oxenfree

Played so far: Single playthrough. About 5 hours (this is not unusual from what I can tell)

I'm going to do my best to avoid talking about the plot and JUST talk about the process of playing the game.

This is a narrative-focused semi-adventure game. The 'puzzles' are very light, it's mostly about running around and making decisions to progress through the story, plus a single mechanic with the radio which you use a lot. There are some pseudo-platforming elements, in terms of having to maneuver and jump around to get to the places where you're going, but I don't think it's possible to lose due to jumps or walking off edges or anything like that. The walking is mostly to embody you in the character and pace your discoveries, because a lot of talking and such will happen while you are walking from point to point.

One of the most notable things about the decisions, especially coming from a VN/RPG background, is the power of interruptions. As the characters are talking, you'll get little popup bubbles of possible things you can say. If you don't choose any of the options, the bubbles will eventually fade out and disappear, and your character stays quiet. (This feature appears in some VNs as well, perhaps best known in School Days) How long the options stay available depends on the conversation, since your interjection might not make sense if the point you were responding to passes, but if people are asking you a question they're obviously going to wait longer for you to reply, sometimes with optional extra lines to prompt you a few more times Similarly, when you DO choose an option, sometimes your character will wait for the person currently speaking to finish their line and other times she immediately jumps in to cut them off and/or change the subject.

This makes the conversations much more natural-feeling and tumbling-over-each-other than most video game dialog (RPGs are notorious for having poor pacing with multi-person conversations, like when you have to wait for each character to separately laugh at a joke and click to continue to the next one), which of course also means that it's a lot easier to miss things. If you cut someone off, you'll never know what they were going to say.

This game is probably a nightmare to play if you have any sort of hearing difficulty and/or are not a very fast reader. There ARE subtitles. Mostly. For the major character dialog. But NOT for a lot of the audio cues that are involved in puzzles (they usually have visual cues as well, at least), or a lot of the radio broadcasts, some of which are extra flavor and world building but some of which are fairly important, especially if you're trying to really understand the story. And while the major dialog is subtitled, those subtitles will appear and disappear in a flash if someone's speaking quickly or gets interrupted, and there's (as far as I know) no way to see a log, so if you can't process them, you're going to be constantly missing things. I AM a fast reader so I don't know how much of a problem this presents. Of course, you can just flounder along in confusion, because it's a spooky horror game and you're going to be doing a lot of that anyway.

Gameplay choices in things like this are a double-edged sword. As I mentioned, the walking around and interacting is not really a puzzle to solve so much as it is a method of pacing discovery and giving your characters time to talk, or not talk. You can decide you're fed up with people and press ahead, or you can hang back and give them extra time. The physicality of decisions gives you more room to waffle and be unsure and start to do one thing and then go the other way instead. All of this puts you more in the moment and makes you feel more like you're taking direct actions to move the plot along than a simple VN would. HOWEVER... well, hang on, I'll get back to that.

The other point is that you can't make manual saves. There are countless dialog options and you're always picking one and leaving others behind, but you can't make a save and go back and try the other, you have to go with what you've got. You have one automatically saved game as you go through and that's it. And you have no idea what your decisions actually affect. This does help with the roleplay aspect of pressing you to speak more naturally and not completely fixate on making the 'right' choice at every juncture because you can't... but it also means that you're constantly, constantly abandoning options that you'll never get to see.

In combination with the earlier point, we hit one of the big problems I have with "more immersive" adventure games with choices. They tend to be a PAIN to replay.

I missed a whole bunch of stuff on my first playthrough. Some of it is things where I'd like to see more of the dialog options, some of it is obvious BIG CHOICES within the story where I could have gone the other way and didn't, some of it is stuff where at one point the narrative tension was high and pushed me to actually finish the game but that meant I didn't look around and pick up all the collectibles... etc, etc. There's a ton of content in the game I haven't touched yet with my five hour playthrough. However, I am really not interested in going through all those hours of walking around again in order to get only one more slice of the pie.

From a business perspective it probably makes sense to focus more on keeping the player involved on their first playthrough and less on making it easy and convenient for completionists to see the rest, because they're a much smaller proportion of players and generally willing to put in more work. But it annoys me!

Roundup

(See, Google, you did very nearly kill my blog with your unwanted changes. It's such a pain to use, I almost never do.)

So, uh, haven't posted in a while. A few things going on.

The "lesbian student council secret police" game Black Closet is now in alpha-testing. Because of all the randomly-generated mysteries, it's a pretty complex game to test. The art is still in progress, but even when the art finishes, this will probably be held in testing for a while to try and stomp out as many bugs as possible. If you want to join in (and get the game for a discount) visit the Hanako Games forums.

The other game I'm working on, codename Fantasy Gamebook Adventure. It is a GxB game, and the first game I'm labeling as a 'Hanabira' product, which means that I personally did not write the plot.... because this is a licensed adaptation of an actual gamebook from the 1980s. We're keeping the title under wraps for the moment, but if you really, really want to find out, there is a clue hidden somewhere on this website.

