Being involved with the Michigan game dev scene means that I’m aware of plenty of smaller games that may not be at the top of every games preservation list. One of these is When Oranges Attack. When Oranges Attack was a game developed by PixoFactor (now known as Pixo VR) and playable on Facebook to promote Minute Maid orange juice. Players created Rube Goldberg-style contraptions, similar to The Incredible Machine series, to help oranges tip over Minute Maid orange juice so actor Ty Burrell cannot drink it. FMV of the actor would play while you were trying to solve puzzles and whenever you completed one successfully. There were five levels, each with a different theme. Between levels there was an orange juice themed clone of the game Pipe Dream. Players could also enter a UPC code from Minute Maid orange juice to unlock a bonus 6th level.
The game was only online for a short period of time before being taken down and no one has dumped the game so it can be preserved. My understanding is that the code for the game was hosted on Minute Maid servers so I couldn’t just ask someone from Pixo to anonymously dump the game to the Internet Archive. That said, if you do happen to have access to the game, could you uhhhhhhh dump the game to the Internet Archive?
There’s not much proof the game even exists online except for a couple of websites that mention it along with a handful of screenshots. This first website is a blog that had a paid post to advertise the game and features a few screenshots and a description of the game.
There is also this website from someone who has worked in various advertising campaigns that also has a handful of screenshots.
Once again, if you have any additional knowledge about this game or if the game mysteriously ends up online, let me know!
Prismatic Wasteland has issued a challenge to blogs to create a new resolution mechanic for tabletop rpgs.
My challenge is thus: In January 2024, come up with a new resolution mechanic for a TTRPG and give it a name. It doesn’t need to be good (in fact, most the good ones have probably already been taken). It just needs to be new! You don’t need to plan to use it in your games; it can be absolute detritus for you. But one blogger’s trash is another designer’s treasure. You never know how great an impact one throwaway idea on a blog might have.
There’s already a nice list of mechanics on the page and I thought it would fun to come up with my own. This one requires a children’s basketball hoop for kids ages 18 months and up.
You could probably use a basketball hoop for adults I GUESS but this is more likely to be inside a house next to your table where you’re playing a ttrpg. Anytime you have to take an action that is risky, take a shot on the basket. Making a basket means the shot was a success, hitting the rim but not having it go in means it was a success but there was a complication, and missing completely means it was a failure. You could have them make the shot from 8 feet away but feel free to adjust the distance based on the player’s basketball ability. If the character has a skill modifier bonus, the player can take additional steps towards the hoop, or steps away if they have a penalty.
This year I will be participating in #Lore24, a daily activity for folks in the tabletop rpg community to build a setting by writing a tiny bit about it each day. It doesn’t matter what part of the world you’re going to focus on that day or how much you write. It can be just a tiny bit each day. It looks like it’s something that originally started on Mastodon. This blog post has a really good description of how it works.
I’m still not sure how often I’ll share updates about it. I know eventually I’ll put it out there but I also don’t want to share daily updates. Maybe weekly or monthly? I bounced off Dungeon23, the last daily activity in the ttrpg community, mostly because I don’t really like building dungeons that much and was generating a lot of filler rooms, but this has already been more fun for me. I’m starting off with a fantasy setting inspired by the Zork games but I’m also hoping that over time it will grow into something more unique. Consider joining in!
Happy new year! Even with the holidays and everything lately, a lot of great stuff came out this week. If you recently released something that you want included, always feel free to send me an email or message me on social media (see About page) to let me know it’s out.
Hexany’s Roguelike Tiles Hexany’s Roguelike Tiles is a really nice looking batch of tiles released under a Creative Commons license for anyone to use. I just thought they looked nice and thought it should be included.
Spheroid Spheroid is a puzzle game for the Commodore Amiga where you move a metal sphere around a maze and get to the exit. The Amiga was my first computer so it makes me happy that Itch has an active Amiga game dev scene on there.
Dead Drop DeadDrop is the 19th game in the Carol Reed series, a series of first person point-and-click mystery games. I haven’t played any of these (I will fix that this year!) but I heard they’re solid games. I just enjoy that the games are exclusively available for sale from the developer’s site and nowhere else. It reminds me of the 90s/early 00s era of buying indie games.
