Large analysis of amateur amateur performances from the exhibition Sage’21. Although the exhibition was originally positioned for fan games about Sonic, it increased in a more general indie festival.
Recently, the twenty -first annual virtual exhibition Sonic Amateur Game Expo, or just Sage, took place. Initially, appearing as a centralized platform for the publication of fan games based on Hedgehog Sonic, the exhibition quickly developed into a full -fledged event with many accompanying projects. Thanks to the forum, developers could contact not only with a potential audience, but also with the same creators to exchange experience, began their own podcast, and then the streams arrived, becoming de facto social standard of the platform at the moment.
But more interestingly, the exhibition began to depart from its original idea as a playground for fan games made on the basis of someone else’s intellectual property, and began to give digital stands of any game amateur performances, regardless of its genre and commercial orientation of the authors. The latter even led to a kind of segregation of the exhibition, since the creators of the fan games about Sonic, unlike sculptors of original projects, cannot promote their Patreon and other sites for donates. Just so as not to enjoy Sega, which, although they are positive, but who knows that they can take it to the head.
However, this is not concerned with today’s article, since I will speak in it exactly about my own projects of homegrown creators, of which on Sage’21 it turned out to be not as much as in the last anniversary year, when the exhibition was already cracking at the seams from the gaming of games, but enough for us to populate here for a long time. By the way, I decided to change a little, or rather, reduce the viewing format so that there is no next period of four months between the exhibition itself and my wordobludia. In other words, I will go in detail only by the most, the most like games with Sage, and in the end we will look at the projects, just worthy of mention. Well, yes, the latter will also touch the games that appear at the exhibition for several years – so that I do not have to select words for them in the second, or even in the third circle.
The most
Aria Disconnect
The first game from our selection is already a collection of paradoxes and contradictions. The solo project of Kimmo Savilalami, which is a classic metroide of the type “Explore a large open location and try to understand what you can do now, and then”, and even in the style of the victorious cyberpunk. The main character was forcibly connected to a certain virtual reality of Enderega, who appeared before him in the guise of the revived demons of his subconscious, and our primary task as a player is to return our protege to reality and not ditch in the process. Yes, the latter is not just quite possible, but also very likely, since his death in the virtual space will be equal to death in reality.
But we, too, are not defenseless and we can repulse digital evil spirits climbing out of the debate of local Internet: a light checker will help in “communication” with especially active representatives of virtual bestiaria, and combat programming skills will allow you to find a way further and shed a little light to the events that are going on. And sometimes it will have to dive very, very deeply … And the atmosphere of the otherworldly and extremely unfriendly world is transmitted by the author very well. The situation varies from the dark and unpleasant to very dark and unpleasant and is supported by the oppressive soundtrack, which screams gloomy against the background. But…
What is the game with art design?! Why does one half look like … well, permissible, and the second is like Paint during an epileptic seizure? Especially the second applies to everything that is somehow connected with the plot. At first, I generally thought that all these strange and barely understandable kalyaks are simply temporary plugs for the time the author’s search for a more solid artist, but no – Kimmo with this approach to appearance even at Kickstarter, where the people looked at this matter and did not begin to invest much. I will also classify the problems of graphics with visual effects. Sometimes they are normal and even appropriate (for example, the effect of a video showing that someone or something is following us), but sometimes they burn their eyes. The only race to the local analogue of the matrix available in the demo version is enough to blind.
And despite the fact that Aria Disconnect is normally played! The structure of locations, with their characteristic confused metroids, is moderately transparent and understandable, and there are also no complaints to control the main character … at least significant. And in general, everything that relates to gameplay, in terms of execution, is not only at a different level – in another star system. If Aria Disconnect had a slogan, then it would sound like "Do not judge a book on the cover".
Blazing Dynamo
A game that barely overcame the stage of the working prototype, but at the same time managed to become not just “one of …”, but my favorite division from the exhibition. And this despite the fact that the Blazing Dynamo is not only endowed with the plot meaningfulness – there is not even graphics in it, and the whole surrounding nature is represented by simple geometric figures with the texture of millimeter paper, composed in chitropopyed shoes, by which you will have to ride for your pleasure, losing the only one that is here is a gayimple.
And God you are mine! – I have not seen such a scrupulous approach to creating a three -dimensional platformer for a long time. Now it’s clear why there is still no graphics in Blazing Dynamo – there was no time for the author, t.To. He was busy creating the most verified gaming process. We play for the skater (cheat. “Burned”) a timid with a tail-wound, armed with a good assortment of combat and a whole symphony of acrobatic techniques, in which go back yet. And I’m not joking – there are really many of them, there are many inadequate! All sorts of jerks in flight, glareing, tunnels, outputs from a somersault, sliding along the railing and other rebounds from the walls are only the basic foundations necessary for nominal overcoming the territory of the terrain, but if desired (and skill) can be turned from the fucking Tony Hawk Pro Skater and in the most incredible sposts.
In my opinion, the author embodied in the game in general everything that gave rise to the genre over the years of his existence. You can climb – you can, dive from any position in any direction – you can, you can go a jump – you can cling to your tail like a whip and gracefully fly – you can, you can enter an attack into your gymnastic program and even use it in conjunction with other techniques to cover completely indecent distances – you can. And the heroine also heats up in the process, and she needs to reset the steam, which opens access to reinforced chartjs, which also screw up into the general growth of techniques (if the stretching of the fingers allows you). And all this in two large open locations collected according to the principle of "entertain yourself". However, even in such a schematic world, we have business – we need to find all six batteries hidden at the level, and dive into the portal where we will praise.
