Developer: Jason Godbey Publisher: Jason Godbey Year: 2019 Genre: Adventure Game
Discolored is a 2019 first person adventure game created by Jason Godbey that I recently picked up because I saw the recently released sequel pop up on a few sites and was in the mood for a Myst-like game. There isn’t much of a plot, you are told that a diner in the middle of the desert has lost all color and you are sent to investigate. This is essentially all the plot you come across in the game and just exists to get you to the puzzles as soon as possible. Fortunately the puzzling in this is very good. The game starts off with having no colors in the world, but through various poking and prodding, you add some to the world and they allow you to interact with more objects in the game. It’s a nice way to keep you from feeling overwhelmed when you are first introduced to the world but it also keeps the small environment interesting to look at as you keep seeing it in new ways as additional colors are added. The game also features some clever puzzles using perspective.
The game has two modes for controls, free-roam and point-and-click. Usually the point-and-click mode in first-person adventure games feels like an afterthought but I thought it felt very good to control and actually used it quite a bit since I have been having some wrist pain lately and needed this control scheme to play it.
It’s a short game. I completed it in two nights but each session was very short and the puzzles made me think but I was never stuck for very long or frustrated. The game even has a built-in hint system if you want help with a puzzle. I said at the beginning of the review that I was in the mood for a Myst-like but it really wasn’t a Myst-like game at all. This isn’t the developer’s fault as they never claimed it’s like Myst, but I will explain what makes a game a Myst-like anyway since this is my website. A Myst-inspired game to me actually has quite a lot of storytelling being done through the environment and this storytelling is tightly integrated with the puzzles in the world, where this game just felt like an excuse to have a bunch of good puzzles related to color and perspective. Nothing wrong with that at all and it’s just not what I expected going in due to my assumptions with first person adventure games.
I really enjoyed my time with this game and I’m looking forward to playing Jason’s other games. I already own The Search from a charity bundle on Itch.io and Discolored 2 looks to be much more ambitious and seems to have more of a story and adds more characters.
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.
Developer: Dave Gilbert Publisher: Dave Gilbert Year: 2001 Genre: Adventure Game
Yeah that’s right, I’m still playing games in the Reality-on-the-Norm series, a collaborative universe created by the Adventure Game Studio community in 2001. The ninth game in the series is The Repossessor. You play the role of Death, who has come to Reality to reclaim the soul of Michael Gower, the zombie that your character reanimated in the first game and is now running for mayor of the town. The version I played was downloaded from the RON site and I didn’t realize until I had completed it that it was actually a remastered or remade version of the game, explaining why there was a huge graphical leap from the previous game and could now run in ScummVM, making it the easiest game to get running so far.
The most interesting thing about this entry is that it’s by Dave Gilbert, founder of Wadjet Eye Games. I had made a post about the game and he confirmed that it was his first game and built in a weekend. I have to say, it’s an incredibly impressive first game. I know some of that is coming from the game being a remastered version that looks nicer, but even from a design perspective I think it’s the best game so far. The remade version even some nice little touches like an instrumental version of Don’t Fear the Reaper playing in a room or two. Like previous RON games, it’s a little tricky to recommend specific games because they all build on previous ones, but I think you could manage to jump into this one since all you need to know is that there’s a zombie running for mayor in a town. Playing through this series has been a delight and continues to improve with each game as the community figures out how to make adventure games and use AGS.
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.
I mentioned a few times that I helped organize a games anthology for the district library (anthology link on the library’s site here but I prefer you play the updated version of my game here) and even made a point-and-click adventure game for it, but I don’t actually think I actually did a post about it or why it happened? So for the sake of incredibly specific Michigan game dev history, here’s the deal with all that.
