Indie Game Roundup (July 4, 2025)

image of wrestler Bret Hart and text saying "Bret Hart claims he woke up one morning and saw the truth: America stinks.

It’s USA’s birthday. Hope its empire ends soon. Have some indie games.

screenshot of a stream at dusk

I already wrote about it yesterday but Atuel (Steam/Itch.io/Android) is great and worth a look. It’s a surreal documentary about the Atuel River Valley in Argentina and how climate change has impacted it.

I already shared his blog post about it before but Terry Cavanagh really loved this mod on Itch.io for his game VVVVVV.

a conversation between a hooded figure named Slendor and your character while they prepare to fight

The Neo-Twiny Jam just wrapped up. It’s a jam where people make Twine games with 500 words or less and it’s a great opportunity for games to have experimental mechanics. I noticed it when I saw the game Glory by Grim Baccaris pop up in my Itch feed but you should dig around and see what else folks are doing with Twine.

gif of blocks falling down a screen and blowing up, then the game prompting the player to choose a curse

Curse Match (Itch.io) is a puzzle game made in PICO-8 where every level results in you choosing a curse that will make the gameplay more difficult. It’s free to play in the browser but you can also buy a download and it looks like it’s already raised enough money to fund a soundtrack. I just think it’s fun to see PICO-8 games doing well.

blocks in a variety of colors filling up a screen

Super Brick Maker 9000 (Itch.io) is a browser game that plays like a reverse Breakout. Hitting blocks causes more to appear. It’s for The Bad Game Jam but I think it’s good.

SUPER TAKE A SHOWER WHILE AUTISTIC AND LIVING IN A CRAPPY APARTMENT WITH BAD WATER HEATING PRO 2000!! (Glorious Trainwrecks/Itch.io) is an autobiographical game about….well

top down view of someone in a bloody prison cell

Hellkind (Steam) is a free short top-down horror game where you investigate a cult and ritual. I enjoyed the grainy black and white visuals and how it managed to be creepy without resorting to any jump scares. The game only takes 15-20 minutes to complete but there’s optional details you can discover if you want to investigate further. I wrote a little more about it here.

That’s it for this week. As usual, feel free to let me know about other neat stuff that has recently come out in the comments. Or even just what you’ve enjoyed playing lately. It doesn’t have to be new!

Indie Game Roundup (June 27, 2025)

If you can believe it, it’s a Friday once again. This one is short. Maybe I missed a ton of big announcements or people are just holding off from releasing games during a Steam, or both. That’s fine, there’s still quite a few games that came out this week.

Video Games

Don’t Eat the Cat (Itch.io) is a free Bitsy game where you make an Important Choice in a video game.

overhead view of different dinosaurs in a square

Dino Sort (Itch.io) is a cute and free puzzle game made in PICO-8 where you sort dinosaurs into groups.

a woman talking to a giant person and saying "Oh, um, well yes, sorry I was a little distracted. You're so TALL!"

Quantum Witch (Steam) is a 2D fantasy adventure game heavily built around making decisions and multiple playthroughs to see how the game’s story changes.

soliders marching down a bridge in front of a mountain

Project Silverfish (Steam) is an open-world immersive sim with horror elements that just entered Early Access and may or may not be furry adjacent (I don’t know! I don’t know shit about anything). It looks very neat and maybe I’ll play it when I can stop being a baby.

a smiling bear creature standing in front of a town

Ruffy and the Riverside (Steam) is a 3D platformer, maybe one of those that counts as a collect-a-thon. I just really like how the 2D character art looks in a 3D world.

Tabletop RPGs

Break the Law (pdf on developer’s site) is a short uhhhhh roleplaying game that the dev linked to on their site about ways to subvert the system.

cutestpatoot had a birthday and celebrated by releasing a new game. Mixed Feelings (Itch.io) is a tabletop rpg that you play by making mix cds and playlists.

I am a big fan of Cezar Capacle’s solo ttrpgs and there’s a new one! Mausworn (Itch.io) is a ttrpg that combines the solo ttrpg mechanics with the Redwall and Mouse Guard inspired game Mausritter.

Indie Game Roundup (June 21, 2025)

First I’ll do some self-promo and mention that I’ve made a Steam curator page. I don’t know. It seemed like a fun thing to do. Still the same goofy website name I use here. I probably should have come up with a better site name years ago but then sometimes I think, no, websites should have goofy names like Happy Puppy. I also made a similar list of things I’ve reviewed on Itch.io except you can’t follow Itch lists! That should be something you can do IMO.

Ok, self promo over. Here’s some games. If I missed anything, feel free to mention it in the comments. Self promo is absolutely welcome too!

Video Games

Games To Get Excited About is a little festival organized by Alpha Beta Gamer on Steam. I discovered some neat stuff through there and maybe you will too!

