$6.6m at the moment, turns out basically everyone I linked it to bought it, most paying more than the minimum.

Feel like this bundle could have some pretty big positive implications on indie dev stuff in general. It's introduced a ton of people to this whole world of games and it's almost certainly gonna result in some people getting into game development and some developers being influenced by and stealing/improving ideas from games they'd've never touched otherwise.

Quote from: Sin Agog on June 14, 2020, 08:04:03 PM
Really loved Wide Ocean Big Jacket about a young aunt and an uncle taking two kids on a camping trip.  It's just a little over an hour, without much gameplay, but it really nails the four characters.  I bet there's a lot of cringey, memey dialogue in this bundle (not encountered it yet, luckily), but everything felt completely charming and real in this game.
This looks great, thanks!

oustropique

Quote from: peanutbutter on June 14, 2020, 08:14:14 PM
Feel like this bundle could have some pretty big positive implications on indie dev stuff in general. It's introduced a ton of people to this whole world of games and it's almost certainly gonna result in some people getting into game development and some developers being influenced by and stealing/improving ideas from games they'd've never touched otherwise.

Definitely. I've been messing about in Twine for a while and just dipped back in with something today off the back of my Neversong high. No art skills at all so even the 'no coding required' disclaimer of GameMaker Studio does nothing for me (good luck though, Mister Six). Don't have the lack of self-awareness to stick whatever comes of this on itch.io, but yes, great force for good.

If any of you are working with Twine and are looking at customising / making your projects look nice, The Twine Grimoire from this bundle is a good start.

peanutbutter

Quote from: oustropique on June 14, 2020, 09:19:03 PM
Definitely. I've been messing about in Twine for a while and just dipped back in with something today off the back of my Neversong high. No art skills at all so even the 'no coding required' disclaimer of GameMaker Studio does nothing for me (good luck though, Mister Six). Don't have the lack of self-awareness to stick whatever comes of this on itch.io, but yes, great force for good.

If any of you are working with Twine and are looking at customising / making your projects look nice, The Twine Grimoire from this bundle is a good start.
Is Twine capable of exporting a sequence into some format like JSON that can be read by other programs easily? I've had an idea for an Emily Was Away type thing I'd be very easily able to do in another project I've made but mapping out all the shit would just be a huge chore whereas I suspect Twine excels at that part.

Are art skills required for GM? I feel like being deliberately crude and explicit could nearly be a pro vs going deep into the pixel art stuff

Zetetic

Not sure how much it answers your questions, you might be interested in Yarn.

Famous Mortimer

I'm looking forward to playing "Throw Cubes Into Brick Towers To Collapse Them". I admire a straight-ahead title.

Mister Six

Quote from: oustropique on June 14, 2020, 09:19:03 PMgood luck though, Mister Six

I am definitely not going to make any games, so don't worry about me there.

Playing them, though? I'm all for that. Speaking of which...

Satan Loves Cake is another game that reminds me of the Spectrum days, albeit with much nicer animation and gameplay. You, as a chubby Prince of Darkness, must traverse Hell and get to the cake shop, zapping baddies and solving mild environmental puzzles along the way. The tri-colour graphics are charming, the bits of dialogue are genuinely funny and the whole thing is rather delightful.

I also rather like A Mortician's Tale, although it's light on the actual gameplay. In theory you're prepping bodies before a funeral. In practice, you're doing a series of repetitive little tasks that require no real skill. The real meat comes in-between those bits, as you read emails that reveal the lives of your co-workers and friends, and eavesdrop on the mourners at each funeral. The game also has a lot of grisly info on how bodies are embalmed and so on that you might not want to know about if you're liable to attend a funeral any time soon. Diverting in a "quiet Sunday with not much to do" sort of way.

DMT is one of those walking simulators, except you're on druuuuggggs, maaaan. Which means plodding about a big odd plane full of glowing trees and statues, with loads of weird psychedelic filters all over them. Bump into a glowing box and you'll get a new trippy filter over everything. That seems to be it, more or less. I'd rather take proper DMT and go talk to the machine elves, to be honest.

Oikospiel feels like a PFFR headfuck combined with a Robert Anton Wilson short story. I haven't even got to the game, if indeed there is one, yet - it's clearly taking a perverse pleasure in frustrating the player's expectations by deferring actual playable content for as long as possible. Was just about to start what looked like the game proper (something about a "dog opera") when I was reminded I had to do actual, proper adult functions. I like its ballsiness though.

Mister Six

Hee, I just looked at the bundle page, and saw that the new additions had resulted in this description: "A bundle hosted by itch.io with content from 1337 creators."

Ah, 1337 speak. Those were the days.

peanutbutter

Quote from: Zetetic on June 14, 2020, 09:52:12 PM
Not sure how much it answers your questions, you might be interested in Yarn.
From a quick look, this is exactly like what I wanted; thanks!