A few GREAT new games to recommend: Prison Architect and Don't Starve

Ok, so I haven't made a thread in awhile since I have little to add to most conspiracies other than they interest me. But I do know something about some great video games since I've played them for over 20+ yrs and have worked in the industry for a short time.

Lately I have been focusing on art and other interests, but my job has me around some serious gamer junkies and 2 new titles have stuck out recently and have really taken some of my time away from normal life, AKA these are AMAZING games, well thought out and written and balanced to keep you curious and playing for a very long time.

First one is Prison Architect: This game is just too much fun and still even in alpha!! You simulate a prison and are able to manage pretty much every aspect of the prisoners daily schedule, the graphics are simple and cute, and underplayed for how graphic the situations get. These little inmates will try to steal knives and stab guards and other inmates the second you let them. The micromanaging factor is still buggy, but wow its still fun to play. Their current forums are very in depth and the alpha-user base is BIG and active in helping work out bugs and make this a tremendously fun game to play (they just added work details and visitation, and inmates have "family members" who visit if you build the right facility. If you sign up at a certain level they will even put your name in the game as an inmate If you like Sims, Sim City you will LOVE this game.



And my second recommendation is Don't Starve. WOW I am so hooked on this game right now. This is easily the BEST game I have played in 15 years and its still in beta and an indie!!! It is the coolest survival type concept game I have ever seen/played. You play a single character (you later unlock more characters with different abilities) in over the top view, and is a very clean and simple concept that has just the right quirks and twists. You have the simple task of making it through day and night cycles, and must feed, and not get attacked by animals or monsters, and must not go completely insane (but hey, its fun!).
The elements all mix well in this game too. You start out with nothing and quickly start gathering/picking/harvesting items from the surroundings, and they combine to make more useful structures/tools/food, but it never gets too crazy over board and elaborate with the items and resources. It is like the ultimate survival/solitaire game... so incredibly well balanced and addicting, and kid safe!!! No uber vulgar graphics, just very good art and simple quick, fluid gameplay. It's also in beta but so far I have seen no bugs or quirks that have deterred gameplay at all. If you like Dwarf Fortress or MineCraft this is a super mutant overlord over them both (well I've been told at least)



Hope some of you will try these and enjoy them as much as I have, they are truly unique and wonderful works of entertainment, and the Dont Starve artwork reminds me alot of Edward Gorey, very innocent goth with that victorian era flavor.

Happy gaming ATS!

Not really my style of games but I enjoyed looking them up...

Lately, I've been into Mmorpg and I'm really liking couple of the games that I discovered.

1) Path of Exile
2) City of Steam
3) Lord Of The Rings Online

Oh, Aliquandro.... You're a terrible, wonderful person. My little Minecraft obsession will have to take a backseat to Don't Starve now. My zombies and skeletons and villagers will miss me, I'm sure. The creepers will be beside themselves.

Thank you ever so much for the recommendation. I love indie games, but I adore good indie games even more.

I feel you, many types of games appeal to many types of people.

I've gone thru many phases of what genres appealed most to me. I love the first RPGs on the PC and from there sims and resource management games got my interest.

Some of the early Amiga games were just crazy unique ideas, like little computer people and populous, and there was this one intense game where you traveled between planets and there were space whales, I have been racking my brain for months trying to remember it's name. But some of my alltime favorites have been Black and White, Diablo, Dungeon Keeper, and Baldurs Gate, even tho Fallout and Borderlands also are pretty well made games as well.

The small amount of experience with video games I had was doing tiling textures and sprites and other art assets for one the the first xbox LOTR games. Our publisher was universal and man did that have a huge influence over the general bad playability and reviews a game can get. They put so many wrenches in the developers machine to screw you every which way but loose, its hard to come out of it not disliking publishers. They ONLY want a AAA title, which means it will be flashy and suck. I am lately just leaning towards cool simpler independent titles. All about some artists concepts and ideas and unique gameplay, not making money and getting online gaming subscriptions.

Thank you very much for the suggestions, Path of Exile especially looks cool, I mean really COOL. I like fighting games still, and really dug the concept of games like Prototype, and the crazy over the top powers and flying and car tossing etc, yeah!! bring it!! But there needs to be fresh ideas and that City of Steam looks a little like a suped up version of Populous, and that LOTR online looks like a great RPG on steroids, thanks for all the suggestions, those look like top shelf! I am lucky to have a great community that loves to share.