Word Thirds Word Thirds is a new game by John Passfield, of Halloween Harry and Flight of the Amazon Queen fame. It’s a puzzle game on the iOS app store and Itch where you make as many six letter words with letter tiles as you can within sixty seconds. I’m awful at word games but it’s a fun game.
No Escape Essay Pack This is a bundle of writing about games that includes three issues of the No Escape magazine as well as some essays. It’s a great way to support one of the best sites out there, No Escape.
BlueSuburbia BlueSuburbia is now on Steam. I’ve mentioned the game before but previously it was only on Itch. This demo is a first person interactive fiction where you explore poems through immersive environments. I believe it was built in the Unreal Engine but it does some really cool stuff like having playable Bitsy games inside the game.
Much like how I wrote about the CompUSA I frequently went to in the 90’s, I figured I should also write about the bookstore I went to for over 15 years, the Borders Books & Music in Novi, Michigan. From 1993 to it closing in 2011, it was the bookstore of choice for me. There was (and still is) a Barnes and Noble that was closer to me but I preferred shopping here due to the larger size and more variety.
Early memories of it involve me spending time in the children’s section of the store while my dad would look at computer books. I was absolutely into Star Wars as a kid and since this was the 90s and there were only three movies, the Star Wars books were how I could see more of the universe. I also occasionally checked out the strategy guides for video games while here, looking up any parts of games I was stuck on so I could go home and make progress. Another random memory were of the in-store music performances that would occasionally happen. One being of a woman doing scat singing in the center of the store with no backing music and my younger brother and I just being baffled by it.
Much like the CompUSA I mentioned earlier, it was located in the Novi Town Center shopping area, only a couple stores down from that. It outlasted that store by a couple years but it felt pretty obvious during that time that it wouldn’t be around forever. Much has been written about all the mistakes Borders made so I won’t go into those, but one of the signs for me was applying for a programming job at their corporate headquarters in Ann Arbor and then that posting eventually being canceled before I got to do an interview.
While it’s very unfortunate that there’s basically no photos of the store available online (I could have sworn there used to be some), there’s a few videos still up that show what the store looked like. This video of a car driving through the parking lot on the last day it was open shows the exterior, and there is a book signing with Dave Mustaine of Megadeth showing what a big chunk of the store looked like inside. There is also a video on the C-SPAN website of an author doing a reading inside the store in 1997, which doesn’t show that much of the store but is still a nice little 90’s time capsule.
On May 26, 2024, I came across this t-shirt that a vintage store in Michigan was selling in a Facebook post. It was already sold by the time I saw the post but still, I think it’s neat that it exists.
There is actually a much better tribute to this specific store than this post, and that is on this blog here. It’s about how they essentially recreated that Borders in a room of their home. If I had known the store was selling off shelves and signs from the store when they were closing, maybe I would have picked a few things up. It’s an incredibly impressive job they’ve done with the room.
If you have any of the Novi, Michigan Borders, or the CompUSA and Egghead Software that were in the same shopping area, I would love to see them.
Come check out the 80s MMO Habitat, developed by Lucasfilm Games, this Friday through the NeoHabitat client. Streamer BogusMeatFactory will be hosting a meetup so people can play the game at the same time and experience the game the way it was meant to be played. See the article here for more details https://renoproject.org/the-gathering-of-the-avatars/
After taking a break last week, my rewatch of the Hartnell era continues.
Keys to Marinus I was surprised this got such a mixed reaction from critics. It’s much better than some of the other stories that have come up so far, and not offensively gross like Marco Polo. There’s a lot of variety in the things happening and the trial part of the story, which seems to be the thing people have the most issue with, really isn’t that long. We also continue seeing the Doctor evolve into a kinder character. I think the criticisms of Susan’s writing are fair game though.
