Games I’m Looking Forward to in 2024

January 1, 2024 ~ mpklamerus ~ 1 Comment

Last year I wrote a list of the game I’m looking forward to in 2023 and had a lot of fun so I’m doing it again. If you don’t see your game on here, don’t be weird about it! It’s just a blog where someone that is still waking up is trying to remember games they’re looking forward to. It is not a serious games site. I once posted a recipe by the guy from Ernest Scared Stupid. Come on. Some of these are repeats of last year’s list, because it turns out making games is hard and it’s a miracle anything gets released. If you think any of these games look cool, consider adding them to your wishlist so you can help with whatever algorithms are used to get.

If there’s a game you’re excited for that isn’t on here, let me know about it! This can include stuff you’re working on.

The Crimson Diamond

screenshot of a wooden cabin and two women inside

The Crimson Diamond is a point-and-click adventure game strongly influenced by Sierra’s 1989 adventure game The Colonel’s Bequest. I’ve been following the development of the game for a while now through the developer’s weekly dev streams and the demo on the game’s Steam page and everything indicates this should be a great mystery to solve. This was on last year’s list but from watching the dev streams, it looks like development is getting close to the end and I’m confident it will come out this year.

Exophobia

first person view of a gun shooting at large bugs

Exophobia is a Metroidvania FPS inspired by FPS from the 90s. I enjoyed my time with the demo when it came out. I don’t know if the Blake Stone series was an inspiration for this game but it reminds me of that era of FPS instead of most of the retro FPS revival shooters that seem to be inspired by ID Software and Build-engine games. This was also on last year’s last but the release date lists 2024 so I’m hopeful that I’ll get to play it soonish.

Princess Peach: Showtime!

Not an indie game but I’m mostly excited for this one because my kids are excited. Princess Peach is their favorite character and it’s nice that we’re getting a game focused on her. I generally enjoy Nintendo’s games so I’ll probably have a good time with it.

She Dreams Elsewhere

a combat screen showing a variety of strange looking foes

She Dreams Elsewhere is a surreal RPG with a stunning art style. The art and creature design look wild and I’m looking forward to exploring this world when the game comes out.

Super Cucumber

aardvark with a cape shooting a fireball at a platform

Super Cucumber is a 2D platformer where you play as an aardvark superhero. I liked the dev’s previous game Down the Drain and have had fun playing the beta of this too.

Twilight Oracle

Twilight Oracle is a fantasy comedy point-and-click adventure by the developer of games like Blood Nova and The Corruption Within. I’ve enjoyed playing all the other games by this dev and the demo for this was solid too. It comes out at the end of the month so I won’t have to wait very long to play the final version of this game.

Kitsune Tails

an enemy being kicked into other enemies

Kitsune Tails is a 2D platformer that looks like is inspired by Super Mario Bros. 3. I really like the previous platformers by the studio and I think this one looks really cute!

The Last Exterminator

first person view of a gun pointing at an alien who also has a gun

The Last Exterminator is a FPS inspired by games from the 90s like Duke Nukem 3D and Blood where you fight alien cockroaches. Sure, I’ll play another one of these. There’s a demo I should probably try first but I do like that it looks like the 90s Duke Nukem Forever that we never got so assuming that demo is fun, I’ll probably pick this up too.

Harold Halibut

man satanding inside of a storage room filled with boxes

Harold Halibut is an adventure game life on a city-sized spaceship submerged in an alien ocean. I really love the stop motion aesthetics the game has.

Tactical Breach Wizards

a wizard shooting lightning at two people

Tactical Breach Wizards is the newest game by Tom Francis, designer of Gunpoint and Heat Signature. It looks to be a fun tactics game with a fantasy influence and the screenshots showing off dialog indicate that it has the same humor his earlier games had.

Acronia

person shooting a rocket to the upper right while on a platform

Acronia is a queer DOS game inspired by Apogee-era shareware games such as Duke Nukem 1 and BioMenace. It’s been fun following the studio on social media and seeing the game come together and get a soundtrack. I loved the alpha version of the game that is available on their Itch page and hope that we see a full version released this year.

Gobliins 6

Last year’s Gobliiins 5 was a surprisingly good revival of the series and it’s exciting that a new one has already been announced and is currently in development. There’s not much that we know about it other than what I covered in my post here but it makes me happy that the series is back.

