indie game roundup

Indie Game Roundup (March 1, 2024)

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Hello! This is going to be the last one of these for the next month or two as I will be busy taking care of a newborn starting next week. Thank you so much for reading these and feel free to check out the posts I’ve made from previous weeks for more indie games. I’ve also tried highlighting other folks that talk about indie games a lot, so please follow them.

ChoiceBeat 10
One of those folks is ChoiceBeat (Itch link), zine focused on visual novels, interactive fiction, and adventure games. Every issue is free.

Indie Tsushin
If you would like to learn about indie games from Japan, consider checking these folks out. The newest issue just came out (Itch link) and is available as Pay-What-You-Want.

Indiepocalypse 50
The newest Indiepocalypse just came out today. I will keep posting about these whenever they come out because I have discovered so many games from here.

text over a photo of a bonfire saying "She lunged forward, making him rest against his back. Their mouths separated for a second while Unatxi grabbed a few logs and fed them to the campire. The way things were going, clothes might be coming off shortly.
Screenshot from The Curse of Unatxi Kamala

The Curse of Unatxi Kamala
The Curse of Unatxi Kamala is an IF game created for the Queer Vampire Jam and also the Smoochie Jam. The game was created in binksi, which is a fork of bipsi that allows people to use Ink.

Angelblood
I would also like to recommend Angelblood (Itch link), a visual novel also created for the Queer Vampire Jam that features some fantastic artwork.

screenshot from The Hypnic Chain, showing bright green grass and plants under a cloudy sky.
Screenshot from The Hypnic Chain

LSDJAM 2023
LSDJAM is a game jam where people make games inspired by LSD: Dream Emulator. The jam ran for a few months and it looks like a lot of very interesting games were created for it.

screenshot from Dead Names showing a blurry image of someone sitting in bed
Screenshot from Dead Names

Dead Names
Dead Names is a free short sci-fi visual novel for the Game Boy, but you can also play it in the browser. Please read the content warning before playing it.

Alakajam
Alakajam is a game jam similar to Ludum Dare and the 19th one just wrapped up. Check out the games here and consider participating in a future jam if you want to do something like Ludum Dare but in a much smaller community.

PowerJam #1
The first game jam for the PowerQuest plugin for Unity has just ended. PowerQuest allows folks to make point-and-click adventure games in a way similar to Adventure Game Studio but with all the pros and cons of Unity. Some really neat stuff was made for this jam.

3 different colored kobolds standing in front of someone in a prison cell
Screenshot from Yip Quest

Yip Quest
Not a new game but I finally played the point-and-click adventure Yip Quest, where you control 3 kobolds trying to steal treasure. It’s a short game made for a game jam and you can play it in the browser.

Self Promotion Time
Before I take off for quite a while (I’ll probably keep posting on here but not doing these roundups, add this to your RSS feed reader!), here’s some of the stuff that I worked on this last week:

If you enjoyed reading these roundups, consider buying one of my games or checking out my Ko-fi, and please be very vocal about the indie games you love. People don’t hear about this stuff unless there’s folks screaming about them from the rooftops. Doesn’t have to be a blog. It can be on your Twitch stream or on social media.

Indie Game Roundup (Feb. 23, 2024)

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Hello! This is going to be a shortish one since I’m preparing for the arrival of a baby in two weeks and haven’t had that much time to play games. Maybe I’ll do one of these next week but then I’m taking a break from these for at least a month, probably two. Still some stuff I really enjoyed though!

Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story
If this is the last one, I need everyone to know that Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story comes out very soon and I need everyone to buy it. It’s absolutely wonderful that Digital Eclipse is doing these interactive history things/game compilations and I don’t know if there’s one I could get more excited about than this.

pixel art image of a building and person saying "Sometimes I try to lose myself"

Provenance
Provenance is a ridiculously beautiful Bitsy. I did not know that Bitsy games could look or sound like this.

Smashtronaut
It’s a month old so maybe not brand new but it’s a very fun little browser game on Itch.io where you smash into stuff with your ship and get points.

Zine in a Cassette
Not exactly a game but if you wanted to know how to distribute a game or zine in a cassette case, this guide on Itch.io is incredibly useful.

