We didn't have an opportunity to attend to the mountain of Gamescom material yesterday so we're doing days 4 and 5 together.

Today we have more Lies of P and Moonbreaker, and new trailers for Lightyear Frontier and Miasma Chronicles.

Before we get to those, a quick ozzie diversion.

Australian Indies Spotlight

IGN interviewed some folk from the Australian and New Zealand IGEA - Independent Games and Entertainment Association.

No exaggeration, the first several minutes are waffling on about how many grants we have and how awesome the governments are who offer them.

Then they proceed to talk about a few well known indie titles - none sci-fi - while also getting in a bit more about all those grants.

Ok, a lot more.

Could they be trying to attact more developers from overseas, like one of the IGEA people being interviewed?

Possibly.

They notably make no mention Australia's insanely high house prices.

Lies of P

Following up their trailer and first 12 minutes of gameplay, we get another 11 minutes of gameplay.

Judging by all of the hint popups, probably the next 11 in the tutorial section.

Quick readers might spot a typo in those.

Apart from the scenery there's nothing new in this gameplay.

There's also a quick interview with the game's director.

Oddly they chose Pinocchio for his existing fan base.

Pinocchio has fans?

They didn't want to do a medieval or Victorian era setting - probably because they've been done to death - so they opted for Belle Epoque (1871-1914) France.

We hadn't recognised the setting as France in either trailer.

Poor Steelrising doesn't even have that to itself.

Weapon mechanics?

Each weapon consists of a blade and handle and those can be mixed and matched.

The detachable arms are called Legion Arms.

Lies?

Yes they're in the game's title and feature prominently.

Players will have the choice of trusting certain NPCs with the truth or not, and different endings can result.

No multiplayer.

Lightyear Frontier

Lightyear Frontier is an open (alien) world farming exploration game with crafting, resource management and base building.

If it sounds like they're trying to do just about everything, they are.

Except for combat.

Oh yeah, and you do all of this piloting a big customisable mech.

Its developers don't describe it this way but it looks and feels like a land-based Subnautica.

Except that you don't crash land on the planet.

So you're not just building and farming for your survival.

You can sell your goods and use your earning to buy lovely new things.

Looks like fun.

Miasma Chronicles

Turn based post-apocalyptic roleplaying game Miasma Chronicles gave us a story and characters trailer.

Prior to Gamescom very little was known about the game.

Main character is called Elvis. Ok.

He has some buddies - Diggs, Jade and Mason.

Mason is a head in a jar.

That's not new in the world of sci-fi but you don't see many playable characters of that persuasion.

A young white haired lass?

Those you see plenty of.

The robot sounds African American but his appearance is all robot.

We're not one of those people who see racist slights in every little thing but two and half (the head) white folks and a disembodied black sounding voice might raise a few eyebrows.

IGN also interview the developers.

Not a very interesting interview.

They promise that this game will be bigger and better than their previous game Mutant Year Zero, which is what you'd expect.

It's set 240 years in a post-apocalyptic future.

Their twist is that rather than our civilization going bust, we get our shit together first and create something of a utopia.

Then that utopia goes bust.

ETA 2023.

Moonbreaker

IGN interview the developers of Moonbreaker to talk about their newly unveiled digital miniatures turn based strategy game.

They delve into excruciating detail about the game's rules and mechanics.

We won't try to summarise it all but turns are timed (30 seconds), games last around 12 minutes and each turn there are many factors to consider before making your moves.

Sounds very involved.

And then there's painting your units which is buckets of fun.

Some of their development team spent more time playing that part of the game than the game itself.

Mechanically it's much more like physical painting than digital graphics software.

Their only concession is an undo button.

Finally, they talk about the new fictional world crafted for them by fantasy author Brandon Sanderson.

Warhammer is the big name in miniatures and also strategy games.

For Moonbreaker the developers wanted a lore rich world which could compete with that while also being more modern.

Diverse, inclusive, optimistic.

Kind of humorous.

They've crafted years worth of stories and at release players will only see a thin slice of that with three captains.

The idea is that we experience each captain's story and over time see how they all form part of the bigger tale.

Those voice-acted stories will be released on podcast for free and also as part of the game.

But wait, there's more.

In addition to the PvE and PvP strategy modes there'll be a single player roguelike mode where you fight a series of bosses.

Just quickly on the Warhammer front, when talking about their 40K Darktide trailer and interviews at Gamescom, we remarked that we saw no appeal in playing a game where you serve their Inquisition - who are as dark and nefarious as their name implies.

So we can understand Unknown Worlds wanting to take them on with a new, less grim universe.

[ Main Image: Miasma Chronicles trailer - Diggs. Credit: 505 Games via YouTube. ]

References

IGN (August 26, 2022). Australian Indies Spotlight | gamescom 2022. YouTube.

IGN (August 27, 2022). Lies of P - 11 More Minutes of Gameplay | gamescom 2022. YouTube.

IGN (August 27, 2022). Lies of P: Weapon Mechanics Explained | gamescom 2022. YouTube.

IGN (August 27, 2022). Lightyear Frontier Official Gameplay Reveal Trailer | gamescom 2022. YouTube.

IGN (August 26, 2022). Miasma Chronicles - Official Story and Characters Trailer | gamescom 2022. YouTube.

IGN (August 27, 2022). Miasma Chronicles: Turn-Based Combat with a Sci-Fi Twist | gamescom 2022. YouTube.

IGN (August 27, 2022). Moonbreaker Brings Your Tabletop Miniatures To Life | gamescom 2022. YouTube.

IGN (August 27, 2022). Moonbreaker Paints Like Warhammer but Plays like 3D Hearthstone | gamescom 2022. YouTube.