Re: FREE GAMES: "Industria" and "Lisa: The Definitive Edition"

On Fri, 26 Apr 2024 19:19:33 +0200, Kyonshi <gmkeros@gmail.com> wrote:

On 4/26/2024 5:06 PM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

Origins aside, I don't know if "Industria" is slavjank... but I
wouldn't be entirely disappointed if it was.

how would you define slavjank?

Hmm... let's see. What is slavjank? I guess I would describe it as a
video game (usually FPS but not necessarily; RTS games and workplace
sims are also common) developed in Eastern Europe, particularly in
parts of the former Soviet Union (Russia, Ukraine). (Thus the 'Slav-'
prefix).

Visuals are usually above-average. The games tend to suffer from a
certain lack of polish (hence, the -jank* suffix). This can take a
variety of forms: it could be balancing issues, or weird difficulty
curves, or imprecise controls. There's often a number of translation
issues too. A lot of the games have bugs, often game-breaking. But
they also often are slightly ahead of the curve in experimenting with
new mechanics. Slavjank games tend to come from small to medium sized
publishers.

Slavjank games also - due to their origins - tend to have a dour and
pessimistic atmosphere. They often take place in vaguely Russian
locales, so expect lots of brutalist architecture. There is often
tongue-in-cheek humor but the overall impression you get is not of a
hopeful, happy world.

Slavjank games were a lot more common in the mid 2000s and early
2010s. Some examples include "You Are Empty", "Codename: Outbreak",
"Ubersoldier", "Creed", "Chrome" and even (arguably) "STALKER: Shadow
of Chernobyl". I've even seen "Cyberpunk 2020"  included in the
category (mostly due to its very rough release; I think most of its
critics would agree it doesn't deserve that anymore).

Slavjank games filled an important niche; they were mid-tier titles.
Not having the huge budgets that Western games benefited from, they
still punched above their weight class, offering interesting (if
flawed) experiences. I mostly enjoyed them because they offered an
interesting contrast to the gung-ho, 'we alone can save the world'
viewpoints that was so common to mid 2000s FPS games. They often were
as much about just surviving, struggling not to sink any deeper, as
they were about achieving any overall quest. They were a nice change
of pace and I appreciated them for that.



So... is "Industria" slavjank? I honestly don't know. I have no idea
where its developers - Bleakmill Ltd. - are based. Not having played
the game (yet), I can't tell you much about the quality of the game,
and whether its buggy, poorly localised, or if its game mechanics are
well balanced. But it does have some nice looking visuals, it is set
in Eastern Berlin prior to the collapse of the Soviet Union, and it
certainly isn't created by an A-tier developer. That's why I said that
even though it may not, definitionally be a slavjank game, it (at
least superficially) reminds me of one.

Does "Industria" deserve the moniker? I honestly don't know. I don't
entirely see the "slavjank" categorization entirely as a negative
(it's more a warning not to set your expectations too high). But it
can also indicate that the game will not be the normal power-fantasy
western FPS. If "Industria" isn't slavjank? That's fine; I'll
appreciate not having to deal with its bugs or weird controls. And if
it is? That's cool too; I'll enjoy playing something different and
weird.













* derived from 'janky': (adjective) 'of poor quality', 'not
functioning properly or adequately', 'faulty' or 'junky'.