Indie of the month: “Shadows of Forwood” and “Nonsee”. Medieval fantasy or carnivorous worm simulator?

How many indie developers are in Russia? Arranging an “Indi-battalion”, we, of course, suspected that there were a lot of them, but did not even know that they would send four hundred and more letters from all over the country to the competition. Platformers, quests, shooters, puzzles … But there were only fifteen finalists, and too many wonderful projects had to be left overboard. But they also deserve their moment of fame!

We decided to fix this injustice. Meet: followed by "indie-bit" Gambling And LG Electronics They start a competition "Indie of the month". Every week in the period from July 15 to August 4, 2019 we will publish one article devoted to two contestants at once, where the texts of the original applications compiled by the authors are given with minimal changes. Three weeks-six interesting games that did not fall into the finalists of the "Indie-Bet". And in the fourth week, from August 5 to 11, a vote will be held in which you, dear readers, choose the best from them! The author of the indie game of the month will go a large-format monitor LG ULTRAWIDE.

Separately, we will play prizes among all who voted for the best work: every month another monitor LG ULTRAWIDE will leave for one of our readers. Read the detailed conditions on the competition page.

Professional approach

New LG 34WK95U-W -This is a 34-inch IPS matrix with 4K resolution 5120×2160. Format 21: 9 increases the view angle by 30%, dp 1.4 and Thunderbolt 3 allow you to withstand the frequency of 60 Hz, the new Nano-IPS technology provides full-fledged HDR support, and the response of 5 ms is enough even for the most dynamic games!

LG 34wk95u-w "Indi of the month"

Contestant No. 1. Bormak Tales Studio Shadows

The events of the game unfold in the Kingdom of Accerates, or rather, in one of the cities of this kingdom – Forwood, whose inhabitants suddenly disappeared without a trace. The main character, wandering Knight Kennet, has to find out the reasons for their disappearance. The player will study the city and the surroundings, solve puzzles, get acquainted with other researchers and make decisions that will affect the development of the plot.

About the developer

I am alone, my name is Tim Bormak, and I'm 29 years old. For a long time I worked as a realtor, but at a certain moment of my life I decided to make games, both computer and mobile, which I am doing now. At the moment, I am a person-organ and do everything I need: from sounds to animations. A lot of information about the game and what I am doing can be found in my VKontakte group. There are also links to the demo version of the "shadows of Forwood".

Five key features of the game:

non -linear plot;
multi -level world with worked out locations;
original puzzles that require extraordinary solutions;
gameplay, not forgiving errors: everything around will try to kill you;
atmosphere straight from Howard Lovecraft's books.

In the open spaces of the Kingdom of Akrait, there is the city of Forwood, whose population disappeared under mysterious circumstances. The crown made several attempts to find out the causes of the tragedy, but everything is in vain. A reconnaissance expedition was sent to Forwood, later called the first expedition, but none of its participants returned.

After these events, the surroundings of Forwood were famous for the bad place that all bypassed without exception. The people whispered about the man -made lands and the ancient cult, allegedly guilty of all troubles, but no one could say for sure. The crown announced the award for information about the causes of these events, and adventurers and adventurers began to flock to Forwood. The main character is one of these adventurers, the wandering knight Kennet. He arrives in the city to figure it out, and from that moment the gameplay begins.

The player will meet with different characters: the same adventurers as the main character himself, crooks and culprits of the tragedy. The basis of gameplay is the solution of puzzles, avoiding traps, studying the world and mythology of the game through interaction with characters, stories, books and memorable places. The main character also has to make a choice, which will affect the ending and fate of some characters.

The gameplay will take place on different locations: in the city, in the forest, in the dungeons, etc.D. In addition, the player will have a choice of the time of day: day or night. A certain time will be a necessary factor for solving part of puzzles and advancement in the plot. The player also has an inventory where he puts all the objects found (if desired) that will help him in solving puzzles or in the promotion of the plot.

All main characters will be announced and will receive a unique appearance. Their location will depend on the stage of the investigation, and the attitude to the main character – on the solutions of the player. The system of dialogues is branched, which will allow you to receive additional information at the request or if necessary.

Each important solution of the player entails automatic preservation of progress, not allowing him to change it otherwise than with the beginning of a new game.