Word Sprint
Word Sprint is a free browser game on Itch.io where you make as many words as possible in 2 minutes. I’m awful at these types of things but it’s very well made and I had fun playing it.

top down view of a maze in green, with other mazes behind it

20 Small Mazes
20 Small Mazes is a free game on Steam where you do a bunch of clever mazes. Great stuff and I like how the game looks too.

space ship shooting at very psychedelic looking things in space

NIDUS
Haven’t played NIDUS (Steam link) yet but look at that! It looks fantastic and early Steam reviews are positive too.

top down view of pieces moving around on a white board

Sokobond Express
Haven’t played this one yet either (Steam link) but I’ve really enjoyed other puzzle games these folks have made so I’m sure I’ll like this too.

Other People Talking About Indie Games
Fortunately there’s lots of other people that are better at talking about indie games than I am that you can follow while I’m on break.

Wraithkal does regular Screenshot Saturday blog posts about people participating in it on Mastodon.

The Pixel Prophet has a very nice newsletter from Buttondown about indie games and other things

Rascal just launched. It’s always nice seeing more people talk about tabletop rpgs that aren’t Dungeons & Dragons.

Other Things

I guess I should have been putting new album recommendations in here this whole time as well. Tim Midyett, most famous for the bands Silkworm and Bottomless Pit, just released a new album (Bandcamp) from his band Mint Mile and I think it’s pretty good stuff.

Mary Timony (Helium, Ex Hex) also released a new solo album today (Bandcamp). I haven’t heard it yet but she’s just a fantastic guitarist.

I liked this article about 80s Lucasfilm Games MMO Habitat and 30 years since the closing of Club Caribe

Other videos I’ve put up this week on YouTube include Let’s Plays of The Last Exterminator, Meatverse, and Sea Peebles. I also put up gameplay videos with no commentary of 80s Lucasfilm Games MMO Habitat, the 1998 Collier’s Encyclopedia that Sierra developed, and shorts for indie games Toro, Handvaska, and Kobold Generator.

Well, that’s it for this week. I’ll probably do one next week before the 1-2 month break but if not, thanks for reading!

Indie Game Roundup (Feb. 16, 2024)

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Hope you’re all doing well! I’m still getting over a cold that has actually been pretty mild but I’m a big baby so I’m acting like it’s the worst thing ever. For some of you it’s probably a 3 day weekend as well, so that’s a nice thing to look forward to. Despite my mild cold completely ruining my life, I still found a way to play some video games. If there’s something I missed, especially if it’s something you worked on, please reply with it in the comments or contact me (see About page) with a link to your thing.

Vaporwave Pinball

top down view of a pinball table with a statue and roman columns to its right

Vaporwave Pinball is an upcoming pinball game being developed by Mixtape Games UK. I played the demo as part of Steam’s Next Fest. I thought it was really neat. It’s got some quirks that should be fixed as development continues and I didn’t get to the more abstract tables that pop up in the screenshots. I feel like if a pinball table in a video game is not a 1:1 recreation of a real table, then it needs to get really weird, which is what this seems to do in later tables and something that I feel like Pinball FX needs to do more of with their fictional tables. I’m also learning how to do Let’s Plays and did one here.

Lost in Space

a boy, a man, and a robot around a space ship console

Lost in Space is an upcoming point-and-click adventure game based on the classic science fiction tv show. I played the demo and idk, it’s fine! They picked a weird spot for the demo. From watching the trailer at the end, it sounds like they use audio from the show for some of the other characters but not the player, which is the thing I was actually most interested in and how that’s pulled off. It’s a completely average adventure game, meaning I’m kinda just fine with it but would lose my shit if they made game at this quality level of a different IP, like a Farscape adventure game. So if you like Lost in Space then I would recommend it! (YouTube Let’s Play)

Lee Carvallo’s Putting Challenge 2

game boy screenshot of a golfer in bed saying "Mornin Morty! I bet you're as excited for the Springfield Cup as I am!"

