In Part 6 of the SFML Steam Games Series, we have a lot of platforming and RPG-ing going on, so lets dive right in!
Vagante
I’ve seen the name quite a few times, but never actually tried the game until now. It’s a nice pixel-art platformer with RPG or more specifically roguelike elements. Select different weapons, increase your stats, up your weapon level and pick up spells along the way. I very much like the atmosphere, but so far found it quite challenging. The enemies have a good punch and if you fall down the wrong path, you may end up surrounded by them. There’s permadeath and procedurally generated levels, giving you a high replayability.
The most confusing part was understanding, that after you’ve finished the tutorial and come out of the cave, you have to enter the same cave again to start the game itself. Kind of breaks the assumption of “I’ve just been there, why would I need to go back?”
With a bit more practice or key rebinding (why is spacebar not jump?), this can be quite a fun game! There’s also a co-op mode, locally or online, which I haven’t tried so far.
Cendric
Has anyone mentioned platformer and RPG? Well, Cendric is a RPG, where each level is a platformer. You can collect weapons, gear, different spells and upgrade your stats. Howver, jumping, fighting, and casting spells are only one part of the game, the other side is exploring a rich world, getting to know all the different characters, growing as your character yourself, fulfilling quests and much more.
For me the coolest parts are, that I know the author personally, so I got to see a bit behind the scene, the whole game and all the tools are open source, licensed under MIT – which honestly disproves all the arguments against open sourcing commercial games – and you can play it in Swiss-German, where different factions speak different Swiss-German dialects.
If you’re Swiss and like games, this is simply a must to pick up! If you’re not Swiss, then I still recommend to give this one a try. It’s not a small game and a lot of it was done by one person, which is just amazing! And if you look closely, you’ll spot my name in the credits. 😉
Castle Clamber
When was the last time you saved a princess? In Castle Clamber you can only save Princess Niamh from “starvation” as you make your way up the tower to bring her dinner.
It’s a fun arcade platformer, where you have to defeat all the enemies to progress to the next level, and don’t worry it’s “just” 90 levels! If you’re not quick enough, you’ll need to watch out for the knight chasing you down. The main game mechanic feels solid and while time is working against you, it’s quite fun to beat one level after the other. The game has a local multiplayer mode, so you can challenge your friend.
Under the hood it uses xygine, an SFML-based game engine, which has been used for a bunch of games, some of which can also be purchased or downloaded on itch.io. If you like arcade games and/or have been looking for a local multiplayer capable game, do pick this one up.
This Grand Life
This Grand Life is a simulation game, of which we haven’t really seen any so far. This one is about managing your life, from doing work to earn money, making sure you’re healthy, while acquiring food, paying rent, trying to find time for some fun, and more. Like in real life, it can be quite tricky to balance these things and you’re often left wondering, whether some other job would pay more or some other apartment would be cheaper, and wondering how you can stay healthy while doing all of this.
In my short play time, I mostly tried to stay alive and couldn’t exactly focus on reaching additional goals. I feel like once you get to know most of the knobs you can turn, this can be quite fun in slowly and steadily building towards the riches or other goals.
I quite like the touch of having a map of the actual cities, so it connects much more to a real place. If you enjoy simulation games, then don’t hesitate!
Conclusion
We haven’t yet reached the end of games from 2018, so stay tuned for the next issue of SFML Steam Games and I hope you’ve picked already one or the other game – don’t forget, you’re support fellow community members by doing so. 😉
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