Denis Pavlushkin, gaming editor : It is nice to see that the “slow walking on beautiful landscapes” finally passed the full circle and returned to the start-to the formula of more or less classic quests. One of the first swallows of this town Renaissance was Infra : It seems to be a typical walking simulator, but with entertaining "industrial" puzzles, seriously tied to logic and research, and with a sucking opportunity to lose. That is, die.

This is what I’m doing: if the “shadows of Forwood” really manage to catch up and embody a truly dangerous world, not characteristic of such a “grassy” genre, then the game will take off. The concept works, this has already been proven; it only needs to be realized properly. And in this matter, Mr. Bormaku can only wish good luck and patience: in such projects, for lack of deep gameplay, the blanket is pulled by aesthetics. Infra took urbanism and the beauty of the ordinary-whether the next fantasy kingdom can boast of something as memorable? This is not an easy task for one developer.

Ekaterina Zhorova, Gamemenia editor : I have double impressions of the demos of the "shadows of Forwood". On the one hand, it really is atmospheric: the destroyed Viselnikov village really seems extremely uninhabited, and the modest peasant dugouts (and not stone or wooden houses that could arrange a less erudite left -wise) fit perfectly in the era. Plus, I was unexpectedly pleased with the absence of HUD in research mode: no markers, no mini-cards-poke on every rotten door like a blind kitten, and try to find something useful among the rubbing grass overgrown with grass. Even the backlighting of objects for interaction only works with a very close distance, so just climbing the hill and look at the surroundings with a glance. I don’t know that this is just a shortage of demos or a real author’s idea – but it works: in “Forwood” you feel not God, but an ordinary person who can rely exclusively on your eyes and ears. True, there is a chance that such helplessness will begin to frustrate the players at the second hour of passage.

In addition, Denis correctly noted: the aesthetics and atmosphere in this genre solve everything. And they scatter as soon as you get tired of admiring the landscapes and starting to ask yourself questions. Where did the Gothic statue come from in the middle of poor dugouts, as if from the cathedral? And where the invitated one, whose diary I found, was generally learned to write if a diploma in the Middle Ages (and the world of the game is clearly close to it in development) owned hardly 1% of the population? Of course, it is too early to judge the game on the first demo, but the feeling of immersion should be one of the main chips of the project – and it disappears very quickly if you constantly stumble upon such logical inconsistencies. I will only be glad if it turns out that all my fears have not been justified, and the existence of a diary and statue is due to the rules of the world. The main thing is that the developer does not forget to explain these rules to the player.

Contestant No. 2. "Nonse" from Kozinaka Labs

Carpentous worm simulator with experimental control and tactical combat system. A hybrid of a strongly modified classical “snake” and the genre “eat or run away”: everything in the game grows, eats others or eats.

About the developer

Oleg "Kozinaka" Kozlov: “To carry” is an author's game, and I am its author. I am a programmer by profession, but a wide range of hobbies allows you to be in the project a person-organ (I am responsible for the concept, programming, design). "Non -See" – initially a competitive project and began in 2011 on Gamin.Me as part of the Gaminator contest. The victory on the Gaminator and the hot support of the players were so inspired by me that I have been taking its implementation to an inconspicuous state for the eighth year (in fact, I already brought it).

Experience in game construction I have very small. Before Nesphytiy, he gutted Starcraft, pulling it on his RTS engine, and won once on the same Gaminator with the project “My name is Ngaa-Vida Ri” on this engine. And I am also a Russian Localizer of the Games UNEPIC and GHOST 1.0.

Other team members are Dmitry “Stada” Lopunov (music, sound effects), Andrey “WeILARD” Lyapichev (decoration, design) and Alexander “QUYSE” Beach (multiplayer, spoiling, continuous integration).

Five key features of the game:

tactical combat system that allows the worms to tear each other to pieces;
Elements of the genre “Eat or run away”: everything in the game grows, eats others or eats;
management imitating the motion of reptiles: to crawl, the worm must wriggle;
original visual style in colorful pseudo -nerd graphics;
A separate game campaign for a local multiplayer for two (Splitskrin) and a cards editor with the ability to change the level on the fly (sandbox).