Lee Carvallo’s Putting Challenge 2 is a point-and-click adventure for the Game Boy based on a joke at the end of an episode of The Simpsons back in season 7. It’s not too long or challenging, took me about 30 minutes to beat, but the jokes really worked for me and there’s a lot of hidden jokes I didn’t see but know I missed because of the achievement system. The game is also playable in the browser. (YouTube Let’s Play)

8BUTTERF.EXE

Gameplay footage of 8BUTTERF.EXE

8BUTTERF.EXE is a bullet hell game made for the TIC-80 fantasy computer where time only passes when you move. I really enjoyed this game and highly recommend checking it out. Elements of it almost make it feel like a puzzle game in that you have to manage your resources and plan your movements ahead. It’s playable in the browser here.

Kobold Quest
Just a very pleasant and short Bitsy where you’re a Kobold. (Itch.io)

Gelatinous
A solo tabletop rpg where you play as a gelatinous cube and eat things. Don’t know how I can sell it better than that. (Itch.io)

Advanced Fantasy Dungeons
A tabletop rpg available as pay-what-you-want that is strongly inspired by Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 2nd Edition and compatible with supplements as well. Despite that era being kind of clunky, it’s what I grew up with so I have a ton of nostalgia for it. I’m interested in seeing how that type of game is redesigned to be a bit more approachable. (Itch.io)

Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore

Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore is a spiritual sequel to the infamous Zelda platforming games on the Philips CD-i. Weirdly enough, I do sorta have some nostalgia for those games, despite being pretty awful, since I actually played them at a CompUSA when they came out and was confused why there were non-traditional Zelda games out there and on a non-Nintendo console. I always get excited when people do a spiritual sequel to something that wasn’t good and my hope with this is that the approach was “what if we did one of these but it was good?” Because why not? We have plenty of remakes and sequels to good games. Let’s revisit things that maybe had some good idea but the execution wasn’t 100% perfect.

Ultros

I know nothing about this game other than it’s a metroidvania but look at this art! I think it’s lovely. (Steam)

News Tower

news tower screenshot of a side view of a tower

I haven’t played this one but the concept is really interesting to me and I heard good things about the demo. It’s a game where you run your own newspaper and looks pretty great. The game is available in Early Access on Steam.

Other People Talking About Games
There’s also lots of other people talking about indie games that you should follow:

And then finally on my YouTube channel I’ve uploaded footage of games I’ve played like Super Space Club, Glypha: Vintage, and Dead Petals Bliss.

Indie Game Roundup (Feb. 9, 2024)

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Here’s what I’ve been excited about this week. Let me know if you’re working on something that I missed!

two cartoon mice sitting at a table
Screenshot from Esther’s

Indiepocalypse 49
The newest edition of the monthly indie games compilation zine is out and features a lovely assortment of games. I recommend Esther’s, a really cute interactive fiction game.

Threes
Threes is now available on Steam! It’s probably my most played iOS game so I hesitant to fall down that wormhole again, but it’s really a great little game.

futuristic looking platformer
Screenshot from Q.P.I.D.

Q.P.I.D
Digital Eclipse has released another game in their Digital Eclipse Arcade, a series of small games inspired by 80s arcade games. Digital Eclipse is much more known for rereleasing old games but these are pretty neat too and this one is free.

3 characters climbing steps in a dungeon
Screenshot from Stairup

Stairup
Stairup is the newest game from the anonymous game dev collective Domino Club. It’s a very short turn based rpg made with RPG Maker MV where you climb a series of stairs and stuff happens. It’s got some very good writing and I thought it was funny. Playable in the browser on Itch.

Canabalt
The classic endless runner has been ported to HTML 5 and the source has been posted to Github. You can play it in the browser/download it for free on Itch.io.

TTRPG Bundle for Trans Youth
A game developer is raising funds for their local trans youth group Emerge and has put together a bundle on Itch featuring tabletop rpgs from a ton of different game developers. You can buy it on Itch for $5 or more.

Cookie Cat Grandma
A local game developer has started working on a chill platformer game and I think it looks really nice! Follow them on YouTube for further updates on the game.

(Per Person) Refillable
(Per Person) Refillable (playable in browser) is a very short and lovely interactive fiction filled with nice art about ordering too many lemon ice teas.

