Earlier this month I was browsing the past entries in the IndieGames blog and I came across a game called "Realm of the Mad God." Reading about the game I saw it was a top down roguelike RPG. Being a big fan of any Roguelike I decided to try it out but it was not yet to be. I forgot all about it until a few days ago. A friend showed me a list of the top downloadable indie games of 2010 and there was the Realm of the Mad God and according to this list it had online play! I was not aware of that when I first saw the article from back in January of 2010. Yeah it says it's online in the post on the IndieGames blog but I totally missed.
I decided to finally try this game out and I am really glad I did. It's a fantastic little browser game and I cannot recommend it enough.
Realm of the Mad God tasks you with defeating the mad god Oryx having been summoned to his realm to be killed by his army of monsters. You start the game with selecting from classes which make up the standard RPG stuff, Rogues, Wizards, Warriors and a few others. Some of the classes are locked and to unlock them you need to get the starter classes up to the level cap which is 20. Once in the game you show up in a hub world which leads to various different realms. Each realm has the same content but they're at different levels of completion depending on the amount of killing done by the players.
As mentioned above this game falls into the roguelike category of games. When you die you're done, you lose everything, forced to restart and begin the level grind all over again. One thing that takes away some of the pain of losing your progress are none of the gear has level requirements. Meaning if you fall in battle and a friend can grab your stuff your new level one guy can use all your old gear. This makes starting over easier as you have more power at a lower level. I've had several characters die some at the level cap and I've only wanted to jump right back in and do it all again but I like the whole roguelike thing so your mileage may vary with this as to the amount of starting over you can take. Though at 20 you can take a good amount of punishment and if you're in a group you should be good to go.
The game is very simple to play, it's a lot like the various twin stick shooters we've seen in the past like Robotron, Geometry Wars or Smash TV but this uses the keyboard and mouse. WASD move you around and the mouse aims the direction of your shots. It works really well but I would love to eventually see support for a controller to be able to play this like a twin stick shooter but only time will tell about this.
Each class has a four equipment slots, main weapon, special ability, armor and a ring. Each class has only one type of weapon they can use and they all have unique special items they can find. Such as the Priest finding a better healing Tome and the Rogue acquiring a new clock to make his stealth move better. It's all very simple and this makes the game very enjoyable.
Like many RPG's this game has you gaining experience to level and as you go along you fight stronger and stronger enemies until you get to the end but the monster killing this is handled in a different way. When the realm starts fresh there are 25,000 monsters that need to be killed. These are a mix of trash mobs and bosses or as they're known in this game Gods. Arrows will point you in the direction of level appropriate gods for you to kill so you never intentionally go to the place you can't survive in. Mindless wandering can get you jammed up but that's another story. So in the end it's the entire realm of people working together to kill all 25,000 monsters to summon Oryx The Mad God. When the enemy count is reached everyone in the server is summoned to fight Oryx regardless of level or what you're doing. I like this but it seems a little unfair if you're just starting out and all of a sudden you're in this fight with something you have no chance of beating, if you survive you stand to get some good loot but it can confuse you at first if you don't know exactly what's happening.
That's the game in a nutshell and I have to say it's a lot of fun. It plays in the browser and is free to play. I believe it has some microtransactions for gold and some other stuff but I haven't seen anything about it so I'm not 100 percent sure on that.
I'm going to share some thoughts I have to improve this game and that will be in the below video that will accompany this article so you can check that out as well.
Link to play this game, also has the link to the forums and the wiki -
http://www.realmofthemadgod.com
Showing posts with label Indie. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Indie. Show all posts
Monday, January 3, 2011
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
One Chance
One Chance is a flash game that recently came out on Newgrounds. It's getting a lot of buzz on the various gaming sites so I decided to give it a try.
You should probably play it before you read on. I'm giving any real spoilers but this is a game that should be played fresh. It only takes about 10 minutes.
http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/555181
In One Chance, you're a scientist who has just recently helped cure cancer. What you find out very early in the game is that same sure has turned into a deadly airborne virus and in 6 days everyone on the Earth will be dead. In the final six days of living you have various choices to make on how you will spend that time.
