VGamingIndies 2024: Volume #1
We don’t need to tell you that there are a lot of video games being released every week and a lot of games simply go under the radar. Indie games in particular are often developed by small teams, usually without a billion dollar corporation behind them and they don’t have a chance to shine.
VGamingIndies gives us a chance to talk about some of those smaller titles that we’ve played recently. We’re not scoring these games like we would if it was a ‘full review’. An arbitrary number isn’t always the best approach, especially with Indie games. Instead, we’re just laying out what we liked, what we thought didn’t work so well and leaving the choice up to you.
We’re kicking off 2024 with Maki’s Adventure on Steam and 36 Fragments of Midnight on PlayStation Vita & PS4. Click the buttons below to be taken to the individual game, or keep reading to find out what Drew and Joe thought of their games.
Maki’s Adventure
| Maki’s Adventure | ||
| Platform | PC | |
| Developer | Zoroarts | |
| Publisher | Zoroarts | |
| Positives | + Lovingly crafted + Wears its heart on its sleeve + Variety of mini-games | |
| Negatives | – Sound design is lacking – Very limited gameplay – Lacks polish | |
| Price | £8.50 | |
| Played By | Drew | |
The inaugural project by German solo developer, Matteo Covic, is action-adventure-platformer, Maki’s Adventure. Telling the story of young Maki, one of the successors to the three Sacred Sharks, who guarded the world before their passing. In time, a great demon named Octavio escaped from the underworld and ravaged the land, and Maki, alongside his brother Temu, was captured whilst trying to overcome the fiend. As Maki, you must escape Octavio’s clutches and bring piece to the world once again.
Maki’s Adventure tries to do a lot with its two hour runtime, offering some 2D basic platforming, 3D world navigation and a host of mini-games to try out. If this game were a meal, it would be a tapas kind of affair – a cook offering a small collection of bits and pieces to see what you like and what you don’t, or in this case, a developer trying his hand at a few different things and seeing what he can achieve. I see this more as a platform for the developer to launch off from than a true gaming experience for players.
Mini-games are often used as a timeout from the main story and gameplay aspects, but actually make up the bulk of Maki’s Adventure, with the platforming elements really only being used to link the smaller mini-game elements together. There are a few fetch quests thrown in, and a smattering of basic bosses (that can be battled in a dedicated Boss Rush mode, should you wish), but I felt that the bulk of the gaming came from playing darts or pool, breaking raining rocks with a cannon or flying through rings with your pelican friend.
Working as a solo dev is a daunting undertaking, and I applaud anyone who is able to get a project from inception to completion all on their own, but there are often signs that the dev is stretched too thin, and that’s no different with Maki’s Adventure. The visuals are put together in some functional, if very basic, pixel art, and the character and enemy designs are all somewhat cookie-cutter. The sound design may be where things struggle the most though, where a handful of sound-effects are repeated ad-nauseum, with the dodge sound particularly grating on me after just a few minutes. There are some controller support issues too, where the game randomly only recognises mouse/keyboard inputs, which in any project determined ‘finished’ and on sale is rather unforgivable.
Makis Adventure is the inaugural project from a young solo-developer and honestly, it plays as such. The love for the project pours from every pixel, but from a pure gaming perspective, it’s a little all over the map. Essentially, this is a small collection of mini-games held together by a rudimentary story and basic cast of characters, created by a passionate dev looking to test a variety of skills for the first time. Makis Adventure is limited in what it offers to a player, but can act as a stepping stone for Zoroarts to create bigger, more polished projects in the future, and we wish Matteo Covic all the best as he continues his journey through game development!
36 Fragments of Midnight
| 36 Fragments of Midnight | |
| Platform | PlayStation Vita |
| Developer | Petite Games |
| Publisher | Ratalakia Games |
| Positives | + Super cheap with bonus PS4 version + A bit of skill required + Charming, if basic, graphics |
| Negatives | – 6 minutes to complete the game – Annoying response times – It’s super short |
| Price | £0.39 |
| Played by | Joe |
Once the dust had settled over Christmas and I had claimed the various gift cards from aunts, uncles and whoever else doesn’t understand what a video game is, I went and splurged my winnings on Final Fantasy XVI. As this was during the PlayStation January sale, I had a few gil left over which I had no intention of spending. That is until I found my Vita and I was curious if Sony still offered up sales on their ill-fated handheld. Turns out they did! So I set the price filter to ‘Low-High’ and bought the top three games, totalling less than £1. At the princely sum of 39p, 36 Fragments of Midnight was the cheapest of the lot. It also came bundled with the PS4 version too. Nice.
36 Fragments of Midnight from Petite Games is a short puzzler where Midnight, a small, nondescript white block, platforms its way through various hazards, collecting fragments. Where these shards come from is anyone’s guess, but Midnight has been asked for help and armed only with a double jump and a plucky spirit, I felt it was my duty to oblige.
The game is set in a singular map that’s randomly generated with each playthrough, but the level design is based on a set structure of six floors, containing six fragments. Each floor has five hazards, made up of a combination of saws, lasers and spikes that can end the run in one hit. It was frustrating getting to grips with the jump mechanics as there was a split second delay from pressing the button on the Vita, to the white box reacting on screen. This caused an unnecessary amount of restarts as one of the trophies was to clear the game in under six minutes. On testing the PS4 version, I found that jumping worked as you’d expect, so I would definitely suggest the handheld version should you want a tougher challenge.
From a graphical standpoint 36 Fragments of Midnight is rather basic, but still has an element of charm about it. The level is rather rudimentary, with a dark blue tone that gets darker the lower you sink into the map, but for a game that costs less than the price of a Freddo, it was perfectly serviceable. The main draw for 36 Fragments is of course the trophy list, which can be cleared in less than 20 minutes. Normally I rally against trophy fodder, but because I did find the game’s inability to provide an accurate jump, it did give a level of difficulty a blessing.
With a cost of 39 pence and created by a game company called Petite Games, I wasn’t expecting much from 36 Fragments of Midnight, but the randomly generated platformer did offer a surprising challenge in getting through the game, albeit a wholly unexpected one. On the Vita, I found that I needed pixel-perfect precision to navigate the various traps and dangers that litter the stage. Don’t get me wrong, at its heart 36 Fragments is a quick game to boost your trophy profile but at least there’s a little bit of work involved to get you there.
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