I could argue that instead of buying a Nintendo Switch 2 game, you could buy all the games here, but these are two very different things and I may as well argue that you should buy $80 worth of books or Doctor Who audio dramas or prosciutto. Do you know how much prosciutto you can get for $80? Not that much if you buy the good stuff! Maybe I’m just bitter that I don’t have a Nintendo Switch 2 and can’t join the rest of you in taste testing the cartridges.
There’s also been a bunch of summer games fests happening this week. I have not followed these at all. Don’t care! I will let other people do the work in figuring out what I should be looking at.
This week’s shoutout is for Graceless Games. I’m a huge fan and think you should pick up some of their games on Itch.io
Anyway, here’s the games. As usual, if you worked on something that you’d like included, just let me know. I miss plenty of stuff.
I think everyone knows Deltrarune is out. It’s not for me but I’m happy for everyone else.
HardAF (Steam) is a Meatboy-like but the entire level is dark and you use the blood from your previous deaths to figure out where the obstacles are at. It’s good stuff. There’s a demo that I think people should check out.
As a child of the 90s that played a lot of multimedia cd-roms made by musicians, I get very excited about musicians making video games. We got two of them this week! Aesop Rock’s Black Hole Superette Experience (Steam) has you listening to his music while exploring a convenience store and The New Flesh (Steam) is a game where you explore a surreal space in a city while listening to upcoming songs by Red Vox. I haven’t played either so I can’t tell you if they’re as good as Peter Gabriel’s Eve, but both are free.
The Lego RPG Jam is a game jam where you write ttrpg systems inspired by your favorite Lego sets.
astoryinpieces keeps making great experimental and adult games for the Game Boy and she has another! Four of a Kind (Itch.io) is a horror anthology featuring 4 short stories.
Gaurodan (dev site) is a shmup inspired by 80s arcade games where you fly around as a dinosaur and blow shit up. It’s free but the dev does take donations. This is an old game but it got an update and it’s new to me
DOMINOID (Itch.io) is a pay-what-you-want puzzle game where you stack dominids and create combos.
Kabuto Park (Steam) looks like a very cute bug catching game and has a demo.
A weirdly specific thing I get excited about is using a yo-yo to fight enemies in video games. Don’t know why, just is. Pipistrello and the Cursed Yoyo (Steam/Switch) is a top-down action game where you get to do that and even has a demo.
Name Change Simulator (Itch.io) is a free visual novel all about getting rid of your deadname.
Anyway, that’s it for this week. Hope you found something nice to play!
Developer: Grundislav Games Publisher: Grundislav Games Year: 2004 (Deluxe version: 2006) Genre: Adventure
I just installed ScummVM on my new MacBook this weekend and have started loading as many games as I could on it. After seeing how many early AGS games I put on there, I thought it would be a fun excuse to revisit some of the games from that era since I have some nostalgia for that time. This includes the first game in the Ben Jordan Paranormal Investigator series. The first game just turned 20 last year, which is also a bit weird to see. I played the Deluxe version, which came out in 2006. I thiiiink it’s the first game by Grundislav Games? You play as a dude named Ben Jordan on your first case as a paranormal investigator and check out a series of murders of park rangers by a creature known as the Skunk-Ape. It’s a horror comedy series, which I don’t think you see too often in video games either.
It still holds up! The puzzles aren’t too difficult but don’t feel like a waste of time either, and it’s only about 60-90 minutes so you can easily do it in one sitting. Some of the puzzles make him seem like more of a sociopath than I remember, but I guess that’s kind of the whole deal with this style of adventure game. Plus it’s a comedy so it works in the game anyway. Obviously the developer would go on to do bigger and better things but I think some of the fun with revisiting these early AGS games is seeing how they got started. Even if they didn’t go on to make commercial games, early AGS games are fun to check out because you get to watch a whole community figure out how to make these after Lucasarts and Sierra collapsed, and the lack of polish in the art and voice acting is really charming to me. That doesn’t mean that I think it’s bad, it’s still lovely stuff and I think it’s worth playing outside of its context, but it’s a different kind of nostalgia than what you would get from revisiting a Lucasarts or Sierra game.
