Remember that spotlight we did a little while ago about the computer repair simulator? of course you do but if you dont a link can be found here http://tinyurl.com/hxwqfp8
well we were lucky enough to snatch away Garrett from the busy life of deving and get a quick interview with him and I'am going to publish it below, this is one of the things we here at SGR like the most about what we do, getting to know the people behind the games we enjoy, its all well and good knowing " oh this group made the game" but when you actually get a chance to talk to the people you find out things about them that shows where they got their inspiration from and you can really tell if they are passionate about the game they have made, or if they are just pushing out game after game to keep the lights on.
Lucas-"So Garrett, the game is great but we all want to know.. how long have you been working on it."
Garrett-"I started working on the game in late November 2015, implementing the base code."
Lucas-"interesting concept for a game, computer repair, mind letting everyone know when and how you can up with something so out there?"
Garrett-"I work in the IT field and I am a geek at heart. I have been programming for a very long time (since I was 13, now 31), and for some strange reason I was looking for a game like this that had the detail and reality...but could not find one. That was the same night I began drawing up concept art in my cold lonely basement. Several days later I invited two of my friends over (Monty Wilsher and Andrew MacArthur) to help me put ideas around the game play. From then, the project sat idle for a while, and was picked back up in November of 2015."
Lucas-"you mentions you had a couple of friends help you at the start, do you have a team you work with these days or is it a solo operation."
Garrett-"I started alone to get the concept going, and once the concept was proven, I picked a few other team members up to help accelerate the progress.Here is the current team:
Garrett - programming, modeling, basic graphics, web, server, music
Euthumis Kechagioglou - website manager, marketing, press, ideas (he is also getting into programming)
Brooke Swindell - graphics / fonts
Andrew MacArthur - sound FX"
Lucas-" awesome awesome, enough about business things, lets learn a bit about you, why , why did you get into game deving?"
Garrett-"Since I was a young kid that played his first Atari game, I knew I wanted to ultimately launch a video game one day. I remember playing Joust like it was yesterday."
Lucas-"i have to admit the Atari was a bit before my time but i can understand the passion it gives,you mentioned always wanting to publish a game one day, how long have you been working towards that dream?"
Garrett-"My passion is making video games, but I have always tinkered. I started modeling and coding at the age of 13, my first game being a simple text game built in Q-Basic on a Windows 3.1 computer. Second game was a checker game also in Q-Basic on Windows 3.1. In between I tinkered with many different software licenses including that of 3D Game Studio, Torque, Realm Crafter, Java 3D, and a few others I could afford, but settled on 3D Game Studio. We are now at 31 years old so I have been developing games for 18 years."
Lucas-" wow you have been deving almost as long as I've been alive that's pretty damn cool i have to say, i just want to say thank you for agreeing to this inter view anything else you'd like to say before we part ways?"
Garrett-"The Alpha Concept launch was very successful, the month isn't even over and we now have over 10,000 downloads of the game (good thing we updated our web server haha) and a lot of great feedback...I did not expect this to take off like it did, as I tell my family and friends, "I have created a monster". I want to personally thank everyone who helped prove this concept, this project shall move into the next phase which is "commercializing" it so that the code is solid and the game is actually playable with a story. The other item at hand is working with hardware / software manufacturers to use their branding and technology which has been pretty successful so far. This week alone we have had 2 publishing requests which is very positive. I am excited to see where the future goes with this software technology."
and there you have it, as you can see Garrett does truly have a passion for what hes doing hes been ding it for close to 20 years now, if there's a dev out there that you want us to interview be sure to send us an email or hit us up on twitter and we will do our best to get in contact with them, as always links will be down below to our email, twitter and our you tube channel be sure to follow us for more cool things related to the world of indie gaming.
---Lucas Cause
Spotlight game Review
https://twitter.com/TheLarryLazz
https://youtube.com/larryplaysgames
Contact Info:
Email us here at---spotlightgamesreview@gmail.com
follow us on twitter at www.twitter.com/Spotlight_gr
check out our youtube channel over at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7RoOKJBv1BU3yRQFV20ejw
^^^ we cant get a custom url just yet but we are working on it
Showing posts with label spotlight. Show all posts
Showing posts with label spotlight. Show all posts
Monday, 24 October 2016
Skybreak the No Man's Sky that isnt shit?