Nesterin Trail
We got a new text adventure for the Commodore 64! Available as pay-what-you-want, it’s also playable on modern computers.

person's face in a chair saying "welcome to ur internship"

Meatverse
Meatverse is a short horror adventure developed for a game jam about an office made from humans.

a pixel art cave with spiders and frogs

Mushroom Soup
Mushroom Soup is a new platformer for the ZX Spectrum 128. Available for free on Itch.io

man telling a woman "This hospital is strangely silent for a medical facility"

Devil’s Hideout
Devil’s Hideout is an upcoming horror point-and-click adventure by Cosmic Void. I’ve enjoyed everything else by this developer so I know I’ll pick this up when it comes out too.

Mops & Mobs: A Sweeping Dungeon Novel
Mops & Mobs is a prototype of a game where you have started working in a dungeon and helping the various creatures with tasks that need to be done. It controls a lot like your traditional dungeon crawlers like Dungeon Master but is essentially the opposite of those. Instead of walking around and murdering everything you see, you’re cleaning and decorating the dungeon, and talking to the creatures that have defeated previous adventurers. It’s a really good game and I’m looking forward to future versions of the game. I actually just started a YouTube channel to get footage of various tiny indie games and you can watch my Let’s Play of the game here, although the game is only 15-20 minutes long and I highly recommend it.

Other People Talking About Games

There’s also lots of cool people talking about indie games elsewhere. The Adventure Games Podcast has put out two videos this last week. The first video is about adventure games released this month and the second video is about games that aren’t adventure games but are very narrative focused.

On startmenu Kate Robinson hightlights some of the best sleeper hits Of 2023.

The Pixel Prophet has a regular newsletter that highlights indie games and other folks talking about indie games.

Adventure Game Hotspot has done a massive roundup of demos for adventure games in the Steam Next Fest.

The Museum of Screens regularly highlights browser games you should play as well as preserving browser games of the past.

Indie Hell Zone highlighted some demos from the Steam Next Fest.

Bobbins’ Olde Tomb of Videogames continues to do an excellent job highlighting new arcade games.

Indie Game Roundup (Feb. 2, 2024)

~ mpklamerus ~ 2 Comments

Happy Groundhog Day. The groundhog has risen and said there will be 6 more weeks of video games. Does the weird Groundhog Day VR adventure game sequel from a few years ago count as an indie game? Anyway, if you recently released something that you want included, always feel free to send me an email, message me on social media (see About page), or just reply to this post with a link to your thing to let me know it’s out.

photo of two people tinted blue and someone saying "Come on over, let's head in"

Full o’ Beans
Full o’ Beans is a short visual novel on Itch where you help two researchers explore the world of humor by telling jokes. I really enjoyed the writing and music in this game and I will always get excited about photos of people being used in video games.

Zine Month
It’s zine month in the world of tabletop rpgs, meaning tons of people are launching crowdfunding campaigns on a variety of platforms. I’ll probably do a post later listing some of the campaigns I’m interested in but take a look around and see what people are looking to fund, or see what ttrpg folks are talking about on social media.

gif of someone on an alien beach with a floating fish

Twilight Oracle
Twilight Oracle is a new point-and-click adventure by the creator of other fun adventure games like The Corruption Within and Blood Nova. I’ve only played the demo but it’s really good and I’m looking forward to playing through the whole game now that I got my key from backing the Kickstarter. The game is available on Itch.io and Steam.

top down view of boats on water

Waterworld: a New Expansion for Barren Planet
Barren Planet was a new turn based strategy game for DOS that was released for free last year which I really enjoyed, so it’s nice to see that it’s receiving big updated as well. You can download the game for free on the developer’s site but it’s also on Itch.

3D view of Celeste and floating platforms

Celeste 64
Celeste 64 is a free 3D platformer take on Celeste by (I think?) the developers of the original. It’s in the style of early 3D platformers and it’s great. I’m awful at it, as I always have been with 3D platformers, but it’s a very good version of one of these.

toes being tickled by a feather

Teddy Typtoes Tickle Tower
Teddy Typtoes Tickle Tower is a new typing game playable in the browser where you type and tickle someone’s toes. I don’t know what else to say about this one other than it’s a GOTY contender.

gif of a space person peeking from a wall

Under a Star Long Cold
Under a Star Long Cold is a new stealth action game with perma death where you have 30 minutes to loot a place before the planet is destroyed. I haven’t played this one yet but I’ve enjoyed previous games by Merlino Games like The Chameleon and Luckily, My Arm is a Shotgun.

