Thursday, December 21, 2017

Neofeud Is 40% Off In The Winter Sale!



Happy Cyberpunk Holidays! May your dystopian reality be slightly less grim for the next few weeks. :)



Also, thanks everybody who voted for Neofeud in IndieDB! Neofeud made it to the Top 100 Indie Games Of 2017 (Apparently out of over 10,000). We'll see if we beat Cuphead! (Not likely but one can hope!

Saturday, December 16, 2017

The Space Quest Historian Plays Neofeud!

I'm honored to have The Space Quest Historian, a prominent and very entertaining personality in the adventure game world, doing a let's play series of Neofeud!



It's a great video series so far, very funny and enjoyable generally. :)
Space Quest Historian site: https://spacequesthistorian.com/





In addition, Neofeud has made it to the top 100 Indie Game of the Year list! Neofeud can use your vote, and it only takes a moment! (No registration necessary!) 

Monday, December 11, 2017

NEOFEUD IS A TOP 100 FINALIST! VOTE NOW!!!


NEOFEUD MADE IT TO THE TOP 100 INDIES OF THE YEAR! Thanks everyone for your votes and support! Neofeud can now use your vote again in the final round for ultimate indie of the year on IndieDB!
http://www.indiedb.com/games/neofeud

In addition, I just had a great talk with @PeaHeadGames creator of Neon Sword, cyberpunk RPG where you can use commerce or violence as your weapon of choice!
User Posted Image
Some of Neon Sword's Game features:
-Explore the neon bathed Quaid City.
-A living breathing city with a diverse population.
-Buy real estate and influence the city around you.
-Collect different and unique clothing items.
-Kit yourself out with entire arsenal of hardcore weaponry.
-A deep branching storyline.
-Save the city or run it into the ground it's your choice
http://www.keystone-games.com/our-games/neon-sword/

This next Silver Spook Podcast will be coming soon here: https://www.youtube.com/user/twiliteminotaur
You can support future SIlver Spook Games and Silver Spook Podcasts, where I help great indie game makers and other creators get the word out about their games, over here: https://www.patreon.com/neofeud

User Posted Image
Next, here are a couple more reviews recently published on Neofeud:
This first one is in Spanish (sorry) and I wish I was fluent so I could read this great Neofeud review in its native language, but thankfully there is Google translate!
"A much more complex world than what is shown in Blade Runner, which inspired it, and this game also poses itself as a more in-depth and realistic reflection of the dilemma insinuated by the replicants."
"From the point of view of music and dubbing Neofeud has nothing to envy of major titles."
The reviewer also compared Neofeud with Neil Blomkamp and District 9, which is a high complement for me, since I consider D-9 as one of if not the greatest sci-fi film of the past few decades.
https://nerdando.com/2017/12/04/neofeud-unavventura-cyberpunk-profonda-e-retro/

And one more review from Save Or Quit:
"Neofeud is a carefully crafted story that plays out like an interactive detective/mystery movie from the 80’s... This is a game for players who like to enjoy a good science fiction story set in a world that feels familiar and possible in the near future."
http://saveorquit.com/2017/12/03/review-neofeud/
And finally, my Deus Ex 1 total conversion Terminus Machina has been featured on IndieDB's sister site, ModDB! Thanks for the highlight, guys! You can also see a video of me replaying this mod that I made about 7 years ago with developer commentary.

Saturday, December 2, 2017

Neofeud for "Indie of the Year"!

Hey guys, it's that time of the year! If you liked Neofeud, please consider voting for it for 2017 "Indie of the Year" on IndieDB!


If you haven't played it yet, you can find Neofeud on Itch.io or on Steam!

Here is some background on the game:

"The art, writing, programming and music* of Neofeud was created by one person, Christian Kealoha Miller, also known as 'Silver Spook'. He also performed half of the voice acting. Christian is a Native Hawaiian, born and raised in Hawaii. Neofeud is a Dystopic Cyberpunk adventure game in the vein of Blade Runner, but with an overlay of Game of Thrones-like political intrigue, and 1366x768, hand-painted, stylized visuals.

The art, stories and gameplay of Neofeud are a reflection of my experiences as a STEM teacher for the underserved youth of Honolulu’s inner city. Teaching robotics, programming, and sustainability is an often difficult, stressful, and even Kafka-esque endeavor -- being in one of the richest, most beautiful places on Earth, yet dealing with families with working parents, who are living out of a van, or sleeping on the street. It is hard trying to keep the kids out of gangs, off of drugs, and on a path towards better opportunities, such as the ones I had growing up in a slum area of paradise while going to an upscale private school. I made Neofeud to be a fun and engaging game in and of itself, but I also wanted the player to think about the society in which we live, as well as the one which we may be heading toward if nothing is done."

