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completed
Devil Cult Party
I'm noticing that Frankie's games are starting to fit more with his typical thematic style of hellish monsters and demons; in this case, he takes his previous resource management game BugBurgh and swaps the cutesy insect campsite for a satanic temple and forest. It's also a much snappier game than BugBurgh, as your followers are much more self-reliant and collecting resources (coins and piety) is much quicker. It should be mentioned though that Devil Cult Party was not bound to the same restrictions as BugBurgh; the latter's theme (the more you have the worse it gets) was an important aspect of its cumbersome mechanics, while this Ludum Dare's choice (sacrifices must be made) functions as set-dressing for the game (you don't even really have to sacrifice anybody).
Instead, Devil Cult Party plays more like an idle game not bound by monetization, meaning you can unlock everything in roughly 30 minutes; your followers build monuments and programs, fight off pets or monsters, and relieve themselves at craft services as you run around directing followers as needed. (Specifically, you pick up one follower at a time, which makes it almost impossible to tackle the farther out enemies as you only have so much range to build out from your church.) There's no real examination of religious cult politics like you'd find in The Shrouded Isle; as long as you have a few juice stands, your followers will never leave and always obey your command, even if it means getting sacrificed for a summoning circle. I like it fine enough, but I don't think it sticks out much in the Frankie gameography; BugBurgh might be more tedious, but it's at least playing with the jam theme a little more thoughtfully, and its pleasant nature theme sticks out much more than another faux-horror game.
Instead, Devil Cult Party plays more like an idle game not bound by monetization, meaning you can unlock everything in roughly 30 minutes; your followers build monuments and programs, fight off pets or monsters, and relieve themselves at craft services as you run around directing followers as needed. (Specifically, you pick up one follower at a time, which makes it almost impossible to tackle the farther out enemies as you only have so much range to build out from your church.) There's no real examination of religious cult politics like you'd find in The Shrouded Isle; as long as you have a few juice stands, your followers will never leave and always obey your command, even if it means getting sacrificed for a summoning circle. I like it fine enough, but I don't think it sticks out much in the Frankie gameography; BugBurgh might be more tedious, but it's at least playing with the jam theme a little more thoughtfully, and its pleasant nature theme sticks out much more than another faux-horror game.
3 hrs ago
DeppySlide
finished
Hidden Runaway
Played from an old Groupees download that constantly crashed and couldn't get past a cutscene roughly 90 minutes into the game; this was probably meant to be played on a smartphone anyways. This is apparently a retelling of the first game in the Runaway series of adventure games, with most of the story/dialogue cut out and the gameplay replaced with hidden object puzzles and minigames.
I haven't played the series this is from (and based on the writing in this I don't plan to), hidden object games aren't for me, I played this in bad circumstance (i.e. crashing), and I don't think this game is even available anymore anyway, so there's not really anything useful I can say in this review. Sometimes you just gotta check stuff off the collection. At the very least I could've done without the game making up new things you're supposed to know to interact with.
I haven't played the series this is from (and based on the writing in this I don't plan to), hidden object games aren't for me, I played this in bad circumstance (i.e. crashing), and I don't think this game is even available anymore anyway, so there's not really anything useful I can say in this review. Sometimes you just gotta check stuff off the collection. At the very least I could've done without the game making up new things you're supposed to know to interact with.
3 hrs ago
11 hrs ago
11 hrs ago
11 hrs ago
DeppySlide
finished
Hypnospace Outlaw
This review contains spoilers
Haven't played this game since launch and this was a good weekend to stay indoors so it felt like a good time to come back to it. Originally when I played it I focused almost entirely on solving the cases, so this time I wanted to really explore all the zones and pages. I'm glad I did because there was honestly so much I had missed, most of which wasn't even that hidden away (I honestly don't know how I missed the Janitor software the first time). I really recommend replaying this game if your first playthrough was like mine; it's so dense with storylines and character moments that are all worth seeking out.
Obviously the broader storylines are all enjoyable to read through - the Gumshoe Gooper saga, the rise and fall of the Coolpunk scene - but what makes the little details stand out is how well they really capture the forum culture and fanpages of the early internet. Just to highlight maybe my favorite example: Jerry Gilroy (aka Icicle Kid, aka Dripp Boy), one of many upstart musicians on Hypnospace that manages to get a page on FatherFungus's caverns. It's a genuine observation of teens that earnestly join tiny communities without fully syncing with the rest of the group, and as someone that's been on both sides of this it really resonated. (And also, the Mushroom Hop song and aesthetics is just really funny.) The whole Freelands saga also really stuck with me, the leftovers of a community working together on a noble project that's ultimately undone by its micromanaging (and frankly unpleasant) lead manager. Also that e-mail from Dylan about how they don't moderate ChitChat logs because "it's off Hypnospace and not our problem"...dear god I've heard this argument from forum mods so many times.