Ben Jordan: Paranormal Investigator Case 1 – In Search of the Skunk-Ape is available for free/pay-what-you-want on Itch.io
I was supposed to write into Quest! Quest! about this but dropped the ball so now it’s a blog post. So first I’ll say that if you enjoy adventure games, you should listen to the very good and funny Quest! Quest! podcast. The topic of co-op adventure games had come up and there’s not a ton, but they exist. This post is also going to ignore the escape room games out there. It seems like there’s a few of them and people like them, but I just know nothing about them because I’m more focused on traditional adventure games. But Escape Academy and Escape Simulator are out there and seem nice. This is also ignoring that really any adventure game can be a co-op game if you just share your screen and work together to solve puzzles.
We Were Here Together
The We Were Here series has you and a partner split up as you walk through a series of puzzles in a location such as an old castle and communicating through walkie-talkies about what you see. The game wants you to communicate through the in-game chat and not a voice chat outside of the game like Discord because of how walkie-talkies work and only one person being able to talk at a time. The first game in the series is free if you want to try it out.
The Last Night of Alexisgradis an asymmetric, two-player interactive fiction where each player takes on the role of a leader of a nation on the last night of a war. It’s built in Twine and the way this one works is that you each play up until a certain point, the game provides you with a code, and the other player inputs the code that you received to see where the game takes you next. I wouldn’t say this one is co-op at all, but it was interesting to see a multiplayer Twine game and I really enjoyed the writing in it.
And of course there can’t be an adventure game article by me without mentioning Myst Online. It’s one of my favorites. It’s still up and completely free too!
The rest of these I haven’t played but hope to some day. If you’re reading this and we know each other, let me know if you want to play one of them.
Tick Tock: A Tale for Twois a 2D point-and-click adventure where you are both trapped in a magical world and must escape. It features cross-platform play and the artwork looks nice.
Operation: Tango is a first person 3D adventure where it looks like you and a friend are doing spy stuff to save the world. A nice thing about this one is that it looks like only one player has to buy the game and the other player can play for free.
Whispers in the West is a point-and-click western murder mystery that supports co-op for 2-4 players. The base game includes a tutorial, mini mystery, and full length one with DLC for additional mysteries. This is another one where only one person has to buy the game and everyone else can play for free.
The Past Within (Steam/Itch.io) is a co-op first-person point-and-click adventure in the Rusty Lake series. Puzzles involve one person being in the past and one in the future and communicating in whatever way they want. I haven’t played it but it looks like they aren’t directly connecting to each other over the internet in-game and just rely on what the other person sees to solve puzzles. Both players need a copy of the game to play but it sounds like both paths are very different.
A Lively Haunt is a horror graphic parser game in the style of early Sierra adventures like King’s Quest and Space Quest where you walk around and type your commands. This one supports two players on the same machine by having two keyboards plugged in, but I imagine that playing through something like Parsec would work too? I learned about this one from WilcoWeb!
I suppose all the games like It Takes Two and A Way Out by Hazelight Studios could count as well. They aren’t my thing but good luck to all game developers I guess.
Shivers 2 and Zork: Grand Inquisitor also shipped with multiplayer. I believe they just allowed a player to connect and use a mouse cursor to point at stuff and type comments to help solve puzzles. The online services for both shut down a long time ago but I think it’s interesting they were attempted. I’m guessing they were pressured to insert online multiplayer into their games since they were the hot new thing, and it feels like a proto version of sharing your screen over Discord. The demo for Quest for Glory 5 also shipped with co-op and it would have been interesting if that made it into the full game. My understanding is that you can still play that one but it’s a massive headache to get working.
Well, that’s all I could think of but I would love to hear other recommendations!
EDIT: Since this post a month ago I’ve discovered some more!
Things have been tough lately and I’ll probably get into that in a later post, but writing about games has been a nice distraction so I will keep plugging away at indie games posts because I think they’re nice and maybe they help you too. If you enjoy these posts, consider commissioning some art from Rose. You could get a vTuber model or a nice little character pop for $30.
Video Games
AriaCoffee (dev site) is a free arcade browser game where you have become a demon girl and must drink coffee to survive in hell.
City of Voices (Steam) is an upcoming Golden Idol-like that just launched a free demo.
Decade (Steam) is an interactive fiction game where you send children back into the past to change the future.
Kerplunk (Itch.io) is a 4-player Pong-like playable for free in the browser, but I think developers will be interested in looking at the Godot source code and tutorial if they are just getting started in the engine.
