I could argue that instead of buying a Nintendo Switch 2 game, you could buy all the games here, but these are two very different things and I may as well argue that you should buy $80 worth of books or Doctor Who audio dramas or prosciutto. Do you know how much prosciutto you can get for $80? Not that much if you buy the good stuff! Maybe I’m just bitter that I don’t have a Nintendo Switch 2 and can’t join the rest of you in taste testing the cartridges.
There’s also been a bunch of summer games fests happening this week. I have not followed these at all. Don’t care! I will let other people do the work in figuring out what I should be looking at.
This week’s shoutout is for Graceless Games. I’m a huge fan and think you should pick up some of their games on Itch.io
Anyway, here’s the games. As usual, if you worked on something that you’d like included, just let me know. I miss plenty of stuff.
I think everyone knows Deltrarune is out. It’s not for me but I’m happy for everyone else.
HardAF (Steam) is a Meatboy-like but the entire level is dark and you use the blood from your previous deaths to figure out where the obstacles are at. It’s good stuff. There’s a demo that I think people should check out.
As a child of the 90s that played a lot of multimedia cd-roms made by musicians, I get very excited about musicians making video games. We got two of them this week! Aesop Rock’s Black Hole Superette Experience (Steam) has you listening to his music while exploring a convenience store and The New Flesh (Steam) is a game where you explore a surreal space in a city while listening to upcoming songs by Red Vox. I haven’t played either so I can’t tell you if they’re as good as Peter Gabriel’s Eve, but both are free.
The Lego RPG Jam is a game jam where you write ttrpg systems inspired by your favorite Lego sets.
astoryinpieces keeps making great experimental and adult games for the Game Boy and she has another! Four of a Kind (Itch.io) is a horror anthology featuring 4 short stories.
Gaurodan (dev site) is a shmup inspired by 80s arcade games where you fly around as a dinosaur and blow shit up. It’s free but the dev does take donations. This is an old game but it got an update and it’s new to me
DOMINOID (Itch.io) is a pay-what-you-want puzzle game where you stack dominids and create combos.
Kabuto Park (Steam) looks like a very cute bug catching game and has a demo.
A weirdly specific thing I get excited about is using a yo-yo to fight enemies in video games. Don’t know why, just is. Pipistrello and the Cursed Yoyo (Steam/Switch) is a top-down action game where you get to do that and even has a demo.
Name Change Simulator (Itch.io) is a free visual novel all about getting rid of your deadname.
Anyway, that’s it for this week. Hope you found something nice to play!
Something I’ve thought about posting for a while is a list of everything I follow in my RSS feed reader and now that I’ve seen exactly one person asking for most feeds to follow, that is enough for me to put together a list on Google Sheets. I’m still using Inoreader even though AI crap is starting to creep in since it seems to be the best one for my needs but maybe I’ll switch. I think RSS is the best way to follow sites since I don’t have to constantly check social media to make sure I don’t miss anything.
There are some massive warnings and caveats about this list:
Look, I know it’s a mess but it’s my trash heap and I can live in it whatever way I want. That said, I’m going to clean it up and divide it better.
I’ve divided it into different topics but websites are more than one thing and a lot of these could be categorized better.
I also totally half assed that description field once I saw how big it was getting.
Don’t be offended if I left your site out. There’s already been a few sites I added this morning that I was a fan of but realized I had only been looking at them when I saw their posts on social media, which is something I’m trying to pull away from. I welcome more sites so please link to yours here in the comments or as a reply on wherever you saw this posted.
With all that said, I hope you find this giant list useful and add some things to add to your RSS feed reader. If you’re looking for more websites, I also have my Cool Site Zone
I’m so sorry but I’m still thinking about that season finale of Doctor Who and have to put down my thoughts so they will leave my brain. Obviously this will have tons of spoilers so beware. It’s also very rambly.
Well ok, that was a weird and frustrating one. For the most part I really loved this season of Doctor Who. I would even go as far as to say that it’s probably the best season the show has had in a long time. I even really liked the first episode of the finale and lots of parts of the second episode too. I don’t think it’s RTD’s worst finale, he’s had other ones that I think were stinkers, but man oh man, parts of this were very frustrating. A lot of that frustration is maybe unfair. Ncuti has left the show and I wanted him on for many years. He was fantastic and I would have no problem if he had stayed on for another 10 seasons. To some extent I feel that way about everyone that stars in the show, but he was great. There’s also the aspect of the fandom being total chuds. I guess every fandom can be bad but it seemed to really stand out that parts of the fandom were basically rooting for the show to fail and kept pointing out the ratings. This never made a whole lot of sense because as far as I can tell, people were also streaming the show instead of watching it live so yes, of course tv ratings are going to be off. That’s kind how that works. Didn’t really make things less frustrating.
