![]() Hunting monsters of the deep.Earth Atlantis sticks closely to its shooter roots, as opposed to fully embracing the Monster Hunter influence. In it, you explore a sprawling underwater world where your only real targets are number of gigantic bosses, listed out on the hud and indicated by blips on the overworld map. Play Earth Atlantis Developer: Pixel Perfex | Platforms: PC, PS4, Switch, Xbox One | More info Imagine taking the shooter gameplay of a classic series like R-Type and adding in a Monster Hunter twist – that’s Earth Atlantis. Paper Garden seems like exactly the sort of accessible and immersive experience the various VR platform holders would welcome, so here’s hoping we see this on a digital storefront sometime soon. ![]() The world itself also responds to your actions in more subtle ways – miss a target and hit the ground or a wall and a bush will sprout at that point. I love this idea conceptually, and the natural beauty of the garden itself is neatly juxtaposed with the mechanical – yet also somewhat mystical – targets themselves, which build towards a final towering golden monolith to complete the demo. ![]() Colour sweeps across the garden, activating other targets and making trees and shrubs spring up. By hitting the eye-like golden targets you’re bringing life back to a grey world that’s been “overrun by an ancient blight”. It takes a few moments to get a feel for, but quickly becomes intuitive, allowing you to shoot for distant targets, curve toward a target behind a tree, or deliberately toss a plane high into the air before diving down onto a target.Ī simple, but enchanting environment.Paper Garden is more than just a simple target gallery, however. You simply pluck one of the planes flying around you out of the air, then toss it, using the relevant Oculus Touch controller to help guide its flight a little – diving, climbing or curving around to one side. A VR prototype, it was created by the tiny Vitei Backroom team in five weeks and elegantly captures the simple joy of throwing paper aeroplanes. Play Paper Garden Developer: Vitei Backroom | Platforms: PC | More info Paper Garden was one of the most soothing experiences at this year’s show. There’s a solid foundation here – and the game is already feeling super polished – so after my initial introduction at BitSummit, I’m keen to play some more… which I can do because CrossCode is in early access. As the name suggests, they can also be bounced off walls to hit switches and the like, so balls very much factor into puzzle solving. Combat is built around melee attacks, dodges and “Balls” – projectiles you can aim and throw, and that can be given elemental properties. She’s the classic video game amnesiac protagonist and is (literally) mute, but I’m totally sold on that being used to drive the mystery behind her story and that of CrossWorlds itself.Ĭharacters are front and centre, but backed by robust RPG systems.The broader game design is very much an action RPG, so you can expect quests, equipment, character progression, etc., all anchored by a characterful 16-bit presentation. The staff Lea meets on the ship are flesh and blood humans – support staff for the game – and Lea herself seems to have an involved history with CrossWorlds, but is unable to remember. Everyone in The Playground is an avatar, in that they’re all being controlled from another location, but the city itself is a real city on a real planet. As Lea, you wake up on a massive cargo ship that’s docked some distance from a futuristic city called The Playground, which plays host to an MMO called CrossWorlds. Here we go! CrossCode Developer: Radical Fish Games | Platforms: Linux, Mac, PC | More info CrossCode has a pretty intriguing story set-up. Even over the course of two full days I simply wasn’t able to check out everything, so apologies to any devs working on awesome projects that I missed. (Last year I focused on titles being developed in Japan.) Also please bear in mind that this is by no means a definitive list of great games at BitSummit. This year I’ve decided to give you all an overview of the games that I enjoyed playing most, regardless of where they’re being developed. It’s a very international event too, so in addition to the Japan-based indies, there are plenty of devs who’ve travelled from far and wide to show off their games. This two day event is not necessarily that dissimilar to the indie spaces at PAX, or other consumer shows, but it’s nonetheless an awesome window into what’s happening in the indie scene within Japan, and BitSummit itself still feels very much like a grass roots celebration of gaming: a space being shared by everyone, with tiny start-up studios rubbing shoulders with well-known, high profile industry figures.
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