IndieGameStand - pay what you want game every 4 days

[Rummy]

I know the HumbleBundles sometimes get posted up in here, so it got me to thinking I should share about this site. It's almost like a constant Humble; every 96 hours a game goes up for sale at whatever kind of price you want to pay! In addition they offer a $10 dealie, where you can get the current game, last game, and next mystery game all for $10, I think. I cannot for the life of me remember how I ended up finding this site, but it's relatively new, so I thought I'd share because it's a cool idea and it'd be nice if they survive/prove viable from lots of users.

 

Only downside at the moment? They don't support Steam - though they do support Desura(in addition to just straight up executables). I'm almost contemplating making more of a move to Desura too because I see a lot of Indie deals supporting it rather than Steam - Desura are much more open about DRM iirc(non-existent unless game-makers want it or something I think).

 

That's off topic though! tl;dr - Pay what you want new game every 96 hours over at https://indiegamestand.com/

Edited October 7, 2012 by Rummy

[Rummy]

Just giving a little bump - current deal is Doom and Destiny - appears to be a throwback to the turn based RPGs of old. Apparently quite good humoured too.

 

https://indiegamestand.com/

 

Price? Pay what you want!

[MoogleViper]

It's on for a few days. Mind giving us a review when you've played it?

[Rummy]

Well! I have sunk a couple hours in now so I can give my views; though there's a review here - http://mashthosebuttons.com/review/doom-destiny-review/

 

Essentially it's a turn-based RPG. Lacking polish was my first thoughts, it's been translated from another language from what I can tell and that definitely comes through in some of the text - you kinda get used to it after a while though. The battle system/animations look a bit basic and generic and the font isn't great. It's apparently made with RPG Maker, and it does remind me much of old RPGs like Dragon Quest or so. It is good humoured, often making joke references to standard RPG tropes and whatnot; though it's not exactly advanced humour(not helped by the language different I think).

 

The battle system is turn based, fairly standard you have attacks and skills(magic essentially as they use MP). To equip skills you have to have PP, and those work in a strange triangular number system with the stats. Once a stat hits 15 I think, you get a PP point. Then when it hits 21, then when it hits 28 etc. There's 4 stats and each stat affects two attributes that are kinda linked. Might=STR&HP, Spirit=MAGIC?&MP Grit=can't recall, and Dext=SPD+Evasion? Essentially, level evenly and you can use more skills. The speed aspect is interesting though. Battles are turn based but you have a strip of 'turns' at the top - different actions use a different number of 'turns' and speed also cuts down on this - you can see turn order including enemies and try to take a strategy of most efficient elimination with least damage as a result. Do you kill the strongest, or the weakest, or the slowest? Healing/restoring health also has a strange mechanic; using items in the normal way but also purchasing cheaper 'rations' which auto-use themselves when a battle is won. Game also has an autobattle sort of button. I've no idea if you can/how it controls with keyboard, as I've been using my 360 pad. It's been done in XNA from what I understand - been available on xblig for 400msp and also windows phone. There's also some slight...choice fatigue early on? Mostly with skills, you can see people who can teach skills because they have light bulbs; but there's so much choice about(and in specific places) it's difficult at first to not just waste money on everything, or to know what might actually be most useful for you down the line. There's also a slightly strange aspect of various characters with hearts over their heads; I still talk to every one but they all say the same thing - it's an encouragement to like the game on facebook, rate it on desura, a third option, or to tell them no because it sucks. Whichever of the first 3 options you choose, it opens the relevant page in your default browser. Whilst a cool idea, it's annoying how often you think the person might not be like the others - but they are.

 

The 'interface' per se is customisable in that you can change font colour, and box colour(it's gradiated from top to bottom and you can choose both) but don't really expect much from it in way of options, customisation and whatnot.

 

 

Long story short - it lacks polish. It can be easily criticised for this. Story wise it seems to have chapters very loosely based on other video games(very loosely) and has constant jokes in it though they're not exactly sophisticated or complicated. I think it normally retails for $5(£4 on desura and 400msp on Xbox), and tbh for that price it's worth a punt. Don't expect it to be groundbreaking, it's an enjoyable throwback though.

 

(i think it also looks better in the above review than it does on PC, might be either my setup or compared to 360 version)

Edited March 11, 2013 by Rummy