Shiner
Shiner is a turn-based strategy game where you learn all the attacks of the enemies you beat! Starting with only the knowledge of how to do a simple punch, can you snowball yourself into an avatar of (fuzzy) destruction?
Make friends with a cast of cute and colorful characters! Every character in the game has a unique personality and a unique set of attacks for you to learn if you can beat them. “Why would I fight my friends,” you ask? Look, relationships are complicated. Buds can horse around is all I’m saying.
Craft powerful builds! You’ll learn a ton of attacks, but you can only bring 4 of them into each fight. Can you find the right combination to beat an opponent who heals to full health every turn? What about someone who reflects all the damage you deal right back at you? Every battle is a puzzle and an opportunity for you to find a new way to break the game.
- 4 zones to battle your way through.
- A fully voice-acted cast of characters.
- “One-Punch Mode” if the battles get too tough.
- A bite-sized experience! The game’s only 1 or 2 hours long.
- Ranch dressing elemental.
This game was developed as a student project at DigiPen Institute of Technology and was created for educational purposes only. Please check out our publisher page for more information.
Game Discussion
Steam User 1
Such an amazing game, it has so many things to do and tons of different combos with attacks which is awesome. The story line is also very interesting and also very sweet. Had a lot of fun playing this and it's completely free.
Steam User 3
this is a good game would recommend to anybody, i hope this gets a squeal of some sorts i can see something like mutations being added and more places this was very fun time playing only problem i wish there was after dialogue after the story ends or a hp upgrade for how mush you get
Steam User 1
While presented outwardly as a turn-based RPG it's really a puzzle game in which moves must be considered and combined in specific ways to beat fighters that are otherwise unbeatable. If you've ever found a cheese strat in an RPG that breaks encounters by utilizing some interaction between abilities and moves, you're familiar with the type of thought process that this game encourages.
Combine with charming visuals and writing it's a fun way to kill an hour or so. DigiPen's student project system remains a consistently solid source of fun little free games and Shiner is one such success story.
Steam User 1
This game is adorable. The combat consists of picking a move that you've learned from fights, and adds a puzzle element in that you need to figure out what move you need to beat a certain enemy. Adorable and witty. and it's free? That is truly amazing.
Steam User 1
# --- MY THOUGHTS:
Shiner is the game that made me interested in playing more turn-based RPGs in the future. It's got great and unique mechanics and neat voice acting. The characters are all different from each other and have depth.
I also enjoyed the story. It's got a great moral dilemma of either choosing to forgive someone who has wronged you or acting out on your base instincts. Give it a try.
# --- RATING: 8.5/10
Steam User 0
Really fun and strategic, got stuck in some parts yet I managed to figure out how to win every fight. Some fights are clearly optional and you can skip them if you wanna try speedrunning, but if you just wanna have fun then it's nice to try to 100% the game, I did so in my first run and it was pretty cool!! I definitely recommend this game and I'd say it's one, if not the most underrated game on Steam!
Steam User 0
If you've played some JRPGs, including some Final Fantasy games, you've probably "stolen" an attack or an ability from your opponent and used it to beat other enemies.
Shiner takes that idea and makes it the main mechanism of this JRPG/puzzle game hybrid. It's a short but meaty experience. The art is MS Paint-like but charming.
And OK, the story is bad; true, there is no save feature; but the mechanism works so well and the game is free and I recommend it.