{Review} Soil and Rubble

"Soil and Rubble" by Daniel Mullins

Test season has started at my school, covering the surfaces of my apartment in paper like an academic winter. Also, due to not keeping up with the reviews, I have lost any overview I once had as to who requested their review when. So I thought I might try a game that I thought looked interesting and like it would appeal to the brain-activity-challenged me currently inhabiting my body.
That game is "Soil and Rubble".

Story
You start with a small garden where the plums are ripe. My first reaction to the game was: "That plum looks like a bottom." My second reaction was: "What is that thing dropping in the backgrou... Oh."
The game wastes no time in setting up its scenario. The world as you know it has ended and all that stands between you and starvation are your plums. So you better keep them growing. Other than that, you get a few insights into your nightly thoughts that go ever crazier...
I won't spoil the ending but it seemed to come rather quickly in my opinion, leaving me wondering if it was something I said or did that caused it to say: "That's enough, run along now."
Was it because of my stats? Was it random? Was it supposed to end exactly there? If the latter is true, an option for long play might help. I don't think I would start it again to get more, but I definitely would have kept playing to enhance my Frankenstein pantry. What do I mean by that? Well...

Mechanics
You put down soil, put in a seed and water it. Then, sooner or later, the plant produces one or slightly more fruits. Repeat or die.
The game is nice enough to let you use every part of your butt-plum. You eat it to fight your ever growing hunger and you use the seed to grow a new one. The interesting moment came when the Geiger counter in the corner came to life and told me that radiation had changed my crops. Now my plum would fill me up even more but also increase the radiation I had in my body. That is where you decide.
Do you keep eating boring plums a bit at a time, keeping just ahead of starvation, like some kind of post-apocalyptic uber-fruitarian with "Death to Monsanto" embroidered on your poncho?
Or do you embrace the brave new world of skull-faced plums and accept that radiation may melt your brain but feels so good in your belly?
I went down the latter path, though I couldn't bring myself to actually eat the fruit that looked like the actual symbol of death. But I felt like I had some pretty neat varieties in my arsenal, which is what made the aforementioned ending a bit more frustrating.
Speaking of frustrating, I would have showered anyone with plums of their choice and covered them in seeds (that came out wrong...), if they had brought me a single flyswatter. Your plums taste good to you but also to mutated dragonflies. Or maybe it was always the same one that came and ate my crops. I don't know for sure. But the smug look on its face suggested it. If you're fast enough, you can eat the plums before it does, but nevertheless this creature became something like my character's white whale.

Presentation
More or less the only thing you see is your garden. It and the plants you grow look handdrawn and fittingly drab. Apocalypse just ain't pretty... Sound and music seemed unremarkable to me, with the exception of the intro, which used them very effectively.
One thing that I'm not sure about is the writing. Its prose seemed a little purple for my taste, with "the fingers of radiation carressing your plums". Oh my...

On the whole...
Is it a big game? No. Would it benefit from being a bigger game? Probably. Is it an interesting game? Yes. Do I overuse this rhetorical question gimmick? Absolutely. Was it the nice little gaming snack I hoped for when I fired it up? Pretty much.
___

Link: http://contest.gamedevfort.com/submission/312#.Vfw_z9_tlBc

Dev: Daniel Mullins

Time Played: 10 minutes

Got My Vote? Yes, because it has an interesting concept at its core and because the skull-shaped plum told me so in my dreams.

{Review} Battlerocktopia

"Battlerocktopia" by Troy Sanders


Story
You are, I assume, familiar with the legend of Sisyphus? Yeah, the guy who has to roll the boulder up the mountain for all eternity, only for it to roll down again just before the summit, good on you for knowing that.
Now imagine the boulder is a killer robot with flame throwers and rocket launchers and instead of rolling it up the mountain, you have to punch it in the face with a fiery fist.
That's basically all the story I get from "Battlerocktopia", other than what is on the contest page. And even there it only says that the hero "finds himself battling against a nega-bot", as heroes are wont to do. Turn the wrong corner one afternoon and you stumble into a fight with a dastardly contraption made of circuits and hatred, we've all been there.

