Neofeud - A Dystopic Cyberpunk Adventure / Visual Novel

[Silverspook]

Neofeud is 50% off on Steam! https://store.steampowered.com/app/673850/Neofeud/

[Silverspook]

Just a reminder, Neofeud is still on sale for 6 more days https://store.steampowered.com/app/673850/Neofeud/

I'll also be doing another devstream around 8:30 PM GMT Saturday!

[Silverspook]

Last day of the sale! https://store.steampowered.com/app/673850/Neofeud/

I've also got a new comp and will be able to stream that new RPG game that I'm working on now! I guess I'll need to make a new thread for it.

[Jubal]

Yes, please do! If you want to keep your threads in a dedicated subforum we can arrange that too

[Silverspook]

First up, let me know what you think of this new Neofeud 2 title screen I am working on. Painting these scenes takes forever, but it's well worth it, I think!



And if you liked the cyberpunk dystopian world and story in Neofeud, I have just released the first batch of some new stories in a similar vein but in a different world. And they're just $1.00! https://silverspook.itch.io/terminusstory1



Here's a little synopsis:

The Future. If the climate apocalypse after 2030 doesn't get us, there's the economic collapse to worry about, or maybe the rising fascism. But hey, maybe Benevolent God-AI will run the world on an even keel? Maybe the liberals will right the tipping ship of hypercapitalist neoliberalism? Or at worst, the Illuminati League of Evil Asshole Masterminds manages the clockwork Earth from the shadows?

Nope. Just a lot of buggy paramilitary drones blowing up schools, incompetent elite wrecking the planet with endless environmental, economic, financial crises, and mass unemployment as robots shove workers out of offices and into endless breadlines run out of bread in bankrupt states. Yeah, it's a mess.

But you don't fight fascism because you will win, you fight fascism because it's the right thing to do.


Also, thanks everyone who picked up Neofeud this most recent sale! I have used some of the proceeds (along with the knowledge this is a business expense for my tiny indie business!) to pick up the cheapest gaming computer I could find so I can actually *run* one of the new games I'm working on, Terminus Cyberstar. (The other is Neofeud 2) My current laptop is from ye olde antediluvian noughties and, however enamored I am with it, having created Neofeud on it, often while sleeping in a rusty Mazda tribute eating Jiffy from the jar with the family while homeless, I can now move up to the 'good life' of a computer that can barely run Deus Ex Human Revolution on medium settings, lol.

I have used some of the rest of the money pick up a drill and chainsaw to harvest some logs from the forest here to make a new porch for the old condemned house we are living in in the lava zone on the Big Island volcano. Thankfully, the volcano has stopped erupting 3000 degree lava for now! The current porch is quite rotten and I didn't want the kiddos falling through into rusty nails, etc.. Can't afford to get a new porch made or even by two-by-fours so I am making the lumber myself from Hawaiian Ohia wood.



Finally, here is the most recent livestream, where I actually read some of the Terminus Machina stories! (Skip to near the end, about 1 hour 30 minutes in.)

[Jubal]

Great work

Thoughts on the title screen: I really like it for the most part, the visual impact is excellent. The pillar placement being asymmetrical vis-a-vis the walls twitches with me a bit but that might just be me. I love the sort of "Egyptian decadence" atmosphere. I'd maybe change the title style/backing/colouring somehow? Having it in gold when gold is such a dominant colour in the picture means it doesn't stand out so much as I think you might want it to.

[Silverspook]

Thanks for the feedback Jubal!

[Silverspook]

From the sequel to Neofeud, my cyberpunk adventure! Here's a creepier scene for Halloween

[Jubal]

Ooh, interesting! Bit of a matrix vibe...

[Tusky]

Wow, really stunning artwork SS. It looks amazing!

[Silverspook]

Thanks Tusky and Jubal! Yeah the pod farms was a great scene from The Matrix.

Neofeud is on sale, Happy Halloween!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/673850/Neofeud/



Here's a very cool recent review also:

Two things right off the bat:

1) This is game is WEIRD AS F$!@

2) I absolutely loved it!

Fun and hugely engrossing gameplay for a single developer game!

Pros
------------------
-Cool main characters! Even the background characters added alot to the atmosphere of the game.
-Well designed animation and backgrounds. The artwork has kind of a Mission Critical/Harvester/Darkseed vibe to it that I enjoyed but may not be everyones cup of tea. They really put you in a cyberpunk futuristic mindset and meshed well with the story of the game.
-Excellent writing . This game definetly satisfied my cravings as a big sci-fi/cyberpunk fan. Interesting use of cyperpunk
tropes and existential philiosopy.
-Certain scenes were really engrossing and felt like i was watching a movie. (Vistiting the Arcade and Proto-J coming to terms with his father stand out especially)
-Awesome music (2017 AGS awards winner for Best Music). I'd strongly consider buying the standalone soundtrack
-Point and click puzzles are challenging yet mostly logical

Cons
--------------------
-Setting up graphics settings in adventure game studio was a pain.
-Voice acting was hit or miss for me. I enjoyed Proto-J despite what other reviewers said. Other characters came off lacking emotion in certain cases. Some recordings of voices didnt sound like they were done in a professional setting (Goetzel at times sounded like he was being recorded in an office or something)
-Minor glitching and bugs (overall pretty stable though) that required a restart or two
-Certain in game interfaces have a clunky appearance (OK and EXIT buttons that don't fit the overall game aesthetic)
-Action/stealth sequences rough around the edges
-Animations can be a little "stiff" at times. Character movements can be awkward.
-Walking routine can be slow for larger scenes.

