Windforge - Snowed In Studios - PC (2014)

Come to Windforge they said. Enjoy the free roaming 2D RPG experience they said. Build an airship, craft weapons, armour and flourish in a procedurally generated steampunk inspired world. They said. And, to be fair, Snowed In Studios delivered on their promises, just not very well.

Gameplay wise, this has all the moving parts that you’d expect from a title like this. If you’ve played Terraria before you’ll know what to expect (and if you haven’t go play it!). It differs slightly in that you control a character who finds himself on board a floating house like object with the unenvious task of building an engine, propellers and repairing the burst balloon hanging on top of your craft. Again, like Terraria, you leave the safety of your “home” to mine the necessary materials and bring them back to craft what you need for your aircraft. Your pickaxe is replaced with a drill, your sword replaced with a gun but other than that it’s the same. It is a mechanic that can become quite addictive, if done right. The thought of grabbing that one last block of iron to craft a suit of solid, glorious armour left a lot of players with that “10 more minutes” feeling in Terraria. It’s not present here, and really that’s all about its delivery.

Windforge’s options menu is horrendous. Honestly, horrendous. Empire Earth, released in 2001, has more options. That’s a 13 year old game. 13 years! All you have in Windforge is to set the resolution and fullscreen or no fullscreen. No V-Sync, no graphical fidelity options, no AA, and my biggest bugbear no rebindable key settings! I’ve seen better options on iOS games and for a PC game in 2014 it’s just not good enough at all. Which leads me on nicely to its framerate issues. If there’s even the slightest bit more going on the screen at any one time the framerate will nose-dive to an almost unplayable rate. Again, unforgiveable in 2014 for a 2D game.

I’d be able to possibly look past this if the game was aesthetically pleasing, it has its own style, which isn’t terrible. However, I get the feeling that it was done by two artists. It’s half cartoon, half realistic and doesn’t meld well together. The reason why Terraria worked so well with its mining was that it was strict with its scale. Your character is 3 blocks high, you can only move into a space that is 3 blocks high. With Windforge, that just simply isn’t the case. Your character will clip through the world, and its feedback system is so bad you won’t be able to tell if you’ve mined out a block or if it’s on the ground waiting to be picked up. Whereas mining in Terraria is a regimented, almost therapeutic experience, Windforge had me chipping away blocks like an Unreal Tournament Pro trapped in a glass box looking for a way out, which is a bit like the way the AI acts.

I’m convinced the AI pathing is completely random. One playthrough an enemy will run from wall to wall trying to dodge my bullets and jumping at random intervals, on the next, they’ll be ruthless perfectly aiming buggers. I really wouldn’t mind ruthless slayers as long as they stay that way all the time, you don’t know what’s a real threat and what’s cannon fodder, and for the game to have enemies you can believe in, you need this! Not to mention how frustrating it is when your bullet flys straight through an enemy causing no damage? It drags you kicking and screaming out of its immersion. For example, I managed to clear the King’s room of guards from the main city by shooting them from a distance, tried to smack a scholar with a wrench and he took me to school in a matter of seconds. That’s not right at all, the guard should be having me for his breakfast and the scholar cowl in terror. Keep in mind though, that Windforge will kill you in the most remorseless of ways. Mine too deep into a cave and you’ll mine yourself out of the floating sky island, and straight to your death. Whack a non-descript barrel with your wrench. BOOM. Dead.

Save, save often. As when you die, do you go back to your ship or most recent position? No, no you don’t. You have to load the save again. Didn’t save? New game for you then, enjoy the tutorial. Again, another flaw of its design philosophy. Fine for certain games, not for an RPG focused on building.

It is frustrating to come across a game with the concept of Windforge. I love steampunk inspired titles of which this is one. I loved Terraria, I was looking forward to playing this game and that’s the truth. There’s a good, workable concept. Its mechanics have been proven to work in many titles. I’d love to be able to say go out and buy this, but it’s filled with so many bugs and its lack of polish is detrimental to its experience. I really hope that the developer is committed to resolving some of these issues but a lot of them run into the way the game was constructed and will not be able to be fixed in its current form. It’s available for £11.99 at time of writing, which is the price of the Early Access release of Starbound, who have one of the developers of Terraria on board, for comparison.  So, with baited breath I sit waiting, waiting for that original and well-constructed Steampunk game to come along. Any day now, right?

