Demo Day Recap!
Intro
As I've talked about often, I'm a huge fan of indie games. I think that they offer a look into what games could be if more people had a chance to tell their stories and share their passions in this interactive way. Recently, I hosted a Demo Day on my stream to highlight 3 games that I'm really excited for. These games don't really have anything in common, and I think that they all shone in their own way. Because all of these are demos, we won't be giving out ratings today.
The Last Soul
I was encouraged to play this demo on stream by the team over at Wulum after we followed each other on social media. The game follows BOP, a lil robot who is fighting against the Cyber-Being in order to help free humanity from its control. The game is an action platformer, similar to MegaMan games. BOP has a couple tools in his arsenal to help get you through the levels and what's interesting is that some of his tools can even be used to help you navigate the different areas. BOP has a shield that he can deploy to protect from incoming enemy fire, but you can also use it as a platform to access areas that you wouldn't be able to double jump to normal. Getting to start off with a double jump in this game made me really happy, it's one of my favorite game mechanics and I feel like I rarely get to start games with it. You start the game with a tutorial to introduce you to the different mechanics and how you can use them and then you're off to try to escape the ship.
The Last Soul has already had a lot of work put into it. It's clear that the team behind the game wants it to be really successful. To be honest, it was pretty wild thinking about the fact that this was a demo. The combat felt tight and good to navigate, the movement in the game felt really responsive with the controller that I was using, and the music already feels like a core part of the game. This game is difficult, learning the timing for the enemies and how to properly use all the tools that you're given takes some practice, but I never felt like I couldn't overcome an obstacle, which I appreciate in games.
Overall, I was really happy that I tried out Last Soul. I've never really been into action platformers like this one, but it was a lot of fun. It was also a great time on Twitch because one of the members of the Wulum team came by to hang out, give suggestions, and take feedback on the game. They care a lot about their player base and want to hear what suggestions we had based on our playthrough of the game. I would definitely recommend trying out the demo, and I believe that they'll be opening up a Kickstarter for the game soon!
You can check them out here: https://twitter.com/wulumgames
Follow their Kickstarter here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/wulum/last-soul-only-a-machine-can-stop-a-machine
And you can watch my Twitch stream of the game here: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/983181415?t=00h04m51s
Blu
Blue is a 2.5D ninja metroidvania that just completed a successful campaign on Kickstarter. You play as Blu, a young woman who has trained to be a Guardian since she was young in the land of Talpa. But the Guardians have become corrupted and it's up to Blu, as the only pure Guardian left, to save Talpa.
The demo of Blu that I played was very early access to show off what the base game would be like for people who wanted to back the Kickstarter. It showed off the platforming and combat aspects of the game, also some of the ways that the dev team behind Blu, My Own Games, are going to have some fun with the game.
The game allows players to choose the weapons that they are interested in, during the demo I came across a couple different weapon types that I could test out to see how they worked with my play style. I appreciate when games let you play in the way that you're most comfortable with, for instance, there's a two handed weapon option that I'm just not a fan of and I wasn't forced to play that way. The combat felt okay in the demo. There was an issue where if I would get hit by enemies, I would essentially get stunlocked to death. However, after playing through the demo, I got in touch with Dam, the lead dev on Blu, and let him know some feedback that I had. He's since updated the demo to adjust some of the frustrations that I and other players had with the game.
Blu has some really cool art to it, as well. The game is in a low poly style, but the backgrounds of the game really felt like they added to the experience. Even in early access with some warnings about where was safe to go and where you could find death, the game had a really cool aesthetic. Each area that I visited felt different. The music that accompanied it was nice too, it'll be cool to see what else comes out of this game. I'm also excited to meet some of the other characters that Blu will become allies or enemies with over the course of the game.
I really appreciated how receptive Dam was about the feedback and I'm excited to see the game continue to grow! The game is estimated to be available in October of 2022, you can check it out on Steam and Itch.io
Dev Twitter: https://twitter.com/blu_vs
Steam Link: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1339960/Blu/
Astral Ascent
I closed off the day with a game that I've been excited about since I saw it on Kickstarter. Astral Ascent is a 2D platformer rogue-lite. It's set in a more modern fantasy world that's bright and colorful. The game is being developed by Hibernian Workshop, the team behind Dark Devotion.
As you can see, Astral Ascent is beautiful. It reminds me of Wizard of Legend, a game that I'm actually pretty bad at. But the combat system was on another level, the characters feel really responsive and combat was kept interesting by their spell building system. During the demo, I had the chance to try out Ayla and Kiran. Ayla is a twin dagger user, she's quick and relies on that speed to defeat enemies before they can react. Kiran is the brawler, his attacks rely on the power that he can generate using his fists. I appreciated the differences between the two characters, it showed me that Hibernian Workshop is dedicated to making sure that each fighter feels different and I'm looking forward to seeing how the other characters interact with the world. Also, it's going to have local multiplayer and Steam remote play built in, which means you can check it out with a friend as well!
Astral Ascent also has an upgrade system so that players don't really have to start at square one every time they fail to beat every Zodiac and get sent back to the hub. I appreciated this. I enjoy roguelites, but it does hurt when games don't have some kind of upgrade system because it makes me feel like I just have to get really really good at the game really quickly or I'll never make any progress (it's why I've never beaten Wizard of Legend). I do wish that more roguelites would consider accessibility options for people who want to experience the world, but don't want to restart every time they die. It would be cool to see checkpoints be available for players so that, once you beat a level, you get to start at the next stage. I know that probably won't be a popular opinion, but I'm not on the side of making things difficult just to make them difficult.
The music in the game draws players further into the world. It will be interesting to see how they continue to write the soundtrack to accompany the different areas and Zodiacs that players will encounter. Music and sound design can really make or break a game, but Astral Ascent seems to be off to a good start with it.
Similar to Blu, the developers have already been very open to feedback from their players. There was an issue with combat where sometimes you wouldn't really be able to hit the flying enemies that you encounter throughout the world. It wasn't something that the devs noticed, but as players made them aware of it, they made an adjustment to the combat. I appreciate seeing devs act on player feedback and it makes me feel even better about how good the game will be when it releases in Early Access 2021 - Q1.
You can check them out here: https://twitter.com/HibernianWS
Steam Link: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1280930/Astral_Ascent/
That's it for my demo day! I really enjoyed how different each game was from the last and I'm excited to see how they all grow and develop. What games are yall looking forward to? Anything that I should keep an eye out for?