I realize I say it just about every week but hoo boy, what a week, and this time I mean it. Doing this post on time for once because tomorrow I’m going to a sleepover at a zoo and I will not give additional context to that. Anyway, instead of streaming Zork from some Microsoft cloud service that doesn’t even work, here are some indie games you can play instead. Or just download some free text adventures from IFDB.
Video Games
The biggest one for me this week is Virtue’s Heaven (Steam/Itch.io). I’ve been waiting a few years for it so I’m happy to see this come out. It’s one of those Metroid-like games but with a very nice Game Boy aesthetic and it’s felt great to play so far. I’ve been really enjoying the combat system and while I hate the term “Juice” to describe parts of games, sigh, it’s got good “juice.” It’s got a demo if you want to give it a try.
Six One Indie did a big showcase yesterday. Maybe you’ll discover a lot of cool, upcoming games through it?
Can a game about the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles be considered indie? I don’t fucking know, I’m just some person with a blog named after a moose. But I like Strange Scaffold a lot so their newest game on Steam looks fun.
It’s been a ridiculous time for point-and-click adventures. I keep saying it every week but it’s because there’s been so many coming out. Kathy Rain 2: Soothsayer is yet another one from a studio I like.
TweetTweetJam is a jam on Itch.io where people make a game in 500 characters or less. This is their 10th one and it’s always fun to see what clever stuff folks are making with such a small constraint.
Decker is a really neat tool for making Hypercard-looking applications, and now there’s a pink template.
I haven’t played the demo for Broken Relic yet but it looks like a very nice upcoming point-and-click adventure game.
s*ssy caption aesthetic II is an interactive collage….essay…zine? by bagenzo about a variety of personal topics. It’s brilliant, go check it out in the browser.
Blungo’s Dungeon Luncheon is a pay-what-you-want dungeon crawler strongly influenced by the NES, not just how it looks, but also the audio and how it controls. The language in it may be a turn off to something but I think it’s a neat little game. Plus I like saying Blungo.
I haven’t played it yet but Overlook Trail looks like a very pretty exploration game and it even has a demo.
Sandy Pug Games is the best and it’s always a treat to see them release a new game. Hellpiercersis described as “a tabletop tactics RPG about post-mythic warfare, mechs powered by ritual and divinity, and the struggle for total, unconditional liberation.” Sometimes people balk at $30 for a PDF but I don’t know, it’s a fucking ton of art in there and tabletop rpgs are games designed to keep a group of 3-6 people entertained for many hours. So $30 for all of that sounds like a great deal to me.
I’ve always wanted to learn how to play Mahjong so maybe this zine will help me out.
Crescent County is a single player, open-world, broom riding game that looks pretty nice. I’m happy to see that it hit its goal so quickly.
Possible Worlds Games is one of my favorite ttrpg publishers and they’re so close to hitting funding for their newest set of games, J. Walton’s surreal fishing RPG Tacklebox & Tyler Crumrine’s people-watching RPG Better Strangers.
Not brand new but it’s new to me
Dispatches from VR (Itch.io) is a zine about the author’s experiences with VR as a disabled person. It’s pay-what-you-want and you can also check it out in the browser.
Two of these in one week? Sure, why not. I thought these would be impossible to do while doing school but it turns out playing and writing about indie games is actually a nice break from work and school and a reminder that I need to post on here more. I’m currently playing through Old Skies and having a very nice time with that.
Gone Fission (Itch.io) is a PICO-8 competitive puzzle game where you setup chain reactions to take over a board. It’s an homage to Chain Reaction on the Atari ST, which I’ve never played before, but I had a blast lot of fun playing this one and the state of the board changing so much that I wasn’t able to tell if I was going to win or not.
Here, have a Twine version of Little Red Riding Hood (Itch.io) that combines a lot of public domain versions into one IF game.
Neon Hearts City (Steam/Itch.io) is the newest adventure game from Cosmic Void. It is truly a wonderful time to be a fan of point-and-click adventures (see: previous Indie Game Roundups). I’m a fan of Cosmic Void’s previous games and I’m looking forward to digging into this one too.
The End of Gameplay (Steam) is a new anthology by droqen. Don’t know what it is but it’s probably interesting. The Steam reviews can give a better insight into what it is.