Wonky Works

a little blue guy shooting fireballs at green guys in cloaks

Wonky Works is the newest game in development by ondydev. I don’t know much about it but I’m a fan of the developer’s previous games like Tres-Bashers and Binky’s Trash Service.

Captain Disaster and The Two Worlds of Riskara

guy in spaceship with slug people in cells

This year we should see the third game in the Captain Disaster series. The first two games were fun sci-fi adventures and I’m really impressed by the improvement in art style in the screenshots that have been posted so far.

Sam & Max Season 3 Remaster

It’s not really a new game but I’ve enjoyed the remasters of Telltale’s Sam & Max games by Skunkape. They make the games look like how I remember the game looking and not how they actually looked, and are generally hands off with the content of the game, only making small changes to parts where the humor has not and other small enhancements. The Sam & Max series got better with each season so I’m looking forward to revisiting the best one Telltale made. It sounds like this one has taken longer to do due to all the technical changes Telltale was making to the engine at the time but it will be worth the wait since this was also the best entry in the series.

The Drifter

The Drifter is a point-and-click adventure by Powerhoof, developers of games like Crawl. This is their first commercial adventure game but they’ve done a few short, free adventure games that I’ve enjoyed. It’s developed with their Unity plugin PowerQuest and it’s nice seeing another tool pop up for adventure game developers as well.

Rosewater

3 people standing outside a large building in the old west

Rosewater is the next point-and-click adventure by developer Grundislav Games. It’s a western set in the same universe as their previous game, Lamplight City. I’m excited for the diverse cast of characters, focus on multiple solutions, and love the rotoscoped animations.

Neyyah

view of a very tall metallic building surrounded by water

Neyyah is a first-person point-and-click adventure inspired by Myst and Riven. The game looks absolutely amazing to me and it will be fun playing one of these types of games that isn’t by Cyan.

Nivalis

view of a very tall cyberpunk city with flying cars

Nivalis looks to be a business simulator set in a cyberpunk city, but looks to have some narrative elements as well. It’s by the developers of Cloudpunk, which I really enjoyed, so this is one I’m looking forward to.

Ghost Bike

Ghost Bike has you riding around in a semi-open world on a bicycle so yeah, of course I’ll be interested in that. I think it looks nice and the music should be good too, even if the record label advertised in the trailer turned out to be a bunch of buttholes when news came out that Chromatics broke up. Plus it’s by the developers of Nidhogg, so that’s neat.

Fiend’s Isle

There’s not really a whole lot known about Fiend’s Isle but it’s a dungeon crawler inspired by 90s game which is absolutely a thing just for me.

Agent 64

Agent 64 is a new FPS inspired by Rare’s classic N64 games Goldeneye and Perfect Dark. I think it emulates the style of those games perfectly and the demo, which is available on the Steam page, was a lot of fun.

Still Ridge – A Supernatural Adventure Game

a man standing inside an office in a low poly environment

Still Ridge is a point-and-click adventure game with a retro-aesthetic set in a West Virginia town. You play as a dream traveling therapist investigating a murder he witnessed in his dreams. The developer of this one previous did some stuff in the HauntedPS1 community and from the little bit I’ve followed of this game, it seems to be made with a lot of love for older adventure games.

Loco Motive

I loved the original version of this game that appeared in the 2020 AdventureX game jam and this looks like a nice remake of that game with improved graphics. I’m interested in seeing how they expand the story as well.

Riven

Hell yes, cannot wait for this one. I don’t even know if it’s coming out this year but it still deserves a mention. Their remake of Myst in 2021 was very good so I’m excited to see what they do with this. It sounds like they’re expanding and reworking parts of the game too so it’s not a straightforward 3D remake like their Myst remake was. Even if the remake was just a 3D version of the game it would be a massive project, so I’m not going to be surprised if it takes another year to come out. I’ll miss the great FMV in the original game but the few screenshots they have look great.

Zid Journey

cartoon drawing of two dinosaurs on a trail

Zid Journey is the sequel to Zniw Adventure, a wonderful cartoon adventure game inspired by classic Humongous Entertainment adventure games. Since this looks like more of that, I will be happy to play this as well.

Dream Settler

I will play absolutely everything in the Hypnospace Outlaw universe. Loved that game and loved Slayers X, so I will be buying Dreamsettler on day 1.

Duppy Detective Tashia

a woman asking "Why is this boy intent on trying my patience? How may I help you today?"