Here's a roundup of some of the articles this year on Neofeud:


Read the rest of this article from Native Hawaiian Print Pubication, the Ka Wai Ola.

"A Diamond Of Storytelling In The Scrap Pile... The characters of Neofeud are developed so much more than characters in nearly any other game I’ve recently played" --Sprites And Dice

"'Cyberpunk-Fueled Noir.' Reminiscent of Beneath a Steel Sky and I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream... The art, gameplay, music and story come together to deliver a solid game." --Indie Ranger

“An ambitious, atmospheric cyberpunk scenario and essentially the work of a single person (voice acting excluded). Oh, and it might also be one of the best adventure games I have played in a while... The world building is something else. It has a thickness, a density to it." --IndieGames.com

"This spectacular and complex story will take at least 12 hours to play through, and the writing is excellent and enjoyable." --3rd Strike

"Science fiction at its most raw and visceral... Neofeud doesn’t shy away from uncomfortable subject matter. It gave me chills and made my stomach roll... It made me uncomfortable to listen to and watch…but that is the entire point. I can’t turn a blind eye in the game, and I certainly can’t turn a blind eye in real life." --Steamshovelers

"An immersive cyberpunk adventure game... Echoes of H.R. Giger and William Gibson... [Christian Miller] knows what makes a quality game." --Brandon C. Hovey

"I loved the quirky but fantastic hand-painted visuals, the gruff, cynical humour." --Gaming Respawn

Here's one of my favorite Neofeud reviews from Steam user Jungle.James who really went deep into the larger ideas explored in Neofeud, and seems to have really 'got' what I was aiming for with this cautionary tale:
Neofeud is the most visionary game on Steam evocative of the creator's passion, sparing what Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain could have been. Never have I seen a game produced by such a small studio translate a vision so well.

It is a point and click adventure game wherein each line of dialogue is voice acted, and each scene has a MSPaint charm while expressing pure imagination, for example a chateau's ceiling where there is a painting of nearly infinite patterns, reflecting the royal's fascination with the godhead of technological transcendence.

In sum, Neofeud considers the following:

- UBI controlled slums filled with transgenic and outdated synthetics / androids deemed non-sentients and refuse.
- DRM cigarettes.
- Hypermodernity through a Baudrillardian simulation and simulacra of "consensus reality" interested rulers.
- The sythesis of the contemporary prison and military industrial complexes.
- Scepticism of the motives from those like Elon Musk who promote optimal adjustments to capitalism or late stage capitalism. Authenticity in social movements and how they're frequently co-opted; references to Public Enemy vs Kanye West.
- What dwells in the abyss that is the coming convergence of science, technology, and society.

If any of those topics interest you on a philosophical, economic, or social level and would like those topics paired with often times silly voice acting (for the better overall end results), please play Neofeud.

edit: A lot of soul went into this project, and it shows.
And here are a few more interviews I did surrounding the game:

A discussion on games, gaming and life with Christian Miller ( talking with Brandon C. Hovey)

Another interview with Erik Meyer of IndieGraze

And here is one final review by Fitz (Talos voice actor and a cool creative guy generally) on the also cool site of CaptainD (I am a Patreon of his!):

"The soundtrack -- created by Silver Spook himself -- consists of various flavors of electronica; an obvious choice, given the futuristic setting. And indeed it fits in perfectly. It's minimalistic when it needs to emphasize the dreariness of the slum world. Action sequences, in turn, are punctuated by a pounding beat -- whereas a distorted piano plano creates a watercolor-like backdrop to some of the game's most powerful moments of existential reverie. As mentioned already, the game is a full talkie. It's something that's expected of a modern game -- but the workload and the quality are actually impressive."

And here is Christian performing "Proto-J", a short story set in the world of Neofeud. The story is performed in the voice of the character whom Christian voice-acts in the game.



You can find more short stories in The Neofeud Short Story Collection
Here are some of my other projects:



Terminus Machina: a Deus Ex total conversion



Dysmaton - a post-apocalyptic cyberpunk adventure (in development)

And finally, here is a hangout with a bunch of the folks who helped make Neofeud possible, including my long-time patrons Deborah Dunaway and Scott Smigiel. Deborah also voice acted several characters in the game. Chris R. Smith and Brandon C. Hovey, two great voice talents are also present. The other major voice actors and actresses who couldn't make it were Amayirot Akago and Mrs. Silver Spook / Holly The Robot.



(*I created 43 out of the 45 songs of the Neofeud soundtrack, the other two were by Scott Smigiel. he created many more, but due to changes I made later in the game, I only ended using a couple -- my bad. However, the tracks themselves were great, and you should go and check his stuff out!)