All indies–mostly PC, many on Nintendo Switch, and some otherwise.
Til Nord is a free open world snowmobile game released by students at Breda University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands. The gameplay is straightforward with its mobile open-world gameplay and pulls off a finished level of design from the beginning. Drive your snowmobile around the Loften Islands of Norway, day and night bright snowy roads and northern lights skies at night, solving delivery missions for enterprises around the village like lumber mills and fisheries. Or test your skill at time-lapse contests with your learned speeding abilities.
Lab Rags is an upcoming title from the student project studio Salt Mine Studios. It is an art-deco era puzzle level game that shares mechanics with games like Portal and its descendants. Get started right away as a mechanical android with a neat gun similar to the classic gravity gun. You can advance within the game by respawning and then grabbing your previous housing to fling at door-opening buttons, traverse over spike pits, and even build structures like stairs out of crushed cubes made from your metal leftovers. The environments and music are very charming, and it is an appropriate level of challenge and enjoyment.
VA-11 Hall-A (Or Valhalla as it's known) is an interactive cyberpunk bartending simulator with elements of visual novel character interaction. Play from the perspective of Jill, a young woman who lives in the year 207X in a city called Glitch City. You'll learn to mix drinks for customers using a unique interface and alter them based on customers' needs and personal touch. Customers are customers, but many are absolute troublemakers. You'll talk them through their problems, as compulsive as they can be, and keep them from causing too much trouble--and hopefully, close their tabs. "What'll it Be?" The first time…
Hades, the countless award-winning indie rogue-lite from the makers of games like Bastion, has been released onto Nintendo Switch this last week. The game is a procedurally generated beat-'em-up in the underworld realm of Hades itself. Play as Tartarus, prince god of Hades, in a simply brilliant gameplay idea involving fighting through chambers of monsters in an attempt to escape the realm of Hades itself with the help of gods and goddesses of realms below and above.
The Life and Suffering of Sir Brante is an interactive visual novel that spans the lifetime of a character named Sir Brante. Progress through the stages of life starting with childhood, where you'll forge deep experiences that will shape the course of your entire life later on. Your actions will affect your own character and also how others interact with you. Try to live true in a world dominated by an esoteric caste system and brutal classism, starting from the very bottom.
ToeJam & Earl are two friends who visit Earth from another planet. When they try to blast some funky music from their spaceship, Earl accidentally sucks the entire Earth and themselves into a black hole. Their ship and the planet are left in shambles. Thankfully, as these characters, you can traverse the floating islands of exponentially bizarre inhabitants to collect pieces flung from your ship. Collect items to rebuild your ship and head from there.
VirtuaVerse is an indie cyberpunk pixel art point and click adventure that exudes what some might think of as classic cyberpunk. You, a hacker named Nathan, wake in your apartment, which your girlfriend has changed the exit code to. Stylistically it appeals to an aesthetic of disheveled, neon glow surrounded by cybernetic paraphernalia. Solve enigmatic puzzles to progress the story.
SteamWorld Dig 2 is a 2D platformer about a society of humanoid robots, particularly the protagonist Dorothy McCrank, that's you. The village is plagued by earthquake-ridden mines beneath a village from which they are generally dependent on the ore mined.
The idea of this game is you're a cloud. The end. Just kidding, sort of. The cloud has a special place in the story, because it can go anywhere it wants and rain on anything at any time, says the storyteller. Eventually you'll develop some other powers like thunder and well, you'll see.
Doug Hates his Job is a Beat-Em Up game with an office mockumentary style story about a sales agent who, as the title states, hates his job! Join Doug as he tries to deal with the typical everyday office pet peeves. You get to decide how Doug responds to annoying coworkers, crazy clients, and a ruthless boss. Along the way, unlock new levels with several styles of gameplay.