Mechanics
You move around and have three options aside from that: jump, hit the robot or dash a short distance and hit the robot, should it be in your way.
Your own skillset does not change during the game, but that may be due to the fact that you may be the hero of the game, but you are not the star. That is definitely the robot.
Looking like a tuner's dream of the companion cube at first, you are bound to take it seriously when out of nowhere it flies in a laser cannon and tries to cook itself a nice player flambé for lunch.
You start jumping around, running and hitting it, but if you are not quick, the bot gets bored with only killing you one way and grows a flame thrower. Or a rocket launcher. Or.. Well, you get the picture.
Your hits hurt the weapons and then the cube, so it is important that you find the right balance between righteously hitting it and bravely running away. If you are feeling cheeky, you can even lure it onto the points where its shots are going to land and have it friendly fire itself.
My attempts to kill it were - of course - unsuccessful and by now that thing has probably sprouted a death star laser. But the growth mechanic is something I really enjoyed, because...

Presentation
That thing looks badass. Intimidating as hell. The artstyle on the robot is crisp and you can easily identify the components but they still form a visually coherent whole. You can still see the almost cuddly unarmed cube underneath all the shiny implements of death trained on you and you long to strip it of its armaments to give it a sound beating.
I am less fond of the hero graphics, the background and the font, but as I said, they are not the stars here.

On the whole...
Want to punch a robot in the face? Play this. Want to dodge rockets? Play this. It probably won't keep you up at night, but it's a nice diversion with a memorable enemy.
___

Link: http://contest.gamedevfort.com/submission/622#.VeRr-PntlBd

Dev: Troy Sanders

Time Played: 10 minutes

Got My Vote? Yes, because of its star - the cool enemy. All hail nega-bot.

{Review} Escalia

"Escalia" by BCj

I believe that excellence has a way to shine through. Someone who is utterly bored by a certain sport may still appreciate a spectacular feat of athleticism. A person who loathes musicals can still find a certain singer's voice charming. Any detractor of chocolate ice cream might be able to recognise a superbly made chocolatey exemplar of it.
In case it's unclear, "Escalia" is my chocolate ice cream in this long-winded introduction.
Full disclosure: I am just coming of the final hours of "The Witcher 3" so I may be simultaneously harder to impress and a bit more generous.

Story
The old king is dead, long live the advisor. Until he dies as well. And that's the longish prologue, with which the game starts you off.
The story proper begins when a young woman named Fayeh is awoken by her friend Lumia so they can see a recently returned friend.
On a side note: Is it somehow mandatory for games like this to start of in someone's bedroom? Do you get bonus points on your JRPG-card for including mom standing around between your bed and the door to adventure?
Anyway, after picking up a few sidequests along the way, you reach the friend, just in time for him to join your party and return to the village. Please stop reading now if you have not seen a movie or read a book in the last fifty years and wish to remain spoiler-free.
To all others: You know how this goes. When all you have is a torch, any village looks like kindling or however the saying goes. And actually, that's where my playthrough ended so far, so I can't spoil any more, even if I wanted to.

Mechanics
You walk around, you encounter enemies to be subdued in turn-based combat. You level up.
So far, so well-known. But there are a few wrinkles. If you want to, you can evade the enemies that visibly roam the map with a combination of good navigation and the sprint button. Guarding is present, but each character does so in a different way. Some regenerate MP, others are more likely to be attacked by enemies afterwards. Add to that normal, special and magic attacks and your toolbox of pain is well-stocked.
"Escalia" also manages to make the characters' gameplay feel fitting towards their personality. The lumbering hunk in his shiny new armor feels like he is begging to tank. Lumia, she of the little patience for sleeping friends, feels like the more pragmatic and robust of the two women, while the magic user Fayeh feels frailer, but capable when her niche of magical expertise is needed.

