Gaming - Monthly Report: January 2017

Breaking open his snazzy new pack of folders, the Defective Inspector brings you his monthly Indie Gaming Report for January ...

I feel… different. Like the website around me has changed and been rebranded into an entirely new and exciting format accepted only for the magnificent to write in… or something like that. The winds of change continue to blow but for the moment I have a duty to perform, my defective inspecting duty. To that end I’ve rounded up some of the most interesting gaming news since the New Year began.

Memoranda

When I wrote this article the game was on the brink of release, so I’ll call it ready. Memoranda is cradling the classic point and click genre with an intriguing tag line; “a game about forgetting and being forgotten”. The unique hand drawn artwork and hauntingly beautiful soundtrack entrances me enough to be interested. Inspired by the famous Haruki Murakami this is one game you will want to try out. Check out the trailer here

Northgard

Going a bit further into the future the game Northgard is due out near the end of February. Clearly inspired by the Civilisation franchise Northgard takes a different approach in both gameplay mechanics and background story. It appears to be based on the stories, legends and Norse mythology which is a popular well to draw water from these days. It’s difficult to say how unique it will be until release but there is a gameplay trailer to give you a taste.

Congratulations Scrap Mechanic!

This is not a release announcement; this game has been running successfully for almost a year now and consistently shown regular early access updates. In fact, I don’t think Axolot Games have finished with this project yet and there are many more updates to come. So why talk about it? Well the grape vine told me this plucky game has sold over 500,000 copies and that just makes me happy. So I toast to you Axolot Games! Keep up the good work! UNRELATED… can we appreciate how cool the CEO’s name is? Kacper Antonius.

IGF Awards 2017 – Finalists announced!

Last year we loved the IGF awards so much we dedicated all our time to as many games as possible and this year will be no different. Following the announcement of the finalists we will be going knee deep into the indie world and bringing you as many reviews as we can. We’ll likely not cover everything, so I would highly recommend you find your favourites and support them in the upcoming battle for commercial acclaim and awesomeness.

Crowdfunding Project of the Month: Pixel Princess Blitz

Despite the cuteness of the kawaii this game seems to radiate solid gameplay. The fundamental goal is to “survive against all odds” while rampaging through a story rich environment with a world altering choice mechanic. There is perma-death, resource management, various settlements, alternating dungeons and even a dreaded AI dungeon master. Cleverly the game uses the world map as a turn based platform but allows the combat to be real time like some reverse Final Fantasy 7. It may seem like a small thing but I appreciate the clever use of digital resources and more importantly it tells me a little bit about how the developers think. It tells me they want to make the most out of their game and know precisely the way they want to create it. So I encourage anyone to click the trailer below and if you enjoyed it, to back  a fantastically cute but clever concept.



Find the Defective Inspector on Twitter @DefectInspec
Images are from Steam, Kickstarter and IGF.com