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[delphonso]

I'll give Wargroove a home.

!save Wargroove delphonso

[Frumple]

New to bullet-hells? Don't worry. Most of the infamy of that genre comes from pros uploading videos of themselves beating the game on max difficulty. Bullet-hells are designed for the average player with a reasonable difficulty curve, like any other game.

Idle thing re: shmups/bullet hells, but one thing that can open them up for a wider audience than they might normally see, is just plain old slowdown. Cheat Engine has it as a built-in option (speedhack) these days, and there's dedicated programs such as Battle Encoder Shirase out there for similar functionality. It can take a frantic game that just kicks you sideways without any real chance to resist (a quick look at a normal difficulty playthrough of Zero Ranger indicates it would absolutely kick my ass sideways, heh -- I'd have trouble getting past the first boss, nevermind the second or anything beyond it) into something tolerably difficult, just by cutting the game's speed to three quarters or a half or whatever.

It's a blessing for folks that might be interested in a lot of what's going on in that type of game, but just can't react fast enough to keep up with the default design.

... also cheers EA, gonna' try me some pinball mailbug metroidvania now

[Radsoc]

My drawings for the 30th are as follows:

Hearts of Iron 4 goes to hector13
Cities Skylines + After Dark DLC goes to ZebioLizard2

Keys sent through PM

[heydude6]

(a quick look at a normal difficulty playthrough of Zero Ranger indicates it would absolutely kick my ass sideways, heh -- I'd have trouble getting past the first boss, nevermind the second or anything beyond it) into something tolerably difficult, just by cutting the game's speed to three quarters or a half or whatever.

Hmm. There’s a lot to say about your comment, but I agree with your main point about a slowdown option being beneficial to some players.

It seems that I made a mistake to blame the perception of difficulty entirely on pros though. The sheer spectacle of seeing so many bullets on the screen can be overwhelming to a player who doesn’t understand it.

You may not believe me, but avoiding the attacks of something like the first boss is actually easier than it looks. A comprehensive description of why would end up being too long, but I think you’d be surprised if you tried the demo.

[Frumple]

I mean, I've beaten Starward Rogue at the highest difficulty... with the redshift, which by default dies in one to two hits, but gives you all the time in the world to figure out what you need to do. It's not really a matter of understanding, so much as processing what you understand fast enough to react at the pace the game is asking for with the precision it's asking for.

Some folks by and large just can't do it beyond a point that's often enough well below what the kinds of games in question consider normal or easy. Slowing it down can make it so that sort of fellow can go from getting stomped on the lowest difficulties (basically stonewalled out of the genre) to successfully navigating the patterns thrown at them on the hardest.

I've tried a number (not hundreds, but probably more than thirty or forty, heh) of bullet hells or otherwise high-ish difficulty shmups over the years, most of it before I figured out how to slow them down manually. I'm well aware of what would and wouldn't surprise me at this point

But yeah, having a slowdown option in game is great. Not enough of the things do that, and there's precious few of those that do that give you enough granularity to really adjust it to fit everyone. Ideally they'd all have an option that bottoms out at Redshift/simultaneous movement and sliders its way up to TAS-only, but until then third party programs open the way

[a1s]

!win Vampire Survivors delphonso

!win Vampire Survivors Rockeater
!win SOMA Detros

!orphan Fran Bow
!orphan Hotline Miami

All right, let's round this off. For the record, after I send the keys here, I'll be AFK until the 1st, so any orphans being picked up will not be dealt with until then (but WILL be sorted when I get back online).

!win The Keep Tiruin's Mystery Friend

!win The Long Dark DeKaFu

!win Tooth and Tail ventuswings

!win Vagante Frumple
!win Yoku's Island Express Frumple

!orphan Telefrag VR
!orphan The Amazing American Circus
!orphan The Walking Dead: A New Frontier
!orphan This War of Mine
!orphan Titan Quest Anniversary
!orphan Toejam & Earl: Back in the Groove
!orphan Treasure Hunter Simulator
!orphan Two Worlds Epic Edition
!orphan V-Rally 4
!orphan Wandersong
!orphan Wargroove
!orphan White Night
!orphan West of Dead
!orphan Wizard of Legend
!orphan World War II: Panzer Claws
!orphan X-Morph: Defense + European Assault, Survival of the Fittest, and Last Bastion DLC

[keys sent]

My drawings for the 30th are as follows:

Hearts of Iron 4 goes to hector13
Cities Skylines + After Dark DLC goes to ZebioLizard2

Keys sent through PM

Noted

[a1s]

I'd like to enter the drawings for Stacklands and Iris and the Giant.

