Too hot to play but what the **** . Time for some Indie - Signs of Life !

WORK IN PROGRESS, BUT ENTERTAINING AND WELL DONE

Independent Game ( Sweet Dog Studios )
Early Access (yikes)
"We are a tiny team with no budget, so Early Access will allow us to think longer-term, and ultimately deliver a better game." - Sweet Dog Studios

They actually call themselves Studios. Well. Tiny Team, no Budget, buuuut Studios. Good. Seems like that's part of the underdog, or should I say, sweet dog, imaginative lunacy you need to survive in this business.

Clearly, this game belongs in the trendy Mesh'N'Run. You jump, you run, you mine, you craft, you build, you explore, you learn, you fight, you die.

Signs of Life is imo more computer gaming art (not art) than a computer game, it's animations are stiff, it's gameplay unorthodox, it's game menus refreshingly uncoordinated. It's inventory graphics are clean but ridiculously minuscule, its key mapping strangely random and the sarcastic computer helper wristband is funny unsympathetic but not really helpful.
But nevertheless, there is A LOT to explore and it is refreshingly different from other games like
Terraria etc.


You can mine somethings, you cant mine something. There is no real explanation for whys in this games, its more an explore the exploring of the people who went to explore how to make a game.
Well, in this case the game even works. I was able to make a campfire, burn some meat, eat some meat, make some bags and was actually intrigued by some of the sweet facts of this world you're thrown in.

Yeah, so I found out how to use torches. And I started to do what I like most in these types of block-based explorer games. I dig straight down !

[ROUND 1]

After an hour of numbing digging. Nothing. Stone. Mud. Then suddenly a goat in an empty space. Aha. There was no connection to the earth, but there is a goat. Well nevermind. Then I suddenly found recipes under a chair. But I am deep under the earth, and there is nothing like a chair here. Oh, well.

To make it short. This is..ehm. It is art. But it has somekind of...potential.

I am still curious what the alien buildings are on the surface. But digging down is rather boring.
And the music is going on my nerves, its like a melodic apathetic meditation music. All the time.

[ROUND 2]

So I digged A LOT, collected a lot, entered some alien ? no now I know its a mining station from my own people. I fought fearless battles, I died because of poor collision detection miles under the earth and had to get there naked. I enjoyed IT ! It is hardcore, the mapping is hardcore. Actually the graphics of the user interface is besides from the ugly neo blue REALLY good (the designer gives ultima online as one of his inspirations and yes, I believe him THAT !)

The humor is crude, you find a big bottle of actual piss, and once you take it, your first Steam
Achivment is set. That's just epic. Or you can actually cook human meat (not on the wiki btw, I have to edit it there, lol) and EAT IT. He wont make himself friends, but the dev will make himself fans. Way to go, High Definition Piss Bottle Studios. No wait.

I certainly will have an eye on this game. It is really something different, AND you don't have to buy the new silly walks app by John Cleese !

BTW, i was really pissed, cause the devs let the debug keys on. With F4 you could actually turn off the lighting and see the complete map under earth, so exploring was ruined. I told them that on steam and the replied within 10 minutes saying they will remove it. But they also say "even I don't use them". So they are one of these "proud" devs. As I was saying. These dudes are more artists than
calculating game devs. And that's in this case VERY GOOD.