Review written and published on Universal Gaming

Year Walk - Simogo - PC (2014)

A Year Walk, as developer Simogo describes, is a Swedish Tradition where a man would lock themselves in a dark room for the whole day with no food or water and, at the stroke of midnight, would walk to the closest church to understand what the New Year would bring. The practice is thought to be dangerous, all kinds of creatures and myths were said to accompany the Walker on their journey. The Walk was set to show the future, good or bad and could be known to show the Walker an almost binary set of visions. Either vastly positive, or terribly negative.

The setting for Year Walk is a reserved and greyscale forest, Simogo have done a great job creating this aesthetic of the winter’s evening. There’s an overlay of snowfall that doesn’t obstruct your view and the snow on the ground seems to give off a tainted glow, it’s pretty much perfect for the title. This had to be done right or else the game runs a risk of not being taken seriously. The game itself is a First Person 2D affair. The control system for the PC version translates as well from the iOS original as you would expect.

The overall gameplay is a series of puzzles and exploration with the occasional jump scare. In my opinion jump scares can often cheapen a title, but they are used sparingly and well. The puzzles are tough without being mind-numbing and the way the world has been created keeps you interested in exploring it further. There’s plenty of side puzzles and intricate touches that will keep you asking questions and be left wondering if there is any further story to be found within the white wasteland of the forest.

Its music and sound use is also solid. Simogo use sound and music as a gameplay mechanic in some parts of the game. In one particular section I was following a beautifully horrible siren song through the forest and wondering to myself. “Do I really want to know what’s making this?” The sound and music are menacing and when you couple all of its elements together, the sum of Year Walk’s parts is a handsomely developed project. It’s a game that grabs you and holds your attention through its solid use of its elements and I really feel that they had a plan in place, stuck to it rigidly and never questioned their convictions. This is especially true when looking at their case of creatures who inhabit the world.

When you are on your Walk your character will encounter creatures from, what Simogo claims, is Swedish Mythology. Without giving any spoilers away, these beings are well-written and interesting and each come with their own myths attached to them. The stories are creepy and unforgiving and some of them are exceptionally brutal. I find it difficult to believe that what Simogo have said is Mythology is true however, as after a pretty lengthy search online I have found absolutely zero information on these creatures. Left with a feeling of being cheated, I came to realise that if these are entities created by Simogo I tip my hat to them. The reason I went digging for more information was to learn more about these Myths, as they all seem deep. The quality of the myths and the writing that describes them found in the in-game Encyclopaedia is fantastic. To the point where I thought they had just pulled these characters straight out of Folk Tale books!

If I could present one criticism to the title it would be that it is very short. I have the feeling that it was developed with replayability in mind but when one of your achievements is to complete a full walk within 20 minutes, it does make you question the amount of content present in the game. Simogo can be almost forgiven for this considering how nice their world is, and it was originally developed for the tablet market. It’s frustrating that, as a gamer, I would like to experience more of this world. I can’t help but wanting more, it might sound like an entitled rant but I loved this world so much that I feel it needs to be fleshed out more to fully appreciate their vision. Of course, this does run the risk of diluting their, seemingly, own mythology. The lack of a volume slider is also a critical part of the PC port that has been missed. It’s not a huge problem, but it is easy enough to incorporate and clearly has been forgotten about due to the nature of iOS devices.

I applaud Simogo for trying something just that little bit different. There’s not many games that dabble with any sort of Mythos, never mind create their own and feel that this developer has a lot of creativity present in their studio. If you don’t believe me then take a look at another other critically acclaimed iOS title they developed by the name of Bumpy Road. This is a developer who isn’t scared to make the games they want to make and for me, are realising titles to an exceptionally high quality and originality.

If you have a bit of cash sitting there and feel like something a little out of the ordinary I would certainly recommend Year Walk. It might only take you a few hours to work through but I’m sure it’ll be memorable for some time to come. 

Review written and published on Universal Gaming

The £1 = 1 Hour Principle

How much is the price of entertainment? I’m a 26 year old guy, working in an ok paying job with full time hours. I do alright for myself. Rent’s always on time and the bills are paid, but I’m not exactly Mr.Monopoly. I have a budget for what I can spend on myself each month, not only a monetary budget, but a time one.

I enjoy being entertained, it sounds silly, but really that’s all I really work for. I’m pretty carefree, don’t really any dependencies except a pet cat, so I like to enjoy myself. Let’s face it, I’m just 26. What’s the best way you can get the most out of your free time whilst still working to a budget? If you said “Make a rule” then hey! You were right!

