Text/Garland SK
It's 2022, why is there always a large number of players who are not interested in the quality of the game, but are more interested in pixel games?
We all know that pixel games tend to be equated with retro, but then again, since there is such a preconceived perception, it is inevitable that some players will not recognize these feelings and only treat them as shoddy. So, what is the charm of pixel games?
If you want to answer this question, it is difficult to explain in three words, so let us recommend a few games to you, try it, maybe you will fall into the pit~
"Celeste"
Facing the Celeste Mountain in front of her, the protagonist Madeline needs to go alone and move upwards. Although the mountain is difficult, the operation of the climb is not complicated, you only need to combine the arrow keys with the jump, plus the breakthrough.
On this magnificent mountain range, the designers set up a hardcore platform challenge of more than 700 scenes, divided into nine chapters, and prepared a collection of strawberries and tapes for players with spare energy. Strawberries are just an additional challenge for obsessive-compulsive people, but tape is the key to unlocking the more difficult B-side, which will bring more challenges. In this way, the difficulty of being hard enough in itself plus the task of collecting presents a judgment that is almost infallible; although it is important to master the basic techniques, after familiarizing yourself with the operation, the most critical thing is to observe the difficulties in the level, formulate a reasonable route, and learn from the experience and lessons of repeated failures. The good news is that the game's death penalty is minimal, and it can be re-challenged soon after it falls, without letting frustration become the final straw to close the game tonight.
ANNO:Mutationem
In addition to the supporting works of Sony's "China Star" program, Anno: Mutation also has "cyberpunk" and "some foundation" elements as gimmicks; of course, even if these are not discussed, the unique art style is enough to attract the attention of players. The cyberpunk aesthetic presented by the pixel picture makes people describe it poorly, and if you have to describe it, it is probably: sexy crazy!
Although the game is essentially a 2D platform action game, it makes the whole world 3D when running map exploration. So switch seamlessly between 2D platform combat and 3D map exploration. You can chat with the prosthetic corgi, try to work as a bartender, hunt down the most vicious criminals, and even uncover the true face of the virtual anchor of the explosion. Hanging out will make it easier to arm your teeth, complete quests, collect, buy or craft items, upgrade character attributes, skills, and equipment, and use chips to customize the weapons in your hand. Then, swing your sword at the enemy, shoot, and execute in a gorgeous combo.
Tunnel of Doom
Mixing tower defense, action shooters, resource/trait collection, etc., Tunnel of Doom is essentially a roguelike game.
Originally intended to go deep into the mine to find her husband, but accidentally unlocked the ghoul that came like a tidal wave, the protagonist had to use the materials temporarily obtained in the mine to build a defense against wave after wave of attacks. If you want to fight with one enemy, you must skillfully lay traps to weaken the enemy's firepower before the battle, and various gadgets in the mine will help you. Smashing lamps, destroying crates, blowing up stones, etc. can all obtain materials to make items. There is also a shop in the map level where players can purchase additional attack facilities, as well as expendable items such as keys, bombs, and stuntmen for players to choose from. The protagonist of the game will randomly swipe 3 random traits every time before going down the mine, and you can choose one of them according to your own gameplay, each of which can bring a series of attribute improvements and gameplay adjustments. The game's maps are randomly generated every time, and the experience of each level adventure is different, all you can do is collect resources, gain traits, and use what you find to fight waves of monsters.
tERRORbane
If you cover the second half of the game's name, this would probably look like a standard JRPG, but when you think you're going to defeat evil and save the world in this game, the developer suddenly appears and points at you from God's point of view as a narrator. Next, no matter where you go or what you do, there will be bugs for you to pick up the wind and wash the dust.
Yes, this is a game that looks mediocre, but focuses on finding bugs. However, making bugs with your heart is not a game with your feet. This is not to say that players pay to become testers for developers, but that the gameplay of the game is to use bugs to decrypt. As a game where collecting bugs is the main pleasure, it's hard not to interact with everything, and those interactions tend to lead to interesting results. Keep trying, keep making new discoveries, and compete with developers again and again to create (leak) meaning (hole).
One clearance is not the end, after all, it is not so simple to find all bugs. Pondering, arranging your choices, or changing the direction of your next journey, the game will lead you to a very different place than before, meet different characters, unfold different plots, and of course, more importantly, trigger more new bugs.
Tangledeep
According to the official version, the creation of "Chaos Abyss" is inspired by the classics of the Super Ren era, which is a Roguelike pixel picture JRPG. Let's not talk about how these elements are combined, at least according to the story, the game is "pure" and "kingly": people who have been living underground are eager to step on the ground, but the only way to the light is the "chaotic abyss" and want to go forward, want to face the underground labyrinth world full of opportunities and dangers.
In order to create a retro experience, the game restores the style of the 16-bit pixel screen of the year, and does not blindly imitate, but adds real-time (Real-Time) turn-based gameplay, so that the battle rhythm is compact and strategic. 12 unique classes, over 100 skills, and completely random maps and equipment, plus almost any monster in the game can be captured as pets, cultivated in monster farms, or let them multiply with other monsters. And the game has full support for the Steam Workshop: challenge all kinds of players to create their own mods, including new monsters, items, equipment, sprites, dungeons, bosses.
WORLD OF HORROR
Part of the recipe is Junji Ito and the other part is Cthulhu; if you're a horror fan and the san value is just safe, world of horror might be your new playground.