It doesn’t help that the regeneration itself seemed to be pandering to those people and stunt casting to boost the chances of Disney picking it up or whatever the logic was. I’m sure she’ll be great, she’s a fantastic actress, but we just had a stunt regeneration two years ago so it’s tiring to see it again. It sounds like the show is still happening whether Disney picks it up or not and there will just be a delay if they don’t. This is also going to kill me if we have to wait two years to see what happens next, because I’m still a fan and need to know. Everyone keeps being coy about how the credits don’t actually introduce her as The Doctor, so maybe the Doctor immediately changes their face to someone else and Jeff Minter is actually the next Doctor, but I’m going to contradict myself and say that if she is the next Doctor, she should stay on for 8 years. If someone is the Doctor, I want them to stay on for a very long time! I know this comes at the expense at whatever actor comes along next and also kicks ass but I want someone to beat Tom Baker’s record.
I’m also not going to dig into it but that finale had some really weird gender role stuff too that I didn’t care for and it just feeling like a very rushed episode.
So what did I actually like about it? Well, quite a bit actually. It was great to see Jodie come back. She’s great and I’m looking forward to her audio dramas with Big Finish. Ncuti was great as usual and some of his best acting was in this. I don’t see him doing audio drama stuff but I thought that about Eccleston and was wrong there. The two Ranis were also great and it’s too bad we’ll probably never see one of them again. I know Doctor Who can write itself out of anything but…well, it doesn’t seem super likely. A lot of people hate what they did with Omega but I don’t really mind. It’s fine.
Anyway, lots of people were yelling about how RTD has killed the show and I don’t think that’s true. I’ve actually really enjoyed most of his run so far, which has surprised me since I was so ready for him to leave during his original run, but I also wish it wasn’t looking backward so much.
Developer: Grundislav Games Publisher: Grundislav Games Year: 2004 (Deluxe version: 2006) Genre: Adventure
I just installed ScummVM on my new MacBook this weekend and have started loading as many games as I could on it. After seeing how many early AGS games I put on there, I thought it would be a fun excuse to revisit some of the games from that era since I have some nostalgia for that time. This includes the first game in the Ben Jordan Paranormal Investigator series. The first game just turned 20 last year, which is also a bit weird to see. I played the Deluxe version, which came out in 2006. I thiiiink it’s the first game by Grundislav Games? You play as a dude named Ben Jordan on your first case as a paranormal investigator and check out a series of murders of park rangers by a creature known as the Skunk-Ape. It’s a horror comedy series, which I don’t think you see too often in video games either.
It still holds up! The puzzles aren’t too difficult but don’t feel like a waste of time either, and it’s only about 60-90 minutes so you can easily do it in one sitting. Some of the puzzles make him seem like more of a sociopath than I remember, but I guess that’s kind of the whole deal with this style of adventure game. Plus it’s a comedy so it works in the game anyway. Obviously the developer would go on to do bigger and better things but I think some of the fun with revisiting these early AGS games is seeing how they got started. Even if they didn’t go on to make commercial games, early AGS games are fun to check out because you get to watch a whole community figure out how to make these after Lucasarts and Sierra collapsed, and the lack of polish in the art and voice acting is really charming to me. That doesn’t mean that I think it’s bad, it’s still lovely stuff and I think it’s worth playing outside of its context, but it’s a different kind of nostalgia than what you would get from revisiting a Lucasarts or Sierra game.
Ben Jordan: Paranormal Investigator Case 1 – In Search of the Skunk-Ape is available for free/pay-what-you-want on Itch.io
Happy pride month! Play some games by queer games devs. Maybe some goofy ones for free from here? Or of course, the 1995 fmv game The Beast Within: A Gabriel Knight Mystery. As usual, here are some things I liked reading in my RSS feed reader this week. I’ve complained about Inoreader before but I’m still using it because I haven’t found a replacement that fits my needs yet. I will keep pushing RSS feed readers because it beats constantly checking social media IMO.
