March 2, 2023

Audiogames.net Monthly Digest - February 2023

Welcome to the second edition of the audiogames.net monthly digest of 2023! Being a little shorter than the other months, February gave developers a bit less time to put out new releases or updates. That being said, we still have a bunch of exciting things for you this month, including a new exciting idle game, a newly discovered mud and as always a number of updates both big and small. And speaking of big, we recently surpassed 100 subscribers to the email newsletter! When we started this digest last year, none of us thought it’d get such a big fanbase, and that’s just on email - there’s probably just as many of you reading these on the forum. Regardless of how you follow these digests, thanks for being with us and as always be sure to tell your friends!

New Releases

Magic Research (iOS, Android)

In Magic Research, you are the headmaster of a newly-created institution of Magic with one goal: to learn as much as possible about this power and get enough fame to be able to compete, and win, the prestigious competition of schools: the Tournament of Magic. But what will you discover along the way?

• Cast over a hundred different spells with various effects
• Research magic in various magical schools to discover new, surprising ways to use this power
• Accumulate resources and build the school campus
• Manage a team of researchers and apprentices to lead your school to fame
• Discover tons of hidden new features - when will you unlock the next one?
• Find over six dozen secret storylines with permanent, game-altering effects
• Restart the game and make faster progress each time with retirement bonuses
• Optimized both for iPhone and iPad
• No ads!

This is the full, complete game. You can transfer save data from the demo by using the Export / Import Save feature available in both the demo and in the full game.

Fruitpot 2 (iOS)

Try out the best game of the year. If you liked FruitPot 1 you will love FruitPot 2: similar gameplay but with all new stores and mini-games, and set in the 80s.

• Innovative ever-changing fruit machine slot.
• More than 15 mini-games that appear as you progress through the game.
• Original gameplay where you have to spend the Bucks you get at the games buying items in stores at the mall.
• Great sounds and graphics.
• No internet connection is required to play, also no personal data gathering or subscriptions.
• 100% Accessible with VoiceOver, as it always should be.

Upgraded versions of FruitPot 2 will come every now and then with more mini-games and functions. Please feel free to contact us at fruitpot@icloud.com to give us feedback about any improvements you wish.

Constant Motion Concept Demo: endless Runner collection from Sam Tupy (Windows)

This concept demo is provided as is, I have not worked on the project in a couple of years now. It was written in python during late 2018 and through 2019 before I decided that python was not the best programming language for audio game development, where the project then halted. This idea is a lot of fun though and I fully intend to rewrite it from scratch and finish it as intended. I wasn’t planning to release it until I rewrote it, but after my server crashed and all of my services went offline, I realized that folks could still get several hours of fun out of this game that’s just been sitting here on my hard drive collecting virtual dust. It’s certainly no Survive the Wild of course, but still I hope that it at least provides a smidgen of fun and entertainment for you guys during this unfortunate STW blackout! Constant motion is a small collection of minigames with one very simple attribute in common. You never stop moving! When playing most games, it’s so easy to take for granted the fact that you can often pause for a moment and plan your next movement, making sure you get in just the right position to jump that pit, or slowly insuring that you line up your shot for that perfect critical hit. Not in constant motion! Here, while you may sometimes be able to control what direction you’re character moves in, or maybe to some extent the speed you travel depending on the game, you never have direct control over your character’s movement in any of these minigames! Aside from this one condition, the minigames themselves could be anything realistic or not, so feel free to give them a try and compete on the scoreboards if you can last long enough!

Forgotten Kingdoms, a rpi mud set in the forgotten realms campaign

Description by forum member Materiasentinel

connection information forgottenkingdoms.org, port 4000 forgotten kingdoms is a mud set in the forgotten realms campaign setting, an intricate world of maic and swordplay. the mud is roleplay-enforced, which means you must stay in-character and roleplay your character in a fantasy world. however, there are no stringent background systems although the naming requirements might get a few peoples. there are a wide array of character class-paths to unlock. although there are four starting classes, guilds are found throughout the game world which might lead to grander roleplaying opportunities and expansion of your character. before i get into the zones, i will warn you, most hometowns and advanced races are unlocked through a form of account points known as kismet, one kismet is gained per hourof roleplay, although staff do rewards of kismet to especially nice roleplay. however if you’re intending to unlock the underdark right out the gate it’s not a great idea anyways, it’s dangerous and according to experienced players it’s not novice-friendly in the least.weather you be a waterdhavian thief with cunning lockpicking skills and a tendency to steal, a wise wizardly type from silverymoon, a drowish member of a skullport gang or a priestess in THE DROW MATRIARCHY, far beneath the world in the perilous and grand city of menzoberranzan. the world is vast, and when i say vast i do mean it. it also sticks very well to the setting and lore, a visual street chart of waterdeep might help because the streets attempt to remain accurate towards available lore. the world stretches all the way from waterdeep and luskan on the sword coast, yes even it’s outlying villages and keeps, the elven isle of evermeat, the perilous land of amn or even magocratic thay. yes, there’s also an underdark, with cties winding from aelskiath to ched-nasad, menzoberranzan and blingdenstone as well as skullport and it’s numerous quarters as well as an enormous undermountain comprised of around five zones. i’m not sure about the playerbase, i wish it was high but the immortals are helpful especially towards newbies and newer players. if you like roleplay in a grand fantasy setting and like forgotten relms it might be to your liking.

Game Updates

• The pc version of The last of Us Part I is available for preorder, due for a March28 release. This has the potential to open the game up to a whole new subset of players.
• Say The Spire in version 0.4.2 now provides an API for other mod developers letting them make their mods speak through your screen reader as well as tap into the accessible map display. The mod now also differentiates similar monsters such as slimes better and includes a few other small fixes.
• The Classic Six Dragons Mud received several updates in February which introduced more tutorial zones, added a few extra help topics as well as improved the sound pack while making it smaller by compressing the sounds.
• Hearthstone received a new mini set of cards - Return to Naxramas. In addition to it, Patch 25.4 introduced a new battlegrounds hero, made some balanced changes as well as added a new sound options menu allowing for better volume level adjustment. The Hearthstone Access mod was also updated to support the new version of the game and the new sound options.
• February updates to Alter Aeon have been numerous and involved small fixes to everything from crafting, combat skills, viewing your inventory and more.
• Textspaced received a few small visual tweaks to the UI. Chapter 10 of the story has also been released and there is now a configurable ping sound when enemy ships have entered your sensor range.
• A new user created stage for Adventure at C: has been released - Windows Attack
• Lost Vault has had a major 2.0 update, the headline of which is a new redesigned user interface. Numerous subsequent updates throughout February refined its accessibility as well as added other smaller enhancements to the game.

Authors

This edition of the digest has been written by:

• Piotr Machacz (@pitermach on Twitter and pitermach@dragonscave.space on Mastodon)
• Jack jackf723@mastodon.social on Mastodon