Month: October 2024

Indie Game Roundup (Oct. 4, 2024)

~ mpklamerus ~ 1 Comment

It’s the first one of these in a post-Cohost world. What does that mean? Not much really. This is going to be a big one because I must clear out more the backlog in my list and people keep insisting on making games. Even that Geneforge guy who said there’s too many people making games keeps making them! What’s up with that? Always feel free to reply in the comments with either things you’ve made, or games you’ve been enjoying. I love comments. Anyway, here’s games.

Dodge 1000 Knives (Itch.io) is a free browser game where you must dodge 1000 knives. I’m bad at it but it’s good.

gif of train tracks being put down and a train moving across them
Raide

Raide (Itch.io) is a browser-based puzzle game where you put down train tracks for a train to move from a beginning to start point. I really enjoyed its short levels and artwork.

Backstreet Warriors (Itch.io) is a browser brawler game, like Double Dragon, made in PICO-8 where you must defeat 99 people to win.

The Queer Halloween Stories Bundle 2024 (Itch.io) is a collection of queer games, comics, stories, etc for $60, although there’s a bundle you can buy at a lower price too.

Pinball Spire (Steam) is a pinball game but with a Metroid-like structure. I watched a stream of it yesterday and it looked fun!

first person view of a lizard like monster in a tunnel and combat stats at the bottom, everything is very green
Cyclopean

Cyclopean now has a demo (Steam). It’s a first person dungeon crawler inspired by H.P. Lovecraft and I think the art style looks pretty neat!

Just so you can see how far behind I am, Strange Scaffold has released two games! CLICKOLDING (Itch.io/Steam) is a game where you clicked a counter while a masked man watches you and I Am Your Beast (Steam) is a fast-paced covert fps set in micro sandboxes. Both games seem like they have done very well, which is always nice to see for a studio like Strange Scaffold.

a variety of carved pumpkins sitting on pedestals
Ghost Town Pumpkin Festival

The Ghost Town Pumpkin Festival is open again (Itch.io). This is a Pay-What-You-Want online game where you carve some pumpkins and put them up for everyone to see.

Tiny Glade (Steam) just looks like a very lovely diorama builder where you create castles and cottages where no specified goals or win conditions. It also seems like it’s been a massive success from looking at the number of Steam reviews.

a variety of toys like a little train, and a computer with dials, and some blocks
ODDADA

ODDADA (Steam) looks like an incredibly pleasant music toy that was recommended to me by Flyover Games. Just look at all the fiddly little bits you can play with and bright colors in those screenshots.

The Portal Tomb (physical book) is a tabletop rpg for 5 players and 1-2 sessions that uses Ogham runes instead of dice to generate a story set at a queen’s funeral.

As I was typing this, a new Indiepocalypse is now available (Itch.io). This one features future classics like SNAKEBYTE, a very good Metroid-like game where you explore a computer as an ASCII snake, EyeOS (I think I covered that one before?), and an arcade game called Be Not Afraid, But Run by Renegade Sector Games.

10BF.EXE (Itch.io) is a dual screen bullet hell but you can also capture spell cards and use them on your enemies.

screenshot of a green guy with a giant hat in a store saying "But, crystals...What kind of a jeweler I'd be if I didn't have crystals!"
Melon Head

Melon Head (Itch.io) is a new surreal point-and-click adventure featuring EGA art. I don’t even know how to describe it so you’ll have to check it out yourself. There’s a free demo if you’re interested.

Forever Space (Itch.io/Steam) is a remake of a previously made game by Pinhead Games. I haven’t played it but I’m a fan of their previous games like the Nick Bounty series and this seem the developer going in a horror direction.

Spaces are moments, not abstract or far away (Itch.io) is a free browser game described a poemware. I thought it was a beautiful space to explore and really liked the photography mechanic.

Hamayumishi: Night Parade of a Hundred Yokai (Itch.io) is an upcoming twin-stick shooting platformer by Nice Gear Games that I think looks really nice and it just got a demo.

Linker has a new game in developer that looks like a nice puzzle platformer (Itch.io). No title yet and it’s early in development but everything by them is great.

Here’s some things that aren’t games but I think you’ll enjoy:

If you are a fan of Hypercard then you’ll love Decker (Itch.io). It’s a free browser tool for making interactive documents and we just got a new version.

Wonderful game dev Big Hand In Sky has released 3 short stories that are Pay-What-You-Want on Itch.io: OVERLOAD, Name: [Here], and Looking at Clouds.

If you’re working in Zonelets, here’s a tool to make working with RSS a little easier.

And finally, here’s a couple of indie games that aren’t new but I finally got around to playing them and would recommend:

Here’s a remake of the classic arcade game Berzerk in PICO-8 (Itch.io). Everyone likes Berzerk!

Snoik! (Itch.io) is a twist on the classic Snake game for the Playdate. This time you’re switching between two planes to avoid hitting your tail.

What I’m Up To (2024-10-02)

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Here’s my weekly check in on what I’ve been up to. So far this week has been less bananas than the last couple of weeks, which has been nice, and I’m finally settling into a groove with the kids back in school.

Cohost shut down yesterday and is now read only for the next few months before going down completely. I keep saying I’ll do The Post about the site at some point but hopefully I do make time for that, even if everyone else has already done it and better. It certainly wasn’t perfect but I did like going there and will miss it. I’ve been working on a gigantic blog roll so if you did post there and want your site added, let me know in the comments or social media. Having a giant list of sites to follow in my RSS feed reader has been nice.

Work on the adventure game continues. I’ve made a couple rooms and a character since last week so I’m feeling pretty good about progress. The design of the game’s puzzles is improving too. In theory it’s probably much better and more efficient to design the entire game before doing art for it but I just cannot function like that and it has killed previous projects so I’m sticking with what works for me. But at this rate I feel pretty comfortable about hitting the deadline. Getting better at Adventure Game Studio may be a potential hurdle but people have been very kind about answering my questions about the engine.

The Wall of Buttons continues to grow. It’s been fun doing goofy early internet stuff and then clicking around on other websites.

The Great Album Project (2024-10-01)

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It’s the first day of October. Not a fan! Here are the records I listened to this week. A shorter post this time but that’s alright.

Same Eyes: Desperate Ones (2022, Bandcamp)
I posted about this band before in a previous one of these. This is an Ann Arbor darkwave/new wave band and some other local folks like Warren Defever seem to be involved with the production. It’s good! It’s a little more darkwave than the previous album, which is something I like, but I found the songs to be just slightly less memorable, so they actually sorta rank at about the same level for me. I actually got this one for free when I bought the other album from them on Bandcamp, which was incredibly nice. I guess they have a 3rd album coming out soonish, or they’re at least working on it, so I’ll pick that one up too.

Sad Lovers & Giants: Feeding the Flame (1983, YouTube)
Sad Lovers & Giants is a UK post-punk band that started in 1980. I’m not sure how well known they actually are, but they’re still around today and putting out new music. I don’t know them too well outside of this album and a handful of songs outside of this, but I really enjoy it and should probably listen to more of them. It’s a really strong album that maybe trails off a little towards the end but I’d recommend it to people who liked early 80s post-punk or bands like The Chameleons and Echo & The Bunnymen I guess? It’s probably not the best comparison but it’s what I can think of. I picked this one up at UHF Records in Royal Oak, probably about 12 years ago. For whatever reason I was always there and they seemed to have a great assortment of 80s post punk at the time, before record collecting picked up in popularity again to the state that it is now.