I’ve mentioned Collection Chamber before but the monthly updates are always exciting to me. It’s an abandonware site that packages the games to work on modern versions of Windows. I never even heard of most of this month’s games other than i Ninja, but I love Cryo’s weird broken adventures so it’s fun to see Zero Zone in there. It’s probably bad and I’ll probably love it.
Wraithkal continues to do roundups of Screenshot Saturday posts found on Mastodon. I don’t know if there’s anyone doing the equivalent of posts on Bluesky but that would be nice if anyone is thinking of a weekly blog post to do.
May was ME/CFS Awareness Month and eladnarra has a post about it.
I’m a huge fan of DOS Game Club and they have a new episode. If you’re looking for a forum to talk about old DOS games, they’re a great community to hang out with.
Sidequesting has an interview with Goth Donut Games about their upcoming Castlevania-like Lady Dracula.
Speaking of Sidequesting, they have also started highlighting smaller indie game sites like mine. This is going to be awkward when I start making posts about personal stuff and Doctor Who very soon since I still consider this to be a personal blog even with 99% of the posts being about video games, but I still appreciate the pat on the back.
schledorn highlights four games that he thinks deserve more attention. Bear Blog is great. If you don’t have a blog and want to start one, consider using that service.
Essay Games has thoughts on Despelote, a game I keep meaning to play.
Brain Baking has rescued custom levels they made in the 90s for Lode Runner: The Legend Returns. I love seeing people preserve levels, games, and mods they made when they were younger. I will also take any opportunity to recommend the fan remake of this game.
There’s also two dev logs I recommend. One from the designer of Six Ages talking about his new game and one from Ben Chandler, who has worked on so many adventure games, talking about his own game and features some nice pictures and video of notes.
I was supposed to write into Quest! Quest! about this but dropped the ball so now it’s a blog post. So first I’ll say that if you enjoy adventure games, you should listen to the very good and funny Quest! Quest! podcast. The topic of co-op adventure games had come up and there’s not a ton, but they exist. This post is also going to ignore the escape room games out there. It seems like there’s a few of them and people like them, but I just know nothing about them because I’m more focused on traditional adventure games. But Escape Academy and Escape Simulator are out there and seem nice. This is also ignoring that really any adventure game can be a co-op game if you just share your screen and work together to solve puzzles.
We Were Here Together
The We Were Here series has you and a partner split up as you walk through a series of puzzles in a location such as an old castle and communicating through walkie-talkies about what you see. The game wants you to communicate through the in-game chat and not a voice chat outside of the game like Discord because of how walkie-talkies work and only one person being able to talk at a time. The first game in the series is free if you want to try it out.
The Last Night of Alexisgradis an asymmetric, two-player interactive fiction where each player takes on the role of a leader of a nation on the last night of a war. It’s built in Twine and the way this one works is that you each play up until a certain point, the game provides you with a code, and the other player inputs the code that you received to see where the game takes you next. I wouldn’t say this one is co-op at all, but it was interesting to see a multiplayer Twine game and I really enjoyed the writing in it.
And of course there can’t be an adventure game article by me without mentioning Myst Online. It’s one of my favorites. It’s still up and completely free too!
The rest of these I haven’t played but hope to some day. If you’re reading this and we know each other, let me know if you want to play one of them.
Tick Tock: A Tale for Twois a 2D point-and-click adventure where you are both trapped in a magical world and must escape. It features cross-platform play and the artwork looks nice.
Operation: Tango is a first person 3D adventure where it looks like you and a friend are doing spy stuff to save the world. A nice thing about this one is that it looks like only one player has to buy the game and the other player can play for free.
Whispers in the West is a point-and-click western murder mystery that supports co-op for 2-4 players. The base game includes a tutorial, mini mystery, and full length one with DLC for additional mysteries. This is another one where only one person has to buy the game and everyone else can play for free.
The Past Within (Steam/Itch.io) is a co-op first-person point-and-click adventure in the Rusty Lake series. Puzzles involve one person being in the past and one in the future and communicating in whatever way they want. I haven’t played it but it looks like they aren’t directly connecting to each other over the internet in-game and just rely on what the other person sees to solve puzzles. Both players need a copy of the game to play but it sounds like both paths are very different.
A Lively Haunt is a horror graphic parser game in the style of early Sierra adventures like King’s Quest and Space Quest where you walk around and type your commands. This one supports two players on the same machine by having two keyboards plugged in, but I imagine that playing through something like Parsec would work too? I learned about this one from WilcoWeb!