The Forever Labyrinth
The Forever Labyrinth is a new browser game created by Inkle in collaboration with Google. I actually know nothing about the game since I haven’t played it yet but it’s an Inkle game so I’ll probably enjoy playing it. The YouTube trailer (which also has a link to the game) was interesting. I don’t know how Inkle keeps secretly dropping games like this.

Other People Talking About Video Games

There’s also other people who are much cooler than I am who are talking about all the cool things coming out. You should follow these folks

Bobbins’ Olde Tomb of Videogames has a weekly post rounding up various games that have come out in the last week, with more of a focus on arcade games and remakes of retro games. The same person used to run a site called Retro Remakes 20 years ago and holy cow, I used to spend so much time on there playing remakes of old video games. It was the best. So it’s great that I’m still finding about remakes of old video games from him.

LotusLovesLotus has a very nice video on YouTube of 24 indie PC games that she’s looking forward to. I didn’t even know of most of the games in the video.

Indie Tsushin is still regularly streaming indie games from Japan on their YouTube channel. They also post about all the games they streamed, with links to the games, if you want to check them out yourself.

Nathalie Lawhead has a great post on their blog about liminal spaces and indie horror games.

Indie Game Roundup (Jan. 19, 2024)

~ mpklamerus ~ 1 Comment

Despite losing my power one day this week and my internet going in and out over the weekend, I still had time to play video games. If you recently released something that you want included, always feel free to send me an email, message me on social media (see About page), or just reply to this post with a link to your thing to let me know it’s out. Or even if you didn’t make it and you just think it’s neat, let me know!

little person on a platformer

Sylvie Miniature
Sylvie Miniature is a short challenging platformer that is playable in the browser. The source code is available too if you wanted to see how it was made.

Pinochio inside a castle

The New Secret of Pinocchio
For the 30th anniversary of the Russian ZX Spectrum game “The Adventures of Buratino” its creator released a Windows remake of it and extended it with new material. It’s available for free on Itch.

Music Maker 95
Music Maker 95 is a little synth playable in the browser on Itch where you play with some retro sounds in an interface resembling a program from the 90s.

robocop flying and shooting at the Predator

Robocop Vs Predator
Robocop Vs Predator is a free game inspired by Game Boy games that were weird crossovers like Robocop Vs Terminator or Iron Man And X-O Manowar. It’s a very silly and challenging action platformer.

view outside of clouds and a giant tower

Slave Zero X: Episode Enyo
Slave Zero X: Episode Enyo is a free prequel to Slave Zero X, which was a recent 2D action game which itself was a prequel to Slave Zero, a 3rd person action game from 1999. I have played neither of those games but I’m excited about people making free Quake episodes to promote their game, which is what this is. It’s a lot of effort too. The 6 level episode features new guns, enemies, and soundtrack.

Boyfriend Dungeon: Life On the Edge
Boyfriend Dungeon: Life On the Edge is an official tabletop rpg based off Boyfriend Dungeon. I was a fan of the original game and also have a fascination with official tabletop rpg adaptations so I hope to play this soon. I’m also relieved that it’s not another 5E reskin and it’s a unique system based on Rhapsody of Blood and Powered By the Apocalypse.

cartoonish person in a kitchen

Day of the Sandwich
Day of the Sandwich is a cute little adventure game about making a sandwich, inspired by Day of the Tentacle and made in Adventure Game Studio and playable in the browser. I didn’t even know AGS games could be playable in the browser so that alone was exciting to me. It was made for a 14 day game jam and you can watch them develop it on their Twitch stream. If you would like to make a point-and-click adventure in the free and open source engine Adventure Game Studio, I highly recommend this tutorial by Julia Minamata, who is currently developing The Crimson Diamond.

