Audiogames.net Monthly Digest - October 2023
October 2023
Welcome to the slightly spooky October 2023 audiogames.net monthly digest, arriving in your inbox just in time for Halloween. The new releases section this month is dominated by a certain little racing game that has been talk of the community both leading up to and in the weeks after its release, but we also have a few things for fans of idle games and visual novels. And as always we also bring you news of game updates, with the section this month being appropriately monstrous with 15 items including a major accessibility improvement to a mainstream game we discussed before. So sit down by the fire (inviting your friends too of course) and let us tell you what's new!
New Releases
Forza Motorsport (Xbox, PC via gamepass, Microsoft Store or Steam)
• Immerse yourself in over 500 real cars across 20 world-famous tracks, including fan favorite locations and multiple track layouts, each featuring fully dynamic time-of-day with weather and unique driving conditions. • Out-build the competition using more than 800 performance upgrades in the all-new, fun and rewarding single-player experience, the Builders Cup Career Mode. • Race alongside your friends in adjudicated multiplayer* events with tire and fuel strategy, a race weekend inspired structure and new driver and safety ratings. • Compete with cutting edge AI opponents, advanced physics, powerful assists, new damage and dirt accumulation systems and photorealistic visuals with real-time ray tracing on-track.
Race over 500 real-world cars including modern race cars and more than 100 cars new to Forza Motorsport. Make every lap count across 20 living tracks with fan-favorite locations and multiple track layouts to master, each featuring live on-track scoring, fully dynamic time-of-day with weather and unique driving conditions that ensure no two laps ever look or play the same.
Experience a cutting-edge simulation with incredible photorealistic visuals that deliver real-time ray tracing on-track, new damage and dirt accumulation systems, and massively upgraded physics featuring powerful assists and a 48x improvement in tire fidelity.
Out-build the competition by earning over 800 performance upgrades and race our most advanced AI opponents yet in an all-new, fun and rewarding single-player campaign, the Builders Cup Career Mode.
Compete for the podium in Featured Multiplayer* events with a race weekend inspired structure or create the racing you and your friends desire in Free Play. Online racing is safer, more fun and more competitive with AI-powered Forza Race Regulations, tire and fuel strategy, and new driver and safety ratings.
Immerse yourself in an expanding world of motorsport. New career championships and online events will be regularly introduced offering unique challenges, incredible new cars and tracks, and exciting new gameplay experiences for years to come.
As we mentioned previously, the game includes an extensive suite of accessibility features for blind gamers. If you are interested in the game here are a couple of links that will be helpful:
- Full list of accessibility features
- Tutorial videos by Brandon Cole:
- And finally one more tutorial from forum member Sneak with very practical demonstrations how to get started - Video and a text version with the most important information.
For the most up to date list of resources have a look at the forum thread linked above where you can also ask your own questions.
Slay the Princess (Windows, Mac, Linux)
You're on a path in the woods, and at the end of that path is a cabin. And in the basement of that cabin is a Princess.
You're here to slay her. If you don't, it will be the end of the world.
She will do everything in her power to stop you. She'll charm, and she'll lie, and she'll promise you the world, and if you let her, she'll kill you a dozen times over. You can't let that happen. Don't forget, the fate of the world rests on your shoulders.
You're not going to listen to him, are you? We're supposed to save princesses, not slay them...
Features
- Fully voice-acted by the impeccable Jonathan Sims and Nichole Goodnight.
- Hand-penciled art - every background and sprite is drawn traditionally with pencil and paper by Ignatz-winning graphic novelist Abby Howard.
- A princess. She's very bad and you have to get rid of her for all our sakes.
- No, the Princess isn't a cosmic horror. She's just an ordinary human Princess, and you can definitely slay her as long as you put your mind to it.
- Don't even think about trying to romance her. It won't end well for you.
- Hopefully you won't die. But if you do, you'll die a lot. Be careful and stay focused on the task at hand!
- Time loops No time loops. Don't be ridiculous. Time is a strictly linear concept and it certainly doesn't "loop," whatever that's supposed to mean.
- A branching narrative where what you say and what you believe determines both who you are and how the story unfolds.
- A new roleplaying experience from the creators of Scarlet Hollow.
Slay the Princess is a choice-driven psychological horror visual novel/dating sim with dramatic branching, light RPG elements, and hand-penciled art.
Idle Iktah (iOS, Android)
Description by forum member DRG:
Idle Iktah is an incremental game set in a fictionalized Pacific Northwest where you start from nothing and create your own path to success. Level up, complete quests, and gain powerful rewards as you dive deeper into this hand-crafted adventure. hey everyone! so this game released a few weeks ago and i've been testing it since the first release. it has months of content. the description of the game is simple, but the game will add layers of new content and unlockable areas and surprises as you play. it has a storyline. if you have played melvor idle, i find this one much more enjoyable, because even though there are many skills like woodcutting, gathering, fishing, cooking, etc. things are much easier to understand with a mobile device. you can fight and read all stats in a screen easy to understand and track your hp. i've reported some accessibility issues and the developer is always listening and improving. i'll send a link to the testflight version in case of apple devices, because you can receive updates faster. you can also send feedback directly from the game by going to more settings and feedback. the android version also has a way to join the beta, i just don't remember how i did it. so i'll leave a link to the standard version in the play store, and if someone can report if you're running at least version 1.0.4 it should be the latest one. i hope you enjoy the game!
