Popup Dungeon - Papercraft Roguelike Awesomeness - on Kickstarter

I'm not really a patient person. When I buy something, I'm not against spending an extra few bucks to get it in the store instead of waiting for a week to get it in the mail (unless, you know, it only costs a few bucks anyway). This is always the problem with Kickstarter projects - with very few exceptions, you'll be waiting months or even over a year before you get your hands on what you supported.

It's with that strong impatience for awesomeness that I have to say: Popup Dungeon looks AMAZING! Now that I'm making some money at a decent job, I was finally able to back my first video game project. Someone else in my friends list had backed it, so I clicked the link from my email and began drooling almost immediately... The art is glorious and the features seemingly never ending! I was already ready to back it when I saw that it's being developed by the folks who did Ring Runner as well, which made me even more psyched.


Now, this isn't just another dungeon crawler RPG, no siree! You get to choose from some awesome playable characters [Note: this also includes special characters like Isaac from The Binding of Isaac and Juan Aguacate from Guacamelee!], import others from other players or even create your own and watch it come to life, folding together in front of your eyes! The game also offers the ability to "play as the wizard", taking control as the dungeon master, create and edit items and all other sorts of nifty things.

Kitty can has cheezburgers... From the corpses of his fallen enemies!

And again, there's the art! It's so gloriously fun and amazing! It reminds me of Herocraft from back in the day, playing the game on an actual board and using tiles for the "pieces", except that these are 3D (ish!) and fantastically animated!

The game is releasing for Windows, Linux and Mac AND IS ALREADY GREENLIT ON STEAM! If stretch goals are reached, Wii U and mobile (Android and iOS) will be made available as well.

Available for: Win/Linux/Mac, Wii U and mobile possible with stretch goals
Lowest Pledge for Game: $15 ($20 for Ring Runner as well!)
Estimated Release: Q2 2015 for "Backer Only Beta" (available to all at above $15 pledge), full game Q2 2016

Derrick the Deathfin Review

Derrick the Deathfin was one of those games that I just had to play the very second I saw a glimpse of it. The game is "the world's very first underwater papercraft videogame", and aside from games like Paper Mario that are made to look like paper, it's the first true papercraft video game I've ever seen at all! Seriously, watch the launch trailer below and avoid drooling before it's majesty, I dare you!

The sheer amount of papercraft, from Derrick himself to the cardboard numbers (and world!!!), animals, humans, explosions, life meter... It's just overwhelmingly awesome! Heck, the developer even has D.I.Y. paper kits on the webpage for you to freely download and create! You don't even have to buy the game to enjoy that awesomeness!

The game itself is all about speed. And carnage. And avenging the death of your parents. And the destruction, pollution and evilness of us humans. And collecting gems. And launching into the air to get through fiery rubber tires. So I guess it's all about a lot of things, but speed is definitely #1. It's like an underwater Sonic the Hedgehog meets Ecco the Dolphin's swimming abilities (and not dying 3 seconds after going underwater...). Speed comes from both the way you move through the water and the speed at which your life meter drops - you are a VERY hungry shark, so you need to munch on other critters quite frequently to survive through the end of the level. There are also timed levels, where you have to get through the level in a certain amount of time, those are extra speedy!

Catapult for Hire is on Kickstarter!

Catapult for Hire is a game that I'd heard a lot about over the last several months. When I ran across it on Kickstarter, I was really psyched - it means the game is getting closer to release! Tyrone, the developer, lovingly calls it a Nintendo 64 era world, and he's absolutely right - the art and aesthetic are reminiscent of games like Banjo Kazooie or Ocarina of Time in the very best of ways.

Tower of Guns Alpha Review AND GIVEAWAY!

Tower of Guns is roguelike meets Doom meets some great humor. The game is currently in alpha state, which means it's not quite as awesome, or complete, as it will be one day. Despite that, and the fact that my laptop really wasn't great for handling it, it was a load of fun! In a sentence, if you're a fan of FPS games and want one that's always fresh, Tower of Guns is absolutely worth your money.

Note: I did not create the Lets Play video above, but it was very effective in showing the game off.

Default Dan on Kickstarter - The Anti-Platformer!

When I say "platformer", what do you think of? A game where you run to the right, stomping on enemies heads, collecting coins (or whatever item you might have to collect), avoiding spikes and carefully jumping across holes? Default Dan does stick to one of those things - running to the right (or left sometimes) - and you do dodge things, but it's not enemies or holes... It's coins! That's right, in Default Dan, coins are fatal.


What makes a platformer unique enough to talk about on Kickstarter? A crazy sense of humor mixed with platforming execution! While it's funny enough that it mocks other platformers with style, it also looks like a solid, challenging platforming game. The Kickstarter page even has a couple 9+ minute videos where you can watch people playing it! That's pretty unheard of for a Kickstarter game, you're usually lucky to get a couple minutes in one video trailer.

Aside from that, there are some really fun perks! It's only $5 for the game on a platform of your choice, $15 adds the mp3 soundtrack, a short comic pdf and other digital goodies, $25 adds a tshirt and beta access... Then it gets AWESOME! $50 adds Bobble Head Mode, where you send in six photos of your face and they make a special version just for you (Which looks HILARIOUS!), and the rest is fantastic as well.

There's a video, too, and it's amazing!!!