Sky break is one of those games that come along once every blue moon, they are really well put together, they look outstanding and they dont break the bank. it one of the games that im kicking my self for not knowing about earlier in its development because i would have loved to support these guys in anyway i could to get this out sooner.
the game is made by FarSky Interactive the same people who brought you far sky a couple of years ago back in 2014 and it shows they haven't just been sitting on their thumbs the whole time they have been hard at work.
So picture this, the earth is dying, a new virus has emerged and has started wiping out the human population , what does our world government do? why they send people into space to research and find a cure of course, but wait... somethings gone wrong your ship has crashed and you have been flung from the debris, you awake with a crushed ship and no clue where you are, you must battle the elements and the "Wild Life", now i use quotation marks because the wild life are robots.. or mechs i should say, picture wolves but robot wolves really angry robot wolves.
the guys over at farSky Interactive really do know how to do survival games and after the recent outrage from the community over the whole No Man's Sky ordeal its amazing to see devs not shying away from exploration space type games, its a bit of a leap to compare the two but i do feel they share a similar approach in the type of game they are going for
Gameplay
controls are simple and intuitive, WASD to move,space to jump,mouse to aim and shift to run/sprint.you have an endurance bar that limits how long you can run for, this is also uses a 1/4 at a time by jumping, you have an inventory that stores your items and an ammo pouch type bag that holds you ammo, kind of self explanatory i know but it also hold your hacking tool, i like to think of it as a hacking taser as it shoots out like a taser would on to the mechs in the world, speaking of mech, ever wanted a pet robot that is also a bad-ass killing machine? yeah you do who doesn't want a bad-ass killing robot? well sky-break has them, this is the main function on the hacking tool, to hack into the robot after yo beat them in battle and they begin to listing to you, the do things such as follow you, and attack enemies to help you, they can be upgraded from the sky ship with fragments you collect form beating other mobs, the same goes with your self you can upgrade your Armour your blaster, your endurance just like any other sort of rpg type game. 8/10 its a very well done approach to a very saturated market but they managed to break through and make something great here.
Visuals
Outstanding, simply amazing, beautiful. For a game made in the unity engine, an engine that alot of indie devs have used and not been able to pull much off with, FarSky have done wonders, it is hands down one of if not the prettiest games i have played in 2016, and the optimization holly balls, i was able to run this game on a 6 year old gpu in full HD on high with 60+ fps, which is the bare minimum these days for a quality experience, 9/10 just because of the fact nothing can be a perfect 10 as there is always something wrong.. i just cant find it yet.
Fun
Again farsky are hitting all the right boxes, at the time of me writing this I'am only 3 hours into the game,( I've died a fair few times and had to repeat alot of stuff) and I'am loving it, i dont see myself putting it down until its finished which is something i dont do often, normally with games like this ill play it for 6-7 hours and get bored but this games has the potential to hook you and be a classic, i can see it being something people will speed run, i can see it being something you will come back to in 5-10 years when you are looking for that rush of excitement of a nostalgic game 8/10 in the fun department.
25/30 or an 83% in our scoring its the highest i think i have ever scored a game and that's just because its the best game i have played in a long time, it has me wanting to play more, to explore more, to go and find this dam cure for the virus and save the world and i love that about it, its making games fun again,something people seem to miss when they make good games, the focus to much on the micro transaction instead of just making a good game as always links down below to where you can find the game and the devs web page, I've also linked to my own personal channel where i have started a play through of the game if you guys would like to follow me on my journey through the world that is SkyBreak.
Lucas Cause
sky break
http://www.farskyinteractive.com/skybreak/
http://store.steampowered.com/app/405370/
Personal Channel with play through https://www.youtube.com/larryplaysgames
Video playthrough can be found here https://youtu.be/RtBXijSJMY4
Email us here at---spotlightgamesreview@gmail.com
follow us on twitter at www.twitter.com/Spotlight_gr
check out our youtube channel over at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7RoOKJBv1BU3yRQFV20ejw
^^^ we cant get a custom url just yet but we are working on it
the game is made by FarSky Interactive the same people who brought you far sky a couple of years ago back in 2014 and it shows they haven't just been sitting on their thumbs the whole time they have been hard at work.
