SQYD.studio

Hello everyone, I took another weekend off dev. My brain kept getting distracted by Satisfactory, which I took to mean that it wasn’t quite ready to dive back into the project. I want to start my refactoring but I’m going to wait another week until I’m better rested and my thoughts have had time to settle.

So what can I do to keep up momentum on this blog? Just like last week I’m going to highlight some more NextFest demos I found interesting. I played a lot of them, but I’m going to focus on the ones that I didn’t see covered anywhere else. Small studio solidarity and all that. Alright let’s do this:

Rift of The Necrodancer

I’m breaking my rule out of the gate. Brace Yourself Games isn’t the smallest studio, and I don’t think Rift of the Necrodancer went unnoticed during NextFest. BUT– Crypt of the Necrodancer is my favorite rogue-like, Danny Baranovski is my composer, and the animated Cadence dancing around in the trailer looked so good I had to give it a try. This one is a straight up DDR style rhythm game. It’s the simplest test in video games, can you push the right button at the right time? There are only three buttons to manage: left, up, and right– but instead of arrows rocketing down the track it’s a horde of cute little RPG monsters. This is where the game gets tricky. Each monster has its own unique movement pattern you’ll have to remember and respond to- zombies move diagonally as they descend, skeletons with shields need to be double tapped on the half note, etc. This might not be the Necrodancer sequel I wanted (Cadence of Hyrule absolutely was) but the animations are beautiful, pulling off a big combo is satisfying, and the soundtrack bops with mad-dance energy. Like all rhythm games I’ve played, I wish I wasn’t so bad at it.

Dunjungle

Clickbait title for a Dunjungle review would be something like: “Castlevania Meets Spelunky in this New Rogue-like.” That’s exactly what Dunjungle is. You play a big old ape who takes up the sword to venture into the titular Dunjungle to do… something, it’s unclear. What is clear is that this game is competently made. It’s got great pixel art, a huge variety of enemies, and the right level of challenge. I don’t think Dunjungle is doing anything new, but I like it better than Dead Cells (which I thought was pretty okay) and I’m interested in seeing what it grows into.

Stray Path

Stray Path is a neat one. Dungeon exploration as a solitaire-style card game. You are presented with stacks of cards you have to clear from the board in order to find the exit and proceed to the next room. Some cards are enemies that you click on to attack (they attack back when you do), some cards are items you can use, and some cards are chests/relics that replenish your resources or give you synergies to think about as you explore. Like in solitaire, if you have an empty space on the board you can drag cards there to reveal the cards below. I felt it was the right blend of resource management and push-your luck style gameplay. Difficulty ramps up quickly, so you’ll want to squeeze as much out of the early rooms as you can- which I think is a hallmark of a well designed rogue-like. I’m going to keep my eyes on Stray Path for sure.     

That’s all from me for now. I’ll be back to blogging about dev next week. Thanks for reading.