Developer

JForthDesigns

Story

Steve is a wizards apprentice and has spent many years, cleaning up after Marlin. Marlin has been working on a spell that could change the very world we live in! However, it all goes horribly wrong and it's up to his trusted friend to pick up the peices.

Are you hero enough to save the world?

Screenshots







Credits

I obviously did most of the design, development, video editing and audio mastering; however, a good friend of mine was kind enough to help me with the story. He also played as the voice of Marlin. My beautiful wife kept me inspired and put up with my anti-socialness, during the two weeks I spent making this; and she very kindly voiced the narration for the whole game.

I would also like to thank the other moderators of the forums. Without them, this game wouldn't have been possible! They have been there for me throughout this whole process.

A few last mentions would be SisterMatic (!Nullptr), SmallG and Corno1 for all their scripting assistance, before and after the making of this game. The forums are blessed to have your friendliness and helpfulness!

Download

DOWNLOAD LINK

Game Dev Competition Page

Page link

Cheers

Jay.

looks really great

out of data usage for the month. I'll give it a try next month.

I gave this a play and was really enjoying it,...some good stuff in this game, and a unique style, nice.
When I got to the cave level I found jumping across those stones tricky, and fell to my death three
times,......so it was game over for me, and I did not feel like starting from the beginning again,......
(we really need that "save load" feature implemented soon).
Also it was a little buggy in places, but that is GG's fault, not yours.
However, I will give this another play through again when I have time because I feel this game
gives us a good indication of what GG will be capable of when the performance improves and
the bugs have been sorted out,.....and the fact that you have been able to make this game now
with GG in it's present state is an achievement in it's self, so well done and good luck in the comp,
and thanks for the download,

My game still needs votes and feedback!

Please pop over to the game page and cast your votes if you liked the game and maybe leave some feedback.

Game Competition page

All votes and feedback are greatly appreciated!

Cheers

Jay.

Thanks for the reminder, mate. I've been greedily playing "Steve" as well as benefiting from your Youtube tutorials for a while now.

Haha. No problem. I saw your comment. Thanks for the support!

Cheers

Jay.

Thanks for your nice words.

I will play it, and give you a review

Final day of voting tomorrow! If you haven't already looked at my game or voted, please pop over and cast your vote or leave some feedback!

Thanks.

Link to game page

Cheers

Jay.

It would appear that I jumped the gun with this one..........it's not the final day of voting until 2nd October! So........yeah!

I finally got around to play this !

Brilliant, great style and flows very well, love the voice acting and story.

10/10 should have won something !

Well done Jay

@Emrys,

Thanks so much for the kind words.

Now that the competition is out of the way, I do plan on continuing work on this. I will be working out all the little bugs, improving gameplay and adding more gameplay mechanics, adding a lot more levels and I have a little something planned to keep the players interest. Think Time Splitters....

Cheers

Jay.

I'm downloading it and hit you with a small review once I find the time.

I look forward to reading the review Wolf!

Always keen to see what others think!

I really don´t want to offend anyone else here, but this is the best "finished" GG game I`ve ever played from here.

Hear, hear ! No one should be offend, the game is brilliant

You had me going with the first few lines of that! haha. I was prepared for you to say that you don't like it! haha.

Thanks for the nice comment! Did you manage to finish the game? I have had a few people telling that it's too hard.



Thanks! Very nice to hear that at least a few people have enjoyed it.

This! You'll still get my review. You made a little masterpiece here...especially seeing how early guru is still in development.

is this the game that will get included with GG that Lee mentioned in his twitch?

Steve
Short review

What is it?

Steve is a short, but pleasant jump and run game that does many things right, few wrong and never overstays its welcome.
All in all its a very attractive project with an unattractive name. However, "Steve" does beat the title of most indie fantasy games by a long shot. I ....err... I just never liked that name.

The Good

Steve is the best Game Guru title I have come across so far and yet its release is very humble. I would have enjoyed seeing it getting a bit more recognition. At least an IndieDB page for it should have been made.
Its reminiscent of early 3D jump and runners without having their faults of droning on too long. The simple gameplay and interesting novelties Unfamillia has put in are neatly tied together by a very well made narrative. The narrators voice actually sounds like a cute lady reading a storybook to children (under a christmastree while everyone is drinking hot chocolate.) I'm a little concerned with Merlin though, who is treating a magic cataclysm with the same amount of concern you would get if you spill wine on someones carpet...but somehow that just made it better. It feels really authentic. Authenticity is key in this title. Unfamillia worked in spells and usable devices that add to the gameplay, but never to a point where the result would feel corny or subpar. This game knows its limits and feels a lot more professional that way. (this in regards to many other titles I reviewed).