I suppose all the games like It Takes Two and A Way Out by Hazelight Studios could count as well. They aren’t my thing but good luck to all game developers I guess.
Shivers 2 and Zork: Grand Inquisitor also shipped with multiplayer. I believe they just allowed a player to connect and use a mouse cursor to point at stuff and type comments to help solve puzzles. The online services for both shut down a long time ago but I think it’s interesting they were attempted. I’m guessing they were pressured to insert online multiplayer into their games since they were the hot new thing, and it feels like a proto version of sharing your screen over Discord. The demo for Quest for Glory 5 also shipped with co-op and it would have been interesting if that made it into the full game. My understanding is that you can still play that one but it’s a massive headache to get working.
Well, that’s all I could think of but I would love to hear other recommendations!
Things have been tough lately and I’ll probably get into that in a later post, but writing about games has been a nice distraction so I will keep plugging away at indie games posts because I think they’re nice and maybe they help you too. If you enjoy these posts, consider commissioning some art from Rose. You could get a vTuber model or a nice little character pop for $30.
Video Games
AriaCoffee (dev site) is a free arcade browser game where you have become a demon girl and must drink coffee to survive in hell.
City of Voices (Steam) is an upcoming Golden Idol-like that just launched a free demo.
Decade (Steam) is an interactive fiction game where you send children back into the past to change the future.
Kerplunk (Itch.io) is a 4-player Pong-like playable for free in the browser, but I think developers will be interested in looking at the Godot source code and tutorial if they are just getting started in the engine.
Mythic Mire (Steam) is the latest game from resnijars. It’s a surreal rpg inspired by 90s console rpgs. I’ve always loved the 90s aesthetic this developer’s games have, whether it’s an arcade or adventure game.
Near-Mage (Steam/GOG) is a 2D point-and-click adventure where you find out you come from a long line of witches and enter a magic school. I already mentioned this one a few days ago about how many adventure games have come out this year but yeah, it’s a wild time to be a fan of the genre.
Nowhere Belonging (Itch.io) is a free 15-minute long browser game about the feeling of not belonging. Great game but please read the content warnings before playing.
PaperKlay (Steam) looks like a really cute 3D platformer where the world looks like it is all crafted from household materials.
Pity This Busy Monster (Steam/Itch.io) is a physics-based narrative game where you carefully deliver donuts.
Poco (Steam) is a free point-and-click adventure where you are the world’s smallest clown and solve puzzles to return to the circus. Thank you Mike for telling me about it!
Project Warlock 2 (Steam/GOG/Epic) is now out of Early Access. It’s a fast-paced FPS inspired by early games in the genre like Wolf3D and Doom. I haven’t played it yet but I loved the first game and this looks like more of that.
Happy new PUNKCAKE Délicieux game day to those who celebrate. This month’s game is a 10 year anniversary edition of their arcade game Serpentes. It’s available on Itch.io and is getting a Steam release later on.
to a T (Steam) is a new adventure game from the creator of Katamari Damacy where everyone is stuck in a T-pose. I always feel a little bit about putting Annapurna stuff in here but whatever. It’s an adventure game so I’m excited about it.
Where’s That Clown?! (Steam) is a free arcade game where you are a clown keeping kids entertained at a party.
Windowpane (Itch.io) is a free, new tool for creating sequential art by Bagenzo. Maybe YOU can create the next great multimedia project that I will never shut up about.
Without a Dawn (Steam) is a horror visual novel with some really cool ASCII art.
Wizard Garden (dev site) is a free platformer in a bookmarklet by the creator of Bitsy.
Playdate
Fineliner (Itch.io) is a daily drawing game available for Pay-What-You-Want
Playdate Season 2 (dev site) has launched. Every week you get two new games.
TTRPGs
Liberate Property (Itch.io) is a free supplement to introduce liberation into your ttrpg of choice.
Infinite Seas Under the Same Stars (Itch.io) is a pay-what-you-want collaborative storytelling game for 2-4 players about souls fatefully linked over multiple realities and lifetimes.
Crowdfunding
UrbXWarriors (Kickstarter) is a new game for Spectrum Next and PC by Tony Warriner (Broken Sword, Beneath a Steel Sky) and Stoo Cambridge (Cannon Fodder, Sensible World of Soccer). It’s a top-down action game and has a demo on Itch.io
That’s it for this week! This one was a little half-assed because of real life and it just being such a massive list of games. It’s only been a week since the last one! How are there so many games? I always appreciate comments. Let me know if there’s anything you’ve played lately that I’ve left out or you’ve just really enjoyed.