Off to drink a tasty IPA and play dont starve in survival mode, only torches and berries for about the first 5 nights until you open up the map and figure out where the resources got spawned, then there's the whole idea of winter about day 29 and freezing to death! And with cute stylized graphics, funny how i still panic when the 'cartoon' wolves attack or when it gets pitch black and I got no resources to make light. There's no safety of a save game really.

This is not my normal style of game, i think minecraft looks like butt

Originally posted by Halekoch
Oh, Aliquandro.... You're a terrible, wonderful person. My little Minecraft obsession will have to take a backseat to Don't Starve now. My zombies and skeletons and villagers will miss me, I'm sure. The creepers will be beside themselves.

Thank you ever so much for the recommendation. I love indie games, but I adore good indie games even more.

HAhahaha oh I am terribly sorry. Yes this game is crack. Almost half my team at work now loves it with a passion. It is so freakishly weird and fun

Look up "Yukitsu Don't Starve Guide" on YT after youre fully obsessed and he had some of the better suggestions on how to make it past winter and manage your resources and such.

Im not a Minecrafter, but know what it is and how horrible it is (lost friends to it), this is its weird eccentric cousin and just as addictive.

Ive been playing for 2 weeks, and have died and restarted maybe 30x already and eager to try some more. I tweak the resources slightly but it is still so well managed it gets you making dumb decisions all the time even though you KNOW BETTER. Yeah it tweaks you in that way if you let it.

good times

Don't Starve is amazing

I'm currently getting supplies to go to a cave I found (Haven't mined the sinkhole, I don't want any creepy things coming out at night) but winter caught up to me and I can't travel that much without freezing, so it will have to wait until summer.

There's this great Let's Play that I've been watching, if anyone is interested. It's by The 8-bit-Ninja:



He also live streams on Twitch on the weekends and will often ask for challenges on the chat. He's pretty funny, there are some episodes that have me in tears (like when he finds his first Koalefant)

Originally posted by Casandra
Don't Starve is amazing

I'm currently getting supplies to go to a cave I found (Haven't mined the sinkhole, I don't want any creepy things coming out at night) but winter caught up to me and I can't travel that much without freezing, so it will have to wait until summer.

There's this great Let's Play that I've been watching, if anyone is interested. It's by The 8-bit-Ninja:

He also live streams on Twitch on the weekends and will often ask for challenges on the chat. He's pretty funny, there are some episodes that have me in tears (like when he finds his first Koalefant)

Yay! Someone who knows how to imbed video! (I somehow forget what I dont use often)

I tried the beta with caves last night with such horrible results I rolled back to an earlier release, crashed me a few times then spiders having bizarre behavior. I'll wait a few releases to start caving.

I still like the strategy of opening up the map and know where the main resources/biomes are before setting up camp. I just pick flint, grass, twigs, berries and make a pickaxe and start collecting gold ASAP. Explore EVERY road since they tend to lead to the main resources (aka, Rock biome for gold/stones/flint, Beefalo biome for wool/meat/horn, and grassland for mostly grass, but a few rabbits may be useful)

So as I run around locating mainly beefalo, pig king and grass, I ALWAYS (well when i dont die i do) have 2 torches on me, and at least the supplies to make 2 more. Then stay fed with RAW berries and carrots (no need to cook either) and continue to open up the map and hopefully you find Chester early on (I tend to find him in swamps, but Ive found him almost in every type of biome).

Then about day 5-8 I have tons of rocks,gold,grass,twigs,berries and some manure as well. I look for typically a centrally placed grass biome (or savannah close to grassland) near roads and running distance to a herd of beefalos (wolf protection) and a days walk from pig king (also good to know where Maxwells biome is for gears, they tend to be on other end of wormholes for me). I also want my spiders close but not too close.

At this point i make my stone firepit and immediately make science and alchemy machines to one side, then i start making rope, then a backpack (if i dont got chester) then a spear and a log suit, then I make a birdcage and create a few cut stone to make an advanced garden if I have manure for it. If I have any seeds Ill go ahead and plant and go for that dragonfruit.