Presentation
The game feels polished. There is simply no other word for it. And in this day and age, that is an achievement. Insert your own EA/Ubisoft/WB Games-rant here. This is a positive space, people, don't make me ruin the vibe.
Well, okay, I do have some complaints about the abrupt nature of the music loops and the jarring change that occured once. So... okay, one point from Gryffindor.
The menus still feel like they are designed for a controller, but the hexagonal shapes somehow give a much slicker appearance than the drab lists you get in most other genre examples.
And now for the art... oh, the art. This game is gorgeous. Even the overworld map, that at first glance looks like run-of-the-mill JRPG fare, is beautiful and detailed. I still feel the aesthetic of smiling bobbleheads clashes with a cruel and sadistic court advisor murdering everyone in cold blood, but that is just a JRPG ignoramus talking.
But even I can see that the big character portraits are top notch quality. And not only that, but each character has different portraits, a standard face, one for being selected in the menus, one for being selected in battle... The characters' standard expression seems to say: "Oh, hey, haven't seen you in a few weeks, I've really missed you, how are you?" When you select them in the menus, it looks more like: "Oooh, a present, for me? And it's carried by a puppy? Awwww..."
It's such a little touch, but it shows the extra effort that went into this game.

On the whole...
Like our chocolate-ice-cream-despising friend from the introduction, I appreciate the high quality and craftsmanship of the game, but it is what it is and its aftertaste is just not to my liking.
But if you're not like me, you'll like this game. If you want a good, polished RPG maker game that looks like it's setting up for a grand quest and does things just so different that everything feels fresh and familiar, go for this one.
___

Link: http://contest.gamedevfort.com/submission/126#.VeDJ2PntlBc

Dev: BCj

Time Played: 30 minutes

Got My Vote? Yes, because it just feels so polished. I know, this is the third time I used that term, but I had to in order to get the bonus points on my game reviewer card.

{Not A Proper Review} Galactic Star Tournament

"Galactic Star Tournament" by CountBleck

Another review that is not quite up to snuff. I felt like I had given the game enough time before a bug killed it for me and the fact that I did not really want to go back told me that I had formed my opinion. So what you get is my impression of the time I did spend with "Galactic Star Tournament". It may be that some of the confusion would have cleared itself up later. Also, some spoilers  may be present.

Story
So you are... a warrior? At least you are deemed important enough to be brought to the Galactic Star Tournament by Magic John Hammond and his minotaur bodyguard. In the course of the tournament, he switches between villain and not villain. He has powerful enemies and... that's as far as I got.
I was taken aback by some strange logic, but since the actual content of the conversation turned out to be a bunch of lies later on, I can't fault the game for that.
There are some strange things though. In a team-up fight I was expecting some help from another character, but they just stood around twiddling their thumbs and consuming the good magic-deep-space-air.
The writing on the whole was not my cup of tea, since I felt that it leaned heavily on the exposition and there is something about the tone I can't quite put my finger on.

Mechanics
The approach to combat is interesting. The tournament is divided into three rounds, one for training and one for fighting your opponents. In the training round, you fight two enemies that are randomly picked from three different types with different strengths and immunities.
An interesting mechanic is that the stronger melee attack leaves you more vulnerable to attacks. So you start weighing the benefits of more damage dealt against the drawbacks of the enemies hitting your harder.
After each fight, you choose to either fight another round with your current HP or go on to meet your actual opponent.
The tutorial told me that there was a dodge button for those with good timing. This is a category of people I definitely don't belong to, so my brain deleted that information quickly.
Other commenters said they liked the magic system, but I didn't manage to find it. I bought an ice rune and a health upgrade from the points earned in my first training fight. My HP stayed the same and I probably had to combine the ice rune with something.
So, taking into consideration my ineptitude with the upgrade system, my dodging-amnesia and a possible health-eating bug, can you guess what happened in my first fight? The one against the opponent the game portrayed as an amoral, incompetent idiot? He wiped the floor with me, right, get yourself a cookie.
That's when I realised that "Galactic Star Tournament" takes the roguelike approach to death. You die, you start over. So I sped through the exposition once more, hitting my space bar like it owed me money. It took me a while that I was still hitting it on the naming screen. And so began the adventures of "AAAA", a name that promises more excellence than would actually be delivered.
Since the upgrade system and me were not destined to be frienst, I just stocked up on carrots and waltzed through the tournament like Baby Hermann at the beginning of "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" - blissfully ignorant of all danger and, against all odds, still alive at the end.
I kind-of-defeated two bosses, before I was told to enter a portal and found myself in exposition country again, back before the first level. For a moment, I was considering a time-loop, a narrative device. But when characters started addressing the empty air where my character had been when the scene had played out the first time around, the dial in my head turned to "bug".