This is where the £1 = 1 hour principle. Netflix is £6 per month. At first I asked myself: “Well am I going to get 6 hours of entertainment out of Netflix every month?” Yes, yes I am, and then some! Sky Movies is say approximately £18 a month. Am I going to watch 18 hours worth of movies, whilst working full time? Probably not. Do I go to the gym for 19 hours a month? YEAH….no, but that’s not really entertainment and it’s more like work! Anyways! This is where the principle comes in, you don’t want to waste your money on time you’re not going to use. It doesn’t just apply to TV and movies. In fact, that’s usually a small example. I mainly apply this to games.

Let’s take World of Warcraft for example. A game I played for hours and hours and hours over many years. As soon as I realised I wasn’t going to play it for 9 hours a month that subscription got shelved. To be fair though, I got several more hours out of Warcraft than I did on the £1 = 1 hour principle. Sometimes I was playing at least 40 hours a month, apply it to the rule, its well worth the cash.

It’s why I don’t tend to buy games on release. At the moment, I would love to purchase South Park: The Stick of Truth. It’s as good as £40 on Steam right now. It looks a lot of fun, it’s a turn-based RPG, it’s based on a world I tend to enjoy, but, I don’t think there’s 40 hours of gameplay there. You have to be patient, you have to wait for the sales and the mark-downs. It’s not an exact science, and of course there will be times were excitement will get the best of you. Let’s take Bioshock Infinite, a game that my partner Jenni purchased for me, £40 at retail on release. I got maybe 25 hours tops out of it on two playthroughs. The fact of the matter is this, I love Bioshock. I would have expanded the rule to £5 = 1 hour, I just love it. That’s fine, as long as you let your head rule your mind the majority of the time. Do however be careful of the sale.

Steam sales are the devil. Really. Your poor poor wallet. The deals are sometimes so good it makes you think, I shouldn’t miss this. I need more games. You might do, there might be that one little gem you’ve been waiting on going on sale, and if there is, then go for it. If it’s just “Ack, I might as well” then stop it. You’re probably not going to play it, it’s going to sit there, staring back at you like the remains of a kebab from the night before. A waste of money, not a lot of money, but a waste nonetheless. I have several titles that fall into this category of cold kebab. Keep in mind, these games haven’t been played due to my own tastes: Dead Space, Mirror’s Edge, Risen, Supreme Commander 2 and Warlock: Master of the Arcane. These aren’t the only games, but they are all games I thought I’d reach my hourly quota based on their price and I’m either no way near it, or they’re sitting un-played.

It’s a principle that has served me well. Makes me play the games I want to play at the price I want to pay. Granted, it might not be the best way to support Triple A developers, but when was the last time you looked at a Triple A and thought “That is truly ground-breaking. I will play 60 hours of that title with no doubt”. Unless you are a fan of the games franchise already, it’s doubtful that you’ll find that. I’m not a huge FPS fan, I’m not a big FIFA player, and I’ve never been the type of guy to need the latest gadgets, so for me it might be easier than others.

It brings me to a sticking point. I despise Early Access and Pre-Orders. My opinion, please note the use of the word opinion, is that you are paying full price for a game that is not finished. How do you know that you’re going to enjoy it? It’s not done. Unless you’re a huge fan of the franchise, developer or if it’s a remake of a previously released game, you’re stepping in blind. There’s hardly ever any critique or information available. You are paying to be a beta tester. If we stop this practise and become less accepting of games with horrendously buggy games on release, this might push developers to be as stringent as they were in the “Good ol’ days”. When the majority of games were near perfectly optimised, bug free and localised well (with a few exceptions, naturally)

Pre-Orders are the exact same, you’re paying ahead of a release for a game that’s likely to be available wherever you shop. Especially if it’s purchased digitally. Why would you pre-order a game on digital distribution unless it was at a discounted rate and you know you’d enjoy it based on (Again) that you’re a huge fan of the franchise, developer or that it’s a remake of a previously released game. Boxed collector’s editions aside, my opinion is to wait for the critique then apply the £1 = 1 Hour principle. Don’t just think, yeah. £40 for the game and a free exclusive weapon hits the mark. Do the same with DLC, it’s a different discussion for another time entirely, but wait for it to be reviewed. I’ve heard the new Last of Us DLC is 2 hours of gameplay. 2 hours. For £12. That’s what. £6 an hour. That’s a footlong subway on top of what you, in my opinion, should be paying for entertainment!

