Viewing entries tagged
simulation
When Steam introduced the 'no questions asked' refund system, I saw a lot of people predicting the apocalypse of the indie game. There were heated debates over whether or not gamers would simply play a small game, then refund it because they could. It seemed like anyone making short little games was about to be ripped off royally, making any such endeavour pointless.
This won't be the first time I get excited about an odd concept finding its place within the technical world of gaming, and I hope it won't be the last. In fact, this game has spawned so many imitators that it's hard to keep track anymore. I mean, who would have ever thought that cooking games would become their own genre.
There are some genres that I never expect to surprise me, but that's okay. When it comes to sports and racing games, there isn't a lot of room to move, as we all have some kind of understanding about what we're going to get. So when a little racing game comes along and finds a unique identity between arcade and simulation, it deserves to be noticed.
It's been quite a while since I posted about any games, but it's probably because I've spent most of that time playing Factorio. Remember when we were younger and spend hours and hours playing Sim City, because the time seemed to vanish without realising? This is a time vampire if ever there was one, and it's not even finished yet.
Sometimes having a good idea isn't enough to really make an impression among the myriad of indie games released on a regular basis. Most of the time, a game really needs to be the complete package if it's going to catch your eye, but there are always exceptions to the rule.
As I write this, it feels like every second game that gets released on Steam is some form of survival game. The flavour of the year is battle royale, or at least early access open world games where you need to keep track of a hunger stat or something. Before that it was exclusively zombie games, and before that the dreaded simulator.
I was a late-comer to the whole "god-game" thing, as I never played the classics like Populous or Black & White. It might be a bit of a stretch to call it a god-game, but the first one I remember playing would probably be Spore. Unironically, the god-game I've probably spent the most time with has been the utter failure of Godus, which I enjoyed right up until it stopped going anywhere and was abandoned by its creators.