The Aztecs There’s some great writing in here and really fun subplots like the Doctor accidentally getting engaged and I can see why people love this story. Unfortunately there’s so much brown face and stereotypes of the Aztecs so I kinda can’t recommend it to anyone. There’s definitely a thing happening where I’m respecting a lot of the 90s Doctor Who writers a whole lot less because I look up every Doctor Who story on Wikipedia and the reception for the ones that I thought were fun like Keys or The Daleks will get some criticism but the ones that have aged like milk receive nothing but praise from them. Really weird shit. From my memory of watching the show before, I think this is all the racist shit for now until I get to Talons of Weng-Chiang, so hopefully you don’t have to read me vent about this for a while?
Masters of Luxor I also listened to one of the Lost Stories from Big Finish. Masters of Luxor was apparently a story that was meant to be the second one for Doctor Who but was replaced at the last minute with The Daleks. It’s pretty solid stuff. I think the script was replaced because it would have been hard to film, but it was probably for the best anyway since The Daleks is a better story that introduced the most iconic villain. Still enjoyable though. It’s fun hearing the actors for Susan and Ian again, Carole Ann Ford and William Russell, and they do a good job. It’s probably the closest we’ll get to a full radio drama for the first Doctor with the original cast
Last year I wrote a list of the game I’m looking forward to in 2023 and had a lot of fun so I’m doing it again. If you don’t see your game on here, don’t be weird about it! It’s just a blog where someone that is still waking up is trying to remember games they’re looking forward to. It is not a serious games site. I once posted a recipe by the guy from Ernest Scared Stupid. Come on. Some of these are repeats of last year’s list, because it turns out making games is hard and it’s a miracle anything gets released. If you think any of these games look cool, consider adding them to your wishlist so you can help with whatever algorithms are used to get.
If there’s a game you’re excited for that isn’t on here, let me know about it! This can include stuff you’re working on.
The Crimson Diamond
The Crimson Diamond is a point-and-click adventure game strongly influenced by Sierra’s 1989 adventure game The Colonel’s Bequest. I’ve been following the development of the game for a while now through the developer’s weekly dev streams and the demo on the game’s Steam page and everything indicates this should be a great mystery to solve. This was on last year’s list but from watching the dev streams, it looks like development is getting close to the end and I’m confident it will come out this year.
Exophobia
Exophobia is a Metroidvania FPS inspired by FPS from the 90s. I enjoyed my time with the demo when it came out. I don’t know if the Blake Stone series was an inspiration for this game but it reminds me of that era of FPS instead of most of the retro FPS revival shooters that seem to be inspired by ID Software and Build-engine games. This was also on last year’s last but the release date lists 2024 so I’m hopeful that I’ll get to play it soonish.
Princess Peach: Showtime!
Not an indie game but I’m mostly excited for this one because my kids are excited. Princess Peach is their favorite character and it’s nice that we’re getting a game focused on her. I generally enjoy Nintendo’s games so I’ll probably have a good time with it.
She Dreams Elsewhere
She Dreams Elsewhere is a surreal RPG with a stunning art style. The art and creature design look wild and I’m looking forward to exploring this world when the game comes out.
Super Cucumber
Super Cucumber is a 2D platformer where you play as an aardvark superhero. I liked the dev’s previous game Down the Drain and have had fun playing the beta of this too.
Twilight Oracle
Twilight Oracle is a fantasy comedy point-and-click adventure by the developer of games like Blood Nova and The Corruption Within. I’ve enjoyed playing all the other games by this dev and the demo for this was solid too. It comes out at the end of the month so I won’t have to wait very long to play the final version of this game.
Kitsune Tails
Kitsune Tails is a 2D platformer that looks like is inspired by Super Mario Bros. 3. I really like the previous platformers by the studio and I think this one looks really cute!
The Last Exterminator
The Last Exterminator is a FPS inspired by games from the 90s like Duke Nukem 3D and Blood where you fight alien cockroaches. Sure, I’ll play another one of these. There’s a demo I should probably try first but I do like that it looks like the 90s Duke Nukem Forever that we never got so assuming that demo is fun, I’ll probably pick this up too.
Harold Halibut
Harold Halibut is an adventure game life on a city-sized spaceship submerged in an alien ocean. I really love the stop motion aesthetics the game has.
