Magfest 2015 - Part Two

Usually when there's a gaming a convention. There's a indie area. When there's an indie area.. there's a girl dressed like a corgi... harassing the devs...  I'm sorry devs...


I have this love for the indie section. I always seem to find at least a few games that I get excited about and can't wait to release. The developers are always so excited to talk to you as well and explain what their dream was and what it's going to end up being. I've only ran into a small handful that were a bit snooty or sexist but you'll always have the bad with the good. 

While I think I tested almost everything that was on the floor I know I may have missed a few and I'm sorry. The ones I'm going to mention below are the ones I think are worth looking at in the long run. Also these are personal opinions so your taste in games may be different from mine so I'm sorry if you don't like my own taste in games!


1. Treasure Adventure World 

You - a child washed onto an island - no memory, no hand, no family. It - an island full of adventure and treasures to discover What - Go on an adventure and find your past! What else do I have to say?!

I got to talk to Steve about this game and I actually didn't know about the original game until I walked up to the booth. He was probably one of the nicest devs I've talked to and was very passionate about the project. Besides the backstory of the game creation itself what I got from the story is that while it looks innocent and fun there's something darker behind the scenes that you learn about as you play through. There will be a ton of easter eggs and side stories you can follow or if you want you can get through the game at a reasonable pace. It all depends on how in depth you want to get into it. 

The demo was easy to pick up and figuring out how to play was a fast process. There was simple quest at the beginning that taught you about trying more then you expect and getting your first tool. The graphics are clean and as far as I could tell it felt like it could be released already. This makes me look forward to the actual finished project if they are taking their time to make it 100% instead of rushing the final deal. 

Keep an eye out and have yourself a look here! 

2. AEROBAT

You - A flying ship thing bent on destroying bug flying things by smashing through them! It - Easy to use controls to satisfy your pew pew and smashing urges! What - Fling that #$@#$ mouse as best you can to blow shit up!

I wasn't able to really talk to someone about the game too much besides getting that there wasn't really a huge storyline or anything. Just that it's something for fun which in itself isn't ever a problem honestly. I was tossed onto the game quickly to try it out instead of chat. The booth itself was one of the most popular ones and had a good crowd around it most of the convention. 

I will give props that the tutorial at the beginning was also short and sweet considering the controls themselves are short and sweet. The basics of the game is you have to balance what you want your little flyer to do depending on when you want to dodge or attack but you can't do both. There was a unique addicting challenge to it that made it fun but I couldn't tell if that was just because it was a new game or if it was the game itself. My only concern is how long that type of gameplay would keep my attention before I would want an update or change. For an easy pick up and go game this would be fun though or a good party game if they figured out how to make it multiplayer. 

This one also felt ready to be released and I believe it's on steam now if you want to give it a try!

3. Earth Knight

You - A little girl or old man jumping off a ship to free fall onto dragons and take sweet revenge! It - A fast paced two sided game where you free fall onto dragons then side scroll jump/kill your way to their squishy brain masses. What - Fall, Jump and Stab your way to human victory!

This booth was the other that was pretty happening. They had laid down some comfy seats an the game itself has some nice music to go with the fast pace so it was a good lure for people walking by. They were also giving away t-shirts if you hit a certain amount of points on your demo run. I got one on the first try! (puffs out chest proudly).  

The concept is you are humans trying to kill dragons that took over the world. You can get more into the story later if you want but really it's a good pick up and go game. Im not sure if they are going to build more into the game but there are three levels of dragons you have to get through till the end. Each level has a harder group of dragons to kill but you could really just fall through the sky without landing on any dragon at all. Once you land on a dragon the game turns into a side scroller where you run across the dragons back to get to its head to stab it. Think Robot Unicorn Attack with stabby at end. There's also creature and items along the way mixed up to make things a little more interesting and keep you on your toes. 

Once again my only concern is how long would this keep my attention till I get bored of the same concept? I would have to weigh the price for how long the game play would be before purchasing but this one is on my list to keep an eye on.


Jump to Part One  |  Jump to Part Three