Welcome to the second edition of the audiogames.net monthly digest, bringing you new releases, discoveries and updates from the forums and elsewhere. Even though February is the shortest month of the year, we've had no shortage of developments both in purely audio as well as mainstream games.
Before we get started though, you're no doubt aware of the situation in the world. Audiogames.net stands in solidarity with Ukraine. If you're living there and are reading this or if you have family or loved ones in the area, please stay safe!
Like in the last digest, each new release will be proceeded with a heading. New this month is a section for updates and other relevant news, where each item is separated in a list. As always, if there's something missing that you think should get a mention, let others know!
Port-monde
In the words of Arkandias:
Port-monde allows you to explore a large, dangerous but stil amazing world, set between others. More than a world, Port-monde is some kind of crossroad between worlds, a place where you'll find an intense, rich and complex commercial activity, as well as a life based on danger and how to deal with it. More than everything, Port-monde is a place of magic, probably the place of magic. The game lets you take part in this world's story by incarnating François Malveine, a human from our world who finds himself transported to this strange, dark and fantastic place of opportunities. Port-monde is currently in public beta stage, proposing a major part of its content, the rest to be released in a few months. The full release will allow you access to three adventgures, each based on a different character, with different objectives, origines and such. Currently two of them are available, the first unlocked by default being François' adventure.
Each adventure has multiple ends, unlocking many achievments.
The game's mechanic is one of an rpg, mixed with elements of deckbuilding and many specific concepts related to magic and how to deal with it. For now the game allready gives access to hours of exploration, quests and surprises.
Port-monde is currentlyh available for mac and windows, and is soon to be released for Linux as wel. All the related download links can be found onItch :
https://le-nid-de-corax.itch.io/port-mondes
While the game hasn't been localized into English, it works very well with translation addons for screen readers like NVDA or ZDSR
Poppy Seed Pets
Poppy Seed Pets and its ancestors are games where the pets largely take care of themselves. They go out hunting, crafting, fishing, exploring, and all that other stuff on their own. once an hour or so. They level up skills as they use them, which allows them to undertake bigger and tougher, and more rewarding tasks as they grow.
Their behavior is largely based on several psychological theories that have been programmed into the logic of the game: most notably among them, "Maslow's Heairchy of Need" If you aren't taking good care of your pets, they'll mostly undertake just basic survival tasks and they'll also stop gaining experience points. Only when you have both their physical (which is more foundational) and emotional needs met will they truly do well.
characters also have hidden personality traits and such that make them more interesting and they develop over time to have certain tendencies and such.
One difference I have noticed between Psypets and Poppy Seed Pets is that Poppy Seed Pets has far fewer skills. Your pets are still doing most of the things they did in Psypets, but instead of things like chemistry, engineering, and electronics, being seperate skills, such activities are lumped together under a broader "science" skill.
Apotheorasis Lab of the Blind Gods
Apotheorasis is a first person 3D action thriller without any graphics or UI.
Navigation, stealth, shooting, interactions ; you play it all by ear (literally)A recent accident has left you blind, unable to speak, and with no memory of your former self.
“We are here to help” whispers a voice softly, yet something feels off.
In a twisted stroke of luck, your fate is tied to that of a dubious stranger. All you know is that something far more ominous is lurking around every corner you can't see.
Key Features
Dream-Like Graphics Close your eyes, listen carefully, and let your imagination handle the rest.
3D Audio (Binaural) That bullet that's coming your way from the top right? Yes, you can tell.
Rediscover the Basics Navigate from A to B, dodge traps, and fight enemies ; it will feel like your first time.
Hard but Forgiving Frequent checkpoints make sure you never lose more than a minute or two of your efforts.
Short and Sweet An interesting story told in a simple way, with a few choices along the way.
Lost Vault: Idle Retro RPG
Join the mixed world of post-apocalypse and fantasy. Build your character, collect mythic gear and climb the rank! Upgrade your shelter to stay safe and raid the unprepared. Explore the wasteland and clear scattered all over the world Vaults.
Lost Vault is a variation of idle and active MMORPG. Prepare for resources optimisation and performing the actions carefully! Portrait mode played with just one hand is the way to play!
POST-APO vs FANTASY: Choose your side by playing as Ranger, Rebel or Knight and Wizard. Everyone has equal chances to dominate the world.
JOIN THE CLAN: Playing as a lone wolf is not the best strategy during apocalypse. Establish or join one of the clans to gather bonuses and access to dangerous bosses.
BUILD SHELTER: Stay safe and upgrade the only safe place you got. Gather resources and raid other players.
NO P2W: You not gonna rule the world with your credit card.
UNLOCK DUNGEONS: Defeat locked in the underground Vaults bosses and steal the hidden treasuries.
COLLECT EQUIPMENT: Naked survivor is dead survivor. Find best gear divided by multiple tiers and rarities.
NO GRINDING: Play just short sessions during the day to stay competitive.
WORKSHOP: Upgrade your items and put precious gems into the sockets.
NO ADS: As simple as that.
EXPLORE DISTRICTS: 20 locations with various beasts are waiting for being explored.
SMASH YOUR FOES: Player vs Player (PvP), Player vs Environment/Monsters (PvE), Guild vs Guild (GvG) and even Guild vs Environment/Monster (GvE). It's all here.
Dear readers, Voiceover comes to Apple Arcade
As posted by Paul Martin to Applevis:
If you're like me, and had a subscription to Apple Arcade for ages, yet having no games that are playable,it should then come as some good news that a game there is making progress in Voiceover support.
While viewing the recently updated section out of curiosity, the game Dear reader was among the list, and the release notes for the latest update as of this post specificly mentioned improvements for Voiceover. They weren't kidding, as the pieces of the puzzles needing to be put in place are now indicated as "word fragment" among other things.
Though it's a bit bumpy on both Mac and iOS, this is certainly a step in the right direction, and I'm sure any word game fans or book lovers would like to give this one a shot.
Game updates
Hearthstone access got a number of patches during February, mainly adding new translations and keeping the patch working with Hearthstone updates. The most recent patch, however, introduced full support for the long requested Battlegrounds mode. This plays completely differently than the base game and is an auto battler where your goal is to buy, position and upgrade your minions while they automatically fight for you.
Stardew Valley has recently been modded to make it blind accessible. While these mods have been around for a while, recent updates this month and a few additional companion mods have been released that make it much easier to locate items and navigate the world, making the game completely playable. This blog post on Black Screen Gaming gives more details how the mods work, as well as what you need and where to get it to play the game.
Warsim has received a patch adding in more content for gambling, hiring mercenaries, tons of new random faces and more. The full changelog can be found in this post
BeatStar got an update allowing you to download and upload packs from the game, as well as quickly playtest the pack you're working on right from the editor.
Alter Aeon picked up original music in its client and added various status effects that can be delt in battles
Your_Adventure now at version 4.0 adds some extra info keys and a brief display mode, and fixes to the harvest system.
Space Defender at version 2 adds allies, ship resistances and various bug fixes
System Fault got a few updates this month. The 2 notable things that changed are the game now has procedural ambient sounds as well as upgraded robot effects, as well as the beginnings of a card mechanic letting you apply various modifiers to your character.
Other news of interest
In a Blog post Sony has announced a new Beta firmware for the PS 5 which will be releasing for everyone later this year. Among other new features, the console's Screen Reader will now speak in 6 new languages - Arabic, Dutch, Korean, Polish, Brazilian Portuguese and Russian. For English US and UK the console is also getting voice commands letting you quickly launch games and control media playback which should also be a welcome feature that should greatly speed up navigation.
