Tag Archives: GameOfTheDay

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BroBots – Where One Player is the Bullet!

Screenshot of BroBots

BroBots is a delightful little game I ran into at GDEX 2018. When I first played it, I did horrible because I didn’t realize what was going on. There were two robots – a big one and little one – and swarms of enemies. It looks like a twin-stick shooter – a genre of games loosely based on Robotron and others like it.

So What IS BroBots?

The developer happened to be there and pointed out what I was missing. One player is the main character, the other player is the weapon! Player one is a big, slow robot named “Big Bro” and he just wanders around collecting power ups and earning points. The other “Lil Bro” is a super-fast smaller robot who is invincible and damages any enemies he touches. It’s the very essence of couch co-operative play.

What’s Good About It?

The music is upbeat, the enemies are varied, and there are things enemies drop that you can collect to build up special powers for both robots. Big Bro can spawn a field around himself for a short period of time that slows enemies significantly, while Lil Bro can activate a laser that bridges between Big Bro and Lil Bro that does huge amounts of damage to any enemies it touches.

What’s Bad About It?

The only downside to this game – anyone wanting a wide variety of levels and game modes will be sadly disappointed. It’s one scene with constant streams of enemies coming at you until you die and the only object is to rack up the highest score possible. I am fine with this because it’s a fun little game you can pick up and play with someone for a few rounds and enjoy it immensely. And it’s going for $2 USD on Itch.io or more if you feel like it’s worth paying the extra.

What’s My Verdict?

I would love to see more local cooperative multiplayer games like this. I also do enjoy the fact that with the 40+ hour mega-blockbuster suck up all your free time games out here, games like BroBots are still being made. These indies are made with tons of passion by developers who are bringing back the fun of local multiplayer games. Find a friend, grab a couple controllers, and enjoy!

BroBots available from from Itch.io

BroBots logo

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Gaming Post a Day For November 2018!

Steam library over 357 games

I have some writing friends who are doing NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) which is exactly what it sounds like. You write a novel in a month. I have no desire to do this but found there is a similar idea called NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month) which is posting one blog post a day for a month.

I am not sure I’ve got time to do post every day, but I will write for my blog every day. There are a ton of things I can write about that I will be doing.

Why am I doing this?

I love games and gaming and would love to make games. I am a programmer for my day job, but after doing it all day, I’ve had about enough programming for one day. So rather than make games I am going to share some of my favorite games with the Internet in general rather than spending all my time telling everyone I know about these wonderful gems of indie goodness.

Some teasers/spoilers:

  • Recently I went to the 2018 GDEX which is a weekend-long game developer expo here in Columbus, Ohio that’s been happening every fall for a few years now. It’s grown to be over 100 exhibitors including some local hobbyists and small studios up to some well-known indies like Finji of Night in the Woods fame. There are a couple dozen games from this I could write about.
  • There are some wonderful new indie games I’ve encountered between Kickstarter and Humble Bundle. This includes Garden Paws which is a like a super-chill mashup of Stardew Valley and Minecraft with cute animals. I’ve been playing this with my kids. I have also been following Bombfest which is in the final stages of finishing up their launch.
  • Last but not least, there have been a handful of games I started playing this year that I have sunk some major hours into and even finished – which is increasingly rare for me. This includes Hollow Knight and Subnautica which are both amazing atmospheric games with amazing soundtracks and a heavy emphasis on exploration. But that is about all those games have in common.