The Game Festival - play a bunch of demos of upcoming games early, on Steam! - by henke
henke on 12/12/2019 at 06:36
Thanks to Sulphur for posting about this in the NOW What are you playing thread, however, this is too BIG NEWS to hide away in the tail-end of one of the megathread's pages. It needs it's own thread so I can point and shout at a bunch of games I'm hyped about!
(
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2019/12/e3-without-the-lines-system-shock-other-games-to-get-48-hour-steam-demos/)
Quote:
In an era when traditional game-preview expos like E3 are languishing, a new contender has emerged with an idea we've been privately requesting from game publishers for years: a game expo that any fan and enthusiast can download and enjoy on their home computer.
Having been to one of the big expos (gamescom) last summer, and ended up not playing a bunch of the big games because the lines go on for like 90 minutes, this sounds great, even if it is mostly just a bunch of indie titles for now.
These demos will become available on Steam, 11:30 hours from now, but only stay up for 48 hours.
Quote:
System Shock (Nightdive Studios)
Eastward (Pixpil/Chucklefish)
Spiritfarer (Thunder Lotus)
Moving Out (SMG Studio/Devm Games/Team17)
Röki (Polygon Treehouse/United Label)
Chicory (Greg Lobanov)
Wooden Nickel (Brain&Brain)
Haven (The Game Bakers)
Heavenly Bodies (2pt Interactive)
Acid Knife (Powerhoof)
The Drifter (Powerhoof)
Carrion (Phobia/Devolver)
SkateBIRD (Glass Bottom Games)
Yeah yeah, System Shock, BUT ALSO
[video=youtube;z8DglXiy5kQ]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8DglXiy5kQ[/video]
Heavenly Bodies is one of the games I'm most hyped about. I recommend anyone who's into physics-based arcade games gives it a whirl.
[video=youtube;IAgxHPvY3J4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAgxHPvY3J4[/video]
Dunno how the gameplay will be but just look at how this thing MOVES, man!
[video=youtube;RHUwjsa2RKA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHUwjsa2RKA[/video]
I was gonna make this game, but someone beat me to it. I was thinking more of a one-player Brothers-esque setup tho but whatever this looks fun.
Also: Röki, Carrion, and Skatebird look pretty good, and Renz is all hyped up about that Eastward JRPG-thingy so maybe that's worth checking out too.
Renzatic on 12/12/2019 at 06:43
Aw, man. It goes live at 1PM EST, not 1AM.
I was so stoked, too. :(
demagogue on 12/12/2019 at 07:36
Cool. Are they going to have any kind of official online discussion, like a Reddit thread or something?
It'd be interesting to read or listen to the makers talk about their games like a proper festival.
This ought to be a trend for sites like Itch to make an event every month for the games released that month ... Or maybe that's going a little too far.
Sulphur on 12/12/2019 at 07:42
de nada, henke.
Also games I'm interested in apart from SS: Spiritfarer, from the guys who made Jotun and Sundered, because it looks beautiful and heartwarming, which is unexpected given their last two games riffed on grim, alien, and action-heavy. Then there's Carrion - I played the limited demo earlier, prolly fair to expect the same one for this event. It works pretty damn well for a 'reverse horror' game where you're this roving organic disaster destroying people and their shit - oh wait, that really is every other game ever made n/m.
I also wanna see what Haven's like, given it's a complete 180 from Furi. Eastward and Chicory look very cool, too.
Renzatic on 12/12/2019 at 07:55
For reference, trails for the other games on the above list. System Shock needs no introduction, so I'll leave it off.
Eastward, my personal pick of the bunch.
[video=youtube_share;4Jvne3fOwj8]https://youtu.be/4Jvne3fOwj8[/video]
R-o umlaut-ki
[video=youtube_share;Mx4E4XuQi0Y]https://youtu.be/Mx4E4XuQi0Y[/video]
Spiritfarer
[video=youtube_share;YnuEvePlxWI]https://youtu.be/YnuEvePlxWI[/video]
Renzatic on 12/12/2019 at 07:55
Continued!
Chicory
[video=youtube_share;zcg1uzgVtXY]https://youtu.be/zcg1uzgVtXY[/video]
Wooden Nickel
[video=youtube_share;Uq8L6G1gRc0]https://youtu.be/Uq8L6G1gRc0[/video]
Haven
[video=youtube_share;ragUUT9bsFQ]https://youtu.be/ragUUT9bsFQ[/video]
The Drifter
[video=youtube_share;VY1kjIl8A8M]https://youtu.be/VY1kjIl8A8M[/video]
Renzatic on 12/12/2019 at 07:55
Finale!
Carrion
[video=youtube_share;2Y9JxGzj5-U]https://youtu.be/2Y9JxGzj5-U[/video]
SkateBIRD
[video=youtube_share;ZLWaCsOIvRk]https://youtu.be/ZLWaCsOIvRk[/video]
PigLick on 12/12/2019 at 12:30
Eastward looks really good, in fact most of these look really good.
Renzatic on 12/12/2019 at 19:02
Eastward was awesome. It's very much a super slickly stylized 16-bit Zelda style game with a lot of charm and extra savoir faire. The demo ended way, way too soon.
Acid Knife? It could be a good game, the style is interesting, and the soundtrack is 99% bass bad 'n radness, but right now, it feels like the prototype that it is.
Gonna play Skatebird next.
Jeshibu on 12/12/2019 at 23:04
Played some of Eastward. It's nice. Keyboard and mouse controls are atrocious though.
Skatebird's way too rough to release in this form IMO. Keep respawning stuck in walls or otherwise immediately bailing, and the camera doesn't follow your heading. Had enough after 3 minutes.
Carrion is hard to control when you start going up against shielded enemies and robots. I like the concept, but I hope they'll make the checkpoints more forgiving if it's as punishing as this.