Mythic Mire (Steam) is the latest game from resnijars. It’s a surreal rpg inspired by 90s console rpgs. I’ve always loved the 90s aesthetic this developer’s games have, whether it’s an arcade or adventure game.
Near-Mage (Steam/GOG) is a 2D point-and-click adventure where you find out you come from a long line of witches and enter a magic school. I already mentioned this one a few days ago about how many adventure games have come out this year but yeah, it’s a wild time to be a fan of the genre.
Nowhere Belonging (Itch.io) is a free 15-minute long browser game about the feeling of not belonging. Great game but please read the content warnings before playing.
PaperKlay (Steam) looks like a really cute 3D platformer where the world looks like it is all crafted from household materials.
Pity This Busy Monster (Steam/Itch.io) is a physics-based narrative game where you carefully deliver donuts.
Poco (Steam) is a free point-and-click adventure where you are the world’s smallest clown and solve puzzles to return to the circus. Thank you Mike for telling me about it!
Project Warlock 2 (Steam/GOG/Epic) is now out of Early Access. It’s a fast-paced FPS inspired by early games in the genre like Wolf3D and Doom. I haven’t played it yet but I loved the first game and this looks like more of that.
Happy new PUNKCAKE Délicieux game day to those who celebrate. This month’s game is a 10 year anniversary edition of their arcade game Serpentes. It’s available on Itch.io and is getting a Steam release later on.
to a T (Steam) is a new adventure game from the creator of Katamari Damacy where everyone is stuck in a T-pose. I always feel a little bit about putting Annapurna stuff in here but whatever. It’s an adventure game so I’m excited about it.
Where’s That Clown?! (Steam) is a free arcade game where you are a clown keeping kids entertained at a party.
Windowpane (Itch.io) is a free, new tool for creating sequential art by Bagenzo. Maybe YOU can create the next great multimedia project that I will never shut up about.
Without a Dawn (Steam) is a horror visual novel with some really cool ASCII art.
Wizard Garden (dev site) is a free platformer in a bookmarklet by the creator of Bitsy.
Playdate
Fineliner (Itch.io) is a daily drawing game available for Pay-What-You-Want
Playdate Season 2 (dev site) has launched. Every week you get two new games.
TTRPGs
Liberate Property (Itch.io) is a free supplement to introduce liberation into your ttrpg of choice.
Infinite Seas Under the Same Stars (Itch.io) is a pay-what-you-want collaborative storytelling game for 2-4 players about souls fatefully linked over multiple realities and lifetimes.
Crowdfunding
UrbXWarriors (Kickstarter) is a new game for Spectrum Next and PC by Tony Warriner (Broken Sword, Beneath a Steel Sky) and Stoo Cambridge (Cannon Fodder, Sensible World of Soccer). It’s a top-down action game and has a demo on Itch.io
That’s it for this week! This one was a little half-assed because of real life and it just being such a massive list of games. It’s only been a week since the last one! How are there so many games? I always appreciate comments. Let me know if there’s anything you’ve played lately that I’ve left out or you’ve just really enjoyed.
If you’ve been following my indie game roundups, you’ll know that I’ve been in shock at how many adventure games have been coming out lately. I’ve never been an “adventure games are dead person” but even as someone that’s a bit touchy about that subject, I feel more comfortable lately saying it’s a great time to be a fan of the genre. If you like this post, both Adventure Game Hotspot and Adventure Gamers (EDIT: Just kidding, as of 6-13-2025 AdventureGamers is now a gambling site!) do a much better job of covering new adventure games than I do and you should add them to your RSS feed reader. You can even check out the calendar on Adventure Game Hotspot for more games released this year. You may also like ChoiceBeat for Interactive Fiction and Visual Novel coverage.
I also think Fireflower Games deserves a shoutout. 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).
Anyway, here have been some of the ones I’ve come across this year. Some of the descriptions will be recycled from previous roundups (reusable content baby!) just because this list is massive and is already taking a long time. It’s also not even counting all the great interactive fiction games. Please leave comments with other games that you’re excited about because there’s definitely a lot I’ve left out. I was going to also include upcoming adventure games and others that have entered Early Access, but this post is already too big so I’m splitting that into a separate post along with one featuring adventure games I’ve enjoyed in the past few years before 2025.
