Heard about this horror game through the grapevine, and downloaded the demo. You play as a detective who received a mysterious letter shortly before being invited to a party, the letter leading you to attempt to solve the mystery of the Kingsport mansion before bad stuff happens. It’s definitely in early alpha, but definitely worth a look.

The game is procedurally-generated in multiple ways; levels, clues, dialogue, names, and eventually plot as well. Random to the core. The idea being that horror isn’t replayable by nature; if you know what monster is lurking around the corner, it’s not scary anymore. If you know what monsters to expect, it’s not [as] fun anymore. Think back to your first time playing Minecraft: If you’re like most people, the first time it got dark out and saw a creeper, you dug yourself into a hole and pissed yourself all night. The goal with this game is to try to keep that experience going through multiple playthroughs, something I can definitely dig.

The demo itself is pretty bare bones at the moment; NPCs are ugly 3D placeholders, paths that aren’t generated are just walled off, windows show you all of the currently existing areas of level, the story isn’t entirely procedural yet, etc. It’s alpha though, and very early alpha at that. I still had a ton of fun, and I’ll be following it fo sho. Be sure to at least check out their kickstarter; the idea itself is pretty ballin’, and for a game this early in development, it’s definitely worth a download and an upvote on Greenlight.

I realize I’m one of probably three people on this website who enjoyed Bulletstorm, but the fact is, everyone else is wrong. It was a wonderful game wrought with quality game design and oscar-worthy dialogue. Well, the guys who made it jumped ship after being bought out by Epic Games. BUT NOT TO WORRY, THEY STARTED A NEW STUDIO AND ANNOUNCED THEIR FIRST GAME!

Last month they released a brief trailer and a press release detailing the game and it’s setting. And I’ve gotta say, it sounds like a winner to me. The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is a game inspired by 19th century weird fiction tales in the immersive storytelling genre. The game follows a psychic detective uncovering the mystery of a kidnapped boy, only to find the pile of body parts that was once one of the perpetrators.

Normally, this wouldn’t appeal to me. Immersive story games are fun, the stories are typically very well written, but I don’t consider them video games. They’re choose-your-own-adventure books marketed in an easier-to-digest format, and they don’t make any use of the kinds of qualities that set video games apart from other media. Usually. But I digress.

The Astronauts promises that the game is more than just an immersive story; it’s an actual game, with actual gameplay. More specifically the “bare bones” of actual gameplay. This is something that does appeal to me, and should appeal to a lot of gamers. Minimalist elements are rapidly catching on in games, and I welcome it. I like visually told stories as much as the next guy, but if I’m going to fork over 30-60$ for it in video game format I want to be playing a video game with well thought out design choices that add emotional weight to the existing story. 

This game sounds awesome to me, and I’m anxiously awaiting more blog posts about it. If you quit reading when you saw “Bulletstorm”, you’re going to miss out. The game comes out sometime this year.