This mornings news has a trailer for a visually unique and quirky upcoming Steam title, a Pico-8 game from a first time developer, and a new Pico-8 release from a dev with a few already under their belt. Check below for the games mentioned or the table items.
Topics
🕹️ Effulgence: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3302080/Effulgence_RPG
🕹️ Mace Knight: https://n3philim.itch.io/mace-knight
🕹️ Crypt: https://achie.itch.io/crypt
🕹️ draftCrawl: https://bills.itch.io/draftcrawl
🖼️ Game Development with Pico 8 #1: https://mboffin.itch.io/gamedev-with-pico-8-issue1
🖼️ What Lies Beneath: https://ferventworkshop.com/what-lies-beneath/
🖼️ Solus Lost: https://www.wolfboyeg.com/product-page/solus-lost-solo-card-game
Trailers
Effulgence
I spotted this trailer a little while ago on the r/solodev subreddit and was immediately enamored with the look and feel of the game. When I took a look at it on Steam the release date was set for April but it seems it now has a release date of September 25. There is a potential playtest available and I requested access. If I should get to play it before then, I'll be sure to report back but this game looks so cool. Effulgence is developed by Andrey Fomin and he has a few games on his Steam dev page that all have a great visual appeal, including a very small auto runner from 2015 titled Proto Raider that has a more basic look than what we see in Effulgence.
Here is the description from the Steam page:
"Effulgence is a party-based RPG in a sci-fi setting. Players will explore a distant, possibly extinct world, battle its hostile inhabitants, craft gear, and develop their characters. All graphics in Effulgence are made of text symbols, making it visually unique."
Here is the full trailer for it.
We've got a nice variety of battle locations and enemies, a menu showing us materials we've collected, as well as a 3d printer of sorts. Of the materials we'll collect, and presumably use to 3d print items, are things like circuits, stardust, fuel, and psi-matter.
Keep an eye out for potential release in September and check out Andrey's YouTube page for some more info on the game and his other titles.
First Timer
Mace Knight
Reddit user u/_n3philim _ shared recently about his first Pico 8 game, Mace Knight, where you use timing and positioning to destroy monsters with your weapon. Available to play on the Pico 8 BBS or on itch.io. In Nephilim's own words, "Fight your way through 21 waves of monsters using your mace. Controls: Arrow keys to move, Z/X to put down mace, release to retract. Can also use a controller."
The game is super fun and pretty inventive. You drop the end of your weapon and the ground and maneuver around enemies so when you recall it it snaps back to your character and take the enemy out during its movement. After some waves of monsters end you might get rewarded with a heart to replenish life lost and the enemies change. They start off with very simple enemies that might only move around but over time the enemies will fire projectiles towards you or adopt other unique aspects to keep you on your toes. It's great fun and I highly recommend it.
New Release
Crypt
Reddit user u/Achie72 shared his first Pico 8 game on the Pico 8 subreddit recently and it's an interesting dungeon crawler complete with classes, attacks, and spells. My only concern is the amount of text involved and the fact that pico-8 text is notoriously difficult to read, for me at least, but it's definitely a cool game worth your time.
I summoned a lil wolf friend. In Achie72's own words:
"Crypt is a solo/couch-coop turn based dungeon crawler, heavily inspired by the tabletop game of draftCrawl from Luiz Bills! Venture into the old crypt, find treause, potions and goblins. Many many goblins. Your goal is to find their boss and eliminate him! That is all. Everything you find inside is yours!"
Crypt is available on the Pico 8 BBS and Itch.io.
draftCrawl also looks interesting to me so I'll be picking that up soon, I'm sure.
End
That's it for this week. Go play some fun games and I hope to have some more for you next week.