Tactical Breach Wizards
Tactical Breach Wizards is the newest game by Tom Francis, designer of Gunpoint and Heat Signature. It looks to be a fun tactics game with a fantasy influence and the screenshots showing off dialog indicate that it has the same humor his earlier games had.
Acronia
Acronia is a queer DOS game inspired by Apogee-era shareware games such as Duke Nukem 1 and BioMenace. It’s been fun following the studio on social media and seeing the game come together and get a soundtrack. I loved the alpha version of the game that is available on their Itch page and hope that we see a full version released this year.
Gobliins 6
Last year’s Gobliiins 5 was a surprisingly good revival of the series and it’s exciting that a new one has already been announced and is currently in development. There’s not much that we know about it other than what I covered in my post here but it makes me happy that the series is back.
Wonky Works
Wonky Works is the newest game in development by ondydev. I don’t know much about it but I’m a fan of the developer’s previous games like Tres-Bashers and Binky’s Trash Service.
Captain Disaster and The Two Worlds of Riskara
This year we should see the third game in the Captain Disaster series. The first two games were fun sci-fi adventures and I’m really impressed by the improvement in art style in the screenshots that have been posted so far.
Sam & Max Season 3 Remaster
It’s not really a new game but I’ve enjoyed the remasters of Telltale’s Sam & Max games by Skunkape. They make the games look like how I remember the game looking and not how they actually looked, and are generally hands off with the content of the game, only making small changes to parts where the humor has not and other small enhancements. The Sam & Max series got better with each season so I’m looking forward to revisiting the best one Telltale made. It sounds like this one has taken longer to do due to all the technical changes Telltale was making to the engine at the time but it will be worth the wait since this was also the best entry in the series.
The Drifter
The Drifter is a point-and-click adventure by Powerhoof, developers of games like Crawl. This is their first commercial adventure game but they’ve done a few short, free adventure games that I’ve enjoyed. It’s developed with their Unity plugin PowerQuest and it’s nice seeing another tool pop up for adventure game developers as well.
Rosewater
Rosewater is the next point-and-click adventure by developer Grundislav Games. It’s a western set in the same universe as their previous game, Lamplight City. I’m excited for the diverse cast of characters, focus on multiple solutions, and love the rotoscoped animations.
Neyyah
Neyyah is a first-person point-and-click adventure inspired by Myst and Riven. The game looks absolutely amazing to me and it will be fun playing one of these types of games that isn’t by Cyan.
Nivalis
Nivalis looks to be a business simulator set in a cyberpunk city, but looks to have some narrative elements as well. It’s by the developers of Cloudpunk, which I really enjoyed, so this is one I’m looking forward to.
Ghost Bike
Ghost Bike has you riding around in a semi-open world on a bicycle so yeah, of course I’ll be interested in that. I think it looks nice and the music should be good too, even if the record label advertised in the trailer turned out to be a bunch of buttholes when news came out that Chromatics broke up. Plus it’s by the developers of Nidhogg, so that’s neat.
Fiend’s Isle
There’s not really a whole lot known about Fiend’s Isle but it’s a dungeon crawler inspired by 90s game which is absolutely a thing just for me.
Agent 64
Agent 64 is a new FPS inspired by Rare’s classic N64 games Goldeneye and Perfect Dark. I think it emulates the style of those games perfectly and the demo, which is available on the Steam page, was a lot of fun.
Still Ridge – A Supernatural Adventure Game
Still Ridge is a point-and-click adventure game with a retro-aesthetic set in a West Virginia town. You play as a dream traveling therapist investigating a murder he witnessed in his dreams. The developer of this one previous did some stuff in the HauntedPS1 community and from the little bit I’ve followed of this game, it seems to be made with a lot of love for older adventure games.
Loco Motive
I loved the original version of this game that appeared in the 2020 AdventureX game jam and this looks like a nice remake of that game with improved graphics. I’m interested in seeing how they expand the story as well.
