faehnri.ch

Today's game was a weird one. It's 7 Grand Steps. The UI looks like one of those old mechanical coin-op games, but the gameplay is more like a board game. You interact with it by putting tokens into slots, you get more tokens from a token return slot, and dialog messages popup as pieces of paper that come out of a paper slot like an old fortune telling machine.

The game is you're a man in the early human history of around the copper age. Your symbol is on like this rotating board. You put tokens in your slot to move you to other spaces depending on the token. You find a partner and you get bonus tokens when you're on the same spot. You spend a different token that doesn't move you but gets you more tokens. And you might make a baby with your partner.

The tokens and spaces each have a skill like masonry, brewing, and I think irrigation? So it's like a civilization RTS game's technology tree. You also try to land on spaces with beads. Beads are points that lead to discoveries, like masonry could get upgraded with the discovery of the arch. You also spend tokens on your child to increase their skills. This helps you because you eventually transition to the next generation and play as your kid as an adult.

I was thinking this game really looks like something from the early 2000s, then found out its development was started in 2009. It's not full screen but you play in a window, and the graphics are very much from early 2000s.

I also read that it was nominated for an indie game award in the category of "abstract and unconventional" which that makes sense.

I went to a Sandbox VR yesterday with some of my family. It was really fun! Pricey, but if you get a chance to do it for a special occasion I suggest it.

And with that it's back to work today after a long break.