If you’ve been following my indie game roundups, you’ll know that I’ve been in shock at how many adventure games have been coming out lately. I’ve never been an “adventure games are dead person” but even as someone that’s a bit touchy about that subject, I feel more comfortable lately saying it’s a great time to be a fan of the genre. If you like this post, both Adventure Game Hotspot and Adventure Gamers do a much better job of covering new adventure games than I do and you should add them to your RSS feed reader. You can even check out the calendar on Adventure Game Hotspot for more games released this year. You may also like ChoiceBeat for Interactive Fiction and Visual Novel coverage.
I also think Fireflower Games deserves a shoutout. If you’re looking for DRM-free adventure games, consider picking up a game from their store. Itch.io doesn’t get every indie game and this site has done a pretty good job building up a catalog of games from various adventure game folks. Plus a chunk of their proceeds gets donated to environmental groups (see their FAQ).
Anyway, here have been some of the ones I’ve come across this year. Some of the descriptions will be recycled from previous roundups (reusable content baby!) just because this list is massive and is already taking a long time. It’s also not even counting all the great interactive fiction games. Please leave comments with other games that you’re excited about because there’s definitely a lot I’ve left out. I was going to also include upcoming adventure games and others that have entered Early Access, but this post is already too big so I’m splitting that into a separate post along with one featuring adventure games I’ve enjoyed in the past few years before 2025.
Amerzone (Steam) got a remake and it looks great. I was a fan of the original and from looking at the Steam review, it looks like the remake does the game justice.
Asterism (Steam) is an interactive concept album by Claire Morwood, filled with lovely music, but the highlight for me is this stop-motion art. Everyone probably knows by now that if a game has stop-motion art I’m required to put it in here. Look at it! Incredible. It also has a demo.
After being in development for over a decade, horror point-and-click adventure ASYLUM (Steam) is now available. I’m a fan of the developer’s previous game Scratches, which is no longer on Steam due to a fallout with the co-designer, although they have said it’s fine if people find that game….online. They also have a free adventure game they released 10 years ago called Serena.
Au Revoir (Steam) is a cyberpunk point-and-click adventure described by the HauntedPS1 curator page as “Blade Runner Point and Click with a Haunted PS1 coat of paint. The puzzles ask you to really pay attention to the environment around you, but luckily that environment is a treat to take in.”
Do I even need to post about Blue Prince? I think everyone knows about it at this point. I’m not sure if a roguelike adventure game is for me personally but it sounds great and even the developers of Myst are very into it, so consider checking it out. It’s fun seeing a roguelike adventure game being such a massive hit vtoo.
I fully support people making adventure games with big heads like in the original Maniac Mansion, so THE BRiLLiANT COUP (Steam) is a game that got my attention.
My understanding of the new Carmen Sandiego (Steam) is that it actually does a pretty good job maintaining the spirit of the original games even with it having 3D platforming elements.
Citizen Sleeper 2 (Steam) is maybe I weird one to include here because some people think of it as a rpg, but it’s Interactive Fiction enough for me to include. Absolutely loved the original and just haven’t gotten around to this one yet. I will someday, hopefully soon, and I’m sure I’ll love it.
despelote (Steam) is a game that I’ve heard a ton of praise for in the lead up to its release. I think it looks fantastic.
Discolored 2 (Steam) is a first-person puzzle adventure game inspired by the Myst series, with a focus on puzzles based around color. I was a fan of the first game and this looks like it builds on that to create a bigger game with characters you interact with.
Duck Detective: The Ghost of Glamping looks like a really cute detective game and the Steam page says it’s only 2-3 hours, which sounds great to me. I guess it’s a standalone sequel to a game that came out last year.
Elroy and the Aliens (Steam) is a new point-and-click adventure where you play as Elroy and Peggie in the search of a long-lost father in an alternate version of the 90s. It looks like a very charming adventure game and there’s even a demo if you want to give it a try. I’m not too familiar with the team other than it has Robert Megone working on it, who has also worked on games like Return to Monkey Island and Thimbleweed Park. A recent video from the Space Quest Historian even has him saying it’s one of the best adventure games he’s played recently.
ENA: Dream BBQ (Steam) is a free first-person adventure game where you explore surreal environments.
