Valve have greenlit another 75 games for release via Steam. If you’re a writer covering game news, this poses a problem. Do you only mention the games readers might already heard of? This current batch includes the Kickstartering Chaos Reborn, the (also Kickstartering) Duelyst from former Diablo 2 and Rogue Legacy devs, the fiddly platforming roguelike Catacomb Kids, plus Hero Trap, Lemma, and a few others we’ve already covered on these pages.
Do you attempt to mention the other 65 games which people probably don’t already know? This latest batch includes a great many games in which static drawings of anime characters hover near menus, for example.
Or do you attempt to fit the game names into the lyrics of an Animaniacs song?
To the tune of Nations Of The World:
Three Dead Zed, Luria, Sentinel, Armada
Date Warp, Kyn, Final Slam 2
Half-Life Awakening, Deadskins and Paragon
Motte Island, LEVEL 22
Abort! Abort! This is taking too long and is too hard and I have other stories to write. There’s just no perfect way to summarise seventy-five games appearing on your Steam-powered radar. So just go look at the list.
07/04/2014 at 12:07 RedViv says:
Catacomb Kids! Yeah!
This also reminds me that I never finished Planet Stronghold. Need to put that higher on the backlog.
07/04/2014 at 12:35 Noburu says:
Sadly i only backed CK at the base level and dont get to play the alpha release :(
07/04/2014 at 12:30 Hanban says:
As incomplete as Catacomb Kids is at the moment, it is still loads of fun! Yay!
07/04/2014 at 12:42 Caiman says:
Glad to see some deserving games get Greenlit (although why the creator of X-Com has to go through that ridiculous process is beyond me). However, the ratio of quality to crap seems to be getting worse, and coupled with the recent pile of shitty B-grade re-releases from the mid 2000’s, getting on Steam doesn’t seem quite as meaningful anymore.
07/04/2014 at 13:17 Philomelle says:
It’s nice to see more Winter Wolves games on the list. They make very good visual novels and deserve a store space somewhere more visible than their usually forgotten website.
Wander also looks very interesting.
On another note, I’m amused by how these lists always include a game or two that failed their Kickstarter and thus had their development halted or studio closed. This list’s award goes to Boogerman: 20th Anniversary, which bombed to hell on Kickstarter and subsequently went into complete silence.
07/04/2014 at 13:24 Deano2099 says:
Yeah it’s a bit ridiculous – Chaos Reborn might not even be funded, yet it’s on Greenlight already.
But good to see the Winter Wolves and Hanako stuff on there – possibly hope for MangaGamer getting Steins;Gate on there after all…
07/04/2014 at 13:35 Philomelle says:
Chaos Reborn had the misfortune of being Kickstarted at the same time as DUELYST, which is trying to do pretty much the same thing but with more features and for less money. The only differences between their core gameplay are that DUELYST lacks the Illusion mechanic and freely customizable spell decks, instead choosing faction-based balance.
It also has this thing where its idea of evolving the “franchise” is by removing most of the ideas introduced by sequels (Lords of Chaos, Magic & Mayhem) and re-roll it all the way back to the original 1985 game, but with 3D graphics. While it says much about Chaos that its rules of engagement still hold up as amazing after 30 years, it’s still an ancient game and people are right to want more than what it offers.
07/04/2014 at 14:09 Excelle says:
I’m not convinced Chaos Reborn doesn’t ‘evolve the franchise’. While I wasn’t a great fan of Lords of Chaos, which changed things wholesale away from the arena based combat of the original – this new version has both the arena based combat plus a substantial single player campaign with tactical combat and character progression. Is that not advancement?
I will check out Duelyst though, the more Chaos-like games the better in my opinion.
07/04/2014 at 14:09 Baines says:
Armada Online failed two Kickstarter campaigns, both technically cancelled. It has been in development for around eight years. While it might have changed recently, trying it a few years ago showed a skeleton of a game that looked fairly dead in development terms.
Even looking at the Greenlight page shows a comment thread complaining about the lack of updates and the feeling that the developers had abandoned the game.
07/04/2014 at 13:49 LegendaryTeeth says:
Three Dead Zed, Luria, Sentinel, Armada
Date Warp, Kyn, Final Slam 2
Half-Life Awakening, Date Warp and Paragon
Motte Island, LEVEL 22
Three lines and already a repitition :p
07/04/2014 at 13:51 Danda says:
Hey, the call center guy’s game is in there. Maybe now he’ll make some money.
07/04/2014 at 17:54 davidsgallant says:
You mean I Get This Call Every Day? Can’t believe that crap is coming to Steam.
07/04/2014 at 19:51 kalirion says:
Ex call center guy’s game you mean.
07/04/2014 at 14:07 Excelle says:
Still no Spud’s Quest. *goes back to sleep*
07/04/2014 at 18:40 Lemming says:
Was thinking the exact same thing. Spud’s Quest is a complete game that made its Kickstarter. Seriously it should’ve been Greenlit months ago.
07/04/2014 at 15:47 smuppet says:
Where the hell’s Deadly Rooms of Death!?
07/04/2014 at 19:46 kalirion says:
Wimp: Who Stole My Pants? was a surprisingly polished and enjoyable puzzle platformer. Three Dead Zed is pretty decent as well.