Rise to the Commander of the Wolf Triad
Rise to the Commander of the Wolf Triad is a browser game made in PICO-8 where you climb a tower and throw bombs at Commander Keen? It’s a late entry to the Toy Box Jam, which is hosted by Tom Hall (Commander Keen, Wolfenstein 3D, Doom) every year on Itch where developers must make a game using the collection of assets that are provided to them.

Gex Jam 2024
Do you miss 90’s platformer mascot Gex? Well there’s a jam coming up in a month where you can make anything featuring the guy.

Posts About Puzzle Games
There were two recent posts about indie puzzle games that I really liked. Thinky Third Thursday is a monthly roundup of puzzle games by the designer of puzzle games like A Monster’s Expedition, Cosmic Express, and A Good Snowman is Hard to Build. There was also this post on Cohost highlighting A TON of puzzle games.

top down view of a knight fighting monsters in a dungeon

Rogue Declan
After posting about Amiga games last week, someone mentioned this very nice looking Amiga game that was released last year. It looks like its got a boxed copy available for pre-order too.

Indie Game Roundup (Jan. 12, 2024)

~ mpklamerus ~ 2 Comments

It is the 90s and there is time for games. If you recently released something that you want included, always feel free to send me an email, message me on social media (see About page), or just reply to this post with a link to your thing to let me know it’s out. Or even if you didn’t make it and you just think it’s neat, let me know!

screenshot from Itch of various game covers

Solo But Not Alone 4
This is the fourth in a series of charity bundles on Itch that are made up of solo tabletop rpgs. The proceeds from these bundles go to mental health related charities and you can click on the bundle link for a description of who it’s going to this time. It’s an incredible bargain for a collection of great games and I’m proud to have my KLF-inspired game Chill Out in here.

XYZZY Awards
The winners of the 2022 XYZZY awards have been announced. If you want to see what people in the modern IF scene are up to, this is a great way to see some of the games coming from there. Since the page doesn’t link to where the winning games are available, hopefully no one minds too much if I basically copy the post but link to the games.

Best Game: According to Cain (Jim Nelson)
Best Writing: The Absence of Miriam Lane (Abigail Corfman)
Best Story: Fairest (Amanda Walker)
Best Setting: Prism (Eliot M.B. Howard)
Best Puzzles: The Bones of Rosalinda (Agnieszka Trzaska)
Best NPCs: Lady Thalia and the Rose of Rocroi (E. Joyce, N. Cormier)
Best Individual Puzzle: the escape room in The Little Match Girl 2: Annus Evertens (Ryan Veeder)
Best Individual NPC: Computerfriend in Computerfriend (Kit Riemer)
Best Individual PC: Bell Park in The Grown-Up Detective Agency (Brendan Patrick Hennessy)
Best Implementation: According to Cain (Jim Nelson)
Best Use of Innovation: The Bones of Rosalinda (Agnieszka Trzaska)
Best Technological Development: Inform 7 build 10.1.0
Best Use of Multimedia: Gent Stickman vs Evil Meat Hand (AZ / ParserCommander)

Independent Games Festival
The finalists for the 2024 IGF have also been announced. This is another great way of discovering games you may have previously missed.

New Games Everywhere
I enjoyed this video covering upcoming games that Dani Lavandula is looking forward to this year. It’s only 10 minutes long and has a lot of stuff I didn’t know about

view of a tram from the driver seat

TRAMCITY HAKODATE
This is a new game on Steam in Early Access where you are a driver for Hakodate, Hokkaido’s tram service. This cohost post does a better job explaining what the game is and the future plans for it, plus it has a link to the Steam page.

a girl in a robotic diner

Psycutlery
Psycutlery is a platformer game that has been in development for a few years but has finally been released, and for free! It’s a beautiful looking game and I think it’s worth downloading off of Itch.

conversation between a player character and a jester

HalOPE
HalOPE is described on the Itch page as a surreal exploration/”puzzle-ish” RPGMaker game about breaking cycles and becoming whole. I haven’t played it yet but it looks lovely and is available for free.

person flipping through a horror game magazine

PC CURSED
PC CURSED is an anthology of horror games as well as a magazine, all for free. The Itch page lists all 20+ games that are included in the anthology.