Back on my birthday last year, in August, I got an email from the Ann Arbor District Library saying that they were interested in commissioning a video game or anthology for the city’s bicentennial celebration. The Ann Arbor District Library had been doing a series of commissioned works such as music, documentaries, interviews, writing, and other works to celebrate the city. They had proposed doing a small anthology of games, 3 in total, about a historical figure in the city named Dr. Alvin Wood Chase. He was basically the city’s version of Dr. Oz in the late 1800s and sold recipes for remedies to ailments that didn’t work and found some success doing so. The printing house he established is still standing today. You can read more about him at the link at the top. Each game would be about a different stage of his life and by a different developer. As an aside, I’m not actually the first person to make a game for the Ann Arbor District Library, that would be the text adventure games that Christopher Becker made for an Interactive Fiction program at the library.
Dr. Chase’s First Adventure, by me
Originally I was just an organizer because I didn’t think I would be able to create a game since my family just had a baby, but then I got FOMO and asked if I could make a backup game. This got approved and with everyone picking a different era, development commenced. We had about two months to make our games, with each one having the goal of about 10-15 minutes of gameplay. Unfortunately one person had to drop out due to medical issues, but they’re ok now. It was a challenge for me since it was my first game in Adventure Game Studio, but I actually got it done. The other two games are great, one is a puzzle game about running a printing press and the other is an adventure game made in the Game Boy about the end of his life.
Dr. Chase’s Mean Steam Machine by Flyover Games
The games and anthology page were published on December 30th, right before the end of the year. I am so proud of this project, maybe even more than the Locally Sourced Anthology that I helped with and came out during the summer. Not because I think one is better than the other, but I got to finally check off making a game in AGS, a goal of mine for an incredibly long time. It was a delight to make a game for the Ann Arbor District Library, a place I love visiting. Most importantly, I got to show the game to my kids and one of them immediately found a few bugs that no other tester did, so I got to fix those bugs and add her in the credits as a tester. For whatever reason she wants to grow up and be a video game QA person so it was fun to be able to give her her first video game credit.
My playthrough of Reality-On-The-Norm continues with the 8th game in the series. It was nice to play two entries in a row without having to fuss too much with getting them to work. This one has you playing as Elandra, who has appeared in some of the previous games, and you must help an amateur rocket builder. On average the series has been improving in the quality of the art and gameplay design. This one even features a really nice location select screen.
The game’s location select screen
I think the writing is the best in the series so far too! It’s genuinely fun going back to these and seeing topical nerd humor like an unironic All Your Base Are Belong to Us reference. Part of the fun of playing this series is that it’s a time capsule of a specific point in the adventure game community.
Folks, we’ve got an All Your Base reference
Another way this thing is a time capsule of the community is how many Yahtzee references it has. I posted the following screenshot without any context, because I forgot, and someone thought that there was maybe some in-community fighting happening but no, he had helped with the art in this game and someone in the team threw this reference in there as a fun joke. Maybe there was drama at some later point but it certainly wasn’t happening with this game.
I mentioned in a previous review that a dev saw my RON posting on Bluesky and this was that game. It was entirely positive, since I did have a good time playing this game, but I still imagine that it’s probably weird to see someone playing a game you made almost 25 years ago. They even mentioned that it was like doing an excavation on their 19 year old brain when I mentioned that reference. So generally I’ve kept any and all criticism off social media, as light as it may be, because who wants someone throwing rocks at something you made that long ago when you were a kid. The only real criticism I even have with this is just that it had some frustrating pixel hunting but that’s kinda it. I may have played an updated version too? It makes references to picking up items later and a walkthrough I found references picking up an item and going to rooms that I never came across.
A fun thing about it being a shared universe is that we’re starting to get more callbacks and it’s almost a sequel to the first game. I thought the epilogue and animated cutscene in an early AGS game was fun to watch. Even though I just complained about this game having some goofy design stuff, so far I think it’s the best one I’ve played and it’s fun watching a community learn how to make adventure games and referencing stuff that happened in this universe 8 games ago. Overall I had a lot of fun with this short game and would recommend it to others. Just be sure to play previous entries like the first game before doing this one.