And the game is also charged with some kind of prohibitive concentration of charm. In each of her movements, the heroine looks as if he gets a lot of pleasure, and even how cute she glides on a belly after a jerk in the air and folds her legs when stopping! And the general perception of management is pleasant, as they say, pleases. Yes, there are small plugs and stuck in places, and once my game was worn out due to a bug of the state of the timid-but in general, Blazing Dynamo is controlled and “felt” as a full-fledged serious product. It remains only to pull the meat on this skeleton, and the matter is in the hat!
Brok The Investigator
But this is not what amateur performances, but a rather serious amateur performance that flashed before my eyes long before the exhibition … and which I successfully ignored, while the circumstances, as they say, were taken by the breasts. Well, I did not like this “chubby” style of drawing characters, which reminded of Furrot in its most inadequate manifestation, and not of “classic disneevic cartoons”, as the author assured. Well, I am sometimes impenetrable cretin, because I almost missed a very interesting hybrid of bitemap and quest. Well, since this year we did without Brock Crocodile, at least we will fill the formed lack of lizards on the air.
And it is not entirely clear in what order the ingredients were connected. Either this quest, which was pulled on by the Bitamap mechanics for the “alternative” way of solving some puzzles, or it is a bitem, to which the world has glued to research and the basic elements of adventure games in order to slightly stir the process of clean and immaculate marvelous marks. Personally, I am inclined to the first option, since it was the rubbing of unkind faces that markedly passed back under the hail of the voiced dialogs, through which you still need to get away, in the process not forgetting where to go and what to do.
Which – that is, dialogs – a couple with the interface suddenly found themselves in Russian. Suddenly such attention of a French developer-lone to the presence of other languages on the planet. But at least more people will be able to understand the whole muddy of the plot of this cartoon adventure. And we have no less here, but a post -apocalyptic cyberpunk with a catastrophic stratification of society and the standard of living. And the main character Brock-a small private detective, who earnings in illegal battles to death in the local alternative of the matrix (where, as it should, it can also be beaten, if you can’t jump in time)-will have to break through to his happiness in this inaccurate world of both fists and oratorical skills, along the way to all the people he met and for himself, or just for himself, the most baose The non -linearity of the elections at least declares its existence in demo and additionally emphasizes after its passage, when the game shows us what ways we went in one or another fork, comparing our solutions with the elections of other players.
As for the bitemap component of the game, then … this is clearly not Streets of Rage 4 either in terms of responsiveness of management, or in terms of impacts from impacts. Everything is very basic and clumsy, but nevertheless works stably and without standard curves with incomprehensible hitboxes and blows that simply did not want to be fixed by the game. We hit with our hands, beat in the jump, make the upperscotts, lug with sticks, and when everything is bad, and the hero at the limit of strength, we put in the course of the superior – the standard formula of any self -respecting bitemap. And what I like, you can “repel” a lot of things: from the closed doors to the interfering characters to go through. Well, or at least try to do it, t.To. Violence is not always a way out. In general, an interesting hybrid of two genres with a story is planned that would look better in a more “human” shell. But so normal.
Chessplosion
The wicked unions arrived in the regiment! And next in line we have the result of the blood -embarkation of such notorious games as Bomberman and chess. Yes … well, if the world has allowed the existence of the game Bombliss, then why not someone like this and something similar? Here CT Matthews took and did … And while I pulled with these lines, I already successfully released the game on Steam.
The idea is simple: we put a chess figure, which after a while explodes with the area of the defeat corresponding to its initial purpose (the boat hits the stop horizontally and vertically, and the horse covers all the possible r-shaped paths, forming a kind of “ring”), and we try to defeat all the bad guys and do not get tired in the process in the process. In fact, although I called the game a hybrid of Bomberman and chess, in general, Chessplosion is felt either as the first or as much as the second. This is due to the fact that the combat arena is not filled with destroyed blocks and is almost completely open to direct fire from the very beginning, as well as the fact that the figures are always random, so you have to think through where to sculpt certain “bombs” and how to lure the enemies to them.
But this applies only to the “plot” regime, where the player confronts the unbelievable enemies at the levels and fights with the bosses. There is also a puzzle mode in which you need to hit all the targets at the stage of one mark with a combination of pre -predetermined figures. And in general, with the entertainment program, Chessplosion is very good. The author realized even a full -fledged network game, and both in the version of “throw your neighbor”, and in the form of a full -fledged Desmatch for four players. True, in the latter case, the tiny field of the battle is clearly not enough to keep the cheerful quartet of chess bombers, which is why the screen of the gong is already poured with such a photograph in which there is no place for itself ..
Code Bunny
Platformer about cute rabbit ones with superpowers that declared war on the trimming robots-that you can still be desired? Well, probably, not such terry pixels by half the screen, well, what to do – now the fashion is like this. At least, the game itself turned out to be surprisingly good, offering, albeit not a phenomenal, but well-built race on the left-right, through a series of static and mobile obstacles, and two playable characters with different assortments of abilities work on diversity.
The main “seasoning” designed to breathe life into this dish is the unique techniques of heroes, which are needed not so much in order to punish the servants of evil, but to overcome the particularly cunning irregularities of the landscape. Axel, for example, knows how to spin a wolf and bounce off enemies, which, depending on the context, will give either acceleration or a double jump … Well, or discard somewhere in the wrong place, which is often found in platformers built on the use of inertia. Hazle is armed with swords and arrows, and the latter are not used for applying damage as such, but in order to mark the goal at a distance and instantly reduce the distance with it with one quick jerk, which will also often be used not so much to clean the path, but for plate forming.