34th Birthday (Itch.io) is a new browser shmup by Sylvie. Happy birthday Sylvie!
Zexion (Steam) came out a few months ago but it’s new to me and looks like a really nice Metroid-like. Almost like if we got a Metroid sequel towards the end of the NES’ life.
PUNKCAKE Délicieux makes good stuff and this is their next monthly game. If Letters Had Pants (Itch.io) is a roguelite word game.
MIRO (Steam) looks a lot like if No Man’s Sky was a much more chill game focused entirely on exploration. And no space travel. So not really that much like No Man’s Sky. Look, you explore procedurally generated planets. Maybe not quite as chill as Proteus since there’s still shooting, but the art reminds me quite a bit of that too. It’s got a demo.
Internet Roadtrip is a browser game where you and everyone else playing votes on what path Google Streetview should take and you can vote on changing the radio station too.
Formless Star (Itch.io) is a Pay-What-You-Want game where you travel to the Formless Star and gather data on the creatures that live there.
That’s it for this week. As usual, I appreciate hearing about recently released games and what you’re playing in the comments.
Hey it’s another one of these things! It’s probably shorter than these usually are since I haven’t really been too aware of what’s going on other than looking at blogs, Discord, and what folks are up to on Itch. It’s still more than enough to keep me busy but I’d love to hear about what you’re excited about lately in the comments. Self-promo is more than welcome!
We’ve got a new Indiepocalypse! This one looks to have quite a few interactive fiction-related games too, which is always a treat for me.
Matt Stark has made a lot of really nice building toys and islandoodle 2 is another relaxing one. This one has you building castles on islands.
Image taken from the Itch page comments of the game running on a cd-i
Haven’t you always wanted to play a port of the DOS classic SkyRoads on the Philips CD-i? Yes, of course you have and now there is one in development.
The tabletop rpg Monster Truckers is now seeking crowdfunding. It’s described as “an easy to learn and low prep tabletop role playing game featuring semi truck driving monsters in a post-apocalyptic world.”
Dust Bunny is a cute puzzle game playable in the browser and made in PICO-8 about clearing all the dust in various screens.
It feels like we’re being spoiled with all the point-and-click adventures that have been coming out lately. Midnight Special is a new horror game that has just entered Early Access with a presentation that reminds me of the first Clock Tower game.
Speaking of adventure games, thank you Lucas Moura for telling me about Sub-Verge. It’s a game where you control a group of deep-sea divers and looks incredibly stressful, haha. I think it looks really good though.
We did it folks. We kinda sorta survived another week. Bandcamp Friday is today. Consider picking up an album or two when the site isn’t taking a cut from sales.
Six One Indie put together a nice collection of sites for folks to consider supporting now that Polygon and Giant Bomb are gone and the world of games journalism continues to shrink. This Neocities page lists some of the ways you can follow Polygon folks. It’s a less impressive list but I also listed a few places in a post here and there’s always the Cool Site Zone at the top of the page. It’s just unbelievably rough for everyone in games right now and I guess just do what you can to help each other out.
Well alright, here are some of the games I was excited about this week. Since I am not using social media, I am counting on you (points out at the screen at you) to spread the word about these roundups, if you feel like it.
EDIT: I have confirmed that this successfully autoposts to bluesky and mastodon, lol, hooray! This was never an issue with masto but the plugin I was previously using was fussy.
There’s two charity bundles that I think are worth a look. This TTRPGs for Trans Rights in Ohio charity bundle wraps up very soon. For $5 or more you can get hundreds of great ttrpgs. I have a ttrpg in this Crips for eSims for Gaza Bundle. For $16 or more you can gets tons of video games and ttrpgs and help Palestinians.
Skin Deep (Steam) is here! It’s an immersive sim by Blendo Games that I’ve been waiting for quite a while and I’ve seen nothing but praise for it. It looks like Die Hard on a space ship but with the goofy situations that pop up in games like the Hitman series.
One Million Chessboards (dev site) is a site with a million chessboards. Moving a piece moves it for everyone, instantly. There’s no turns and you can move between boards.
Dragonfeed (Itch.io) is a free browser game meant for mobile devices and a fascinating thing for me to play as I try to pull back a bit from social media.