Developer Sit Down: Matt Roszak - Kupo Games

I recently caught up for a quick chat with Matt Roszak about games, inspirations, programming and the future.

How long did it take you to develop Epic Battle Fantasy 4?

About 12 months for the web version, and another 3 months for the Steam extras. That's if I were working on the game full time, but I've been working on it on-and-off for 2 and a half years, probably.

What would you say to someone who's never played a game from the Epic Battle Fantasy series?

Check it out if you liked 16-bit JRPGs or just like games with a silly sense of humor.

There's quite a few references to old school RPGs in the game, can you give us your top three?

Dead Pikachu. Moogle snowman. The Triforce.

Can you give us three of your favourite characters from RPGs?

Zidane from FF9. Anyone from FF9 really. I felt that FF9 had better character development than any game I've ever played.

Was there a specific game that made you want to learn how to make games?

Specific game? Nah. But the Zelda games have probably inspired me more than any other series.

What's next for Epic Battle Fantasy?

Bullet Heaven 2, probably. Maybe.

Can you give us an insight into your agenda for the remainder of 2014?

I don't usually plan more than a month ahead. I'd say it's impossible to predict things any further than that. But the To-do list right now is: Tidy up launch issues with EBF4, look into selling it on other stores, tidy up launch issues with Cat Cafe, publish Cat Cafe on iOS. (Cat Cafe is my first mobile game)

Are there any developers out there that would pull you away from Kupo Games?

Nope. Not until I get old and might need a stable income, anyway. But I'm planning for that to never happen.

What's been your biggest programming problem?

Debugging really obscure and specific bugs.

What's been your favourite moment as a developer?

Successful game launches!


You can purchase Epic Battle Fantasy 4 right now on Steam and keep up to date with Matt at Kupo Games

Epic Battle Fantasy 4 - Kupo Games - PC (2014)

Look past the name and give it a closer look.

Epic Battle Fantasy 4 is the 4^th game in the series of flash driven, turn based RPGs by Kupo Games. Its tiny development team, headed by Matt Roszak (Whom is credited for design, art, story and programming) should be praised, at the very minimum, for the amount of effort put into this title. It isn’t a once and done game, this is a well realised and full RPG experience.

The game retains enough nostalgia from old school RPGs but still manages to feel fresh and new. If you’ve ever played any Final Fantasy title, excluding the MMOs, you’ll be familiar with this format. Each of your characters is, usually, given one action to carry out each turn, the enemies are also given a turn. It has all the usual elements you’d expect, being able to cast magic, summon other creatures, use items and attack and it does this as well as any turn-based RPG does. Its appeal for me was that this is a finely tuned machine of a game. Usually with turn-based RPGs you eventually become so powerful that nothing is really a challenge, except maybe some bosses. Epic Battle Fantasy 4 keeps you on your toes and makes you think a little bit.

This is my first foray into the world of Epic Battle Fantasy. I’ve always loved turn based RPGs. RPGs in general, but turn based more so than Action, and the reason being is that it brings an element of strategy. Epic Battle Fantasy 4 makes full use of the strategic element of the genre.

It does this through its use of equipment and skills. The majority of weapons have an elemental effect which will assist you in tearing through enemies that are weak to that element. Lovely for burning up plants in the forest with your flame sword, but will also give you nightmares if you a decide to take this sword into a lava cave where there are enemies who are so masochistic that swing with said sword and you’ll find they love it and healing back up. It’s not a new mechanic but makes picking the right equipment for the right area a bit of a headache. Weapons can be swapped out but this will take up a valuable turn to do so. Not only that, you won’t be receiving that free ride through an area. Remember the fish we were slicing up, well this time they brought back their friend, Mr Flame Sprite.

The equipment also helps with the complexity of the title by questioning your strategy. You can stack certain items to make a character like a tank, throw some protection spells around and he’ll be the wall in front of your defences, but what’s stopping him being hit with an instant kill ability? The skill and specials pool is a very well implemented way of customising your characters and their skillset. Skills can only be learned by that specific character and specials can be learned by all, but only one character may have it at any one time. Once again, brings some difficult decisions forward. Do I have my tank take the healing spells? It becomes a bit of a puzzle, making sure all of your defences and offences are covered by way of weapons, skills and abilities. My only concern, and it’s a small one, is that a new player to RPGs might think it’s best to keep levelling that fireball spell that’s working so well in the forest and then struggle going through the lava cave. I’d have liked to see a recommended skill highlight to show players that are new to the genre a way to build a balanced character.

