Indie Spotlight - PAX Aus 2014

Phantasmal
Created By: Eyemobi
Status: In Development

Of all the places to get a hands-on preview of a horror game, the PAX Expo Hall probably ranks just under the caldera of an erupting volcano and just above the deck of a combat-engaged aircraft carrier on the list of places least likely to be conducive to an immersive experience, but I'll admit it: Phantasmal made me jump once or twice. Not noticeably, thankfully, since that would have probably caused the Oculus to slip off. Unless you're role-playing as somebody who has lost their glasses, those things need some serious fine-tuning.

It's pretty clear that the game is in its very early stages, though. You can see the cracks where it has sewed the rooms together – attempting once again to achieve the trendy survival horror goal of having decent procedurally-generated levels – and my playthrough ended with me being killed by a monster who decided it was done playing fair and would rather clip through a wall, but it certainly shows promise. Fundamentally the problem of procedurally-generated content is that it's extremely difficult to provide a tight, psychologically harrowing experience, but if Phantasmal turns out to focus on the slow dread of limited resources over a rollercoaster of tension and build-up, it could be effective. While you are indeed capable of fighting monsters off, ammo is (presumably) going to be scarce, you may have to go toe-to-toe more often than you'd be comfortable with, and the lovely chaps working the booth mentioned that there may or may not be enemies you have to avoid entirely in the game's future. The whole thing sounds totally chaotic, wildly free of the careful hand on the throttle that horror games usually require... but it might just work.

Rogue Singularity
Created By: Considerable Content
Status: In Development

One word penetrated my brain when I spotted this game nestled among the indie stands: speedruns. Some other words followed after that, for sure, but 'speedruns' was already so deeply entrenched that they were all-but drowned out. Essentially it's a 3D platformer about getting to the end of a procedurally-generated course composed entirely of floating blocks and obstacles – not entirely unlike an old-school take on those spacey levels from Super Mario Sunshine – without falling into the void below. If you take your time, watch the nearby traps carefully and play conservatively, this is by no means a difficult task, but Rogue Singularity is not a game you play slowly. Between the tight controls, lack of reasons to dwell and the ease with which you can leap off into space and bypass half the level, it feels as if every aspect of the game is egging you on to go as fast as you dare. There's no timer or anything, at least not right now; it just feels so damn good to jump from distant block to distant block, narrowly avoiding at least fifty hazards along the way, without stopping to think, plan, or touch the ground.

Of course, it's still in its early stages, so it's a little unclear what direction the game will take. Will we be scored based on time? Will it get repetitive, or will the game vary up the obstacles in your path? Will there be a daily challenge? Who knows, perhaps when you next hear about it it'll have a deep and involving story and have aggregated survival horror elements somehow. Game development!

Titan Souls
Created By: ACID NERVE
Status: In Development

Any game that has the audacity to name-drop Shadow of the Colossus and Dark Souls has set itself a massive pair of concrete shoes tied to a cannonball to fill, but in spite of its humble origins as a game jam project you can sort of see Titan Souls living up to the names, albeit in its own special way. Much like SotC, you almost exclusively fight boss battles in a sobering world against giant, ancient, mystical beings, absorbing their power for somewhat questionable reasons, and much like Dark Souls it'll pound you into the ground repeatedly with a meat tenderiser until you have completely mastered the 'dodge' button. You have no health and only a dinky little bow with an arrow that needs to be retrieved after every shot, so it doesn't outwardly appear to be a very mechanically deep game, but from the three boss battles I managed to play, it's clear that those simple mechanics are but a solid base to build all kinds of inventive, nail-bitingly hard fights on.

And what tense fights they are. With the difference between affirming success and humiliating splattered failure balanced on a single wayward attack, it's one of those games that's almost as good to watch as it is to play. Some people would egg me on loudly; others would watch with bated breath. A small crowd gathered around, watching me get ever-so close to beating a boss and fail with embarrassing regularity. Somebody might have set up a hotdog stand at one point. Alright, I'm embellishing the truth at this point, but in all honesty I am genuinely looking forward to Titan Souls now. It looks like exactly the kind of game to pick up if the story of how your character came to encounter the boss is not nearly as exciting to you as the story of how you, the player, beat the boss in the wee hours of the morning after being glued to the screen for hours on end. "It's not about seeing the game anymore," I said to one of the developers after dying for the twentieth time. "This is a matter of pride."

He didn't say anything, but I know he understood.