Mind Control Stomps The Grounds
April 3, 2006 12:44 PM | Simon Carless
The Indy Gamer blog has noticed that Mind Control Software, the most interesting developers behind IGF winner Oasis, and a host of weird and wonderful prototypes and alternative projects, has released a demo of its latest PC casual title, called Stomping Grounds.
As the blog explains, Stomping Grounds "plays like a card battle game minus all the complicated rules... Each encounter consists of six rounds in total, and a key is awarded for every round won." There's a fun Lion King-esque graphical theme, too.
So basically, it's "a casual action-strategy game", just as Oasis switched up a lot of mechanics from more complex PC RTS and turn-based strategy titles into a cohesive casual whole - and honestly, we hope it gets a whole lot more commercial interest that Oasis, which seemed to get somewhat ignored by the casual gameplaying public - anyone hazard a guess as to why?
Categories: PC
2 Comments
For me, this is a case of history repeating itself. When I first downloaded Oasis, I spent 50 minutes playing it, stopped to buy it it and then continued playing. Same happened here.
I've no idea how well Oasis sold, but I would perhaps assume that one reason it could have been less popular than it deserved to be among casual gamers is that it looks a bit more complex on screenshots than it actually is to play. I thought it was a full-blown strategy/empire building game, and it took some time before I actually got around to trying it out, as even though I generally love strategy games, I tend to find the first hour or so pretty boring as I learn the controls, rules, et.c.
In other words, I have to get motivated before I can start playing a new strategy title. Had I known how easy Oasis was to get into, I would have played it a lot sooner than I actually did.
fluffy bunny | April 3, 2006 2:56 PM
I beta-tested for Oasis, bought it, then bought another it as a gift.
That said, it doesn't _look_ very original. It's not until someone has played it for 20 minutes that it dawns on them, "This is great."
Stomping Grounds didn't grab me like Oasis did. It seems a mite repetitive, but maybe I haven't played it enough. I only have 20 minutes left on the demo, so I'm hoping within that 20 minutes there's something else there.
John Beeler | April 4, 2006 7:54 AM