Amerzone (Steam) got a remake and it looks great. I was a fan of the original and from looking at the Steam review, it looks like the remake does the game justice.
Asterism (Steam) is an interactive concept album by Claire Morwood, filled with lovely music, but the highlight for me is this stop-motion art. Everyone probably knows by now that if a game has stop-motion art I’m required to put it in here. Look at it! Incredible. It also has a demo.
After being in development for over a decade, horror point-and-click adventure ASYLUM (Steam) is now available. I’m 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.
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.”
Do I even need to post about Blue Prince? I think everyone knows about it at this point. I’m not sure if a roguelike adventure game is for me personally but it sounds great and even the developers of Myst are very into it, so consider checking it out. It’s fun seeing a roguelike adventure game being such a massive hit vtoo.
I fully support people making adventure games with big heads like in the original Maniac Mansion, so THE BRiLLiANT COUP (Steam) is a game that got my attention.
My understanding of the new Carmen Sandiego (Steam) is that it actually does a pretty good job maintaining the spirit of the original games even with it having 3D platforming elements.
Citizen Sleeper 2 (Steam) is maybe I weird one to include here because some people think of it as a rpg, but it’s Interactive Fiction enough for me to include. Absolutely loved the original and just haven’t gotten around to this one yet. I will someday, hopefully soon, and I’m sure I’ll love it.
despelote (Steam) is a game that I’ve heard a ton of praise for in the lead up to its release. I think it looks fantastic.
Discolored 2 (Steam) is a first-person puzzle adventure game inspired by the Myst series, with a focus on puzzles based around color. I was a fan of the first game and this looks like it builds on that to create a bigger game with characters you interact with.
Duck Detective: The Ghost of Glamping looks like a really cute detective game and the Steam page says it’s only 2-3 hours, which sounds great to me. I guess it’s a standalone sequel to a game that came out last year.
Elroy and the Aliens (Steam) is a new point-and-click adventure where you play as Elroy and Peggie in the search of a long-lost father in an alternate version of the 90s. It looks like a very charming adventure game and there’s even a demo if you want to give it a try. I’m not too familiar with the team other than it has Robert Megone working on it, who has also worked on games like Return to Monkey Island and Thimbleweed Park. A recent video from the Space Quest Historian even has him saying it’s one of the best adventure games he’s played recently.
ENA: Dream BBQ (Steam) is a free first-person adventure game where you explore surreal environments.
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.
Frog Bard (Steam/Itch.io) is a short, poetic experience about finding inspiration in the world around you.
I don’t really know what Ginger (Steam) is but I keep seeing people recommend it and saying how weird it is, so I guess take a look if you like weird adventure games?
Lost Records: Bloom & Rage (Steam) is the newest game by DON’T NOD, creators of the Life is Strange series. I haven’t played it yet but I imagine if you like those games, you’ll also like this. It’s set in the 90s in northern Michigan so it feels targeted directly at me.
I don’t know a whole lot about Many Nights a Whisper (Steam) but it looks like a beautiful adventure game (or at least adjacent to the genre), has quite a few positive reviews, and it’s described as “A short interactive essay on dreams, pressure, and expectations. Take part in an ancient ritual where one shot determines the fate of a generation.” and that sounds interesting to me.
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.” Does that make it a Bad Mojo-like?
Near-Mage (Steam) is the newest game by Stuck in Attic, developers of Gibbous. You discover you are a witch and attend the Transylvanian Institute for Magick.
Neon Hearts City (Steam/Itch.io) is the newest adventure game from Cosmic Void. I’m a fan of Cosmic Void’s previous games and I’m looking forward to digging into this one too. I just don’t know how they manage to put out so many solid adventure games so quickly. I know there’s folks helping like Stephen Don (check out his games too) but man, that’s still a lot of games.
Old Skies (Steam) is the newest game by Wadjet Eye Games. I’m so happy this is out. I got to play a beta and think it’s one of their best, if not best, point-and-click adventures, and replaying the game right now confirms that. It’s a time travel story featuring incredible art by Ben Chandler and great voice acting by a lot of the folks that have acted in previous Wadjet Eye Games adventures.
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.
