Interesting question, here are some EU-made indie games I’ve enjoyed, in no particular order. I had to look all of these up, I didn’t play them because they were European or anything.
I really enjoyed Chants of Sennaar. Heaven’s Vault is also worth checking out for those that liked it; it’s by an independent British team, the language puzzles are similar but (in my opinion) a bit more involved, and there’s more narrative & character stuff going on. It is not as smooth a gameplay experience as Chants, but it’s manageable to get cool puzzles
I tried multiple times to get into heaven’s vault, last time with a mod to speed up gameplay (speeding up game time, faster cutscenes, skipping ship navigation), but it still feels so painfully slow, and the thing that killed the last of the fun for me was when I realized the game occasionally making you “review” translations is basically forcing you to lock in the correct solution by eliminating any wrong ones you got.
Like dammit, is it supposed to be an on-rails walking simulator, or an open-ended puzzle game? Because it feels like it’s trying to be both, and failing on both counts.
That’s fair, it is slow and often clunky. I am personally totally fine with the pace of it, but I get why it wouldn’t be for everyone.
To me, the ship navigation stuff was there to make the setting feel bigger and lend weight to the plot rather than the puzzles. I personally enjoyed stopping off at unexpected things I found along the way, or figuring out how to get to some of the less-accessible worlds (the marketplace at the very top left of the map stands out to me here). I’m okay with it not being a tightly-focussed puzzles-only sort of thing
Edit: possibly relevant, apparently the game had some pretty bad bugs with the navigations on launch. I played it after those got patched, so my experience may have been different to yours
Interesting question, here are some EU-made indie games I’ve enjoyed, in no particular order. I had to look all of these up, I didn’t play them because they were European or anything.
I really enjoyed Chants of Sennaar. Heaven’s Vault is also worth checking out for those that liked it; it’s by an independent British team, the language puzzles are similar but (in my opinion) a bit more involved, and there’s more narrative & character stuff going on. It is not as smooth a gameplay experience as Chants, but it’s manageable to get cool puzzles
I tried multiple times to get into heaven’s vault, last time with a mod to speed up gameplay (speeding up game time, faster cutscenes, skipping ship navigation), but it still feels so painfully slow, and the thing that killed the last of the fun for me was when I realized the game occasionally making you “review” translations is basically forcing you to lock in the correct solution by eliminating any wrong ones you got.
Like dammit, is it supposed to be an on-rails walking simulator, or an open-ended puzzle game? Because it feels like it’s trying to be both, and failing on both counts.
That’s fair, it is slow and often clunky. I am personally totally fine with the pace of it, but I get why it wouldn’t be for everyone.
To me, the ship navigation stuff was there to make the setting feel bigger and lend weight to the plot rather than the puzzles. I personally enjoyed stopping off at unexpected things I found along the way, or figuring out how to get to some of the less-accessible worlds (the marketplace at the very top left of the map stands out to me here). I’m okay with it not being a tightly-focussed puzzles-only sort of thing
Edit: possibly relevant, apparently the game had some pretty bad bugs with the navigations on launch. I played it after those got patched, so my experience may have been different to yours
Thanks for the recommendation, it’s even on GOG! Saved to my wishlist.