From the dusk-basked Symphony, the lingering Circle in the sky receded. Harmony was soon established, giving away to a brilliant Aria that accompanied the Dawn. Yet upon establishing this new world in a glorious Portrait and bringing Order to the wilds, it all abruptly receded into Shadow, where it languished only to be brought back to life through a most unprecedented Ritual.
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Let me lay down a scenario before diving into this… examination of what I consider to be one of the most amazingly unnoticed non-indie titles in the past few years. You have ZootFly, a team of about fifty Slovenians who, after making a series of under the radar titles in the mid to late 2000s. 505 games, a publisher who has one of the oddest track records for titles I’ve seen when you consider their European releases. And a dream to create a character action game that is best described as if you mixed that Tomb Raider XBLA game with God of War. It is Marlow Briggs and the Mask of Death and… I am super excited to be talking about it!
The fate of tiny games seems to be two parts due to whether or not you can assemble a decent amount of health with a marketing budget about as small as it can be to afford a booth at Pax, and if you can get critics to call your game an eight or higher. Especially when you have jerks like me who says, “I’ll give you five dollars for a year’s work… sucker!” Which I just did with a not-quite indie game, Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons. (more…)