The main gimmick here is the game only lets you play it one time. I've seen a few flash games that are trying this technique and it's extremely interesting. Games where your choices matter and you can't go back and change what you've done. This was seen in Heavy Rain earlier this year where if a character in that game dies the story just continues with said person dead, no quick loads to bring them back. I really like this mechanic and would like to see it worked into more games. You can play again if you go in and delete your flash cookies but not everyone knows how to do that and it defeats the purpose of playing a one playthrough type of game.
But with One Chance the atmosphere is really well done. I loved the music that plays during the game and it fits with the changing environment as you progress in the final days. Some of the choices presented to you are difficult to choose between as you have no idea how they will effect the future.
I don't want to go on anymore as I'd hate to let something slip and ruin it for anyone. But definitely check it out, it will only take about 10 minutes.
You should probably play it before you read on. I'm giving any real spoilers but this is a game that should be played fresh. It only takes about 10 minutes.
http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/555181
In One Chance, you're a scientist who has just recently helped cure cancer. What you find out very early in the game is that same sure has turned into a deadly airborne virus and in 6 days everyone on the Earth will be dead. In the final six days of living you have various choices to make on how you will spend that time.
The main gimmick here is the game only lets you play it one time. I've seen a few flash games that are trying this technique and it's extremely interesting. Games where your choices matter and you can't go back and change what you've done. This was seen in Heavy Rain earlier this year where if a character in that game dies the story just continues with said person dead, no quick loads to bring them back. I really like this mechanic and would like to see it worked into more games. You can play again if you go in and delete your flash cookies but not everyone knows how to do that and it defeats the purpose of playing a one playthrough type of game.
But with One Chance the atmosphere is really well done. I loved the music that plays during the game and it fits with the changing environment as you progress in the final days. Some of the choices presented to you are difficult to choose between as you have no idea how they will effect the future.
I don't want to go on anymore as I'd hate to let something slip and ruin it for anyone. But definitely check it out, it will only take about 10 minutes.
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
The Day
I was reading on Indie Games Blog today about a new game called, The Day. The Day is brought to us by Armor Games who have put a lot of great games on their site over the last few years and this one is no exception.
You play a game named Tia and the game takes place during her birthday. For her birthday Tia's father gives her a game card similar to something you'd see in Magic: The Gathering or other battle card games. You go around battling the other kids in your town collecting their cards as you win and eventually get to the conclusion.
The interesting thing about this game is you find out rather early on you're confined to this town which is really a camp of sorts. You're warned to not leave the area and go into the woods as the guards will shoot you on sight.
The card battling game is very simple but it's just the backbone to the games very short story. With two endings the game can be played in about 15-20 minutes and it's worth your time to play it.
You can follow this link to play The Day.
http://armorgames.com/play/6980/the-day
You play a game named Tia and the game takes place during her birthday. For her birthday Tia's father gives her a game card similar to something you'd see in Magic: The Gathering or other battle card games. You go around battling the other kids in your town collecting their cards as you win and eventually get to the conclusion.
The interesting thing about this game is you find out rather early on you're confined to this town which is really a camp of sorts. You're warned to not leave the area and go into the woods as the guards will shoot you on sight.
The card battling game is very simple but it's just the backbone to the games very short story. With two endings the game can be played in about 15-20 minutes and it's worth your time to play it.
You can follow this link to play The Day.
http://armorgames.com/play/6980/the-day
Thursday, September 23, 2010
I finally finished Spelunky this morning!
If you don't know what Spelunky is then you need to just stop reading this and go here to download and play this wonderful game.
Spelunky World
Okay now that you've done that or you've played Spelunky before we can continue. Spelunky is a 2D platformer done in the "RogueLike" style, made by Derek Yu. What is a roguelike you ask? It's a type of game where usually the game is entirely randomized at the start and when you die that's it. No other chances no extra lives, one life and then it's the end. It all started with an old game from 1980 called Rogue and then moved on to games like Nethack and Dwarf Fortress and more mainstream with the Diablo games and their hardcore/hell modes. I've of course played Diablo 1 and 2 to death and liked my trips into the hardcore mode but they always ended in death and me quiting. I've messed with Nethack and Dwarf Fortress a little bit but I've had a hard time getting in to them.