Expelled! (Steam/Switch/iOS) is the newest game by interactive fiction developers Inkle. You are a student at a school that has been framed for attempted murder and must prove your innocence or find someone to take the fall in a limited period of time. It follows a similar framework as one of Inkle’s previous games, Overboard, which I was a massive fan of. Hooray for interactive fiction.
Frog Bard (Steam/Itch.io) is a short, poetic experience about finding inspiration in the world around you.
I don’t really know what Ginger (Steam) is but I keep seeing people recommend it and saying how weird it is, so I guess take a look if you like weird adventure games?
Lost Records: Bloom & Rage (Steam) is the newest game by DON’T NOD, creators of the Life is Strange series. I haven’t played it yet but I imagine if you like those games, you’ll also like this. It’s set in the 90s in northern Michigan so it feels targeted directly at me.
I don’t know a whole lot about Many Nights a Whisper (Steam) but it looks like a beautiful adventure game (or at least adjacent to the genre), has quite a few positive reviews, and it’s described as “A short interactive essay on dreams, pressure, and expectations. Take part in an ancient ritual where one shot determines the fate of a generation.” and that sounds interesting to me.
Metamorph (Steam) is a horror adventure game described by the HauntedPS1 curator as “Fantastic short Kafka inspired game with HPS1 vibes. Discover the ordeal of being known and, if you’re lucky, the rewards of being loved.” Does that make it a Bad Mojo-like?
Near-Mage (Steam) is the newest game by Stuck in Attic, developers of Gibbous. You discover you are a witch and attend the Transylvanian Institute for Magick.
Neon Hearts City (Steam/Itch.io) is the newest adventure game from Cosmic Void. I’m a fan of Cosmic Void’s previous games and I’m looking forward to digging into this one too. I just don’t know how they manage to put out so many solid adventure games so quickly. I know there’s folks helping like Stephen Don (check out his games too) but man, that’s still a lot of games.
Old Skies (Steam) is the newest game by Wadjet Eye Games. I’m so happy this is out. I got to play a beta and think it’s one of their best, if not best, point-and-click adventures, and replaying the game right now confirms that. It’s a time travel story featuring incredible art by Ben Chandler and great voice acting by a lot of the folks that have acted in previous Wadjet Eye Games adventures.
People are still making games for the Commodore 64. Pirates of the Black Seas (Itch.io) is a new text adventure available for Pay-What-You-Want created with the classic IF writing software Quest Writer by Loadstar.
Poco (Steam) is “a 2D/3D hybrid point-and-click adventure game where you play as Poco, a two-inch tall clown who is banished from a giant walking circus, and left to fend for themselves in the undergrowth of the Below World.” The art in this looks fantastic, it has hundreds of positive reviews, and it’s free!
Promise Mascot Agency
Promise Mascot Agency (dev site) is the newest game by the developers of Paradise Killer. It’s an open-world adventure game/mascot management sim and has been a total delight to play. The soundtrack by Ryo Koike and Alpha Chrome Yayo has been a highlight for me. This one was a little bit of a stretch but if Adventure Game Hotspot says it counts then that’s good enough for me.
The Roottrees are Dead (Steam) is an expanded version of the original hit game created for Global Game Jam 2023.
One of the biggest releases for me this year is the point-and-click adventure Rosewater (Steam), a western adventure by the creator of Lamplight City, and set in that universe but you do not need to play that first (but you should also play that). It’s a fantastic game and man, look at all those rotoscoped animations!
Slender Threads (Steam) is a paranormal point-and-click adventure that I’ve seen get a lot of praise by folks in the adventure game community.
Spider Land
Spider Land (Steam/Itch.io) is a short interactive fiction about a doomsday prepper and is available for free/pay-what-you-want.
Spring Thing is a yearly IF competition that’s always worth a look.
Stellar Mess: Operation Kush (Steam/Itch.io) is the second part in the Stellar Mess series. As an enjoyer of the era of Lucasarts adventure games where the art was in EGA and people had big heads, I think it deserves a shoutout.
Sub-Verge is a game where you control a group of deep-sea divers and looks incredibly stressful, haha. I think it looks really good though.
The Talos Principle: Reawakened (Steam) is a remake of the first game and adds the DLC and some new stuff with some snazzy new graphics. I’ve been a long time Croteam fan so it’s interesting to me darn it.
the Devil rais’d the storm (Itch.io) is a visual novel/adventure game about locating a radar signal deep in the canyons near your remote outpost. Available for just $2.
