Over on Gametunnel, they just published the top five winners in the Indie RPG Awards for 2006. After seeing the list, I am rather ticked off.
The #1 game is something called Fastcrawl. As you might guess from the name, it is nothing more than hack’n’slash. And it’s meant to be played quickly, as well.
How something like that could beat out such titles as Avernum 4, Aveyond, Minions of Mirth and Geneforge 4 is beyond understanding.
I don’t know who was voting for these games, but obviously the majority is sadly lacking in its conception of what a role-playing game is. Hack’n’slash may have been all right 25 years ago, but not today.
Of course, maybe the voters didn’t play all the games. After all, real RPGs take some time. Maybe they just played Fastcrawl because it’s quick and went with that one. Personally, I wouldn’t even have a pure H&S game on that list in the first place.
Next year, they should add a new category for “Hack’n'Slash” or “Fantasy Shooter” or “Plain Old Dungeon Crawl”. Then the real RPGs might have a chance in the voting.
Check out the link below and see what you think:
If only enough indie RPGs were made this year that would qualify for breaking them up into that many categories!
At one point GameTunnel had an entire category for “Aquanoid Clones.” It wasn’t that they wanted that to be a category, but there were so many of that kind of game they just split them off from the rest of the action games.
I haven’t played FastCrawl myself. But I was very surprised to see it beat out Avernum, Aveyond, and Minions of Mirth. You might be right about the community members just not taking the time to check out all of the games before voting.
I haven’t played GF4, but if it’s the same length as GF3, that wouldn’t be a game to get through in only a few hours.
Same for Avernum, which is an update/reworking of the original Exile series.
But even given the length, just a few hours in any of those games would show them to be far superior to something is that only a dungeon crawl.
There’s nothing wrong with a little H&S, but such a game can’t really qualify as RPG these days.
And my suggestions up there were all for the same thing; I just gace a choice of titles ;)
I don’t know if GF4 was considered for this year’s competition - I think only the Mac version is out yet. While that would still qualify, I think they opted for it to be considered for 2007 rather than this year.
I have high hopes for next year if that’s the case. Geneforge 4, Aveyond 2, Eschalon: Book 1, and Age of Decadence can all make for an interesting year of indie RPGs. Assuming they all release in 2007. I’m not sure what else is coming down the pipe next year. Indie game developers are worse than mainstream at predicting release dates (myself included).
Just read the article and while the others there seem to fit, Fastcrawl just doesn’t look like a roleplaying game at all. Does it even have a story? Isn’t that kind of required for a roleplaying game? The game makers have categorized it as a fantasy roleplaying game, so maybe that’s where Gametunnel put it for lack of any other category. … It doesn’t seem right.
Exactly, Klara. It’s what RPGS were back in the dawn, when all you did was bash your way through a dungeon to a finale with Foozle.
Today we call these things “action/RPGSs”, though they tend to be better fleshed out and have at least some minimum storyline.
There must have been some sort of “action game” category this thing could have fit into.
Well, I don’t want to criticize GameTunnel, because they DID vote my game as the best multiplayer indie game of 2004. So whatever they were smoking at the time, I’d like them to keep smoking it :)
I still haven’t played FastCrawl. I will be trying it this weekend if I have time… maybe posting my own review up when I do.
I think you are right about it being a bit of a throwback to an earlier-era games. It really looks / sounds like a Rogue-style game, which I have ZERO problem with. I love those kinds of games (in moderation). And a polished up one with an easier interface? Cool with me. I liked the Diablo games, too. As far as it being classified as an RPG, I am a bit more ambivalent on the subject.
But what I do think that if you drop yourself into the RPG category, you do need to be judged by the same things that other RPGs are judged. Which means if you don’t have a story, and your scope is much smaller than your competition, that IS going to be significant factor. Not THE deciding factor - but everything else you have going for you had better be pretty extraordinary to make up for your game’s glaring deficiencies.
I don’t know what other games were considered for this award and didn’t make the top five. If Geneforge 4 really was considered this year, and was beat out of even a number five position by Empires and Dungeons (a game which I *DO LIKE*, I should add…), then I have a problem with it. E&D is a fun game, and the RPG elements are amusing, but as an example of the CATEGORY of RPGs, it comes up wanting.
