First off, the Cthulhu Saves the World patch for the XBox Live Indie Games version has passed peer review. However, we are not going to make it go live until the PC release. Actually, what’s probably going to happen is that late July 12th, before I go to bed, I’ll hit the Publish button so that the update will process during the night and be available early July 13th (Microsoft says it could be a day or two before it processes, but in the past, updates have always published in just a few hours).
Second, since many people have asked, no, we are not using any extra DRM on our PC release of Cthulhu Saves the World & Breath of Death VII: The Beginning. The Steam version will have the standard Steam DRM that all Steam games have, but nothing else. The Gamersgate version will be DRM-free. I’m personally a big fan of Steam and feel their form of DRM is about as non-obtrusive as it gets, but I know some people are adamantly against all forms of DRM which is why we wanted to make sure there was an alternate place to pick up the games as well.
Third, now that we’re pretty much done with getting our games ready to sell (mostly just odds and ends like answering questions from the Steam & Gamersgate staff now), we’re now focused on our next game. Due to signing a non-disclosure agreement, I can’t say much about the game at the moment other than that it’s a turn-based RPG, it will have a new battle system from our previous games, and is scheduled to come out on the PC & XBLIG later this year. Oh and I’ve given it the codename, Project Bistro Ludicrum, but only because that name amuses me (it doesn’t actually give any hints as to what the game is).
Fourth, I’ve fallen behind on reviews for games I’ve been sent so I’m going to try to review a game a day this week to try to catch up. First up is League of Legends! Yes, I know it’s not an indie game, but A) I’ve been playing it a lot in my spare time in the past week and a half so I feel like I can write a decent review, B) it’d be nice to have some people I know to team up with on occasion (my username is RainbowDespair), and C) I get free stuff if you use my referral link here and play the game a bit and as a poor indie developer, I love free stuff (yes, I’m shameless).
League of Legends review
If you know me well, you know I’m a very competitive person. Unfortunately, most online competitive games these days are either FPS or RTS games, neither of which I’m a big fan of. My favorite genre is RPGs (shouldn’t be surprising given the games we make) and most of those are single player games. Sure, I could start a MMORPG, but those are massive time sinks and being competitive there mostly means not having a life.
Enter League of Legends. It’s a competitive Action/RPG that rewards skill over time investment. A standard game generally takes between 30-60 minutes and goes like this. Before the game starts, you pick the champion that you want to play as (out of a very large selection), two summoner spells (unique spells that anyone can equip), and some runes & mastery points (ways that you can give small bonuses to your champion to further customize them). If that sounds like a lot to pick, don’t worry – you can create preset pages when not playing and then just quickly pick the page you want when a game is starting.
In the actual game, you have two bases at opposite ends of the map with 5 players at each base. The goal is to destroy the opposing team’s base, but there are turrets (towers that shoot highly damaging beams), minions (non-player warriors that are weak and just march forward) and the other team’s players to deal with. Everyone starts each game at LV1 with a small amount of gold so a big part of the game is killing enemy champions, minions, and monsters (neutral enemies that just sit around at set points on the map unless attacked) to gain XP & gold so as to improve your champion and make him or her more capable of defeating the enemy.
Why I like the game?
1 – It’s a fast paced Action/RPG that boils the essence of the genre (fighting & becoming more powerful) into short 30-60 minute matches.
2 – It’s a team-based game where I feel like strategy and planning is more important than having super-fast reflexes (looking at you, standard FPS & RTS games).
3 – It’s easy to learn. There’s a tutorial to learn the basics and you can create single player + bot matches early on to get a handle on the basic mechanics without fear of annoying teammates.
4 – It’s free. Everything gameplay related is attainable just from using IP (points gained for playing and winning matches) and you get IP at a fast rate. Unlike the vast majority of free games, I don’t feel like they’re purposefully gimping things to try to coerce people into paying money. You unlock things by playing the game – just like it should be.
5 – Good performance. The graphics are good and colorful, random matches usually only take a few seconds to get started, and lag has never been a problem for me.
6 – Personalization. Between the large number of playable champions, the mastery choices, the various runes, your LV-Up order, and the equipment you get in games, you have a huge amount of freedom in creating the hero that you want to play.
7 – Immediate vs. Long term. There are small long term bonuses you can gain from playing & winning a lot of matches, but the vast majority of the stat & ability bonuses you get are attained in each individual match, creating a relatively level playing field.
So there you have it. League of Legends is a fun strategic, team-based game that is free and rewards skill over time spent playing. If you’re already a fan of the game, you’re welcome to add me to your friend list and maybe we’ll team up for a match sometime (username is RainbowDespair). Right now, I primarily use Amumu (life draining aura, stun-inducing sad mummy boy), Sivir (wipes out minions & turrets like crazy), and Nunu (a boy riding on a yeti who is a good jack-of-all-trades), and I’m looking to add a few new characters like Yorick (gravedigging necromancer) and Blitzcrank (a giant robot) in the future.
If you haven’t played the game yet and would like to give it a try, here’s a referral link.
The reason people care about DRM is too many drm’s have had negative effects on computers, or had more to them than met the eye, meaning in the scanning and reporting info in your computer department. So the entire issue is trust, and far as I can tell Steam’s drm is trusted, but it has pretty much every other drm ever released overshadowing it for those people who know drm’s past.
Aw, no love for the people who already own the game on 360? I don’t want to wait two more weeks for this, I’m bored NOW. 🙁
I don’t understand what people have against DRM as long as it doesn’t interfere with gameplay. The only reason to be against it is if you want to give away free copies of the game or snag it for free from somewhere, which is pretty cruel to do to an indie title that only costs a couple bucks in the first place.
But, people are jerks like that. Do they not understand that, if games don’t make a profit for the greedy corporate overlords, such games will no longer be made?
Question on the 360 CSTW patch. Will it affect my current save file? Will it be automatically converted so to say?
Speculation is fun, then when the NDA drops, its fun to see who is right and who isn’t. Then again, I guess that mainly matters only when it is due to be up in a short amount of time, which I am guessing is not the case here, so I will just silently wait.
Btw, if somebody has a request for something to be added to your games, do you prefer emails or posting here?
I bet the new game is “Spider Man: Turn Off the Dark: the RPG”. It will be the only pc game in history that breaks your arm just by playing it.
Feel free to speculate on the NDA but because of the NDA, I won’t be answering any questions. 🙂
Oh, and regardless of whatever, consider it bought by me at least.
Hmm, non disclosure agreement? Did you and the few other folks you work with get funding for the new game, or do you all just sign one of those so nobody will be tempted to spill the beans prematurely =p
You signed a non-disclosure agreement for your next game? Shall I take it, then, that you are dealing with previously established intellectual properties?
Hooray for LoL! I’ve been hooked on it ever since the beta several years back. If you’d like a friendly group to play with, feel free to add me in game, username freykin.
Yay to no DRM! And thank you for a non-steam source!