I also think this might have the best soundtrack of any video game, just in terms of sheer variety. Even beyond the variety of page background tracks, music plays a pretty big role in Hypnoverse culture; all those niche subgenres I mentioned are supported by numerous songs from a variety of artists, both in-game and out. Hot Dad as The Chowder Man naturally steals the show, but even outside of the funny novelty songs there's plenty of genuinely great music, (special shoutout to dirthaze).
The above hasn't even gotten to all the artwork made for the world; the stickers and wallpapers for your desktop; the interactables games, pets, and virus; and all the secret layers of the Hypnospace community and how the characters interact within these layers. Like the best games or IF it just absorbs you into this world, and its greatest strength is how well you can watch the lives of all these Hypnospace users play out.
==End Game Spoilers==
The only part for me where the game missteps is towards the very end. I think the archival post-game is a great idea, and the secret MerchantSoft leaks case works well enough as a resolution to the main story; the problem for me is how Dylan Merchant's character is used in this last chapter. The game concludes that he knowingly let a teenage boy take the fall for a corporate mishap that killed at least 4 people and injured hundreds, not to mention attempting to start a harassment campaign on one of his own employees among other bad boss behavior. But the game ultimately ends with his confession via e-mail and playing his updated Outlaw program, which is a redemption arc that doesn't feel deserved at all. Granted, there is a tone deafness to both Outlaw 1.00 and his individual apologies to the deceased Hypnospace users, so I don't think the devs are fully trying to make him sympathetic, but it feels weird to give him the final word for the main part of the game.
Obviously the broader storylines are all enjoyable to read through - the Gumshoe Gooper saga, the rise and fall of the Coolpunk scene - but what makes the little details stand out is how well they really capture the forum culture and fanpages of the early internet. Just to highlight maybe my favorite example: Jerry Gilroy (aka Icicle Kid, aka Dripp Boy), one of many upstart musicians on Hypnospace that manages to get a page on FatherFungus's caverns. It's a genuine observation of teens that earnestly join tiny communities without fully syncing with the rest of the group, and as someone that's been on both sides of this it really resonated. (And also, the Mushroom Hop song and aesthetics is just really funny.) The whole Freelands saga also really stuck with me, the leftovers of a community working together on a noble project that's ultimately undone by its micromanaging (and frankly unpleasant) lead manager. Also that e-mail from Dylan about how they don't moderate ChitChat logs because "it's off Hypnospace and not our problem"...dear god I've heard this argument from forum mods so many times.
I also think this might have the best soundtrack of any video game, just in terms of sheer variety. Even beyond the variety of page background tracks, music plays a pretty big role in Hypnoverse culture; all those niche subgenres I mentioned are supported by numerous songs from a variety of artists, both in-game and out. Hot Dad as The Chowder Man naturally steals the show, but even outside of the funny novelty songs there's plenty of genuinely great music, (special shoutout to dirthaze).
The above hasn't even gotten to all the artwork made for the world; the stickers and wallpapers for your desktop; the interactables games, pets, and virus; and all the secret layers of the Hypnospace community and how the characters interact within these layers. Like the best games or IF it just absorbs you into this world, and its greatest strength is how well you can watch the lives of all these Hypnospace users play out.
==End Game Spoilers==
The only part for me where the game missteps is towards the very end. I think the archival post-game is a great idea, and the secret MerchantSoft leaks case works well enough as a resolution to the main story; the problem for me is how Dylan Merchant's character is used in this last chapter. The game concludes that he knowingly let a teenage boy take the fall for a corporate mishap that killed at least 4 people and injured hundreds, not to mention attempting to start a harassment campaign on one of his own employees among other bad boss behavior. But the game ultimately ends with his confession via e-mail and playing his updated Outlaw program, which is a redemption arc that doesn't feel deserved at all. Granted, there is a tone deafness to both Outlaw 1.00 and his individual apologies to the deceased Hypnospace users, so I don't think the devs are fully trying to make him sympathetic, but it feels weird to give him the final word for the main part of the game.
11 hrs ago
DeppySlide
finished
Triggore
Frankie's second collab with LumpyTouch results in maybe the best game I've played for this project yet. The first-person graphic adventure format turned into a 360° bunker invasion as you fend off against a number of horrible creatures. It's more than just point & click shooting though, as you're kept busy maintaining your surroundings: lighting up candles, mopping up blood, and repairing barricades as beings continue to crawl towards you from all directions. Crucially, you can only carry one item at a time, and it takes a few seconds to swap items out; practically no actions except shooting happen instantaneously.
Given all that, it doesn't take long for things to become a frantic mess; by the time the second day starts your bunker already becomes a wreck. Pretty soon your toolbox (to fix barricades) is lost in shadow, your mop bucket is overflowing with blood, and right when you're about to light a candle a monster is already through a window, but the weapon you just picked up is out of ammo and you have to spin all the way around to reload. It's one of the most intense games I've played in a while, a true game about survival; I don't remember playing a game so relentless, so unwilling to let the player breathe. I ended up never getting past Night 2 (it's endless, but there's four Days/Nights of new encounters), but I'd still call this one of Frankie's finest works. It's a shame him and LumpyTouch didn't collaborate more, honestly.
