Eufloria

I got Eufloria as part of the Indie Royale Really Big Bundle last week.  It’s a beautiful, ambient game, with soft pastel colours and gentle music.. all rather soothing 🙂

The controls are very simple with everything handled by clicking and dragging.  After learning how to grow trees, produce more seedlings and expand, you come across the first inhabited asteroid..

The grey seedlings fought mine as they arrived, but weren’t able to stop me taking over their asteroid.  The greys turned out to be a spreading disease.. making it all ok to go and destroy them 😉

The next levels introduced asteroids protected with Defence Trees, which were much harder to defeat!

I initially had trouble with this level as the randomly generated asteroids appeared to have blocked me in, and I was unable to attack with the seedlings I had!  I tried leaving the game running for a long time while I did other things, and the game built up hundreds of seedlings.. which still weren’t enough to win.

A friend said he had completed the level with around 500 seedlings.. but getting that many would take a lot of idling, and I realised it couldn’t possibly be the intended strategy!  I restarted the level to see if I’d missed something.. and yes, I had..

It turned out that you were supposed to be able to move between undefended asteroids, while discovering, but not taking over, the defended ones.  On my first attempt, the random generation must have put the next uninhabited asteroid just out of range so that I didn’t spot it.

Later levels start to have slightly more proactive enemies.. not taking care meant they stole an asteroid for me while my seedlings were out fighting!  Sometimes, when there are two rival empires, they attack each other, leaving you time to build up and then pick off the weaker one 🙂

So far, I think the strategy in the game is rather light.. build a few defence trees, make sure you have seedlings at all asteroids on the edge of your empire, and that seems to be enough to hold the enemy back.  There’s also the “cheap” option of leaving the game running in the background to build up an overwhelming force.. but in my view that takes away the satisfaction.

Flowers are the next feature in the game.. I’ve not got far enough in to discover them yet.. but they can enable seedlings with more firepower and range, or add lasermines if placed on the defence trees.  I don’t think this is going to change the peaceful feeling I get from playing the game, though.. a peaceful explore and conquer game?  Whatever next? 🙂

The Indie Royale Really Big Bundle

The Indie Royale team have now released the latest indie bundle: the Really Big Bundle, containing Really Big Sky, Runespell: Overture, Cthulhu Saves the World, Eufloria and Breath of Death VII!

This bundle was made available to pre-order a short while ago, but sight unseen, and I was reluctant to buy in case I had the games already.  However, of these, I have to admit that I’d only heard of Really Big Sky, Cthulhu and Eufloria, and very little about those too..

Really Big Sky is a twin-stick shooter by Boss Baddie, where you face down waves of alien invaders, from actual enemies to laser planets and black holes! There are seven different game modes, including co-op.. and the game is generated from the way you play.. whether that means more of the enemies you do least well against, or simply that enemies grow stronger, I will have to see!

The rest of the pack seems to include games to suit different moods.. Cthulhu Saves the World is an RPG by Zeboyd, where you help Cthulhu regain his powers on a quest of courage, romance, redemption and insanity.. as it says on the tin.  Breath of Death VII is also from Zeboyd, another RPG, but more of a parody.  Sounds like these two are for when I’m in a particularly silly mood, then! 🙂

Runespell: Overture is another role-playing game, but using collectible cards to form attacks.  I think I’m only really going to know what this one is about once I’ve started playing it.. something different to the usual games is certainly worth taking a look at, and might even make me think a little more.

Eufloria is a beautiful, ambient game with exploration and conquest, with new asteroids providing resources which allow you to grow, but also attract rivals.  Like a few other games I’ve played or bought recently, the levels are procedurally generated so you never see quite the same level twice 🙂

I think Eufloria will be the game to calm me down again after the sillier games.. at least on the earlier levels 😀