And the design of the levels will literally force you to use these techniques. The first stage will not yet rejoice over the heroes, the benefit and bottomless abysses are rare, and the enemies are arranged so that there is no uncertainty with where to jump further. However, the next level from the very beginning will begin to play a familiar barrel organ with obstacles, which are more than safe places. There, there will be pretty much of these rebounds and other brackets on the enemies, and if the same progression of the level of complexity is preserved for future stages, then I am afraid to even imagine that Mitboa is waiting for us there.
Well, but the battles with the bosses turned out to be simple in general, but at least not like each other. The first battle is a simple power confrontation between the enemy, by strength and ability to approximately comparable to our heroes, but hopelessly lagging behind the brain, while the second was built on the recapture of shells back into the offender. Oddly enough, not one of the first two battles with the main badges involves the “platform” abilities of our wards, but I feel that in the future it will not do without this. Otherwise, it’s strange somehow ..
Eversleep: Lunistice Gaiden
Three -dimensional platformers this year at the exhibition are generally excellent, and Eversleep, developed in 30 days a Grumpy Fox as part of a self -proclaimed challenge and telling about the adventures of Tanuki named Khan, was no exception. But how great the game can be obtained, created in a month of shock development in order to achieve at least the illusion of the fullness of the product – we will now try to find out!
In a sense, the game can be called the exact opposite of Blazing Dynamo. Where the latter offered an open location and a ton of abilities in order to independently lay on it its own route, often diverging with the route laid down by the developer itself, originally, EVERSLEEP is built with a strict guide to pass the linear intestines, only sometimes ennobled Self -esteem. Well, for finding secrets, opening only the most notorious collectors.
However, the design of levels – both game and artistic – very lazy. In general, we have only a bunch of platforms hanging in the air and pretending that they were once part of a single world, which is why the gameplay gravitates more in the path of the Early Nerders-know run ahead, collect everything that is assembled, and put the records for speed. And, frankly, this is not so bad, the good is controlled by Tanuki very good. Two types of running, attack, double jump, jump+attack for increasing the range – a standard set that does not claim to be a new word in the genre. True, when playing from a controller, it can very much want to grow a third hand to control the right stick, which itself never adapts to game realities and meals a little obstructive to the will of the player.
Well, since the EVERSLEEP, according to the author, is inspired by games from the PS1 era, where without a filter, making it with the “Wob-Vob-Vob” graphics, but, fortunately, it can be turned off in the settings and get a more confident picture. Otherwise, in front of us is a very worthy representative of the genre, able to brighten up the evening or two … When and if it comes out, of course, otherwise we know these amateur lovers, they begin to do it to the year, and who will end someone?!
Fech The Ferret
But I left this toy last year, t.To. At that time, she seemed to me very crooked and unfortunate. Did she help her with an additional year in the melting furnace still realize herself as a good game? Well, not quite, but nevertheless it is still worth talking about her, since we have another genre hybrid, who adopted a linear ranner and platforming in a three-dimensional open world with an emphasis on the study of locations.
Although at first it may seem that someone is just trying to glue two magnets with each other with the same polarity, in fact, both ingredients were able to get along more or less with each other. Yes, the surrounding world is really very spacious, and with proper desire to crawl to any horizontal surface – but the effect of the “tracks with obstacles” has not disappeared anywhere, and the further the hero runs away from his native forest in search of adventures, the more there will be a reason to make a stop to “think” on this track.
And this transition from a quick running state to a thoughtful platform is even emphasized by the game itself. We need speed-we get on all four paws and rush to victory, and if the game situation requires stopping and make a long “hmmm …”, then the hero can stand on the hind legs and go to comprehend the world in a more platform style. In principle, a useful thing, but I often used the “vertical mode” in order to just relax a little from high speeds and take a breath.
Moreover, the management in Fech The Ferret is at least specific. First of all, I’m talking about a discrete chamber that can only turn into equal gaps of 45 degrees. This is not that bad, but it takes time to get addicted, and, fortunately, the demo is in the beginning will give you to practice in full. Secondly, these are jumping mechanics. The authors tried to hammer the very opportunity to fly over the target platform – and in the game built on continuous running, this would happen as often – therefore, when letting the jump button, the hero loses all the inertia and the stone flies down, even if he has long overcome the peak of the amplitude of the gained height.
In the case of a flight, this is really useful, t.To. allows you to make an emergency landing, but when the jump forces is barely enough to jump to some ledge, untimely pushing the key simply drops the hero down without letting him achieve the goal. Well, where without eternal amateur disaster with conflicts: small and harmless stuck and gliti will happen here and there … But at least I have never been able to dilute the game to a state when only a restart can come to the rescue.
I don’t know what was happening with the game a year ago, but in its current form, Fech The Ferret, although raising a couple of uncomfortable questions, is still worth it to at least try to play. Peppy jogging on bright locations not only allow to enjoy the feeling of freedom, but also complemented by pleasant music, which will also be saturated with instruments as the hero gains speed. And it is clear how much work was done on the game, and I even regret that I did not follow its development from the very beginning.
HomeWords
Ooo! The extremely interesting experimental came to our operating table! So interesting that I don’t even know how and where to start telling about him … Description on Steam-and yes, the game really marks the commercial sector-it says that HomeWords is a kind of middle novel and adventure, in which you, playing for the dumb man of Vincent, should help the girl Zoe to find her parents and not let her fuse everyone along the road. And all this on the planet, where humanity as a result of a certain cataclysm was resettled by good-natured, but strange aliens, to whom the rules of earthly morality, although they are applied, are somehow in their own way, in a special way.
