Lusófona Games Collection 2023

Xisto is a fun adventure game that takes you on a journey to create a mask and enter a festival in a mysterious world. The attention to detail in this game is impressive, with NPCs reacting to items being used near them. The puzzles are challenging but not frustrating, allowing for a nice progression that makes sense. I never felt stuck on any puzzles, which made the game even more enjoyable. Overall, Xisto is a great adventure game that I highly recommend. Illuminants and was thoroughly impressed by the well-designed puzzles and engaging gameplay. The difficulty level was just right, providing a satisfying challenge without being frustrating. The sense of progression was smooth and rewarding, and I never felt stuck or discouraged.

Lusófona Games Collection 2023 is an unusual release because it is better understood as an interactive showcase than as a single conventional game. Developed and published by Universidade Lusófona, the package brings together four student-created projects from different years of the university's Video Games degree. Instead of trying to deliver one lengthy campaign, it offers several compact experiences that demonstrate different approaches to mechanics, visual design, level construction, and experimentation. The result feels similar to exploring a digital exhibition where each project has its own identity and creative ambitions. The collection contains Illuminants, Near Side of Yonder, Runewatch, and Xisto. These projects were produced at different stages of the students' education, ranging from first-year work to more advanced third-year projects. This gives the compilation an interesting sense of progression while also explaining why the games can differ considerably in complexity and polish. Each title explores its own combination of concepts, including puzzle solving, exploration, platforming, action, combat, fantasy, and science-fiction elements. There is no attempt to force …

Lusófona Games Collection 2023 is one of literally thousands of student projects infesting Steam. It's from Universidade Lusófona in Portugal. While student projects tend to be better quality than most "amateur" made games, we must still question what value such projects have for gamers. As with all student projects, this isn't really a fully fleshed out game, it's just the result of an academic exercise, and as such it has much more limited value as a game than a professionally developed game would have. Educational institutions should not be using Steam as a dumping ground for homework assignments (especially if the students didn't even pass the course). Sure, it helps their marketing and helps the students feel good about themselves, but this is another case of a business putting themselves before the needs of gamers. This is a collection of four different student tech demos that unfortunately don't have much if any value for gamers... yes, there's four of them, but four somewhat useless things is no better than one useful thing. There's a couple of adventure games, a shooter, and a minimalist puzzle game (that might even have done well on mobile app stores... but my gam…

Illuminants - The game has a style reminiscent of Death Squared, where you pivot robots to their end-point markers—minus the death traps. A neat feature is the ability to combine robots into different colours, adding an extra layer of strategy to some puzzles. The main downside is the music—it quickly loses its appeal. While likely intended to be calming, the same short track loops throughout, which can become repetitive. Near Side of Yonder - An Outer Wilds-style game that didn’t resonate with me. You might get more mileage out of it. Runewatch - An excellent Ziggurat clone featuring a skill tree and boss raid mode. Highly recommended and, honestly, the standout of this collection. Xisto - A cosy little adventure game where you assist villagers during a festival. The wooden mask customisation gives me strong vibes of the Deku mask from Legend of Zelda. Like Runewatch, this game is well worth playing.

rune watch is actually pretty dang good. I wouldn't have been upset to have paid for that if it had just a tad more polish

SUPER!!! There are four interesting games in this bundle. Xisto is a really funny game with a lot of interesting talks that remind me of Trover saving the universe. Illuminants offer us some challenging and awe-inspiring puzzles. Runewatch is just intense, and after a few hours of practice, I still cannot win the hardest level. With amazing generated levels and "VFX fire experiences". The Near Side of Yonder is an alternative journey with beautiful and inspiring art. So, four totally different games guarantee a few hours of gaming, and I am pretty sure that I will replay these games quite often.