So picture this, the earth is dying, a new virus has emerged and has started wiping out the human population , what does our world government do? why they send people into space to research and find a cure of course, but wait... somethings gone wrong your ship has crashed and you have been flung from the debris, you awake with a crushed ship and no clue where you are, you must battle the elements and the "Wild Life", now i use quotation marks because the wild life are robots.. or mechs i should say, picture wolves but robot wolves really angry robot wolves.
the guys over at farSky Interactive really do know how to do survival games and after the recent outrage from the community over the whole No Man's Sky ordeal its amazing to see devs not shying away from exploration space type games, its a bit of a leap to compare the two but i do feel they share a similar approach in the type of game they are going for
Gameplay
controls are simple and intuitive, WASD to move,space to jump,mouse to aim and shift to run/sprint.you have an endurance bar that limits how long you can run for, this is also uses a 1/4 at a time by jumping, you have an inventory that stores your items and an ammo pouch type bag that holds you ammo, kind of self explanatory i know but it also hold your hacking tool, i like to think of it as a hacking taser as it shoots out like a taser would on to the mechs in the world, speaking of mech, ever wanted a pet robot that is also a bad-ass killing machine? yeah you do who doesn't want a bad-ass killing robot? well sky-break has them, this is the main function on the hacking tool, to hack into the robot after yo beat them in battle and they begin to listing to you, the do things such as follow you, and attack enemies to help you, they can be upgraded from the sky ship with fragments you collect form beating other mobs, the same goes with your self you can upgrade your Armour your blaster, your endurance just like any other sort of rpg type game. 8/10 its a very well done approach to a very saturated market but they managed to break through and make something great here.
Visuals
Outstanding, simply amazing, beautiful. For a game made in the unity engine, an engine that alot of indie devs have used and not been able to pull much off with, FarSky have done wonders, it is hands down one of if not the prettiest games i have played in 2016, and the optimization holly balls, i was able to run this game on a 6 year old gpu in full HD on high with 60+ fps, which is the bare minimum these days for a quality experience, 9/10 just because of the fact nothing can be a perfect 10 as there is always something wrong.. i just cant find it yet.
Fun
Again farsky are hitting all the right boxes, at the time of me writing this I'am only 3 hours into the game,( I've died a fair few times and had to repeat alot of stuff) and I'am loving it, i dont see myself putting it down until its finished which is something i dont do often, normally with games like this ill play it for 6-7 hours and get bored but this games has the potential to hook you and be a classic, i can see it being something people will speed run, i can see it being something you will come back to in 5-10 years when you are looking for that rush of excitement of a nostalgic game 8/10 in the fun department.
25/30 or an 83% in our scoring its the highest i think i have ever scored a game and that's just because its the best game i have played in a long time, it has me wanting to play more, to explore more, to go and find this dam cure for the virus and save the world and i love that about it, its making games fun again,something people seem to miss when they make good games, the focus to much on the micro transaction instead of just making a good game as always links down below to where you can find the game and the devs web page, I've also linked to my own personal channel where i have started a play through of the game if you guys would like to follow me on my journey through the world that is SkyBreak.
Lucas Cause
sky break
http://www.farskyinteractive.com/skybreak/
http://store.steampowered.com/app/405370/
Video playthrough can be found here https://youtu.be/RtBXijSJMY4
Email us here at---spotlightgamesreview@gmail.com
follow us on twitter at www.twitter.com/Spotlight_gr
check out our youtube channel over at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7RoOKJBv1BU3yRQFV20ejw
^^^ we cant get a custom url just yet but we are working on it
Tuesday, 18 October 2016
Computer Repair Simulator Spotlight
How many times have you had a computer issue? how many of those times did you wish you knew what things were so you could go in and know exactly what the problem is? and how often have you opened up your pc and gone " shit.. there's so much going on where do i start"
if you were anything like me for a very long time then you probably tick all those boxes, but what if i told you, there's a way you can mess around with a computer with no worries of breaking something, no issues if you forget the thermal paste, no issue if you don't ground your self... and it could be used to teach kids basics without spending $1000s on old hardware?
Computer Repair Simulator does just that, the aim of the "game" ( if you can even call it that id call it a teachers aid and sell it to the school boards wink wink) is to bring computer repair to schools and business around. The goal is to use this "game" to train people and help them to understand what does on inside a computer, at least that's how i see it.
some back ground on the devs themselves, the team is composed of 3 people,a lead programmer-Garrett Swindell,a marketing and web developer Euthimis Kexagioglou and their graphics artist Brook Swindell, all with full time jobs or still at school them self's.
the project its self is not funded in any way and is instead backed by the creators themselves with both software and money they have put into the project.that said they are looking into other funding methods to help speed along the processes to avoid delays where they can.
so far the "game"(really need a new name for it as its not a game )has been in development for around 9 months, that may not sound like a lot of time but when factoring in the fact they all have full time responsibilities and only being able to work on it in spare time leads to slower development, not much they can do really.