Dungeon Crawler on Demand (Web)
Quickly and easily access a thrilling dungeon-crawling experience at any time. With a simple click of a button, players can enter a fully-realized, randomly generated dungeon filled with monsters and diablo inspired equipment looting system!
Gameplay Mechanics - Roguelite gameplay where the progress is reset when the player dies, but equipment is carried over. - Players navigate through the dungeon by climbing the floors that features randomized events. - Players can upgrade their stats upon level up, choosing 3 possible upgrades and 2 reroll chances per level. - Players has 6 slots of equipment that they can equip. - There are 6 equipment rarities which are Common, Uncommon, Rare, Epic, Legendary, and Heirloom. In-game Stats - HP (Hit Points) - The amount of damage a unit can take before dying. - ATK (Attack) - The amount of damage dealt when a unit attacks. - DEF (Defense) - The amount of damage reduction against attacks. - ATK.SPD (Attack Speed) - How quickly a unit can perform attacks per second. - VAMP (Vampirism) - Heals for a percentage of the damage dealt. - C.RATE (Crit Rate) - Chance to land a critical hit. - C.DMG (Crit Damage) - Amount of bonus damage dealt upon landing a critical hit. Support If you encounter any issues or have any questions or suggestions, please reach out to me! - Discord - brnkastel - Twitter - Facebook
New Eden (new iOS game out for early evaluation)
Hi all! I am brand new to the iOS dev world, and have been using iOS for over a decade now as a blind user. I am happy to announce that my new game New Eden is out for public evaluation. What is New Eden, Anyway? New Eden is a resource management game inspired by Castaways for Windows. Aprone himself has approved of the heavy influence I have drawn from his game, and I believe he is one of the besters as well, so we are all good on that front. As I myself am blind, I guarantee all aspects of this app to be accessible to voiceover users, and I am working on visual elements as well as time allows. You can interact with the game using a qwerty keyboard and keyboard shortcuts like you can on windows, or you can use the touch screen. You add and remove buildings to your island, manage your economy and resources, and take care of your people. As the game stabilizes, I will be allowing people to settle multiple islands at once. There are a lot of bugs and features that are still being worked on, so I definitely welcome all suggestions. I have a discord and testflight links, both of which are here: https://discord.gg/WBqAZgNhtr https://testflight.apple.com/join/JPBd2sq9
Game Updates
- They'll come from the Moon! Received a small update in time for Halloween. Version 1.1.1 includes updated art, support for PS4 and Xbox controllers and improves the audio mix.
- Mortal Kombat 1's first big update brings a number of balance changes and bug fixes, as well as making many improvements to the screen reader. The majority of menus that were previously not read, including your Kombat Card, store, tutorial selection and most menus in Invasions are now read out
- Sanctuary in Time 0.4.1 makes outfits have an impact on gameplay, adds a few side story events and brings the usual bunch of bug fixes and balance changes
- Upheaval 0.0.10 completely overhauls the game's demo, allowing players to see more of the game. This update also introduces a new interactive tutorial and more content for the full version. A subsequent 0.0.11 patch added a few hot fixes.
- Wurmus - an audio rendition of the classic game of Snake by Shift Backtick is now at version 1.2.0. The game is now also available on Steam in addition to Itch. The new update greatly improves the game balance, adds controller vibration, and makes tweaks to both the audio and graphics.
- Similarly, one of Shiftbacktick's other games - EXO is also now at version 1.2.0 which updates the game engine and introduces graphical improvements.
- Continuing the theme of games getting Steam releases, Hell Hunter 2 also got one. The Steam version of the game includes over a hundred achievements to collect
- Warsim 1.0.8 adds even more events to explore in "the lands beyond" introduced in the previous update, but also introduces the ability to have literal mountains of gold and more in-game events
- Escape from Norwood had a small update which introduced a few bug fixes, as well as changed the key to enable accessibility to CTRL+F12
- Rettou - Aprone's island management game is now at version 2.0. It introduces difficulty options as well as reworks various menus to make them easier to use.
- Advance Wars: Days of Ruin had many updates throughout October which in addition to bug fixes greatly improved the game's AI
- Hearthstone is prepping for its next expansion, Showdown in the Badlands. Patch 27.6, which prepares the game for it also introduces the usual balance changes in both standard hearthstone and Battlegrounds. The developers of Hearthstone access have kept on-top of all these changes, including a rewrite of the tutorial. The mod now also has a snazzy new site making it much easier to download which can be found at hearthstoneaccess.com
- Wave of the Undead 3.2.0 adds a number of new sounds and graphics to the game to make it more exciting
- The Classic Six Dragons Mud now has monster races. If you ever want to play as a giant or a huge floating eyeball, now you get that chance!
In Other News
The folks over at Blackscreen Gaming have launched the first ever racing tournament for Forza Motorsport this community has ever seen, for the most accessible mainstream racing game this community has ever seen.