Aran’s Bike Trip is an interactive travelogue where you follow along on a bike trip through the Dutch countryside through a series of 360º photos. The game says it’s a short bike trip but it’s about someone riding their bike for two days, which doesn’t feel short to me. This is a game by Sokpop Collective, a small group that has been making a variety of short games for years, but this one is a pretty big stylistic departure from their other games. I think it would be a stretch to say the game has FMV since all you do is look at the panoramic photos of the Dutch countryside while looking at notes from the designer and listening to calming music, but it’s very nice. Sometimes a game can just be an excuse to look at photos of beautiful places in the world. It even inspired me to make a really tiny game about walking on a trail near my home.
Aran’s Bike Trip is available on Steam and Itch.io.
Developer: Taylor McCue Publisher: Taylor McCue Year: 2022 Genre: Visual Novel System: Game Boy
He Fucked the Girl Out of Me is a short Game Boy visual novel created in GB Studio about the developer’s experiences being a transgender sex worker and the trauma that came from doing that work. The player advances the story by walking around different scenes and talking to various characters and is about 40 minutes long.
He Fucked the Girl Out of Me was one of my favorite games of 2022 for many reasons. It’s incredible to see someone put out a semi-autobiographical story like this where where they are so vulnerable. The game uses the limitations of the Game Boy so well and I think the artwork in this game is fantastic. Another thing I loved about it was that it was for a platform created by Nintendo. Even today, Nintendo is known as a company that does not approve of adult queer content on their platforms and I loved seeing someone use one of their consoles to tell a personal story. It’s inspiring seeing retro consoles and computers being used to create experimental games and tell stories that we didn’t see very often in games thirty years ago, when queer games like Caper in the Castro and GayBlade were a rarity.
Unfortunately this is one of the games that has been hit by the Itch.io deindexings, making it harder to find. I know the developer has put it on the Internet Archive and encouraged other people to host downloads of it, but it’s still heartbreaking that queer stories like this are under attack because of pressure by Mastercard and Visa. I hope that one day people will be able to create their art without capitalism trying to stamp it out.
Five Years Old Memories is a short interactive experience where you listen to people in Japan talk about memories they have from when they were about five years old and interacting with animations that play while they talk. It’s very short and only takes about 20 minutes to play through. I’ve played it a few times now, with my most recent playthrough happening because I thought it would be fun to revisit and also get all the achivements, which rewarded me by stumbling upon an element or two that I wouldn’t have seen otherwise. The art is fantastic and it’s really cute seeing this storybook-like pictures animating as you listen to their stories. There’s not a whole lot to say about this one other than I really like it and think it’s worth checking out if this sounds appealing to you since it’s only $3.
Five Years Old Memories is available on Steam, Itch.io, and iOS.
Developer: Calligram Studio Publisher: Calligram Studio Year: 2024 Genre: Adventure
Phoenix Springs is a neo-noir point-and-click adventure game where you play as a woman in search of your missing estranged brother. I knew very little about this game going into it, other than it being developed over a long period of time, but picked it up based on really liking the art and it ended up being one of my favorite adventure games from 2024. It’s hard to explain more about the story, partially to avoid spoilers but also because it’s a very surreal story told in a non-traditional way, but I actually liked that a lot. I was talking about the game on Mastodon and Andrew Plotkin (who liked the game) described the game as “Philip K. Dick took the good acid,” which I think is a good description of the game’s story. Some people on Steam were critical of not full understanding the story but I liked that.
Since the game is a detective story, the game has a really interesting mechanic where you are basically using ideas and memories as inventory items. I loved that you’re using these “items” in a way that you would like an inventory item. There’s a lot of interesting side investigations as well that don’t advance the main plot but do reveal more about the world. There’s also a lot of red herring thoughts that aren’t used and get crossed out once you’re out of an area that is no longer relevant.
If I do have any criticisms, I do thing the last section of the game is too big and aimless. I had felt like I was doing the adventure game thing where I just try every item on everything and repeating that a bit. It was a little frustrating since the rest of the game moves as a pretty fast pace. The game even includes a builtiin walkthrough which I think is nice.