Presentation
One thing I noticed is that the characters walk around an awful lot to deliver their lines. Sometimes this happens in quite heated conversations too. It looks odd when someone angrily addresses somebody else from across the room, then takes three seconds to walk up to them, only to yell in their face on arrival.
The Game Maker aesthetic is certainly present, but there is original art here, an effort I appreciate. And while the minotaur looked a bit muddy to me, it served its purpose and looked at home in the setting. Also, I should not be throwing stones as far as art is concerned. Lob pebbles maybe. Small ones. Very carefully.

On the whole...
Am I missing something? Possibly. Probably. Is it the game's fault? Not entirely. Chances are that, not being a player of RPGM games, I am probably oblivious to some kind of mechanic any one RPGM-afficionado could pull off in their sleep.
The writing? No accounting for taste. The battle system? That's part preference, part incompetence on my part.
As I said, this is not fair, professional or in-depth enough to be called a review, it's just my impressions. But summing up, I have to say "Galactic Star Tournament", just did nothing for me.
___

Link: http://contest.gamedevfort.com/submission/572#.Vdi8DvntlBc

Dev: CountBleck

Time Played: 20 minutes

Got My Vote? No. I didn't understand the game, the game didn't understand me, and I suspect it threw me the possible time-travel-bug as an excuse for us to politely go our separate ways.

{Review} Super Flora Fighter

"Super Flora Fighter" by Corey

"Super Flora Fighter" reminds me of "Call of Duty" in some ways. If that statement is not getting me any clicks, I don't know what will.

Story
Two clans of trees, the McBlues and the O'Purples fell afoul of each other, locked in a struggle of arboreal dominance for all eternity. Posterity does not know who first used defoliation bombs, but now the land is barren. Look what your wrath hath wrought.
But... can it be? Is it possible?
Two acorns, miniscule but full of potential have survived in the ground, ready to burst forth and establish their clan's dominance once and for all. They are the last tree gladiators, the Super Flora Fighters!
Aaand I just made up that entire story, because there is no backstory I found. You are an acorn, now do what acorns do and grow!

Mechanics
Your acorn can basically extend branches and roots of a certain length. Using WASD or the arrow keys, you choose the angle and the length, then press space or LMB and watch the growth. At the end, a node will form, from which you can extend new branches and roots etc.
Growing into one of the reservoirs in the ground will grant you a higher rate of water collection. Water is the currency for your plant. Each branch and root will cost you. Branches on the other hand give you solar energy to... I think that's just for stockpiling. The game says that growth is helped by resource reserves so that is probably it.
My "Call of Duty" comparison is due to the fact that single-player has less meat on its bones than a "The Afterlife's Next Topmodel" competition, held by bored skeletons at an unfashionable graveyard after two in the morning. The game says that it's training for the multiplayer, which is played in a splitscreen. Not having a lot of people around me right now I could call to come over and play an indie game with me, I can't speak to the joys of the multiplayer. It may dispense the most enjoyable experience since man first picked up a controller to humiliate his fellow man with digital punishment and clever insults. It could maybe work in a "Mount Your Friends" kind of way, but I don't know how much long-term appeal I would find in it or when a round would end. The single-player seemed happy enough to let me grow my plant into geometrical shapes above ground and an unstructured mess below the grass, and not give me an ending before I decided on my own that I had seen enough.
Neither can I say whether the two perks you pick at the beginning (e. g. faster root growth, faster sun collection...) are well-balanced or not.