Anyway, I'm gonna sign up as a doner. For December 31st, I'm throwing Zero Ranger into the pot this time. Another game I'm gonna offer on the 31st is Noita.

Added.

I'll sign up for Zero Ranger on the 31st then. You sold it pretty well, and just as importantly the "Overwhelmingly positive" rating sold it as well.

Please read the rules. j/k added. But seriously, I need your Steam handle.

[Detros]

Also noted

I'd like to enter the drawings for Stacklands and Iris and the Giant.

---

Penultimate day is here, let's have a draw:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Stacklands
DeKaFu
AlStar
Tiruin's Mystery Friend

So DeKaFu goes to Stacklands, the rest goes to orphanage 

• !orphan ComPressure
• !orphan Infinite Turtles
• !win Stacklands DeKaFu
• !orphan Sunless Sea
• !orphan The Penguin IQ Test

[a1s]

It's no good for such interesting games to go to waste.

!adopt Infinite Turtles
!adopt ComPressure

[Detros]

It's no good for such interesting games to go to waste.

!adopt Infinite Turtles
!adopt ComPressure

Yay, now I can prepare ad-blurbs just for the other two.

• The Penguin IQ Test – Start with some simple mechanic and a trivial room. Solve it. What if there was another door, can you apply the same thing twice? Solve it. What if the parts of room get moved just so slightly, does your plan still work here? And what about combining these two mechanics you just learned? ... Lots of small rooms, slowly ramping in complexity and enough chances to try other rooms if just this one level shows to be a too hard nut to crack just now. True mechanics over graphics.
• Sunless Sea – On the other hand, if style and deep (as sea) story are your cup of tea, get onboard and set sail for visiting the picturesque (and macabre) places of this underground ocean. Just don't get (too) mad.

[delphonso]

!adopt Sunless Sea delphonso

You talked me into it!

[notquitethere]

That game is ace, very much recommend running out of fuel, going mad and eating your crew.

[heydude6]

To make it official, here's my Steam ID from last year:

Steam ID: https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198061414553/

God, I really hate how disconnected "Other games" is from general discussion, I almost missed this. Hope it's not too late to donate. I have officially read the rules.

Anyway, I'm gonna sign up as a doner. For December 31st, I'm throwing Zero Ranger into the pot this time. I was flabbergasted by its quality when I got it from last year's give away, so I thought I'd give someone else a chance to have that experience.


If you want a pitch, I would describe Zero Ranger as a side-scrolling shootem-up/bullet-hell for the modern era. If you so much as have a passing interest in those games where you play as a spaceship/animegirl dodging and shooting wave after wave of bullets and enemies (eg. Galaga, R-type, tohou, Ikaruga, parts of Nier Automata), then I consider Zero Ranger to be a must play.

New to bullet-hells? Don't worry. Most of the infamy of that genre comes from pros uploading videos of themselves beating the game on max difficulty. Bullet-hells are designed for the average player with a reasonable difficulty curve, like any other game.

Give Zero Ranger a chance and you'll be hooked from the moment you press START. The game will then keep you engaged not just by its solid understanding of pacing, flow and spectacle, but also by rewarding you at the end of a level with brand new weapons that meaningfully change your options in future fights. Other shmups have power ups, but these just add so much more depth to the game! Everything Zero Ranger does is done with such an intense level of polish that it sets a new standard for the genre.

If you'll only ever play one shoot-em-up in your life, you should play Zero Ranger! If you have some nostalgia for the shoot-em-up genre, you should play Zero Ranger! If you want to find out what the [SPOILERS] are, you should play Zero Ranger!


I hope that fanaticism doesn't scare people off, but honestly I'm more worried about the short notice.  Another game I'm gonna offer on the 31st is Noita.

I'm sure we all know about this witchy wizard-like, but I've started playing it again recently and been having a good time. I'll keep the pitch short though: What if you took that weird POWDER game you played as a child, and turned it into 2d-sidescrolling Nethack? There's Elbereths aplenty, and the magic system is even more complicated than the chemistry system.

Additionally, I want to save a couple of games from the orphange: Monaco, and Brother's: a tale of 2 sons.

Finally I want to sign up for Factorio, World of horror, and Orwell.

[DeKaFu]

• !win Stacklands DeKaFu

Yesss, I've been curious about this one for a while (due to gameplay comparisons with Cultist Simulator, funnily enough). Thanks!

[Vector]

This post made me very happy

Unfortunately I'm not in a position to participate at all this year, being in a state of shitty health. I'm excited to participate again next year.