Montreal Comiccon 2017 is held at the Palais des Congres in downtown Montreal from July 7 to 9. It includes many Q&A panels from famous stars both in movies and TV series. Montreal Comiccon also has a heavy focus on video games. This year, Playstation, Warner Bros, Nintendo Switch, Bioware and Ubisoft all had their involvement along an expanded Indie Game Zone. Our Day 1 recap is all about the independent games on the showfloor and we will wrap up with the one panel that we attended in the evening.
King of the Hat – Hyroglyphik Games
Our friends over at Hyroglyphik Games has currently moved on from their debut mobile game, Zohm. You can read our podcast interview with them HERE. Their current game in development is called King Of The Hat. It’s a two to four player couch co-op where the concept is a simple one to jump through different environments and stomp on the other players’ hat. You can either stomp on it when it has fallen on the ground after and attack or if you knock them as you throw your hat at them. What sounds like a silly concept works really well as a fun and interactive experience.
King of the Hat is currently in development.
Feudal Feud – Urubu Studio
Feudal Feud, developed by Urubu Studio, was at the show last year. We had a chance to talk to this one man developer last year on Game Warp. You can watch it HERE. Feudal Feud is a mobile strategic diplomacy game that is currently in development. A year has given this upcoming game an entire facelift. It now has beautiful soundtrack, a refined polished look and notifications along with some panels being changed to a much cleaner look.
Feudal Feud will launch an upcoming Kickstarter very soon.
A.N.N.E – Games by mo inc.
Currently already five years in development, A.N.N.E. is an upcoming space shooter platformer anticipated to be released in the summer of 2018. At the show, there was a true retro feeling to the game as we used a retro controller to play the game. There were some bugs that made us invincible which we can’t say we didn’t enjoy since it helped us see the level in a more relaxed setting.
Top Runners – Top Runners
Top Runners is a speedrunner currently in development. The level demo included wall jumps and avoiding obstacles as well as platforming on different ledges. The game is still rather early in development and it will be interesting to see what direction they choose to expand it to give it a unique spin. Top Runners also comes with a level creator.
Heroes Never Lose: Professor Puzzler’s Perplexing Ploy – Magic Pants
Heroes Never Lose, developed by Magic Pants, is an action puzzler with a super-hero theme. It combines a match-3 concept with block drops. Each row that is cleared by one player will morph into a detrimental effect to the opponent. It’s all about strategy and speed. This resembles a fight with friends except we are using more brains than brawn. There’s always a place for multiplayer games that are fast-paced. This is only a quick look at understanding how the game works and feeling how it plays and probably much easier or in the beginning levels. There is a certain level of challenge especially playing against an opponent as we can never tell what they are doing because we’re too focused on our own block-building pieces constantly dropping. Its immersive and a lot of fun to play. We can only imagine how later levels will increase in difficulty and the hectic fast-paced game this could become. It’s quite exciting to think about.
Heroes Never Lose: Professor Puzzler’s Perplexing Ploy is currently in Early Access on Steam.
Light Fall – Bishop Games
Light Fall, currently in development by Bishop Games, takes place in The Forgotten World of Numbra. Numbra and our character will quickly give us strong vibes of Limbo but the visuals are where the comparison of the two stops. The world itself is composed of platforms and puzzles. There is a story that unlocks dialogue as certain checkpoints or whatever some fireflies are as we pass them. Light Fall is an action adventure game with charming visuals and an captivating environment. As the game takes throughout the level, it seconds as a tutorial. The little character can create platforms and double jump and no doubt more skills will follow. An impressive game to keep an eye out for later this year.
Light Fall is looking to release in November 2017.
The Girl and the Robot – Flying Carpets Games
The Girl and the Robot, developed by Flying Carpets Games is a third person action adventure game where we start with a girl imprisoned in a castle. Her goal is to escape as she moves through the castle and figure out how to do it as she is accompanied by The Robot. The Girl and the Robot is a game that we’ve heard about and personally wanted to try but never had the chance yet. This was a great time to do it and it was very nice. The game is visually appealing. The mechanics are smooth and respond well. While camera angles felt a little odd at times, when The Girl sprints, the camera maneuvers on its own and that is a great addition.
The Girl and the Robot is currently available on Steam, Playstation 4 and WiiU.
Anamorphine – Artifact5 Games
Another familiar game from last year’s showfloor, Artifact 5 Games’ Anamorphine has a much more in-depth and longer demo to try out. This is a first person surreal experience that tells the story of a woman and is for an older audience as it dives into death and mental issue themes. The demo showed off different environment and crafts a more concrete story which gives is a good clue what it is about now. While only a demo and not sure how much it reflects the final game, it is a more dramatic game that reminded us of elements of Layers of Fear as in changing environments as we trigger events and Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture for the story and gorgeous environments, and a more walking simulator experience. It also has a beautiful sound design. Also nearing the end of development, Anamorphine is expecting to release later this year on Steam, Playstation and some form of VR.
Mages of Mystralia – Borealys Games
Mages of Mystralia, developed by Borealys Games, is a third person action-adventure game set in the kingdom of Mystralia. The story starts as a young Mage who falls into finding a spellbook and learns the art of creating spells as uses these skills to navigates through dangerous lands. Having a strong feeling of Zelda, Mages of Mystralia is visually beautiful and plays very well. The spell creation element adds a unique spin to this classic style of game and the story itself along with the dialogue sparks an intriguing plot.
Mages of Mystralia was released on Steam earlier this year. They will be having a console release soon.
Just Shapes & Beats – Berzerk Studio
Just Shape & Beats is an action rhythm game. At the show, we played in multiplayer with four players as colorful small pieces. The idea is simple: Avoid the red stuff, dash to move around quickly and stay alive until the end of the stage. The red stuff and the boss moves with the beat of the music. You get three hits and your little colorful shape will scream for help where the other players can come to recharge. Just Shapes & Beats is a fast-paced, exhilarating, cooperative thrill ride especially as it is paired up with fantastic beats and jams that creates an awesome gaming experience. While the four levels showed off a challenging experience, the game is far from unforgiving. It gives us team help, checkpoints and multiple tries before it is game over.
Just Shapes & Beats by Berzerk Studio currently has a demo available on Steam.
Primus Vita – Epsilon Games
Primus Vita is an upcoming episodic story- driven game. It will have six episodes with each episode playing as a different protagonist. Their six stories will craft the full world. Primus Vita has recently started development and will have a demo available in September alongside a Kickstarter launch.
The Black Watchmen- Alice & Smith
One of the companies we had a chance to talk to last year was Alice & Smith who created a Permanent Alternate Reality Game called The Black Watchmen. The Black Watchmen is currently in their second season. Aside from this main game, the world has expanded to Ahnayro: The Dream World and an upcoming game called NITE Team 4. One of the great things of being part of this alternate reality is that they host live events every year and they have an upcoming live event.
Panel: Charles Martinet Q&A
For those who don’t know, Charles Martinet is the voice of Mario, Luigi, Wario, Waluigi, Baby Mario and Baby Luigi as well as the dragon in Skyrim. Martinet enters the panel with all the voices that he has done in the Nintendo verse and uses them throughout, truly letting us see how he embodies the character. He talks about how he started his career in acting and what lead him to doing voice acting as well as how he got his role as Mario. It is a truly funny and endearing anecdote as he recaps on his fun monologue all around Italian food that lands this iconic and memorable role. He reflects that what makes him the most proud is that Mario’s character integrity has remained the same no matter how the games have changed. This was a fantastic panel and shows off what a great person this voice behind these iconic characters are.