Unlike games that suddenly flash on the screen and scare people with Jump Scares, World of Horrors focuses on slowly lowering the player's san value; the game uses a retro dot matrix method to build the graphics, close to the Japanese black and white manga style. It can be seen that the game's construction of the worldview is basically the Cthulhu myth, and the external expression is similar to Thato Junji, looking for non-daily in daily life, and making people nervous with a familiar environment.
As a result, the simple town of Innsmouth moved to Japan, where the ancient gods who once ruled the earth were revived, and under its influence, some strange symbols frequently appeared in the town, and people here fell into madness from nowhere. In terms of gameplay, the game adopts the classic "running group" mode and a certain "meat pigeon" element. Here, players need to complete multiple different random events to collect clues and thus learn the truth behind the story. Through continuous exploration in various scenarios, you can obtain a variety of equipment and items from various sources, one weapon and two auxiliary items at a time, as well as some energy items for restoring stamina or sanity consumables, and use these combinations to defeat the enemy.
Tales of the Black Forest
"Hesse Town" is the debut work of "Fireworks" producer Moonlight Cockroach, as a thriller game, "Hesse Town" is not known for being scary, and like "Fireworks", telling a good story is the core of this game.
The story is based on true events, combining Japan's bubble economy in the 1980s and 1990s with the Tokyo subway gas incident. Shikame Village was a small microcosm of Japanese society at that time.
The main line of the game is divided into three chapters, each of which is a delicate and romantic Japanese fantasy story. Stories based on real events incorporate strange talk that make the story both real and illusory. The right puzzle is the condiment for the condiment.
A small Japanese town with a dark tide, a world of eerie and colorful monsters, and a firework-like Heisei Strange Talk Story Japanese pixel-style fantasy adventure game. High school student Natsumori Hihara is trapped in a small town called Hesse-cho due to unknown powers, and while looking for a way out, he encounters the mysterious girl Kiritani Yuki, and learns that the way to escape the town is hidden in hesse's past. In this way, the two embark on a magical journey in search of freedom, waiting for them not only the mysteries behind hesse town, but also the colorful monster world and thrilling adventures.
Coffee Talk
Late at night is always indispensable to the emo link, and in "Coffee Talk", there is a café that does not close, so that we can make coffee while quietly listening to customers and mutual complaints.
Essentially, Coffee Talk is more of a visual novel, but the way to advance the plot is set to brew coffee that meets the needs of customers with the materials in your hand; in other words, you can also think of it as a puzzle game. Although not all of the customers who appeared were human, in the context of the modern civilization we are familiar with, fantasy races such as elves, orcs, and mermaids coexist with humans in the city, and the process of trying to understand each other between alien races and humans is an interesting topic of discussion.
Pixel art graphics in the style of Japanese animation in the 1990s and an atmosphere set off by cool colors will help players immerse themselves in the world of the game. And the carefully selected jazz and low-fidelity (lofi) music is a perfect match for late-night warm drinks and whispers, and it is also a good partner for homework and work.
《迷雾侦探》（Tales of the Neon Sea）
Similar to "Coffee Talk", "The Mist Detective" focuses on storytelling, but unlike the former's text AVG gameplay, this game allows the player to play a private detective who needs to personally investigate the case and explore the truth after the fog; that is, "The Mist Detective" is a pixel-style side-scrolling plot puzzle game.
Doubts and doubts, crises and crises, constantly arouse the curiosity of players, if you want to continue to go down, you can not help but have a certain patience. Detectives are not just talking, they need to investigate the scene, analyze items, interrogate NPCs, and other means. At this time, the puzzle appears, and the large and small puzzle game is difficult to simplify and interspersed in the scene and story of the game. They will test the player's reasoning, observation and logic skills.
The most interesting thing is that in addition to playing the detective, the player will also incarnate his right-hand man, William the Little Black Cat, so that Meow Mos can go deep into the places that the protagonist cannot reach, and work with the protagonist to complete the detection.
Because it is the debut of the production team, the game inevitably reveals jerkiness and childishness, but after the subsequent optimization and update, the overall process has been simplified and simplified, smooth a lot, and the steam praise rate has returned to special praise. In addition, it is worth mentioning that the "Mercury Sanatorium" created by the original production team is also about to be released, furry controllers, please look over there.
Game Dev Story
Mentioning the various types of games mentioned above, and playing all kinds of games, do you also have the idea of running a game company yourself?
If so, Game Development Story will be your best choice.
From the beginning of the recruitment of employees, the initial stage can only rely on acquaintances or roadside newspapers to find suitable candidates, and the ability and attributes of employees can only be said to be barely useful. At this time, what the company can do is to meet the requirements of Party A, do some outsourcing work to practice, and accumulate experience by the way. However, as long as the appropriate training route is formulated, the fledgling newcomers can continue to up and be competent for the post. It's just that the upper limit of employees has long been predestined, and with the development of the company, either try to be full-time or can only endure the pain of replacement. While cultivating company employees, the other party will also be inspired to contribute ideas to the development of new games, so that the types of games and content that can be developed will increase. At this time, what needs to be considered is how to combine interesting elements into popular combinations, and at the same time consider the platform on which their own games are released - after all, the licensing fee and the number of platform users must also be taken into account.
At the stage of small achievements, difficult problems ensued. Does the company need to expand? How should the publicity be carried out and how much money should be invested? Is it to repeat the successful experience and continue to cut leeks or to grind a sword for a few years to create a boutique project? With ambition, how should revenue and expenditure be balanced? The contradiction between ideal and reality will collide and rub in the game.
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