CRS can be picked up on their website in the alpha stage here------http://s627866874.onlinehome.us/alpha-game-downloads
now on to actual "game-play" the game plays as a person who works out of their shed repairing computers for anyone who calls, this can be anything from replacing a ram stick to adding a new agp (accelerated graphics port) all the way down to removing the solder from the underside of the connections.
it used basic wasd keys to move around the table you work from with the mouse wheel being used to scroll in and out, one thing id like to note is that you can not invert the mouse wheel scroll which may be a small issue for people who play with inverted controls.
Lets gt into how a " round" plays out shall we? picture this...
GamePlay
your standing in your shed on a sunny afternoon , your phone rings.. " hello there seems to be something wrong with my computer it {xyz} can i bring it around?"
you are then given the pc to work on, you must first check the work order to find out what the problem is, from there if you dont know what part is what, they offer an inspect tool to will flash they broken parts in red to indicate what parts need to be replaced, after you have identified which parts are broken you get on to the "fun" part,
you must individually remove each part one by one until the broken part can be taken out, so for example, if the cpu is dead, you must first take the screws from the side panel off, then the panel its self, then the 24pin power plug. then the cpu fan plug, then the fan clips, the fan... all the way down until the last drop of solder is removed and the cpu can be removed.
now that you have the broken part taken off you go into your inventory and find the broken part along with anything else you have taken off, you have either the option to sell the broken part, or you can repair the broken part, from what i can tell in the future you will have the option to buy new parts or just repair them based on how badly it is broken but at this stage all you can do is repair the part.
Great parts fixed,now you get to re assemble the pc, this is where the game takes its turn from game into teacher aid like i mentioned before, this is the part where you get to teach people how a pc goes together, no admittedly you cant show the force needed to tighten a screw, or feel the force needed to latch a cpu( if you haven't done it before its a little scary using that much force on something so expensive)
now what happens if you forget something? well nothing.. the game wont let you finish the job until everything is done, at the end of this i will have a link to a video of some game-play with some of my experiences.
for how well the game plays, with the small bugs i found with the wasd keys not working, easily fixed by just clicking the mouse its a solid 7/10 you cant say this game doesn't work because it does the game-play is solid and it just ..works
Visuals
the game looks.. as you would expect, its clear that its just one person working on it, but thats fine, you dont need bright flashy lights and over the top colours on a simulation game, especially if you are trying to show pc parts, a ram stick should look like a ram stick, a cpu fan should look like a cpu fan and so on and so on, i do like the fact that if you open the shed door you can see a lake and a couple tree, but i feel they could have done a bit more with the inside work shop space, all you have is a relatively empty peg board aside from a couple screw drivers, a desk lamp a blue anti static mat and a couple cupboards behind you, i couple posters or even a car model in the the back ground could have further improved the atmosphere, im giving the visual aspect of the game a 6/10 just because i dont get the impression of being a guy in a shed fixing pc like they are going for.
Fun
This is a hard one to give a final score on... because its all subjective at the end of the day, but to me , the person who picked the game up because of it looked interesting not knowing what to expect when i hit the download button.. i had fun, its exactly what the game implies, its a simulation game based around fixing computers, now that might not be fun for everyone,and thats fine you have to remember this isnt the sort of thing they are trying to sell to the masses, this is a very perticular type of product that i feel is perfect for who they are aiming it towards so im giving it a 6/10
Finale thoughts on Computer Repair Simulator, for what it is, and the amount of time they ave spent on it its good. its no AAA title but they arent trying to be , the aim here isnt to take over the sim world and have everyone rushing out the door to replace that broken cmos battery on the clients pc, i keep bringing this point up but its a teaching aid, polish it up maybe add a bit more personality to it in way of design ie that car model i said or a poster, and take it to the board of studies in your area with the amount of time we spend on computers these days and how young kids are being taught how to use them this would be a perfect demonstration tool for a teacher to show off
Remember to check out the games website http://s627866874.onlinehome.us/
and while your at it give us a follow on twitter over at https://twitter.com/Spotlight_gr
anyone that wishes to get in contact with us our email is spotlightgamesreview@gmail.com
check out our youtube channel over at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7RoOKJBv1BU3yRQFV20ejw
^^^ we cant get a custom url just yet but we are working on it
link to game play of the game https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vglScmZ-Q58
if you were anything like me for a very long time then you probably tick all those boxes, but what if i told you, there's a way you can mess around with a computer with no worries of breaking something, no issues if you forget the thermal paste, no issue if you don't ground your self... and it could be used to teach kids basics without spending $1000s on old hardware?
