All indies–mostly PC, many on Nintendo Switch, and some otherwise.
"non - The First Warp" is a unique puzzle-platformer released this summer. It stirs up themes of hypnagogic-like environments and alien sci-fi worlds, that feels like a strew of estranged organs and strange puzzles. Okay, I'm in. Play a purple alien in this squishy puzzle environment, where cluess seem to live within the structure of the game like some giant biological telephone book.
Timothy Vs The Aliens is a moderate difficulty action-adventure that takes place in a 1940s'ish era gangster-ruled city. Timothy, the protagonist, is a likable ace who derives superhuman luck from an ace of hearts given to him by a race of alien masters when he was a child. In this hardboiled work, worlds and their creatures are separated by fluorescent-colored, googly-eyed aliens and the stark black and white nighttime of the city in which Timothy resides. The story & introduction is straightforward, but the real main draw of this game is the action. Using old school weapons, it's up to you to blast away squishy aliens and get to the bottom of the alien invasion in Little Fish City. Okay, let's do this.
Doggone Hungry is a lovely little PC doggo game about an adorable pup, his favorite toy, some loveable humans, and that gosh darn cat. You'll pounce against the clock to acquire enough, and by enough I mean as many as he wants, snacks to bulk up and solve the exasperating crises of your unreachable toy duck Quackerjack. The style is a colorful pretty much low poly location-based game filled with humans relaxing and occasionally opening doors for you. Don't be so quick to bark after lunching on some prepared hot dogs they had sitting out because you will get caught! They will just put you in timeout though. This game is so cute and so pleasant, (also it's free), so I just had to choose this as today's free-for-all showcase.
Hoa is an intricate hand-painted character and environment art platformer released this week. Visually it succeeds wonderfully with Miyazaki-like aesthetics in illustration, animation, and special effects. It also boasts an absolutely charming ambiance in its background music plus sound effects that are cinematic in quality and effect. It also is available in 10 different languages right from its launch. I feel very relaxed playing Hoa, and even watching someone playing it can be very pleasant. If you have ever been a fan of Totoro or woodland creatures with endearing hearts, fall in love as I did with the game Hoa. Let's take a look.
Arietta, a young lady camping at grandma's cabin along with Arietta's mom and dad. Arietta meets a spirit named Arco during their first night. After Arietta's departed grandmother greets her on the cabin pier and sends her on a quest to retrieve a silver ring, things take a major turn. With some authentic metaphysical storytelling involving realms, ghosts, and spirits, the integrity of the spiritual aspect of this game is solid. In reward, it creates a game with a story with countless possibilities and storytelling. Let's take a look.
Cosmo's Quickstop is a hilarious new game out about an alien family who runs a gas station in outer space. It's your job to learn how to run things pretty much by yourself unless you're playing co-op. The game displays an absolutely fun design direction, with chunky colorful spaceship interiors and holographic control screens for tasks. It also has a goofy fun bug-eyed alien cast which reminds me of the excellent TV show Tripping the Rift. This may or may not be an inspiration, but it's a fun reference point either way. While you play, your new home is chock full of customer maintenance borderline crises that will have you chortling while you rush to keep up. I am loving this, so let's take a closer look
Big Boy Boxing is a cartoony indie boxing dev inspired by Cuphead and the classic late 80's NES game Punch-Out!! The concept is polished and shiny for contemporary indie players who thrive on retro quirks in new games. You play as a new boxer, trained up through the earnest beginning in the ring with a trainer, Coach Hank. At this stage of development, the demo is pretty short with only one contender, but there are plenty of interesting observations to be made on this neat project. I'd say it's pretty certain by the time this is released this is going to be a very hyped game in the indie world and beyond. The project from concept to gameplay is really enjoyable and I'm ready to dive in, so let's take a look.
The Wratch's Den is a rogue-like dungeon builder from the depths of the PUNKCAKE Délicieux inventory on Itch.IO. The gameplay involves building a pixel art style base by mining the surrounding layers of cave rock. The core of the base is a simple brick square structure that houses a minotaur villain on a throne that oversees a group of minions. Progress is measured by how quickly you respond to crusading do-gooders and the retrieval of three magic orbs. When enough progress is made the arch-villain minotaur can research new areas in the base or even revive slain minions. This entire experience is procedurally generated and leads to casual replay value that is pretty dang fun. So, let me take you into the depths of The Wratch's Den, and tell you what I see.
Mini-motorways is a delightful traffic planning sim released within the last month. It boasts charming flat graphic aesthetics with an intuitive casual style game experience. The sleek 2D environment bleeds indie simplicity worthy of a gaming machine or a new phone. The gameplay is relatively simple but allows interactive city planning in a selection of metropolitans all around the world. Start with a small group of structures within the map and drag road tiles and other traffic structures between color-coordinated structures to advance. As you progress, you'll learn tricks and skills to create a flawless infrastructure. I'm excited to take a look at this one with you, so let's get started!
Raptor Boyfriend: A High School Romance is an ambitious and masterfully crafted visual novel/dating sim that takes place in small-town Ontario. With fun cryptid characters and absolutely stunning illustrations, its gameplay value is probably some of the best I've seen for this genre. I have been excited to play this for some time, as a general fan of visual novels and cryptid fantasy games. You don't have to worry about anxiety-driven creature interaction though, because this game is safe and accessible across diverse players. Shortly after the day began, I got started on this dive into the world of Ladle, Ontario. Scene one, which is what I played for you, took around roughly an hour. Some players on Steam had a playtime of over 20 hours! So, there is a lot of content here, and many different ways to play. Let's take a look!