Beyond the Grove

I was an early beta tester. Having done alpha and beta testing for more than 20 years, this was my first time doing concept testing for an indie studio, in addition to your usual bug hunting. The developers are active on their game's discord server and I've never dealt with devs so communicative and willing to discuss/debate balance, game design, and their concept. They are also open to constructive criticism and feedback. I have been very impressed at the quick turnaround in response to bug reports and feedback on UI/UX or balance issues (I'm used to filling out tickets and surveys and you never quite know if anything will become of it). My review of the game: The game has cute graphics with an endearing theme. I've loved watching it grow from the static sprites of early concept testing to golems with animated ability effects in later beta testing. Battle sound effects are adorable and I believe the background music was all done in-house with live instruments. There are still some balance issues, but the devs have been improving that constantly and I know there is more content coming out once the game is officially released which may account for some of their balance decisions. I'm a huge fan of RTS games, not so much of roguelites or autobattlers, so that may be biasing my opinion on balance however. I found difficulty overall manageable. It starts off quite difficult and eases up as you gain meta progression levels, RNG pending. These are all staples of roguelites, which again I'm not personally a big fan of, but I have enjoyed the challenge of figuring out strategies to beat different maps as well as an overall strategy for picking level rewards to overcome bad RNG. The addition of a challenge mode (ascension difficulty levels that add penalties or debuffs to your run) have added replayability and more challenges to overcome. A run attempt takes 20-30 minutes once you get the hang of things (with the ability to pause or stop between levels), not including the ascension difficulties which take a bit longer per attempt. Different starting characters (grovekeepers) change the gameplay and force you to find new strategies for beating levels. There are 2 out currently, with more to be released later on. Overall, I have really enjoyed the game. I have beaten all current content and still pop in to try different strategies and golem combinations. I look forward for more content. The devs have discussed more golems, blessings, grovekeepers, and levels.

Beyond the Grove is a really cute indie game that is well worth your time. It's kind of like an RTS game, but rather than rapidly giving commands, the game has a built in pause system every little bit where you issue just two commands, build new golems, and then let the mushrooms do the rest. This hybrid RTS/autobattler structure gives some great autonomy and while often you'll just throw your Caps into the breach, you'll also see opportunities to get edges by splitting your forces in clever ways (mostly due to claimable neutral points on the map that give you benefits). The build/discover aspect of the golems is delightful and evokes that classic 'alchemy' style gameplay where you realize "ah, of course earth and water make a [SPOILER]mud[/SPOILER] elemental. Time to make 10 of those!" You can see from the pictures, but the classic nature of the art style really does it for me, and this feels like an elevated game from the 90s. You aren't going to sink a hundred hours into this game, but if you're looking for a chill way to conquer the woodlands, this game's a great choice for you.

Love the little comments the caps make. Fun game that's easy to play for hours without realizing it. Love the design, the mushrooms are so cute!

My fiancee and I have been having a great time playing this game! She loves the mushroom and I love experimenting with the different element combinations and seeing how they interact. The gameplay loop is fun and the mechanics are easy to understand, but the levels still challenging enough to enjoy the progression. I'd highly recommend giving it a try!

It's... fine. But it is short and shallow and the challenges come more from artificial difficulty and pathing than genuinely making you come up with different ways to approach the game. And it has just one short sequence with a boss at the end. That's it. I don't hate this game, I'd give it a neutral if that were possible. But at the moment it's just not very enjoyable for me.

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Joguei Beyond the Grove por uma hora e me surpreendi! O jogo é dinâmico, fofo e desafiador na medida certa, com uma atmosfera encantadora e mecânicas que te prendem o tempo todo. A exploração é fluida, a trilha sonora é relaxante e o visual tem um charme especial. É o tipo de jogo que te faz querer jogar “só mais um pouquinho” — e quando percebe, o tempo voou. 💚 🎥 Confira meu vídeo de gameplay: https://youtu.be/mY4kQ97LXvA e se inscreva 📺 Vem conversar comigo nas Lives à noite na twitch.tv/rodolfoclash