Dreamsettler, the sequel to Hypnospace Outlaw, has been canceled and some of the developers will need work soon. You can read more about it in this post on BlueSky. Really sad to hear about this one and hoping things improve for everyone there soon.

There were a few games zines this week! ChoiceBeat (Itch.io) is a free zine about interactive fiction and visual novels while Adult Analysis Anthology (Itch.io) is a paid one about adult indie games.

a ship flying towards a red blood cell that has a giant robot on it with a human skull for a head

Cell Sword (Steam/Itch.io) is a Descent-inspired by where you fly around inside a human body and blast away at anything threatening it. I enjoyed the demo for the game from a previous fest thing and I also strongly recommend the dev’s previous game Liberation (Steam/Itch.io) if you love open world sci-fi flight sims that have an approachable learning and also love classic British science fiction tv like Blake’s 7.

Tower Wizard (Steam/Itch.io release coming soon) is a short incremental game where you help a wizard construct a giant tower.

first person view of a workshop

Korter 1996 (Steam) is a first-person point-and-click adventure where you explore apartments and solve mysteries. It’s described as an exploration of loneliness through adventure games. The Steam page has a demo too if you want to try it out.

Parallel Experiment (Steam) is a two player cooperative adventure game where each player is a detective that must communicate with the other player to solve puzzles.

view of a horse thing and text saying "After a period of time, you catch movement in the distance, and see it: an equine beast of a dozen legs, skin protuding in heavy metal plates, covering it like barding, and glinting in the sun"

Mushroom Musume has been on Itch.io for a while but it just got a Steam release! This is a game where you raise a mushroom spore into a woman and make import decisions that affect her. There’s a demo on the Steam and Itch.io pages.

top down view of someone hitting a tennis ball back at monsters

10S Forever is another game that has been on Itch.io for a while but now has a Steam release. It’s an arcade game described as a Tennis Hell.

person in a mask saying "may I incline my heart to speak with you Penry?"

the Devil rais’d the storm is the third game this week that was on Itch.io but just got a release on Steam. It’s also ok to just buy games on Itch, where they get a bigger cut from sales. This one is a point-and-click adventure/visual novel where you are at an outpost on a remote planet.

a person fishing in a lake in the woods at sunset or sunrise. Their dog is sitting in the boat

Cast n Chill (Steam) is a cozy fishing game featuring beautiful pixel art where you just relax and fish. No secret horror elements or twists here. You just fish!

Bone Fire Effigy (Itch.io) is a short first-person horror game set in the woods with art inspired by the PS1 aesthetic.

someone fighting a monster with a sword

Espirito Delusion (Steam) is a short rpg containing a dungeon full of puzzles and bosses and inspired by Brazilian culture. The Steam page has a demo.

Devil’s Liminal (Steam/Itch.io) is a visual novel in Early Access about a woman that is being hunted by a hungry ghost and two mysterious girls that have shown up claiming they can help her. As you would hope for a game like this, the price for the game is $6.66.

top down view of a space ship shooting at other space ships

No Way Home (Steam) just looks like a very nice twin-stick shooter that just got a port from mobile platforms. It’s by the folks that made Moving Out 1 and 2.

The River (Steam) is a short point-and-click visual novel about the afterlife featuring some very nice black-and-white art. I discovered this one through a post on Buried Treasure.

woman looking at herself in the mirror

Leaving Home (Steam/Itch.io) is a first-person point-and-click adventure where you navigate a series of rooms in an apartment and do puzzles. I recommend watching the trailer because I think it looks very nice in motion.

I would also like to thank Lucas for recommending the recently released games Squeakross: Home Squeak Home (A Picross-like with a mouse), The Explorator (first-person shooter with very nice 2D animated art), Bioysque (horror action rpg), and Autopeli (free driving arcade game in the browser). Always feel free to recommend games by others or your own in the comments!

TTRPGs

Today is Free RPG Day. Check out your local tabletop game store to see what deals and giveaways they’re doing. I also see a lot of folks on social media giving away their games. All of the ttrpgs on my Itch page should have free community copies anyone is welcome to take.

Break Time (Itch.io) is a solo ttrpg based on the show Severance.

The Invisible Labyrinth (Itch.io) is a game for 2-5 players about branching timelines, uncertain futures, and escaping what seems inevitable. It’s a hack of Microscope and I’m Sorry, Did You Say Street Magic. I’m a big fan of Morgan’s games and you should check the rest out on their Itch page like Memoirs of a Barbarian.

