SkyBoats

SkyBoats

Pros:

  • nice interface

  • games done in no more than 30 mins and they’re saved if you can’t finish them

  • 2 versions of the game (after 17 hours I’m yet to play the other though will do when I finish this one!)

  • active dev interested in engaging with the community

Cons:

  • you learn the rules as you go and some are not that clear. Fortunately, Inventarius has done a brilliant community guide which helps you understand how to get near his level and therefore play more and enjoy it more

  • once you reach your max level, replayability is limited - you don’t want to lower your level by failing too often. I have more hours in Axes & Acres (48) than I will have in this (probably max out around 25-30) so buy in a sale.

Real player with 29.4 hrs in game


Read More: Best Strategy Hex Grid Games.


As always with BrainGoodGames, this game is lots of fun and very challenging. It takes a while to grasp the rules but once you understand them you will appreciate the complex strategies you can use.

The tutorial will get you started but I recommend turning on practise mode to really learn the rules and not lose ranks. The support from BrainGoodGames is great as always.

Real player with 19.5 hrs in game

SkyBoats on Steam

Axes and Acres

Axes and Acres

I think this game is fantastic. It takes a while to fully understand it (watch the tutorial video’s but certainly Tom Chick’s video for more info) because the game lacks a good tutorial or manual and the user interface is a bit too minimalistic, but once you get it, you’ll love it!

Update: the tutorial has been completely redone. I have not tried it but others say it is much better now. The developer is really active around this and his other games, he talks to his players and listens.

The game has a leveling system, when you win, your level rises and the next challenge will be harder. I have seen this in more games before, but I have never seen it work so perfectly as in this game. This game really seems to perfectly know what to do to make it just that bit harder for you the next time you play it. Every playthrough, if I won, it was at the last or before last turn. Although it’s a turn based game, I was on the edge of my seat because you think: oh no… I’ll never make it.

Real player with 336.5 hrs in game


Read More: Best Strategy Indie Games.


Axes and Acres Review

The review below, and others, can be found in my Announcements page (http://www.mercedesmace.com/announcements/game-review-axes-and-acres )

This is the second game (Steam, Apr 2016) by a small indie developer, BrainGoodGames. (http://www.braingoodgames.com ). They had a great hit with Militia (on Steam Dec 2015), and just released a new game (Skyboats, Steam Aug 2016). I’m a bit behind the Steam release schedule; I only got around to picking up A&A this month. In the past two weeks, I’ve put 46 hours into A&A, and can strongly recommend it.

Real player with 150.3 hrs in game

Axes and Acres on Steam

Citres

Citres

Citres is a minimalistic Japanese city building game.

There are no dozens of different types of buildings or macro resource management in the game. In this game you buy packs of buildings for Yen - in-game currency, which contains random buildings in the form of Tetris figures. By placing buildings correctly, you will receive Yen to buy new packs, as well as expand the city by filling houses with new residents, which will bring you closer to the discovery of new unique buildings. Building buildings of the same type in the shape of a square will upgrade them, here the skills of playing Tetris will come in handy.

What’s in the game:

  • Simple and straightforward gameplay

  • Procedurally generated island

  • Japanese atmosphere with relaxing soundtrack[/]


Read More: Best Strategy City Builder Games.


Citres on Steam

Defense of the Oasis

Defense of the Oasis

I picked this up after being mentioned on Crate and Crowbar as a puzzle game with very short rounds appealed. It fits that comforting spot very well. I can play a few rounds while other stuff is happening around me in the house. As an older game it’s also at the right price. I have never been a graphics obsessive, but to me these graphics have an old-school style, but work fine on my 1yr old Windows gaming laptop, and I never have trouble working out what a particular tile is. The game structure is an elegant idea with not too many pieces, where the pieces combine well to create lots of interesting variation.

Real player with 85.4 hrs in game

I bought this game a long time ago - forgot about it, tried to find it again a few times over the years since and it was impossible to find. I was so excited to see it finally on Steam! However after 2 minutes it’s clear that it is just a port of an amazingly old game. Going into full-screen mode immediately breaks the game and makes it unplayable with a ton of graphical glitches. I’m glad its available to play though, but be warned that it’s a bit ugly and potentially buggy.

It has been described as ‘Civ meets Minesweeper’ and if that sounds like something you’re into I recommend it.