I don’t know a whole lot about Many Nights a Whisper (Steam) but it looks like a beautiful adventure game, 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.
Waiting for the Death Wind (Itch.io) is a free, short interactive story created for the Dialogue Jam about conversation between a dying warrior and his goddess. I loved it. I was really impressed with the art, music, and voice acting all created for this jam game.
The Velox Formido 2 game jam (Itch.io) is a visual novel jam featuring games by some of my favorite IF writers like SWANCHIME and Norbez Jones.
Navicula Meatus (Steam) is a dark first person dungeon crawler set in a decaying town. It may be too much meat for me but there’s a demo for you to check out to decide for yourself how much meat is enough.
World of Goo 2 (dev site, basically every platform) is here and looks like what you would expect from a sequel to the original game. More goo puzzles!
The DiscMaster Jam (Itch.io) was a week-long game jam using vintage computer files from The Internet Archive. I highly recommend Anglesoft’s C2 Prototype but I’m sure I will be looking at the games from this jam for a long time and doing the sickos meme.
You Are Generative AI (Itch.io) is a browser game where you are a generative ai, answering prompts in growing in power usage. I also recommend the author’s game You Are Jeff Bezos if you haven’t played that one either.
10S FOREVER (Itch.io) looks like a really cute tennis-like arcade game. It’s also coming to Steam in a little bit but it’s on a launch sale now and the designer seems to prefer sales from here anyway.
Taxi Quest 67 (Itch.io) is a browser game about two friends heading down a river in a boat. It was created for the road trip jam and yes, it being a boat game is addressed in the game. The character animation reminds me of the squigglevision in Home Movies and Dr. Katz. It’s very good. I am pro squigglevision.
TWENTY-SOMETHING YEAR OLD FAGGOT (Itch.io) is a solo ttrpg by Sandy Pug Games about being a young queer person, fresh out of the closet and eager to join a dark, mysterious, dangerous queer underground in their city. I believe it’s a hack of Thousand Year Old Vampire.
Mythical Concept STARNAUT (Steam) is a Survivors-like by the El Shaddai devs.
Wizordum (Steam) has left Early Access! This is Catacomb 3D-inspired FPS where you are a wizard doing wizard stuff and shooting everything. The developer worked on some very good remasters for the new version of Apogee. I believe you are only on one height level and never go up and down steps, which makes it a Catacomb 3D-like for me. Anyway, it has a demo for you to try out.
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.
That’s it for this week. I hope you have a swell weekend!
Even though it’s been less than a week since I’ve done one of these, there’s already a bunch of indie games to talk about and none of them are part of a boycott (as far as I know). If you like these, considering adding the site to your RSS feed reader. I will be away from social media for the month of May while I get used to going back to school again. These will continue automatically posting to social media though. Ok, here’s some games.
Hypersheep Eats All the Biscuits
Last week I mentioned Llamasoft’s wonderful I, Robot remake and there’s also been a game jam celebrating Jeff Minter and his games. For whatever reason the jam page doesn’t seem to list all the games and there isn’t a jam on Itch I can just look at, so to the best of my ability, here are all the games I could find and my thoughts. I’m confident that I’ve missed at least a few so please let me know in the comments what other games are out there so I can play them. I’m griping about the jam a bit but it’s nice see a lot of people celebrate someone and the games they’ve made and maybe the industry should do this kind of thing more often.
Hypersheep Eats All the Biscuits (Itch.io) is a really cute one by PsychicParrot, developer of other fantastic games like Die for the Economy!, and it also has cover art by Rob Fearon. You play as a sheep that must remind Jeff to feed them biscuits and occasionally daydreaming about being a superhero. The developer says the VR version is superior but I played the non-VR version and still had a fun time.
PROTOBEAST (Itch.io) is just a really slick and straightforward twin-stick shooter with all the bleeps and bloops you would want from an 80s inspired game, with some fun references to Minter’s games. Definitely recommended if you like your Geometry Wars-likes and what not.
Perfect Cycle (Itch.io) is a browser game where you cruise down a road shooting at neon things and big words appears like you would expect in a Minter game. I guess you could call it a Polybius-like?
Crackle Attack (Itch.io) has you dodging attacks from a giant thing with gears for hands and gradually ramps up in difficulty. Surprisingly both relaxing and hectic at the same time.
