[Drem]

Saw this pop up on the Playstation Blog: http://blog.us.playstation.com/2014/01/16/how-to-kick-butt-in-gunhouse/

This is the same Brandon we know and love, right? Tim got a game on PSM, now Brandon. Did anyone else have one? Who's next?

[Drem]

Aaaaahhhhh I wasn't logged in and now my entire post is gone.

Summary: At the bottom of Brandon's post is a link to download the PlayStation Mobile apk file (its not in the Play Store. Maybe because it's an alternate appstore like Amazon Appstore?). Edit: http://us.playstation.com/playstationmobile/ The game list doesn't seem to have Gunhouse and many other games I've seen on the Vita so I don't know how up to date it is.

Lots of weird stuff on PSM. The puzzle game of What Did I Do To Deserve This is apparently available in the US and might be worth checking out. Numblast too if it's been rebalabced to get more challenging at a quicker rate. Tokyo Jungle strategy is surprisingly faithful to original PSN game.

Played some game called Fleet Connection last night that was about optimizing tech progression and unit build orders in an rpg/strategy game. It was very easy to make the gane impossible to win within a few turns of starting.

For the past several weeks PSM has been having two free games per week. This is the last week so you can still grab a couple of games. I have no idea how good they are this week.

[Drem]

That tiny Supported Devices list probably killed any potential momentum this initative could have had. Anyway, I tested the app on my HTC One and it works alright. The interface looks exactly like the PS Vita store except it doesn't have a search bar meaning you can only filter the list by "New Releases", "Featured", or "All" (the latter of which, now that I look at it, is subdivided by genre). There's also a bar of images at the top featuring some games that you can scroll through. The games you download aren't added to your phone like any regular app but are instead added to a "Library" section where you can see all the game's you downloaded. I played 10x8 (Tim's game) and while it runs completely fine it's techincally running within the PSM app since you can hold the menu button to pull up PSM controller options or to quit the game and the App Switching function of Android lists the screen as "Playstation Mobile." Weird stuff. Even all those chat networks like Kakao Talk and LINE that require you to have the main chat app installed are able to have the games run separately.


There's a series of adventure games developed and voice acted by some Maid Cafe in Akihabara that they even translated completely into English. The description says your interaction has no effect on the game's outcome and asks you to go visit their shop. It's nice that the game descriptions list what languages the games support but there's a lot of quality game descriptions in this store. For the game "Shiro-kuro hakkiri tsukeru kuma" (I have no idea what this game actually is. It looks like a lot of menus.):

[Drem]

How did you manage to get a front page post on the official Playstation blog?

[Drem]

It's on the store for me, both cell phone and Vita. I saw it both in the top image bar and the New Releases section.

[Drem]

I played a little bit of this while half asleep last night and suffering from acid reflux (or maybe I'm dying, I'll find out today). I enjoy the sliding mechanic you made for the puzzle segments although I am still learning how to see and setup formations. It's neat and requires a different mindset from the falling blocks and swapping blocks designs that are more prevalent. It's interesting how the big blocks provide greater power boosts but once formed are more difficult to work with; it feels like in most situations the big blocks will be stuck to the side of the field it was formed on and can't easily be manuevered to the other side. So if you want to make a big block for either a gun or special attack you have to plan its creation rather then making it and worrying about it after the fact.

The puzzle blocks turning into attacks is cool but I feel like the combat segments need a better sense of progression and clearer feedback for the player. I can't pinpoint any way to see my progress through a particular wave which leaves me to just keep putting the guns on until the game tells me to stop. I think some indicator of what you're working towards. whether overall progress or enemy lifebars or something, would help give the player something to aim for especially if you die and see how close you were to winning. Maybe this is just a beginning-level thing but I also can't find too much need to worry about which guns you build at any particular moment outside of the position of those guns that don't aim. It's not clear how strong they are in relation to each other and it doesn't seem like there are benefits to using certain guns on certain enemy types (except for maybe using ice attacks on the faster walking peons to slow them down). When building guns I haven't worried too much about which guns I get despite the multiplier bonuses because they all seem to do the job just fine at the moment.

Is there a limit to how strong a weapon can get? I can see them shaking as they get upgraded but I'm not sure if there's a point of diminishing returns where I can focus on another gun afterwards. I think it would also be useful if it was easier to judge how much more damage you can take. The hearts look like they can shrink in very small increments so I'm having trouble telling how many more hits I can take when it comes down to the wire. I also feel it's little out of the way when I'm looking at my guns and the enemies but maybe I just need to make sure to look up every now and then. Speaking of life I have no idea what the deal with the orphans are. I can't tell how many I have or what happens if I lose one. Is there a meter I'm just missing? I'm not sure whether the losing condition is losing orhans, losing life, or both. The little robot driving around at the bottom of the screen is cute. Does each coin give a set amount of money or is it variable?

Sorry if I'm coming off too critical. I really do think the game is cool and I'll definitely play it more. The concept is great but those were just the strongest thoughts that came to mind as I played. :(

Edit: I can't stop laughing at the dragon. It looks so goofy.

[Drem]

Just wanted to say that many of those complaints are remedied by playing while awake.

[Drem]

The game runs a lot better on my HTC One so yeah, it must be a Vita thing. Now that I've gotten a better grip on what's going on and gotten farther the lack of visual progress isn't bothering as much because, as you said, it has become a test of endurance. I am taking damage much more and am more concerned with surviving rather than simply completing the level. I always seem to tiptoe on the brink of death every 10-15 seconds.

[Drem]

This is the longest I've played a mobile game so I think it's safe to say I'm really enjoying it. I could definitely feel the difficult pick up on Day 4 and it forced me to learn each weapon's uses a bit more. The later enemy behaviors and positions definitely force you to plan out gun placement and usage more, like you said it would, and I appreciate this design decision you chose. It's probably less restricting that doing a simple X-beat-Y approach. Day 4 made me lean to love to the shield special attack and it was funny when the Day 5 boss was a huge jerk who just reached over the shield and started picking up babies. That guy made me love that ground spike thing the Sine Gun special attack does.

The Day 6 enemies dish out damage very quickly so right now I'm learning how to balance defense and offense and trying different approaches. At the moment I'm trying to reserve most if not all special attack slots with Sine Gun and using the gun slots for everything else, the dragon guns.

[Drem]

Spoiler: I knew something was up on Day 10, Night when there was new music!


Edit:




Great game.