Computer Repair Simulator does just that, the aim of the "game" ( if you can even call it that id call it a teachers aid and sell it to the school boards wink wink) is to bring computer repair to schools and business around. The goal is to use this "game" to train people and help them to understand what does on inside a computer, at least that's how i see it.
some back ground on the devs themselves, the team is composed of 3 people,a lead programmer-Garrett Swindell,a marketing and web developer Euthimis Kexagioglou and their graphics artist Brook Swindell, all with full time jobs or still at school them self's.
the project its self is not funded in any way and is instead backed by the creators themselves with both software and money they have put into the project.that said they are looking into other funding methods to help speed along the processes to avoid delays where they can.
so far the "game"(really need a new name for it as its not a game )has been in development for around 9 months, that may not sound like a lot of time but when factoring in the fact they all have full time responsibilities and only being able to work on it in spare time leads to slower development, not much they can do really.
CRS can be picked up on their website in the alpha stage here------http://s627866874.onlinehome.us/alpha-game-downloads
now on to actual "game-play" the game plays as a person who works out of their shed repairing computers for anyone who calls, this can be anything from replacing a ram stick to adding a new agp (accelerated graphics port) all the way down to removing the solder from the underside of the connections.
it used basic wasd keys to move around the table you work from with the mouse wheel being used to scroll in and out, one thing id like to note is that you can not invert the mouse wheel scroll which may be a small issue for people who play with inverted controls.
Lets gt into how a " round" plays out shall we? picture this...
GamePlay
your standing in your shed on a sunny afternoon , your phone rings.. " hello there seems to be something wrong with my computer it {xyz} can i bring it around?"
you are then given the pc to work on, you must first check the work order to find out what the problem is, from there if you dont know what part is what, they offer an inspect tool to will flash they broken parts in red to indicate what parts need to be replaced, after you have identified which parts are broken you get on to the "fun" part,
you must individually remove each part one by one until the broken part can be taken out, so for example, if the cpu is dead, you must first take the screws from the side panel off, then the panel its self, then the 24pin power plug. then the cpu fan plug, then the fan clips, the fan... all the way down until the last drop of solder is removed and the cpu can be removed.
now that you have the broken part taken off you go into your inventory and find the broken part along with anything else you have taken off, you have either the option to sell the broken part, or you can repair the broken part, from what i can tell in the future you will have the option to buy new parts or just repair them based on how badly it is broken but at this stage all you can do is repair the part.
Great parts fixed,now you get to re assemble the pc, this is where the game takes its turn from game into teacher aid like i mentioned before, this is the part where you get to teach people how a pc goes together, no admittedly you cant show the force needed to tighten a screw, or feel the force needed to latch a cpu( if you haven't done it before its a little scary using that much force on something so expensive)
now what happens if you forget something? well nothing.. the game wont let you finish the job until everything is done, at the end of this i will have a link to a video of some game-play with some of my experiences.
for how well the game plays, with the small bugs i found with the wasd keys not working, easily fixed by just clicking the mouse its a solid 7/10 you cant say this game doesn't work because it does the game-play is solid and it just ..works
Visuals
the game looks.. as you would expect, its clear that its just one person working on it, but thats fine, you dont need bright flashy lights and over the top colours on a simulation game, especially if you are trying to show pc parts, a ram stick should look like a ram stick, a cpu fan should look like a cpu fan and so on and so on, i do like the fact that if you open the shed door you can see a lake and a couple tree, but i feel they could have done a bit more with the inside work shop space, all you have is a relatively empty peg board aside from a couple screw drivers, a desk lamp a blue anti static mat and a couple cupboards behind you, i couple posters or even a car model in the the back ground could have further improved the atmosphere, im giving the visual aspect of the game a 6/10 just because i dont get the impression of being a guy in a shed fixing pc like they are going for.
