8 best games Indie Cup S’20. Whatverland, Pathogenesis and other projects of domestic developers

Not so long ago the organizers of the cup Indie Cup , the largest competition of independent games in Eastern Europe, they called the best projects of the next season. This time 123 games claimed for prizes and bonuses, and they were divided into ten nominations.

We got to know the winning projects of this season more closely-and now we will talk more about the most unusual and promising from them.

Whatverland

Quest Whatverland – The work of the Russian studio Caligari Games , authors of a nostalgic adventure The Great Perhaps. Their new game won the prestigious nomination Best PC Game , In addition, becoming the "choice of streamers". But her triumph began even earlier: Whatverland successfully passed Kickstarter , Having collected a little more required 19 thousand dollars.

First of all, whatverland attracts unusual style: the game is drawn manually, and its world partly resembles Tim Burton's fantasies. The action takes place in a certain fantastic dimension, which was created by the malicious witch Beatrice to dump all unnecessary things here – including her people who had not liked.

The main character, thief Vincent, is just one of them: he recklessly came to the arm of the villain, and now he needs to find a way to get out of imprisonment. To do this, you will have to collect shreds of the Beatrice Call, stored from different inhabitants of the measurement in order to meet with the witch again and persuade her to let him go. And to help the protagonist in this will be another poor fellow, Nick: he slowly turns into a ghost, so in his interests to hurry.

The peculiarity of the Witch's prison is that all its inhabitants are gradually changing, including externally, depending on how they behave. And our hero has two ways: to be good and help people – or do not give a damn about morality and use all their thieves' tricks. Depending on the choice, not only the attitude of others should change, but the course of events itself. However, in an accessible prolon, these consequences are purely cosmetic, so the developers will have to believe.

Nevertheless, even in this short episode there are quite bright characters, unusual turns of events and humor, so that lovers of adventure ironic quests will notice this name for the future: Whatverland.

Pathogenesis: Overcome

St. Petersburg Studio 269th Lab Games Softworks Playing on the classic field: Pathogenesis: Overcome – game of tactical survival and confrontation of the hordes of zombies in the Leningrad region. Although the word “zombie” does not sound formally here, creatures from Pathogenesis are very much like them: after a certain pandemic of 2023, most people turned into quick and deadly creatures, ready to bite the galloping operative in a matter of seconds.

Developers focus on realism and hardcore. There are always few cartridges, but there is always a shelter or at least a fold of the area, and the hero has a whole arsenal of weapons and a huge number of settings of its settings. However, the bullet in the head works like a bullet in the head, regardless of the number of body kit and the beauty of the butt. And you can act in the open world as you like: to fight with the goals of the forehead in the forehead, go around them secretly, help the locals in side effects or not to deviate from the main task.

A typical morning in a country village: the plots are well -groomed, and behind the fences – no matter what a garbage, then a zombie!

At the training ground, we are allowed to enjoy the favorite game “Dress the Doll” and experience all options for equipment and weapons in the case

In the demo versation presented to the competition, you can enjoy the overcoming of a variety of sights, butt, shops and coloring of really existing pistol models and machine guns. At a special training ground, all this allow you to experience in the case, having studied an unusual aiming system: we shoot not on the goal, but in the direction of the goal, while the ballistics is taken into account. And then you can go to the village of Raskolovo in the Leningrad region and try to cope with the difficult task of assaulting a well -protected object.

The village of Raspolovo and its environs is very reminiscent of "Soviet" mods for GTA : the authors gently collected typical ideas about the Russian province. But at the same time, domestic realities look extremely recognizable: if there is a barbecue near the house, then the logs will be found nearby, a transformer booth sticks out between the houses, and the necessary pallets and barrels are dumped on the backyard. Dialogs are also pleasing: characters communicate like living people, and not like blannchi pronouncing prepared texts.

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The gameplay itself is still like a fierce battle of developers with Unreal Engine – although the game is called the best on this engine. The authors of Pathogenesis: Overcome headed for complex tactical tasks, but they become even more complicated due to unobvious and bulky control, and exacerbate all bugs and freezes. But to the release for at least a year.