Crowdfunding

Take Us North (Kickstarter) is an adventure/survival game by Anima Interactive that follows the journeys of migrants and asylum seekers on their way to cross the US-Mexico border

Indie Game Roundup (June 13, 2025)

Hey it’s another one of these things that I do every week. This one is a bit shorter. I doubt that there were less games this week, I think I was just too busy to notice them all, but feel free to let me know if I missed something that you or a friend worked on so I can include it next week. Even with it being a little shorter, it’s still plenty to keep you busy for a while.

two bears sitting by a fire, talking, and one saying how the moment they like most is the quiet time before bed

Fireside Feelings (Steam) is an online game where you sit around a fire with other people to tell stories and share your feelings. The idea reminds me a lot of Kind Words and it looks like they did some cross promotion with each other.

top down view of robots flying around a screen

Robo Attack (iOS app store) is a top down shooter game for iPad, iPhone, and iWatch. I thought this one was interesting since it’s by the developer of classic computer games like Halloween Harry and Flight of the Amazon Queen.

lots of little circles inside a big circle

Circlet (Itch.io) is a free arcade game where you have balls bouncing around and you try to avoid them with the line or circles you are controlling. It makes more sense in motion. Very fun little arcade game and the music kinda has a goth chiptune vibe to it.

A new Indiepocalypse is out, filled with experimental indie games.

I think it’s nice we still get games made with ZZT. BombPT (Itch.io) is a puzzle game made for a recent jam and is playable in the browser.

view of a cemetery statue at sunset, probably in the fall

Seasonala Cemetery (Steam/Itch.io) is a free game where you explore a cemetery as it changes with the seasons.

Thank you to Josh for recommending Tametsi on Steam. It’s a Minesweeper game from 2017 that uses odd level shapes and is just $3. I love Minesweeper-likes so this was a nice one to hear about. Always feel free to recommend games to me, even if they aren’t brand new.

That’s it for this week!

Indie Game Roundup (June 5, 2025)

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.

image of a sink in a green filter and text saying "I might get that familiar, frustrating sense while I'm just washing my hands..."

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.

side view of a pterodactyl shooting fireballs at a helicoptor

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

stacks of dominos with text describing a combo

DOMINOID (Itch.io) is a pay-what-you-want puzzle game where you stack dominids and create combos.

a girl in a swamp on a boat with a net looking for bugs

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!

Indie Game Roundup (May 30, 2025)

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.

pixel art of girl scouts at a camp ground

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.

one creature saying to another "I can't believe it's almost time again for our towns Biannual Great Veggieganza! I'm sure you'll have the biggest tominos again, Faeya."

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.

a tiny clown in tall grass next to a home made out of garbage

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

top down view of a maze filled with slime and a person

UrbX Warriors (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.

Indie Game Roundup (May 23, 2025)

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

guy jumping while another guy is attempting to cast a spell at him

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.

pixel art of a man and a woman standing outside of a closed pawn shop at night

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.

top down view of a blue guy hitting monsters with a sword

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.

first person view of a boat floating down a marsh at night

I haven’t played it yet but Overlook Trail looks like a very pretty exploration game and it even has a demo.

Tabletop Games

Treat yourself to a tabletop game about kale

Sandy Pug Games is the best and it’s always a treat to see them release a new game. Hellpiercers is 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.

Crowdfunding

I’m so excited that the Kickstarter for the documentary about Jeff Minter, Heart of Neon, has already hit its goal. There has never been a better time to be a Llamasoft fan between stuff like this and recent releases like I, Robot.

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.

Indie Game Roundup (May 16, 2025)

view of a planets surface with dinosaurs walking around and a planet with rings in the sky

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.

person sitting on a rooftop in a city at night

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.

view of a planet's surface at sunset with it looking very pink, purple, and blue

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.

first person view of google street view in Maine with a chat log on the right

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.

top down view of someone on an alien planet next to their ship

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.

Indie Game Roundup (May 12, 2025)

photo of a game playing on a philips cd-i

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 of a game running on tv next to a philips cd-i
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.”

top down view of a bunny in a maze of dust

Dust Bunny is a cute puzzle game playable in the browser and made in PICO-8 about clearing all the dust in various screens.

a teen girl saying to a boy in a kitchen "Why aren't you in bed?"

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.

deep sea divers under water and a man saying "terrible, about that creature. Still, you can't be caught out with those diverse. Just pick someone who's strongheaded enough to make a move"

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.

Indie Game Roundup (May 2, 2025)

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.

a cat dressed as a magician and the word "meow" appearing behind it

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.

a person shooting some kind of flaming ball towards a giant stone cup in the water

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.

a warrior bleeding on the floor and saying "I fought many battles in my youth, but I never rashly sought out glory. I retired into the palace guard, and lived in harmony with the land."

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!

a cd-rom and 3d text saying Anglesoft C2 Prototype

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.

two pixel characters hitting balls back and forth while and audience watches

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.

first person view of someone kicking a soccer ball into cones

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!