Estimated Completion Date: May 2014
Goal Platforms: Windows, Mac, iOS, Android (maybe OUYA too!)
Lowest Price Point for Game: $5 ($25 for beta)

Dare to Dig! - Ludum Dare 28 Game Review

Dare to Dig is the type of game my brain typically tries to come up with for challenges, and it's done very well - you only get one pickaxe, and you have to dig through dirt, stones and treasures to hunt down mythical, one-of-a-kind, priceless treasure like the Fountain of Youth. Your "life" is the durability of the pickaxe - each time you go through new dirt, excavate treasure or try to break through rock, you use up some of the pickaxe's durability. Luckily, there are items like duct tape that help you out (duct tape is ALWAYS useful!), but the odds of making it are still slim, so you'll be playing it numerous times (which isn't a bad thing at all!).

Your main play screen. Find yourself some treasure!

As you play, you'll accumulate all sorts of goodies - some just count toward your "valuable stuff" (score) total, while other items allow you to become stronger, be able to break rocks easier, see further, repair between floors or even use a drill instead of a pickaxe temporarily so you can easily get through anything! It's the balance between going for these things (or, rather, being lucky enough to find them) or rushing toward the next floor that makes things interesting.

I played the game just under 15 times myself and managed to find the Fountain of Youth, still leaving a few items unfound in my list of items. My strategy was mainly to get just close enough to the edge that you could make sure you weren't missing anything, then go in a big circle, hoping to find the way to the next floor. Everything is randomized, so there are times that I'd lose on floor 3 or 4, and others that I'd fly through til 8 or 9 and get stuck. The most important thing, though, is that the game is always fun to play, and it's easy to get hooked!

Gotta catch find 'em all! And it even shows you how many of each you've found in total!

The game does require a free download, which you can do from the game's Ludum Dare page.

Voyage to Farland Review AND GIVEAWAY

I'm going to be entirely upfront - roguelikes are one of the types of games that, while I like them, I'm not very good at them. I've heard such good things about some of them, text-based ones particularly, but the controls are so crazy and equipment is a hassle and I die on the first or second floor every time. While Voyage to Farland has a lot in common with those, it's far better, has more going on, but manages to do it all while keeping the required buttons to a minimum, using intuitive menus and making equipment a breeze. Oh, and it's a graphical roguelike, so you don't control an @ symbol fighting letters, shooting *s, etc.

Avadon 2: The Corruption Review AND GIVEAWAY

Avadon 2 reminds me of a solid D&D adventure in a tactical RPG. You have lots of bonus missions to do, several different characters to choose from for each adventure, a good story with lots of choices and you'll die A LOT! I'm far from the best at tactical RPGs, but I had to ramp the difficulty down from normal to easy to casual so that I could get past different parts of the game.

I'm writing this review 24.5 hours into it and I'm only about 30% through the game! $9.99 (or less if it goes on sale) is an absolutely worthy value for the time you'll get and the quality of game play you'll get out of it! Of course, as I haven't fully completed it, I don't have insights into the entire game, but I did get to play a very wide variety of adventures and story.

Treasurebear: Humor, Exploration, Platforming, Treasure and Food!

Treasurebear combines two incredibly awesome things: good platforming action and LOTS of treasure! The game focuses on a duo of unlikely "heroes" - [From the Kickstarter page] "The greedy and unpredictable Chester, a charismatic treasure chest forever condemned by the treasure hunter's guild, and his sleepy sidekick Barry, a hungry bear who prefers sauce battles over boss battles." The story is driven as such: "Barry teams up with Chester following the promise of visiting foreign lands in order to locate and sample exquisite and tasty foods. Determined to locate his blackmailer and exonerate himself, Chester utilizes his uncanny talents for finding shiny and potentially valuable items while upholding his promise to Barry."

While the story is humorous and intriguing, it's the gameplay concepts that really sold me on the game. See, because of the way the two team up, you're able to do some really awesome things together! As you can see from the image below, Bear & Boar (the developers) have had no shortage of creative ideas! And this goes far beyond abilities, the depths of the story, crazy levels and treasure hunting all appear to go just as deep.

Concepts for upgrades. Why hasn't anyone come up with the gold coin machine gun before?

Party of One - Ludum Dare 28 Game Review

My second Ludum Dare 28 game review is of Party of One, a fun twist on puzzle warfare by Jan Marcano/@AldianSolkai. The premise is simple: your party of heroes has to protect the town from invading monsters! The twist? The evil wizard behind the invasion has cursed your party and turned you all into one person, so now it's just "one" of you against all of them! Good luck!

Definitely fitting of the "easy to learn, difficult to master" phrase.

Retroworld on Kickstarter - An Awesome Childhood Relived!

Retroworld has one heck of a concept going for it - you're a game-lovin' kid who goes through four different generations of games, collecting, selling and trading them while solving their mysteries, maintaining high scores, chatting with NPCs and all kinds of other things! The in-game games really appear to reflect their age's style and game play, and the developer promises dozens of them when it's all completed!

Full Bore: The First Dig Review AND GIVEAWAY - Puzzles are Challenging Again!

For those of you who have been gamers for a long time, you'll remember the "good ol' days" of gaming. I know I sure do! What always surprises me when I play them again, though, is that "good ol' games" are usually REALLY hard! I can't count the action games I wanted to smash my controller over (Contra, Ghosts N Goblins), the random battles in RPGs to take on a new area or buy equipment (Dragon Warrior, Final Fantasy) and the puzzle games that were basically impossible to complete (Myst!). Heck, even Zelda was way harder back then, especially Zelda II: The Adventures of Link!!! Full bore truly is old-school for more than the fun, retro-styled graphics and animation, it's a really hard game!