At this point I access the resources nearby and figure out if I need more twigs/grass nearby (If i do i make a shovel then book off to get grass/twig bushes to replant) or I decide manure or spiders are more important and go off in that direction. Or if my sanity is less than 80 I'll go after 12 flowers and make a garland.

So far I've made it at best 79 days before I got caught unprotected by wolves or spider queens, the queens are your worst enemy.

Thanks for the video !

reply to post by Aliquandro


Great strategy!

I usually look for beefalos after the initial harvesting of anything in sight. I'll set up near them (but not too close in case they move over to my camp during mating season before I get my hat done) and near a bunch of rabbit holes to sustain me until I set up farms.

I have 3 worlds currently. The first one I created is on day 150ish. Hounds are a pain, like 10 or so of them, but I've set up an arena with fire pits and tooth traps. It takes care of most (if not all) of them, if one or two survive I just kite them.

Unfortunately my beefalo herd trampled my closest spider nest during mating season and it was a tier one (I'd killed the previous queen and set up the eggs in that location over and over) so no eggs this time. Now the next one is like 5 days away, through a forest, cemetery, pig village and I'd risk hounds attatck on my way there AND back. Stupid beefalo

The second one I created just to find Adventure Mode because it was impossible to get away from my base in the first world long enough to explore without getting killed by the hounds. I found the door and crossed it. First world ever was Archipelago and got all the "things" and was looking for the wood thing and got killed by a Tallbird. Second time I went through the door I got A Cold Reception. Man, that level owned me good I got killed by hallucinations after I got my sanity low enough to go through the obelisks. I haven't tried going through the door again.

Now the last world is the one I created specifically for the underground update, I'm playing this one right now. I hope it doesn't crash on me

reply to post by Aliquandro


I stayed up til 3am last night playing Don't Starve. (shakes head) Yep, crack. I woke up with two thoughts: "I'm conscious! I can play again!" The graphics are fantastic, like a kid's book gone horribly awry; almost Tim Burton-esque. I love the music, too, particularly that all the characters are represented by instruments - reminds me of Peter and the Wolf.

I've made it 14 days so far and died SO much. The raw number of deaths required to learn the game feel like a badge of honor in themselves.

You're my favorite person this minute, Aliquandro. Now I'm off to watch the YT you recommended!

reply to post by Halekoch


Be sure to set up something for winter, it arrives on the 21st. Plants, grass and saplings don't grow (or grow very slowly) during this time, so if your food supply depends on berry bushes you could starve. Also, bees don't produce honey.

May I offer some tips?

(WARNING: Long post ahead)

Make lots of traps and catch rabbits but don't kill them. Make two chests and store the live rabbits in there. Because they are alive, they won't spoil and you can feed on those during the winter, only killing them when necessary. If you have a crock pot you can live off meatballs.

While we're at it, you could set up some drying racks. Jerky lasts a long time and it's good for health and sanity.

Make warm clothes too! The beefalo hat (wool + horn) is much better than the winter hat in terms of heat, but the winter hat also raises your sanity when wearing it. You can catch the winter koalefant and use the trunk for a vest (trunk + 8 silk). This would take up the "chest slot" so you won't be able to wear a backpack or armor, choose wisely

If you'd like to keep armor or backpack on and don't want to freeze, you can also make a heat stone. You'll have to set it next to a fire to warm it up (it gets orange when hot) or have it in your inventory and stand next to the fire.

Don't shave your beard! It helps to prevent freezing. You can shave it when winter ends and use the hair to make a meat effigy to come back to life in case you die. Um... don't make the same mistake I did, be sure to set up a chest with some warm clothes, food and armor and a fire pit next to the effigy, because you'll resuscitate with your inventory empty. First time I came back to life I froze to death 10 steps from my base

Put it some distance away from your base because the deerclops comes during winter and stomps everything in your camp and stays there for a few days.

General tip: Don't be a hero! There's no shame in running away from a fight. You can come back when you're fully prepared and take the enemy later.

Good luck

Look who spawned from the pig house I built:



Guess what I turned him into?


