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l3rking · 7 months

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Indie Game Recommendations from a Destiny Player for a Destiny Player

So between the AAA videogame industry being a nightmare and Bungie being on fire I thought it'd be nice to make some indie recommendations if you're trying to get that Destiny fix but feel like stepping away.

RoboQuest

RoboQuest is an FPS roguelike that is currently in Early Access but goes live with its 1.0 release on Nov. 7th. The gun feel and movement in Roboquest should be studied. It feels so good to play. The rougelike elements are pretty bog standard (pick a class, start a run, random items and weapon drops, on-the-go buildcrafting, meta progression via upgrades) and the artstyle, story, and music isn't groundbreaking. But it all ties in so well with the different classes, weapon variety, item vareity, and stellar gunplay that it just works. I've put in ~60 hours with the Early Access build and can't wait to jump into 1.0.

2. Deep Rock Galactic

Because OF COURSE I'm gonna bring up DRG. Everyone knows how it good it is. But if it's the camaraderie and teamwork that you enjoy from Destiny, I can't think of anything better. Every class plays distinctly from the others and meld together in such a way that solo play just can't even touch. The sheer variety of missions, modes, and modifiers has sucked hours away from my friends and I. It's still getting updates and content drops. And it's currently (10.31.23) on sale for $10 on Steam.

3. Deadlink

Another FPS roguelike. This one is moreso for the Doom fans. The movement is a little slower at first until you really get use the movement ability mechanics of the separate classes (grapple, blink, etc.). It reward weapon swapping. Like any other roguelike its loop centers around on the fly buildcrafting, random upgrade and items, and meta progression via upgrades and currency that can carry over into your next run. The music and aesthetic get a special mention. It oozes with style and polish. This one's a little harder to get into compared to RoboQuest but I still highly recommend it.

Honorable Mentions:

Borderlands (any of them)

I love the Borderlands games. I'm currently playing through 3 for the first time and having a great time. It's probably the closest to the Destiny formula as far as loot and gameplay loop goes. It's not an indie title so it gets downgraded to an honorable mention. Seriously, if you've never play one go for 2. I understand the writing is polarizing and the world building is kind of weak. But if you love it you can never be convinced otherwise.

2. Warframe

Warframe is such a unique game. It oozes style. But the economy and some recent dev decisions have driven a few people away. It's also HUGE. Trying to get into it now makes Destiny looks like a 4 hour CoD campaign. There are so many complex systems and currencies that have piled up after years and years of updates. It can feel like a slog but there's a real gem here. Honorable mention because if you're deciding to take it on you know what you're getting into.

3. FF14

Another obvious one. Way more MMO than either Destiny or Warframe. I, personally, am not a FF 14 player but if you're less of an FPS gamers and more into the MMO aspects of Destiny, I genuinely can't think of something better. They also have a very generous trial program so there's literally no harm in giving it a shot.

5. Witchfire

This is an Early Access title only available via the Epic Store so I can't give it a full recc. The devs have specifically said that they've modeled the gameplay straight off of Destiny. The movement, gunplay, and abilities are all very very D2. It feels phenomenal. The artstyle is also incredible. Like if Bungie made Bloodborne. It combines a lot of elements from a lot of different games and right now it feels pretty shallow. Just a couple of distinct areas and weapons/abilities that you choose from before embarking on an expedition. The only thing you bring back after a successful run (which you can end at anytime by finding a portal on the map or beating the area boss) is currency akin to Dark Souls' soul system. You lose them on death but you can reclaim them by visiting your deathspot in the next run. Use them back at your base for meta progression such as leveling stats or crafting new items. Really looking forward to a full release in the future.

#destiny #destiny 2 #bungie #game recommendations #roboquest #deep rock galactic #deadlink #borderlands #warframe #final fantasy 14 #witchfire #indie games

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remastered-feedback · 3 months

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A Little Less Conversation, A Little More Action: Don't Delay Player Agency

(You can also read this post on my blog/personal site!)

Recently I've been picking games I play not just because they seem like they'll be fun, but also as something to mine for ideas and inspiration. I've been teaching myself Godot, and while I'm a ways off from making any game that's ready for a market release, I'm approaching them more from the perspective I've always approached music with as a musician; not just a work in a medium that I enjoy, but as something to analyze for ideas and inspiration for my own work.

Consequently, I've been playing a lot of older, retro games, as well as a lot of handheld GBA games and indie games. Part of this is for their charm, but part of it is also because those are much closer to what I can accomplish singlehandedly; where modern AAA hits like Baldur's Gate 3 and Elden Ring notch thousands of dev team credits, older NES/SNES games, as well as GBA games and indie titles, rarely have staffs above 50, and typically cap out just past 100 at their absolute largest. Those AAA hits are great games, but if I want something I can use as a reasonable estimation of the targets I can hit solo, they're not where to look.