It was probably sometime last year when I first played Spelunky. After seeing some videos of it online I decided to try it out. After a few very quick deaths at the hands of an arrow trap, a spike pit or just straight falling to my death I kind of stopped playing it. This wasn't any real fault of the game I just had to many other games on my plate at the time to spend the needed time with it. Lately I've been without a main game to focus on other than Team Fortress 2 so I decided to give Spelunky another go. Well here I am about a week or so later with 250+ deaths and I finally made it to the end of the game. I know others have had way more deaths and have been probably trying way longer but I'm proud of my win. I did it without robbing a shop and without a jetpack or a shotgun. The last boss was a dangerous adrenaline filled battle and one of the best boss battles for me in recent gaming memory.
One thing I learned as I played and did some research on Spelunky is it's never the game's fault you die. Some games are cheap with cheap pitfalls and unfair deaths. Not Spelunky, if you die it's because you screwed up. It reminds me of Demon's Souls as that was a game where the cheap deaths were minimal if there at all. When you first start playing Spelunky you need to take it slow, watch your surroundings. You have to look out for the arrow traps, the spikes all the enemies out to get you. It's one of those things that's hard to really explain but if you spend any time with Spelunky you'll see what I mean. The game is winnable at the start every time it's just up to you the player to make it to the end.
The only thing about Spelunky's randomness that is a big negative is sometimes items you want to find can spawn off the map. One example and a small spoiler is in the first level. In one of the levels in the first area a Key and a gold chest will spawn. You need the key to open the chest and get the Udjat Eye an items needed to enter the City of Gold later in the game. On rare occasions either the key or the chest can spawn outside of the level and you will never be able to get to them. It only happens every now and then but it is kind of game breaking but, you can still beat the game if this happens you just can't make it to the City of Gold. In playing over 250 tries the happened to me maybe 3-4 times and none of those times did I make it far enough to even think about the City of Gold.
In the end though Spelunky is fantastic and needs to be played by more people. I know I'm preaching to the choir on this game as it's been around for awhile and I'm late to the party on playing it like crazy but here it is. I have finished it and I plan on playing it like crazy for the foreseeable future. There is still a City of Gold for me to find and I will find it!
Right now Spelunky is available on the PC at the link I posted above. It is also coming out to the XBLA sometime in the future but I have no idea when exactly. Which ever way you play it you need to it's great!
Spelunky World
Okay now that you've done that or you've played Spelunky before we can continue. Spelunky is a 2D platformer done in the "RogueLike" style, made by Derek Yu. What is a roguelike you ask? It's a type of game where usually the game is entirely randomized at the start and when you die that's it. No other chances no extra lives, one life and then it's the end. It all started with an old game from 1980 called Rogue and then moved on to games like Nethack and Dwarf Fortress and more mainstream with the Diablo games and their hardcore/hell modes. I've of course played Diablo 1 and 2 to death and liked my trips into the hardcore mode but they always ended in death and me quiting. I've messed with Nethack and Dwarf Fortress a little bit but I've had a hard time getting in to them.
It was probably sometime last year when I first played Spelunky. After seeing some videos of it online I decided to try it out. After a few very quick deaths at the hands of an arrow trap, a spike pit or just straight falling to my death I kind of stopped playing it. This wasn't any real fault of the game I just had to many other games on my plate at the time to spend the needed time with it. Lately I've been without a main game to focus on other than Team Fortress 2 so I decided to give Spelunky another go. Well here I am about a week or so later with 250+ deaths and I finally made it to the end of the game. I know others have had way more deaths and have been probably trying way longer but I'm proud of my win. I did it without robbing a shop and without a jetpack or a shotgun. The last boss was a dangerous adrenaline filled battle and one of the best boss battles for me in recent gaming memory.
One thing I learned as I played and did some research on Spelunky is it's never the game's fault you die. Some games are cheap with cheap pitfalls and unfair deaths. Not Spelunky, if you die it's because you screwed up. It reminds me of Demon's Souls as that was a game where the cheap deaths were minimal if there at all. When you first start playing Spelunky you need to take it slow, watch your surroundings. You have to look out for the arrow traps, the spikes all the enemies out to get you. It's one of those things that's hard to really explain but if you spend any time with Spelunky you'll see what I mean. The game is winnable at the start every time it's just up to you the player to make it to the end.