The cons overall I would say are just roughness around the edges and I attribute to the clunkyness that can come with a game designed on Adventure Game Studio. And I can hardly place blame for these minor issues considering the overall work that went into this game by a SINGLE developer.

You can tell that this game was a labor of love and it really shows in all the pros it has going for it. Again, it's very impressive AGS game from a single developer! Overall length came in about 10 hours which for someone that picked it up half off was a good value. This game is frequently on sale and I'd say you'd have no regrets picking it up if your a fan of sci-fi point and clicks! I am definetly looking forward to the sequel. If Neofeud 2 is every bit as ambitious as this one it will be a must purchase for me!!

And like the game says:
Remember, winners don't use drugs... Mostly;)~

[Jubal]

Yeah, that's the sort of review that's fantastic to get - really positive whilst also picking up on some good improvement-y thoughts

I may have said this before, but the voice acting comment reminded me - if you want a British-accented voice for anything, do give me a shout and I'll happily volunteer to read some lines etc.

[Silverspook]

Thanks for the offer, Jubal! Will keep that in mind.

[Silverspook]

The only cyberpunk game where a social worker for homeless robots takes on a cabal of billionaire CEO-Kings Neofeud's on sale!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/673850/Neofeud/

Also on Itch.io, where you can get the Neofeud Short Story Collection, and the Terminus Machina stories too!: https://silverspook.itch.io/neofeud




Here's another review by an actual social worker for the government, another one of my favorites:

"In 2018, when I am writing this review, there is a loose collective of passionate AG developers on the internet. These developers have formed a small community where they support each other and promote each other’s work. For a lot of these folks, their games are passion projects – despite limited development resources and relatively modest sales numbers, each pixel is labored over and rendered with love. For these AG enthusiasts, the work is a passion project.

I used to be a casual AG fan but in the past few years I’ve gotten increasingly into the genre and now you could say I am something of an enthusiast. I’ve been seeking out or revisiting old classics, I’ve been following the development of new games and buying them at release, and I’ve also been becoming increasingly invested in the community of small devs like Silver Spook who are putting out titles like Neofeud. It’s pretty neat, as it’s not unusual to see these folks livestreaming their development on Twitch while hanging out with friends and fans – if you pop into a few of these things, you begin to feel less like a passive consumer and more like an active member of a community. I find myself really rooting for Silver Spook, folks like him, and the games they make.

With that said, I am pleased to give Neofeud a big ol’ thumbs-up. I am always very impressed by one-person games, and in this game, this one dude did the writing, the art, the programming, the music, and a sizable portion of the game’s VO.
Neofeud feels a touch rough around the edges, but the issues I encountered were minor and did not really affect my enjoyment of the experience. In fact, I would argue that on some level they added to the game’s charm. While I found the game’s art to be a bit odd at first, it really grew on me as I played. My initial impression from the trailer was that the art had sort of a glued-together kidnapper-ransom-note quality to it. However, it feels really unique to the game and I think it ultimately lends the whole experience a surreal quality that serves the game well.

Some of the other reviews here have mentioned that the game is a bit ham-handed in its exposition, and that’s a fair criticism. I would not use the word “subtle” to describe the game, and its characters tend to monologue a perhaps little more than strictly necessary. The game also throws a lot of very detailed flavor text at you which is all very interesting – but it does feels like a bit you’re on the receiving end of an idea-machine-gun. I hope a Neofeud 2 would maybe kick it back a notch and shoot a little less broad but a little more deep. There’s some great stuff here, it just needs some space to breathe.

Here’s what I enjoyed about Neofeud:
First, it’s classic cyberpunk. You are a disheveled government worker who goes from the slums to the highest halls of a corrupt aristocracy to take it down. I love how honest and earnest and straightforward the game is in its love for the genre and belief in its message. There’s some great sequences – my favorite bit was a really effective portion of the story where have to perform a child protective services visit and get confronted with some ethical questions. There’s a solid and memorable cast of characters. There’s a really neat soundtrack that I think was at least partially based on sampling a dialup modem.

Go play this game. It needs your support, and you need more ambitious, intelligent, from-the-heart one-man cyberpunk adventure-game tour-de-forces in your game library."

--DeluxeTux

[Jubal]

I wish we had more AG devs on Exilian, it's a genre I really like too. I dunno really how to improve what we do here to attract those folk though...