Thinky Games
If you’re looking for more puzzle games to play, ThinkyGames.com has a good post covering games from two recent game jams.

DUSK
DUSK is a new sci-fi rules-lite tabletop rpg from Gila RPGs. DUSK uses the LUMEN 2.0 system, and is a diceless RPG focused on resource management rather. The core rules for the game are available for free!

a little guy with a jetpack in a cave

Amiga Games
It also felt like a lot of new games for the Amiga were released this week, at least from looking at Indie Retro News. There was Ami-H.E.R.O, an update of Activision’s H.E.R.O., a port of the arcade version of Tetris, a news update about a top-down arcade game called Hyperborea Resurrected, and news about a dungeon crawler called Dungeonette.

If you enjoyed this post, you can find ones from previous weeks here

Indie Game Roundup (Jan. 05, 2024)

~ mpklamerus ~ 1 Comment

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.

gif of vanish 5 of blocks being moved around to clear the screen
fake installer screen for DOS
top down screen of train tracks being built
a giant stair case with ice on it
first person view of a dungeon
an island made in ZZT
a river rendered in voxels
gif of an asteroids game for DOS
low poly car in a city

DOS Games Jam
The most recent DOS Games Jam just concluded and a lot of great games have been made for it. I enjoy doing these since they’re so casual and there’s no ranking involved. I was especially excited to see that a holiday version of Stair Quest was made.

retro looking top down view of a house by the water

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.

a metal sphere navigating a maze

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.

a glowing yellow pepper outside in a park?

Dead Drop
Dead Drop 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.

glowing white butterflies over the water

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.

Indie Game Roundup (Dec. 29, 2023)

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Even though we’re in that weird liminal space between Christmas and New Year’s Day, where I have lost track of time and no longer know what day it is, a lot of great games were released this last 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.

Winter sales!
Winter sales are still going on Itch and Steam. Go buy some neat games if you want.

top down view of santa walking around a dungeon

Who Took the Books
Your mileage on this one may vary on how much you want to play a Christmas game at this time of year but Tom Hall, creator of classic games like Commander Keen, has released a new game for the PICO-8. It’s a really cute puzzle game where you play as Santa and must find all the books in the game. It plays a lot like an adventure game where finding items will let you explore new areas. It’s also just fun seeing how much Tom Hall is involved with the PICO-8 community and is always organizing new game jams or rating PICO-8 games 5 stars on Itch.

Sewer Rave
Not a new game but Sewer Rave is now available for free/Pay-What-You-Want on Steam and Itch.io. It’s a game where you explore a rat infested sewer during a giant rave.

platformer gif of a woman turning on a bridge

Baby Time!
Baby Time! is a new game by Goloso Games to celebrate becoming a parent. It’s a Lost Vikings-style platformer where each of the three playable characters has different abilities and you use them all to solve puzzles. Congrats to Goloso Games on the baby.

Saṃsāra
Saṃsāra is an interactive poem created for the Kissinger is Dead jam. It’s a good poem and I’m also just happy that there was a jam about how awful Kissinger was and celebrating his death.

Hamayumishi: Chochin Challenge
Hamayumishi is a new side-view twin-stick shooting game by Nice Gear Games that’s playable in the browser. It’s a fun arcade game with some nice art and neat slow motion gameplay mechanic!

Against the Wind
Against the Wind is a new solo/coop fantasy tabletop rpg by Cezar Capacle that is focused on wilderness exploration and creating unique heroes. The game is technically in beta but I feel like it’s already a beautiful book and solid game, and with it blowing past its goal, will only become better. If you’ve never played a solo tabletop rpg before, I think this is a good one to start with.

gif of a snake in a mine cart

Snake on a Train
Snake on a Train is a cute endless runner made in PICO-8 where you are a snake riding in a mine cart. The game was created for the Toy Box jam which was hosted by Tom Hall and is playable in the browser.

gif of an alien offering you a business opportunity

Galactic Foodtruck Simulator 2999
Galactic Foodtruck Simulator 2999 is a game created in ZZT for the DOS Game Jam, hosted by me! I’m always impressed by what you can do in ZZT and this is no exception. In this game you have 40 weeks to establish a successful food truck business in space. Playable in the browser.