Fun
This is a hard one to give a final score on... because its all subjective at the end of the day, but to me , the person who picked the game up because of it looked interesting not knowing what to expect when i hit the download button.. i had fun, its exactly what the game implies, its a simulation game based around fixing computers, now that might not be fun for everyone,and thats fine you have to remember this isnt the sort of thing they are trying to sell to the masses, this is a very perticular type of product that i feel is perfect for who they are aiming it towards so im giving it a 6/10
Finale thoughts on Computer Repair Simulator, for what it is, and the amount of time they ave spent on it its good. its no AAA title but they arent trying to be , the aim here isnt to take over the sim world and have everyone rushing out the door to replace that broken cmos battery on the clients pc, i keep bringing this point up but its a teaching aid, polish it up maybe add a bit more personality to it in way of design ie that car model i said or a poster, and take it to the board of studies in your area with the amount of time we spend on computers these days and how young kids are being taught how to use them this would be a perfect demonstration tool for a teacher to show off
Remember to check out the games website http://s627866874.onlinehome.us/
and while your at it give us a follow on twitter over at https://twitter.com/Spotlight_gr
anyone that wishes to get in contact with us our email is spotlightgamesreview@gmail.com
check out our youtube channel over at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7RoOKJBv1BU3yRQFV20ejw
^^^ we cant get a custom url just yet but we are working on it
link to game play of the game https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vglScmZ-Q58
Sunday, 16 October 2016
Artificial Selection Game Spotlight
So recently I reached out on twitter for any devs with playable builds of a game they have or a game they know someone who’s is working on, and asked if they wanted some press, and with what I thought was a lost cause, I was contacted by the one of the creators of the game Artificial Selection, a game that has been in the works for a while now and is even going on the steam greenlight program later this year, so after a little back and forth from them I was given a Dev build of the game to do a spotlight on, which I have over on my YouTube channel, if you’d prefer to just watch the game and see what it’s all about, you can head over to www.youtube.com/larryplaysgames
But… for those of you that would like to read my thoughts on the game I’ve decided to to a full write up of my thoughts and idea so let’s get this started shall we?
Firstly I’d like to reiterate that this is a Dev build and not a public release of the game so anyone who wants to play this I’m sorry you’ll have to get in contact with the devs, and maybe, you might be able to work something out no promises though.
So what’s this game about? It’s a 2D top down shooter, that’s what it is, nothing new, but… instead of just using the normal weapons upgrading system what they have done is to “mutate” the weapons which I thought was a really nice touch this is done with creates that you can pick up, but I’m getting a head of myself a little aren’t I, let’s start from the beginning,
The first thing I saw when I loaded the game was the menu screen, its vibrant RGB neon coloured grid back ground really made the darkish blue menu buttons pop, the buttons themselves have small electrical trails in them around the words, which I thought made it stand out more. There are 7 menu buttons in total and I’ll use them kind of like a table of context for the post to explain the elements in each.
Campaign: So the campaign starts out with a basic story of a good guy having to stop a bad guy from unleashing a terrible weapon on civilization, pretty basic story line but from what I was told the main feature of this game wasn’t the story as much as it was the gameplay, think of the campaign kind of like a tutorial, it teaches you the ropes on how to play so your can jump in and make your own maps to play with friends, kind of like with AAA titles like call of duty, you play the first little bit of the story mode to learn how to play, then you go and jump online to play with friends. So with this being said there are still 8 playable levels with only one of the not having any enemies to kill just power ups and health points this is just before the boss door.
Controls are pretty standard WASD to move, left mouse button to fire main weapon right to fire special, 1234 to swap between weapons, R to reload(game will auto reload but if you want you can manually do it) and the spaced bar to dash.
The enemies in this game don’t go on patrol rounds per say, they are activated via sound and sight, so if one sees you it will come after you and alert the others, just like it will do if it hears the sound of your weapon firing, which I thought made it more fun and challenging, trying to see how far I could get without being seen was a nice touch.
Destroyable environment, not something a lot of games have but something more should, gone with the days of just barrels or pots being broken to give you things, while this game only has specific things that hold items, the fact that I could sit there and spam a wall till it broke was pretty fun (and no you can’t just skip to the last level… I tried).
The music for this game was created by one of the developers of the game Chris mills-bowling, he has a YouTube channel with tons of his own music on it links to this are over in the description of the video if you want to find out, its mostly upbeat techno influenced, relying heavily on both a synthesizer and drums but also using a guitar and even a violin during the open of the track, this all combined adds to a create a fantastic sound track for the game, if I had any complaints about it, it would be that it is quite repetitive, I understand that making a song that lasts for that long will become repetitive, and that there are only so many sounds one can work with.
The more you go through the game, the harder it gets, right? Well yeah it wouldn’t be a challenge if it was easy, to many games these days are too easy to beat, and this one is kind of the same, yes it’s hard to beat the boss, but it’s the boss it should be hard, but the a part from just adding more to the screen on later levels, I didn’t feel that it was really a challenge, which is where the arena comes in.