Duppy Detective Tashia is a choice-driven adventure based on Caribbean folklore. I think the artwork looks very nice and I liked the puzzle game that spritewrench released last year, On the Peril of Parrots.

Phoenix Springs

two people in front of projection screens

Phoenix Springs is a point-and-click adventure where you are searching for your missing brother. I think the artwork in this looks beautiful, especially when it’s in motion.

Stunt Derby

cars driving over a track while a tower of blocks is falling

Stunt Derby is Noclip’s first video game. It’s just a very goofy multiplayer game where you drive around on tracks and have fun with the physics. The demo was a lot of fun and I think it’s supposed to be a lower cost game too. It reminded me a little of the DOS game stunts in how simplistic it is, but in a good way.

Hauntii

black and white art of someone walking through the woods on a trail

Hauntii is a twin-stick shooter/adventure game. I don’t know a whole lot about the game but I think it looks really nice and it’s supposed to come out in Q2 2024.

Tachyon Dreams Anthology

person walking outside and text saying "pick berry"

Tachyon Dreams Anthology is a collection of three games that were previously released on Itch but with some minor tweaks and new content added. They’re all inspired by Sierra’s 80s parser graphic adventures. I really enjoyed those games so I’ll happily play them again.

Enoch: Children of Fate

woman standing outside of a building in a cyberpunk world

Enoch: Children of Fate is a cyberpunk point-and-click adventure. I don’t know a whole lot about it or the developer but I think it has some nice pixel art so it’s going on my wishlist.

Dome-King Cabbage

hand modeled creature wanting to thank you

Dome-King Cabbage is a visual novel set in the world of a monster collecting rpg. Man, look at that art.

Midnight Margo

Midnight Margo is a new adventure game by the developers of Whispers of a Machine. I really enjoyed that one and I know the art style for this game is divisive but I’m really into it.

Ashbury Pines

a man talking to you while showing a grid of people in a table

Ashbury Pines is an idle game where you solve a murder in a small town. I haven’t played that many idle games but I’m so curious how a Twin Peaks-inspired murder mystery game works in the format.

Roman Sands RE:Build

Roman Sands is a surreal mystery game by the developers of Paratopic. Really enjoyed that game and I’m into the Y2K aesthetic this one has.

Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story

screenshot of a spaceship shooting lightning at ships in an arcade game

Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story is the one that will probably end up being my game of the year in 2024. I really love what Digital Eclipse has done with their previous releases like Atari 50 and the Making of Karateka, and now they’re doing a compilation on one of my favorite game designers. I don’t know how they’ll ever be able to top this.

The Legend of Skye

The Legend of Skye is a fantasy point-and-click adventure game inspired by games from the 90s. Sometimes I just want a cozy adventure game and that looks like a well made version one of those.

Twinsen’s Little Big Adventure

Twinsen’s Little Big Adventure is a remake of the game from the 90s. I was really impressed with the beta version I tried. Having controls that aren’t frustrating definitely changes the game, but I think the spirit of the original is still there. The new art is a nice update of the original’s too.

The Ape Painting

isometric view of a room with a painting crushing a man

In The Ape Painting, your date’s hideous painting has fallen off the wall and killed him, leaving you trapped in an apartment of nightmares. I really liked Cain’s previous interactive fiction game WASTE EATER and I’m looking forward to playing something bigger.

Heir of the Dog

Heir of the Dog is a new point-and-click adventure by the developer of Lucy Dreaming. Really like what I played of that one so once I finish that, I’ll have this to look forward to.

Vaporwave Pinball

a pinball table with a vaporwave aesthetic outside of it

I enjoyed the demo I played for Vaporwave Pinball so as long as the full game is more of that then I’ll be happy.

Broken Sword – Shadow of the Templars: Reforged

a man digging through garbage outside of an exploded building in Paris

I like that first Broken Sword, although probably not as much as most adventure game fans seem to, so any excuse to revisit it is fine with me. The updated visuals look nice and it seems to remove the stuff that was added in the “Director’s Cut” of the game that kinda ruined the pacing, so this will probably be the version I end up recommending to other people.

Broken Sword – Parzival’s Stone

a man walking through the streets of Paris

We’re getting two Broken Sword games this year! It sure looks like another Broken Sword so sure, ok, I’ll play this one as well.