The Beastly Siege of Irata 7 (Itch.io) kinda reminds me of Asteroids in that you fly around a space and shoot at UFOs, but has the very clever mechanic of you retrieving debris from those ships and feeding them to the beast in the center of the screen and trying to keep it alive for as long as possible.
MAMA CABRA (Itch.io) is a browser game made in PICO-8 where you’re a goat flying through space shooting stuff and saving sheep. How can you beat that? To be honest, I didn’t actually know PICO-8 games supported the mouse until I played this.
StarGiraf (Itch.io) is an Atari 2600 space shooter playable in the browser where you are a giraffe with a very long neck and shoot things. Incredibly charming.
I highly recommend checking all of these games out if you are a fan of Llamasoft, or even if you never played a Llamasoft game before and just like arcade games and sheep.
Adam Saltsman continues to put out great PICO-8 games. In the puzzle game Mole Mole (Itch.io) you are are a mole (of course) and must reach the exit of each level by blowing things up.
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. 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. Between games like this, Rosewater, Blue Prince, and many of the other games I’ve highlighted in recent roundups, we’re in a great period for adventure games.
New games for old platforms are always fun to see. Frontier Force (Itch.io) looks like a fun shoot-em-up for the Sega Master System and SkillTeam (Itch.io) is a clever Sokobon-like for the Amstrad CPC (but playable in the browser).
Creepy Redneck Dinosaur Mansion 3 (Steam/Itch.io) is the newest game by Strange Scaffold. I remember hearing about this being worked on a while ago and looking forward to it, so it makes me happy to see so many folks praising the game. It’s a Puzzle Quest-inspired game where you Match 3 objects in a row to fight opponents, but apparently has Metroid-inspired exploration elements too.
Bryce Tiles (Steam) is another one I’ve been looking forward to for a while! I was a fan of the free Klik And Play-inspired (I assume this means nothing to people under 35) platformer Bryce’s Movement Engine¹ (Steam/Itch.io) and this looks like it keeps that aesthetic but moving to the genre of Isometric Puzzle Game.
Does the Amerzone remake fit into this roundup? Probably not right? I don’t think it counts as indie? Whatever, maybe some folks with find it interesting since I’m guessing most of the folks reading this are also adventure game nerds.
Finally, a Kickstarter has launched for the second edition of the city building tabletop rpg Ex Novo. I really like the first edition.
Well that’s it for this week. I hope you found something to play that you’ll end up loving!
Oops, was too busy to do one of these last week. Oh well, it’s not like there were a billion cool games that have come out in the last two weeks. If you enjoy the roundup this week, please give a few bucks to Rob. He’s made many things I’ve been a fan of for the last 20 or so years and is just all around a great guy.
I will also do a bit of self promo and point out this nice video essay that someone did about one of my ttrpgs. If you’re curious about the game, please take a free community copy from here.
The Games
The last two weeks have been kind of bananas because a lot of things I’m really into have been released. One of these has been the release of a new batch of Domino Club games on Itch.io. I’ve mentioned here before that I’m a huge Domino Club fan and all the experimental games they release and this is yet another fantastic group of games. Go check them out! They’re free!
I, Robot
Another ones of those things I’ve been very excited about is I, Robot (dev site) by Llamasoft. It’s a remake of the classic arcade game and I love everything by Llamasoft so of course I’m going to play that.
Promise Mascot Agency
Promise Mascot Agency (dev site) is the newest game by the developers of Paradise Killer and yet another game I’ve been looking forward to for a while. 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.
Tiny Garden (Steam) is a really cute sim game where you grow a garden inside something resembling a Polly Pocket toy.
Erenshor (Steam) is kind of like if you made a game like Everquest into a single player rpg, including the other players being represented as NPCs. I’ve watched the streamer BogusMeatFactory play this quite a bit and it seems really lovely. It even has a demo for you to try.
Do I even need to post about Blue Prince? I think everyone knows about it at this point. I’m on the fence if I will like it or not before I buy it. It sounds like an amazing game that may not for me. I love Myst-likes but don’t always gel with roguelikes. But it sounds great and even the developers of Myst are very into it, so consider checking it out. Feel free to argue with each other in the comments if I will like this or not. I’ll probably break down and buy it anyway.