While it lacks some definition in few areas and lighting, it really looks great. The outlined, cartoon look adds a lot and I don't think the game would work otherwise. A good sign because everything in Steve feels like its forged from the same metal.
The pacing is decent and the game is long enough to entertain and short enough to never be boring. I was pleasantly surprised at how well everything is realised. The windmills, the floating islands, the guardians. Everything looks just perfect for this.

I liked the music which was good. Not good as in "I'd buy that record" good but very motivating. It added a sense of urgency to Steve's quest that was not there otherwise. Being able to play this at your own pace rather than having another one of these hectic indie titles you are getting lately is a welcome change of pace. To be perfectly honest: I heard far worse tunes in AAA titles.

All in all, Steve is a small but rock solid title that should get some more exposure and feels like it has been made by a small studio. Being child-friendly and upbeat is a big plus for me aswell, seeing how a lot of indie games (mine included) tend to be dark and bleak.

The Bad

There is very little to tell. You might not like the overall concept of a kid-friendly collect-the-coins type game but it does that really well.
There is a hay texture in the small village level that is not cartoonized if I had to nitpick. I might point out that in some levels, you are unable to backtrack if you missed a crystal and thus end up stuck and that you have to be on the outer ridge of a lot of islands for the astral-arm spell to work but those are easily fixed. One of the animated windmill arms (great touch in level 1 by the way) lacked (low frame rate). The indie game trope of having notes everywhere was well done...but there where a little too many for my taste

I managed to fall through the floor and not die in the cracked caverns level.

The Recommendation

All guru users will get ideas out of this. If not, they see a very good example of a polished game and that it can be done.
Other players might very well like this if they are looking for something short and nonviolent that is friendly and calm. Or just something free for their kids to play. A game like Steve with a bit more content would sell! I'm sure of it.

Not the long review I was hoping to do, but hey, its been long enough already.

Wolf,

That review was perfect! You mailed all the negative points. I didn't disagree with a single one. After play testing it a lot, I started to question the number of notes, but, I thought it was because of the amount of times that I had played it! haha. The hay texture was nothing short of laziness on my part. I started to draw a cartoon straw texture, but, I couldn't achieve exactly what I wanted, so, I threw a real world texture in there. I realise now that it could break the immersion, so, that should really be changed. The lack of ability to back-track was sorely made apparent when a 'Let's Player' on YouTube missed a gem on the Broken Bridges level, and had already passed the most recent checkpoint, which meant that he had to quit the game and start again! Never a good selling point for ones game!

With regards to falling through the floor in the Cracked Caverns............erm.............user error? haha.



My wife (the narrator) approves of this comment.

Thank you so much for your kind words Wolf and for taking the time to play and review my game.

I promise, next time I make a game I will choose a better name.

Cheers

Jay.

What's wrong with the name ?

Steve aka Emrys




btw great review Mr Wolf.

Personal preference.... I always think its odd if a work of art has a human first name. Much like the movie "jack" etc. I'd also not name my son Steve... but that does of course not mean that I dislike people named Steve in any way....only people that are named Peter.

@unfamillia: You are very welcome...after all, I promised to review it



You mean like Peter? ...or Bob? Bob: the Game.



-Wolf

Ooh, 'Bob - The Game'. Now, that has a ring to it!

One of the reasons I named the game Steve, was because; the voice of Marlin, is acted by a friend of mine (called Steve), who helped me a great deal with the story. So, I named the protagonist Steve, as a thank you for all the help. Then, naming the game Steve was pure laziness on my part. I have never been very good at naming games.

Touch of Fear

Impuzzable

Steve

i think it's name is very well suited to the game, it is after all all about Steve and his chance to be the one in the limelight

Just played this... in VR too. Excellent work Unfamillia!

VR still works with GG? That's interesting to know
Edit, just saw your post in the vr forum part, thanks for sharing

There is a "VR=1" line in the setup.ini

Unfortunately (as far as I know) that's been disabled and/or is only compatible with the Oculus DK1. It's really a shame because VR should be embraced as it has an extremely strong future.

How was it in VR? I know this is a late reply.....but.....stuff and things.

I really want to try this in VR now! I can imagine the grapple hook areas would be a nauseating?

Cheers

Jay.

Finally got round to playing this last night. Awesome work Jay, really well done. Can I ask, how did you get the music playing in the title screens?

honestly...........I can't remember. I will dig the files out tonight and check. I haven't played with GG for some time and I am feeling a little rusty. I have been focusing all my efforts on Steve in UE4. However, I came back to GG. I always do. I love this place! Can't be away for too long.

Cheers

Jay.

Hi @unfamillia,

I understand. Life starts lifing and you lose track of GG. For VR, I used VorpX to get it to work with Steve.

Fortunately for you, UE4 has native VR support so if you have a VR headset you should be able to jump straight into testing for VR!