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My Top Lists for 2011

General 3 Responses »
Dec 152011

Since everyone’s doing it, here are my top lists for 2011 (conveniently released before 2011 is over – take that people who release their games on December 30th like we did last year!)

Top 10 Favorite Games of 2011

10. Sanctum (PC) – Fun mix between FPS and Tower Defense that I found more fun than other Action/FPS like Dungeon Defenders and Trenched. The devs have been doing a great job of supporting the game since release, both with major free and paid DLC.

9. Bastion (PC/XBLA) – Fun action/adventure game with some wonderfully melodramatic voice acting. Not much to say that hasn’t been said elsewhere.

8. Dungeons of Dredmor (PC) – Probably the most fun roguelike I’ve ever played. Nice mix between hardcore and accessibility. Good dev support as well. Oh and they helped me with the tech aspect of getting our games working on Steam so I owe them for that. :)

7. Anomaly: Warzone Earth (PC) – Wonderful reverse tower defense game where you’re the invader. Fantastic production values for an indie game.

6. Tactics Ogre (PSP remake) – Take a great game, remove some of the annoyances, add a fantastic new translation and other features – what’s not to love?

5. Sonic Generations (PC, X360, PS3) – Never been a huge fan of Sonic games, but this one’s a blast. The 2D levels are only decent but the game shines with the 3D levels – a perfect mix of racing, roller coaster, and platforming.

4. Corpse Party (PSP) – Can be frustrating at times, but the expertly crafted interconnecting horror story kept me glued to my PSP. Best audio of the year.

3. Trails in the Sky (PSP) – Feels like a novel in JRPG form. Best cast of characters in a game this year. Great cliffhanger ending. Hope the sequels come out.

2. Portal 2 (PC) – Dragged in a few parts but still an amazing game. Extremely funny & many good puzzles (though not as many as the first game).

1. Dark Souls (PS3, X360) – Someone called Dark Souls the 3D spiritual successor to Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. That’s accurate. If that definition doesn’t make you want to rush out and buy it, I don’t know what will.

-Best games from past years that I didn’t play until this year-

4. Metro 2033 (PC) – I thought this was a straightforward FPS. If I had realized that it was an expertly crafted horror game, I would have jumped on it so much sooner. So good.

3. Demon’s Souls (PS3) – Would have been higher but then Dark Souls came out. :)

2. Siren: Blood Curse (PS3) – The most accessible Siren game but also probably the weakest (#2 is my favorite). However, weakest Siren game still makes for an awesome game.

1. Dragon Age: Origins (PC, X360, PS3) – I had avoided this game because I hated Baldur’s Gate, but I gave it a try when the ultimate collection was on sale for $15. So glad I did. Fixes all the problems I had with BG and is one of the best RPGs I’ve ever played. Great combat & leveling systems. Shame to hear that the sequel is basically a completely different and inferior game.

-Games I own in my backlog that I’m looking forward to playing the most-

5. Blackwell trilogy (PC) – Picked this up in an Indie Royale. Looks like a really interesting old school adventure game. Haven’t played one of those for forever – should be fun.

4. Gemini Rue (PC) – See Blackwell trilogy.

3. Fallout: New Vegas (PC)  - Thought Fallout 3 was decent. I’ve heard New Vegas is noticeably better so I’m excited to try it out.

2. 3D Dot Game Heroes (PS3) – Old school Zelda with silly modern effects? Sounds right up my alley.

1. Valkyria Chronicles (PS3) – I’ve heard nothing but good things about this one. The demo for the sequel kind of threw me off but I hear the original is much better.

-Biggest disappointments of 2011-

(Note, disappointing does not necessarily mean bad.)

4. Arkham City (PC, X360, PS3) – I really liked Arkham Asylum but when I finished it, I felt like I was done with its style of simple but fun brawler mixed with stealth and detective work. I was hoping Arkham City would be noticeably different but it’s not. It’s just the same thing but bigger, with a few new gadgets, and slightly less tight design. I understand how that could be really attractive to people who couldn’t get enough of Asylum, but it’s not for me.

3. Deus Ex: Human Revolution (PC, X360, PS3) – This is a problem of misguided expectations. I was expecting an RPG and instead got a FPS/Stealth game. High quality game but again, not what I really wanted so when it started getting repetitive, I quit. Oh and I didn’t care about the characters or story at all – talk about an unlikely group (though I guess that’s not unusual for cyberpunk). Hacking minigame was awesome though.

2. Zelda: Skyward Sword (Wii) – Gorgeous graphics and music, some clever puzzles, but I’m just not having much fun with it. I think the biggest problem I have is with the pacing – compared to the 2D Zeldas or even the Souls games, everything just feels like it takes forever. Not sure if I’ll bother to finish it or if I’ll just go and trade it in before then.

