Quick Look: Concrete Genie

Facial animation reminds me of Tearaway / stop-motion animation.

Bummer this is Ps4 only. Exclusives do nothing but hurt companies and gamers, like WHY would you want *LESS* people to play your game? Even if it was going to take time to port it to something else, making things exclusives is just a old dated concept now.

Take Microsoft for instance, they are now putting their games on Steam - because they realize how poor of a decision it was to just have it on their store, IE an exclusive.

Finally, the Penny Crayon game we've been waiting for.

@benpack You say it's overly ambitious to say "I'm going to paint a masterpiece."

Interestingly, the historically word "masterpiece" comes from the "piece" of art someone would make to attain the rank of "master" in a guild! So most people making one would have been pretty confident what they were doing was a "masterpiece!"

So he's just tagging everything?

This game is SUPER appealing to me. The style looks awesome, and gameplay looks right down my alley. I wonder what the VR mode is like...

@steveurkel said:

Different companies with different means to their end. Sony doesn’t make (and more importantly, sell) the operating system that runs the vast majority of Steam installations.

Yo this looks cool as hell, really love the art. Seems like something that'll look gorgeous on my OLED. Looked it up and kinda bummed to see that it doesn't have HDR support (yet, at least), it's kinda begging for it.

This seems like the kind of game that I wouldn't necessarily buy but would be happy to play if they put it on PS Plus.

edit: also, the audio on this video is a it rough (the audio has been rough for a while but for some reason it seemed more noticeable on this one)

@judgementkazzy: not an excuse, like I already said, port to other platforms and make more money. Walled gardens do not make more money.

@steveurkel: Unless the exclusive deal you get from Sony makes up more money than you expect to make on other platforms. Less of a "walled garden" and often more of a "I need to feed my kids and Sony is guaranteeing me x dollars for my work."

The developer of this game is owned by Sony. The studio was, ostensibly, founded to make Playstation games.

Outside of that, the notion of "just port your game and make more money" is unbelievably ignorant. It disregards how much time and money are needed to complete development of *one* version, not to mention the incredible risk involved in trying to break even in a volatile, over-saturated market.

For the majority of developers out there, porting your game to other platforms is a big decision that needs to be weighed carefully.

It's Infamous: Flower. Looks great.

In a very tenuous, abstract way, this game's visual style reminds me of Vampyr.

Don't @ me.

Edit: also this looks cool but the way the progression seems based around just pulling up your map and slapping paint on the walls is sort of like a microcosm of the exact stuff I dislike about open world games.

I get your point. Sadly this PS plus wait game is making it so most indie or creative or chancy game development is left to getting angel investors or money up front from exclusives or epic game store. Both are frowned upon by gamers, well at least the ones who don't understand or side with devs on the reasoning behind the give and take of game development and publication. I think we should support these people who are taking a chance and at least buy it then maybe sell it when done. The figures of day one sales matter most for them getting more budget when in talks with publishers. We have to push change. Many gamers say they don't want open world grindy games as service but the phasing out of tiny devs will make those games ubiquitous and saturated. Much like the chase for Battle royal, MMO, etc.

At 2:57 in, when he's skeeting painting the trees on the wall I was reminded of when my OKCupid profile asked me the question "Are you virile?"

I answered "Yes, once time I flogged my bishop in the woods and next year, in that very spot, grew A MIGHTY OAK!"

Woah. This game looks rad! I like it!! Love the style. The painting is beautiful. Wish this was on Xbox.

@afterland: Funny enough, my impression after about 30 seconds was Infamous: Papo y Yo. I can definitely see all three in there.

@hyetal: it's the unreal engine, so not ignorant because porting from one SDK to another using unity and unreal isn't half as much work as you're acting like it is.

Exclusivity deals do not transcend multiple platforms, and lifetime sales.

"I'm sure days gone made so much more than call of duty will!"

That's how you sound, and yet you call me ignorant.

@steveurkel: Platforms understand that their exclusive games won't make as much money as one of the longest-running franchises in history, and I never suggested otherwise. It's a ridiculous comparison, regardless.

Again, you do realize this isn't an exclusivity deal, right? Sony owns this studio. They always have. What engine they're using, or how viable it is for other platforms is fundamentally irrelevant.

Definitely picking this up looking forward to getting my art on.

Anyone remember Herdy Gerdy.

This reminds me of that, for no specific reason.

@brad Have you had a look at the VR modes and if so how was it.

Well I was interested in playing this but the store page says that the playstation move controller required and I don't have a move controller and I don't want to spend $160 for a move controller and a camera for one game. So I guess I won't ever be playing this.

The way this game looks reminds me a lot of Infamous: Second Son in a weird way. Definitely looks cool though, I may check this game out sometime next month (I'm dedicating October to playing scary and horror/gothic-themed games.)

I'm sold.

game looks nice

@mrbubbles: The move controllers are only needed for the short, optional VR "experience". The normal game is played without them (either using the motion controls of your six-axis-controller or just the right stick).

oh, well the wording on the store page sucks then because it says "required" for the move controller

Hmmm.. I'm conflicted. It seems like a perfectly fine game in which you get to make a sad place look good again. You finish a zone, you open up a new zone to do it all again. You gather more spirits, you backtrack to find new things to interact with. That said, i know myself and i don't get enjoyment out of placing stamps on walls in a way to make pretty art. Or the decision between how many tails a genie should have. Or which headmount. Like i get to decide where the dandelions grow, but it's not my art. It's me stamping pre-existing art on walls. Which means all i would do is get the lights to light up in the most efficient way, do the genie requests and move on.

It also doesn't seem to be much of a puzzle game when all you have to do is listen to the genie's requests & make sure you bring them to the one thing they're able to interact with. You're not really figuring anything out. Also, i think Super Paint is totally fine. Ben said it's too gamey for a game like this, but i think this game is extremely gamey already. There are waypoints, objectives, collectibles, rigid puzzles with 1 outcome. Super paint seems to fit with the whimsical kid style.