In Celebration of Violence

I received a gift copy of this game from docbear1975 (thanks again, docbear1975!) some time ago while it was in early access. It's been released for a month and a half and the first patch recently got published, so it came back around to my radar -

and I just found out it is possibly coming to GOG in a month or two, so I'm bringing it to your awareness and plugging it, because it KICKS ASS!

Yes - it's a ROGUELIKE with PIXELY GRAPHICS and PROCEDURALLY GENERATED maps!!! OHMY!!!!

3 things that 95% of the time turn me off and when combined together almost always will be something I don't spend much time considering

In Celebration of Violence is an exception!

It's made by 1 guy, and you can tell he put a lot of love into it.

I generally won't play early access / in-dev games much - not that I ever get many games before they are released, but I have done it sometimes (mostly getting them from giveaways like this game.) I'll play maybe an hour or 2 of them so I can get a little hyped and have some awareness of things and then shelve it until at least a patch after release.

I did this with In Celebration of Violence while it was in early access, but I couldn't stop playing! I logged almost 15hrs in the game before it was released!!! I had to force myself to stop playing several times because making progress in a game that I'm going to have to then replay once released, I don't have time for that, typically. (it turns out I could have saved the same character I'd been playing in early access, but I did things with it I didn't want to have done so I started over.)

no regrets for this game! I'm glad I have those hours logged because it's just fucking fun to play

Yes, I want to progress, but BECAUSE of the procedural generation and another game element (mementos), even after almsot 20 hours of gameplay in what is basically the same 3 small areas that I've not moved beyond (a desert, a forest, and a dungeon), I don't really care that much and am just having fun playing and accumulating skills and discovering mementos. the game has LOTS to it and many hours to log - I hear that calling it a Binding of Isaac + Dark Souls perfect mix is an accurate description (I've not played either of those, so I can't say) - as well as Rogue Legacy and Hammerwatch (both games that don't appeal to me, just so you know)

What's so great:

the combat

If all the game had going for it was its combat, it'd be worth playing. the FEEL of the combat is superb - it's not what I'd call "fast paced" in the slightest, if anything it's slow-paced (?) but the battles can get heated, take concentration, and each click matters and if you look away for an instant it will disadvantage you. And there is so much variety that comes through in the feel (the mobs, the weapons, the abilities, and other factors.) If all it was was an old arcade game with simple map after map of different enemies and groups of enemies coming at you while you picked up different weapons and upgrades, it'd be successful. and fundamentally it is that, but it's fleshed out so much it's much more

If you look at any videos of the game you'll readily see what the game is like, but they don't give the FEEL of what it is like to play especially the fighting. There are LOADS of weapons, and while I've only used a fraction of them, they pretty much all behave differently. Imagine a basic ARPG with weapons-out-the-wazzooo to choose from and each one having it's different stats and swingspeeds or whatever other qualities, in ICoV, you can FEEL the differences in very nuanced ways when you swing your weapon (or shoot it), it's really incredible. PLUS each mob has it's own behavior, and human mobs hold different weapons that you have to learn how to engage with, and some of them use abilities and spells. and you can (and must) dodge and parry - combat takes learning and skill and pays off with great fun as you learn it and become more skilled.

and then there are bosses

ohya, the gamestory is very much about the bosses, and you finding your way to the boss fights while you discover what has happened and all the stuff (keeping it vague because that is a large part of what the game is about, discovering all the stuff) - it's that type of game in a way, but it doesn't have that single-minded "push to the boss" sort of feel at all. It's very laid back in its way, and unfolds rather slowly but not unsatisfyingly in the slightest.

what else?

atmosphere! the game may look a little goofy ? especially on first glances, but as soon as you start the game the tone is set otherwise and the graphics very quickly lose any silly connotation they might have had simply because tone+getting your ass handed to you while you get your bearings and learn the feel of combat + how to use your start weapon(s) [I recommend just sticking with increasing your abilities with the pitchfork, and by your I mean the player's, not the character's]

check out reviews, check out videos

vote it + on the wishlist I guess?

ask me questions if you want about things I might be able to give insight, but there is so much to the game and I've barely begun to discover it, all I know is that it is well worth the cost even for what I've played and I hope it does come to GOG - I might have to actually buy a copy rather than just have been gifted one (note: the steam version is DRM-free)

1) Voted on the wishlist!

2) If (generic) you don't want to wait, it's already available DRM-free on itch.io (plus it includes a Steam key).

3) @drealmer7: glad that you could overcome your pixelated-roguelike prejudice. :P

Yes, I heard good things about this one, voted!

It looks like blurry crap tho. Blurry crap != pixel art. Argh, my eyes.

not sure what you mean, there's nothing blurry about it

Look who you're talking to! :P

'Voted! The game looks interesting!

Is it a custom game engine?

it says "made with unity" when the game starts

Thanks for the passionate writeup, you are reminding me that gaming should be about excitement and fun first and foremost, before anything else. Yes, I do need to be reminded of that regardless of how obvious it is to most people.

This game isn't what I normally play, as a kid I would have been absolutely excited about it. Nevertheless, I did vote on the wishlist, out of nostalgia for having the same level of excitement once, who knows maybe it will return one day.

Seriously?

ah!

look at the status effect above the health bar - that character is poisoned or plagued or detrimentally affected by a spell or ability or environmental something that is causing them to have issues

Cool! Do you know if the game uses kb+mouse or is it a controller-based game?

it supports both, I play with kb+mouse and it's all slick and easy

and everything is rebindable

All the screenshots are like that, more or less. Here's one without any apparent afflictions: the center is sharp, the edges are blurry. And another. The game's basic sprites are pixel art, but then the engine and effects don't give the slightest shit about the grid. Rotation! Gradients! Scaling!!!

(And yes, that's probably the only realistic way to make a game like that as a lone dev because the possible combos grow as x^x and no one can make this much art by hand. The bbbblllluuuuuuuurrrrrrrr is still pointless, though.)

Compare:
proper pixel art
more proper pixel art - see how rays are shot at an angle but the grid stays unbroken
suspect: rotation, occasional variable size

I see the blur that you are referring to now, it is barely noticeable in the game because you are focused on your character and the center of the screen which is always clear, you're pretty much always on the move and you have to be aware of your steps. I think the purpose it serves is that it is stuff in the distance and so is naturally less defined (from a perspective of the center coming from the character), it's a representation of the character's vision, not meant to serve the player to be able to see and focus on things 'coming up' for the character which the character cannot yet focus on clearly. So it makes sense now that I think about it. It also very well might be tied to a skill that you increase as you gain experience and distribute your points, such as perception, I'm not sure, but regardless it makes sense now that it's been brought to attention and I think about it for the character's vision.

I also never claimed it was amazing pixel art, in fact the words I used were "pixely graphics" - I don't think the developer would claim it is amazing pixel art or suggest that is where his skills are strongest at all. The point isn't to be pretty pixel art. The point is to serve a functional purpose, first and foremost, and it still has style that I don't find unappealing, it is basic, but not void of style.

I don't think anyone would say "the game is visually beautiful" - but it doesn't matter! at least not to everyone - I'll call it less flash and lots of bang