I don’t know where it really falls on The Indie Scale (who cares, it’s my blog, I’ll do what I want) since it’s an Annapurna published game but Lushfoil Photography Sim (Steam) looks incredible. I’m pretty clueless about photography but this seems like it actually teaches you a little bit about taking photos as you play? At the very least it looks like a nice photography game.
The Electrifying Incident: A Monster Mini-Expedition (Steam) and Lab Rat (Steam) both seem like very solid puzzle games by developers I’m a fan of, and there’s even a Steam bundle that features both games.
She said, “You do plenty by experiencing trans joy” (Itch.io) is a short interactive fiction made in the hypercard-like tool Decker
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.
Lunacid – Tears of the Moon (Steam) is a new, free game in the Lunacid series. It is completely bananas that this was made with the same tool that was used to make King’s Field.
Travel On, Pigeon!
Travel On, Pigeon! (Steam) looks like a really cute rhythm puzzle game.
I haven’t played it but I heard on the great adventure games podcast Quest Quest that Monaco 2 (Steam), which is not an adventure game, is a good time.
Brassheart (Steam/GOG) is a 2D point-and-click adventure in a Steampunk setting.
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.
Frog Bard (Steam/Itch.io) is a short, poetic experience about finding inspiration in the world around you.
That’s it for this week! Feel free to let me know what you’ve been playing in the comments. I always enjoy getting those. Like and subscribe (add to your RSS feed reader).
Hoo boy, what a week. Well…..here’s some indie games.
Acid Web (Steam) is a twin stick shooter where you control a spider with a skull head on a web and shoot various baddies. I tried the demo and it all felt good to control and I think it’s worth a look if you enjoy these types of games and don’t have a problem with looking at a spider with a skull for a head. The art actually reminded me a bit of early VGA shareware games.
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.
Vaporwave Pinball (Steam/Itch.io) is a pinball game where all the tables are set in a vaporwave aesthetic. I had previously played a demo of the game before and had really enjoyed it, so I’m looking forward to playing the full release. I’m actually hoping to stream this one soon.
Wednesdays (Steam/Itch.io) is a game about child abuse and trauma. I’m not in the place to play it right now but it was strongly recommended by Taylor McCue, who create He Fucked the Girl Out of Me, a game that I did think was incredible, so I trust that it carefully handles the subject.
A new Indiepocalypse (Itch.io) is available so I am required by law to mention it.
Gold Brick Simulator (Itch.io) is a game released on April Fool’s Day where you get a high score on a global leaderboard by repeatedly clicking on a gold brick. Did I buy this? Yes, of course I did.
I don’t know a whole lot about Tower of Kalemonvo (Steam) tbh but I saw a couple folks praising it and there’s a demo available so if you’re a fan of Diablo 1, consider giving it a look.
Social Democracy: Petrograd 1917 (Itch.io) is a political simulator playable in the browser and created for Spring Thing 2025 where you play as the Mensheviks, Socialist-Revolutionaries, Kadets, or Bolsheviks, and steer the revolution to victory or collapse.
You should actually check out all the Spring Thing 2025 entries for more interactive fiction games.
Turbo Tomato (Itch.io) is a new arcade game for the Amiga. I haven’t played it yet but I get excited about how there are still physical commercial games for the Amiga in 2025 and I have really enjoyed some of the dev’s previous games.
After being in development for 13 years, SpaceVenture (Steam/Itch.io) has entered Early Access. It’s a new point-and-click adventure by the creators of the Space Quest series from Sierra. I only played the version released to backers 2 years ago, but my understanding is that while this version still has a few bugs, they’ve been working quickly to get them fixed. There’s probably a whole blog post I could do about the history of this game and how they went so many personal issues while making this game and how unhinged some of the backers have been, but I assume the Space Quest Historian on YouTube has it all covered.
Blood on my Name (Itch.io) is a solo journaling RPG that follows a former assassin on a mission of revenge. by Kienna Shaw and Jason Cutrone.
What is the ‘Secret Technique’ To Creativity in TTRPGs (Itch.io) is a PWYW book about making ttrpgs.
That’s it for this week. Hopefully you found something that’s exciting to you!