Presentation
My first impression came in the form of a very chippy tune blaring from my speakers, but I got used to it quickly. Same goes for the graphics - they do their job and you can identify all the party of your tree at a glance.
I may be critical of some mechanics and the replay value, but the game embraces the theme of the contest. I think gaming's greatest strength is to put you in the shoes of another person, creature or concept and to let you make the decisions from there (see "Crusader Kings II" for medieval rulers, "This War Of Mine" for war survivors, "Democracy 3" for politicians and "Monster Loves You" for... well, monsters). In this case, you make decisions the same way a tree would. Where do I have to go to find water? Do I have enough to expand?
Sadly, this is a rather thin layer of decision making. Expand now or expand later seems to be the most important decision and the game does not tell you how much your plan is going to cost you. All you get is a voice saying "Insufficient water" should your tree be malnourished.

On the whole...
I would have liked to see the game make more of its promising concepts. The feeling of growth and creating a root network tickled my fancy, but the expansion above ground and the seemingly aimless gameplay left me disappointed. "Super Flora Fighter" could be fun if it embraces its theme a bit more, maybe adds some additional upgrades to be bought with sun points and brushes up on its presentation.
___

Link: http://contest.gamedevfort.com/submission/403#.VdiOmvntlBc

Dev: Corey

Time Played: 15 minutes

Got My Vote? No, but I hope it gets a bit more development in the future. There is the seed of an interesting game there. Come on, did you really think I would let that pun get away?

{Review} Orthodox Seed

"Orthodox Seed" by Etaercion

The title of this game confused me a bit. It sounded a bit like a secret operation concocted by the CIA, FSB or BND. "We have a green light, Orthodox Seed is growing." But while the orthodox part still baffles me, I kind of get the seed part and the game's connection to growth.
The game's site tells me to go to Wikipedia to find out about the concept, but biology and me have a truce. I don't bother it, it doesn't bother me. I intend to keep my side of the bargain...

Story
You are a cactus.
You like flowers.

Mechanics
Maybe I am doing the game a disservice and there is much more story than what I experienced. But to my mind, the fact that I could sum up my story experience in seven words does not matter too much. This is a puzzle game, and it knows where its focus is, in the puzzling. If the developer decided not to include a thirty minute cutscene where the cactus explains his infatuation with flowers, that is fine by me.
Movement feels instantly familiar. A and D make you move, W makes you jump, and the yawning abyss makes you die. You walk to the flower and presto, next level.
The real twist comes when you find a watering can. These handy things allow you to copy paste a small grid of the level. Red is for copying, purple is for pasting. While I wish there was an easier way to cancel a misclick in the copying phase and I thought that the can would remember my selection, you get used to the system very quickly. You feel moderately smart when placing new platforms.
When you realise you can just copy an empty area and paste it on walls to make them shrink away, you may even go up to "rather smart".
I found the "Orthodox Seed"'s terminology a bit confusing, when one level prompted me in no uncertain terms with subtle huge black letters to undo my changes. I couldn't see a better solution with the resources I (thought I) had. But being stuck anyway, I tried it and in a eureka-moment saw my copying rectangle reappear. A grin spread over my face. So the level changes are not permanent... My, my, isn't that interesting.
Another grinworthy moment is when you realise that you can change the level while jumping, disappearing the ceiling above your head, jumping and making the floor-formerly-known-as-ceiling reappear beneath your feet.
After that is when the game hits its stride. You feel a bit like Poison Ivy, bending the chlorophyll-filled levels to your will, making them shrink before you and regrow after you have majestically cactussed past.
There are also critters, probably cactuphagi, and blocks with big skull on them that are unaffected by your magical powers. Encounters with them yield... expected results.
One thing you should know is that "Orthodox Seed" doesn't seem to save your progress. When I came back into my game, it presented me with the first levels which my genius cactus (cactenius?) now felt far too smart for.
Cacti can be a bit arrogant. True story.
So keep that caveat in mind if a particular level makes you want to ragequit.

