Yes I know I just did one of these a few days ago but I’m sad about real life stuff so I’m doing another. There’s a few Halloween appropriate things too since I thought it would be good to mention those before tomorrow and the list of things to post about has already grown a ton in the last couple days so here we are. If you enjoyed this post, please donate money to support Jamaica in the aftermath of Hurricane Melissa.

Sugar Ghouls (Itch.io) is a cute browser collect-a-thon where you run around collecting candy while avoiding monsters. It has some really nice PS1 inspired art too. I also recommend checking out soda raptor’s Itch page if you want more games with a PS1 aesthetic and game recommendations from them.

Slop (Itch.io) is a short horror Twine game and the exciting thing about this one is that it’s meant for three players over voice chat. I always get excited about multiplayer interactive fiction.

Barbarians (Itch.io) is a Pay-What-You-Want strategy game for DOS where you need to defend your empire from barbarians. It’s also available for the ZX Spectrum.

Gorgon’s Garden (Itch.io) is a short, free horror game about exploring a dead MMO and forum devoted to it. I will always get excited about games focused on dying/dead MMOs.

Ron Gilbert’s newest game Death By Scrolling (Steam) is now available. It’s an arcade game with roguelite elements where you explore purgatory and collect gold by killing monsters. The screen is constantly scrolling upwards and you occasionally have to avoid the grim reaper, who is chasing you. I’ve been really enjoying this game. I love the pixel art and as someone that bounced off Vampire Survivors, I don’t think it actually has much to do with that game other than the auto attacking. I’ll probably write more about it later but I really like it.

I don’t know a whole lot about the action rpg Stray Children (Steam), which just came out today, but it’s by the Moon and Rule of Rose devs and people love those so I think it’s worth a mention.

Microvania (Steam) looks like a lovely small retro-inspired Metroid-like and it has a demo if you want to give it a shot too!

Greek Tragedy (Steam/Switch/Playstation/Xbox) has also just come out today after being in development for a few years. It’s a survival horror game where you must survive a college campus that has been overrun with cultists.

I haven’t had the chance to try it yet but I’ve seen a lot of praise online for シンゴウブレイカ SINGOU BREAKA (Steam). It’s a puzzle game where you destroy blocks modeled after pedestrian lights. It has a demo too if you want to give it a try.

Simon the Sorcerer Origins (Steam) is now out after being in development for a while. It’s a prequel to the Simon the Sorcerer adventure game series. I’m not the biggest fan of the games but a lot of people are and the art in this looks nice too.

lil’ Henry and Penny’s Big Adventure Pack (Steam) looks really cute. It’s a set of short point-and-click adventure games that the developer made with his kids, with voice acting and options to make adventure games more accessible to kids too. More people should make games with their kids. I think it’s a lot of fun.

A few folks have said it’s the year of the ninja in games but 2025 is actually the Year of the Egg between the twin stick shooter Evil Egg (Steam), Terry Cavanagh’s free browser game Egg (Itch.io), and Dizzy’s corpse making a cameo in Lumo 2.

And last but not least, the free zine ChoiceBeat #15 is here, featuring news and reviews of interactive fiction and visual novels.