What is that website, you ask? Why, it's the launchpad for a time-traveling superheroine, of course! (Not written by me, written by a friend of mine.) There are no current plans to make a Paradox Girl dating sim (in which you would, naturally, date yourself) but, um, you never know. Really, there are no plans for anything like that, it's just that I think it would be funny.

You can probably guess I've been too busy to make much progress on the procrastination front. However, I did get a chance to play through fault: milestone one now that the English version is finally out.

And speaking of Steam, the winter sale is on, so you can currently claim discounts on any of our titles:






Of course, that's not the ONLY way to get a discount this season... there will be more details announced soon on our newsletter/twitter, so stay tuned.

... phew! The benefit of not blogging here often anymore is that I have more to say when I finally do?

Leading Ladies

Interested in some different approaches to narrative in video games? Check out this week's Humble Weekly Bundle, which is dedicated to female protagonists (sort of) and features adventure games and stat-sim/VN style games as well.

Humble Bundle Weekly Sale

Why 'sort of'? Well, The Yawhg lets you choose an avatar, so it's not necessarily female or a focused, detailed character, and Valdis Story (may possibly? I've heard conflicting reports) only lets you unlock a playable female character after you've beaten the game once. Details, details... but I try to be clear with you!

This week's bundle is also backing Girls Make Games, so your purchase helps fund scholarships in game development.

Long Live The Queen on Steam!

It's finally out! Click there to go get the game - it's on discount for launch week.

If you haven't been keeping up with development/beta, there's a bunch of new content that's been added in for the Steam launch, including some new characters and a set of graphics for the epilogues. And yes, as requested, there are trading cards, so you can collect all the deaths.

But don't listen to me talk about it, go explore!

... can I sleep yet?

Maldita Castilla

Was bored today and browsing through a thread of LPs of "hard games", thus stumbling across this little gem, inspired by Ghosts n Goblins (which I never actually played)



Anyway, it looks pretty neat and is apparently free so should be checked out!

Nonet Concerto Distortion

New action game on DLsite which is at least halfway playable by an English-speaker, although I'm missing an awful lot of the details and settings. Main menu runs on arrowkeys/ZXC and the actual game part is 3d-person 3d with WASD and left/right mouse buttons to shoot. I think you're a magical girl running around a labyrinth blasting stuff. Also has PvP which I haven't tried. More than that I can't really tell you, sorry.

As You Wish

As part of our ongoing campaign to conquer Greenlight (and then, THE WORLD) we have commissioned an awesome new trailer for Long Live The Queen:



(If you can't see that because of blogfeed, link to the trailer here)


The campaign has passed 11,000 yes votes and is still going, slow but steady, so all hope is not lost! We also got a bit of coverage on Rock Paper Shotgun, even if they did (hopefully accidentally!) end up somewhat referencing a hentai game in the title... Don't look it up, spare your innocent eyes!

Our Darker Purpose

(almost wrote that as 'our darker purple') Did I mention I'm a sucker for dark graphics?

Teslagrad

I am a sucker for platformers with cool visual styles

Long May She Reign

There is now a listing for Long Live The Queen on Steam's greenlight.



If you would like this game to be available there and get some new updates as well, click on through and vote Yes now!

sales talk

While it certainly isn't selling badly, The Royal Trap is not selling as fast as Long Live The Queen did on its launch. I wouldn't jump to conclusions about that, since there are all kinds of possible reasons behind that... although I can already predict what some of the pet theories will be.

1. Serendipity - I had the Steam launch for Magical Diary at the same time (on purpose) which probably brought more visitors to the site to try out the new game.
2. Marketing - I pushed LLTQ at more review sites than I did The Royal Trap, and ran more ads. I haven't quite figured out a good short fast pitch for TRT.
3. Wider Appeal - LLTQ has more market crossover because of the crunchy numbers and dark/political elements combined with the cuteness. TRT isn't just a pure visual novel, it's a WALL OF TEXT, and despite my efforts to point out the intrigue and plot rollercoaster aspects, it's probably mostly drawing the otome crowd.


I enjoy writing plot rollercoasters but it does give me trouble figuring out my advertising sometimes when I don't want to give away all the ridiculous stuff that's going to happen, but it's the ridiculous surprises that make a game interesting, if you see the problem...

colorful squares

Incredibly simple but hey, sometimes that's all you're after.



Game Page

the floor is not always your friend

... but I like leading Bob to a horrible doom!



I think it's a student IGF game? Dunno. There's a browser playable version at least, and it's all very Surreal Art entertainment. The 'sleep' bit before each level is too long though IMO.

Go back to bed.

since I don't do the tumbling thing

a link to a list of freeware games. Largely 2d/pixelly, tending to platformers, adventures, and horror. But trying to quickly sum it up will always get it wrong, so go look for yourself.

