Today's trailer roundup features a love letter to mechs, an unstable AI with procedurally generated responses, and a snarky wizard out to save the world from teenage "heroes".
Burst Fighter
Windows, OSX Linux | $TBA | Soon 2016 | Early demo (Windows)
Made by Indonesian developer Magesoft, this game is to be a co-op bullet hell shooter with customizable ships. Storywise, some humanoids are fighting to take their homeworld back from an "advanced mechanical race".
Code: HARDCORE
Windows, OSX, Linux | $15+ | October 2017 | Kickstarter (funded)
This is one of the games that came up in my recent interview with Iain Garner on the Chinese indie scene, and it looks great. It's an action game whose developers, Rocket Punch Games, clearly have a deep love of mechs. The video is seven minutes long, with gameplay footage making up about the first minute and a half.
Diaries of a Spaceport Janitor
Windows, OSX | reg. $10 | Available now
Developer Sundae Month started out making free monthly games, but they've stepped up into the paid leagues with Diaries of a Spaceport Janitor, "an anti-adventure game about picking up trash in an alien bazaar. You play as the Janitor, an Alaensee woman with a municipally-subsidized trash incineration job, and dreams of leaving the planet of Xabran's Rock far behind her."
Event[0]
Windows, OSX | $20 | Available now
From developer Ocelot Society: "Set in a retrofuture inspired by 2001: A Space Odyssey, Solaris and Brave New World, Event[0] is a game about building a personal relationship with a machine using natural language. As a player, your only companion is an insecure and unstable AI entity named Kaizen, with whom you interact by typing messages using antiquated computer terminals throughout a desolated spacecraft. The game's multi-layered story emerges organically as players communicate with Kaizen, freely explore 3D environments, gather information and solve hacking puzzles. Each player will enjoy a unique gameplay experience based on the way they choose to communicate with Kaizen, who procedurally generates over two million lines of dialog and demonstrates a variety of different personalities, and communication responses, influenced by human input."
Galactic Junk League
Windows, OSX, Linux | $TBA | Sometime 2017 | Open Beta
From developer Pixel Federation: "What used to be a prosperous universe is now a post-apocalyptic rusty dump full of galactic junk. Savage arenas became the only amusement we have. To fight and destroy, we use all necessary means from super advanced beam weapons to makeshift torpedoes made from a rusty fridge."
Lew Pulsipher's Doomstar
Windows, OSX | reg. $10 | Available now
From developer Large Visible Machine: "In Doomstar, your fleet is comprised of hidden units - units which remain unidentified until they enter battle - so you'll need bluff, bravado and super cool strategy to weed out and destroy the enemy's Command Ship. Only when two opposing pieces sit on the same square are the units revealed and the weakest defeated. Each of the units in your fleet has a set of different capabilities, and it's up to you to deploy them with cunning and blast your enemy to oblivion."
Pankapu
Windows, OSX, Linux | $5 per episode | Ep. 1 Available now
From developer Too Kind Studio: "In a world full of Dreams and Nightmares, a tiny warrior has to fight for the safety of his homeland. However, the real purpose of his quest, beyond the struggle of good and evil, is the mental health of a traumatized child. Told in the manner of a fable read to a child, the game has two levels of reading: the story of Pankapu, epic and naive, and the second one about Djaha'rell's life, the child to whom the tale is told, dark and tragic."
Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun
Windows, OSX, Linux; future PS4, XB1 | $TBA | December 6, 2016
Mimimi's real-time tactics game with stealth elements not only has 3D graphics, but incorporates 3D verticality into its gameplay. The player has five characters at their disposal, each with a different skill set.
The Virus: Cry for Help
iOS, Android | Free trial, $1.99 full game | Available now
This game from developer POPCLAIRE is made explicitly for smartphones, making use of push notifications to simulate communicating with a person in real time.
ZENITH
Windows, PS4; XB1 on Sept. 30 | Varies by platform | Available now
From developer Infinigon: "In Zenith, you play as Argus -- a thirty-something wizard who's needed for one final job: protecting a powerful artifact from angsty heroes with too much free time, too many oversized swords, and a "chosen one" complex that would make Neo blush."