At their E3 2013 conference, Sony promised to put more effort in to fostering good relations with indie developers and bringing their games over to the PS4, PS3 and the Vita. Since then Sony has been giving spot lights to several indie devs and has pushed them even harder since the release of the PS4 in North America. Now that E3 2014 is just around the corner, Sony will be adding 12 more indie games to the Playstation family. Some are familiar fan favorites making the jump from the PC, PS3 and the Xbox 360/Xbox One. Others are making their grand debut on the PS4 for the first time. In this post we will take a look at the first six games that are slated to be release across Playstation consoles between this year and next year.
First up is Apotheon by Alien Trap Games. The art style of Apotheon grabs your attention immediately as it copies the artwork that you would see on Ancient Greek pottery. It’s really detailed and must have taken such a long to to design each area to make it as close to the artwork as possible. As for the combat, Jesse McGibney, one of the designers from Alien Trap Games, explains that the it draws from the teams collective background as multiplayer FPS gamers. Instead of giving players a set combo list or just having them button mash their way through the game, Apotheon gives players just the basic movements: walk, roll, block, dodge, attack, jump and throw. Players are to use these moves in conjunction with timing, positioning and reading enemy movement will allow players to come up with various battle tactics. Players will also have to learn how to wield various weapons as well in order to adapt to their opponent. If you think about it all of these are the core foundations of most fighting games and FPS games. The game does not have a release date, but be sure to keep an eye out for this game.
Next up is Axion Verge, a Sci-fi sidescroller from Tom Happ, a one man team. Right off the bat you get the vibes of the classic 2D Metroid games not only in world design but also in the music and enemies as well. In addition to the awesome retro inspired art and music, the main hook of the game is glitches. That’s right those annoying random actions that defy the original programing and either provide hilarious fun or inspire hate and anger as they crash the game. Happ explains that in the world there are glitches that the players will be able to use and control to help them get around the level, find secret rooms and even use against enemies and bosses. Axion Verge will also feature the following:
- Expansive Non-linear Exploration of 9 labyrinthine, interlocking areas.
- Gobs of unique tools and abilities, loads of weapons, and tons of health/power/attribute upgrades.
- Combat with dozens of unique creatures and bosses.
- Glitches allowing you to break past the boundaries of normal gameplay.
- Speedrun Mode – Play with a streamlined interface and additional features to facilitate speedrunning.
The game will be out on PS4 and Vita early 2015.
Next is a RPG platformer called Chasm by Discord Games Inc. Now there are two terms that you in video games, but you don’t paired together that often. Those two terms are Metroidvania and procedural generated. Metroidvania is a term that usually describes a game that has multiple paths and rooms to explore and back track through. Procedural generation is a tool that developers use, mainly RPG developers, to create random rooms, level, dungeons etc each time a player goes through a new game. Discord plans to combine the two for Chasm. There’s no release date for Chasm, but the game should be coming out sometime this year.
Space, the final frontier. Hundreds of games have been made about space, but not so much about space exploration. Drifter from Celsius Game Studios is an open world (or space to better put it) space trading sandbox game that has a procedurally-generated galaxy that is 100, 000 across. In this galaxy there are thousands of star systems for players to explore as they captain their very own space ship. Drifter gives players many options on how they would like to play; from space mining and transport to bounty hunting and piracy.
In a way, Drifter doesn’t offer anything different that other space exploration games already offer. However unlike those games, Drifter puts you in the role of a, as the title of the game obviously puts it, as a drifter. You have ties to no one. It’s just you, your space ship and the allure of adventure and money that will guide you though your exploration. The game doesn’t have a set release date, but I’m sure we’ll hear more about it at E3 next month.
An indie game getting published by an indie developer? It’s Indie-ception!! No actually its Double Fine Presents Escape Goat 2. Developed by MagicalTimeBean, Escape Goat 2 has players star as a brave goat and his mouse companion. One day his friends are all trapped in a mysterious castle. A strange force is keeping them there through a sleep spell and its up to the goat and mouse to save their friends.
The bullet hell shooter. A branch of the traditional shoot em up, or shmup, bullet hell shooters are one of the hardest shooters in the genre. Enemy after enemy shooting waves upon waves of multicolored bullets at players with little to no break in the action. It’s also one of the few games that warns players that the game may induce epileptic seizures. They also are mostly developed by Japanese studios, though there are a few developed by Western studios. Like Jamestown Plus for the PS4. Now the original Jamestown released on PC and Mac back in 2011 and, is a retelling of establishing the Jamestown colony. Only instead of Virginia, its on Mars. With aliens. And in space. Ok so its not an historically accurate retelling, but when have shmups had a story? All you need to do is shoot and not get hit. Especially when this shmup has 4 players on the same screen. In addition to getting a shiny new coat, Jamestown Plus will have the following new features:
- New ships, replete with innovative special attacks and customizable weapon systems!
- New levels, taking players on a swashbuckling adventure to the mysterious Martian moons of Phobos and Deimos!
- A new chapter of the Jamestown story that spans space and time, adds new dimension to established characters and locations, and finishes what the original game started.
Jamestown Plus will be seeing a release some time this Summer.
This wraps up the first half of the 12 indie games that will be making their way to Playstation consoles sometime this year and next year. The second half of the 12 boast a bit more diverse, but interesting none the less, line up of indie games.
Source: Playstation Blog