Arena: Want an arena mode? Yeah this game has it, and boy is it fun, I felt it was just what the game needed, and granted this was what the developers wanted the game to be, I would have been quite happy with just playing this, with a max wave size of 10 waves with a possible 50 mobs each wave and an actual difficulty setting, it was where I spend most of my time with the game.
Editor: Ever thought “dam if only I could make my own levels in this game and make it how I want!’? well they have you covered in this one with a possible 33 different textures to use as walls and a total of 28 different ground types, I doubt you’ll have problems finding room to place the whopping 64 different spirits, now apart from those in the editor mode there’s really only 2 other interesting things, there’s a load/save feature and a test mode, where you can spawn in a player and test out your idea, if you watch the video I go over one of the small levels I made as a test of some of the textures.
Credits: It’s just what it sounds like, it’s the credits it has the names of all the people who worked on the game, including the names of people they got sounds from, they fly across the screen which is nice, but it makes it a little hard to hover over the names to find out what they person did on the game.
Settings: With things like volume, resolution, an in game fps counter there really isn’t much you can’t change in the game, vsync to particle physics, having a good setting menu is key to a game, if you can’t have the game run the way you want, you won’t want to play it. So having the ability to do so was defiantly a tick in the right box.
Simulation: This was one of the things I wasn’t too sure about, pressing this button will play out a 10v10 match on the back ground, while I agree it is a good thing to show as it shows what the game looks like, it felt like there was too much going on, onscreen. Maybe have it as a watchable video or something, but having it playing on the back ground was just a little too much for my liking.
Exit Game: Not much I can really say about this, it was a button to exit the game.
Now comes the part of the review/spotlight that most people look for, a score rating, now here at SpotlightGameReview I do things a little differently the game is broken in to 3 section, Gameplay, Visuals, and Fun, I go over each really quickly and give a score out of 10 for each for a possible best score of 30
Gameplay: With the use of the standard WASD keys and the mouse, the game was very enjoyable for both me, someone who uses a mouse and keyboard often and even others in my house hold who are more console oriented, we all agreed that the mechanics and the way the game was set out was good simple, But yet good for replay ability. With that said I give a 7/10
Visuals: The game was full of onscreen action tons of partials fly all over the place, explosions and dead robot bits, but while I enjoyed this, others felt it was a little overdone , now granted you can turn the partials down to the lowest setting, but to play that low just didn’t give the same immersion 6/10
Fun: This is the big one, how fun was it, if you’re a fan of beatem ups, that what it is, while it has a campaign that’s not what the game was designed for, its designed as an arena game, see how long you can survive, if your also a fan of casual gaming, it works well as something to sit down with a couple of people and try to beat each other’s score, But, if you like to sit down for a game and play the story sorry but this isn’t for you. Still though 8/10
So my final score and thoughts of the game 21/30 or for the % people out there 70%
The game is fun, don’t get me wrong I had a blast with it but being someone who isn’t really a fan of that style of game I wasn’t fully devoted to playing it, and I don’t think I’ll go back to the game until it’s at least on steam greenlight…
Beast Towers Spotlight
Tower defence games, over done? used up ideas? nothing more to give to the gaming world? these are all things one might say when they are told about such a game, But i was lucky enough to try out something a little different, something new, something interesting… something French.
I got in contact with Baptiste Largaiolli the creator of the brand new tower defence game for mobile devices,
“Beast Towers”, and when i first herd about the idea i thought to my self a lot of the things you are
right now, “how is this going to be any different then all the rest”. But after a little back and forth with
Baptiste Largaiolli i got the go ahead to try out his game and was given a test copy to do this
Spotlight with.
“Beast Towers”, and when i first herd about the idea i thought to my self a lot of the things you are
right now, “how is this going to be any different then all the rest”. But after a little back and forth with
Baptiste Largaiolli i got the go ahead to try out his game and was given a test copy to do this
Spotlight with.
But first a little back story shall we? get us in the zone for this game, let us get to know the real Beast Towers. development of Beat Towers was started back in April 2014, with the developer only really working on it on weekends as he is a free lance Unity3D dev , so in total time, he spend about 4 months worth of time developing the game, but he first got the idea to start working on it as far back as the Ipad 1 days. With this device clearly not being powerful enough for what he had in mind he decide to wait until devices were at least as powerful as an Ipad2, these features that he wished the game to have included full 3D,and to have both enemies and towers animated.