Super Diamond Rumba!

At a glance this reminds me a bit of my now mostly-forgotten skating game, by the combination of sliding tiles to create a playspace that a character moves through. Looks like this is probably EASIER than mine was though. I am always too complicated for casual.



Jump to about 45 seconds in to get past the text explanations if you don't read Japanese. If you can read Japanese or want to play anyway, the game is here.

And DAMMIT google why do you keep trying to make blogger as unusable as possible? I thought you FIXED that wrapping-in-the-middle-of-words nonsense.

podcast

If you saw me reference people talking about Long Live The Queen, you can find the podcast in question here. It's fairly brief, just a few minutes around the 20-minute mark.

I maintain a foolishly optimistic glimmer of hope for the narrative category of the IGF. A girl can dream, can't she?

many years late to the party

Okay, so this has been out for a long time but I was searching for relaxing games and discovered 'Auditorium', a strange little flash thing where you direct rays of light into targets in order to make pretty piano music. It is, indeed, soothing, while still being enough of a puzzle to satisfy my 'game' needs.

I took a screenshot but it's so pointless without the motion and the sound, you really should just go and look at the flash demo instead.

Tobari and the Night of the Curious Moon

Haven't seen one of these in a while! It's an old-school indie platformer... not the new super arty breed, but a cute Japanese thing. Well, originally Japanese. This version is fully English. Nothing amazingly special in the little bit I played of it, and the controls are kinda slidy, but if you like anime girls and cute things...

You go around whacking people with your magic staff. Some monsters will drop powerups. You can carry two powerups at a time and switch between them, or drop them to get back to your default or carry another.

And as I mentioned, free demo. (As usual, there are adult works elsewhere on DLsite, but this link is safe and leads to the non-adult part of the site.)

more IGF

Rhythm Odyssey - Okay, I largely ignore the audio-based games because there are ALWAYS "Look, a shooter that uses music from your hard drive" and "Look a game with no graphics!" all over the iGF, but this one at least looks kinda different. Might get dull pretty fast though, if you're just tapping to the beat.

Sang-Froid Tales of Werewolves - Another one I think I remember looking at on Greenlight.

Simony Uh. What? A name, a mysterious illustrated book page, no description, and a random documentary linked as your video? Guess I'm just not deep enough, dude.

Spaceteam - Frantically yelling technobabble at each other? That could be fun. Requires many devices I'd never have though.

Tembusu Bemused - "All characters and dialogues are caricatures of real-life professionals
and professors working at Tembusu College and the research that they do." Eh. The logo is the most awesome thing about this entry.

Tengami - Interesting visuals but I don't feel like I get it really.

The Age of Decadence - do I even need to say anything about this? But again, it'll be tough for a game of this length to get judging properly.

The Trouble with Robots - I keep reading that as rabbits. That's the trouble with looking through such a long list!

Third Eye Crime - I like the use of stealth and misdirection.

Wildfire Worlds - I am amused by the desire to create chaos and curious how this works.

igf next batch

Flightless - fun mechanic, looks well put-together

FLY'N - awesomeness previously noted

FTL - Had a lot of interest last year even though incomplete, is likely to do better now.

God of Blades - Clicked for more info because of "70s synth-prog-landscape oddities" As a mobile game it's not really something I'd ever be playing but I appreciate the effort.

Gone Home - a quiet little adventure? Curious. Not really in the interface style I like though.

Guacamelee - Interested in the visual style, looks playable enough... and another kidnapped girl. And hey, a few games down there's a kidnapped mayor's daughter too. Doesn't anybody ever kidnap sons?

ibb and obb - I'm sure I've heard of this somewhere...

in verbis virtus - "Spellcasting! F I R E!" ... Could be fun but voice recognition tends to be fuzzy; if you have to pronounce spells correctly that could get frustrating.

Inquisitor - I think I saw this on greenlight and was interested?

Kentucky Route Zero - Well, the setting makes me a bit curious but I really can't tell much about the game.

Mechanice - Mechanically interesting at least, don't see much Augmented Reality

MicroVenture - roguelike with procedural storytelling? Interesting.

Might of Ancient Remnants - you lost me at "the first". I hate overblown marketing claims!

Mr. Travel - Interesting purpose though I worry that the idea of travel safety may end up being inherently xenophobic?

Ninja Shadow Warrior - okay I do kinda want to play that. But how does it compensate for different player shapes?

Path of Exile - Sounds like I'd play it, but not the sort of thing I'm looking for in an IGF title

Pavilion - I'm curious, but the video is mysterious enough that that's about all I can say

Primordia - I really should get around to *playing* more of these guys' games, shouldn't i?

For that matter I should probably link these entries. Blame the trouble I've been having with blogging lately, I'm still working out the kinks of this plugin.