I’ve already brought it up a few times before on social media but I’m going to do it again because it’s always been a good time for me. I think game devs should do more with their local libraries. They’re always up for having people use their spaces. Specifically I mean organizing a games showcase/expo of local games. It’s a great way to get eyes on it from people who will never see it on social media and don’t pay to go to games conventions, which is most people. They’re also free!
The Ann Arbor District Library has done a couple conventions and they’ve always been a great time for both video game devs and tabletop rpg designers. I don’t know if it’s an environment where adventure games or interactive fiction would do better but maybe? It can’t be worse than trying to demo your game at a loud convention. I also just think that people should collaborate with libraries more because they rock and always deserve more love.
Developer: Cosmic Void Publisher: Dionous Games Year: 2025 Genre: Adventure
Neon Hearts City is a short point-and-click adventure game set in a cyberpunk future where you are a private investigator searching for a missing girl, and unfolds into a greater mystery involving androids. I’ve mentioned Cosmic Void’s games on this blog a few times before and how I’m a fan of their games, and I think this is another solid entry in their catalog. It’s just a solid and straightforward point-and-click adventure where you walk around different screens, pick up items, and use them elsewhere to make progress in your story. If you want another one of those in a cyberpunk setting, great, I think this is one worth checking out.
It has great art and music like I’ve come to expect from a Cosmic Void game. It’s what you would hope for in a cyberpunk game, with pixel art of a gritty city at night and the appropriate synth music to set the mood. The voice acting is very nice too and it was fun to see some names I recognize from other adventure games.
Without spoiling too much, I think the mystery itself was good too and even though it does unfold into something bigger, it’s still ultimately pretty low stakes and I always appreciate when games aren’t about you saving the world. The city is being watched by a fascist government that wipes the memories of people they deem criminals, sometimes picking off random people just to fill a quota. I think it’s good that it’s not really about overthrowing them and remains focused on people just trying to survive in that world, and the ending was very satisfying to me.
The game got some criticism in Steam reviews and elsewhere for being too short but I didn’t mind the length at all. It took me two hours to complete and I am perfectly fine with that. I will always support games being shorter if the developers think that is the appropriate length to tell their story. It would have been fun to see more of the world though, since I think the world building was the best part of the game, and maybe more interactivity with the world would have been nice so we could learn more about the setting as we click around and explore. It’s an interesting setting and I wanted to play around in the world a bit more, even if meant more interactions that don’t advance the plot. The game is at its best when it starts to engage more with the world and not just your standard adventure game puzzles. The world building starts to include some weirder stuff towards the end that you don’t see as often in cyberpunk stories, and I hope we’ll get more of this if there’s a sequel or another game set in this world.
If anything, if I did have any criticisms it would be about some of the puzzles. I think the inventory item focused puzzles were fine but you come across a couple riddles and other self contained puzzles that felt like they were there just for the sake of an adventure game needing more puzzles and didn’t really get excited about them.
That said, I enjoyed the game quite a bit and would recommend it to folks looking for a cyberpunk point-and-click adventure, especially if they want one on the shorter side. I don’t know if I need a direct sequel to this game but I’d love to see another game set in this world.
Neon Hearts City is available on Steam and Itch.io
I just went 24 hours with electricity and don’t recommend it. Our local power company is AWFUL and every time we lose power, which seems to happen a lot more than it should, it makes me consider looking into solar power. I’m not quite sure how that works in Michigan but it would sure be nice for situations like this.
Before that all happened, I read some blog posts this week. It’s a more retro gaming focused post than usual. As usual, if you enjoy these posts then consider adding the blogs to your RSS feed reader!
The community for Myst Online is still very active and has a month packed full of events. I previously wrote about the weekly ayoheek nights in Myst Online, which is apparently doing a Tron watchalong tonight.
Renga In Blue has covered a text adventure from 1980 that was previously unplayable until today! This was very exciting for me to read since it’s about a game that was developed close to me (although before I was born) and I’m always up for learning about local game dev history.
Two sites I follow in my RSS feed reader are Jefklak’s Codex and The Good Old Days. Both are websites where one person or a couple people just review games as they play them. It’s usually older stuff but with the occasional new game or tabletop game sprinkled in there. I just really like the idea of having your own personal database of game reviews, instead of using something like Backloggd, and something I’ve been thinking about a lot as I’ve been leaning on posting my reviews and thoughts here more instead of a social media site where it gets compiled with reviews by other folks I don’t know. Maybe it’s something I’ll build out someday as I keep doing more posts. Just for myself, because I think it’s fun looking at stuff I previously played and seeing what I was thinking at the time.
Lemon Shark (Itch.io) is a fun PICO-8 game that turns Pac-Man into a turn based puzzle game. There’s a little more to that but it’s a really nice twist on the formula.
The pink decker jam is still going on Itch.io and there’s already quite a few games submitted. Decker is a Hypercard-like tool and this jam is about making apps and games using a pink palette created for the jam.
As required by law, I am here to inform you that a new Indiepocalypse is out on Itch.io. This one features a brand new ttrpg by Viditya Voleti so of course it’s a great one.
