2019-01-26 21:06:25 (edited by Dark 2019-01-26 21:10:00)

Okay, I have mentioned this game before in both My article about Alexa, and The thread about Alexa games, but as I'm not sure how many people are reading those I thought this one warrants a topic in New releases. Usually I don't tend to bother  writing new releases topics for Alexa games, since many of them are far smaller titles, and the few exceptions like Dungeon adventure and Six swords are already well known, but this one is rather more serious.

The Vortex is best described as a combination of Land of Livia meets code 7.
You  wake up  from Cryo-sleep on a spaceship which has been attacked by nasty aliens, with the bay o fire. Since your stuck in  Cryo pod, your only communication with the outside world is your neural link to the ship's Ai's and robots.

This means that the game plays like an interactive audio drama, with full sound effects, voice logs etc, however the robots and such are actually played  the Alexa voices.

Several things however make the game rather unique and not just your usual interactive audio. Firstly, is the quality of the interactions. Each robot has their own personality, and how you respond to them or what you tell them to do changes the way they react to you. Another key point, is that like Land of Livia, the game is played entirely in real time.

Saying "status" gives you a list of tasks you can order the robots to do. Several, such as harvesting junk from space take rl time, and thus you have to check back after a few hours to see how your robots are doing, this makes it in rl terms quite a long game, which is actually nice.
Since different robots have different tools,  often you need to plan if you want one or more of the robots busy at once.

As you do tasks you repair more of the ship, find out what the ship was doing, and find out where the  ship is now, as well as of course run in to nasty aliens.

The game also has a resource, robot fuel called multi jell that is needed to perform some tasks. You can harvest a limited amount of this each day as well as get some each time you log in. If your in North America you can also buy more multi jell, but don't ask me for how much since you don't get that option outside the states.

Multi jell is perhaps my only miner criticism of the game, since while you do get one multi jell every hour, you have to log in to get it. What I mean is, if you open the game, you'll receive a multi jell and be told you can get more in  60 minutes, however if you log in again in three hours, you'll still only get one multi jell. This means practically there are lots of points where you just open the ap and then close it again, particularly if your trying to save multi jell for some of the more expensive task options such as making a new robot.

On the plus side, not all tasks take multi jell, and since the robots respond dynamically, you tend to get to hear a lot of dialogue even if you send the same robot to do the same job, and I  freely admit that I'm probably taking the more difficult option myself in saving multi jell up to get some more expensive tasks done rather than doing some of the smaller tasks earlier on big_smile.

Anyway, if you want a really nice passive game to log into a time or two a day,  likeable characters and something interesting to see, I can highly recommend this one, particularly because its %100 free to play, indeed if I were! in North America I'd be glad to donate to the game just because I really like what they've done, multi jell aside.

You can find the game by searching for "the vortex" under skills for Alexa, and the developer's website is
here

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2019-01-28 01:28:11

This game sounds interesting! Can alexia be used by ios users?

2019-01-28 12:17:56

Well you can run Amazon Alexa on Ios see This page on Applevis, but I'm not sure if it would work without an actual Amazon Echo device of some sort.
Also when I tried the Ios version of Alexa, it was rather clunky, EG getting me stuck in menus etc, so while you probably could! play this on Ios, it would likely not be as easy an experience as playing it straight on an Echo or Echo dot.

Then again, I admit I didn't start to look into Alexa until my brother bought my wife and I an Echo dot for Christmas, so my experience with it on other devices is highly limited.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2019-01-28 13:01:23

Hi,
If you have the amazon shopping app as well, and you do voice search, I think you can open Alexa skills that way too. I could be wrong though.

2019-01-28 14:24:25

Clarifying the above post, you can indeed interact with Alexa skills via the Amazon shopping app on Android, Fire, and Apple devices.
With that being said, not all skills can be used on "all devices," such as "echo specific" ones like " Cortana." Trial and error, and checking out the "Skills" section of the Alexa App, will definitely help out in this regard.

I'll have to see, if I can play this game on my Fire HD 8," without needing to use one of my echo dots!

2019-01-29 10:05:03

is there a way to ask alexa to play this  instead of messing with alexa app?

twitter: @hadirezae3
discord: Hadi

2019-01-29 10:10:48

Sounds good. I can't play it, though. I use Alexa in Spanish, I'll change lang to try, maybe that'll work.

I am a gamer from the begining of my life, and that will not change :p

2019-01-29 16:18:30

Mmmm hadi no need to mess with Alexa aps if you have an Echo dot or similar device, just ask alexa to launch the vortex.

I admit we seem to have reached a bit of an  enpass in the game at the moment which is annoying since all of the stuff we can do requires tool upgrades we don't have, I hope its not one of these cases  where you need to be lucky with the rng and the threeD Printer.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2019-01-29 17:06:51

The game is nice and the most chalenging I have ever played on Alexa, but I wish I could have more multijel, I can buy it because my free amazon account is in the US, but can't link a carrd to it.
I wish now I started it on my dot where I have my prime account, because I started it on my phone when travelling, using ultimate Alexa and that was linked with my free account.
I guess I will have to start over, or something.