Riven
Hell yes, cannot wait for this one. I don’t even know if it’s coming out this year but it still deserves a mention. Their remake of Myst in 2021 was very good so I’m excited to see what they do with this. It sounds like they’re expanding and reworking parts of the game too so it’s not a straightforward 3D remake like their Myst remake was. Even if the remake was just a 3D version of the game it would be a massive project, so I’m not going to be surprised if it takes another year to come out. I’ll miss the great FMV in the original game but the few screenshots they have look great.
Zid Journey
Zid Journey is the sequel to Zniw Adventure, a wonderful cartoon adventure game inspired by classic Humongous Entertainment adventure games. Since this looks like more of that, I will be happy to play this as well.
Dream Settler
I will play absolutely everything in the Hypnospace Outlaw universe. Loved that game and loved Slayers X, so I will be buying Dreamsettler on day 1.
Duppy Detective Tashia
Duppy Detective Tashia is a choice-driven adventure based on Caribbean folklore. I think the artwork looks very nice and I liked the puzzle game that spritewrench released last year, On the Peril of Parrots.
Phoenix Springs
Phoenix Springs is a point-and-click adventure where you are searching for your missing brother. I think the artwork in this looks beautiful, especially when it’s in motion.
Stunt Derby
Stunt Derby is Noclip’s first video game. It’s just a very goofy multiplayer game where you drive around on tracks and have fun with the physics. The demo was a lot of fun and I think it’s supposed to be a lower cost game too. It reminded me a little of the DOS game stunts in how simplistic it is, but in a good way.
Hauntii
Hauntii is a twin-stick shooter/adventure game. I don’t know a whole lot about the game but I think it looks really nice and it’s supposed to come out in Q2 2024.
Tachyon Dreams Anthology
Tachyon Dreams Anthology is a collection of three games that were previously released on Itch but with some minor tweaks and new content added. They’re all inspired by Sierra’s 80s parser graphic adventures. I really enjoyed those games so I’ll happily play them again.
Enoch: Children of Fate
Enoch: Children of Fate is a cyberpunk point-and-click adventure. I don’t know a whole lot about it or the developer but I think it has some nice pixel art so it’s going on my wishlist.
Dome-King Cabbage
Dome-King Cabbage is a visual novel set in the world of a monster collecting rpg. Man, look at that art.
Midnight Margo
Midnight Margo is a new adventure game by the developers of Whispers of a Machine. I really enjoyed that one and I know the art style for this game is divisive but I’m really into it.
Ashbury Pines
Ashbury Pines is an idle game where you solve a murder in a small town. I haven’t played that many idle games but I’m so curious how a Twin Peaks-inspired murder mystery game works in the format.
Roman Sands RE:Build
Roman Sands is a surreal mystery game by the developers of Paratopic. Really enjoyed that game and I’m into the Y2K aesthetic this one has.
Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story
Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story is the one that will probably end up being my game of the year in 2024. I really love what Digital Eclipse has done with their previous releases like Atari 50 and the Making of Karateka, and now they’re doing a compilation on one of my favorite game designers. I don’t know how they’ll ever be able to top this.
The Legend of Skye
The Legend of Skye is a fantasy point-and-click adventure game inspired by games from the 90s. Sometimes I just want a cozy adventure game and that looks like a well made version one of those.
Twinsen’s Little Big Adventure
Twinsen’s Little Big Adventure is a remake of the game from the 90s. I was really impressed with the beta version I tried. Having controls that aren’t frustrating definitely changes the game, but I think the spirit of the original is still there. The new art is a nice update of the original’s too.
The Ape Painting
In The Ape Painting, your date’s hideous painting has fallen off the wall and killed him, leaving you trapped in an apartment of nightmares. I really liked Cain’s previous interactive fiction game WASTE EATER and I’m looking forward to playing something bigger.
Heir of the Dog
Heir of the Dog is a new point-and-click adventure by the developer of Lucy Dreaming. Really like what I played of that one so once I finish that, I’ll have this to look forward to.
Vaporwave Pinball
I enjoyed the demo I played for Vaporwave Pinball so as long as the full game is more of that then I’ll be happy.
Broken Sword – Shadow of the Templars: Reforged
I like that first Broken Sword, although probably not as much as most adventure game fans seem to, so any excuse to revisit it is fine with me. The updated visuals look nice and it seems to remove the stuff that was added in the “Director’s Cut” of the game that kinda ruined the pacing, so this will probably be the version I end up recommending to other people.