BlueSuburbia

white butterflies in the sky at night over a stream

BlueSuburbia is a first-person interactive fiction game that is currently available for free but in Early Access form. I really like what I’ve played and I’m looking forward to seeing how this game continues to grow.

Dread Delusion

Dread Delusion is another game currently in Early Access. It’s a fantasy rpg heavily inspired by Morrowind. I haven’t actually picked this one up yet but I will sometime this year and I get to look forward to it growing and having more weird things added to it.

SKALD: Against the Black Priory

top-down view of people outside a castle

SKALD is a party-based rpg inspired by 80s CRPGs. I haven’t played the demo yet but I really like how it looks, I’m interested in the setting they’ve been showing off so far, and as a fan of the era of games that inspired it, I’m looking forward to seeing how they modernize that style of game.

Old Skies

Old Skies is the newest game developed by point-and-click adventure game studio Wadjet Eye Games. While they’ve produced other adventure games in recent years like The Excavation of Hob’s Barrow, this will be the first they’ve developed since Unavowed. The time travel premise sounds like a lot of fun and it features great art by Ben Chandler.

Nighthawks

Nighthawks is a RPG written and designed by Richard Cobbett (Sunless Sea/Sunless Skies) with art by Ben Chandler (Technobabylon, PISS), and produced by Wadjet Eye Games. From following the Kickstarter updates, the worldbuilding seems like a lot of fun and it should be a pretty lengthy game.

Little Nemo and the Nightmare Fiends

Little Nemo and the Nightmare Fiends is a 2D platformer based on the Little Nemo comic series. I think the art is fantastic and as a fan of the character ever since I played the NES game many years ago, it’s nice to see another video game being made starring the character.

Alone in the Dark

Being a fan of Alone in the Dark is the video game equivalent of being a Weezer fan. There hasn’t been a good entry in the series since the first game and even that one gets harder to recommend to people because of the gameplay mechanics aging poorly over time. However, this one is a remake of the first game, set in the early 1900s, and has two playable characters again so could this finally be another good Alone in the Dark game? Maybe?

Are there any games you’re looking forward to that haven’t been mentioned here? Please let me know! It can also include games that you are working on. I want to know about everything!

ScummVM 2.8.0 is Out

December 30, 2023 ~ mpklamerus ~ Leave a comment

A new version of ScummVM is out and this one is a big release to me. The biggest part of the release for me is that it supports more games made with Director, which are a massive headache to play today. So now I can easily play games like The Dark Eye, Gadget, and Classical Cats, which has a very good post about getting it to work in ScummVM.

Here are the new games that it supports:

Adibou 1
The Dark Eye
Dark Side
Escape From Hell
Gadget: Invention Travel and Adventure
Gobliiins 5
The Excavation of Hob’s Barrow
Kingdom: The Far Reaches
Might and Magic Book One
Muppet Treasure Island
Nancy Drew: The Final Scene
Nancy Drew: Message in a Haunted Mansion
Nancy Drew: Secrets Can Kill
Nancy Drew: Stay Tuned for Danger
Nancy Drew: Treasure in the Royal Tower
Primordia
Reah: Face the Unknown
Schizm: Mysterious Journey
Shardlight
Strangeland
Syberia and Syberia II (macOS versions only)
Technobabylon
The Vampire Diaries
Whispers of a Machine
Wrath of the Gods and four other Director titles.
14 AGS titles by Stranga and Cloak and Dagger

Christmas Adventure Games

December 14, 2023 ~ mpklamerus ~ Leave a comment

If you’re looking for Christmas themed games to play this month, there’s quite a few point-and-click adventures that are a good fit.

screenshot from Watch Over Christmas of the player in an office looking at a book on a desk

Watch Over Christmas
I already mentioned this one in my winter games post but Watch Over Christmas is a nice one to check out if you’re looking for a family friend adventure game. It’s a longer game but not too difficult, features nice 2D art, and has quality of life features like hotspot highlighting.

Last Christmas
Last Christmas is a darker, short adventure game where you are playing Frankie and have to prepare Christmas for his girlfriend at a cabin and features multiple endings. The original version of the game was created for Adventure Jam 2022 but has been expanded into a full game. Make sure to read the content warnings on the Steam page before picking it up.