Well, and what gameplay can be created https://cosmo-casino.co.uk/ from such an idea? Simple, but at the same time funny. For lack of the ability to communicate, we simply simply observe the dialogue of our ward with local aborigines and the same ones who came up, and as if … uh … we modify her behavior in moments when Zoya begins to bring too much on the turns. In the game equivalent, it looks like this: Zoe’s disputed replica lights up red, and we need to read it quickly to understand whether it is necessary to pull the ward, or let it cut the truth-uterus. They shut up Zoya without visible reasons – get on a hat, allowed her to blurt out rudeness – give the interlocutor moral harm.
In this sense, the local dialogs can be called a kind. The heroine gets tired of too frequent interruptions, and you need to take a short break, relaxing on a sofa, a bench or another surface suitable for a comfortable sitting, but if you do not follow her tongue at all, then the interlocutors will begin to suffer from you, and there is a risk of blowing, t.To. The person who is important from the point of view of the target mission will completely refuse to have a matter with rude.
But for this system to work, you need really good and interesting dialogs between the characters, because the game somehow needs to take into account your possible influence on the course of the narrative, and the author turned out to be … well, normal. Immediately you can see the influence of Undertale and all the madness that he gave rise to, but nevertheless the interaction of the eccentric duo of the main characters with the same eccentric world and its inhabitants turned out to be very lively and saturated on funny situations.
Also, HomeWords sometimes awaken the features of adventure, when you need to find certain objects and do something with them in order to advance on history another step. But given how much demo version from the exhibition is tiny in terms of content, it is difficult to say whether much attention will be paid to this particular “subject” type of communication with the world around him. But the visual series of this very attention is clearly given a lot-a very worthy pixel art, which is overshadowed only by the visual scarcity of the initial location, and different emotions of the characters are also illustrated from the heart. I don’t know, the author will get at least something finished in the end, but an extremely funny toy is planned for now.
Project Rascal
Eh … Why couldn’t the last three -dimensional games about Sonic at least such? There are no people left in the walls of Sega, at least with an idea of how to make platformers? Well, okay, these are all rhetorical issues, albeit related to our celebration today’s culprit. Yes, Project Rascal is clearly trying to be what for several years in a row one blue hedgehog can not become – just a good three -dimensional platformer with an emphasis on speed.
And how good it was with this amateur dividing division with Sage’21? Well, not without problems, of course, but now the sprouts of what the game can become in due development are already visible. Although the Project Rascal offers classic runs deep into the screen, from time to time diluted by small forks, still returning to the general direction, the game does not pinch the main character and, accordingly, the player tightly to this rail and allows him to freely dispose of the environment and his interaction with him. If you want-at least get to the target … Only for buoys you can’t swim, otherwise a-tu will be.
And in general, the game is directly pleased with the sense of permissiveness that it creates. Yes, no one canceled the linearity of the route required to pass the level: first you need to here, from here – here, and then – there – but how you will follow this route depends solely on your game skills. There is enough acceleration gained to jump out after a few obstacles at once – please dispose of your speed as you want. True, something in this cocktail of a suitable three-dimensional platforming is still not enough ..
Firstly, enemies. They simply are not. In fact, you are your only and main enemy at the only level that is available in the demo, and only the creation of problems yourself can be pricked by the main character. In fairness, the opponents are at a test level in the form of snapping graphic plugs, therefore it is logical to assume that there is no external threat simply because they did not manage to draw it.
The second problem is sound. There are simply no sound effects, but those that are – sometimes not balanced. For example, you break one wooden box, the sound of a tree breakdown sounds – everything is fine. But if four boxes are smashed at once, then all four identical sounds in a hard clipping will sound at the same time. Apparently, the author sculpted them in a demo at the very last moment and did not have time to completely rebuild everything. But this is me, find fault. Project Rascal ambitions is clearly not to occupy, and if the developer/and makes it like such a massive work, then I will only have to be glad to appear in the world of one good game in the genre of high -speed platformers.
Sakura X Clash -last Millennial Spring-
This is probably the first and only time when you can hear something about fighting in me, and of course, for this debut in a new genre for me, it is worth giving thanks to the tiny exhibition of games, which are often even by the standards of Indi Indi. Yeh … But seriously, then Sakura X Clash is on the list of worthy – in my opinion! -projects with Sage’21, not only because of the genre (believe me, there were more insured representatives), but because she, damn it, gave me a waist of pleasure. Small such a toy wagon to match the size of the game itself.
The game is already pleasing at least style. It is rare today that you can see imitators with the style of fighting fights with Neo Geo Pocket – a portable console from SNK, which, unfortunately, has not particularly delayed in a game story. Otherwise – it seems to be more or less full -fledged fighting. The characters have low and high impacts with foot and hand, respectively, captures, evasions (those called Dodge Mu) and the basic arsenal of more complex techniques that are spinning mainly around circular … based on circular combinations of the crosses or stick.
However, the tactics of pressing on everything with the calculation of suppressing the enemy with his madness also turned out to be quite viable. Anyway, how well the game is collected and how adequately the combinations of attacks and hitboxes are calculated. Although, perhaps, this is not so much the author of the game as the Mugen engine, on which the Mugen engine has not yet had time to appear … However, the only time when the tactics of a drunken master stopped working at all-the final boss of the demo version, which really likes to be spit with an attack very far away, presses in the corner and it hurts to punish. But sometimes it manages to find a council, and this is with my claws! In general, this little fighting was the most pleasant impressions.
Scratchin ‘Melodii
“You think just like this hip-hop read,
Well, this must be syncopy, so, like this, like that!"
