Steam Next Fest: Meaningless Random Numbers, South of the March, Rizz Dungeon

What the report says

Summer Next Fest may be over and the steam sale may be upon us, but I’m due to make at least one more post on things featured in Next Fest.The first thing I checked out was something that I was surprised I didn’t check out earlier. You know that I’m open about my love for gambling aesthetics. A different kind of casino called to me… a devilish one, which firmly reminded me that I should never gamble for real. Thankfully, it’s not all about gambling…Meaningless Random Numbers is an incremental game by Nikko Nikko.

The devil has presented you with a money making opportunity: just roll some meaningless numbers. Press the box and you get money and experience equal to the number rolled. Soon, you can get another box, enabling you to roll more and rake in more dough if you get a pair. Depending on the character you start the run with, you can click on their face for a benefit like tripling experience gain or letting you re-roll a number an extra time to push growth along.As with most incremental games, things expand from there. Paying the devil’s rate early builds up anxiety that increases the money you make.

You’ll eventually have auto-clickers working on your behalf. If things are going too slow, you can restart the run for prestige to invest in the meta game to further your money making scheme.But no, making money the normal way’s not going to cut it. You’ll need another raw emotion from anxiety to multiply those gains: pure fear. After the first rebirth, you can get a handy gun, and if you roll a triple or better, you’ll get some bullets. You’ll then train your reticle on a poor soul. You shoot with what’s functionally a revolver (maybe update the sprite?), and having all six bullets guarantees the death of the poor soul if you don’t want to leave things to the good ol’ Russian roulette.

Key details

Deaths increase the fear in society and enables you to rake in more dough. You know, normal self-defense industry stuff. Make that money. Make number go up. Make them dead.But God is watching. He hates your grindset. Blasphemy against the holy spirit and whatnot. As you spill blood, the chances of your crimes catching the attention of God increases. And so, on one faithful killing, He may interrupt it and cast a curse upon you: a bright red X to disable boxes and auto-clickers. You can pray away your sins with prayers you store up with pairs, but if you’re serious about Making Number Go Up, God’s eyes will always be watching.With that in mind, Meaningless Random Numbers doesn’t straight up become an idle game because you have to juggle around some things yourself.

Combined with its theming and electronic music, I certainly think it sets itself apart from a lot of incremental games. I think it’s fun, though I’m curious how the game’s going to be built on from here besides making number go up.My only criticism is that the guy needs to look sluttier if you’re going to have one. Forget that long sweater, I want him to be showing me some skin.The next demo I checked out was South of the March, by Small Gray Games. Small Gray Games was a mutual of mine for a long time, and I’m embarassed to admit I haven’t played any of their games yet.

So, I thought it was the perfect time to fix that.Gemma and Cyrus are for-hire mercenaries in a fantasy world. Their latest job is a curious one. A lumber camp has stopped almost all work. Eh? No, you’re not there to commit anti-labor violence (presumably, anyway). Work has stopped because an employee went missing after revealing that he had an encounter with the divine in a cave, and people stopped work out of paranoia. So he claims, anyway. And so, Gemma and Cyrus are made to investigate where the employee went, what happened to him, and if the divine is truly among them.South of the March bills itself as a visual novel RPG adventure.

More from the announcement

Gemma and Cyrus travel around a hand-drawn world, with all exploration being conveyed through text. The writing is very descriptive, painting a nice picture of the game’s world beyond what’s conveyed through the art. Simple character portraits chat things up when you’re going around for additional information. Characters have a lot to say, making the game feel like an interactive fantasy novel.The sellswords will find themselves at odds with danger, be it a bad random roll when going to a location or a plot-mandated scuffle.