Broken Sword – Parzival’s Stone
We’re getting two Broken Sword games this year! It sure looks like another Broken Sword so sure, ok, I’ll play this one as well.
BlueSuburbia
BlueSuburbia is a first-person interactive fiction game that is currently available for free but in Early Access form. I really like what I’ve played and I’m looking forward to seeing how this game continues to grow.
Dread Delusion
Dread Delusion is another game currently in Early Access. It’s a fantasy rpg heavily inspired by Morrowind. I haven’t actually picked this one up yet but I will sometime this year and I get to look forward to it growing and having more weird things added to it.
SKALD: Against the Black Priory
SKALD is a party-based rpg inspired by 80s CRPGs. I haven’t played the demo yet but I really like how it looks, I’m interested in the setting they’ve been showing off so far, and as a fan of the era of games that inspired it, I’m looking forward to seeing how they modernize that style of game.
Old Skies
Old Skies is the newest game developed by point-and-click adventure game studio Wadjet Eye Games. While they’ve produced other adventure games in recent years like The Excavation of Hob’s Barrow, this will be the first they’ve developed since Unavowed. The time travel premise sounds like a lot of fun and it features great art by Ben Chandler.
Nighthawks
Nighthawks is a RPG written and designed by Richard Cobbett (Sunless Sea/Sunless Skies) with art by Ben Chandler (Technobabylon, PISS), and produced by Wadjet Eye Games. From following the Kickstarter updates, the worldbuilding seems like a lot of fun and it should be a pretty lengthy game.
Little Nemo and the Nightmare Fiends
Little Nemo and the Nightmare Fiends is a 2D platformer based on the Little Nemo comic series. I think the art is fantastic and as a fan of the character ever since I played the NES game many years ago, it’s nice to see another video game being made starring the character.
Alone in the Dark
Being a fan of Alone in the Dark is the video game equivalent of being a Weezer fan. There hasn’t been a good entry in the series since the first game and even that one gets harder to recommend to people because of the gameplay mechanics aging poorly over time. However, this one is a remake of the first game, set in the early 1900s, and has two playable characters again so could this finally be another good Alone in the Dark game? Maybe?
Are there any games you’re looking forward to that haven’t been mentioned here? Please let me know! It can also include games that you are working on. I want to know about everything!
After a bit of a break, I started playing tabletop rpgs again. It helped that I had some time off at the end of the year and didn’t want to spend that time working on projects. Here’s some that I enjoyed playing!
My First Fansite My First Fansite is a short solo tabletop rpg where it is the year 2002 and you are creating a site for your favorite band. The Itch page for the game has a website generator in the browser that is optional but adds a lot to the game as you build your page. This was a wonderful tribute to this era of the web and I highly recommend it if you have any nostalgia for this time.
Record Shop I think I mentioned this one in a previous indie game roundup but Record Shop is a solo ttrpg about digging through collections of albums at a record store and writing about what you find. Record stores are one of my favorite places to be so of course I would like this.
Ex Novo Ex Novo is a GM-less game where 1-4 players generate a playable city. The game is easy to pickup once you get in the flow of following the prompts and is written so you can play while following along with the book. My friend and I weren’t trying to build a city for a future book or tabletop rpg session so we just had fun building a little city by the sea and seeing what comes up while we play. I am not posting my map here because I cannot draw maps with a mouse, but it was a fun time.
Together Among the Stars I’ve been a fan of the solo ttrpg Alone Among the Stars for a very long time but didn’t make time for this two player version until now. It’s a fantastic variation of the game and adding a tiny bit more complexity is fun and allows for a greater amount of detail for the planets you discover.
Alone on a Journey Speaking of Alone Among the Stars, I also read Alone on a Journey. It’s a zine compiling three games by the designer and notes for making your own version. I had already played Alone Among the Stars and Alone in the Ancient City (both are great) but didn’t play Alone Among the Shifting Trees, which I also had a good time with. It’s a beautiful zine.