The nail of our program today is the rhythm game, inspired by Parappa The Rapper, delightful in its memeity, and without the influence of Friday Night Funkin ‘, for an incomprehensible reason I just had a bomb explored on the network, obviously also could not cost it either. Having received the melody’s protagonist under his control, at birth in the column “Paul” clearly inscribed – “Yes.", We need to bring it or it to success in the area, demonstrating our rhythmic profile in the replos with local authorities, one more colorful!
I-and-and … Either those two stages that are currently in demo versions from the exhibition give the heat, or I am a hopeless arrhythmic. It’s not even close to “Kick, Punch, it’s all in the Mind”. Well, I can’t play it normally at all, and if the first level I still mastered, then the second battles did not succumb to any persuasion, no matter how much I was muddy. Oh, oh well. Gameplay game inherits many features of Parappa The Rapper: first, the “boss” pronounces its batch consisting of a sequence of buttons at a temporary interval, after which you need to repeat it. Faced in the rhythm – well, confused all the buttons in the world – bad. Fidelity in the corner will be responsible for your successes-the local analogue of HP, in which the Hi-Fi-Fi-Fi-> Lo-Fi sequence corresponds to the good, normal and poor status of your rehearsal. Repeat the two segments in a row well – the status improves, do not repeat – decreases. Get down below Lo-Fi-the game is over. Such a simple system.
And so that you do not get bored all the time to play repeating, the game will periodically go into the “support” mode – in it you need not to be crushed by the opponent, but to act with him in the general stream. I can’t imagine what a reaction is needed to also keep up with it. And in the game you can somehow freely, focusing on the target “notes”, as it were, between the matter, and just fidue any combinations with the calculation of a set of glasses, but I still did not understand what principle it works at all.
But the elaboration of animations and other visual pieces of fire, designed to fill in the visual space, is simply beyond praise, especially when you consider that one person is engaged in the project. Participants in musical battles do not stand in a pillar and in every possible way shearily and have fun with the heart, as a result, some musical clips in miniature are obtained. But the musical content – the soul and heart of games of this kind – caused more bewilderment than pleasure. The music is very pleasant, but the “vocals”, the role of which are automatic readers of the text, is drowned by filters so deeply that only “Bip-Bip-Bip” and “Bu-bo-boo” remained from it-not a damn thing! In general, Scratchin ‘Melodii is definitely worthy of attention, and if I knew how to play, I told much more.
Tiny Thor
And now let the kids get back, because the grandfathers drank their pills and are now also eager to fight! Tiny Thor is a very interesting project from the exhibition, the author of which was about to recreate the spirit of platformers of the Amiga era and for this purpose dragged on the development of the artist Hank Nirogg first, and after that the composer Chris Hölsbek is far from the latest people from the game industry of the time period to imitate the newly -minted game. For example, the Nilborg painted graphics for Leonheart, Flink and The Adventures of Lomax, while Hölsbek is inextricably linked with the Turrican series. In general, someone’s childhood dream clearly came true, but as for us-people who then play it then?
Well, the presence of eminent grandfathers benefited the game for sure – Tiny Thor looks and sounds just awesome. It looks especially; With such chic pixel art, even simple dungeons and caves look so that I want to move there to live. The soundtrack does not lag behind, which, although flirting with the theme of Chiptyun, is still not going so far into the jungle of unjust authenticity for the sake of authenticity and gives out a very worthy sound with a characteristic craving for melody for Hyolsbek.
At first, the gameplain is the impression of, although a tightly knocked -down, but a typical platformer from the category “a fragile hero runs through an obstacle strip and tries not to die from the clutches of a random goose”. However, Thor very quickly receives the notorious Mölnir on his birthday, and the further gameplay begins to gradually put on the skin of a puzzle platformer with an emphasis on timing. The fact is that the hammer is able to cheerfully ricochet from any surfaces, and often the gameplay will be built to mate it where necessary and at the right angle. The rest is a typical, but high -quality classic of the genre with the collection of shins, the search for secrets and other jokes of platforming.
… I would say, without laying out the authors of the cutting of the gameplay of future levels. As the game progresses in the game, the small -spoke will receive new abilities, expanding both its ability to overcome the irregularities of the landscape and the functionality of Mölnir. This is wonderful, but from some point the game will begin to encroach on the laurels of hardcore platformers, forcing both to think quickly and react with the speed of Drusophila. Well, maybe gifs just scare this, but in reality everything will not be so complicated and confusing. So far, Tiny Thor is definitely my main jam from the exhibition.
Typhoon unit ~ butterfly regiem
Well, in the end we’ll talk about the shmapchik, but about the shmapchik not simple, but with surprises! Horizontal Dunmaku-Shuther with the ability to switch between three characters in real time and with an emphasis on the narrative part-such a team of a hodgepodge came across! True, a logical question arises regarding the viability of such a mutant trying to embrace the immense, but the developer-lone Ghostly Feline Games managed to sew the whole thing with rather strong threads.
The very concept of several playable characters is reduced to different types of fire and special techniques, which must be circulated to overcome complex obstacles. In total, we have such characters cast: Gale-shoots a classic “rampant” and knows how to “criticize” enemies with a sniper shot, Fia-a girl-pending girl who owns a homing laser and knows how to fly through the bullets, and some of them are completely absorbed, Casey is watering the servants of evil and lupi with a lot so that the shields of armored enemies scatter into a dust.
An understandable scheme draws up: when you need to dodge, we dodge when we need to remove the protection – we remove the protection and so on. We make both this and the other and the correctly – the girl’s trio is included in the Synergy state: there is more damage, they give more points – in general, beauty! True, they give them very little to shoot in every little thing. Typhoon Unit almost entirely consists of boss battles. No, there are not many of them – they are just long. Each large enemy has a phase in a demo, and you must constantly be prepared for the fact that the current character will lose relevance, and he will urgently need to be changed to a colleague.