Azazel’s Christmas Fable
Azazel’s Christmas Fable is a comedic game inspired by 90’s adventures. You play as Azazel, an imp, and must track down the “source of joy” originating from the North Pole and destroy it. It’s a really charming and cute retro-looking adventure game that’s pretty family friendly. The game isn’t too long, but not too short either, and it has some fun post-game material where you can spend time looking for collectibles and talking various characters from the game.

screenshot from Lake of a mail carrier walking through a snowy town

Lake – Season’s Greetings
Season’s Greetings is a DLC prequel to the game Lake. You play as a mail carrier that explores a town set in the 80s and talks to various people living there while delivering the mail. I was a big fan of Lake and its relaxed pace and looking forward to revisiting the game in this DLC.

Parsely: Kringle Krisis
If you’re looking for something a little different, this Christmas version of the Parsely series has players going through a text adventure in tabletop rpg form by having one player be the parser and give responses to the commands the other players are giving.

Adventure Games for Winter

December 6, 2023 ~ mpklamerus ~ 1 Comment

I was going to write a post recommending adventure games to play during winter but it looks like the Adventure Games Podcast has done a series of episodes doing just that and doing a much better job than I ever could have. I highly recommend the series, which is still going on, that recommends games based on regions. I’ll link to each episode below. Each page has a link to the podcast audio but also lists all the games mentioned and links to their pages.

Winter Odyssey: Journeys Through the Cold Part One – Arctic and Alaska

Winter Odyssey: Journeys Through the Cold Part Two – Canada

Winter Odyssey: Journeys Through the Cold Part Three – Scandinavia & Nordic Countries

Winter Odyssey: Journeys Through the Cold Part Four – Eastern Europe

Winter Odyssey: Journeys Through the Cold Part Five – USA

There’s only a couple of games I’d like to add to this list. It’s possible they’ll come up on the podcast too since the series isn’t done yet but I think they’re worth a mention.

Heroine’s Quest is an adventure rpg inspired by the Quest for Glory series and my favorite of all the ones that have come out since that series ended. Like Quest for Glory, you choose between one of three classes, with each class giving you different solutions to puzzles. The game also adds some survival mechanics since you are in a snowy climate, but these can be turned off with the difficulty slider. It’s a really nice game and best of all, it’s free. I’m glad that the Steam page basically has tip jar DLC though because it’s a really impressive and long game and I felt like I should give them some money while playing it.

Watch Over Christmas is a nice one to check out if you’re looking for something with a Christmas theme. It’s just a solid adventure game that’s family friendly and never felt too frustrating since it had some nice features like hotspot highlighting and the puzzles weren’t too difficult.

The Puzzle Agent series is a great one to check out if you’re looking for something focused entirely on puzzles, without the exploration elements. The games feature fantastic artwork by Graham Annable and a wide variety of puzzles that always felt fair to me. It’s unfortunate there aren’t more games in the series but at least Graham is still creating a lot of great art on social media and through his shop.

If you have a friend to play adventure games with, the We Were Here series is a nice choice. You and a friend must talk through walkie talkies as you work together to explore a frozen castle and solve puzzles. The first game is free and short so it’s a nice way to try this style of game out before buying more.

Tabletop RPGs Inspired By Adventure Games

December 3, 2023 ~ mpklamerus ~ Leave a comment

cover art for Parsely, showing a variety of icons in pixel art

It’s not surprising that there’s a lot of tabletop rpgs based on video games. They often have an interesting universe to base a tabletop game on and many already have rpg mechanics, where while it’s not a 1:1 conversion to a tabletop game it does give designers a place to start. What I was surprised by was the number of tabletop rpgs that are based on or directly inspired by adventure games. I knew a lot of ttrpg creators grew up playing them but there’s quite a few that mention specific games or license the IP. Here are the ones I could think of but please let me know if the comments if I left anything out.

Myst

With Myst being one of the best-selling games ever, it’s not surprising that it has inspired a few tabletop rpgs. Unwritten: Adventures in the Ages of MYST and Beyond is a game that uses the Myst license and uses the FATE core system for the foundation of its rules. The game is strongly influenced by Uru/Myst Online and has players exploring modern or historical D’ni and the ages connected to it. The game has received a few smaller supplements as well as a larger sourcebook that was recently Kickstarted and focused on the reconstruction of D’ni

There’s fan games too. Bring the Page With You is a free one-page ttrpg where there is no GM/DM and is focused on players collaborating together to create Myst ages.

