Games, like chocolate glazed donuts, don't just appear in the world fully formed and ready to be devoured. They have to be crafted one ingredient at a time, working their way from concept to prototype to playable alpha and eventually full release. This week's games are all early versions of games that are still baking in the oven. Not that you actually bake donuts or games, but you get the picture.
Into the Underdusk (Windows, free) - Action platforming is at its best when blended with open-ended exploration. Into the Underdusk takes the Knytt style of gameplay and sends you on a quest to explore a stagnant land whose people have mysteriously vanished. Only one person remains, and he'll have to deal with all sorts of traps, creatures and jumping puzzles in order to find his lost amulet. A quiet and thoughtful game with plenty of room to grow.
Sewer King (Windows, free) - An early alpha release, the Sewer King experience is similar to Spelunky in that you search randomly generated worlds in search of treasure. Grab stones and simple items to toss at enemies, build ladders to move around the map, and spend coins you've gathered for better equipment. It's a pretty basic game so far, but it's still in development and shows some promise. Besides, who doesn't want to explore a sewer for treasure?
Fantasy Dungeon (Windows, free) - Taking second place in the Trials of Oryx roguelike competition, Fantasy Dungeon works stretches of dungeon crawling into RPG-style turn-based battles, creating a very tense atmosphere. Pick your party, explore the environment, then engage in fights where you'll cast spells, steal magic, defend against attacks and just generally try to hold your ground against some very difficult foes.
I gave Into the Underdusk a run through to 17/18 orbs. There I met a mask chasing me around which made me want to quit for a while. Returning I find that the save returns you to the start point not where you actually saved, so bleh - I am not going to go through all the hoops to get back to where I was.
Good game so far though, and will give it another whirl when it is ready to come out of the oven :)
just an aside... regarding the 'league of angels' add at the top right of the home page... really?
The Trials of Oryx challenge page has some fun little games on it--I may have missed them, but hope you are going to review a few of those. I've been playing Loot Clicker and having a blast. Of course, not having a PC, I'm only able to play the web games and the one Mac game (which, btw, supports all platforms, so would be a nice addition on another Weekend Download, since we so rarely get a Mac game and even less often get Linux).
They seriously need to get rid of that flying mask in Into the Underdusk. It's bad enough that it has no predictable pattern thus making it really difficult to avoid but it also laughs at you the whole time you want to rage quit. The rest of the game is superb but that mask makes me want to hurt things.
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