I think the voice acting also deserves a shoutout. It’s all narrated by the same woman and it has kind of a more deadpan or monotone delivery, but it works really well. Even the dialog from other characters is voice acted from the viewpoint of the main character.
I just think it’s a really solid mystery and think it’s worth a look if you want an adventure game that is willing to experiment a bit more.
Morph Girl is an FMV game inspired by 90/00’s Japanese horror movies such as Ringu. You play as Elana, a widow who is unable to move on following the loss of her wife to cancer one year ago. A supernatural being resembling her wife begins to force itself into her daily life and the decisions you make during the game determine if she embraces or rejects the creature. It’s the first game by Autumn Knight, who later worked on D’Avekki’s game Dark Nights with Poe and Monroe as an editor and game tester.
It maybe lacks the production values that a FMV game by a larger studio would have but it’s an interesting game and I enjoyed the writing. Sadly it’s rare for queer relationships to be depicted in FMV games so it was nice to see a game entirely about one. I was confused by how some of the choices led to various endings. I did get a little frustrated by the inability to skip previously seen scenes too, especially in a game that needs multiple playthroughs to see all the endings, but I appreciated that the playthroughs were only 30 minutes long so it was easy to see it all and repeat scenes weren’t a big deal. Despite my criticisms, I had a good time with the game and appreciate that it explores themes that are unfortunately rarely seen in adventure games.
I don’t know what happened but it feels like there were a million games this weekend, so apologies for the massive and kinda messy list. I hope you all are doing well. Blaugust has been pretty fun so far and it’s been nice seeing so many posts from other people I follow. If you’ve got a blog, consider joining in and posting a bunch!
Video Games
A new Indiepocalypse (Itch.io) has been released this month, featuring a nice set of video games and ttrpgs.
Wildwood Down (Steam) is an adventure game where you must solve a murder mystery at a boardwalk in New Jersey. The game features a protagonist with Down Syndrome modeled after and voiced by the designer’s childhood friend and has been receiving positive reviews from what I can see, which I think is really neat. There’s a demo available too.
I haven’t played anything submitted to the GMTK jam but it has almost 10,000 games so I’m sure there’s a few good ones in there.
Strange Jigsaws (Steam) is what you expect it to be, a collection of strange jigsaw puzzles. But I was a big fan of their previous game, the very good and free 20 Small Mazes.
This Downpour game touring the games exhibit at a local library is great! More games folks should do events at their library.
FALLSTRUKTUR (Steam/Itch.io) is a free game where you must descend down a giant structure in a first person view without falling too far. Sometimes you’re just awful at a game but can appreciate that it’s well made.
Valerie Paris has a very nice asset pack and tutorial on Itch for doing your own Myst-style adventure game.
Zentera (Itch.io) was already out but the assets and engine were just released for people to use on their own games.
Wholesome Games is doing a whole thing on Steam, don’t @ me about discourse, and it seems like some games releases have happened during it too? Is This Seat Taken? is a puzzle game about seating people at tables and booths. And Tall Trails is a chill exploration game.
I don’t think? Tiny Bookshop (Steam) is connected to that one, but I am a book nerd so this has been one I’ve been watching for a while. It has a demo!
I don’t think Sands of Home (Steam) is either but it’s heavily marketed to the chill, cozy games crowd as well. It is an isometric puzzle game and features a demo.
1000 Deaths (Steam) looks like a very trippy 3D platformer and there’s a demo available to try. Something about it reminds me of early 00s console games.
I don’t know anything about PAGER (Steam) but it’s an adventure game with a nice 1-bit aesthetic so it’s going in the post. Someone let me know how it is!
I haven’t heard anything about Prometheum (Itch.io) either but it’s published by Thalamus so it’s probably a good arcade game where you blow things up. I was also excited to see that Ste Pickford did some art for the game.