And we must not forget that Typhoon Unit is a shmap in its very “nightmare” manifestation. Yes, at first the game gives a large space for making errors, but the further it plunges into it, the thicker and denser the enemy fire becomes, and your little heart, acting as a hitbox, will simply be compressed under such pressure. The joy alone is the lack of death from one hit, but even with spare hearts, already at the third level, it is hard. However, you can always try again. And then again and again, good with the sensation of the “last rink, and enough” the game has a complete order.
Cool:
63 Little Pieces
Not bad, but poorly visually puzzle, like “a square slides from an obstacle to an obstacle and tries to get to the finish line without flying beyond the boundaries of the universe”. Almost immediately, 63 Little Pieces begins to delight the expansion of the assortment of abilities, giving the player the opportunity to break fragile obstacles and shoot them from a distance-however, due to such a variety, the game is quickly complicated.
The hell begins when two squares are given under control, which are controlled from different points at the same time. Taking them both into the portal is already a whole quest without the right to error.
Big Boy Boxing
Someone clearly outplayed the Punch-Out series to the dump of the tower and decided that the world urgently needed the game "based on". And I really don’t know about the "peace", but I personally are very happy with such a game. Not because I am a large fan of humorous simulators of Khukov and Jeb, but because, damn it, the novelty looks just gorgeous. Yes, another disgusting pixel art, but then the author at least noticed in this word “art” and really worked on “reviving” this pile of colored squares.
Only a minus that did not allow the game to break into the list above – the speed of the demo. It passes in two minutes, of which the first minute is the plot exhibition, and the second is the battle with a homeless person who is not ready to be fateed to be beaten by a boxer in the person of our loved ones. The arsenal of the hero’s techniques is also concise: Hook left, hook right, jab left, jab of the right, evasion in three sides and special.Reception received if you drag the opponent at the right time. The situation complicates only three lives of our ward stressed by a huge strip of opponent’s life, because I already anticipate how problematic the last can become closer to the middle of the game … If it comes out, of course, of course.
Brooke vs. World Doom
Platformer/run’n’gun, as if found in the backwalls of Armor Games-so it feels in it the spirit of the Flash-game zero! True, it is played accordingly Caughty: the animations are sloppy, sour jumps, and indeed the whole game is full of the style “I am the mother of the developer”. But if you do not take into account purely visualrishain, Brooke vs is played. World Doom is surprisingly okay. The variety of game situations was also lifted, and in some places the game offers very complex platform tasks with rebounds from the walls.
And most importantly – guns. There are many of them, they are all different and are used for its intended purpose, not without a fair amount of pleasure. And it’s not too lazy to come up with so many weapons, but as a result, the game now holds well on the feeling of novelty that every new “present” throws up. Of course, to the finished state, the game is still very, very far away, but it is quite possible to check it out of considerations of the search for easy stubbornness for half an hour.
Buck Up and Drive!
The case when the fumes of the Super Scaler of Arcade Racing gets out of control. Fabio Fontes is responsible for this fun madness, who made Buck up and Drive in his free time from Dunkehr, and probably would have forgotten about it if the game had not suddenly bombed. In general, one arcade race in the world has become larger – and which!
What is happening in Buck Up and Drive can be described in just one word – Madivo. Funny, juicy, stubbornly messed about a machine that every moment of its existence violates all the conceivable and inconceivable laws of physics, driving “crab”, making incredible chubs on the skulls, knitting the annoying traffic in a circular attack and even making slides on the curbs! And all this in order to meet the timer and get to the checkpoint, simultaneously collecting as many points as possible.
In general, the gameplay of one situation is both the good and the curse of the game. Yes, there is nothing in it besides the champion and the local duel, but everything that is is done and corresponds to the spirit of the arcade obscurantism of the races from slot machines. Great little enthusiasha, not claiming to become something big. And, damn it, it was necessary to sculpt so many rainbow flags for billboards? Straight in your face, bitch!
Castle on the Coast
Three-dimensional platformer, but some strange. We play for a bun -eyed giraffe without pants and explore an abandoned castle for ancient riddles left by its mysterious inhabitants. However, the hero is not the main strangeness of the game. The complete inadequacy of the local conflicts is complemented by extremely viscous physics, as if the hero is always under water, and the general feeling of a collective farm with everything that is one way or another applies to management. Everything finally turns into a booth when Mr. Giraffe finds a rocket satchel.
But if you do not close your eyes to the forever drunk control that mixes more than annoying, Castle on the Coast makes a good impression due to a pleasant village-core graphics and, in general, a good levela design. Suitable for feeding a small nephew who has not yet known the charms GTAV.
Caverns of the Molten God
A peculiar toy that is very reminiscent of something old computer a la Comodore 64 or ZX Spectrum. We manage a certain man on a bird and examine this small pixel world, trying not to die from the paws of monsters and the same men who are hostile to us. Static screens, PARTICLE-Special effects, death in one touch and pixels-in general, a complete buffet of amateur performances with a warehouse under antiquity. And also the game is surprisingly atmospheric (well, how atmospheric the pixel mountain in the same interior can be), which is reinforced by the exciting music and the expectation of imminent danger from every new room.
Over time, even a variety appears, and after the victory over the first (and only in the demo) boss, the hero receives a bomb under his control, which can not only be sunk crowds, but also break some walls. And in general, despite its economical appearance, Caverns of the Molten God still makes us hope that something cool will grow out of it in the future.
