Posted March 04, 2018
Fake games! Once upon a time, some clever game devs discovered a way to exploit those lame Steam trading cards by producing super-cheap games. Unfortunately, steam decided that those games were "fake games" and deleted them.
I have a few games in my Steam library that have been removed from the store page. I think some of those must be those "fake" ones:
Barclay: The Marrowdale Murder
Biology Battle
Brilliant Bob
East India Trading Company Gold
Metro 2033
Rage Parking Simulator 2016
The Safeguard Garrison
Sleengster
Sleengster 2
They Came From The Moon
Torch Cave
Torch Cave 2
Why so Evil
Why so Evil 2: Dystopia
I gave one of them a test run: Why so Evil
Goal: Reach the exit. Can't be much simpler than that! Except, you are manoeuvring a dice around the playfield. And I'm not talking about perfect isometric-field movement. On the contrary, the dice waggles from side to side, accidentally crawls over walls, gets knocked out of its initial alignment or fails to roll and slide across the floor instead. Personally, I would have titled this one "Drunken Dice Simulator".
But the crappy movement of the dice is actually the games main attraction. The movement feels very physical. Also, it gives you a lot of freedom. There are no zones you're unable to penetrate because the designer didn't intend you to do so. I'm still not sure if the wall climbing is a bug or a feature. That diamond on level 16 seems to be pretty impossible to reach by other means. Still, it requires some luck to pull off. The game supports Xbox controllers, but alas, it cannot register gradual movement of the thumbstick. There's also a two-player mode.
The level design, while crude, has a lot of variation, both in term of visuals and gameplay mechanics. Some of the levels are not all that good, but you have a clear sense of struggling through a level that another person has designed for you. This personal feel is likely due to the game's simplicity. If you have coded anything at some point in your life, it will be pretty easy to see the strings.
The techno track and the visuals make the experience slightly psychedelic. The visuals are "assets flips", that is, stuff that the dev hasn't made from scratch himself, but has gotten for free somewhere, or on the cheap. Still, I liked the end result, even though 3D models don't always fit together.
Not a must-have, but it's a game that I quickly got into. Unlike those indie titles that are "interesting" and "promising" and just need a "bit more work".
I got stuck at level 20. That one is strange. Total playtime: 54 minutes.
But at this point, I found out that I had only been playing in practice mode. Switch to normal mode, and the game becomes a far more cruel beast: No saving! First time you die, you're game over and returns to level 1. Now the title starts to make sense. But with this in mind, I fear that the practice mode was a mistake since it spoils the fun of discovering a never seen before level in Normal mode.
A youtube vid I found:
[url]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSWGxl8F248[/url]
The sequel, however, was a major disappointment. The production value was much better, but the entertainment was gone. The color changing system has been done to death, and just felt frustrating. Just starting the game took some serious efforts, due to the broken menus. Bad camera too. At some point, I was stuck in front of the cube, unable to see what it was moving towards.
The dev has also made the android game GooCubelets, a more traditional puzzler with a jelly theme. But like most Android games, it got crazy permissions.
I have a few games in my Steam library that have been removed from the store page. I think some of those must be those "fake" ones:
Barclay: The Marrowdale Murder
Biology Battle
Brilliant Bob
East India Trading Company Gold
Metro 2033
Rage Parking Simulator 2016
The Safeguard Garrison
Sleengster
Sleengster 2
They Came From The Moon
Torch Cave
Torch Cave 2
Why so Evil
Why so Evil 2: Dystopia
I gave one of them a test run: Why so Evil
Goal: Reach the exit. Can't be much simpler than that! Except, you are manoeuvring a dice around the playfield. And I'm not talking about perfect isometric-field movement. On the contrary, the dice waggles from side to side, accidentally crawls over walls, gets knocked out of its initial alignment or fails to roll and slide across the floor instead. Personally, I would have titled this one "Drunken Dice Simulator".
But the crappy movement of the dice is actually the games main attraction. The movement feels very physical. Also, it gives you a lot of freedom. There are no zones you're unable to penetrate because the designer didn't intend you to do so. I'm still not sure if the wall climbing is a bug or a feature. That diamond on level 16 seems to be pretty impossible to reach by other means. Still, it requires some luck to pull off. The game supports Xbox controllers, but alas, it cannot register gradual movement of the thumbstick. There's also a two-player mode.
The level design, while crude, has a lot of variation, both in term of visuals and gameplay mechanics. Some of the levels are not all that good, but you have a clear sense of struggling through a level that another person has designed for you. This personal feel is likely due to the game's simplicity. If you have coded anything at some point in your life, it will be pretty easy to see the strings.
The techno track and the visuals make the experience slightly psychedelic. The visuals are "assets flips", that is, stuff that the dev hasn't made from scratch himself, but has gotten for free somewhere, or on the cheap. Still, I liked the end result, even though 3D models don't always fit together.
Not a must-have, but it's a game that I quickly got into. Unlike those indie titles that are "interesting" and "promising" and just need a "bit more work".
I got stuck at level 20. That one is strange. Total playtime: 54 minutes.
But at this point, I found out that I had only been playing in practice mode. Switch to normal mode, and the game becomes a far more cruel beast: No saving! First time you die, you're game over and returns to level 1. Now the title starts to make sense. But with this in mind, I fear that the practice mode was a mistake since it spoils the fun of discovering a never seen before level in Normal mode.
A youtube vid I found:
[url]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSWGxl8F248[/url]
The sequel, however, was a major disappointment. The production value was much better, but the entertainment was gone. The color changing system has been done to death, and just felt frustrating. Just starting the game took some serious efforts, due to the broken menus. Bad camera too. At some point, I was stuck in front of the cube, unable to see what it was moving towards.
The dev has also made the android game GooCubelets, a more traditional puzzler with a jelly theme. But like most Android games, it got crazy permissions.