Indie Tsushin: Year 1
Indie Tsushin: Year 1 is a compilation of writing found in the first year of Indie Tsushin, a zine that covers indie games and interviews game developers from Japan. Picking it up is an excellent way to support indie games coverage and make sure projects like this can continue

screenshot from a spectrum platformer game showing Daleks and the Tardis

WOOT 2023
I only found out about this a few hours ago and I don’t really follow the modern ZX Spectrum too closely so I might be screwing up the details of this but WOOT 2023 looks to be a compilation of new ZX Spectrum and apps, with a nice variety of stuff. I got excited because a dev I do follow, Sloanysoft, seems to have a Doctor Who fan game in it called Blocktor Woot in the Sloanyverse of Madness.

image of a monster exploding into pieces

FREAKHUNTER
I haven’t played this one yet but it looks like something I’ll really enjoy. FREAKHUNTER is a dungeon crawler/rail shooter hybrid and I really enjoy the low-poly aesthetic it has.

Indie Game Roundup (Dec. 22, 2023)

~ mpklamerus ~ Leave a comment

I hope that whatever you celebrate this month, it has been a pleasant time. Here are some indie games from this last week that I enjoyed looking at. 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.

Winter sales!
Winter sales have started on Itch, Steam, and probably a bunch of other places too. Go pick up some neat games if you want.

screenshot from Quiller's Code showing symbols on paper and letters underneat it

Quiller’s Code
This was a really fun puzzle game created for the Thinky Game Jam where you decode messages by dragging letters onto the symbols to figure out what the message is saying. The puzzles can be tricky but the game isn’t timed and lets you experiment with the letters without being punished.

gif from scrap book 1 of snow falling

SCRAP BOOK I – The Terrors of Ice and Darkness
SCRAP BOOK I is a very short (3 minute) game by the great Quinn K about mountain climbing and the pandemic. Really looking forward to future games in this series too. Read the content warnings before playing.

The Meaties 2023
This is a free zine where the author talks about their favorite games this year. It’s a great one to check out if you’re looking for some new tabletop rpgs to play and I also just really like someone putting their GOTY choices in a zine.

Coding History
Not an indie game itself but it is by an indie game dev. The second episode of Coding History is out and it’s about making a 3D engine and how it may not be as complex as it would seem.

gif from Benevolence of lighting hitting a bunch of red people

Benevolence
Benevolence is a little sim where you use your powers as a god to wipe out people for their souls. The look and concept kinda reminded me of something Molyneux would make but in the 90s when he was making good stuff.

Welcome to Lunary Greens
This is a system-neutral supplement for your tabletop rpg of choice of a magical neighborhood. It’s part 11 of 12 in a series and if you subscribe to their newsletter you get to claim it for free on Itch. It’s ok, it’s not a Substack.

A Musical Sheepy Xmas
It’s an album of nice retro-sounding Christmas music by a game developer I’m a fan of. The Itch page also has a Bandcamp-like player in the browser so you can listen to the music without downloading anything, although the album can be downloaded for free.

top down view of a room with a chicken saying to a horse "We got you out before thew elves broke in."

Christmas Horse 4
This is part 4 in a free compilation of Christmas-themed games. In this one you play as a horse in a classic Zelda-like setup and fight elves.

There’s also three games this week that I haven’t played yet but I think look really neat.

Mobile Suit Baba
Mobile Suit Baba is a tactical puzzle game inspired by Into the Breach by the developer of Baba is You. It’s available for free until this Wednesday.

Terminal
Terminal is a surreal cyberpunk tabletop rpg for 3-7 players inspired by The Matrix. The art and layout look pretty great and the preview of it in Dicebreaker back in July was very positive.

gif of a first person view of a dungeon being navigated

Path of the Abyss
Path of the Abyss is a single-player, grid-based dungeon exploration RPG with real time combat that was just released in early access. The art in this looks pretty nice and the Steam reviews are positive so far. The reviews do give a heads up that the translation from Japanese to English was done with a machine and not a human translator. They said it’s not noticeable but still probably something worth noting.