Indie films-games and something anything else inbetween! At IndyFilm Oneblaze we try to highlight Indy creative projects.

Rick Henderson a game by an indy Dev that goes by the name Fat Pug Studios based in Belgrade, Republic of Serbia. I came across this game like how I come across many by simply scourging the internet for awesome content to digest. This is by far one of the many things I am glad I was suggested, sadly I have not played the game as yet but the trailer seems inviting enough to a player like myself.

So let me jump into it with my limited knowledge of the game. From a surface level, the game is a space shoot-em-up with several layers of flairs. So allow me to break down the trailer which starts with the space ship doing a warp or faster than light jump. The design is similar to Gradius or r-type in that nostalgia 16bit era style pixel art which we all love. One of the many things I noticed is the use of background layering, allow me to point out what I am referring to, the debris and other none interactive ships in the background adds a certain level of visual depth which you may not notice a lot in many 2d games of this genre. In a market place where there are many games that are similar the one thing that will bring in more players is visuals and gameplay mechanics. If it feels broken you have lost any word of mouth or any method of traction. Speaking about visuals while looking deeper into the makings of this game I noticed the dev testing CRT mode, for all the younger generations CRT was the technology used in televisions of yesteryears it created an interesting scanline mode of games back in the day.

Now let’s get to the meat of a shoot them up, weapons. There seem to be several weapon systems in play for this game which include the tradition forward cannon, the spread shot cannon, the dare you try to attack me from behind cannon, the super vegitta big bang attack blast, wait did I just see that hmmm. The game has those and some other interesting ones at play. I will link the trailer below but do check out Fat Pug Studio’s page for way more details I will link it all below.

One thing to add is music and sound effects which is another layer for gameplay, well that’s if music drives your game but most certainly sfx. Again without playing teh game I can’t really comment on sfx but the dev has some of the music for the game on his youtube page so check it out as well.

I may have to pester the dev for a beta so that I can play the game and get a feel for the controls. If you are interested and want to keep an eye on this game it is stated to release Q3 2019. As per the steam page check the link For more details check https://store.steampowered.com/app/1023790/Rick_Henderson/

Since I have not played the game I can’t say much for the controls but I hope it is solid as that can make or break a game as it falls into the who gameplay mechanics. As an added bonus the developer also has a great write up on being a dev in Serbia if you want to give a lengthy read check it out on his page.
http://www.fatpugstudio.com/ That’s all for my take on what is about to drop from Fat Pug Studio this year.

Hollow Knight: Silksong where do I start… HOLLLLLLLLYYYY SHIT this was the best news I heard about a game in ages. I waited for the reveal to drop 3am Pacific time in Cali and watch the reveal and was totally blown away. I am an art junkie and when I see a game or simply anything with beautiful art I oooze over it. I was sooooo upset I missed out on the kickstarter of the original game as they had so many amazing things that was packaged with that event. The reveal had everything a fan would want to see to say TAKE MY DAMN MONEY. The animation, the character designs, the world building everything just looked top notch and full of atmosphere. I am extreme glad that they decided to make a separate game and not try to force the build onto the existing game. It allowed them to create fresh new content and a whole new world and boss mechanics. NOICE.

So lets say that I loved this reveal, I will talk more about the previous game later. This reveal told me that small teams are kicking ass. There are some amazing indie game teams that are finally getting the shine they need to keep making awesome games. The only top terr game I have been playing these days is Destiny2 beyond that I have been jumping in on Hollow Knight, prior to that was Hyperlight drifter and prior to that I can’t recollect but I have tried to support the indie devs as I am one myself. The bottom line for me when supporting other devs is that I have to see that you are giving your all to a project and really give us something that is truly awesome and from your heart. Hollow Knight SilkSong looks to be that game which I will wait for and I may purchase a switch later in the year maybe November 2019. The switch at present has alot of indie titles coming their way and that is a great thing for people like myself who love to support these devs.

One thing I am getting tired of is the lazy genre naming of calling games Metroidvania, we don’t hear anyone calling anything else mariomania or zeldamania. Yes the game echos that metroid adventure like style but this game in many way far exceeds what metroid did in many ways considering that metroid was and still is created by a big team compared to some of the small devs that are putting out awesome content. They need to step it up. The last metroid game released for the 3ds was actually pretty good but it was a remake of metroid 2 with some rather fine graphics and gameplay.

Lets back track a bit to the original Hollow Knight which received three dlc or patch fixes as the creators stated they did not understand how to do dlcs. I think what they meant to say they were not sure how to price those dlcs so they just did them as patches and ending up creating a marvelous game in the long run which won them alot of praise. Hands down I loved Hollow knight, not simply because it was a beautiful game but more so because there was no hand holding, the controls worked damn well, the music scoring was top notch and it was developed by a small team comprised of Ari Gibson, William Pellen, Jack Vine and lets not forget the composer Christopher Larkin. I bought the game for both the pc and my current console the xboxone. I will probably get a switch one day simply for this release but with the pc version I might be able to hold out for the xboxone version we shall see.

Check out their website for more details.
Hollow Knight SilkSong