Text Adventures

There’s also a few games inspired by the Infocom-era of text adventures. Parsely is a collection of games where a group of players control one character by telling one player, known as the Parser, what they would like to do in the form of text adventure commands and the Parser describes what happens next. The collection even features a trilogy of Zork-like games known as Action Castle. The creator of Parsely has a few games in the series on their Itch page.

They’re not the only one to develop group text adventures. Goldfinch Games has developed a couple Out-Loud Text Adventures as well, with one in an abandoned amusement park and one at an abandoned spaceship.

Uresia: Grave of Heaven is a system-neutral setting book by S. John Ross that is strongly inspired by the Zork series, with there even being a section explaining how it influenced the book and why they love the series so much. The book is now available for free here. Check it out and then consider hiring him for book or map design if you’re a ttrpg designer. The author also wrote a Z-Machine text adventure game that ranks as Polite on Andrew Plotkin’s cruelty scale. This game is also available for free.

Point-And-Click Adventures

I found a few games on Itch.io inspired by point-and-click adventure games. Pocket Full of Stars is a cozy two-player ttrpg inspired by Samorost where the players have the roles of an Astronomer and the Storyteller and work together to tell a story about a giant jumping from planet to planet and meeting people.

Loom is a fan fiction game based off the classic Lucasarts adventure game of the same name. It’s a solo journaling game where you explore the game’s world using the mechanics described in the book and write about what happens. Both games are available as Pay-What-You-Want.

Citizen Sleeper

With it being so strongly inspired by indie tabletop rpgs like Blades in the Dark, it would make sense that Citizen Sleeper has its own tabletop rpg. It’s not actually out yet so I can’t say much about it but it is available for pre-order here.

TTRPG Supplements

Instead of developing their own systems, many designers have created supplements for existed games. Blood Mountain Resort & Spa is a free download for fantasy ttrpgs. Inspired by the Monkey Island series, players explore a pirate themed resort. The NPCs are statted for DURF but the rest of the supplement is built to be system neutral. Lost to the Starlit Reptiles is another adventure for DURF by the same folks that is inspired by adventure games.

In Other Waters: Tidebreak is a supplement for the horror ttrpg Mothership that is set in the In Other Waters universe. The supplement is playable in either as a group or solo and designed to be less stressful than the typical Mothership adventure.

Let me know if I’ve left anything out. I would love to know what else exists out there. If you enjoyed this article you can play any of my tabletop rpgs inspired by adventure games like Accomplice, my Gabriel Knight inspired solo game, Alone in Cyberspace, inspired by Hypnospace Outlaw, Friendship Quest, my two-player map drawing game, and ERROR, a play out loud text adventure. The first two games are paid but just take a free community copy if you’re interested.

Indie Game Roundup (Dec. 1, 2023)

December 1, 2023 ~ mpklamerus ~ Leave a comment

Screenshot from Markus Ritter of two women talking in a hospital and dialog options below for a report about a murdered couple

It’s the first of December and this year is coming to an end. Hope it’s been going well for you all. There was some really exciting stuff this week.

Not indie game related, unless you count indie game soundtracks, but today is Bandcamp Friday so consider buying some music. Spotify really doesn’t pay anything and buying music (or at least use a streaming service that pays better royalties) is the only way they can really keep doing this for a living.

Going to the Store for Baby Formula at 6AM on Black Friday
Going to the Store for Baby Formula at 6AM on Black Friday is a good and very relatable Bitsy game for any parent.

The Lawnmower Man
In the early 90s it felt like the film adaptation of The Lawnmower Man had a video game on every single platform so it makes me happy that there is now one for PICO-8.

Annie May – Pixcrew
Rose has made a ton of great character creators and the newest one is worth your time too.

Markus Ritter – Ghosts of the Past
Markus Ritter – Ghosts of the Past is a FMV point-and-click adventure game described by the developers on the Steam page as “queer cheesy trash” and that is a 100% accurate description. Fortunately I am a goblin for FMV trash, especially ones inspired by Gabriel Knight 2, so this is absolutely for me. That said, it is EXTREMELY cheesy and might be too much for some people, so I would maybe recommend playing the free prequel game first to see if it’s your thing.

Madvent Calendar 4 – End of the Line
Since it’s December, we also have a new Madvent calendar from the HauntedPS1 community. Every year they release a free anthology of small horror games with a Playstation 1 aesthetic, with a new one unlocked each day. They’re really nice collections and it’s impressive that they manage to put together one of these every year and for free.

