Steno Arcade
First of all, this is a steno game. What is steno? Look here at me playing this game on a QWERTY keyboard and a steno machine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtQzTUEuPWo You can see that I don’t write individual letters, rather words at a time. And writing words at a time means that my hands don’t move much, much less than a QWERTY keyboard where you have to type every letter.
The steno machine is much faster at text entry than a regular keyboard, but it takes months to become proficient. Part of the reason that many haven’t heard of steno is that for the longest time it wasn’t public information! A major stakeholder in this game, Mirabai Knight, tried to bring steno to everyone, starting in 2010. She first had a program made that interfaced with steno machines and handled all the steno logic → that program is Plover, and I use and develop it now.
– Real player with 4.8 hrs in game
Read More: Best Pixel Graphics Free to Play Games.
I’ll divide this review for two audiences: Uninformed and transcribers in the shorthand trade.
Uninformed:
If you stumbled upon this game, you might be wondering “What the heck is steno?” which is fair question. This is very niche product for a speicifc trade/industry in which you might recognize in captions on Television or Court reporters (sometimes refered as stenographers). This means that you need a specific usb-equipped shorthand steno writer and download an open source software to convert what you input into that writer onto your computer - you still following me? - and also you’ll need to learn the complete theory and methodology of how to write steno. If you’re still confused or uninterested thenn this is obviously not the game for you.
– Real player with 1.0 hrs in game
Pixel Game Maker MV
It’s been a long time coming, but I’m now ready to weigh in my thoughts on Pixel Game Maker MV. I’ve been using this software since early access back in 2018.
TL;DR:
Pixel Game Maker MV is a great game development engine for those that are not programmers, and want to be able to create either side scrolling or top down action games. It’s got enough for a single person development operation to chew on here to create the game you want to create in the way you want it created; bearing in mind that you operate within the program’s limits. If programming/scripting is outside your reach (or if it’s something you can do), this is a great engine that has the potential to be amazing as long as the developers continue with updates & performance improvements. There are assets and DLC that is available at the time of writing for you to get a jump on a concept quickly, but there are no asset standards (outside of keeping things divisible by 2) to conform with.
– Real player with 2587.5 hrs in game
Read More: Best Pixel Graphics Casual Games.
I’ll begin this review with I’m 36, not 16. I have no illusions about making a game and distributing it for gain. This is a hobby for me and that is the perspective I write this review from. I have a day job. I moonlight as a hobby pixel artist, and that drives me to dev software to have fun with, and bring it to life.
I began with RPG Maker MV as my first dip into game dev software. I do not have a desire to learn to code so that software was more interesting to me compared to more advanced engines. After years in RMMV I felt the want for more control from the ground up, and not be boxed in by hard limitations from the software, and the need for plugins to break through those hard limitations. Pixel Game Maker MV grants me that feeling. I did not feel like the learning curve to get going on a project was difficult, even without a large database of video tutorial content on YouTube at the time.
– Real player with 1866.7 hrs in game
Operation Deep Magic: Cryptanalysis
Operation Deep Magic is a detail-oriented, decryption simulator for learning how to break codes. Very good trainer. It’s defintely much easier to follow along the concise steps in this simulator than to study articles and textbooks.
I like:
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real code breaking experience and practices
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automatic math explanations for my analytical work
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puzzles that are super hard and also very easy
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all puzzles are real-life communication, math, and computer problems
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real, NSA-approved encryption that is adopted internationally
– Real player with 247.6 hrs in game
Read More: Best Pixel Graphics Realistic Games.
Let me start off by saying that this is probably one of the most deeply technical games on Steam. The cryptanalysis techniques utilized in this are actual, real-life techniques used in academic cryptography and spy alike.
How do I know this? I’m a cryptographer. :)
By playing this game and learning how these techniques work, you will gain an understanding of how these attacks are performed. If you’re not familiar with the basics of cryptography, this game is likely too difficult for you, but there’s no better time to start than right now,
– Real player with 1.3 hrs in game
Shooty
Right now, the game lacks content to make up for its price. I can imagine that this game can be fun with real people, but the bots are kinda stupid.
This game plays kind of like Teeworlds, which, to this day, still is a fun game for me. You can pick up several weapons, like shotguns, sniper rifles, assault rifles etc. There’s also a melee attack. Currently, there’s two maps. Frostland, which has a platform to the right that, as far as I know, cannot be accessed, and I tried everything, including rocket jumping (which, as expected, doesn’t work, sad TF2 noises). Grassland seems nicer. Both maps have a hole in the middle which you can fall down.
– Real player with 0.8 hrs in game
Shooty is a Unity Asset flip, what Valve calls a “fake game”. The “developer”, IronyDev/Shooty, took the Super Multiplayer Shooter Template Unity Store tutorial/demo/game asset pack from the real developers, Visyde Interactives, changed the name, added a sprite pack from another actual developer, and dumped the result onto Steam. They’re attempting to scam people into buying this, so they can get your money for someone else’s work.
– Real player with 0.3 hrs in game