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.
Don’t have a whole lot to say in this intro paragraph. If you enjoy these, do a blog post with your own game and art recommendations. If you don’t have a blog, consider starting a free one on neocities or bear blog. I also have start putting more effort into my recommendation list on Itch.io if you want more recommendations. Consider starting one of those too. I’ve heard they’re way cooler and sexier than Steam Curator pages. I like these ones by Meagan and WildWeasel. And leave nice comments on things you like! Anyway, as Geoff Keighley always says, “Now more than ever, video games.”
Video Games
I have been playing adventure games my whole life. If there’s a hater of slider tile puzzles, it’s me. That said, I think landflip (Itch.io) is different enough that it’s not one of those, or at least they cracked the code and made a good one. It’s probably the best looking one too.
mausimus released version 1.0 of ShaderGlass (itch.io) last night and it does a really need CRT monitor effect on whatever game you’re playing. I tried it with Doom 2 and it was really neat. I don’t buy into the thought all old games must be played on a CRT by some folks in the retro gaming world, but it’s still fun to look at.
I haven’t played twin stick shooter roguelike Star of Providence (Steam/Switch) but I guess it just got a release on the Nintendo Switch and I’ve seen so many people praise it. It also got an update on the PC.
Super 10 Pin (Itch.io) just got a demo and I haven’t seen a game nail the feel of the N64 era of games like this in long time. Even it being a bowling game makes it feel like more of a N64 game to me. Fortunately it’s a good one and does more than just “roll a ball down a lane.”
Open-and-Shut (Itch.io) is a free noir sci-fi point-and-click adventure game made for the Cyberpunk Jam on Itch.
I missed this one when it came out early this month but Slender Threads (Steam) is a paranormal point-and-click adventure that I’ve seen get a lot of praise by folks in the adventure game community.
Oplero (Itch.io) is just a really solid bullet hell shmup that you can play in your browser window.
FISH FEAR ME (Steam) by Heather Flowers is possible the world’s first fishing roguelike?
Adam Saltsman has been on a roll lately with all the PICO-8 games he’s been making. His newest game Weasel (Itch.io) is a Snake-like.
SNØ: Ultimate Freeriding (Steam) looks like an incredibly chill skiing game and has a demo too!
People are still making games for the Commodore 64. Pirates of the Black Seas (Itch.io) is a new text adventure available for Pay-What-You-Want created with the classic IF writing software Quest Writer by Loadstar.
Smol Gods (Itch.io) is the newest game by game dev collective PUNKCAKE Délicieux. It’s a card deck creating game where you try to have a powerful deck of monsters by drawing and swapping cards.
I love covering games by local devs and this week some students at Michigan State University have created a zero gravity horror game called BURN (Steam), which looks like if someone used the classic game Descent to make a horror walking sim (complimentary).
This bluesky post describes it better than I could, so please read that, but Fahmi Mohammad’s final game Afterlove EP (Steam) is here after being completed by his studio after his passing.
Rapture Island (Itch.io) is a low poly walking simulator where you explore an island in a relaxing environment. Available for Pay-What-You-Want.
This week’s Downpour game is Back of My Hand#HISS (Downpour site) by Florence Smith Nicholls.
Neyyah is a Myst-like game that’s been in development for quite a while and now it has a demo on Steam!
Peripeteia (Steam) is a first-and-third-person role-playing stealth game taking place in alt-history cyberpunk Poland. It has just entered Early Access and sounds wild. A lot of folks are excited for it but have recommended playing the demo first before buying it.
Star Fox-like Whisker Squadron: Survivor (Steam) has just left Early Access and is on sale as part of the full version launch.
The tabletop rpg Pale Dot is running a Kickstarter for a print run. It has already reached its funding and is just looking for additional funds to do more now. The digital version of the game has been out for a while now and I recommended it if you’re looking for an Outer Wilds inspired ttrpg.
I continue to post about indie games on here because it’s either that or spiraling about the state of the world and I don’t know if anyone needs that. That said, there’s a couple of cool bundles this week where you can get a lot of great games and help folks out, so that’s alright.