1. The Third Birthday (PSP) – Seriously, Square-Enix?

-Games I’m looking forward to the most in 2012-

7. Cherry Tree High Comedy Club (PC) – The US has a distinct lack of anime-style life sims where your goal is to create a high school comedy club. This should fix that gaping hole.

6. Pretty much everything that Carpe Fulgur is going to localize.

5. Sound Shapes (Vita) – Everyday Shooter was a great game so I’m looking forward to seeing their next effort.

4. Bioshock Infinite (PC, PS3, X360) – Loved Bioshock 1 & 2 and I hear they’re trying to change up the formula with the new one. I expect great things.

3. Xenoblade Chronicles (Wii) – A friend of mine at Nintendo showed the game off to me and I gotta say I was impressed, especially by the massive world. Not the JRPG I would make (I prefer my games turn-based and mostly linear) but high quality JRPGs that aren’t on a portable system are a rare commodity.

2. Diablo 3 (PC) – Not much I like more than a good hack & slash RPG. Got in the beta and really enjoyed what little there was to play. Can’t wait for the full version. Definite Game of the Year contendor for 2012.

1. Gravity Daze (Vita) – Unique art style, amazing gameplay concept (gravity manipulation in a 3D Action/Adventure game) on a brand new system developed by one of my favorite developers (Siren team)? Sold!

0. Rainslick Precipice of Darkness episode 3 – Because I like to eat. Oh and it’ll be awesome too. :)

-Games I’m looking forward to the most that might not come out in 2012-

4. New Tomb Raider (PC, X360, PS3) – The mix of classic Tomb Raider, a Metroidvania, and horror sounds great but it’s so far off that I wouldn’t be surprised if it gets pushed into 2013.

3. The Last Guardian (PS3) – Starting to wonder if it’s vaporware at this point; it’s been in development for so long.

2. Grim Dawn (PC) – Loved Titan Quest and though Diablo 3 looks to be a lot of fun, I want my Titan Quest spiritual successor as well.

1. Desktop Dungeons (PC) – Hoping they have an official release soon and it doesn’t just stay in Minecraft-style beta for forever.

Posted by admin at 4:10 pm

Our games are in this week's Indie Royale!

Announcements 1 Response »
Nov 292011

The new Indie Royale bundle is up and our games are included! For those unfamiliar with the Indie Royale, it’s a site that sells bundles of various high quality indie games every few weeks. The exact price varies as the promotion goes on – as people pay the minimum price, the price slowly goes up, but if you pay a higher price, you lower the price for everyone else. However, even as the price gets higher, it’s still rarely more than say $5-$6 for several great games.

The games in this bundle include Cthulhu Saves the World, Breath of Death VII, Really Big Sky (currently the only way to get it on Steam), Runespell: Overture, and Eufloria.

Keep in mind that you get separate codes for each game so if you already have some of the games (quite possibly if you’re a frequent visitor to zeboyd.com) you can give away your extra codes to friends.

Also, they generally add additional bonuses to the bundles as they exceed certain sales thresholds so you never know what else you’ll get in the bundle. :)

Posted by admin at 9:08 am

Cthulhu Saves the World + Breath of Death VII - available for only $1 on Steam!

Announcements 1 Response »
Nov 232011

The Thanksgiving sale on Steam has begun and our games are participating. For a limited time, you can pick up the combo pack containing Cthulhu Saves the World + Breath of Death VII for a mere $1! Check it out here.

Posted by admin at 10:41 am

Cthulhu Saves the World bundle sells over 100,000 copies on Steam in less than 4 months

Announcements 10 Responses »
Nov 212011

Zeboyd Games is pleased to announce that the Cthulhu Saves the World + Breath of Death VII combo pack ($3) has sold over 100,000 copies on Steam since its release on July 13th, 2011.  This milestone was achieved during the Steam Halloween sale, less than 4 months after the game’s release on Steam.

In contrast, on the XBox Live Indie Games (XBLIG) service, Zeboyd Games has sold over 20,000 copies of Cthulhu Saves the World (240 MS points = $3) and over 55,000 copies of Breath of Death VII (80 MS points = $1). Cthulhu Saves the World was released in December 2010 on XBLIG and Breath of Death VII was released in April 2010.

We are ecstatic at the amount of success we’ve seen since releasing our games on the PC. The days of worrying over whether or not we could support our families while making games we would want to play ourselves are behind us. Counter-intuitive though it may be, there is obviously a definite audience for quality console-style RPGs that are aggressively priced on the PC.

We are very appreciative of all the support we’ve received from our fans and from Steam and hope to continue making quality games at low prices for you to enjoy for years to come. We are very excited to be working on Rainslick Precipice of Darkness episode 3 in conjunction with Penny Arcade and hope you have a blast with it when it comes out in 2012. And beyond 2012, we have many intriguing ideas for new games that we think you’ll enjoy, both RPGs as well as games from other genres.