Poco (Steam) is “a 2D/3D hybrid point-and-click adventure game where you play as Poco, a two-inch tall clown who is banished from a giant walking circus, and left to fend for themselves in the undergrowth of the Below World.” The art in this looks fantastic, it has hundreds of positive reviews, and it’s free!
Promise Mascot Agency
Promise Mascot Agency (dev site) is the newest game by the developers of Paradise Killer. It’s an open-world adventure game/mascot management sim and has been a total delight to play. The soundtrack by Ryo Koike and Alpha Chrome Yayo has been a highlight for me. This one was a little bit of a stretch but if Adventure Game Hotspot says it counts then that’s good enough for me.
The Roottrees are Dead (Steam) is an expanded version of the original hit game created for Global Game Jam 2023.
One of the biggest releases for me this year is the point-and-click adventure Rosewater (Steam), a western adventure by the creator of Lamplight City, and set in that universe but you do not need to play that first (but you should also play that). It’s a fantastic game and man, look at all those rotoscoped animations!
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.
Spider Land
Spider Land (Steam/Itch.io) is a short interactive fiction about a doomsday prepper and is available for free/pay-what-you-want.
Spring Thing is a yearly IF competition that’s always worth a look.
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.
Sub-Verge is a game where you control a group of deep-sea divers and looks incredibly stressful, haha. I think it looks really good though.
The Talos Principle: Reawakened (Steam) is a remake of the first game and adds the DLC and some new stuff with some snazzy new graphics. I’ve been a long time Croteam fan so it’s interesting to me darn it.
the Devil rais’d the storm (Itch.io) is a visual novel/adventure game about locating a radar signal deep in the canyons near your remote outpost. Available for just $2.
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.
I realize I say it just about every week but hoo boy, what a week, and this time I mean it. Doing this post on time for once because tomorrow I’m going to a sleepover at a zoo and I will not give additional context to that. Anyway, instead of streaming Zork from some Microsoft cloud service that doesn’t even work, here are some indie games you can play instead. Or just download some free text adventures from IFDB.
Video Games
The biggest one for me this week is Virtue’s Heaven (Steam/Itch.io). I’ve been waiting a few years for it so I’m happy to see this come out. It’s one of those Metroid-like games but with a very nice Game Boy aesthetic and it’s felt great to play so far. I’ve been really enjoying the combat system and while I hate the term “Juice” to describe parts of games, sigh, it’s got good “juice.” It’s got a demo if you want to give it a try.
Six One Indie did a big showcase yesterday. Maybe you’ll discover a lot of cool, upcoming games through it?
Can a game about the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles be considered indie? I don’t fucking know, I’m just some person with a blog named after a moose. But I like Strange Scaffold a lot so their newest game on Steam looks fun.
It’s been a ridiculous time for point-and-click adventures. I keep saying it every week but it’s because there’s been so many coming out. Kathy Rain 2: Soothsayer is yet another one from a studio I like.
TweetTweetJam is a jam on Itch.io where people make a game in 500 characters or less. This is their 10th one and it’s always fun to see what clever stuff folks are making with such a small constraint.
Decker is a really neat tool for making Hypercard-looking applications, and now there’s a pink template.
I haven’t played the demo for Broken Relic yet but it looks like a very nice upcoming point-and-click adventure game.
s*ssy caption aesthetic II is an interactive collage….essay…zine? by bagenzo about a variety of personal topics. It’s brilliant, go check it out in the browser.
Blungo’s Dungeon Luncheon is a pay-what-you-want dungeon crawler strongly influenced by the NES, not just how it looks, but also the audio and how it controls. The language in it may be a turn off to something but I think it’s a neat little game. Plus I like saying Blungo.
I haven’t played it yet but Overlook Trail looks like a very pretty exploration game and it even has a demo.
Sandy Pug Games is the best and it’s always a treat to see them release a new game. Hellpiercersis described as “a tabletop tactics RPG about post-mythic warfare, mechs powered by ritual and divinity, and the struggle for total, unconditional liberation.” Sometimes people balk at $30 for a PDF but I don’t know, it’s a fucking ton of art in there and tabletop rpgs are games designed to keep a group of 3-6 people entertained for many hours. So $30 for all of that sounds like a great deal to me.
I’ve always wanted to learn how to play Mahjong so maybe this zine will help me out.
