SNIPPET FROM "No Place Like Home" (See Description)
Good evening fellow humans, welcome back to:
"Games You Might Not Have Tried"
CROWD CHEERS
The show where we talk about games that are quirky,
unique,
or just plain interesting for a designer.
BUZZER BEEPS
Yes, contestant Matt!
Uh, hi big fan. Um, does that mean all the games are good?
CROWD LAUGHS
Haha!
Of course not!
Just that there's something to learn from them.
Or something for the avid player who's tired of seeing
the same shooters
and Assassin's Creed knock-offs.
Awesome! I'll take a Yoku's Island Express for a thousand.
Ho, ho, ho... Slow your roll slugger.
You've gotta wait for the intro...
Take it away!
EXTRA CREDITS THEME
This episode of Extra Credits is brought to you by:
euhhh...
Extra Sci Fi???
SURRISED: What?
So a little while ago we were lucky enough to have
Oculus Rift sponsor two special episodes
of Extra Sci Fi on the "History of Virtual Reality".
So please check them out after this episode at the link below.
MUSIC FROM: YOKU'S ISLAND EXPRESS
Yoku's Island Express.
This game is a work of pure whimsy,
that captures the unabashed joy of the old SNES era Nintendo games.
In it you're a tiny bug postman out to deliver the mail on a tropical island.
The area's lovely and the characters are memorable and quirky,
but it's the gameplay that sets it apart.
It's a pinball-platforming-Metroidvania.
And they make the combination of pinball mechanics and Metroidvania progression really work.
It's the logical extension of the vastly under recognised Sonic Spinball.
It may not change your life,
but you'll certainly get to experience something new,
and have a delightful time while doing it.
Legendary Gary.
Legendary Gary is a game that is perfectly imperfect.
It reminds me of those 90s indie comic scenes,
where nothing feels remotely professional.
But it's clear that they're a labor of love.
And you know the artist means what they say.
The game is about slackers in a small town who don't know what to do,
So they're just letting life pass them by.
It's also about the temptation and inspiration games can provide.
The metaphors it uses are a little thin,
and it doesn't quite knock it out of the park
in terms of providing revelations about some of the issues it tackles.
But it's earnest,
with great moments,
and it's worth it for that!
20xx
2018 has been a good year for "Mega people".
So I'm just going to assume that the xx's stand for 18
20xx
is a roguelike Mega Man.
You heard me right.
But I'll say it again:
ECHOING: a roguelike Mega Man!
Heck yeah!
That's basically all you need to know.
It has a few rough edges
and your mileage may vary,
depending on how much you like the basic Mega Man formula.
But it's yet another interesting example
of taking an known gameplay type
and bringing in roguelike elements.
Cultist Simulator.
Cathodic machinations
in a world written by the folks who penned Fallen London and Sunless Sea?
Count me in!
The game may not look like much,
but it uses a simple template to weave interesting stories of the occult.
Don't worry if you don't succeed your first time though.
The whole thing is about discovery and intuiting things
that are just beyond our logical understanding.
It's not all about intuition though,
there's also a nice balance of logical gameplay
that operates some of the more mundane aspects of your existence
and produce the basic fundamentals of your occult world
that you need to proceed.
Just be warned.
If you're anything like me,
the first time you boot this game up,
it
will
steal
your
night!
As you try to tease out
its tantalizing secrets.
Oh,
and there's an ARG in there,
if you know how to find it.
Wars accross the World.
Speaking of cthulhu,
James found a strategy game scenario "Innsmouth 1928",
that led him to an interesting game:
Wars across the World.
The AI is too easy,
the tutorial is horribly translated
and the mechanics are a bit rough,
but the core concept is very interesting.
Basically it's like GURPS,
but for turn-based strategy gaming.
The claim is that: the ruleset they've developed
can cover any battle scenario,
from ancient Greece,
to the Second World War
and even fantastical things,
like battles between aliens or Elves.
The execution is imperfect,
but the goal is worth thinking about if you're designing turn-based games.
Prey: Mooncrash.
I know...we've talked about Prey a great deal.
So I'm going to keep this one short:
if you haven't gotten this DLC and want a roguelike Prey,
you should get it!
If you haven't gotten this DLC
and you're the type of person who wants to know
how you can really bring storytelling into a roguelike,
then you should really get it.
Enough said!
The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit.
The folks who made Life is Strange
made a tiny game
about a boy who wants to be a superhero, as a promotion for Life is Strange 2.
But at the two-hour long mark
and the price of free,
it's worth checking out on its own.
It's probably one of the better renditions of life as a child:
just on that border between having to grow up,
and still living in a world of imagination we've all inhabited when we were young.
It's a type of protagonist I'm not sure I can actually name another example of in games.
Someone's still young enough
to find the magic in a world
that might not be as magical as he wants it to be.
SILENCE
Omen Exitio Plague
and Cardinal Cross.
This one's a two-for-one.
James has been thinking a lot about interactive fiction again.
And so, while Steam is busy getting swamped
with bad interactive fiction.
We thought we'd recommend two for you that stood out to him a bit.
The first one is Omen Exitio,
a Lovecraftian game book adventure type piece.
And the second is Cardinal Cross,
which truth be told,
he's not all the way through yet.
But so far it provides an interesting sci-fi tale
with lots of player choice moments for a visual novel style game.
The Painscreek Killings.
We're going to round this out with The Painscreek Killings.
The design on this game is so old-school
it has as many locked doors as Silent Hill(!)
Every time you need to open one, you have to:
find a key,
put it in your inventory,
go to the door it belongs to,
hover over the lock,
open your inventory,
and click use.
But don't let that deter you...
..especially if you're an indie designer.
The game itself is worth a play,
and with slightly more modern design
you could make a whole genre of games
that are cheap and easy to create,
out of what The Painscreek Killings presents.
The game itself is a murder mystery,
but it's unlike most murder mysteries you'll see in games.
You'll actually have to unravel it.
You're presented with an entire abandoned town to explore.
All the clues are there:
everything you need to solve the case is hidden within that town.
The question is:
can you find all the pieces?
You'll have to search
high and low,
dig through cabinets and drawers,
put together subtle hints,
and find ways to access inaccessible parts of town.
Then it's up to you to put the mystery together
and deduce what really went on.
The story is solid,
and if anything I've said makes you interested:
you should give it a try.
Just one recommendation though:
You have a camera in the game,
use it!
Take pictures of everything!
You'll want them when you start to put together what's going on.
SHARP CHIME (METAL GEAR SOLID)
Aw...and that sound means that's all the time we have for:
"Games You Might Not Have Tried"
We hope there was something here to get your brains burning with new possibilities!
BUZZER BEEPS
Yes, other me.
So what do I win?
CROWD LAUGHS
This wasn't actually a competition,
just a framework
you built out for an intro gag,
that's gone on too gosh darn long...
Crap...
I probably should've realized that, considering
we're the same person.
You're telling me...
We'll see you all, next time!
CROWD CHEERS
Can you not get enough Extra Credits videos?
I do know that feeling...
Then check out a special two-part Extra Sci Fi series
on the history of virtual reality,
sponsored by Oculus Rift.
Personally I love the topic of VR,
and I was psyched to get to learn all about where it came from.
So click the link and be sure to tell...us...
..that we sent you?!
DOUBTFUL: Hmm...
OUTRO MUSIC