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How many of you play your homebrews when you get them?


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I asked this question on the previous forum, but I always like to read responses.

I LOVE playing Battle Kid 1 & 2. I've beaten the first quite a few times. The 2nd I've never finished, but come close .

Armed for Battle saw a lot of play, but not in campaign mode. Streamerz still gets played every once in a while. Played a ton of versus frogger championship. Beat a handful of others.

Anyway, as someone making a couple homebrews (for the Turbografx) I am always interested in who plays their homebrews to completion. Like, will all the content I generate be seen?

Moderator · Posted

I play all of them right away if just to make sure they work ok. Then I'll play them again at some point later when I have a little more time to sink my teeth in.

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I beat the short, finishable ones most often although that's no surprise. Stuff like Streemerz or NEScape that are a few minutes to a couple hours. I've certainly hit "the wall" with a couple games like Battle Kid 2 and REKT and didn't beat them, but that's like any other challenging game. Arcadey and high score stuff I typically only play a couple times to check it out unless there's a contest or it's amazing.

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Homebrew Team · Posted

I am a combination of Scrobins and DefaultGen.  Not a shelf collector as well.  I buy to play them, but there are so many good homebrews coming out at a fast pace, I have a play next queue longer than I would like to have. 

I'll usually play them a bit when they arrive to get a sense of the game.  Some of those, capture me right then and I'll move them to the front of the queue and keep at it untill completion or the "wall", as Tyler said.  The wall for some have been, what the hell am I supposed to do next, like Lizard, and others have been the difficulty just wore on me that I put them back in the queue and moved on, like Battle Kid. 

Others I like so much, I go back to them often, like The Mad Wizard and The Incident.

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I honestly don't buy them really, rarely have I found the quality up to par.  I mean if I could get Khan's Leisure Suit Larry game I'd have done that as it's there.  I do have a limited release homebrew(sorta) of the game QWAK from the original coder who made a GBA release of just 300 carts.  And then there's Hyper Fighting for Virtual Boy which is basically SF2Turbo and it's freaking nuts.

 

Curious about Hyper Fighting VB?  This is probably as good as it gets youtube wise at least:

 

Edited by Tanooki
Events Team · Posted

I always play the homebrews I buy, if only for some sort of unofficial respect to their creators (most don't actually know I played their game in all honesty), but it is important for me to give them some minimal play time as I'm aware some folks poured a lot of time to make them as a hobby,

 

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I always play all homebrews I buy. I may not always finish them, but I love exploring, hunting bugs (and reporting them to creators), and hopefully finishing the game out of respect to the creator, much like @guillavoie stated. (If I don’t finish them it is sadly because my skills may not be up to par 😪... but that just keeps me on the hunt for bugs like the 1-up glitch I found in Star Keeper... so that I CAN finish them  hahaha... and trust me when I say... EVERY game has a bug... challenge me, and I will do my best to find a flaw in the code😎.. all for the fun of it, of course 🙂 )

I love supporting the work of others.

Edited by Lambda
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I am very guilty of buying homebrews and not playing them.  Most of them I have played at least a little bit, some I have beaten to completion, and some I haven't even tried yet.  It's shameful, I agree.  😞

Administrator · Posted
2 minutes ago, arnpoly said:

I am very guilty of buying homebrews and not playing them.  Most of them I have played at least a little bit, some I have beaten to completion, and some I haven't even tried yet.  It's shameful, I agree.  😞

You should play them and write about it!

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3 minutes ago, Gloves said:

You should play them and write about it!

There is precedent for this ... I played through and reviewed Battle Kid a few years back.  Eventually there will be more and I have plenty of candidates on hand.  😄

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On 2/10/2020 at 7:40 PM, guillavoie said:

I always play the homebrews I buy, if only for some sort of unofficial respect to their creators (most don't actually know I played their game in all honesty), but it is important for me to give them some minimal play time as I'm aware some folks poured a lot of time to make them as a hobby,

 

As a homebrewer, this is what I want the most - people to see all the content we generate. I'm including things like an easy mode just to help people get through the game.