Indie Game Roundup (Nov. 17, 2023)

November 17, 2023October 12, 2024 ~ mpklamerus ~ Leave a comment

This week was bananas so this is a rushed collection of stuff in indie games that I really liked. This week it’s mostly focused on adventure games, since that’s a genre I’m really into in general, but also just a lot of stuff happened this week.

screenshot from The Will of Arthur Flabbington where a man is telling a psychic "and that's why I need to contact my uncle." — Screenshot from The Will of Arthur Flabbington

The Will of Arthur Flabbington is now out! This is a point-and-click adventure that originally started as a jam game for the AdventureX jam. It got a Kickstarter funded to help turn it into a full game with voice acting and from the little I played of it, seems really neat!

Lake got some Christmas DLC. I really enjoyed playing Lake two years ago and found it was exactly what I needed during a very stressful time in my life. I know a Christmas themed DLC is not going to be for everyone but I’m looking forward to revisiting the game and I think I even have some nostalgia for holiday themed games and DLC just because of the time I spent playing stuff like Jazz Jackrabbit Holiday Hare and Xmas Lemmings.

DOS Game Club just released an episode where they interview the nice folks over at Hadrosaurus Software. I really enjoyed their game The Aching and it’s nice seeing people making new DOS games getting some coverage.

This one is much more local, but the University of Michigan and Eastern Michigan University are doing a showcase of their student games on December 6 at 7pm in Ann Arbor. There’s always an incredible batch of games that come from both schools every semester so if you’re local, consider checking it out!

Excuse Me Sir is a demo for an upcoming horror game made by a bunch of cool folks. I really liked the 90s adventure game vibes it has and it’s really short and not frustrating at all, which was surprising since it’s very heavy on ways to die.

screenshot from Excuse Me Sir showing a surprised woman and her saying "Hey, who are you?" with the response options being "Can I use your phone?" and "Have you seen my brother? (Show flyer)"

Aura has a very good post on Cohost about all the games she enjoyed during the IGF judging process.

Inspector Waffles Early Days is a game on Kickstarter looking for funding to develop a physical version of a Game Boy game. I never played the original game, a point-and-click adventure for the PC, but I heard it’s very good and liked the Playdate game the developer made, which also got a physical release. I just think it’s fun seeing the Game Boy have a revival because of GB Studio and Analogue.

Midnight Margo is a new adventure game by some of the folks that worked on Whispers of a Machine, a point-and-click adventure that I really enjoyed. From the reactions I saw, the art style seems to be very divisive but I think it’s really neat. The game also seems to have some RPG elements and I think that will be a nice way to make the game stand out from others in the genre.

screenshot of Midnight Margo of a woman standing in a bar with other people — Screenshot from Midnight Margo

A demo was just released for Heir of the Dog. I believe it was originally a jam game or freeware? Anyway, I really liked the dev’s previous game Lucy Dreaming and it’s nice to see that we’ll be getting more games from them.

The Blathering Keep looks like a really fun free game by Danielle Riendeau. I haven’t played it yet but the art is really cute. I like the concept of a dungeon crawler where you’re attacked by corporate jargon, and I really like her writing elsewhere so I bet it’s a very funny game.

swanchime has a new Interactive Fiction game that looks beautiful. I haven’t played it yet but they’ve made a lot of fantastic games and zines so I’ll have to set aside some time for this one too.

Finally, earlier this week it was announced that Uppercut Crit will be going on hiatus. I was really sad to hear this because I thought it was a great place for games crit and lots of great indie game coverage. It sounds like the podcast Indie Mixtape will still be going on so be sure to follow that and consider supporting other outlets of independent games crit like No Escape, Kritiqal, Into the Spine, and all the other cool places I have listed in my Cool Site Zone.

My Favorite Adventure Game Streamers

November 13, 2023 ~ mpklamerus ~ 3 Comments

I don’t watch streamers too often but when I do, it’s usually of adventure games. It’s my favorite genre of game and I like watching people figure out puzzles or talk about why one doesn’t work when they come across a bad one. Luckily there’s a ton of great folks streaming adventure games and this list only covers a very small amount of them. Generally I find all these streamers to be relaxing and I’m not into streams where people are yelling a lot.

Emmxyzzy – Streamer from Australia that plays MS-DOS games, which includes a lot of adventure games. They translated the first commercial Czech MS-DOS game to English, The Secret of Donkey Island.

sonneveld – Another streamer from Australia that plays a variety of adventure games, with a focus on older games. They also helped translate The Secret of Donkey Island into English.