Desktop Forest (Steam) is just a really chill time on your desktop and it’s $1. There’s a bunch of options so you can adjust it to the scenery you like and then you just let it run and listen to the nature sounds.
Azaran: The Demon Bottle (Steam) is a short game inspired by the first Zelda game.
TTRPGs
Dragon Reactor (Backerkit) is described as a “mythopoetic mech tragedy game about conflict on a grand scale.” It’s for 2+ players, with one as a GM, has a demo, and I think it’s worth a look. I’m a huge fan of Dinoberry Press and it’s always nice to see them working on another game.
Developer: Christina Stone-Bush Year: 2019 Genre: Solo TTRPG
THIRST and HUNGER are two tabletop rpgs created back in 2019 for a game jam where the rules must fit on a business card. Both games are erotic solo ttrpgs about a vampire biting a human, but each game is played from a different perspective. The games are played with a deck of cards and something to write your notes with. You answer some prompts at the beginning, and each card that is drawn is another prompt to describe what is happening or how you are feeling. The game ends in a way similar to blackjack, you must keep drawing cards if your total is under 14, if it is over that then you may stop. If it over 21 then the game automatically ends. The two ranges where the game ends also have different prompts. Both games are very short and should only take a few minutes to play, but can be replayed many times. The layout of the games is great, with everything cleanly organized to fit on a business card without feeling cramped. The rules are very concise due to the business card limitation, which makes it very easy to pick up. As everyone knows, vampires are hot and this game succeeds in its goal. In addition to the games being effective at being erotic, I just think it’s mechanically interesting to use the Blackjack limitation of 21 for a ttrpg. It inspired me for my game Navigator, so it’s also very important to my own creativity as well.
While they have been delisted on Itch, THIRST and HUNGER are still available for download on Itch.io
Since I skipped doing this last week, this is going to be an entry that is both huge and also missing a lot of stuff so apologies in advance for that. I’m probably not going to talk about a lot of bigger things like the new Ninja Gaidan because I don’t even know if those things qualify, but feel free to reply with whatever things you’re excited about. If you have time, help fight against the delistings of games by calling in to payment processors. You can also play this Game Boy game on Itch for more information.
TheVideo Games
The Chambers Beneath is now available! I think I mentioned this one in a previous blog update but I’ll mention it here too. It’s a new roguelike for DOS that I got to beta test and I think it’s very good. The game is available as Pay-What-You-Want on Itch.io and the developer’s site. I’m not good at it (I’m always awful at roguelikes) but it was very easy for me to pick up and get going in this one.
INSERT/DATE/HERE is a short browser game about the genocide in Gaza on Itch.io and the amount of deaths that have happened so far.
Draw a Fish is a browser game where you draw a fish, see how accurate of a fish it is, and then have it swim with other fish people have drawn.
No Signal (Itch.io/Steam) is a first person adventure game about exploring an abandoned space station and learning about what happened to the crew.
Dead Take is a new horror adventure game on Steam. I know nothing about it other than it has FMV so it automatically goes in this post.
Mishina (Steam) is a digging game by the folks that made Judero and it’s filled with tons of great stop-motion animation.
Heartworm (Steam) is a horror game inspired by classic games like Resident Evil and Silent Hill with optional tank controls.
Sunken Stones (Steam) is a turn based puzzle-strategy game about pirates and cursed treasure. If you want to try the game out first, there’s a demo on Itch.io.
The Manhole from Memory (Glorious Trainwrecks link) is an attempt to recreate the classic Cyan game The Manhole entirely from memory inside of Decker.
Co-op Kaiju Horror Cooking (Steam) is the newest game by Strange Scaffold, folks I’m always excited to see new games by. It’s a co-op horror game you are medieval monks and must feed giant monsters, so I guess it’s what it says on the tin, as British people would say. I refuse to call this friendslop because slop is supposed to have chunks of things in it.
Time Flies (Steam) is an adventure game where you have a limited amount of time as a fly to do a variety of goals and features some great looking 1-bit art.