Crescent County is a single player, open-world, broom riding game that looks pretty nice. I’m happy to see that it hit its goal so quickly.
Possible Worlds Games is one of my favorite ttrpg publishers and they’re so close to hitting funding for their newest set of games, J. Walton’s surreal fishing RPG Tacklebox & Tyler Crumrine’s people-watching RPG Better Strangers.
Not brand new but it’s new to me
Dispatches from VR (Itch.io) is a zine about the author’s experiences with VR as a disabled person. It’s pay-what-you-want and you can also check it out in the browser.
Developer: Studio Fizbin Publisher: Thunderful Publishing Year: 2021 Genre: Arcade
Say No! More is an arcade game where you are a new intern at a company where everyone says “yes” and must use your ability to say “no!” to change the world. I just played through this one with my oldest and had a good time. It’s a pretty straightforward game. You walk on a linear path, push a button to say “no!” whenever someone interrupts your path to ask you to do a mundane task, and continue moving. Sometimes you must charge your “no!” to clear your path but that’s mostly it in terms of “gameplay.” But I think where the game really shines is everything outside of that. The game features a gorgeous aesthetic influenced by PS1 graphics. I’m also always happy to see anti-capitalist and pro-union messages in games.
I’m also kinda doing the game a disservice by saying “you just push no and then keep walking.” In a very reductive way that’s true, but there’s so many custom options, including what language you say no in. It’s also just a lot of fun to watch the lengthy cutscenes as well. The game only took me about 100 minutes to play through but I think it would be exhausting if it was longer than that. I had a good time with it and it’s fun finding weird, short stuff like this in my backlog that I can play with my daughter
Two of these in one week? Sure, why not. I thought these would be impossible to do while doing school but it turns out playing and writing about indie games is actually a nice break from work and school and a reminder that I need to post on here more. I’m currently playing through Old Skies and having a very nice time with that.
Gone Fission (Itch.io) is a PICO-8 competitive puzzle game where you setup chain reactions to take over a board. It’s an homage to Chain Reaction on the Atari ST, which I’ve never played before, but I had a blast lot of fun playing this one and the state of the board changing so much that I wasn’t able to tell if I was going to win or not.
Here, have a Twine version of Little Red Riding Hood (Itch.io) that combines a lot of public domain versions into one IF game.
Neon Hearts City (Steam/Itch.io) is the newest adventure game from Cosmic Void. It is truly a wonderful time to be a fan of point-and-click adventures (see: previous Indie Game Roundups). I’m a fan of Cosmic Void’s previous games and I’m looking forward to digging into this one too.
The End of Gameplay (Steam) is a new anthology by droqen. Don’t know what it is but it’s probably interesting. The Steam reviews can give a better insight into what it is.
34th Birthday (Itch.io) is a new browser shmup by Sylvie. Happy birthday Sylvie!
Zexion (Steam) came out a few months ago but it’s new to me and looks like a really nice Metroid-like. Almost like if we got a Metroid sequel towards the end of the NES’ life.
PUNKCAKE Délicieux makes good stuff and this is their next monthly game. If Letters Had Pants (Itch.io) is a roguelite word game.
MIRO (Steam) looks a lot like if No Man’s Sky was a much more chill game focused entirely on exploration. And no space travel. So not really that much like No Man’s Sky. Look, you explore procedurally generated planets. Maybe not quite as chill as Proteus since there’s still shooting, but the art reminds me quite a bit of that too. It’s got a demo.
Internet Roadtrip is a browser game where you and everyone else playing votes on what path Google Streetview should take and you can vote on changing the radio station too.
Formless Star (Itch.io) is a Pay-What-You-Want game where you travel to the Formless Star and gather data on the creatures that live there.
That’s it for this week. As usual, I appreciate hearing about recently released games and what you’re playing in the comments.
We did it folks. We kinda sorta survived another week. Bandcamp Friday is today. Consider picking up an album or two when the site isn’t taking a cut from sales.
Six One Indie put together a nice collection of sites for folks to consider supporting now that Polygon and Giant Bomb are gone and the world of games journalism continues to shrink. This Neocities page lists some of the ways you can follow Polygon folks. It’s a less impressive list but I also listed a few places in a post here and there’s always the Cool Site Zone at the top of the page. It’s just unbelievably rough for everyone in games right now and I guess just do what you can to help each other out.