Secret of Donkey Island screenshot showing someone looking like Guybrush Threepwood standing on some rocks

SummerB76 – Very chill streamer with a focus on adventure games but there’s also plenty of other fun streams like the ones for wine making simulator Hundred Days with her brother who makes wine in real life. Also a speedrunner of the new Colossal Cave remake by Ken and Roberta Williams.

pixel_turkey – Streamer focused on retro games, which includes a lot of adventure games. Also a great pixel artist

The Genesis Temple – Games historian that streams a ton of obscure games as well as games in other languages and live translating them as they are played.

robotspacer – Streams a variety of adventure games and has also been building an adventure game for the Macintosh using World Builder

Julia Minamata – Developer of The Crimson Diamond that streams development of the game every Tuesday night along with playing some retro games.

LotusLovesLotus – Indie game streamer that includes a lot of new adventure games and single player story-driven games.

PS_Garak – Every Tuesday night Ben, Sarah, and Grayson do a comedy stream where they play adventure games (both new and old) and go on fun tangents.

BogusMeatFactory – Variety streamer that includes playing a lot of adventure games and text adventures.

decafjedi – Streams a variety of games but plays retro adventure games every Wednesday night. Also created Stair Quest and the first Space Quest fan site.

The Obscuritory – Video Game History Foundation member and owner of The Obscuritory website Phil Salvador streams incredibly obscure games on Wednesday nights.

Grundislav – Francisco González, the developer of the Ben Jordan series, A Golden Wake, Shardlight, and Lamplight City has been streaming development of his newest game Rosewater!

ivydupler – Video game voice actress for games like Whispers of a Machine and Unavowed streams a variety of games, with a focus on adventure games and the Nancy Drew series.

Conversations with Curtis – The lead actor of the FMV game Phantasmagoria 2 started doing interviews with the cast of the game at the beginning of the pandemic, which has evolved into doing streams of the game he was in as well as other adventure games, both old and new. Highlights include his streams with the lead actress of Phantasmagoria 1 and co-host Daniel doing a ton of interviews with classic adventure game developers. It’s also just been fun watching someone who is new to games developing opinions on the genre and correct takes like new adventure games being just as good, if not better, than classic adventure games.

Big Myst Online Update Available Now

November 10, 2023 ~ mpklamerus ~ 2 Comments

EDIT: Turns out the update is actually live now

It looks like a massive update is coming to Myst Online tomorrow.

screenshot from Cyan's facebook saying

Tomorrow is URU's 20th anniversary! Can you believe it?! Neither can we.
Just in time for the celebration is the latest fan update to MOULa (Myst Online re-imagined as an MMO set in the vast, explorable universe of Myst)!
It includes a new D'ni area, new audio for the intro with a new voice-over by Rand Miller, updates to six fan ages, and more surprises! Visit https://mystonline.com/ to learn more.

If you thought this MMO was dead, or never even knew about it, I don’t blame you. Uru came out in 2003 and while it did alright critically, it was a big commercial flop and nearly killed Cyan. The online portion of the game was quickly shut down and was unplayable until Gametap paid to revive the game and have Cyan create new content for it. Eventually this ended too and Myst Online was shutdown again until Cyan brought it back again for free on their own servers, which are kept up by donations. It was essentially the same game as the one at the end of Gametap’s run, static and no new content, until a few years ago when Cyan started adding fan content. While it will never be a massively popular game, it does receive regular updates now and seems to be getting a big one tomorrow. I’m not sure if this will include the Descent Expansion update that has been in development for a long time, which uses content from Myst 5.

If you’re a Myst fan but have never played Myst Online, give it a shot! It’s a bit clunky and dated, but I think it still looks nice for a game from 2003 and there hasn’t really been anything like it since then. Plus you can play it entirely for free here.

Gobliins 6 Officially Announced

November 8, 2023 ~ mpklamerus ~ 2 Comments

Gobliins 6 has been officially announced through this Facebook post, with it looking like a crowdfunding campaign planned for the beginning of next year. An extremely brief preview of it was shown in an interview a few months ago and seems to feature the two characters from Gobliins 2, explaining why there’s only two I’s in the title this time.

This is very exciting news for me since I thought Gobliiins 5 was a very nice revival and the thought of getting a new Gobliiins game every other year seems very nice.