TheTabletop RPGs
Playlist Dungeon is a dungeon crawling ttrpg that is designed to be quick to pick up and play for 1-4 adventurers and one DJ, with the character creation process being based on playing songs. It’s available as Pay-What-You-Want on Itch.io
Underneath (Itch.io) is a solo cave mapping game of the unexpected things you encounter underground using a map, journal, and dice. Just got this one from backing the kickstarter and I’m so excited to play it.
Black Hole Havoc is a puzzle arcade game created for Playdate’s Season 2. Black holes have opened up in the sky and it is up to you to close them by creating black holes of equal size and shooting them into the holes to close them. You do this across a series of 80 levels, with animated cutscenes regularly appearing between levels.
The core gameplay loop of creating black holes and shooting them is great. The crank is used very well to grow and shrink the size of the black holes before you shoot them. There’s a combo system you can take advantage of for more points if you shoot faster, which I didn’t really use too much, but I’m glad it was there. The game introduces so many variations in the levels as you play so the game never felt like it got tiring for me. I saw one or too criticisms, probably on backloggd, that each mechanic wasn’t used more but I loved that. I feel like a lot of games overuse a new mechanic once it’s introduced and this game often only sticks with them for a few levels or at least rotates through it. The game ends with a boss level, which I didn’t really care for but it’s pretty quick and when 79/80 levels in a game are good, I can’t really complain. I know games are often tempted to add a big finale like that but it often doesn’t work for me. There’s an arcade mode too. It’s fine! It’s what it says it is but I felt very satisfied after playing through all the levels once.
I’m always surprised at how good games can sound and look on the Playdate and I was really impressed by the animation in this game. The animation style reminded me a lot of flash cartoons from the 00’s. In fact, my only real complaint about this game is that it feels like internet humor from the late 00s in how the characters talk. I didn’t really care for it and felt dated with the jokes about people posting too much on social media or taking selfies, but it was harmless and unlike the actual humor from that era, it wasn’t obnoxious or trying to be edgy.
It was nice to see Season 2 end on a high note. I wasn’t familiar with these devs at all so this game was a very pleasant surprise.
Glypha: Vintage is a remake of the 80’s Macintosh arcade game of the same name. It’s a variant of Joust, which happens to be my favorite arcade game, where you fly around on a giant bird and use your lance to destroy enemies by bumping into them while you are at a higher height than them. As far as Joust variants go, I think it’s one of the better ones, but to be fair there’s not really that many Joust clones I can think of. It’s mostly the same game, but with everything modified to have more of an Egyptian theme. The thing that stands out to me is how fast it moves compared to Joust. Everyone moves faster and less floatier, so you have to hit the flap button quite a bit more to stair in the air and enemies can turn around much faster. The egg items hatch a lot faster too. This all makes the game a lot more difficult than the original but to compensate, Glypha is much more generous with the extra lives you get from accumulating points. It took a few minutes to get used to but once I did, I thought it had felt very good.
The original Macintosh era was all a bit before my time. By the time I was in elementary school, our classrooms all had Macs that had color, so I don’t have any nostalgia for this era of computers. That doesn’t mean I don’t love the art in black and white Mac games though. It’s essentially the same art as the original Glypha game but obviously at a much higher resolution and a lot smoother. I’m guessing there’s some additional animations as well but I’m not familiar enough with the original game to know. I think it looks great.
I never played the earlier Glypha games but my understanding is that they eventually got color and probably other changes as well. I think they were all developed by John Calhoun, who is also know for his paper airplane arcade game Glider, also for the Macintosh. He eventually worked for Apple for a long time before retiring and I think this most recent version of Glypha was developed either right before retirement or right after. If you want to see what else he’s up to, I highly recommend adding his blog to your RSS feed reader.
Anyway, this is probably one of the best versions of Joust that you can actually buy for the PC. As far as I know, the original arcade version of Joust isn’t for sale anywhere and yes, obviously you can always just emulate the game, but it’s nice having this version as well with its ideas on how Joust should play and I’m not usually an achievements person but they’re fun in an arcade game like this.