Well alright, here are some of the games I was excited about this week. Since I am not using social media, I am counting on you (points out at the screen at you) to spread the word about these roundups, if you feel like it.
EDIT: I have confirmed that this successfully autoposts to bluesky and mastodon, lol, hooray! This was never an issue with masto but the plugin I was previously using was fussy.
There’s two charity bundles that I think are worth a look. This TTRPGs for Trans Rights in Ohio charity bundle wraps up very soon. For $5 or more you can get hundreds of great ttrpgs. I have a ttrpg in this Crips for eSims for Gaza Bundle. For $16 or more you can gets tons of video games and ttrpgs and help Palestinians.
Skin Deep (Steam) is here! It’s an immersive sim by Blendo Games that I’ve been waiting for quite a while and I’ve seen nothing but praise for it. It looks like Die Hard on a space ship but with the goofy situations that pop up in games like the Hitman series.
One Million Chessboards (dev site) is a site with a million chessboards. Moving a piece moves it for everyone, instantly. There’s no turns and you can move between boards.
Dragonfeed (Itch.io) is a free browser game meant for mobile devices and a fascinating thing for me to play as I try to pull back a bit from social media.
I don’t know a whole lot about Many Nights a Whisper (Steam) but it looks like a beautiful adventure game, has quite a few positive reviews, and it’s described as “A short interactive essay on dreams, pressure, and expectations. Take part in an ancient ritual where one shot determines the fate of a generation.” and that sounds interesting to me.
Waiting for the Death Wind (Itch.io) is a free, short interactive story created for the Dialogue Jam about conversation between a dying warrior and his goddess. I loved it. I was really impressed with the art, music, and voice acting all created for this jam game.
The Velox Formido 2 game jam (Itch.io) is a visual novel jam featuring games by some of my favorite IF writers like SWANCHIME and Norbez Jones.
Navicula Meatus (Steam) is a dark first person dungeon crawler set in a decaying town. It may be too much meat for me but there’s a demo for you to check out to decide for yourself how much meat is enough.
World of Goo 2 (dev site, basically every platform) is here and looks like what you would expect from a sequel to the original game. More goo puzzles!
The DiscMaster Jam (Itch.io) was a week-long game jam using vintage computer files from The Internet Archive. I highly recommend Anglesoft’s C2 Prototype but I’m sure I will be looking at the games from this jam for a long time and doing the sickos meme.
You Are Generative AI (Itch.io) is a browser game where you are a generative ai, answering prompts in growing in power usage. I also recommend the author’s game You Are Jeff Bezos if you haven’t played that one either.
10S FOREVER (Itch.io) looks like a really cute tennis-like arcade game. It’s also coming to Steam in a little bit but it’s on a launch sale now and the designer seems to prefer sales from here anyway.
Taxi Quest 67 (Itch.io) is a browser game about two friends heading down a river in a boat. It was created for the road trip jam and yes, it being a boat game is addressed in the game. The character animation reminds me of the squigglevision in Home Movies and Dr. Katz. It’s very good. I am pro squigglevision.
TWENTY-SOMETHING YEAR OLD FAGGOT (Itch.io) is a solo ttrpg by Sandy Pug Games about being a young queer person, fresh out of the closet and eager to join a dark, mysterious, dangerous queer underground in their city. I believe it’s a hack of Thousand Year Old Vampire.
Mythical Concept STARNAUT (Steam) is a Survivors-like by the El Shaddai devs.
Wizordum (Steam) has left Early Access! This is Catacomb 3D-inspired FPS where you are a wizard doing wizard stuff and shooting everything. The developer worked on some very good remasters for the new version of Apogee. I believe you are only on one height level and never go up and down steps, which makes it a Catacomb 3D-like for me. Anyway, it has a demo for you to try out.
despelote (Steam) is a game that I’ve heard a ton of praise for in the lead up to its release. I think it looks fantastic.
That’s it for this week. I hope you have a swell weekend!
Even though it’s been less than a week since I’ve done one of these, there’s already a bunch of indie games to talk about and none of them are part of a boycott (as far as I know). If you like these, considering adding the site to your RSS feed reader. I will be away from social media for the month of May while I get used to going back to school again. These will continue automatically posting to social media though. Ok, here’s some games.