The first bundle is the Grève bundle GG25 (Itch.io). All money goes to the strike fund for the Video Game Workers Union (STJV) to help compensate for loss of income linked to the 2025’s video game general strike. For $10 or more you can get a ton of great games and some come with Steam keys. I’m a big fan of PUNKCAKE Délicieux, who has a few games in this bundle and it also contains PicoMix, which is a collection of games I just covered very recently.
The second bundle is the HRT Harm Reduction Toolkit Bundle (Itch.io). For just $25 or more you can get a ton of great tabletop rpgs and help trans folks. I want to get a special shoutout to the game Dinocar that’s in this bundle. It’s the first ttrpg that I played with my kids and we had a great time. People that make tabletop rpgs you can play with your kids are my heroes.
And finally, this bundle on Itch.io for Palestinian aid is looking for submissions.
Knotdoku (Itch.io) is a cool twist on the classic sudoku game. In addition to all the rules you must follow when solving your typical sudoku puzzle, all the numbers are tied together with string and must never cross each other when you place the numbers on the board. This free browser game was created by LCB Game Studio, the developer of horror visual novels like Mothmen 1966. This isn’t a horror game though, just a very chill puzzle game with some music that slaps.
Worldwide Wizard Racket Rumble (Itch.io) is a cute, free ping pong game between wizards, where players can cast spells to help win points. I was really impressed by the level of polish and I’m looking forward to playing this one with my kids.
Renkon has done a journal entry in Bitsy (dev site). I think that’s a fun use for Bitsy and you can find other journal entries here.
Adam Saltzman has been on a roll with all the PICO-8 games he’s been making lately and this is another solid one. In Skeleton Gelatin (Itch.io), you explore a cave as a blob and solve puzzles. I think Adam described it as something along the lines of a Metroidvania without the jump button. Instead the game has you stacking bubbles to climb up and bases the puzzles around that.
We also got a ZX Spectrum game this week called Plyuk (Itch.io) that uses a very similar stacking mechanic for solving puzzles. Maybe 2025 is the year of stacking. This one is available for Pay-What-You-Want.
oceans::ephemera (Itch.io) is a walking simulator (they use the tag! It’s ok!) by the collective INFINITE TEARS and the designer Farfama where you explore a surreal space for 7 minutes and 43 seconds. I have always loved games where you just explore a space for a while and this was a beautiful space to meditate in for the duration of the game. From looking at social media posts, it sounds like there is a hidden part of the game that no one has seen yet, and while I really wish I could know what it is, even what I experienced is fantastic. It’s available as Pay-What-You-Want and if you enjoyed this, I also highly recommend city::ephemera.
286 Miles (Itch.io) is a short browser game about everyone’s favorite Luigi. It uses music by John Maus, who I kinda think can go fuck himself, but good lord the animation in this is incredible. The dev’s itch also has a game I’ve previously played called Cathedrals that I think is worth checking out if you want to build sculptures with Tetris blocks.
Breaker Box (Itch.io) is a free browser shmup where you must also shake to charge your flashlight and see your enemies.
Juan made an arcade game with his 7 year old (dev site) and it’s good. It makes me want to do more game dev with my kids too, so maybe I’ll mod this one since it’s open source. My 7 year old beta tested my last game and found some stuff and it made her incredibly happy that she’s listed in the credits for the game. We’re also poking at some adventure game stuff and using clay. If you’re a game dev and have kids, you should make something with them too. It’s the best. Am I doing the thing all parents do and just bragging about how cool my kids are? Yeah maybe.
If you’re like me and have mixed feelings about the new Dragonsweeper redesign (although you can still download the old version), maybe you’ll be interested in this version by Brianna Townsend (dev’s site) that looks like a DOS game and has some really nice new features.
If you’re a developer that has a ton of projects, cécile (post explaining it on Bluesky) has created a project that turns your Itch page into more of a grid layout and making it easier to read. You can download it on Itch.io.