Voidtrain

Voidtrain Moscow studio Nearga I received a prize for the best sound, although the game has other advantages. After all, for her they came up with a marvelous new world – even if not the most original, but memorable. We find ourselves in the Interminee – a space without gravity, in which the fragments of civilization and entire islands hang, strange creatures live, and the rails are laid in the midst of all this.

According to Voidtrain locations, as it is easy to guess from the name, we move by train. At first, we have only a modest trolley, on which there is barely enough space for a starting set of machines. Gradually, collecting materials and resources in the surrounding void, we will be able to expand and improve our transport. In general, this whole process resembles a popular survival RAFT – But with the difference that you can deviate from the laid route only “on foot”, jumping from the platform. At the same time, the safety cable is automatically attached to us, which does not allow you to fly too far.

If you get stuck, you can see how our corpse eats a flying shark

As in RAFT, it is much more interesting and convenient to explore the expanses of the intermary with friends. At a minimum, you do not need to return to the brake lever every time to choose a fragment of scrap metal hanging in a meter outside the insurance limit. Yes, and for battles, the extra hands will not hurt at all: the most friendly creatures do not live in the open space, but in the depot and on the islands we will be met all the all -equip.

Ami

At first glance Ami walks in the footsteps of the famous Inside : This is a two -dimensional site with a muffled color and the only bright spot – the hair of the heroine. At the same time, the project forces me to recall the melancholy FAR: LONE SAILS with her panoramas of an abandoned and dilapidated world. There are not a line of dialogues here either: the authors do not tell their story, but show.

Amy is going on a bicycle to an unknown goal yet: somewhere there is a hope for salvation of the world. But this path is not at all simple – she will have to compete for survival, and break her head over the riddles. In the test version, this puzzle is only one: Amy enters the underground bunker with a spacesuit and rocket and should find a way to get out of it. And before that, the girl had to escape from the van with armed pursuers. What we saw so far causes an intriguing feeling: “What the hell is happening here?".

The game received a reward for the best art. Deservedly.

Knock on the Coffin Lid

Knock on the Coffin Lid – Dressing a mixture of a crogue and step -by -step card strategy. The game has already been posted in early access, and even in raw form it receives a lot of excellent reviews from lovers of complex tests and abundance of development options.

The name Knock on the Coffin Lid is not chosen for the sake of pathos: it is the knock on the lid of the coffin that lifts our dead hero to his feet and sends him on the road through the entire map. Available cards are large -scale, you can pave the path on them in many ways, and each time all enemies and events are changing. The game is often compared with Slay The Spire , And not in vain.

Knock on the Coffin Lid received a “choice of critics”, but it also claimed a bonus for the best art design-and Coral Casino sister sites it is not reasonable

During the passage, fights with ordinary opponents are waiting for us, complex battles with bosses and demigosses, and also random events in which we have to make a choice and instantly face its consequences. Victories and good luck bring not only new cards to the deck, but also equipment, including with unusual maximum properties. The game is complex and requires attention, calculation, patience and many deaths, each of which makes the hero even stronger and opens up new opportunities.

Offside Legends

Offside Legends – Football simulator for those who are not particularly versed in football. Here, the players are waiting for short-lived and vivid contractions between special heroes: Sherlock Holmes, Hamlet, King Arthur, Dracula, Shaltai-Boltai, Jen Air, invisible man, Ophelia and other literary characters can come to available fields.

Each of the "athletes" has only three main characteristics: attack, defense and speed. But the majority also have additional skills: for example, stun rivals or tie them with temporary bonds, instantly take the ball from another player or hit him with fantastic force. In this Offside Legends resembles a series of Captain Tsubas, and in general, the game is like Mario Strikers or Mega Man Soccer.

The game was recognized as the best for lovers of online matches, and it provides for battles both on the local network and via the Internet.