The only thing about Spelunky's randomness that is a big negative is sometimes items you want to find can spawn off the map. One example and a small spoiler is in the first level. In one of the levels in the first area a Key and a gold chest will spawn. You need the key to open the chest and get the Udjat Eye an items needed to enter the City of Gold later in the game. On rare occasions either the key or the chest can spawn outside of the level and you will never be able to get to them. It only happens every now and then but it is kind of game breaking but, you can still beat the game if this happens you just can't make it to the City of Gold. In playing over 250 tries the happened to me maybe 3-4 times and none of those times did I make it far enough to even think about the City of Gold.
In the end though Spelunky is fantastic and needs to be played by more people. I know I'm preaching to the choir on this game as it's been around for awhile and I'm late to the party on playing it like crazy but here it is. I have finished it and I plan on playing it like crazy for the foreseeable future. There is still a City of Gold for me to find and I will find it!
Right now Spelunky is available on the PC at the link I posted above. It is also coming out to the XBLA sometime in the future but I have no idea when exactly. Which ever way you play it you need to it's great!
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Cave Story Appreciation Week! Part 3!
The PC has been home to almost any genre of game you can imagine. Sure, FPS and RTS are the bread and butter of the PC. They simply just control better with a mouse and keyboard. One genre the console's have always had on the PC were the platformers. Games like Mario and Sonic they all benefit from using a controller. Through out the years we've seen some platforming games on the PC and well they always come and go without much fuss. Using a keyboard to control these type of games almost always feels awkward. You can buy any number of PC control pads to use for these type of games but really how many PC gamers really have one. I bought my first one earlier this year and it was to play Street Fighter 4.
So we've seen the always on life support platforming genre on the PC but lately it's had a resurgence, sprung back from the dead. Most of these games are coming from the indie developers. Games like La-Mulana, Treasure Hunter Man, Knytt and Cave Story. These games not only use the keyboard to control them they use it extremely well. Some of them let you use a control pad to play them but they work as well with the keyboard. I was really cautious about trying these games out because all I could think of were the hard to play platformers from the past struggling to even make the easiest jumps.
As stated above I finally decided to try Cave Story and within the first 20-30 minutes I was completely turned around on the idea of using a keyboard to play a platformer. Cave Story has the simplest keyboard setup for this type of game. Jump and shoot are next to each other and all the other option such as map and inventory are right there too. Your hand never needs to move far from the action keys to do something else. After playing Cave Story almost all the way through I decided to try my USB controller to play the game a bit. I was shocked to find I was confused using the controller for this game. I thought the controller would help me get through a part I was having an especially hard time with but no it didn't. I played the game with a controller for about 10 minutes before I gave up and went back to the keyboard. It's just another testament to exactly how well done Cave Story is. Everything about it is great right down to the perfect platforming controls. Controls I think were designed and balanced with the use of a keyboard in mind.
So we've seen the always on life support platforming genre on the PC but lately it's had a resurgence, sprung back from the dead. Most of these games are coming from the indie developers. Games like La-Mulana, Treasure Hunter Man, Knytt and Cave Story. These games not only use the keyboard to control them they use it extremely well. Some of them let you use a control pad to play them but they work as well with the keyboard. I was really cautious about trying these games out because all I could think of were the hard to play platformers from the past struggling to even make the easiest jumps.
As stated above I finally decided to try Cave Story and within the first 20-30 minutes I was completely turned around on the idea of using a keyboard to play a platformer. Cave Story has the simplest keyboard setup for this type of game. Jump and shoot are next to each other and all the other option such as map and inventory are right there too. Your hand never needs to move far from the action keys to do something else. After playing Cave Story almost all the way through I decided to try my USB controller to play the game a bit. I was shocked to find I was confused using the controller for this game. I thought the controller would help me get through a part I was having an especially hard time with but no it didn't. I played the game with a controller for about 10 minutes before I gave up and went back to the keyboard. It's just another testament to exactly how well done Cave Story is. Everything about it is great right down to the perfect platforming controls. Controls I think were designed and balanced with the use of a keyboard in mind.
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