One the biggest annual gatherings of game developers ended late last month as designers, artists, writers, and every other type of member of the game making process returned home from GDC 2018. This year was one of the most exciting of recent years as developers from studios like Capcom, Guerrilla Games, Nintendo, Square Enix and many indie teams showed off new games and gave informational talks about the challenges and triumphs of past projects.
There were too many games to sift through so we put a short list of special titles that you won’t want to miss:
Golem
Developed by the Canada-based Longbow Studios, Golem tells the story of a girl who ventures away from her desert tribe to search for water and ends up uncovering a dormant shape-shifting rock creature. She then partners with the golem to tackle a series of environmental puzzles in order to uncover the secrets behind its past.
With an atmosphere that’s reminiscent of games like Journey, Flower, and Monument Valley, Golem combines a side-scrolling view, wonderful pseudo-historic art, and imaginative puzzles to form a great final product. What’s most interesting is how the Golem morphs and evolves over the course of the game, adding different types of puzzles as you progress.
Golem is headed to PC later in 2018.
Tropico 6
Heading into their sixth entry of the game, fans have continued to talk about how little the series has changed over the last few entries. Limbic Entertainment is looking to change that by adding big alterations to Tropico 6.
One of those changes is the sheer scale of your empire this time around. You can now expand your cities and resorts to multiple islands, building roads, bridges and ferry routes to connect multiple islands across the ocean. The extended territory not only gives you more to manage, it gives the additional challenge of maintaining the transportation infrastructure that’s also threatened by natural disasters and other catastrophic problems.
Another fun additional feature is the ability to steal world wonders from other countries; you can take the Eiffel Tower from France or the Colosseum from Italy and use them to boost tourism on your humble little island home. This fun mechanic revolves around missions where you create a distraction for the country you’re stealing from, like producing 500 units of cheese for France before sending off a party to try to steal their countries national treasure. It’s a quirky addition that offers a new type of goal to the dictator simulator.
Tropico 6 is scheduled for release later in 2018.
Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden
Despite a very mundane title, Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden looks incredibly promising, combining the stealth mechanics of the Hitman series with the strategic combat of XCOM. In this upcoming tactical adventure game, you take control of a team of oddball mutants (including an anthropomorphic duck) as they venture further into a post-apocalyptic world that has left everyone deformed with different powers. The team showcased at a private showing at GDC included a boar with anger issues and a shotgun, just so you know what the team at FUNCOM is working on here.
Developed by teams who worked on Hitman and the creator of Payday, Mutant Year Zero allows you to stealthily scout a battlefield and explore the surrounding area before jumping into turn-based combat. This mix of genres adds another layer of tactical planning, such exploring early leading you to a giant dormant robot that you could set to activate, attacking everyone in the middle of the fight.
Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden is scheduled to release on PC, Xbox One, and PS4 later in 2018.
WHAT THE GOLF?
The entire premise behind this golf game is that golf is boring and pointless, so much so that any game can be altered enough to become a golf game. Developed by Triband, a small team out of Copenhagen, What the Golf? subverts players’ expectations when golfing and creates golfing games out of other titles like SuperHot, League of Legends, and FIFA.
WHAT THE GOLF? is broken up into a series of individual levels that share no connection outside of being “golf-related.” One level I was literally hitting the golfer, the person holding the club, down the green and the next level focused on hitting the golf club with another club. It was insane fun that completely blew me away.
What the Golf? has a playable prototype online and is scheduled for release later this year, although no date is confirmed.
Untitled Goose Game
Ever since being shown off at last November’s Day of the Devs showcase, Untitled Goose Game has been on everyone’s radar. It even went viral on Reddit when first announced.
Developed by the Melbourne-based team, House House, Untitled Goose Game is the story of a Goose causing havoc. Inspired by an international fascination with the rude bird, the game puts you in control of a goose as it steals tools, breaks sprinklers, and attacks unsuspecting humans. The gameplay itself is centered around completing a list of tasks like figuring out how to make a farmer put on a sun hat instead of his regular cap. It’s an inventive take that isn’t like anything else out there right now.
Untitled Goose Game is releasing on PC later this year.