It’s not new but I don’t think I’ve ever given a shoutout to Fireflower Games before. If you’re looking for DRM-free adventure games, consider picking up a game from their store. Itch.io doesn’t get every indie game and this site has done a pretty good job building up a catalog of games from various adventure game folks. Plus a chunk of their proceeds gets donated to environmental groups (see their FAQ).
Whale Flesh (Steam) is a horror game where you dig through the flesh of a giant whale to find out what happened to your team. Yep, sound great, sign me up.
Fill the world with your rainbow 2 (Itch.io) is a free browser puzzle game and rerelease of a Puzzlescript game from 10 years ago. I never played that one so I was happy to see this rerelease and it has a message that I think a lot of people could use right now.
Stewpot (Itch.io/Print) is here! Stewpot is a tabletop rpg by one of my favorite designers, Takuma Okada, where you tell the story of a tavern run by former adventurers through a series of mini games. The games absolutely works as a standalone thing but would also work very well at the end of a ttrpg campaign, once your adventurers retire and you want a more cozy way to continue their adventures.
I am a big fan of games inspired by the frustrating parts of Sierra adventure games, like Stair Quest and KIDNAME:ICEBOY, so I was thrilled to see Drive Quest 3 (Itch.io). DQ3 is a browser game based on the incredibly frustrating driving parts of Police Quest 3.
Shadowgate 2 (Steam) comes out today. You’re probably thinking “oh wow, it took them this long to make a sequel to Shadowgate for the Mac and NES?” NOPE! Buckle up, here are all the Shadowgate games we’ve got so far, not counting ports:
Shadowgate (1987)
Beyond Shadowgate (1993) for the TurboGrafx CD
Shadowgate 64 (1999) for the N64. I believe this one has mixed reviews but I remember actually really liking it
Shadowgate (2014), a remake of the original game.
Beyond Shadowgate (2024), a completely different game than the previously named Shadowgate. Why does it have the same name as the first sequel? Don’t know!
There was also a VR game and a board game too. Anyway, we now have a Shadowgate 2, which I guess is based on some concepts from a canceled N64 game called Shadowgate Rising. “Michael, aren’t you generally just optimistic about video games in this?” Yeah usually. The game is probably fine! I heard that Beyond Shadowgate game from last year was good and I think that remake from 2014 is solid too. So I’m actually generally a fan of this series, just a weirdo grump about how they name things.
Terry’s Other Games (Steam/Itch.io) is a collection of various small games by Terry Cavanagh, of VVVVVV and Super Hexagon fame. Notably, it features the first commercial release of a game made in Downpour, the game dev tool that you can use on smartphones (and I highly recommend). The developer of that wrote about it on their blog.
Zine month is happening right now in the ttrpg world and while I haven’t followed it too closely because I simply cannot afford to back everything I’ll get excited about, I did back Underneath (Kickstarter) by Seb Pines. I’m a fan of Seb’s games and solo ttrpgs in general and this one has you exploring unknown cave systems.
I haven’t played Reality Break (Steam) yet but it looks like a fun action rpg set in space and already has a few hundred reviews even though it just came out a few days ago. I heard about this from Aura’s blog, who seems to love the game.
The Creation of Wonder (Itch.io) is a tabletop rpg that can either be played as a solo game or for groups of 2-4 people and uses a tarot deck. It’s described as a narrative worldbuilding game about the labour that goes into the creation of art, and about the art that lives on when its makers are forgotten. It’s available for Pay-What-You-Want.
Steam Next Fest is coming up (or is already happening? I don’t know.) so a bunch of demos are being uploaded. Old Skies has a demo and I’ve mentioned before that I’ve beta tested it and think it’s probably their best game, so go play that one or just take my word for it and wishlist it. Axyz also looks like a fun vaporwave puzzle game.
Finally, it’s not a game but a musician I’m a fan of, Alpha Chrome Yayo, has released an album called Dream Chaser (Bandcamp) that is packed with tunes inspired by PSX-era racing games. It also comes with a Stepmania chart.
As much fun as these posts are, it came take a while to write them so if you enjoy these, add the site to your RSS feed reader, tell a friend, and do your own roundup! Social media and search engines suck and we need to build up a better web that doesn’t rely on the same 3 websites.