Two of the games that I've been playing on this old-school kick are two highly touted JRPGs: Golden Sun for the GBA, and Chrono Trigger for the SNES. While both are very good and I'm enjoying both, there's a contrast that's hard not to notice, and it's one where Chrono Trigger is a clear winner. (Yes, I know comparing any JRPG to Chrono Trigger is totally unfair. I'm not using this to take shots at Golden Sun, I'm just using it to explain my point. Again, I'm enjoying both, please do not be unfair to Golden Sun and read "Chrono Trigger did it better" as "This is a bad game" because "Chrono Trigger did it better" applies to 90% of the genre!)

In Chrono Trigger, you almost immediately gain control of Crono. You are somewhat on-rails, the game is clearly directing you to the fairgrounds, but you have the control to decide where you go. Want to run off to the forest before you even know the game's mechanics? You can do that! Even once you go to the fairgrounds, you have control over what you do, where, and when. That's good! Giving the player immediate control is a good thing! Letting them immediately be in control of the player character, and immediately having a say over what happens, gives the player instant agency and engagement. You're not sitting and waiting for the game to start, the game has begun the moment you hit "New game."

Golden Sun, on the other hand, is extremely on-rails for the start of the game. Your home town is flooding, and every time you try to head in a different direction, your previously open pathway is immediately blocked by a falling rock. There's one way for you to go, and all other options are walled off. Even once the flood is over, you're still going down a linear path with no real say in what happens, because there are multiple conversations you need to have, multiple encounters and confrontations you're required to engage with no matter what, and while this is understandable for the very start, it's this way for well over 45 minutes. You're approaching an hour into the game before you can make any kind of meaningful decision, and that kills so much of the draw of RPGs. Story is a staple of the genre, but if I feel like I'm not actually getting any say in the story, I don't feel like I'm playing an RPG. I feel like I'm watching a TV show. And while I like TV shows, that's not what I play a video game to experience.

This isn't to say you can't have a tutorial or an opening cutscene to draw players in, but the sooner the player is making the decisions, the better. People play video games to experience something interactive, whether it's something story-heavy like a visual novel or something gameplay-intensive like a puzzle game. If you're giving the player a full 30-60 minute saga they have to sit and watch before they can make any choices, you've done it wrong. It doesn't need to be any big choice either; "Do you want to fight the combat cat bot or try to hit the bell at the faire?" is enough. "Do you want to go recover Harry's shoes or not?" is enough. "Do you want to check the Mind Flayer nursery for any clues or press onward?" is enough. It's not about immediately being in a position to change the world, it's about having agency and control as soon as possible. Being the active participant driving the events, not just a passive passenger.

You don't have to send the player into immediately engaging with life-or-death without any preparation or preamble. That would be almost as dangerous as giving them a feature film before they get to make any decisions. But as soon as you've established the basic fundamentals, get them engaged and making decisions. The sooner the player has agency and is able to make decisions, no matter how small they may be, the better for both your game and their experience.

#rpgs #video games #chrono trigger #game design

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hopeintheashes · 1 year

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Fuck-It Friday = the 2.1k that exists of this draft so far, I guess.

post-6x07.

under the cut because it gets an M (or E?) rating on AO3.

He goes again when he gets home from the clinic.

That's not as bad as it sounds. He'd had to get back to his car, and call AAA, and wait for it to get towed, and then take an Uber back to his place, and by the time he's done all that it's nearly noon and he's soaked in sweat and he hasn't eaten anything all day beyond a single glass of that damn green juice for breakfast right before the end of shift.

So. Real food, practically inhaled, and three glasses of water (another thing he hasn't had all day), and then he flips the switch that brings down the blinds and strips on his way to the shower. He leaves his clothes in a pile outside the bathroom door.

He just stands under the water for a while. He hasn't stopped moving all day. He's exhausted but too keyed up to sleep. He can't fucking believe it's finally done.

Thank god.

The relief is a dozen-fold. Connor and Kameron finally have what they need. They won't be calling ten times in a row or showing up at the station and blowing his cover. He can stop fighting his way into the clinic's lobby only to be turned away again and again. And.

Well.

He hadn't even sat down once he'd gotten into the room at the clinic. Barely glanced at the magazines before setting them aside. Hadn't even pictured anyone, not really, not beyond a vague idea of hot and tanned and muscles and curves. After a month— a fucking month— there was no time or need for fantasy, not even with the weirdness of there are strangers right outside that door, and they all know exactly what's going on. Pure physical reaction: button undone; zipper down; go, go, go, go, go. Stars exploding before his eyes, legs shaking so hard he could barely stand, almost fucking up the actual collection part when his whole lower body went numb with the release.