Posted by admin at 1:33 pm

The Ultimate JRPG? - The results of an informal survey and some ideas

Development 14 Responses »
Nov 152011

Once we’re done with our current projects and have some money saved up, I’d love to take a few years, maybe hire an extra person or two, and make something truly amazing – an RPG that could stand toe to toe with the classics of the past.

Now I have a pretty good idea of what I’d like in a JRPG, but I was curious to see what others thought on the matter and so I posted the following question on my twitter account: “JRPG fans – what would your ultimate JRPG be like?” I got dozens of responses – many from individuals who work in the video game industry – and the results were interesting.

Below, I present to you the 5 most common elements I saw, in roughly their order of popularity.

1. Control of a Well Written Plot – This was by far the most common element I saw in the responses. Fans want a strong, well thought out plot, but they also want to have some say over what happens.

2. Turn-based battle system – There was a lot of variety in exactly what kind of battle system they wanted (the Grandia, Shin Megami Tensei, and Final Fantasy series were all brought up many times) but one thing was clear – many fans miss the days when turn-based combat was the norm and not the exception.

3. Complex, intricate LV-Up system – Job systems and skill systems were especially popular.

4. Exploration – Players wanted huge worlds with the freedom to explore. No wonder Xenoblade and popular Western sandbox RPGs like Fallout and Skyrim review so well!

5. More adult plots – Fans that grow up on JRPGs in the 80s, 90s, and beyond are now adults and want to be treated as such.

So taking this feedback and my opinions into consideration, here’s a rough premise I came up with.

World is a mix of fantasy & science fiction. Main city in the world is a dystopia ala Midgar that wouldn’t look out of place in Shadowrun. Outside the city, there’s a dangerous wilderness that’s mostly unknown to the civilized world. Main player is a computer that gained sentience and corporeal form (can choose to be either male or female). Main plot has various branches – do you side with those who would use your powers? Go on a quest of self discovery? Seek the quiet life that no one will let you have? There will also be various optional major plot lines ala the Elder Scrolls series guild quests.

Party composition and party member relationships would have an effect on dialogue, plot, available dungeons, etc. None of this “Chie has pledged her undying love to you but her dialogue and actions are still exactly the same in all major plot scenes” nonsense.

Combat will be turn-based and probably loosely based on the Grandia series. LV-Up system would be kind of like the Materia from FF7 except each character has one exclusive Materia that can not be unequipped and individual Materia can be customized ala the Sphere Grid from FF10.

Lots of exploration possibilities. To keep difficulty in control without removing the player’s feeling of progression, each area will have a possible LV range however the LV choosen will be based on things like the player’s progression when they first go to that area. For example, an early area might have a LV range of 1-10 so if you go there right at the beginning, enemies will be permanently locked into LV1 and would stay that way for the entire game. However if you didn’t go there until the end of the game, the enemies would be locked at LV10 (even if you’re say LV50 – still want to make the early area feel like an early area). Conversely, a late game area might have a LV range of 50-60 so if you went there early, it’d get locked into LV50 which might still be way more than you could handle.

2D pixel art and an awesome soundtrack. ’cause that’s just how we do things here.

And now for a quick Q&A:

Will this actually be made? Beats me. Keep in mind that we’re not going to be starting any new projects for a while (gotta finish what we’ve already begun first!) and I scrap ideas almost as quickly as I come up with them so there’s no guarantee this idea will ever turn into anything.

Why do you keep mentioning other games? Don’t you want to be original? This isn’t even at a design document state. Mentioning other games is a quick and easy way to give everyone a general idea. Once a game is further along, that’s when you can start talking details and how to make it more unique.

Aren’t you afraid someone else will steal your ideas? Not particularly. They’re just ideas. Taking these ideas and turning them into an actual high quality game would take a talented team years of work .Plus these ideas are just a starting point – if you gave these ideas to two talented designers and teams, you’d end up with two drastically different games in the end.

Posted by admin at 9:55 am

Cubixx HD Review

Game Reviews No Responses »
Nov 082011

Cubixx HD Review

As the name implies, Cubixx is basically the classic arcade game, Qix, but in 3D (aka a cube). For those unfamiliar with Qix, it’s a simple game where you try to capture areas of the board by creating shapes. Once a shape is drawn, you’re safe, but if an enemy touches a shape while you’re creating it, you die.

I didn’t expect a whole lot from Cubixx but I was surprised at just how much the basic Qix-style gameplay has benefited by the addition of a 3D board with multiple sides. In Qix, the basic strategy was to make a tower of little shapes until you were close enough to finish off a much larger shape. Effective? Yes. Boring? Also yes.