Whoops, it’s been a minute since I’ve posted on here. I’m sure it wasn’t from the combined stress of the day job threatening layoffs (bad) and getting into grad school (good). Ah well, things should be calming down a bit after the last two weeks and there will be time for games. This one is a bit shorter than usual but I should be doing these on a regular basis again soon. Let me know what you’ve been playing or working on in the comments!
The last time I did one of these I goofed and forgot to include Wanderstop (Steam), a cozy game about running a tea shop with a narrative about burnout. I hope to play it soon even if it’s maybe hitting a little too close to home at the moment, but I guess that’s probably the point.
One of the biggest releases for me is the point-and-click adventure Rosewater (Steam), a western adventure by the creator of Lamplight City. It’s appeared on the “Games I’m Looking Forward To” lists on here a few years in a row and it’s here! Hooray!
Prince of Prussia (Itch.io) is the latest entry in Adam Saltsman’s free PICO-8 games. This one is a puzzle game that looks like a Prince of Persia game but has you sneaking around and taking out Nazis from behind. It really feels more like a turn-based puzzle game and doesn’t rely on reflexes, which is nice for folks like me.
Fire & Brimstone (Itch.io) is the newest by PUNKCAKE Délicieux. It’s a roguelike where you play as a little imp and you go into a volcano to look for an artifact. It’s just a really easy to pick up roguelike and a nice one to check out if you’re like me and enjoy playing them but maybe sometimes struggle with the ones that are a bit more dense.
I think I’ve posted about the Itch version before but Slime Feet (Steam/Itch.io) is an adult visual novel that just received a release on Steam. The game is free on both platforms and I recommend it if you want a short, erotic, body horror story. Again, the pages are NSFW so don’t click on them at work.
Axyz (Steam) is a puzzle game where you navigate a ball through a floating maze in a vaporwave setting. I really enjoyed the demo for this one and would recommend it if its whole deal is appealing to you.
chloe’s house (Itch.io) is a fun musical toy for browsers. You can use a cat as an instrument.
Bundle of Joy (Steam/Itch.io) is a Warioware-like about taking care of a baby and has a demo as well.
ENA: Dream BBQ (Steam) is a free first-person adventure game where you explore surreal environments.
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?
How Right is the Price? (Itch.io) is a collection of thoughts about what you should price your digital tabletop rpg.
The Hearth (Itch.io) is a new regular zine about indie ttrpgs.
#tittyrpg jam (Itch.io) is a ttrpg game jam about loud queer sexuality.
Ascent DX (Steam) is a free metroidvania with 64 x 64 pixel art.
That’s it for this week. Like I said at the top, I’m probably missing a lot because there had been so much going on in my life the last few weeks. But things are calming down a bit now (I hope) and I really missed writing these so expect them on a more regular basis in the future with more effort put in.
It turns out that when you don’t wait a couple weeks to write these, the posts are actually quite a bit smaller. Who would have guessed? As usual, if you enjoy these then tell a friend, or do a post on your own blog of recent games and other art you’ve been enjoying.
After being in development for over a decade, horror point-and-click adventure ASYLUM (Steam) is now available. I’m always a little bit nervous when a game is set in a mental institute but I was 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.
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.
Jetpac Defenders (Itch.io) is just a nice and free Defender clone made in Picotron.
qualia (Steam) is a free interactive fiction horror game about what it means to be human. Be sure to read the content warnings and be aware that the game does have a jumpscare if that kind of thing isn’t for you.
Blobun (Steam/Itch.io) is a cute, top-down puzzle game where you are a blob bunny and must touch every tile of a surface. If you bought that massive California Wildfire Relief charity bundle on Itch then you already own this game.
The 5th LSD Jam has concluded and you can check out the entries on Itch.io. LSDJAM 2024 is a game jam where people are prompted to “Create an interactive experience based on dreams to celebrate the release of LSD: Dream Emulator.” The only one I played out of these is Ephemeral Frame, a great puzzle adventure game where the main gameplay mechanic is using picture frames to enter new areas and features some fantastic visuals as well, but I’m sure the other games also have trippy visuals and are worth a look too.
The Imaginary Cards Jam is a jam on Itch.io where folks are making cards to games that do not exist yet. It’s just a fun excuse to make up little cards without thinking too much about mechanics since the games aren’t real. There’s still 10 days left in the jam so consider joining!