He's hard again just thinking about it. The way he'd gasped his way into it and then cried out, too far gone to care whether anyone could hear.

He exhales through pursed lips and pours conditioner into his hand.

~ ~ ~

Eddie sends him a selfie from the beach.

There are photos of Chris surfing as well, so that's got to be why he send them in the first place, but. This one. Full screen.

Goddamn.

He hesitates. Swipes the photo closed.

Brings it back up again.

Jesus Christ.

He forces himself to close the photo. Pulls up porn instead.

One of the guys in the scene looks like Eddie.

He tries not to think about it, and fails.

~ ~ ~

Okay. He's got himself under control.

His month of need is satisfied (at least, it'd better be, after three times in half a day…), he can eat what he wants, and the deed is done. So. He can just move on. Not think about any of it.

Yeah.

Eddie texts him just as he's thinking about what he's going to do about dinner. Want to come over?

Fuck.

He does not get hard when Eddie gives him a hug at the door.

There's a rush, though. This certainty that if he hadn't spend the entire day exhausting himself, he'd be up for it again.

Heat rises in his cheeks.

He thinks about Pennsylvania winters, and freezing lakes.

Exhales, and smiles at Eddie like he hasn't lost his mind, and the moment is over before Chris comes into the room.

~ ~ ~

Dinner is good. Normal. They play a board game, after, and have some ice cream, and watch just one episode (yeah, turns out to be two) of this show Chris has successfully gotten Eddie hooked on. Chris is falling asleep on Buck's shoulder by the time it's done, and Buck's head fucking aches with how much he wants nights like tonight all the time. With how fast Chris is growing up. With how much he misses when he's not there.

You do realize he's not your kid, some voice in his head says, and the wash of it is bitter in his mouth.

Eddie's looking at him, concerned. Buck swallows and shakes his head. Shakes himself. Gently convinces Chris to wake up enough to make it to his room.

"Come on, kiddo. Time for bed."

Chris mumbles a half-hearted protest, but lets Buck pull him to his feet. Braces himself on Buck's arm for the walk down the hall, his muscles uncoordinated with sleep.

"Night," Chris says through a huge yawn, and Buck ruffles his hair.

"Good night. Sleep well."

~ ~ ~

He's tired enough that he's thinking about heading home so that he can go to sleep, too, even though it's not even nine.

Thinking about it makes it worse: The tiredness and the thought of trading the coziness of the Diaz house for the emptiness of his own apartment.

Not just fatigue and dispassion.

Exhaustion and dread.

"Buck?"

His hands are shaking, just a little. He tucks them under his thighs.

"Yeah."

Eddie's standing at the entrance to the living room, looking at him with concern again. "Do you want something to drink?"

"Oh. Uh." He pulls a hand down his face. It comes away damp with sweat. "Water?"

The furrow of Eddie's eyebrows deepens. "Okay?"

He should've asked for a beer.

"So," Eddie says, when he comes back with water for Buck and a beer for himself. "Sperm donation?"

Buck groans and hides his face in his hands. Eddie sets down his water on the coffee table and sits down next to him on the couch. Buck was hoping they could have this conversation from further across the room. Or never. "Connor's an old friend. They needed help; I decided to help."

"Hmm." Eddie takes a sip of his beer.

"What?" Buck turns his head in his hands to look at him sideways.

"What's the story with them…" Eddie gestures vaguely with his beer bottle. "Showing up at work?"

Buck sits up enough to grab his water off of the coffee table, and takes a sip. "They got nervous. The process was taking… longer than expected."

Eddie raises his eyebrows.

"Not that part! Just." He takes another sip of water to avoid meeting Eddie's eyes. "Every time I tried to go to the clinic, there was some sort of roadblock. Sometimes literally a roadblock."

"So you've been at this for…?"

He squeezes his eyes closed, already knowing what Eddie's going to say. "A month."

"A month?" Eddie leans in, incredulous. "And you just… didn't mention this? At all? For a month?"

"It wasn't supposed to take that long!" Defensive. "It just kept getting pushed back."

"Wait." Eddie's eyebrows furrow. "A month since they asked, or a month of roadblocks?"

He bites his lip, guilty.

"Buck!"

"I didn't…" He squeezes his eyes shut again. "I didn't want you to try to talk me out of it. Or into it, I don't know! I just needed to make the decision myself."

"With Hen," Eddie says, and Buck groans.

"Yes, okay, with Hen! And Maddie."

"Okay!" Pointedly nonchalant. Like that doesn't bother him at all.

It's not remotely convincing.

"Sorry." Looking at the ground.

Eddie softens. "Okay. So they asked, and you said yes, and then you spent a month running into roadblocks."

"And drinking green juice." Head tipped back against the couch. "And not—" Jesus, he's not even drunk. He snaps his mouth closed and sits up.