In Cubixx, this strategy has been completely nullified by the scoring system. By starting a line on one side of the cube and continuing it onto multiple sides, you gain a multiplier that drastically increases your score. This small addition completely changes the dynamic of the game – rather than being a slow game of attrition, Cubixx is a fast paced score attack game.

Throw in a a bunch of enemy types (the meteor showers being my favorite), lots of power-ups, several different gameplay modes, various challenges, and leaderboards galore and you have a very intelligent and fun reworking of one of gaming’s less popular old classics. Highly recommended.

Cubixx HD is available for the PS3 via the PSN for $10.

Posted by admin at 4:50 pm

Serious Sam: The Random Encounter Review

Game Reviews No Responses »
Nov 042011

Serious Sam: The Random Encounter

Sometimes there is truth in advertising. Serious Sam: The Random Encounter (SS:TRE) is a Serious Sam game – backpedaling while shooting at ridiculously large groups of enemies is the norm. And there are a whole lot of random encounters – you spend most of your time in them.

Although Serious Sam: The Random Encounter is an RPG parody, it’s not an RPG. There are no stats. No XP. No LV-Ups. No detailed equipment system. Next to no story. Very little dialogue.

What Serious Sam: The Random Encounter does have is a very original, very fun battle system. Your team of 1-3 heroes backpedals on the right side of the screen while hordes of enemies approach from the left. Every 5 seconds, the action pauses allowing the player to enter in commands for each hero – aiming weapons, switching weapons, or using an expendable item. After all commands have been entered, combat resumes and the player can move up and down to dodge attacks and better aim their attacks. Repeat until one side is defeated.

The battle system is one part shmup, one part strategy game and is a complete blast. Each weapon has its own strengths and weakness and often its own aiming system so learning how best to use each weapon and when to use them is key to the game’s strategy.

On the downside, Serious Sam: The Random Encounter is incredibly short. The entire campaign took me a little less than 90 minutes to complete and that’s with having to restart a couple levels a few times because I ran out of lives. After completing the campaign, there’s a score-focused endless mode to play where you can see how many battles you can win before running out of lives, but even with that bonus, most players are unlikely to play the game for much more than a couple hours.

Still, I’d rather have a short and fun game than a long and tedious one. Here’s hoping that someone takes the wonderful framework than Vlambeer has created here and expands it out to a bigger, more complex game. In the meantime, enjoy your backpedaling carnage.

Serious Sam: The Random Encounter can be bought on Steam for $5.

Posted by admin at 4:01 pm

Cthulhu Saves the World + Breath of Death VII pack on sale in Steam's Halloween Sale! Only $2!

Announcements 2 Responses »
Oct 272011

I’m pleased to announce that for the Cthulhu Saves the World + Breath of Death VII combo pack is part of Steam’s annual Halloween sale! For a limited time, you’ll be able to pick up both of our RPG for a mere $2. Already own it? No problems – buy a copy to send to that girl you really like who still doesn’t know you even exist! Nothing says I love you like an Eldritchian parody RPG!

Posted by admin at 10:16 am

Silver Screen Hero Proposal Document

Development 4 Responses »
Oct 182011

A while ago, I entered a design document into a game design competition. You know the type – one of those contests promising to pay big bucks for innovative fun designs and then the winner ends up being a Zuma clone (note, this wasn’t the contest I entered). Anyway, I’ve since moved on and though I think there are several cool things in the design that would be fun to work on, there are many more game ideas that are higher up on my priority list (plus, you know, finishing and releasing the game we’ve already announced) so I doubt I’d ever get around to actually making this game so I figured I’d put it up here for everyone to check out. Hopefully, you find it amusing. And hey, if you want to use any of the ideas presented in this document in your own game projects, feel free – saves me the trouble of making the game myself. :)

I present to you: Silver Screen Hero!

Posted by admin at 4:02 pm

Jamestown Review

Game Reviews 2 Responses »
Oct 122011

I received a copy of Jamestown to review several months ago and I’ve been at a lost as to how to review it ever since. Jamestown is a vertical shmup with 5 main levels, 4 ship types, several difficulty levels, leaderboards, a challenge mode with stuff like “Dodge a million bullets for X seconds,” local co-op, and various unlockables. There aren’t really any gimmicks or unusual game mechanics to talk about. The strangest thing about the game is its setting which is a mismash of American Colonial and OUTER SPAAAACE! There are no major flaws to complain about. There really isn’t a whole lot to say about the game except this…

It’s awesome.

The levels are expertly crafted, the graphics feature intricately detailed 2D art that reminds me of SNK at their height, the music is fantastic, and it’s just a whole lot of fun.

If Jamestown had been released in the 90′s as an arcade game, it would have been considered one of the classics of the era. It’s one of the best vertical shmups I’ve had the pleasure of playing.

Jamestown is available on Steam for $10.

Posted by admin at 4:29 pm
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