Ghost Blast
It was already spoiled to paint about the game in more detail in the main part of the review of the exhibition, but decided to give up its place to more venerable colleagues. Ghost Blast is just a platform extract with location research. Playing for an ink blot, we need to break through a bunch of obstacles with a battle and get to a saving exit. And although the final feature is traditionally on the right side of the level, the path to it will be by no means linear, because the local levels are not just “stages”, but fucking labyrinths with broken blocks, deceptive walls and other tricks, because of which there is a risk of losing the way back.
And sometimes you really have to return to the visited parts of the level, since the keys to the passage of some areas that lie in prominent places less often than that would like that. He finishes … Ugh, also complements the picture of the poor design: black and white background, black and white walls, black and white enemies-all the same that almost immediately merges into one ink porridge! And this is quite disappointing, because Ghost Blast is generally gorgeous controlled and “felt”. One of the most pleasant platformers at the exhibition, in which it is pleasant to even aimlessly spread the ownerless boxes in chips and break through the walls, lifting tons of dust into the air.
Girls Power: The Fantastic World of Dreams
Shmap. Very uncomplicated vertical shmap. The girl at first flies over the horn fields, after which she goes into space in order to get to cosmic bunches, angels and other nonsense. Despite the light visual alapularness with the aroma of Paint, Girls Power is played surprisingly not bad. Such a normal scroll-player that, fall on me in the list of some forgotten Japanese games of the 90s on the Old-Games website.ru, would not have raised questions about its origin at all.
Ice Cream Float
The imitator of the early NES Grams from the time when the developers have not yet thought of pushing the hardware restrictions on the console with the help of mappers, because everything is so small, cute and tidy. As we all know very well, penguins have only two interests in life: fish and ice cream – and it was in pursuit of them that our ward went for them, with which we will help her.
Gameplain Ice Cream Float, well, very miniature – know yourself jump on the platforms and do not get damage. The only “seasoning” on this ice cream is the heroine of the ability to glare smoothly, which, by execution, resembles the wings of Mario from Super Mario Land 2. True, the resource for a tactical decrease is limited, and despite the fact that the glay scale can be pumped with a wirewear, it will not be possible to dive forever in the air. And the difficulty in the game, although not “classical”, but still needs some kind of straightforwardness, otherwise it is very easy to waste all lives and roll back to the beginning.
Light and Shadow
A very worthy platformer both in graphic and gameplay. In this cruel world, darkness is destructive, but it always gives way to the light, and therefore the hero has to constantly search and light lamps so as not to be alive. Even his weapons shoots with clots of light, and if the usual shooting in one of the sides is simply needed for the most part to press all kinds to the nail, then the shot is also working in flight and as a double jump with overclocking. And the last game tormented me to the dump of my fingers ..
Seriously, I didn’t even succeed in passing. Light and Shadow hut from the threshold and makes such somersaults without the right to make a mistake that it remains only to be surprised at the courage of the author in creating a game that can toss the ass. And this despite the fact that the hero rushes from one touch, and checkpoints – the cat cried. Maybe in future updates the game will have time to facilitate the game a thousand times, but in its current form it is another test for the fingers ..
SCOOP Kick!
This year, the exhibition also could not do without another Ommage with early arcade games, and this time Arcades from the times fell under the sight, when they still did not even have scrolling, and all the action took place on one static screen. This time, we have a guardian of good, the ice cream, who runs up the stairs, rolls up the balls of this delicious treat into horns and tries not to fall aside by treacherous inhabitants of the beds, who decided to declare war on him with something.
Only one nuance – we cannot jump, and therefore we have to overcome the levels not with rough strength, but cunning and cunning, neatly maneuvering between the enemies and doing our sweet work. Well, at least the offenders can be rolled up with these ice cream balls into a cake, having received a bonus on the “juiciness” of the final horn with ice cream. In general, cute one -screen arcade in the best traditions of the games of those years.
Switch Girl: Special Rescue Beauty
Small small platformer/run’n’gun about a superheroin that sets all the bad guys through a massive shelling with hearts. A simple idea, straightforward performance is an intelligent result, albeit not grabbing stars from the sky. The only variety in the classical formula of the genre was the hoop that allows you to change places with enemies and small objects, but only the author of the game has not yet come up with a single situation when this mechanics would make sense. Okay, once an occasion to change places with a car under which someone was stuck, there was still. Maybe over time, in future versions, Switch Girl will still go off.
Toree 3D
Another 3D platformer in the general piggy bank of the developing direction of three-dimensional amateur amateur performances! Roughly speaking, before us Eversleep: lunistice gaiden on minimum wagons. Everything has been done by a plus or minus on the same patterns, only with less professionalism and with an even smaller scale; Even the camera obeys only the right stick than loves to strain in the middle of the platforming.
On the one hand, the brave chick is controlled very well, but the platforming here is cramped on the border with claustrophobic, and the design of the levels itself is very ingenuous-a simple linear obstacle obstacles and evil evil, adding to jumping discipline, well, at least some colors. But given that the game has a price tag of 30 rubles – and yes, it has already come out and sold on Steam, but here I did not look – it is unlikely that the author himself planned something more for the game. My only claim is in some places a completely unfriendly color palette to the eyes. I understand that the game focuses on retro, all things, but it was possible to focus on retro in other places?!
Who was the cat?
Well, how in the end we could do without dich’i? That’s right, nothing! And the main supplier of Sur for today will be the psychedelic Run’n’Gun about a one -eyed cat who shoots the orderlies … Ugh, the servants of evil from the green head of his grandfather. And although only a boss is thrown into a battle with you in a demo version, the game will quickly make it clear that even one of him will be enough to take you for a long time-no slabs and handouts with health restorers, only skill and straight arms.