Given all that, it doesn't take long for things to become a frantic mess; by the time the second day starts your bunker already becomes a wreck. Pretty soon your toolbox (to fix barricades) is lost in shadow, your mop bucket is overflowing with blood, and right when you're about to light a candle a monster is already through a window, but the weapon you just picked up is out of ammo and you have to spin all the way around to reload. It's one of the most intense games I've played in a while, a true game about survival; I don't remember playing a game so relentless, so unwilling to let the player breathe. I ended up never getting past Night 2 (it's endless, but there's four Days/Nights of new encounters), but I'd still call this one of Frankie's finest works. It's a shame him and LumpyTouch didn't collaborate more, honestly.
2 days ago
DeppySlide
completed
Sword and Plow
Frankie has made a few action-RPGs at this point, but this is first stab at a roguelike, and honestly he knocked it out of the park. Its main draw is the farming gimmick, where you plant seeds you find from battle or treasure to grow berries that boost your stats or give other bonus effects. It's a fine idea on its own, and Frankie commits with the aesthetic (like BugBurgh, there's some great thematic character art, especially the crop monsters), but it's the smaller details that really make the game engaging. The farming areas function as your extended inventory, for example, and you really have to keep it organized as you go on and pick up more items; a crucial strategy is waiting to use berries to free up those inventory slots.
There's also a surprising amount of nuance in the combat than what I was expecting. Active Time Battle is a well-established system, but you're also encouraged to time your attacks as if you're performing a parry or counterattack. Combined with the different weapon speeds, it feels like an attempt to take Dark Souls-style combat into a turn-based format, and I thought it worked pretty well. Each weapon has stamina meters also, so you can't just fill up your main inventory with weapons and steamroll everything (although it does make the final boss trivial). Really my only quibble is that it's probably too easy, mainly because lockpicks are too reliable and allow you to quickly overload on items by finding chests, which are really common in certain parts of the world. That aside, I'd say this is one of Frankie's best and a standout of his many jam entries.
I also want to shout out Askiisoft's music, both for this game and for BugBurgh. It adds some really nice atmosphere to both games.
There's also a surprising amount of nuance in the combat than what I was expecting. Active Time Battle is a well-established system, but you're also encouraged to time your attacks as if you're performing a parry or counterattack. Combined with the different weapon speeds, it feels like an attempt to take Dark Souls-style combat into a turn-based format, and I thought it worked pretty well. Each weapon has stamina meters also, so you can't just fill up your main inventory with weapons and steamroll everything (although it does make the final boss trivial). Really my only quibble is that it's probably too easy, mainly because lockpicks are too reliable and allow you to quickly overload on items by finding chests, which are really common in certain parts of the world. That aside, I'd say this is one of Frankie's best and a standout of his many jam entries.
I also want to shout out Askiisoft's music, both for this game and for BugBurgh. It adds some really nice atmosphere to both games.
3 days ago
DeppySlide
completed
BugBurgh
Unfortunately bounced off this one early, as I found the micromanagement of all your bug pals too tedious. I get that's the point of the game - the Ludum Dare theme was "the more you have, the worse it is" - but there's too much time spent walking between areas, constantly feeding all the bug friends you find, waiting on items to grow or build or transform. I really wish the bugs showed some more autonomy, or at the very least you could guide around multiple bugs at once so you're not constantly making repeated trips. That starts going against the jam theme, though, so you'd probably need to give some more incentive to take care of your bug friends before their morale goes completely negative. (Although this isn't really a violent game like Hungry Ducks, so you'd have to come up with something more clever. Or they can just leave I guess.)
Is it pointless to be an armchair dev (more than usual, anyway) for a game made in 72-hours for less, and would Frankie have considered all of these points if he wanted to develop the idea further? Absolutely, and that goes for Frankie's other jam projects and really anyone else's. But moreso than his other projects, this one really is hurt by not having at least one of those extra features to smooth out the base experience. (In hindsight I could have just left bugs unhappy since they didn't do anything in response, but idunno, I want to play along with the premise at least a little bit.) On a positive note, I think this is Frankie's best use of character art I've yet seen in one of his games; the junkyard bugs in particular were a delight to find.
Is it pointless to be an armchair dev (more than usual, anyway) for a game made in 72-hours for less, and would Frankie have considered all of these points if he wanted to develop the idea further? Absolutely, and that goes for Frankie's other jam projects and really anyone else's. But moreso than his other projects, this one really is hurt by not having at least one of those extra features to smooth out the base experience. (In hindsight I could have just left bugs unhappy since they didn't do anything in response, but idunno, I want to play along with the premise at least a little bit.) On a positive note, I think this is Frankie's best use of character art I've yet seen in one of his games; the junkyard bugs in particular were a delight to find.
3 days ago
DeppySlide
backloggd
No.9
3 days ago
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Sokoseed
3 days ago
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Zerko
3 days ago
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Down is Relative
3 days ago
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backloggd
Her Trees: The Puzzle House
3 days ago
3 days ago