That's right! A helmet


Well, I came back to say that I did try the caves and didn't crash. I've set up a tent, fire pit, 1 farm (I'm working on building more but my beefalo are far from the cave entrance), 3 berry bushes, 6 saplings and about 12 trees. It wasn't easy though, it's taking me several trips to settle down there and my main above ground base is about half a day away. I'm also near day 40 so I don't think I will be able to do many more trips with the hounds hanging over my head.

Also, I went down the rope and landed on two tier 2 spider nests so I ran through some hallways, panicking, tripping over 5 or 6 tentacles, two or three cave spider dens and through some spitters, all the while thinking "Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god!" until I found a little corner to cower on and set up a base.

Caves are scary

reply to post by Aliquandro

Checked the don't starve game out a bit, I was never that much into the whole sims type games as it gets kind of pointless quick, so the prison architect just loked kind of lame. But the don't starve game just from vids and such I admit it does look interesting, I have played many games like it and they do get boring after a while once you figured out how they work it kind of becomes no sinch to beat them and the whole make stuff to make stuff does get repetitive. But this games seems a bit different then the other like games I played, its got an arcade challenge style feel to it were your on a timeline and cant really be affording to goof around. Definitely worth checking it out some time...Cool Stuff OP.

Originally posted by Halekoch
reply to post by Aliquandro

 

I stayed up til 3am last night playing Don't Starve. (shakes head) Yep, crack. I woke up with two thoughts: "I'm conscious! I can play again!" The graphics are fantastic, like a kid's book gone horribly awry; almost Tim Burton-esque. I love the music, too, particularly that all the characters are represented by instruments - reminds me of Peter and the Wolf.

I've made it 14 days so far and died SO much. The raw number of deaths required to learn the game feel like a badge of honor in themselves.

You're my favorite person this minute, Aliquandro. Now I'm off to watch the YT you recommended!

edit on 5/25/2013 by Halekoch because: Stuff and Things

I am really happy some of you enjoy this game as much as me. Yukitsu's main strategy you will get from some of his best videos it that its best to keep wandering and opening up the map for the first 4-7 days until youve located beefalos, pig king, and the rock biome, all the while you are gathering mainly flint,twigs, grass and other essentials. By the time youve located everything useful and decided where to make camp (crucial decision, dont be hasty) you have most of what you need to get rolling fast.

I tend to camp close but not too close to beefalos, as well as a few pigs and bees, as well as at least one spider nest (yeah its best to have it nowhere near beefalo but close to pigs (also use traps around your spider nest, then just keep replanting the eggs in the middle of the circle of traps, makes easy work of spiders, just check on them occassionally.

I'm like day 145 in on retry maybe 24 with Wilson, Ive unlocked them all but with the above strategy its best to just stick with Wilson (ability to grow beard for warm PLUS allows you to make effigy = best perks IMO)
I have still not found any clockwork mobs and still have one wormhole left to explore, my next main goal is to find a gear so I can build my fridge. But with 8 crockpots, 17 racks, 13 farms, 3 beeboxes and tons of replanted twigs and grass and 6 chests of supplies I'm taking my time stockpiling.

I'm not looking forward to having to go insane to make it to another level, but that's why this game is so interesting, I could just keep playing where I'm at until I get bored (yeah right).

Originally posted by Casandra
reply to post by Halekoch

 

Be sure to set up something for winter, it arrives on the 21st. Plants, grass and saplings don't grow (or grow very slowly) during this time, so if your food supply depends on berry bushes you could starve. Also, bees don't produce honey.

I got killed once as I was shaving sleeping nearby beefalos at night and accidentally targetted one, well I ran like hell with a torch but they nailed me, it was the middle of a harsh winter so after I resurrected at the touch stone (was too far from effigy) I froze after like 10 seconds. The 2nd time i resurrected I was luckily at my effigy near camp and had backup clothes. But the way out of that situation (spawning at touch stone in winter) is by gathering grass and twigs ASAP and make a torch and light it up, then make a few more and book it back to camp (if beefalos killed you best wait a day or 2 til you gather your stuff, because the beefalos will stay pissed at you awhile, or if in heat they take a day or 2 to settle back down).

I wish the caves beta worked better for me but I'm plenty happy with the above ground playability for now.

Also I really want to try hunting a winter koalaphant so I make up the winter coat, with that the beefalo hat and a full beard I hear you dont even need a heat stone!