You can also equip the characters with items that will provide passive bonuses or abilities within battle, another little customisable option for balancing your team. Gone, in this game, is any idea of an “Ultimate” weapon. For me, that’s refreshing.

Epic Battle Fantasy 4’s forge system allows for steady progression to keep your weapons and clothing viable. As you collect item drops and open chests you’ll start to find enough items to boost the power of your equipment and weapons. It’s always good to see that, regardless of how far you go into the game, having a solid set of weapons and clothing can come in handy. I also like the feeling of having a new weapon that’s not great at first, hunting out those items to make it more powerful and then having fun with the new weapon.

The characters are well written and interact nicely. I get the feeling that they may be named after close friends of the developer, and that’s ok. The reason being is that you can take some of the developer’s personality from this. Some of the remarks and comments tend to have a personal touch you don’t see in most games. If they are close friends you can tell they have a lot of fun in each other’s company. This game is no doubt a labour of love, I can’t imagine how many hours Matt and the small team at Kupo Games would have poured into this game but looking at the polish and depth of the game, you can tell that it’s a lot! It’s nice to be given a flavour of someone’s personality through their creativity. The last game that made me feel like this was Super Meat Boy, my own personal opinion is that something creative is enjoyed best when you can take something about the designer out of the work.

You can also see the developers sense of humour shine through in the game. There’s a lot of small gestures and references that experienced RPG fans will appreciate. My three personal favourites where the suspiciously looking can of a popular Scottish soft drink being a consumable item. The snow covered Djinn from Golden Sun in Whitefall Town and the name of some of the achievements you can gain for obtaining certain persistent items to use outside of battle that reference a long running franchise that a lot of people don’t associate with turn based RPGs.

Epic Battle Fantasy’s achievement system comes in the way of medals. Small images you unlock when completing a certain task in the game. Some are very difficult to obtain, some pretty much laughing in the face at how ridiculous achievement systems are. Again, I found the humour to be well placed and fitting for the game. Having an overview of what medals I had still to gain was enjoyable. Coupled with the bestiary gives you that feeling of collection that a lot of RPGs look past. Epic Battle Fantasy wants you to complete everything for completions sense and it helps keep you engaged in that “one more battle” feel.

The only criticism I feel I can effectively levy at the game is that if you are not a fan of the genre or are new to it, this game will have a huge learning curve. It expects you to be familiar with its core mechanics. It expects you to know what a buff and debuff is and it expects you to know how to build a balanced character. But when all is said and done, there are other games out there that do hold your hand through this. This is a game by a turn-based RPG fan, for turn-based RPG fans.

I’ll be honest, completely honest, I did not expect much from Epic Battle Fantasy 4. There’s a few reasons. I was sceptical at first, as I usually am, about games predominately made by one person. In most cases, you’ll find there’s something lacking. For example, the collision detection is appalling or the art is woeful, or it’s just a poorly designed game. I was also a bit cautious of the game, my initial thoughts were that it’s a bit on the silly side. Lastly, when knowing this was the 4^th in a series of games, especially when knowing it was pretty much a one-man-band, my alarm bells started ringing. “This has been greenlit without anyone looking at it”, “These games are being thrown out of this guys room to fill a portfolio”

To quote one of my favourite Dwarfs of all time, Thorin Oakenshield “Never have I been so wrong”

Epic Battle Fantasy 4 is an absolutely fantastic game, made even more impressive by the huge contribution by Matt Roszak. It is a game that I had to force myself to stop playing, just to write the review, and it’s a game I will continue to play for many, many more hours to come. It’s a fun adventure, split into manageable chunks. The art style is soft and friendly, the enemies look menacing but not extreme. The mechanics are solid, the story is well written, the characters engaging and the experience is immersive. The fact that it has been localised into 4 other languages should also show you that this isn’t just for fun.

I still personally believe that the name of the title may put some players off the purchase, but I hope they do their research and don’t look at this game with the shallow depth I did before giving it a go. Well worth the £8.99 asking price. If you are even the smallest fan of turn-based RPGs go and buy this, you won’t regret it and keep an eye on what Matt Roszak is doing in the future. This developer has shown what he can do and I’m excited to see what’s coming in the future.