GDC 14: Mixing it up at the IGN Indie Mixer

s Rob Rich and I slogged our way through the doors of IGN and wrestled with the possibility of being trapped within a malfunctioning elevator, our spirit was never the less indomitable as we excitedly approached the fourth floor with glee—for above us, lay dozens of games presented by their respective teams, ripe for the playing.

With a fist full of beer and poncy wine, I walked into the lion’s den, and left with anticipation for an incredible batch of games slated for release in 2014, these titles stood out particularly to me.

As I steadied my stroll onto the office floor, a screen filled with an enormous palate of color immediately grabbed my attention, the game was called Super Avalanche, and it was pretty hard to walk away from. Combining the sensibilities of Super Crate Box’s frenetic movement that’s smashed into a platforming gauntlet that’s akin to Ice Climbers, gameplay instantly picks up from the summit of a mountain that’s slowly being flooded with molten lava—leaving you to stick your shit up, and platform till you die. Making the climb up is met with the challenge of navigating a random assortment of blocks in which you’ll not only have to juggle with precision jumping to the most logical route of the descending blocks, but you’ll have to avoid being crushed to death from the any of them directly above you as well.

Equipped with responsive controls and a beautiful aesthetic composed of crayon like composition and color, Super Avalanche is the sort of score chasing game that’s poised to steal all of your precious time before you’d even know it, and you can even bring a buddy too, it’s on Steam Greenlight, look out for it.

Scott Benson and Alec Holowka are a group of dudes with many talents. Among them is the magic of Scott’s animation and the fact that they’re both veritable word smiths that waste their comedic gold on Twitter for everyone to enjoy; they have taken these charming qualities and injected them into a wonderful game that’ll slap a smile on your face within seconds. Achieving immense success on Kickstarter, A Night In The Woods places you in the role of Mae who’s just returned home from a failed attempt at college, and with all of this free time, what else is there to do other than jump round town and invade the privacy of your neighbors. Possessing little to no direction, the game is simply a passport to a world filled with intrigue and personality that expresses deceptively hilarious social commentary on a variety of things; a self-contained little adventure that felt like the start of an adventure after only spending a little time with it.

While the graphic design is immaculate, certain aspects like the stage design is a little rough around the edges when it comes to things like poor contextual clues as to what’s a platform and what isn’t but these flaws are mere blemishes on a game that’s set to be the charming experience that will sweep away all who advance its title screen.

When I think of one of my least favorite tropes within game design, it’s got to be escort mission, they’re just a big ol’ bag of suck, but a few guys from Frima Studio showed me a project they have going that’s slightly turned me around on the concept. Chariot is game that tasks a Prince and Princess delivering the recently departed king in a makeshift coffin mobile to its destined burial ground, and yeah, the gameplay is even sillier than the premise. Utilizing different physics, the royal teens will drag, push, pull their dead monarch through a course of obstacles that will challenge players to manipulate specific physics in order progress within the level, In one area, I need to use the wheeled casket as a stepping stone to reach a platform above me, only to latch back on to it with my projectile chain and pull it back up to me, and use that momentum to travel across a railing that the King’s tomb cart can only access, with you holding on for dear life across as you fly through the surprise roller coaster moment.

Chariot will be available on every console and Steam, and with so much more being added to the concept, I foresee it being one of the best co-op indie games set for release in 2014.

Tower Defense games are a dime a dozen, they’re the other OTHER indie game that players will likely stumble across that isn’t a platformer or top-down RPG, but Surprise Attack’s Burden is an entirely different beast in more ways than one.

Burden positions players through a fish-eye lens view of a wandering Giant who’s walking into a proverbial hive’s nest, and the only way to keep the big lug on course is to prop defensive stations around various vital spots on the moving titan’s body in a manner that’s roughly reversed inspired so to speak from Shadow of the Colossus. To be honest, I was more stressed then enthralled; not to say that playing the game isn’t fun but it was more of a an intense experience than enjoyable one. I was constantly moving around my giant, micro-managing counter attacks and barricades from waves that literally attacked from all directions, and the interface that dictates the transitions between the areas of interest was spotty with the choice and layout and delayed input, but these conditions only increased my anxiety and after I failed, I wanted to go back and see if I could’ve done something different.

Aside from mechanics that could use a bit of polishing, Burden did interest me in buying into the idea of tower-defense games again, and even though I was terrible at it (like I am with every other God Damn one) I was motivated to get better at it, and intend to do so when it drops onto Steam at the end of the year.

There’s some personal interest vested into this last title since I personally donated to its Kickstarter campaign, so naturally, I was more than just a little excited to get my hands on a playable build, and I have to say, the ten or so odd minutes with Hyper Light Drifter instilled all of the confidence that I had going into it, and then some.

Hyper Light Drifter focuses on the more traditional twitch heavy carnal element of game design, empowering a sense of unstoppable momentum, moving around was an exercise of ease as I evaded and dispatched all of the foes around me in seconds. The hook of Hyper Light Drifter’s dashing comes from mastering its use in and out of battle, the levels are designed with the drifting in mind and crossing through its narrow stretch of footing and gaps is a challenge within itself and the consequence of spawning at the very beginning is a cruel but effective teacher—calling Hyper Light Drifter difficult would be an understatement, but it’s set to be a gratifying action game, and it left me more than impressed, follow this game with vigilant eyes, it’s going to be a doozy when it’s done.