Real player with 57.0 hrs in game

Defense of the Oasis on Steam

En-thirer pp-slimes adventures

En-thirer pp-slimes adventures

This storepage was pre-ordered in removing. It will be not released.

Returning shrimps and new comers as in pp-slimes!

In this game, shrimps are not heroes, but they’ve supply the resources to pp-slimes from the sea!

Helpful shrimps and new slimy tribes will make consecutive up in RTSes-genarations.

–notes–

This game includes “no sounds” on conditions in default. This-game-settings just support(s) player-owned musics and sound files.

–key features–

Including 6 on-map resources, Initially 4 towers (but mainly slimes defend their own tribe)

A tower defencing game styled in semi-RTSes.

Most of game-graphics were painted(or will be set in in-game paintings) by procedural generations.

If it becomes so-called late game, Within extreme capacities ex-slimes and sp-slimes fused productively support tribes.

–recources–

Particles mean resources in this game. In Increasing player’s resources on the situation that pp-slimes close them. Those resources provide mgt-slimes(separatable), fused ex-slimes and sp-slimes they’re good at combat against other slimes-tribes. Also, resources grown up themselves, enabled self-increasing amount of resources contained.

–alpha demo–

Pp-slimes alpha demo version will be available on 29/06/18

En-thirer pp-slimes adventures on Steam

Guilded

Guilded

It’s a bit buggy, but it’s a lotta fun and pretty unique. It’s free so if you’re interested, give it a go, I bet you’ll probably enjoy it c:

Real player with 1.9 hrs in game

While the game has potential… there seems to be quite a few bugs in the game as well as unpolished features in this game.

An example of an unpolished feature would be the selection of new guild members. At present you can only purchase the ones in front of you that they provide. Selecting the ‘X’ to what would appear to remove the selection from the choices closes all 3. It doesn’t remove the selection. So the only option is to purchase one of the 3 options. Then you can fire them… and take the lose of money.

Real player with 1.4 hrs in game

Guilded on Steam

Kingdomonium

Kingdomonium

Kingdomonium is an indie medieval procedurally generated side-scrolling real time strategy game. Build up and command your medieval kingdom to explore and conquer the land. The game at its roots is a real time strategy game with the unique mechanic of playing as a side-scrolling 2D platformer. You play within a procedurally generated sandboxed open world environment which allows activities such as foraging, chopping, digging, mining, building, fishing, sailing, exploring, strategic combat and many more!

So what’s so special about this game?

Most traditional real time strategy games play from a top-down perspective. Kingdomonium plays as a side-scrolling 2D platformer. This combined with the fact that the world you play in is procedurally generated with aspects of destructible terrain makes for some very intriguing and enjoyable gameplay!

What can I do in this game and what is the end goal?

The game allows you to take command of a medieval kingdom. You give orders to various constituent units (some of which are mentiond below) to perform tasks such as foraging, chopping, digging, mining, building, fishing, sailing, exploring and tactical combat. There are many goals in the game but the main overarching one is to expand your kingdom and take over as much land as possible. Other goals include exploration, finding rare items, overcoming various obstacles and enemies and many more.

What commandable characters or units are in the game?

Below are some of the basic units planned in the game. Of course this is only a small sample. There will be many others and advanced versions of these below in the final game!

#### Villager

Villagers are the heartbeat of the kingdom. They perform a multitude of tasks such as wood-cutting, mining, building and crafting. Without them the kingdom cannot function

#### Swordsman

The short swordsman is a staple infantry unit. Although basic they are a formidable force to be reckoned with when commanded in groups for close range melee battle

#### Archer

The archer is another staple infantry unit. They are very effective for planning strategic range attacks and defending the kingdom from higher vantage points and gaurd towers

#### Knight

The knight is a more capable, experienced and equipped infantry unit. They possess a great amount of armour and durability as well as quicker attack times and greater hit-point damage

#### Cavalry

The cavalry are highly durable and effecient combat units. They possess a great amount of stamina and hit-point damage against any opposition as well as having the ability to traverse vast distances quickly

#### Priest

Priests can heal wounded units as well as cast spells against the enemy during battle. In addition to these they also possess further mystical powers yet to be revealed

#### Catapult

The catapult is a basic artillery combat unit. Highly advantageous for launching ranged attacks with large splash damage. Especially useful for destroying buildings and other structures

#### Transport Ship

The transport ship is essential for moving troops, equipment and supplies across sea to neighboring lands