Although the hero has a jerk at the disposal, giving several frames of blessed invulnerability, there will be more harm from him with stupid use than good – you will not stumble about one biak, so you’ll fly to the boss at all. Not to use it either will not work, because some of the attacks just can not be dodged.
But you still have to snap in response, with what the same grandfather will help you. He can shoot at any of the parties, regardless of the direction of the cat’s movement (which, by the way, brings the game to the title of Twin-Little Shooter) and, with a skillful game, covers any point of the screen with fire. In addition, if desired, he switches to the auto-fire mode, slightly unloading you control.
But this green grandfather has one big minus in the person of his no less large sprite. I constantly confused him with peripheral vision with a protagonist, leading the wrong character from the trajectory of enemy shells! And let the frightening cat withstand still more one hit, but it is better not to leave it to their own free-if you never know the saved “blow” is still useful to him!
On this with Sage’21 I have everything. Two decades of funny amateur performances have not passed without a trace, and the exhibition of fan games about Sonic, which has finally overdoor its original purpose, continues to actively offer a creative bridgehead for everyone who wants to try themselves in the difficult case of the creator of the video game, regardless of scale and ambitions.
The developers gradually develop their creations and develop themselves, and the organizers also echo them, taking into account the mistakes of past years (especially against the background of the anniversary exhibition, which barely worked under the onslaught of those who want to take communion in one way or another). And if Sage will maintain this internal mobility, then the festival of young developers will welcome us for more than one year, offering a whole field for finding a year.
True, due to the savings of my own resources, I did not write about the games that I had already talked about in previous reviews of the exhibition, but I also did not want to leave them at all, because we will run as a small bonus at the end of interesting projects that remained outside the story about Sage’21!
Advent Neon®
Hurricane action-boat-platform with so many combat and acrobatic techniques that any bitemap will turn red here. The project has finally ripened for the current exhibition and even successfully received sponsoring Kickstarter, becoming one of those amateur divisions that could break into the largest league.
Bun N ‘Gun
The update also received a platform about one -armed hare in the setting of the Wild West. Jumping is all the same painful and unresponsive, but new music has appeared. Quite cool music, albeit causing a lot of questions regarding its relevance.
Cosmic Boll
Platformer about a fighting dumplings inspired by Treasure’ovsky astro battle. That is, a cool photograph and a bunch of ways to inflict injuries to enemies and these very injuries to avoid themselves. Alas, the game is still in a state of technology, but if it will ever ripen, it will be cool!
Go! Go! Pogogirl
Platformer about a girl on a slope-slop, who received a total graphic audit over a year. We can say that the game changed the whole generation, moving from 8 to 16-bit. Extremely simple idea and moderately sensible implementation.
The Great Frebbventure
Yes, the Yeper Theater … For the second year, the developer can not add support to the controller to the game, forcing either playing on the arrows, or set up everything through JoyTokey or his analogues. Be that as it may, the new iteration of the platformer about the stubborn Frebba fox, written off either from the grin or from Vario, has improved significantly over the year. The management has been improved, five million heroes of the hero’s abilities are better configured and put in order, the training stage has appeared, and in general the game is “felt” much more pleasant than his fellow year old.
HellsLAVE: Project Z-Treme
The shooter developed for the Sega Saturn continues to increase the meat in the desire to leave the already disgusting status of technical demos. And although there are already several cards in the game for the passage of solo and in the coop, as well as a separate assortment of combat arenas for Desmatch, she still has a very long way, full of amazing adventures.
Mr Rex’s Zealous Adventure
Crazy Run & Zap about a tyrannosaurus-skid, which fries out zlovreds with electricity. Over the past year, the game for the most part only gained mass, retaining its crazy “style”, reminiscent of adult swim cartoons. All locations are built of photo collages mixed in the most crazy forms and patterns, but at the same time, Mr REX, by some miracle, continues to be a game with a more or less adequate gameplay, although it pretends to be in the screenshots with a complete tresh, from which the eyes climb on the forehead.
Out-Class Hunter
An interesting platformer with a two -dimensional main character in the three -dimensional world, at its first appearance at last year’s exhibition, more like a game, but an interactive list of declared ambitions. Over the year, the game overgrown with the voiced katsen and received a more pleasant, but all the same “air” control, thanks to the presence of a rocket satchel, allowing at least whole pieces of level to fly. And in general, in terms of the entire game design in general, Out-Class Hunter is still raising many questions.
Prototype n
I gained fat and a toy, inspired by the weapons variety of the Mega Man Man series, which allows you to call on the order and somehow interact with the situation. As before, I miss the dynamics a little in the game, but in its current form it is pleasant, as they say, pleases.
Rad Venture
But this is not just another platformer, albeit three -dimensional, but a real titan of amateur gamestroy, encroaching on a level of quality comparable to the work of a whole studio. True, I’m afraid that with this approach of the game of their dreams they will make eternity (plus or minus a century), but nevertheless it remains only to be amazed at how the game has grown out of technical demos in which there was almost no graphics, in something really serious.
Starbuster
The only amateur game from the collection that appeared on Sage three times in a row. And each time Starbuster surprises me how much the authors pour me a lot of effort, constantly grinding, improving and complementing the game. Two completely different main characters and gameplay, honed to brilliance, took all the best from the "war" platformers. Different types of attacks, customized improvements, levels open for research, chic rear backgrounds, the presence of not the very last plot justifying what is happening – in general, the buffet of pure and immaculate appropriate.