The project was a one man team, but Baptiste has hopes to work with a 2D or 3D artist for later updates and later games, and with the introductions out of the way lets get into why you are really here huh? the game play.
So the game starts off like any other, a simple menu screen, with deep classical music giving a very dark med-evil tone to the game, with its bright torches lighting the door way and surrounding bricks, it almost makes you feel like you have discovered a secret under ground chamber in a large old castle from the middle ages, this is added upon by the small bugs crawling and flying around the screen leading you to believe that no one has been down here in a very long time, the skull that makes up the door gives the impression that a dark evil power is sealed away in there.
With 4 touchable button on the screen you have the option to turn off the music, turn off the back ground sounds, start the game or quite, which is good, while a lot is going on in the back ground the foreground is kept simple and clean.
Selecting the start button will bring a pop up block, with the option to create a new game or play an existing game, once a choice has been made the door behind the box is opened and both the box are pulled into it.
The first thing you will notice is the music change, it becomes more uplifting, more adventurous, the next thing will more then likely be the first stage,a small brick square with a platform i the middle surrounded by a pit which to me look like a Lazarus pit( a little comic influence maybe?), You have 3 buttons around the sides in the corners, starting from the top right corner you have a button that will take you back to the main menus screen, moving over to the top right, you are given list off all possible towers to play, the music is toned down a little more calming, gentle, soothing almost but still with a hint of adventure lingering in its tone. the third and final button is a “shop” where you can buy upgrades for your towers. Now don't worry, these aren't micro transaction, these upgrades as bought with in game “money” and by completing levels.
To start a level simply click on it and another pop up window appears, giving you the option to play or exit the screen, another button is there but locked at this point, this is called the tsunami mode, where it is one continues wave , this is locked until you have completed the level.
Now I'm not going to be going over how to play the game, if you want to know that you will have to play it for yourself, but what i will do is explain some of the core elements in the game and use them as sub categories to explain each.
Upgrade able towers
Now this isn't anything new to a tower defence game so its not as thought its ground breaking stuff, hope ever with the full 3D animations on all sprites, the upgrading becomes a lot more fun, to be able to see a tower start out a level 1 sprite doing no damage and with in 3-5 waves be fully upgraded to basically doing all the work, and have him flailing his arms around, nice touch in my eyes
Controlling the enemies path
this isn't something you see at lot of in tower defence games, in fact its the first tower defence game i have ever played that implements this, the ability to control where the enemies can walk greatly aids you in being able to create the most efficient design, being able to decide whether you make the path out of towers, walls, or a mixture of both
tsunami mode
this is basically the best part of a tower defence game, seeing how long you can last with out dying, that's right its an all out assault, mass waves of mobs, progressively getting harder , you start with a lot more money then you do in single player mode, but that goes by really quickly.
But now we get into what a lot of the people who are reading this are looking for, my score rating, the thing that tells you if you should get the game, because i know that's why you were reading this… don't lie i know you were ;), so i will do this in my normal fashion. Break the score into 3 parts GamePlay, Visuals and Fun and then give each a rating out of 10 for a possible score of 30
So GamePlay, it played like any other tower defecne game i have played, challenging at first but once you unlock some of the latter tier towers it becomes a lot easier, the smooth inter face, the fluid controls, the way it just worked is one of the finest examples of a tower defence game i have seen/used on the mobile platform, to give it anything less then an 8 would be a crime.
Visuals, this is where the game really shines, the 3D aspects of this game set it apart from the crowd, it brings something new to the table in this genre, yes i know other 3d tower defence games exist, and i have played a few of them, but this one is something that i felt was special, the dark and gloomy but yet friendly and somewhat cute nature to both towers and mobs takes a different approach on the style of game play, that said a 7 seems very fitting for this game.
And finally Fun, arguably the most important part of any game is how fun it is, that is why its also the hardest one to give a score for, because everyone who plays games plays them a little differently and everyone has different likes and dislikes,but for me? i liked it, i thought it was something i could sit down and play, i had a flight i caught just the other day actually and spend the whole 3 hours playing this game. so is it fun for me? you bet it is, but being that i have to give it a fair score, being that i loved it as much as i did I'm going to give it a 9.
So for those of you who just wanted a number a 24/30 or an 80%.
My final thoughts on this game are that you should defiantly go and check it out over on his web page
www.beasttowers.com or head over to his indiedb page at http://www.indiedb.com/games/beast-towers and let him know what you think of his game...
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