Kingdomonium on Steam

Minos Strategos

Minos Strategos

to give a little back story to new comers, BrainGoodGames has no pushed out their 4th strategie game Minos Strategos, a sort of board game turn based strategie game. While all there games have the same sort of feel as asthetic at the base, they all of very distinct game styles and rules. To give a little feedback on the type of developers BrainGoodGames are, its not uncommon to a player to find a bug and for it to get patched and fixed an hour later. Iv seen people suggest an idea they think would really work in one of their games, just to see it implemented the next day! Iv seen them push a new game out, just to go back months later and push another content patch for all their older games as well, continuing to make sure all their games get tons of love. Its almost as if buying one of the BGGames also comes with a 24/7 Dev hotline ! HAH

Real player with 35.9 hrs in game

Now that I’ve played quite a few games of Minos Strategos and moved up a few ranks I feel confident in saying this game is another great addition to the BrainGoodGames collection of strategy games.

The tutorial is a bit brief and left me with some questions. Watching a short video that is linked to on the main page of the game soon cleared up the questions I had. There is a practise mode so if you aren’t sure how something works and you want to experiment, you can do so without affecting your rank.

Real player with 35.0 hrs in game

Minos Strategos on Steam

Quinterra

Quinterra

It is merely an okay game. The tactics portion of it isn’t very in depth, often times feeling very Rock-Paper-Scissors like, and the forces fit into at most two of those. The graphics are fine. The UI is usable though not helpful in any way and the text for the mission requirements is super tiny. Yet the missions end up feeling very much the same one after another, which would be fine if not for the Rock-Paper-Scissors element mentioned before. You can find yourself deep into a game and then because you are playing a force that has to group up (Lycans) vs. an enemy who poisons everything there is honestly nothing to do but quit the battle and find a port to get your morale back up.

Real player with 20.1 hrs in game

Summary & Positives

Quinterra has a really strong underlying mechanic set, loosely reminiscent of a faster-paced Faeria. Whilst highly comparable to a card based roguelite (like Slay the Spire or Monster Train), it’s not really fair to lump it into that genre.

The combat map is composed of tiles, each of which produce different ‘colours’. Each turn, you pick a tile up which lets you produce a new type of unit (a bit like setting up a building to produce a unit for you in a strategy game) for that battle, with some limits. Over time, you can sequence your tile collection in a way that lets you pick up more ‘colours’ to use, both to get a wider variety of units to play with but also to give yourself a variety of options to augment and enhance those units more with added effects.

Real player with 18.8 hrs in game

Quinterra on Steam

Shattered Planet

Shattered Planet

To put it bluntly, Shattered Planet is one of the worst Roguelike I ever had the displeasure to play and it’s not worth the price at all, even considering this is the first game made by Kitfox, especially when they straight up abandoned it, leaving some items impossible to collect (making 100% completion not achivable if you are into that) and not fixings LOTS of bugs and glitches that plague the experience, either by being a minor annoyance or outright impeding your progress

The premise of Shattered Planet is that you, the clone of a space adventurer, with the aid of your space crew, that is made by the huge number of one ‘nother alien guy, must travel to the now shattered planet of Earth to find a cure to a space disease known as “Blight”, which there are currently no ways to treat it.

Real player with 702.4 hrs in game

I really like this game!

Jumping right into what you want to know:

Gameplay/Story: Simple; easy to learn very fast. Choose a clone, each with their own skillset and buffs, and traverse the ever-changing shattered pieces of an ancient planet crawling with monsters and tribals, littered with loot and new weapons to help you on your way as you progress onto harder and harder levels that are different every time. See how far you can get before the flora, fauna, or your own mistakes spell your end. You will die. A lot. But don’t worry; your clone can pick up where you left off to start the adventure all over again with all the information and levels that your last one was able to earn before his untimely, and probably sudden, demise. But you’re not always alone in this, you might sometimes also find it in your favor to either purchase or tame a companion or pet to help fight with you on your next trip to the surface. If you’d rather have a goal to reach instead of pushing the limits of your clone endlessly, there are 3 other difficult missions for you to complete with cool rewards for each, but you’ll fare better practicing in endless first! Grab some scrap and crystals (money) in there to buy yourself some fancy murder-tools before pushing your luck in the missions. Travel a lot and you’ll find it lying all over the place!

Real player with 153.9 hrs in game

Shattered Planet on Steam