#homgard

Day 0/Day 1/Day 2/Day 3/Day 4

Homgard

Fantasy Mystery Map-Making Nonograms

The world of Homgard has ended. The system administrator behind the universe has found that whatever has caused the crash removed all possible countermeasures: every chosen one, every prophecy, every otherworlder, and every deity. The timeline has been locked in place. There's only one agent left: you. There's only one contingency left: Go through the timeline, restore the data, discover what caused this, and reawaken the dreamer.

It's time for the obligatory Picross game. Every next fest gotta have at least one.

Whenever I see a nonogram game try to have a story it tends to be something breezy, either in length or in tone, fitting the bite size casual structure of the puzzles. Not so here. This is someone's extremely realized fantasy world, with multiple nations and factions, political infighting, and a weight of history to it. And… I'm sorry to say that it kind of bounced off me.

The lore entries you unlock by completing puzzles are lengthy, and it has the problem of "We are going to throw you into the thick of a bunch of Proper Nouns and Important Names. Keep Up." While the stakes are still really abstract to me. And when the tone does aim for humorous it doesn't align with my sense of humor. My eyes started glazing over the text.

It's hard to say this because you can tell this is someone's baby. The steam page says that while it's self contained, this is still book 1 of 4 of a saga. And maybe if you're more classical fantasy headed this will land. But it wasn't landing for me.

But I'm still interested. What it lacks in its narrative it makes up for in its puzzle design.

I've done enough nonograms that now they tend to just be a pleasant order of operations, like finishing a sudoku or jigsaw puzzle. And that's fine, it's relaxing. But Homgard throws in a curve ball with its colored squares. Depending on the color, the square follows different rules. Purple squares function normally. Highlighted green squares must connect with a highlighted square of a different color. A highlighted yellow square cannot join with other colors to form a longer row or column, the segment has to stand alone. Sections of red squares must all share the same status, either highlighted or crossed out.

It's very Cracking the Cryptic. I had to stop and reexamine a lot of my initial assumptions when attacking a puzzle.

The demo is clearly only scratching the surface. they only show 4 out of the 8 colors, counting standard purple, and they haven't started combining the special rules yet. I am legitimately excited to see where they go from here.

Demon Lord: Just A Block

Chaotic Grid Based Roguelike

The Demon Lord is dead, slain by the Hero. But the power vacuum left by the his death has led to a war of monsters, all jockeying to become the next demon lord, all while greedy human adventurers taking advantage of the chaos. Only…the Demon Lord is not as dead as assumed. Though reduced to just a head, he's determined to regain his power and his throne!

It's nice to finally a roguelike here that's actually taking inspiration from Rogue and Mystery Dungeon. Turn based grid movement, randomized rooms, attacking via running into the enemy, all that good stuff.

It's not "pure." There's a bit of metaprogression so far with unlocking new starting weapons. Your upgrades are still in three-choices form. You can use split second timing to dodge an attack you'd otherwise be hit by, so there's leeway to the turn based action. If you're looking for the wealth of interactions offered by something like nethack, you'd better look elsewhere. But if you want a breezier and more action forward version of the rogue experience, this is will scratch your itch.

It's not "pure." There's a bit of meta-progression so far with unlocking new starting weapons. Your upgrades are still in three-choices form. You can use split second timing to dodge an attack you'd otherwise be hit by, so there's leeway to the turn based action. If you're looking for the wealth of interactions offered by something like nethack, you'd better look elsewhere. But if you want a breezier and more action forward version of the rogue experience, this is will scratch your itch.

There's a bit of Binding of Isaac style upgrade synergy. They tend to come in the form of either passives or "after x amount of steps, do y." The "Y" tends to be either summoning minions/items/hazards or doing attacks, like shooting lightning around yourself. Had a good build in my run where I would periodically summon multiple slimes. I also had a sacrificial doll charm, so whenever I took damage I could sacrifice a minion to reduce damage to 1. I massively improved my durability.

These sorts of synergies are kind of needed. Unless you're paying close attention to the turn order or are really good at the dodge, damage will add up fast, and chances to heal are slim. There's an easy mode but I didn't bother testing it.

One aspect that I personally like, but others might not jive with, is that your build can be a hinderance as well as an aid. Your summons still take up space on the board and can limit your mobility. I saw options for a bomb summoning build during another run, and bombs do not discriminate when it comes to damage. You can't just snowball your way through the difficulty curve. Even when you're filling the screen with stuff, you need to keep thinking.

Can see this popping off in the future. It'll be crack for a certain type of player.

Crabmeat

Point and Click Deadliest Catch.

It is the year 2035, and the Feudostate of Australia is strict with its debtors. Those who overdraw from their accounts and do not overdraw within 48 hours will be assigned to the Penal Fishery. They have 7 days meet their quota of king crab, or else the poison capsule embedded in their bloodstream will explode, and the debt will be passed along to their next of kin. But the life of crab fisher might take them out before the capsule does.

First thing that's immediately apparent is that this game is controlled entirely with the mouse. In other words, it's click to move, click to access the inventory, click to use the machinery, and click to drive the boat. This is a very deliberate decision.