Type Help (Itch.io) is a brilliant Obra-Dinn/Roottrees are Missing-like that is free and playable in the browser. Don’t really want to give too much away but it’s very impressive that this was all done in Twine and critically acclaimed interactive fiction author Andrew Plotkin has also discussed why it’s brilliant on his blog.
A few days ago I mentioned I was going to sleep in a zoo and folks? I have slept in a zoo. Not very well of course, one does not simply snooze for 8 hours straight in a random zoo building when they are a light sleeper, but technically I have slept in the same building as pied tamarins thanks to my daughter’s Girl Scouts troop.
So anyway, here’s some blog posts I’ve enjoyed lately.
First of all, consider supporting Michael Coorlim and getting lots of cool games and writing! They’ve worked on some very cool stuff like the recently released Kathy Rain 2.
I like seeing what games other people are excited about and Aura has a nice one featuring stuff I mostly haven’t heard of before, which is always great.
Nicole Express breaks down the hardware for the arcade game Kiki KaiKai, which is more famous for Natsume taking the concept and making Pocky & Rocky. I really liked Pocky & Rocky as a child and never knew that it had something before it.
Point-and-click adventure Technobabylon has turned 10. Good lord. If you haven’t played it yet, I highly recommend it. If you have played it, go check out this interview with the designer about the game’s queer themes and sequel plans. Great stuff! If this wasn’t a personal blog named after a moose I would love to interview game devs. If you’re ok with being interviewed on a blog that has nothing to do with moose, let me know. If you think this blog should talk more about moose, let me know.
Speaking of personal blogs, sometimes they’re fun because 90% of the time they’re focused on one thing like tabletop rpgs, and those posts are good, but then you come across what it’s like to work in a library.
If I see a post about the Amiga, I have to post it. That’s the rule. This time it’s a post that asks What is an Amiga?
Florence Smith Nicholls talks about what games get covered in academia. The article goes into wanting to cover Wurm Online and the importance of talking about MMOs that aren’t dead, but aren’t exactly thriving either and have low player counts, so they just kinda don’t get discussed. Since I am a massive fan of the NOT DEAD mmo Myst Online, which you can still play today for free and is still getting new content, this resonates strongly with me.
Speaking of MMOs, KRITIQAL has an excellent article about Ragnarok Online Indonesia and how it is still alive today through a fan server.
Read Only Memo has an interview with the modder who has brought the X-Box 360 game Chromehounds back online.
No Escape writes about Final Fantasy and those Pixel Remaster versions, and just about Final Fantasy remakes in general. I don’t really follow the series so I liked learning about the weirdness of these and what’s even going on in that series.
I’ve linked to this adventure game blog before but there’s some interesting computer history at Michigan State and Troy at the beginning of this article. The rest of it about the game The Final Countdown is very good too.
I don’t really know where to categorize all of these things but feel like they should be shared, so here’s kind of a link dump of retro gaming stuff I’ve come across in the last month that I think is neat.
The 1986 adventure game Amnesia has a very nice restoration where you can play the game as it was originally released on the C64, Apple IIe, and PC, but it also has a contemporary web mode with tons of quality of life features added.
A new ZX Spectrum fan zine launched about a month ago and it’s available for free on Itch.
denzquix has done a lot of great translations of adventure games and the latest is for Bi-Fi: Action in Hollywood, a promotional point-and-click adventure game from 1994 for Bi-Fi Rolls, a salami-based snack originating in Germany and sold across Europe. You can read more about it here on BlueSky.
The cd-rom TRIPITAKA 玄奘三蔵求法の旅, the sequel to the legendary Cosmology of Kyoto has finally been saved and put on the Internet Archive! It’s incredible that this has been preserved and you can read more about it on BlueSky. If you’ve never played Cosmology of Kyoto, it’s currently abandonware but you can treat yourself to this nice repackaging of it.
This looks like a nice update of the classic DOS game Abuse.
Rex and the Galactic Plague just looks like a fun teaser for an Amiga game and the dog reminds me of K9 from Doctor Who. Sometimes I just get excited about people still making Amiga games and this one is on Itch.
Project Magma is a restoration of the game Myth that’s new to me and maybe it’s new to you as well. If you’ve never played Myth before, it’s great!
Idk, that’s all. This isn’t a recurring bit on this blog. I just wanted to share all these things because I think they’re cool.