Developer: Ben Pettengill Publisher: Ben Pettengill Year: 2001 Genre: Adventure Game
Well this one was weird. My playthrough of the Reality-On-The-Norm shared adventure game universe continues with the 7th game in the series. I skipped ahead a few because I couldn’t get some to work in DosBox, ScummVM, or my Windows 98 VM. Return of Die Vie Ess is about a scientist in Reality who has plans to take over the world. You play as Nameless Law Official and must stop his scheme. Other than the return of Davy Jones as a character you interact with, and walking around the town of Reality, there isn’t that much of a connection to the previous games. Most of the characters are new and the scientist does all of his scheming from a room that you never go in, so it feels very disconnected from your actions. I’m assuming that some of the new characters will pop up in later games.
The game itself is very straightforward and only took about 5 minutes to beat. It’s still pleasant enough, except for the ending making a very odd detour with a random joke from the scientist about a sex worker and Davy Jones having a comment about unprotected sex. They come out of nowhere and it’s unfortunate mark on an otherwise fine game. Other than that, the game is ok enough and I think it’s worth playing if you’re going to take the same odd journey as I have and try to play through this series.
Like I said in other reviews, it’s hard to be too critical because these were games by teenagers and folks in their early 20s in the early 2000s. I cannot even imagine what 14 year old me would have put in a game if I made one at this time, probably jokes that have aged much more poorly than anything in these games, so I can’t judge anyone for a joke in a freeware game from almost 25 years ago and really isn’t as bad as I’m making it out to be.
I’ve been posting about these games as I play them on Bluesky and Mastodon and even with me being completely positive about the games on there, because I am genuinely having a good time playing these including this game, I think it did trip out one or two devs who worked on these when they saw them on Bluesky, since they had worked on them decades ago. I took a screenshot of an All Your Base joke and a dev commented that it’s like I’m doing an excavation of their 19 year old brain. They liked the post so I don’t think they were mad about it. I wasn’t dunking on the game, but it’s still probably a trip to have someone commenting on what you were doing at 19, 24 years later. I don’t know how I would feel about it if I had made games at that age, which is why I’m not really broadcasting these reviews despite enjoying the series, other than the automatic posts my blog does to Mastodon.
Is this probably more thought than what should go into a 5 minute freeware game from 2001? Yeah probably, but I like logging everything I play through on here since other folks aren’t talking about these games. Not that I’m really expecting anyone to talk about something like this on social media, and demanding that people do would probably make me sound like Jim Gaffigan wanting to talk about the movie Heat, but I think someone should since it’s an interesting time for the genre that I don’t see discussed too much. It’s also why I went back and removed the “Review: ” title from all of my review posts. You can still check out the Review category that all of these posts have, but it’s almost more of a log at this point and having it categorized in the post title made it sound too dang formal. But who knows, maybe I’ll sell out and throw it back in when I desire that SEO boost.
Developer: Ben Pettengill Publisher: Ben Pettengill Year: 2001 Genre: Adventure Game
My playthrough of the Reality-on-the-Norm series continues. I tried to get the 2nd game working but wasn’t able to so I gave up and moved ahead to the third game. It doesn’t matter too much since they’re all standalone games that make references to previous games, but that’s it.
This one has you once again playing as teen magician Davy Jones. His magical ring has been stolen by Russian spies and it’s up to you to get it back. There’s not a whole lot to say about this one. It’s not as good as the first one in my opinion but is still alright enough. It’s more immature than the first game and there’s some humor in it that hasn’t aged great, although neither game has aged as poorly as I expected, given that it was made by people in their teens or early 20s in the early 2000’s, so that’s been a nice surprise. It’s hard for me to be that critical of them since it’s such a weird project and people are also figuring out how to use the engine. So far each game has had a different project setup too.
As you can see in the above screenshot, there’s some weird perspective stuff going on in the MS Paint art, but I think that’s actually kind of the charm for me. I really enjoy that the art isn’t polished but also isn’t just trying to emulate The Secret of Monkey Island or King’s Quest. I have a lot of nostalgia for this era of adventure games, where the community decided to make their own games since Lucasarts and Sierra stopped making them, and had to figure out how to do that. Like I said with the first game, it’s hard to recommend specific 15 minute games, especially ones in the middle of a shared universe, but it is fun going through this series if you can get the games to work.
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.