The Uncertain: Light at the End

The Uncertain: Light at the End I have not received any of the awards, but it still seems interesting – and not only for those who liked it The Uncertain: Last Quiet Day. After all, in addition to the world of the winning robotics, the original and the sequel tie a little. In continuation, we find out that individuals who try to survive under the tireless supervision of robots and gather in groups are preserved in the backyards of the era to help each other.

Compared to the original Light at the end looks much more ambitious. There are practically no "garbage" quests left in it, aimed exclusively to stretching time. Heroes actively communicate, study the world, argue, go through stealth-levels, ask them questions and even participate in QTE. And most importantly – their emotions and motivation is much more understandable to us than the emotional life of robots.

On the other hand, Light at the End can be reproached for the loss of originality. Instead of the melancholy philosophical history of a lone robot, which is interested in the disappeared human civilization, we are waiting for a rather typical action movie about survival in a hostile post -apocalyptic world. Yes, and the fragments of the past in the form of individual objects and photographs are not particularly impressive and are not filled with regret for loss – unlike "still lifes" in Fallout 4 or letters in Horizon Zero Dawn.

In atmosphere, you cannot refuse individual scenes from the game

Quite pulls on the meme: Pak leaves, the gameplay comes

However, it is finally judged by the final version: The UNCERTAIN: Light at the End is planned for October 8. We hope that by that time the creators will cope with facial expressions and voice acting: in the Russian version, one person speaks for all men, and this is easy to understand, because he … burnt.

"The detachment of His Majesty"

Cornet Obolensky, saddle a horse. No, seriously: the young Imperial Intelligence Officer Alexander Obolensky and his associates are sent to an important task to the hinterland – to the Blagoyar province. Here, rumors about the rebellious dead, people with dog heads, the phenomena of the devil and other heresies come up here and then. But the most important thing: someone is trying to associate these cases with the fact that the ruler of the Slavomir Empire allegedly lost the mercy of God. But this must be stopped immediately, because the case smells of a coup.

The game is not impressive with graphics, but the developers are sure that in the end it will look like in the screenshot on the right

Role plot adventure " A detachment of His Majesty"(The Emperor’s Own) Studio Volga claimed four awards, but not received a single one. However, the game probably has everything ahead, because so far it is at an early stage of development, and the demo version holds on an honest word. But now what its creators showed, makes you carefully look at the project.

If the studio does not apply to openly give " Witcher »The answer in pure Russian, the source of inspiration is visible quite clearly. The game takes place in an alternative Russian Empire at the dawn of the 19th century, and the heroes are waiting for difficult adult adventures with the ability to influence the plot. They promise to us that there will be no black and white in the game, like unambiguously evil or perfectly positive characters. And only the player decide what to do.

So, according to the developers, merchant daughters two centuries ago looked and dressed

Here is one of the puzzles from the shown fragment. The local elder and his wife complain about the witch living on the hill: she not only regained her youth, she also bewitched all the men in the district – some of them were already crazy and is now ready to kill “for the lady”. And the beauty living on the hill tells a completely different story: she is just the granddaughter of the deceased herbalist, and since her father ruined, she has nowhere else to live. Yes, and with the “guards” everything was wrong: at first they wanted to rape it, but changed their minds, and then ran to pray for forgiveness, because they were attacked by some monsters. Both versions smack of the devilry, but which of them is closer to the truth?

On Indie Cup, Russian studios showed a number of promising projects for both RS and mobile devices. For example, a beautiful fantastic adventure Sayri: The Beginning , in which we are looking for a new house to an unusual creation. Action There is no Light , The main loser of the Cup: he hit six nominations, but did not receive a single reward. Mystical survival Beyond the Thaw , reminiscent The Long Dark. Retro -futuristic puzzle Mechanic 8230 with strange forms of life. Spatial puzzle Optic , in which we use the dispersion and refraction of light in full swing. An unusual approach to the genre "Search of objects" was found by the creators Anomaly Hunter , Where you need to look for travelers in time through anomalies left by them ..

Now we are not telling about them in detail, but only because we are sure: we will definitely hear about these games in the future.

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