Presentation
If you look at the first picture on the game's site, the writing is probably the first thing that catches your eye. And while it does explain the mechanics rather succinctly, you might want to scroll a bit farther so there are no letters distracting you from the pleasant green dream that is the game's aesthetic.
It is instantly recognisable what is platform and what is background, no small matter in a platformer. One look at the screen give you all the information, thanks to excellent, simple design.
The soft music adds to the almost trance like feeling.

On the whole...
"Orthodox Seed" is a great example of design. It takes its central mechanic of copy pasting the level and sees how much juice it can get from it. Let me tell you, it's a lot. Your powers of level manipulation challenge you in two ways, since it is equally important to know which part to copy and where to put it. If I were better at puzzle games and platformers, I might love "Orthodox Seed". The way it is, I just really like this little game.
___

Link: http://contest.gamedevfort.com/submission/632#.VdS7Z_ntlBc

Dev: Etaercion

Time Played: 25 minutes

Got My Vote? Yes, since it implements its central idea so very well and variedly.

{Review} Zombie Ablockalypse

"Zombie Ablockalypse" by Gazzapper

Either my work day wreaked more havoc on my brain than I thought, or I am a more entitled gamer than I thought. Because I didn't actually read the instructions and relied on the game to tell me what I needed to know, I almost dismissed "Zombie Ablockalypse" too soon.

Story
Story presentation in the actual game is certainly a bit lacking. Which is to say, it tells you to shoot the zombies. Okay, fair enough. I don't need to know that the hero's name is Private Joe Blockhead (which is not me being sarcastic, by the way, that's his name, according to the contest site). And that your gun is a "cure gun"... It's a game about shooting block zombies, so nobody is going to ask to see your work on that invention. Moving on.

Mechanics
I played "Zombie Ablockalypse" with my keyboard, since my controller always requires some amount of dark voodoo magic and a sacrifice to actually work. But that was not a problem. Moving with WASD and shooting with the arrow keys went pretty smoothly.
Good thing too, because that is the games core mechanic. Or lat's rather say core and mantle, with a crust made out of item stashes and growing opponents which you... have to shoot.
You are put in a room with several other blocks. Healthy ones are green, infected ones are purple and tend to bite green ones. On the minimap you can see the spread of the infection. This system may seem simple, but I enjoyed the feeling of battling the tide.
But when I cure a zombie, his pals tend to run to the newly healed block to see if he is alright and, if possible, turn him back into one of them. This often results in the zombies moving around in pairs. One of them is being used as a human (zombie? blocky?) shield, absorbing all my bullets that do a body good, while the zombie is grinning at the back.
Staying ahead of the zombies is relatively simple, the block version of "Zombieland"'s Columbus would only have one rule in his notebook: "Don't get bitten". Simple does not mean easy, especially if you let the infestation fester too much and are facing overwhelming odds.
You can recruit reinforcements that you find in static blocks to grow your own army. So the game nails the growth theme of the competition.
Only when I read the instructions did I manage to find them though, because the walls looked like they were just shrugging off my bullets, so I left them alone. As I said, entitled.
And now I am wondering if there is any relation between the blocks moving around and the blocks making up the walls. Are they maybe... dead blocks? Am I fighting of the living dead by robbing the dead dead?
Anyway, higher difficulties fill the room up with more blocks to block your shots (see what I did there?) and to serve as zombie chow, giving the infection more room to spread.

Presentation
The best word I can think of to describe the game's look is "homegrown". It's colourful blocks shooting colorful bullets. Nothing wrong with it, but nothing to write home about either. The popping sound your weapons make underlines this inoffensive tone.

On the whole...
I feel like there is little in the Ablockalypse I can sink my teeth into. I'm not someone to go score-hunting, and while the mechanics are competently implemented, there is little variation to keep me coming back.
If you just want to evade and shoot something and are not in the mood for actual weapons, blood and gruesomeness, "Zombie Ablockalypse" scratches that itch.
___

Link: http://contest.gamedevfort.com/submission/213#.VdIXBPntlBc

Dev: Gazzapper

Time Played: 20 minutes

Got My Vote? No, since I feel the same about it as about "Far Cry 3". I don't regret my time with it, but there is little calling me back to it.