Real smooth.

"And not…?" Eddie asks suspiciously.

Oh, god. "Um. You know." His cheeks are burning again.

"I do not." Eyebrows maximally raised.

"Uh." He makes an entirely unhelpful hand gesture. "Practicing for the big day?"

"What?" Utter confusion, and then Buck can see the moment that it clicks. "Oh—"

"Yeah."

"Buck." He puts down his beer. "A month?"

"It wasn't supposed to be that long!"

"I would've…" An equally vague gesture. "Exploded, probably."

Oh, god. These images of Eddie, alone in his bedroom, giving in to the need. Of the point where every brush of fabric takes him right to the edge. Of wet dreams. He pulls a pillow into his lap. "It was… not ideal."

"And then they showed up." Serious, again. "Which is…" He clasps Buck's shoulder, which does not help the other issue at hand. "Not great."

Buck blinks at him. "Well, they tried to call."

"Okay? Did they try leaving a voicemail? Waiting until you were off shift?"

"It was… urgent, I guess. With the… cycle, and everything." God, how did he end up talking about his ex-roommate's wife's ovulation with his best friend? "If they didn't get it in time, they would've had to wait another month."

"And they didn't have that information a week ago?"

"I don't know, Eddie, okay?" He crosses one arm across his chest and picks at the pillow's seam with the other. "It's done."

Eddie's quiet for a minute, drinking his beer. "So what happens now?"

Buck gives him a look. "I think you know what happens now."

Eddie doesn't take the bait. "Do you get to find out if it works?"

Buck frowns. "Why wouldn't I get to find out if it works?"

"I don't know, that might not be part of the deal for some people. What did you guys agree to?" At Buck's look of confusion: "Like, level of contact? Will you get pictures? Did you give them permission to tell the kid who you are?"

"I…" Buck's suddenly very cold. "I don't know." He swipes at his forehead, and his hand comes away sweaty again.

Eddie puts his beer back down. "You didn't talk through any of that?"

"No?" He's starting to feel slightly sick.

"But you signed some sort of paperwork."

"At the clinic, but that was just the, yes, it's me, I'm donating to these people, all that." He frowns. "I think. I was kind of in a rush."

"Buck."

"What does it matter? It's done." He picks up his water with a shaking hand.

Eddie scrubs at the spot between his eyes. "It's done until this kid gets on 23andMe in eighteen years and nine months. Or until you start getting pregnancy updates and birth updates and baby updates and then it all just kind of… fades away. Or until you go fourteen years with nothing and then they decide the kid is old enough for them to give them your name, and next thing you know they're following you on social media. Or showing up at your place of work."

"Eddie." Almost a whisper.

He shakes his head. "I promise I'm not trying to be cruel. This is just the sort of shit you have to think about. Talk about. Because…" He hesitates, then plows ahead. "These people don't seem like they have the strongest grasp on boundaries. Among other things."

"Eddie," he says again, a little bit desperate, because it's done, okay? It's done.

He's sweating. His heart is beating fast. It feels like he can't quite breathe.

He tries.

His chest is tight. Too tight.

He's shaking.

He's not getting enough air.

"Hey." Eddie, in close. "Oh, hey, no, you're okay."

Is he? He feels like he's losing his mind.

The weight of Eddie's hands on his shoulders takes him by surprise and grounds him in equal measure.

"Okay," Eddie's saying. "Okay."

He's taking slow, deep breaths, waiting for Buck to mirror him.

He can't,

and then he thinks, maybe—

and then he does.

Okay.

~ ~ ~

He's shivery in the aftermath, head aching from the tension.

Eddie's hand is on his forehead as soon as he starts to come down.

So.

Maybe not just from the tension.

"What do you think," Eddie murmurs, running his fingers through Buck's hair, "stress fever?" He traces down Buck's jawline and Buck shivers. Eddie frowns when he hits the tender lymph nodes under Buck's jaw. "Or fever-fever?"

He wants to sink into Eddie's arms. "Stress," he manages, and Eddie nods. Sometimes he wishes Eddie didn't know that particular quirk about him.

He also can't picture a world in which Eddie doesn't know.

Or.

He could.

It's lonely, and it's cold.

He shivers again.

"Lie down. I'll get you a blanket."

He does.

~ ~ ~

He opens his eyes to darkness.

His throat hurts, and his head hurts, and he has to pee.

Well, one of those he can fix, anyway.

Eddie calls his name when he opens the bathroom door when he's done. Buck hesitates, then pushes open Eddie's bedroom door.

"C'mere." His voice is rough with sleep and his hair is a mess. Buck steps forward, and Eddie catches his hand and pulls him to sit down next to him on the bed. "How're you doing?"

Buck shrugs.

[tbc]

#and that's all i've got so far #writing updates #fuck it friday

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