Not a new game but I just played the browser puzzle game DungeonScape (Itch.io) and recommend it.
PSYCHOSEXUAL DREAM CRISIS (Itch.io) is a short erotic sci-fi story that is playable in the browser, and the download on the page features 16 short animations.
Every paid game by thecatamites is on sale right now in this bundle on Itch. Worth it for Anthology of the Killer alone, one of last year’s best games.
There’s also a big spring sale happening on Steam right now too.
Crowdfunding
There’s two tabletop game crowdfunding campaigns right now that I think are worth checking out. This Kickstarter is for two games, a solo journaling game about cooking for your loved ones, and a storygame of doomed travelers on a perilous journey home.
A Land Once Magic is a worldbuilding TTRPG by Viditya Voleti, one of my favorite ttrpg designers.
Jay Tholen just launched a Patreon to fund development of Dreamsettler, the sequel to Hypnospace Outlaw.
Wishlists
Aerial_Knight’s DropShot (Steam) looks like an incredibly stylish FPS. I love the finger gun mechanic and I was a fan of the dev’s previous games, the Never Yield series.
I’m a bit behind on these just because I’ve been so busy lately but I’ve wanted to get one out there since there’s a few time limited things in here. Even the rushed ones like these take a bit of time to write so I always appreciate when people share these or make their own blog posts about indie games they enjoy so people can discover new games. I also always love comments on what folks have been playing.
The Games
The big one this week is the California Fire Relief Bundle (Itch.io), where you can pay $10 or more and get a lot of great games like Tunic, Neon Struct, Skatebird, and more. My recommendation with this is to always dig a bit and try something you normally wouldn’t have. If you haven’t played a solo tabletop rpg before, look for one of those. Never played a ZX Spectrum game (I’m American so read this as someone saying “Zee Ex” and then backing up and saying “Zed Ex”) before? Download an emulator and play Last Train To Tranz-Central.
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.
Root Bear (bluesky link) got an update on the Playdate. My kids love this game so I feel like I should recommend it.
A new bundle called the Indie Allies 2025 has launched on Humble and described as “Play great titles that help support BIPOC game developers & studios with our Indie Allies 2025 Bundle.” I know Humble has been up to bullshit lately but you can alter the cut they take to almost nothing and get some cool games from it, which money going to a non-profit too. I’m also just a big fan of Super Space Club, Aerial_Knight’s Never Yield, and On the Peril of Parrots and think more people should play all 3 games. I’m sure the other games in the bundle are good too.
pinboll (Itch.io) is a cute pinball game available as pay-what-you-want where the table gradually has more elements added to it as you play more balls. I also think it’s very fun to have a global leaderboard for a little game like this. I found this one through the review on Indie Games+. Support your local indie game review outlets that are covering small stuff like this.
Basilica (Itch.io) is just a nice little free builder toy where you create courtyards and towers. Go check out the rest of their builder games on their itch page, those are lovely too.
I love the classic DOS game Skyroads so yeah, I’ll take a spiritual sequel to that. Skylanes (Itch.io) is one of those available as pay-what-you-want and I think they did a good job.
Play with Your Own Junk (dev site) is a free collection of games you can play at home using household materials.
A new issue of the free interactive fiction magazine ChoiceBeat (Itch.io) is out! Am I just mentioning this because this site got a mention? No! Am I above getting influenced through flattery? Also no! But I’ve been a fan of the zine for a while and will continue to recommend them because it’s free and it’s always nice seeing people talk about interactive fiction.
The Museum of All Things (Itch.io) is a free virtual museum inspired by 90s educational shows and games where it generates museum exhibits on the fly by downloading material from Wikipedia. I absolutely loved this one! It’s just so much fun to walk around, checking out new exhibits that are connected to the one you are in, and falling down wikipedia rabbit holes but in the form of a 3D space.
Painting Tomorrow (Itch.io) is a free browser game created for the Trans Joy 2025 jam where you use a pinball table to paint every surface.
And maybe consider checking out everything else in the Trans Joy jam.
The CSS Puzzle Box (dev site) really is what it says on the tin. It’s a free browser game where you open up a puzzle box but it’s all done through CSS. Sometimes you just want to do some fun puzzles for free and marvel at the tech behind it.