Hypersheep Eats All the Biscuits
Last week I mentioned Llamasoft’s wonderful I, Robot remake and there’s also been a game jam celebrating Jeff Minter and his games. For whatever reason the jam page doesn’t seem to list all the games and there isn’t a jam on Itch I can just look at, so to the best of my ability, here are all the games I could find and my thoughts. I’m confident that I’ve missed at least a few so please let me know in the comments what other games are out there so I can play them. I’m griping about the jam a bit but it’s nice see a lot of people celebrate someone and the games they’ve made and maybe the industry should do this kind of thing more often.
Hypersheep Eats All the Biscuits (Itch.io) is a really cute one by PsychicParrot, developer of other fantastic games like Die for the Economy!, and it also has cover art by Rob Fearon. You play as a sheep that must remind Jeff to feed them biscuits and occasionally daydreaming about being a superhero. The developer says the VR version is superior but I played the non-VR version and still had a fun time.
PROTOBEAST (Itch.io) is just a really slick and straightforward twin-stick shooter with all the bleeps and bloops you would want from an 80s inspired game, with some fun references to Minter’s games. Definitely recommended if you like your Geometry Wars-likes and what not.
Perfect Cycle (Itch.io) is a browser game where you cruise down a road shooting at neon things and big words appears like you would expect in a Minter game. I guess you could call it a Polybius-like?
Crackle Attack (Itch.io) has you dodging attacks from a giant thing with gears for hands and gradually ramps up in difficulty. Surprisingly both relaxing and hectic at the same time.
The Beastly Siege of Irata 7 (Itch.io) kinda reminds me of Asteroids in that you fly around a space and shoot at UFOs, but has the very clever mechanic of you retrieving debris from those ships and feeding them to the beast in the center of the screen and trying to keep it alive for as long as possible.
MAMA CABRA (Itch.io) is a browser game made in PICO-8 where you’re a goat flying through space shooting stuff and saving sheep. How can you beat that? To be honest, I didn’t actually know PICO-8 games supported the mouse until I played this.
StarGiraf (Itch.io) is an Atari 2600 space shooter playable in the browser where you are a giraffe with a very long neck and shoot things. Incredibly charming.
I highly recommend checking all of these games out if you are a fan of Llamasoft, or even if you never played a Llamasoft game before and just like arcade games and sheep.
Adam Saltsman continues to put out great PICO-8 games. In the puzzle game Mole Mole (Itch.io) you are are a mole (of course) and must reach the exit of each level by blowing things up.
Old Skies (Steam) is the newest game by Wadjet Eye Games. I’m so happy this is out. I got to play a beta and think it’s one of their best, if not best, point-and-click adventures. It’s a time travel story featuring incredible art by Ben Chandler and great voice acting by a lot of the folks that have acted in previous Wadjet Eye Games adventures. Between games like this, Rosewater, Blue Prince, and many of the other games I’ve highlighted in recent roundups, we’re in a great period for adventure games.
New games for old platforms are always fun to see. Frontier Force (Itch.io) looks like a fun shoot-em-up for the Sega Master System and SkillTeam (Itch.io) is a clever Sokobon-like for the Amstrad CPC (but playable in the browser).
Creepy Redneck Dinosaur Mansion 3 (Steam/Itch.io) is the newest game by Strange Scaffold. I remember hearing about this being worked on a while ago and looking forward to it, so it makes me happy to see so many folks praising the game. It’s a Puzzle Quest-inspired game where you Match 3 objects in a row to fight opponents, but apparently has Metroid-inspired exploration elements too.
Bryce Tiles (Steam) is another one I’ve been looking forward to for a while! I was a fan of the free Klik And Play-inspired (I assume this means nothing to people under 35) platformer Bryce’s Movement Engine¹ (Steam/Itch.io) and this looks like it keeps that aesthetic but moving to the genre of Isometric Puzzle Game.
Does the Amerzone remake fit into this roundup? Probably not right? I don’t think it counts as indie? Whatever, maybe some folks with find it interesting since I’m guessing most of the folks reading this are also adventure game nerds.
Finally, a Kickstarter has launched for the second edition of the city building tabletop rpg Ex Novo. I really like the first edition.
Well that’s it for this week. I hope you found something to play that you’ll end up loving!
