By Martin C.
What a weekend! I was just at STGCC to check out the Singaporeans with their toys, games and
comics at a convention. But because I’m me, the things that held the majority of my attention there were not the toys, not the comics but the games! Hoo boy, there were quite a few games there but I would like to highlight: Stratos Fantasea
Stratos Fantasea is a PS4 VR game where you zipline between various floating rocks in the sky and take aim with a bow and arrow to take down enemies. Playing games in VR is quite a novel
experience and a good amount of fun. This game makes me feel like a Legolas Spiderman as I zipline between floating rocks, rapid firing my bow the entire time. The developer and I had a nice long chat on the topic of the VR platform and the notorious “VR Sickness”. He seems to know what he was talking about and I can attest to the fact that not once when I was playing did I feel a hint of nausea. That said, the game right now is extremely short as the developer said that this was only 10% of the work done and there would be a lot more in the game. Graphically and aurally I felt the game needed a lot more polish but as they said this game was pre-alpha, I understand that this build was more of a proof of concept and that what we should look at is the potential and not the current iteration. That being said, as it was the least complete of the games at the convention that I noticed, I put it at 3 rd sport on my list solely for its potential. Buglords
Buglords is a 4-player competitive action game. It all takes place on a square with 3 different types of large tiles on them. Standing on the gives you different shot types. 1 gives you projectiles, the other gives you a beam attack. The last type prevents you from shooting. Killing enemies on the tile grants you points. There is multiple types of bugs with multiple types of abilities. The bug I was using had the ability to jump over walls. It came in handy when monster time had activated. Monster time was a powerup that you can grab. It enlarges your bug and your powers change to an instant kill tongue grab.
The main downside I personally feel is the lack of online multiplayer. This game will only really ever come out when you have friends over and you guys have nothing much better to do. But in spite of that, it feels really good to play and the 1 game we had with it has hilarious fun and the fact that I almost won helped. Neo Impossible Bosses
Neo Impossible Bosses reminded of Furi where the player is tasked to take out nothing but bosses. The game is shown from a top down isometric view. The game is controlled very much in the same vein as League of Legends or Defence of the Ancients 2. There are 6 character classes in the game with up to 12 players possible. Each class has unique skills and synergies with other classes. If you are playing solo, no problem. You can play solo with up to 6 characters. A special tactical pause is implemented for planning moves for multiple characters. There seems to be a great emphasis on difficulty as the developer showing me the game had a lot of difficulty fighting the tutorial boss and he was actually left with only 1 character to finally finish off the boss.
The game is really impressive in the fact that the game was developed over the course of 3 years by just one guy and the occasional contract work that he got for the game. The gameplay also looks really smooth and I can imagine playing with 12 players will look really epic and the teamwork required to take out the many bosses in the game will make or break groups of friends. The developer said the game will probably release next year and I cant wait to try it with my group! In Conclusion...
The fact that there are all these games that are so conceptually interesting and technically competent is really heartening for the games industry, specifically the Singaporean gaming industry.
I have not mentioned this yet but in actuality, these games are all developed by Singaporean developers. If this is the standard and quality that Singaporeans can achieve, then the future of Singaporean game development looks bright and I cannot wait to see what else they have to offer! |