The Rest of the Games
Ok, so like I said at the top, I’ve been busy and haven’t been able to play much lately. So here’s a huge list of games I haven’t played but I’ve seen people sharing and recommending so I’m going to post them, because if I don’t then I’ll probably never get around to it. Apologies for this being rushed, these games all look interesting and deserve longer writeups on other blogs so maybe you’ll check some of them out?
OMEGA 6 The Triangle Stars (Steam) is a visual novel/rpg/adventure game by Nintendo art director turned manga artist, Takaya Imamura, and developers of the Retro Mystery Club series, Happymeal.
Bee-Fore the Storm (Itch.io) is described as “a retro mashup featuring shmup, platformer, arcade shooter, and light simulation genres, all wrapped up for the Game Boy!” It really is a Game Boy game, in addition to being playtable on other platforms too. There’s also adult material in here, which you don’t see too often in a Game Boy game. I really like the dev’s previous game LesbiAnts.
Desecrators (Steam) looks like a ding dang Descent-like and the Steam reviews are positive so sure, I’ll take another one of those..
Cyrano (Steam) has you write love letters and cross swords in a one hour adaptation of the classic play: Cyrano de Bergerac. That doesn’t come up in games very often and I like the developer a lot.
The Local (Steam) is a free multiplayer FPS inspired by Jet Set Radio, I think? I really like the art.
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.” I haven’t seen it pop up in the adventure game community so maybe folks over there would be interested in it.
Microtopia (Steam) is a strategy game that looks like one of those supply chain building things, but this one has you controlling ants on a circuit board and I think that’s a really cool look.
Back Alley Games #012 (Itch.io) is a video game zine by the Chicago non-profit Indie City Games.
The Castle of Count 100 (Itch.io) is a free browser boss rush game made in ZZT.
I…uhhh….don’t really know what Juice Galaxy is (Steam/Itch.io) but it looks interesting.
Ten Things I Learned In The Red Room (Itch.io) is a free Twine game by the great IF writer Nessa Cannon and made as a tribute to David Lynch.
I haven’t played the free walking simulator Light Engine (Itch.io), but look at that art!
HALL of the DWARF KING (Itch.io) is a dungeon crawler for the Playdate along with two other dungeon crawler jam games. If you don’t have a Playdate it includes a PDF that you can print and cut up for an IRL game board and cards used to set your encounter order for 1-3 players.
Apache Canyon (GitHub) is a new game released for the Acorn Electron & BBC Micro and free to download.
Bloodlust: Santa Monica (Itch.io) is a free adventure game demake of Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines. This was actually released a while ago but keeps getting updates and it’s new to me so maybe it’s new to you as well.
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.”
Alliance Peacefighter (Steam) is a Wing Commander-like that has launched a demo and I really like the art and the crew of various animals and aliens, not a human in sight.
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.
Daniel Albu (Bluesky announcement) basically remade the microscope puzzle from The 7th Guest but…y’know….actually playable. It’s available for free on iOS and Android.
Sculplings (Steam) is a new game in Early Access that uses clay so of course I’m excited.
Adam Saltsman has once again created a free PICO-8 game. Cave of Cards (Itch.io) is a game where you clear dungeons with poker hands.
We got a new Indiepocalypse! Issue 62 (Itch.io) has the game cybeRRRevolution, which I think everyone should play.
The Parry Jam (Itch.io) is a jam where people just make up mechanics for parrying and also entire games based around it.
Metal Garden (Itch.io) is a short, atmospheric singleplayer FPS game that can be finished in a single sitting (one to three hours). I like that it looks like a mid-00’s FPS for the PC.
MainFrames (Steam) looks like a very fun platformer that uses OS windows that you move around as a gameplay mechanic.
Secret Agent Wizard Boy and the International Crime Syndicate (Steam) is an….immersive sim? parody of Harry Potter that is now in Early Access. I think it would be fun to play in co-op, which is always a feature I appreciate in games.
Crowfunding
Celestial Bodies (Kickstarter) is a GM-less ttrpg by Binary Star Games where you pilot your mech to claim the bodies of dead gods in deep space.
Rad-Venture (Kickstarter) is a 3D platformer inspired by classics like Rayman. I’ve played an early version years ago and want this to be completed so bad. It has a demo too! Go check it out.
