Okhlos
Okhlos is an action and roguelike video game developed by Coffee Powered Machine and published by Devolver Digital. It was released on 18 August 2016. Plot Okhlos is set in ancient Greece, where the land is ruled by the Olympian gods, who are highly praised by the people. However, the game's protagonist, an unnamed philosopher, is critical about their behaviour, as they show no signs of interest in the human well-being. But, when the philosopher suddenly witnesses, how the School of Athens is bruised down by one of the gods' foot (parodying The Foot of Cupid), killing almost everyone inside, he decides to take action. Going from city to city, he convinces the people that the gods are no good for mankind, as they turn people into animals, impregnate women and kill innocents, and recruits them to form a giant mob. As the mob grows, the philosopher continues executing his plan to overthrow the gods, kill their minions, and form an ochlocracy, while his mob destroys everything standing in their way. Gameplay Okhlos is often compared to Pikmin, as the player rules over a huge mob, directing it to go to the commanded spots, in combination with Katamari for the fast-paced action. Upon touching, the mob will automatically start tearing down buildings, attack enemies or recruit new people. Additionally, the player can make the mob block or spread around the city they are in to protect the player from enemies or hazards. The game's eight worlds are procedurally generated, each featuring different hazards and enemies to face. Every city includes shops, in which the player may buy upgrades for individual units of the mob, or increase the number of people able to join it. To that, the player may, in the shops, also trade units for famous Greek philosophers and heroes, such as Aristotle and Heracles. Over the course of the game, the player faces and battles all of the Twelve Olympians, as well as randomly encountering other major enemies, like the Oracle of Delphi or the Minotaur. In case the player dies, he will take over one of the philosophers from the mob, except if there are no philosophers left, which will cause the player to lose. Development Development on Okhlos started in November 2012, after Argentinian indie studio Coffee Powered Machine released the Enhanced Edition of their previous title, Gravity Fleet, to the App Store on 13 November 2012. The team decided to create a game about an angry mob in ancient Greece, consisting of mythological heroes, that is fighting the Olympian gods. The team started off working on the non-player character's flocking behavior, and continued working on core mechanics for the game's "angry mob" concept. When procedural generation was implemented into the game, the team was unhappy about its simple algorithm and instead shifted their design focus to static, pre-built worlds. A longer silent development phase took place, until they revealed the new designs and mechanics, and also the different gameplay types the tested, on 26 June