I am myself and noone is ever gonna change me, I am the trolling master!

2019-01-29 17:40:51

Yeah Angel, lack of buying multi jell does slow down the game, though at the moment my lady and I seem to be stuck since all the tasks require tool upgrades we don't have. Whether we have to  just wait  we get lucky with the 3d printer and/or have enough multi jell I don't know.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2019-02-05 07:40:47 (edited by SilverMoon 2019-02-05 07:42:04)

hey guys,
So I'm actually loving this skill, but only one problem.
I don't know how to buy the jell things.
I can get it to tell me what's for sale, but I don't know how to buy it.
I don't even know how to open the skill within my alexa app so I can do it on the phone, since doing it via Alexa is failing royally. I live in the u.s so have a u.s account and everything, so that shouldn't be the problem at all.
help?

"Hope is the thing with feathers that perches with in the soul, that sings the tune without the words and never stops at all."
Emily Dickenson

2019-02-05 10:26:04 (edited by Dark 2019-02-05 10:27:22)

You'll get one new multijell each hour you log in, plus there are tasks you can do once a day to get more such as harvesting supplies from space.

Unfortunately,  buying multijell is only possible if your in North America because Amazon skills can't have in skill bonuses anywhere else in the world. Its a shame I'd like to support this game if I could, but from a completion perspective you don't need to buy any multijell at all, just be patient with your collecting.

Hth.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2019-02-05 16:39:45

You can tell it to buy either the small or large multigel pack. Honestly though, I wouldn't bother with that, the prices are $5 for 10 and $9 for 25. Not worth it IMO.

Take care, it's a desert out there.

2019-02-05 19:04:04

I wonder if there will be more episodes, because the only reason the game seems long is due to the Multijell. Otherwise its pretty short, though I will admit actually fun for once and brakes the mold of the Trivia and Word game.

2019-02-05 21:18:54

Since when you get all tasks up and running,  you can get about 9 multijell per day, five dollars for ten is a bit bonkers.

@Orin, the developer's website had  lot of plans for different games, so even if there isn't another episode of the vortext there will probably  other things in the future.

While most alexa games are indeed in the trivia or  category, there are some notable exceptions, dungeon adventure, six swords etc, and even with casual games we're getting some more complex entries now, for example feel the pressure is a well put together trivia game with hundreds of questions, sounds, and addictive rules.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2019-02-06 05:42:30

Oh yeah, that is really not worth it.
I thought it might something like a dollar for 10, and maybe two or something for 25, but yeah. That's ridiculously over priced. lol I like the game so far though. It's pretty awesome sauce. smile yeah, I hope that perhaps the game might become expanded, because it makes me sad to hear that the episode is so short. It sounds like a game with a huge potential.

"Hope is the thing with feathers that perches with in the soul, that sings the tune without the words and never stops at all."
Emily Dickenson

2019-02-06 08:34:10

For you guys using Alexa on the phone, you can use a secondary app like reverb or ultimate Alexa to interact with it. Ultimate works great for me! Been using it all day and it hasn't crashed on me yet.

2019-02-09 21:37:14

yeah so do any of you guys know how to play this game on my phone with the Alexa app?
I mean I play it with my echo dot just fine, and do so when I'm at home, but there are a lot of times when I'm not and kind of wish I could play it on my phone when I'm just idling around.
If anyone knows how to do it, please let me know.
thanks!!!

"Hope is the thing with feathers that perches with in the soul, that sings the tune without the words and never stops at all."
Emily Dickenson

2019-02-09 22:17:50

I answer this in post 17

2019-02-12 16:06:07

I personaly use ultimate which really works great, at least for me.
I should buy the thing though.

I am myself and noone is ever gonna change me, I am the trolling master!

2019-03-12 17:30:02

Hi
I play this game on my phone
But when I say buy the small or the  large  multi jell pack , it says this item is not  available for purchase
Help?

2019-03-12 20:31:27

You can only buy jell  if your in the united states, otherwise you'll unfortunately have to just wait.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2019-03-15 12:51:29

hi. i'm playing vorteks on my phone with reverb. however, I wanna know how often the alexa skills will be updated? because I wanna find new games that can play with alexa. thanks

2019-03-15 19:40:07

I heard about this skill a while ago, but never got around to trying it. I'm going to have to check it out at some point. I hope we get more like it. thanks for posting again.

A Candle Loses Nothing by Lighting Another Candle…
" GamerTag is. ItsTBlaze & Twitter @TBlaze97
"One Love"

2019-03-18 18:12:11

Hi.
How can i upgrade my   Repair tool? I’ve  bought the Repair tool upgrade kit but how could i use it please?