Each shift is on a real timer. It's 7 hours long. I'm not sure if it's the timer for your individual shift, or the game-long timer representing your full week. Either way, it's existence alone creates tension, which slams against the intentionally slower controls.

The act of running the ship is one where every step is its own multi-step process. Scoop the bait in the bucket. Place in the trap. Close the trap. Walk up to the magnetic crane. Pick up the trap. Wwing the crane. Drop the trap. Move to the next spot. etc and so forth. When you retrieve the trap, you need to sort the catch, storing the king crab while throwing back the smaller crabs and fish, all while their spidery limbs flail in a legitimately unnerving way. On top of all that, you need to repair the ship whenever the machinery takes damage.

This is already a recipe for a stress simulator. Then the game throws a real bodily threat at you. You have to run toward the emergency gun, load it manually, and defend yourself, all while using the mouse-only controls, and all while the timer is still ticking.

I'm not sure I'll be able to handle the full release, but I seriously respect the design.

Deep Snow Delivery

Tank Stranding.

Some thing never change, even in nuclear winter. One of these is that there's always a need for deliverymen, especially now. Using your dilapidated delivery tank, You pass along the canned food, fuel, and supplies needed to keep each sanctuary lasting just one more day.

This is another game about the intricacies of routine. Like Death Stranding, this is a delivery game you need to keep very close attention to distances and your incline/terrain, lest your cargo slip out. Your tank has a mechanical arm that can load and unload items one by one, and you can manually rotate items to try and pack things as stable as possible.

The tone is similar to something like Girl's Last Tour. It recognizes the severity of the apocalypse, but still wants to highlight the moments of humanity, how people still form communities and care for each other.

I like the ingredients in here but… it's all a bit slow. I mean this on a literal sense. They kind of lean too hard on "your tank is a piece of shit." You can upgrade it, but it always felt like it was improvement by degrees.

This also reflects on the story. Throughout most of the demo, it's just enjoying the atmosphere and trudging between spots. And it's good atmosphere, but it felt aimless. The demo eventually gives you a larger plot hook, but I quit before reaching it. Had to look it up on Youtube.

Other complaint is that the game needs to signal which repairs and upgrades are important. There's a certain point where I need to use an explosive to blow through an ice blockade. The game did not tell me this until I blew my upgrade money elsewhere. I had to take the long way. This kind of contributed to my early quit.

I can see this going interesting places, but it needs some better balancing on how you get there.

Dosa Divas

Indian Cooking JRPG.

Sisters Samara, Amani, and Lina used to run a family restaurant together alongside with their Divine Automaton (or DivA), Goddess. But after a tragedy, the restaurant is shut down and Amani left to explore the world. 10 Years later she returns, only to find that Lina is now the head of the instant food corporation, and has become wealthy and powerful through her tube based LinaMeals. Now that she's gotten the world reliant on her convenience food, she is moving her army of lawyers and robots to outlaw all cooking. It's up to Amani and Samara to bring home cooking back to the nation of Meyndish, stop LinaMeals, and bring the family back together.

This is from the devs of Thirsty Suitors, a game that I haven't played but heard good things about. From what I have seen of it in videos, it's a team that 1) is very much about their specific Indian cultural heritage and 2) does not deal in subtlety or restraint. Both these aspects are very much upfront in Dosa Divas. The former aspect is working great for this game. The art direction, music, and vibes are all top notch. The latter aspect… in this specific case. I'm struggling a bit.

I know this isn't a story that's inviting you to think about the logistics or believability. But when a core part of the plot is "everyone has forgotten how to cook and also they are making cooking illegal" it leads to scenes that feel… "Everyone but our protagonists are idiots." Like when Lina blocks shipments of her LinaMeals to the village in the demo. Villagers panic, wondering how they'll get their food, and our Samara pipes up: "...This is a fishing village." It makes it hard to take the emotional stakes at face value.

There is a some hints that there will be something more emotionally substantial later, diving into whatever tragedy that caused the sisters to split, but right now everyone is tiptoeing around it.

As for the cooking aspect, it's pretty simple. Collect ingredients from the surrounding environment and do a series of cooking-mama-esque minigames to make dosas, which function as both healing items and key items to give NPCs during quests.

While I like the range of recipes and effects… the cooking minigame itself is boring. And you'll have to do it a lot. I saw that there were accessibility options that effect how the minigames work. If I play the full version I might just automate it.

The combat is turned based with Paper Mario style timed hits and perfect dodges. And immediately the first problem is… the combat lacks sauce. The timed hits don't have enough oomph, and enemy attacks tended to have weak feeling animations.

The attacks themselves, if not blocked or partial blocked, hit like a truck. But the game autorefills your health after every battle. Which is convenient, but also feels like a mistake. If you're exploring and engaging with the cooking, you'll be drowning in healing items, but most of the fights you can just bulldoze through and wait for the post-fight heal.

There is an exception, though: the boss fights. There the quirks of the combat start to make sense. You'll need a lot of healing items because they still hit like a truck, but you'll need to stay alive for a good number of turns. The attack feedback being iffy doesn't feel as heavy because you get multiple chances to try and learn the pattern. I was enjoying myself at the end more than any other point in the demo.

Last complaint is… there aren't enough NPCs to directly talk to. And talking to everyone in town is a JRPG must. But maybe future areas will handle that better.