A Solitaire Mystery (Steam) is a collection of solitaire games by the designer of Baba is You, with some of them being more standard solitaire games and others being more experimental.
GrimVaders (Itch.io) is a neat autobattler for browsers with nice pixel art.
BioMenace Remastered (Steam) released a demo with a full released planned for this fall. Bio Menace was originally a 1993 shareware game that was published by Apogee, but I believe the original developer owns the rights. The developer who worked on the remasters of Duke Nukem 1 and 2 for the Evercade is leading development of the remaster.
ChipWits (Steam) is a remake of the 1984 puzzle game for the Macintosh.
A Chamber of Stars (Steam/Itch.io) is a surreal adventure game about the rise and fall of a rock star.
I was looking through old images I uploaded to Mastodon and saw that I had uploaded a one page dungeon at one point. Since I want it stored somewhere a little more permanent, here you go. Feel free to do whatever you want with it (aside AI crap please), it’s public domain. I don’t think it really makes sense to put on Itch. It’s just a little thing I made a few years ago with water colors. I should do more of these. Not because I’m great at it but I have fun doing watercolor painting for myself.
Developer: Infinite State Games Publisher: Infinite State Games Year: 2024 Genre: Arcade
3D Don’t Die Mr Robotis an arcade game where you avoid all the enemies flying through the level and pick up fruit to cause chains of explosions. The longer you play a round, the more enemies you’ll see popping into the screen. There’s some really interesting strategies you develop as you become more familiar with how the game and setting up combos works and I thought it was a unique mechanic for an arcade game. It’s a sequel to their game from 10 years ago, Don’t Die Mr. Robot, which seems to be essentially the same thing other than it’s 2D instead of 3D and they’ve iterated on the design. I never played that one and it’s not a requirement before playing this. There’s no Mr. Robot lore that comes up in the game as far as I know.
It reminds me a lot of 80s British arcade computer games. Maybe because I’ve played a lot of Llamasoft stuff and both developers have lots of nice, bright colors, explosions, and fun character designs. The soundtrack even has bits that remind me of that era. Which I suppose all makes sence because it turns out that the developer is British when I looked them up.
The gameplay modes in this game include your standard arcade mode, where you try to survive as long as possible and get the highest score you can. There’s a level based mode called Remix Mode where each level uses a different board for you to run around on and different gimmicks like giant enemies. The Lime Attack mode replaces everything with limes. Time attack mode has you trying to get as many points as you can within a specific time limit and you can respawn if you die. There’s also a relaxing mode where there are slowing moving enemies and you are running around on a grassy field instead. With the exception of the level based Remix Mode, all of them have online leaderboards too, which has been a lot of fun to play on as I competed with a friend on the leaderboard on the Arcade Mode.
It’s just a very polished arcade game that I got a lot out of from trying to get the highest score on the leaderboards and trying to get platinum trophies on each level of the Remix mode. I’d highly recommend checking it out if you’re looking for an arcade game. It was one of my favorites of last year and there’s a demo featuring the arcade mode if you want to give it a try.
Developer: Actual Entertainment Publisher: Actual Entertainment Year: 1997 Genre: Arcade
If you follow me on social media, you’ve probably seen me making plenty of goofy posts about the 1997[1] puzzle game Gubble. It would be easy to assume that someone posting about an obscure and goofy looking computer game character is making fun of the game and either never played it or didn’t enjoy it very much. Folks, I am here to tell you that Gubble is good.
Screenshot taken from Steam
In Gubble you play as Gubble D. Gleep, a purple alien who finds that space pirates have invaded your planet Rennigar, fastened zymbots (the game’s levels) to the planet’s surface, and now you must remove them. Each level has you running through a maze, removing all the screws put in the floor of the maze while avoiding the level’s enemies. The screws come in different shapes, requiring you to switch between the tools that have been placed in the level. This gives Gubble a puzzle game-like element and helps add variety to all the mazes you’ll be going through.
In the original Gubble, the only way to heal was to find a health powerup or to save, and saves were consumables. There were typically 3-4 located in a world and they would disappear after you saved. In the 2020 release on Steam they are no longer consumable and you can repeatedly use the save points anytime you want. In my opinion this is a drastic improvement over the original game. There’s an argument people have made in some Steam reviews that this makes the game too easy but give me a break. No one is forcing you to save. If you want to only save a few times in each area, knock yourself out. I think it’s great when a game allows you to save anytime you want and either save yourself the time from not having to play the same parts repeatedly, and just letting me leave a game anytime I want since I have three kids and sometimes have to drop everything to go do something. Gubble 2020 gets it.
Some levels also feature hidden mini levels in them too, where you run around on the board and try to grab as many objects as possible for points. I suppose this is maybe interesting if you’re trying to get the highest score possible but most people won’t care.