Maybe FastCrawl has that. I’m not going to judge until I’ve played it. Maybe for what it is, it blows my socks off. I certainly wish the developer well. But at this point, I’m having a tough time imagining how it beat out the other three.
Bleh, I screwed up a link. Way for me to spam Scorpia’s forums! Ick!
Not to worry, Coyote. It’s fixed now (you left out the close on two links, not one).
Also, Mea Culpa, Mea Maxima Culpa. I don’t know why I said Geneforge 4, except maybe by association with Avernum 4.
The fifth game (fifth place) in the awards was Empires and Dungeons.
Sorry about that!
Incidentally, I tried FastCrawl over the weekend. I didn’t play it much, but I did a write-up on what I thought last night.
Overall, I thought it was a pretty fun game, nicely done with some good replayability. And it serves to feed the desire to get into a quick-and-dirty turn-based dungeon-delving expedition (which is the whole point).
However, it’s very much a Roguelike, which may mean it doesn’t qualify as an RPG according to Scorpia’s taxonomy.
While I think it is a worthy addition to an RPGers library, I still can’t imagine how it came in first place.
Yeah, I saw that writeup earlier, Coyote. After reading it, the fact that it won out over such better games still boggles my mind.
I also decided it’s not a game with much appeal for me ;)
I tried FastCrawl demo last night. I did like it but it is definetly not an RPG. The only thing you do is choose a skill to enhance when you go up a level. That isn’t an RPG. Cute Knight shoulda won in my opinion - but then I’m biased with my love of Princess Maker 2.
Let me change my statement a little. FastCrawl is not an RPG, to me, by today’s standards. 10 years ago I would say it is, but RPG’s have evolved.
I like it and am thinking of buying it - after I buy Cute Knight. Dang Christmas is eating up my play money. :(
Cute Knight was last year’s winner, so we’re good :)
I do take a fundamentally different stand, I guess. I feel if a game was an RPG yesterday, it should still be one today and tomorrow. The classification shouldn’t change. The game’s relative QUALITY might be reconsidered in comparison to later entries, but not it’s category.
For example, Ultima IV (yes, I’m deliberately provoking people with this example) was a great RPG in 1985. It remains great relative to the time in which it was released. If you released Ultima IV (or something very similar) today, as we’ve discussed here, I doubt anybody would call it “great.” Or even “good.” They might compliment it’s unique contributions to the genre, but taken as a whole it would no longer rank high in terms of quality. Not without some MAJOR overhauls and updates, at least.
But I don’t think that in 2015 you should be able to say, “RPGs have evolved past that now, Ultima IV is no longer an RPG. We’re now calling it a ‘Progressive Wargame’. It’s not an RPG unless it plays like Oblivion and allows you to change your character’s hairstyle.” (Yes, I’m provoking more… I’m such a snot.)
Mainly, I’m just kinda inclusive about the genre because I feel there’s a lot of progress and cool things that could be done with RPGs that might not get explored if it is defined too narrowly.
Frankly, I’m just thrilled that we actually had an entire category for RPGs this year. The last two years, there were so few games that actually qualified that the RPG of the Year award was relegated to the “special awards” category, without much discussion of the contenders.
But I still get your point. Comparing Empires & Dungeons to Aveyond or Avernum 4 is about like comparing apples and oranges. When a category gets very broad (and I think RPGs have the potential to be EXTREMELY broad and explore all kinds of possibilities), it makes sense to subdivide it a little.
Maybe Ultima IV should be classed as a Holocene epoch of the evolution of the RPG while Oblivion would be considered part of the Pleostocene epoch. RPG’s from 2015 will, hopefully, be part of the Renaissance of RPG’s as we emerge from our recent dark age.
I played FastCrawl demo again lat night and I have to say it is pretty good though it feels like a card game during combat. Not sure what place in the evolutionary chain of RPG’s I’d place it.
I wouldn’t put it in an evolutionary position at all - just a subdivision of RPGs. A lot of people just call them “roguelikes.” Which technically Diablo was, as well.