Another Indie Showcase – PAX East Preview

There is something very contagious about the enthusiasm at the Another Indie booth. The excitement is voluminous as it circulates the area. At each station there is a different game, some of them even with the developer to walk you through them. But there is never a lack of earnest care behind any of these games. Each title is a piece of creative work by their developers meant to showcase an unimpeded vision that refuses to be hindered. The eccentric nature of each of these games is met by unbridled enthusiasm by everyone there.

Rather than display it like a traditional booth, it feels more like a showcase of what Indie Gaming has to offer, all encapsulated in a single place. Each title, unique in its own way with Elden’s imagery driven narrative, Vigil’s character driven action, to Yuppie’s deranged take on modern middle class life.

Elden: Path of the Forgotten

Narrative is a tricky beast. Many gamers will tell you it’s their favorite part of a game, even in games that experiment with it. Games like Dark Souls, Myst, and so many others play with narrative in a way that both confuse and delight us. Elden: Path of the Forgotten appears to have the makings of one of those. The game relies on imagery, telling everything from the games narrative to its instructions. There is a sense of overwhelmingness to its silence, almost as though it’s not just our insight as the player is muted from it.

The intuition required to play the game might be a turn off to some players, especially those new to top down action games. But what it misses in narrative it makes up with beautiful and well designed pixel art that compliments the game, designed in a way that goes well with the atmosphere surrounding the game’s world. Its straightforward combat mechanics feel more medieval fantasy in nature. It chooses to embody more than the tagline many games are using to describe their game that have dark tones and tentacles.  

Elden feels like a stylized successor to some of the best 8 and 16-bit games that inspires it. Elden: Path of the Forgotten makes its debut on Steam later this year, 2019.

Yuppie Psycho

Yuppie Psycho’s PAX East Demo was limited and I hopped on part way through. The game feels like it is one of the games your friend’s older brother ordered from Japan. The kind that only had Japanese writing that you swore he could read even if he said he didn’t. Well, no translations are required for Yuppie Psycho, a story starring a recent new hire at the world’s largest corporation that seems to be hiding incredibly dark and deranged secrets that you’re exposed to in situations that put your life on the line. This job survival horror game is able to clench its claws in deep within only a few minutes of playing it.

My time with the demo was peculiar, engaging, and a little funny considering how unhinged the game’s humor is. Later, a voice on the telephone comes through and sends you on a first hand account of the horror going on behind the corporate structure. With little to go on and so much more promise of this strange adventure, we won’t have to wait long.

Yuppie Psycho will make its arrival April 25, 2019.

Vigil: The Longest Night

Vigil: The Longest Night takes place in a world that has forgotten the light of day, where the sun does not crest above the horizon, and endless darkness and the creatures that dwell within it reign eternal. But one person stands against the tide of this evil. Leila, the last of an ancient order, The Vigil, who, despite the impossibility of it recalls the warmth of the day. Searching for answers and desiring to protect her home, Leila must journey outward into the eternal darkness to uncover its secrets and answer the questions buried deep within her. What secrets lay out in the eternal night and what does the memory of Leila’s sister have to do with it?

Vigil has the makings of an interesting character driven story, tight platforming, and a good use of mechanical combat that is easy to grasp but clearly has a lot of room to master. The monster designs are impeccable in their eldritch design, and the challenge found in front of boss is solid and has mechanical depth at the core of the encounter.

Vigil: The Longest Night is slated for its debut later this year, 2019.