Over the weekend I played three demos on Steam:
These are all indie games, with a pixel art style, which focus on mining and crafting resources.
After I completed the last demo on Sunday, I immediately decided to buy the full game, turn the lights off, and fully immerse myself. Let's try to figure out why that game got me so hooked.
I invite you to try them all out, as your taste may be different from mine. They're all free demos!
Widget Inc
This game is a mix of a clicker, and a factory game. You start by clicking a lot, then automate those parts, while you progress to the next stage where you click again, maybe figure out a little challenge, and then repeat the loop. As you produce more resources, you advance to higher technology levels with new resources.
The challenge is figuring out what kind of manual click interaction you need to start the process, and then later with upgrades optimizing the placement of factories for maximum profit. There is no losing, only production that doesn't increase fast enough. And you will be clicking a lot to increase it.
The music is fitting, and works nicely in the background. It doesn't stand out, but doesn't need to. Same for the pixel art. I enjoyed the detail that some of the screens have. The focus appeared to be more on the clicker part than the map where you place the factories.
Personally, I didn't enjoy the challenges. Figuring them out didn't trigger any reward emotions, and felt more like the gate to progressing. The map with the factories was easy to use, though I feel like being able to place the factories anywhere made it a bit too easy. I also noticed that once a certain resource is solved in the click stage, you have a rather tedious phase of navigating around and queueing upgrades. Once you reach the final part of the demo, you just increase capacity. Essentially the same as Factorio late game, but I think the lack of challenge made it a bit boring for me.
Chipmatic
Chipmatic lets you control a robot in a 2D space with which you mine ores underground, which you then bring to the surface for refinement and crafting. The resulting resources let you upgrade your robot, and unlock buildings such as a smelter and a factory.
The challenge is to acquire resources, while being restricted by battery life and storage capacity. Discovering new resources makes you dig tunnels, like in Minecraft. Beyond that you just select recipes in the buildings which have a limited number of slots. While the buildings craft, you go mining again. Rinse and repeat.
After having played Widget Inc I found controlling an entity very refreshing. Moving the robot with all its constraints felt more immersive than placing squares on a map.
My personal impression was that this game was more fun, but I can't pin it down to the crafting chain, music, or art being different. My gut feeling is that the limitations combined with the progression are what made this feel nice.
Eventide Matter
In Eventide Matter you control a ship in space, which can mine resources, craft products, and shoot enemies. Your goal is to deliver a variety of products to a station. The goal is to complete the station, which requires a number of products that grow in complexity.
The core game loop consists of mining + crafting, battle, and an intermission phase where you use knowledge points that you gathered in the two previous phases to unlock meta upgrades. The challenge is to mine and craft as much as possible before the timer runs out and the enemies appear. As you reach more advanced products, there is also a little challenge of how to gather the resources. With the enemies, your challenge is to destroy as many as possible before they overwhelm you. You repeat this loop until you produced all the products that the station needs, with a final battle at the end.
The perspective is top-down 2D with a pixel particle art style. There are a lot of small effects that help you navigate the game smoothly. I was pleasantly surprised by the tutorial which didn't need any major reading, and mostly consisted of arrows pointing to certain UI elements. And you're done with the tutorial in less than a minute.
What blew me away was the music, in particular when I entered the intermission phase for the first time. The transition from curious mining, to intense battle, to a break with what I felt was perfect music unlocked something in my brain. Music so good and fitting, that I just spent 30 minutes searching it just to show it to you: Gray Hoodie - Fight For Good. Jump to 0:26 to experience the music transition when you enter the intermission phase. Best with headphones!
Unfortunately the game was already over after three hours, but I was still happy with the price of 6€. The game nicely filled my Sunday evening, and was perfect to fade out of the weekend. I have a suspicion that the developers built it so that you can't lose, but rather are the main character in a movie that progresses as fast as you want to progress.
Recap
Why did Eventide Matter hook me so much that I'm now writing about it, even though its price per hour of playtime is relatively high?
It's not the mining or crafting, we have that in many games, and I didn't see anything that surprised me. It's also not the combat system or meta progression, as they felt like what I'd expect in other games.
The first notable difference is the simple tutorial, the visual effects, and the sound effects. They support your gameplay really well, don't distract, and give you the right level of immersion.
I believe that the biggest difference was how well the phases of the game (crafting, battle, intermission) fit into one another, and how good the music supported them. Every loop felt rewarding, making me crave for more. You could see the end of the game approaching as you reached about 80% of the tech, and it felt nice how the game ended.
Eventide Matter is my favorite, because of how well rounded it is. The gameplay has a nice progression, and the music just hits that spot.