 

On 2/12/2020 at 3:21 AM, RegularGuyGamer said:

I play most of them. I don't beat a game unless it really sticks with me. I wanted to beat Lizard but it just ended up best too much of an adventure.

Could you elaborate a little on your experience with Lizard? What made you put it down?
I've been thinking about purchasing it, and I'm not sure if I would enjoy it.

On 2/11/2020 at 1:24 AM, Deadeye said:

I am a combination of Scrobins and DefaultGen.  Not a shelf collector as well.  I buy to play them, but there are so many good homebrews coming out at a fast pace, I have a play next queue longer than I would like to have. 

I'll usually play them a bit when they arrive to get a sense of the game.  Some of those, capture me right then and I'll move them to the front of the queue and keep at it untill completion or the "wall", as Tyler said.  The wall for some have been, what the hell am I supposed to do next, like Lizard, and others have been the difficulty just wore on me that I put them back in the queue and moved on, like Battle Kid. 

Others I like so much, I go back to them often, like The Mad Wizard and The Incident.

I'll ask you as well; I've been thinking of picking up Lizard, but I'm not sure if I would enjoy it. What are your (further) thoughts on the game?

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Homebrew Team · Posted
33 minutes ago, ifightdragons said:

I'll ask you as well; I've been thinking of picking up Lizard, but I'm not sure if I would enjoy it. What are your (further) thoughts on the game?

From a design point of view, it is very well done.  The game is expansive, the visuals are great, the music is great, and so are the mechanics.  The boss battles are very smartly done, you have no attacks at your disposal, you need to figure out the environmental puzzle of how to defeat the bosses.  I think your actual enjoyment will depend on what type of games you like.  It is a Metroid style game in the sense that the world needs to be unlocked using different abilities and there will be a lot backtracking.  However you will be using a defense strategy in how you advance in the game. 

There is no hand holding as far as what to do, where to go, what things are for.  That can very appealing if you like large puzzles and figuring out what to do on your own.

Personally.  I enjoy the Metroidvania style over straight Metroid style.  I like the offensive, leveling up, stats, inventory systems, etc. that come with the Castlevania portion of the style.  Blaster Master, even though more linear, I also enjoy.  

I will go back to Lizard later on.  There is no denying that it is a great game and quite an achievement, IMO.  I have to come to terms with what the game wants from me, the player, to really get into it.  I think others will immediately be on board and ready for that ride.  I need some time.     

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I've started taking a huge liking towards homebrew and indie games, I think Battle Kid was the one that did it for me. Since then I've played a handful of other homebrew games, some which I quite liked, others which weren't my cup of tea.

I've got too many games as a whole, so if something isn't doing it for me, I'll move on to something else. It's not that the game is necessarily bad, it just might not be to my personal style.

If I think the game is quite enjoyable, then yes, I'll generally try to complete it.

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11 hours ago, Deadeye said:

  I enjoy the Metroidvania style over straight Metroid style.  I like the offensive, leveling up, stats, inventory systems, etc. that come with the Castlevania portion of the style.  Blaster Master, even though more linear, I also enjoy.  

Well said. +1 to everything you said. Unfortunately, what holds my attention isn't the straight Metroid style exploration and there is really no hand holding so progressing past a certain point when you have a bag of sand for a brain like me can be a deal breaker for some games. This was one of those games. 

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My collecting philosophy is that I only keep games I enjoy playing, and I can't justify owning a ~$60 physical copy of something I don't expect to dust off and get use out of from time to time. For that reason I play all of my homebrews and intend to eventually beat them unless they're too damn hard (looking at you, Nebs N' Debs). If I play a bit and realize it's not for me, I resell it.

Incidentally, this is why I love when homebrewers make demos or even full ROMs of their games available -- I will almost always buy a ROM just to support the developer even if I'm not sure I'll like their game. But if the ROM is fun, I'll usually hunt down a cartridge as well.

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On 2/14/2020 at 8:21 PM, Deadeye said:

@ifightdragons Lizard also has a free demo available.  Try that and see what you think.

Lizard's demo is a really good representation of what it feels like to play the finished product, so I would definitely start there. It's one of my favorites, but it's a very unusual game that I've found isn't for everyone.

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