The past weekend I travelled to Valenciennes, France, to have a look at some indie games being shown at Indie Garden Assembly 2018.
Unfortunately, I didn’t make it on Friday when the event was only open to press and other industry people (and when the majority of the TED-like talks took place) and on the next day a few exhibitors couldn’t show up anymore.
Nevertheless, I’ll share with you my thoughts and experiences playing some of these Indie games that will be out in the coming months.
| Antigraviator | Gladiabots | Hoverloop |
| OQO | Chop | Youropa |
| Dolmen | Double Kick Heroes |
Antigraviator
| What is it? | A Futuristic anti-gravity racer with high speed ships which also lets you set up traps for unsuspecting opponents |
| Platforms | Steam, Xbox One & Playstation 4 |
| Release date | Q2 2018 |
| What’s to love? | Great sense of speed
Gorgeous Visuals Up to 4 player Multiplayer through local splitscreen Multiple paths through each track |
| Any concerns? | Too similar to existing franchises?
12 tracks, but only 4 worlds (will there be enough varience?) |
| Highlights of the day | Coming in 3rd, 1st and 1st in my three test-races
Playing split-screen multiplayer vs a friend is still great fun and should become a focus again in other games. They won the Audience award |
| Read More | Interview |
| Links | http://www.antigraviator.com/
https://twitter.com/Antigravgame |
Gladiabots
| What is it? | A robot fighting game where you have to program the AI of your bots. |
| Platforms | Steam, iOS, Android |
| Release date | Coming soon to Steam and iOS,
Out on Android already |
| What’s to love? | Challenging
Online multiplayer that doesn’t require the other people to be online at the same time Perfectly suited as a mobile game |
| Any concerns? | Not for everyone
Could use more inspired backgrounds A lot of time spent doing Trial & Error |
| Highlights of the day | My companion causing a Mexican stand-off (his bots and AI had identical coding so the game ended in a draw)
Remembering why I quit programming (I’m not very good at it) |
| Links | https://gladiabots.com/ |
Hoverloop
| What is it? | A multiplayer focused drone combat game |
| Platforms | Steam & Xbox One |
| Release date | In Early Access on steam,
Coming to Xbox One in summer 2018 |
| What’s to love? | Up to 4 player Split-Screen Multiplayer
A lot of different modes to try out Fun skins for the bots Balanced level designs |
| Any concerns? | Single player doesn’t hold your interest very long
Camera concerns: beware of motion sickness User Interface needs polishing |
| Highlights of the day | Teaming up with a friend and the two developers to set an all-time record in the survival mode. We survived 30 waves of enemies! |
| Read More | Interview |
| Links | https://www.not-a-company.com/
https://twitter.com/HoverloopNAC |
OQO
| What is it? | A stylish puzzle game |
| Platforms | Steam, Switch, Mobile (iOS, Android) |
| Release date | Start of 2019 |
| What’s to love? | Stylish Visuals
Soothing soundtrack Simple concept Hard to put down |
| Any concerns? | When too many circles are visible it becomes difficult to figure out what’s going on.
Hard to put down 😀 |
| Highlight | Won the Best Game Award at the event |
| Links | https://oqogame.com |
Chop
| What is it? | A multiplayer focused brawler game |
| Platforms | PC/Mac |
| Release date | Coming soon |
| What’s to love? | 4 player same-screen multiplayer
Chopping an enemy in half feels visceral Solid controls & gameplay The “escape through portal” part required to win is brilliant as it adds a lot of tension |
| Any concerns? | Could use bigger character variety
Not a lot of single player potential Sound could use some fleshing out |
| Highlight | Getting my ass kicked by my friend and a more experienced player |
| Links | http://chop-thegame.com/
https://twitter.com/chop_thegame |
Youropa
| What is it? | A gravity-defying puzzle exploration game |
| Platforms | Steam
(console release TBA) |
| Release date | Coming soon |
| What’s to love? | Metroid-Vania like character growth (learning new exploration skills along the way)
Visual design is very appealing Great pacing and lots of room for fun achievements (collecting out of reach stuff) |
| Any concerns? | Sometimes difficult to figure out what to do
Camera controls when zooming out to view the world Animal cruelty (poor little dog) |
| Highlight | Learning that this game has been 10 years in the making.
Creating my own character design Figuring out that you have to kick a dog and drag its (unconscious, I hope) body onto a switch to proceed. |
| Links | http://www.frecle.net/
https://twitter.com/MikkelFredborg |
Dolmen
| What is it? | A Sci-fi Dark Souls-like game |
| Platforms | Steam, Xbox One & Playstation 4 |
| Release date | Steam: September 2018
Xbox One & Playstation 4: 2019-2020 |
| What’s to love? | Great sci-fi character models (Dead Space, Mass Effect inspired)
Good Weapon variation Level design reminiscent of Dark Souls |
| Any concerns? | Wall textures look uninspired
Not a lot of enemy variation yet Stamina seems to run out awful fast Sound design (weapons don’t sound as if they have enough of an impact) |
| Highlight | None: Demo took too long for one player to finish so didn’t get to play myself, but he did beat the demo’s Boss. |
| Links | http://dolmenthegame.com
http://www.twitter.com/dolmengame |
Double Kick Heroes
| What is it? | A Pixelated Rhythm game with Heavy Metal music |
| Platforms | Steam |
| Release date | TBA |
| What’s to love? | Supports the Guitar Hero controllers!
The 8-bit heavy metal music tracks The graphical style fits the tone perfectly Very addictive |
| Any concerns? | You can only shoot when game/rhythm lets you (could use some ‘Last resort’ abilities
You need to both look at the nodes to hit AND the zombies to know which row to hit Difficult to hit multiple notes in a row with an Xbox controller |
| Highlight | Beating three levels in a row and wanting to play more and more of it! |
| Links | http://www.doublekickheroes.rocks/
https://twitter.com/headbang_club |
clockworkerr0r
I’m definitely excited for Youropa! I’m already a huge fan of puzzle games, but the added element of using gravity in puzzles makes it seem even more fun. Even though it gets difficult at times, I still really want to try it out! Another game that I’m really excited to try this year is Nova Nukers. It’s a competitive multiplayer that has really interesting character and weapon designs. The stage is also a rotating sphere, and I’m really curious to see how that will work out in a multiplayer environment.
Robby Bisschop
I’ll be sure to cover it once it’s released on Console 😀