Gubble was designed by Franz Lanzinger, who is probably more famous for the 1983 arcade game Crystal Castles. Crystal Castles plays very similar to this and it’s interesting to me that he’s been iterating this design for decades though Crystal Castles and the Gubble franchise. Gubble must have done well because it was followed by a Gubble 2 (Wikipedia says 1998, MobyGames says 1999), where the new feature was that Gubble could walk. Gubble walking is an affront to God but I’ll save that for another post. But the world must have agreed because in 2000 we got Gubble Buggy Racer (MobyGames says 2001), a kart racing spinoff, which I guess is an interesting direction to take a puzzle game franchise. Gubble HD came out in 2007 on PC and later for iPad. This version is very similar to the one on Steam.
There were a few attempts to make new games in the franchise after this. In 2012 there was a Kickstarter to fund a Gubble 3D but this only hit $1,249 of the $80,000 goal. In 2014 there was an attempt to make an endless runner for Android and iOS called Gubble Vacation Rush. This one looks like it came very close to release, because you can pull up videos on YouTube of the game being played at conventions and the designer saying that it should come out in a few months, which never happened. In 2020 there was a remaster of Gubble 2 announced, but it presumably never happened because God does not want Gubble to walk and struck it down.
Overall Gubble is just a solid little arcade game. It’s kind of a meme game at this point because of the creature’s design and the Game Grumps folks angrily yelling “It’s fucking Gubble!” in one of their videos. Let me just say this, fuck Game Grumps. What, you’re going to listen to adult men who will forever be trapped acting like they’re teenagers, because that’s what their fan base expects? It’s fucking Gubble? Yeah, that’s what I yell with joy whenever I see this guy.
[1]: MobyGames and the Steam page of the rerelease lists the release as 1996 but Wikipedia points to this press release and I found this interview which points to 1997. Both happened close to release so I’m going with those. Gubble.com also states it is 1997. The Playstation 1 release seems to be 1998. As you noticed earlier in the post, MobyGames and Wikipedia also disagree on later entries in the series so I’m not sure what’s going on.
How is your week? Hope you’re doing well despite everything going on. I saw Weird Al this last Wednesday with my kids and it was a fantastic time. It was my first time seeing him even though I’ve been a fan of his for 30 years and I don’t know why I waited so long. I still mostly only really feel comfortable seeing live music outdoors but when I get the chance to, it’s the best.
If you’ve seen me post on social media, you’re probably aware that I’ve been participating in the Ann Arbor District Library’s Summer Game. I’ve posted about it here before too. My wife was working and my kids were with my mother in law all weekend so I went to two of the library’s branches to get codes for points and had a great time. I even saw a couple get engaged at one of the branches. I think I just really like visiting libraries even when I can’t check out books because I do this in other cities when I travel and always like it. If you live near me and your library sells shirts, let me know. I’ve been collecting more library shirts and merch lately. I suppose this also applies to folks that have a library that sells merch online.
Anyway, this is what I’ve enjoyed reading lately:
The BlogLinks
I learned a bit of history about that classic microscope puzzle from The 7th Guest on The Good Old Days.
Andrew Plotkin writes about a Discord bot that lets you play Interactive Fiction in a channel. I need to get this setup.
Michael Coorlim has been writing Godot tutorials on his blog.
The Explorateur is a fantastic roundup of tabletop rpg writing.
Yaffle writes about the soundtrack for the various versions of the video game Uncharted Waters
CD-ROM Journal wrote about enhanced music cds that come with extra multimedia, which is obviously something I would lose my mind over.
Void Breach is a point-and-click adventure where you play as a scientist who must save his daughter after a science experiment goes wrong and sends her to another world. The game is strongly inspired by old Sierra adventure games. While it’s a point-and-click game and you can’t die, the game design and art style are based on those games. The game’s art is very similar to the style you would see in Sierra’s very early AGI games like King’s Quest and Leisure Suit Larry. For the most part it’s very good and nails the look, but unfortunately I’ve spent much more time than I’d like to admit looking at old games and there’s the odd bit here and there that looks off, like pixels being too small in some parts.
I think that the gameplay design and plot is very similar to those old games. Like I said before, you can’t die, but the basic structure where you are given a quest (rescue your daughter) and then are plopped into an open world where you walk around, seeing what other characters need, and grabbing items to help them out or overcome obstacles is very similar to the classic Sierra game structure. I realize it sounds like most adventure games do that, but to me it feels like a very Sierra thing to just plop you into a world and let you have at it. The writing is very similar to those early Sierra games too. The characters aren’t too developed, sometimes they’re just fantasy creatures like mermaids, and mostly exist to give you a quest. This sounds like a criticism but it’s not. It fits for the type of game that Void Breach is emulating and I think they do a good job of that.
Overall I think it’s a nice adventure game and would recommend it if you’re looking for something in this style and want something that you can play in two hours. It’s very affordable too. The game is only $2 and at the time of writing this review, it’s on sale for $0.50. My only real caveat is that while I like this game, Cosmic Void has made so many games and they keep getting better with each game so I guess if you’ve never played a Cosmic Void adventure game before then maybe consider checking out one of those on Itch.io or Steam. But it’s still good! What are you supposed to do when someone makes a lot of games you like? Tell people to play them all? Maybe.