The most characteristic feature of “nonsense” is a control that imitates the motion of reptiles: to crawl, the worm must wriggle, and the player should provide the worm for a constant change of direction (keyboard, gamepad or mouse). It feels like riding roller skates or snowboarding. Alas, at first the control is contraintual, so before the player begins to enjoy the merger with a jumping gluttonous creature, he will have to train for some time. You can evaluate how much I coped with this task by playing the game demo (about an hour of gameplay).

Eating everything in its path https://big-wins-casino.co.uk/, the worm grows, gaining new opportunities for devouring, but losing mobility. In front of the worm is a large head, automatically eating everything that falls into the mouth, and at the back is a narrowing segmented tail. The tail is vulnerable, the worm is forced to protect it or take it away. Having lost part of the tail, the worm redistributes the accumulated mass so as to regain the proportionality. The head for the worm is both weapons and a shield, since it is the most difficult part of it.

The extremely conditional plot of the game unfolds in the walls of the laboratory of Professor Preobrazhensky, where he is engaged in the removal of various types of creatures along with his assistants with a zekoy and a stiletto. The player performs a variety of tasks, managing the inhabitants of the test boxes. Mostly these are worms, but sometimes he has to visit the skin of their production: ticks, beetles, fleas – the game engine allows you to flexibly experiment with the creatures and control of the player over them.

Professor and his assistants

The fact is that the main gameplay is extremely simple, and pleasure brings observation of how the worm eats victims, a sense of own growth and intuitive control over the worm (if it is reached in the learning process). But over time, these effects are weakening, and between the levels of eating living creatures and the extermination of opponents, levels with restrictions or generally changing the main mechanic are required. For example, competitions on laying eggs, capture of the flag (as it is a fanning beetle), an escape from the worms in the skin of a flea, capture of the worms that control the mind, the race on peaceful worms, etc.p.

At the moment, the game has a solitary campaign of forty -five levels with three bosses, a dozen levels for the game together on a divided screen and a map editor that allows you to create new levels or just experiment with game creatures and their mechanics in the “sandbox mode”. The game is completely ready, tested by a third of the levels of a single campaign, the remaining two -thirds are created, crepted and equipped with draft dialogs, but not inhabited. At the moment, I am trying to form final texts and dialogs so that the localization of the game and the balancing of the gameplay before the release go in parallel.

Denis Pavlushkin, gaming editor : At the past conference Devgamm, I talked with one of the visitors about “Nesphy”, and he responded about the project as follows: “Guys [Kozinaka Labs-. Gambling] do not make a game, but technology ". Say, the development was so tightly dragged, because in pursuit of the most realistic behavior of the ringleys the team constantly introduces more and more modern technologies into the game.

And, as it were … yes. On the one hand, world hysteria for all sorts AGAR.Io has already passed a long time ago, but on the other – and what from that? “Help” looked wonderful in 2011, and now it looks even more beautiful. In the end, Kozinaka Labs is not chasing creative immortality: let the game go out, as Grandfather Nwell said, "when will it be ready". Not everything for Crimsonland or The Binding of ISAAC Coffee breaks to sit down-it seems to me that “nonsense” will be able to apply for the title of one of the best timekeepers in our time.

I only hope that the release will see me, and not my grandchildren who have not yet been born.

Ekaterina Zhorova, Gamemenia editor : I come to the projects that are concentrated on a gameplay, and not on a narrative, from the perspective of pure hedonism: I play as long as I have fun, and if it becomes too difficult, I quickly lose interest. Therefore, when at the next level of “Nepiy” I was killed a dozen times in a row, with a sigh of relief I closed the program: to monitor how your worm with champing devours everything in its path, and it is really very nice, but tolerate the constantly growing stress level for this I did not succeed.

However, no matter how I myself relate to the project, this does not cancel great respect for the developers. Someone laughs that a whole team made a game about worms for eight years: they say, during this time it was possible to write “War and Peace”. But Oleg and his colleagues went much wiser than many of their competitors – they did not build air castles, but set themselves a small, but extremely specific task and step by step brought the project to the ideal. I sincerely hope that whiners like me will be in the minority, and the game will find its audience and become popular. From the point of view of the quality of “non -exaggeration” it was made without exaggeration remarkably: for many years of polishing the mechanic clearly went through not in vain.

Which project did you like more? Maybe you even played demos? Share your impressions in the comments – and wait for the start of voting.