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| "I can survive in the vacuum of space. What can you do, monkey?" |
(Trailers provided where available)
Developed by Meowza Games and published by Humble Bundle
As some of you might have guessed by some of the esoteric references I make in my blog, I'm a fan of Japan. I also happen to be a big fan of the more common household pets. What better way to combine the two in a Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons-esque game where you live on a Japan-inspired island filled with cats? I'm not sure if it's the same place as the Cat Island, but the aesthetic and theme of the game really appeal to me. Farm cats to get materials for crafting merchandise. Race on cats against other racers. See cats. Pet cats. Cats cats cats cats cats.
Cats.
Developed and published by Kasey Ozmy
This is a neat little RPG Maker game I found mentioned on Indie Game Mag, a website that no longer updates. The game (which has a demo on Steam) features the titular protagonist, a young boy with a big imagination, adventuring in a world made of his dreams (and nightmares.) The characters in Jimmy's party are all pretty unique (Jimmy can multiclass and become different monsters through the power of imagination, while his mom is immune to most status effects due to the power of sheer optimism,) the main hook of Jimmy's empathy-based polymorphing looks pretty cool, and the creator has some other interesting RPG Maker games under her belt (The Heart Pumps Clay, The God of Crawling Eyes, A Very Long Rope to the Top of the Sky, Born Under the Rain,) so I imagine her first commercial game will be a pretty neat one.
Developed and published by Hempuli Oy
It's always good to see a game engage via new puzzles, as opposed to the countless clones of Bejeweled or Bubble Bobble, and this game is one of the unique ones. This game, which also won the Nordic Game Jam 2017, involves moving your little while creature around and pushing things to solve puzzles. The main catch is that this game takes a page from basic programming, because some of these objects are words that define basic rules of the stage. You could use a key to open that door, or you could move out the SHUT in DOOR is SHUT and change it to DOOR is OPEN. The game also comes with a level editor, so there will likely be plenty of creative people out there thinking up some very unorthodox puzzles.
Developed by 7th Beat Games and published by 7th Beat Games and indienova.
All my time playing the two Isaac games (almost two whole games of Campaign for North Africa!) has taught me that I'm more of a heart breaker than a heart healer, but maybe I can balance the scales with this game. The best way to describe it is a minigame from the Rhythm Heaven series of games made into a full game. Every stage has you pushing the space bar on the 7th beat in order to help out various patients, but skipped beats and crazy stuff (like in the trailer above) make things much more complicated. As someone who really wants more rhythm games for the PC, I'm really rooting for this game, and the demo I played online looks solid. Hopefully this game can help me be forgiven for...483 counts of heartbreaking matricide (plus the ones from the original game and Antibirth.)
6. Chuchel
Developed and published by Amanita Designs
This cute little point-and-click game is being designed by the team behind Machinarium, Botanicula, and the Samorost series. I actually own the first two, although I have yet to play them. This game ju-
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| "MAE, I SAID BACK TO THE BASEMENT! I'M BUSY!!" |
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| "FREEEEBIRRRRRRRRRDD!!" |
See what I mean? Charm can really sell a game, assuming the game still works well, of course.
Developed by Glumberland and published by Double Fine Presents
Speaking of charm, here's another game with quite a lot of it. The game is billed as a mix between Pokemon, Animal Crossing, and Harvest Moon Story of Seasons. Most of the game involves either farming or raising the titular creatures like they're Pokemon. It's got a very cute design that really stands out, and one of the people working on the game talked about marketing and game design in the indie market in a Partreon post featured as a PC Gamer article. I found it to be pretty insightful, and I'm hoping to see that good insight come through when Ooblets is released.
For some reason, the trailer for this game won't show up when I search for it on Blogger's 'Insert a video' feature. Annoying, but for the best, given what it is. It's a horror game inspired by the works of Junji Ito. Games involving Lovecraftian horror are a dime a dozen, but I don't know of any other games that make frequent inspiration of this Japanese horror master. It also has quite a nice aesthetic as the game's color palette that makes it look like a old computer game where the only colors were green and black. It's like this game was made for m- okay, I'll stop.
3. Mew-genics
This game also doesn't really have much to put up in terms of visuals, but that's because most of the existing stuff is from an older version of pre-development. Mew-genics was a project that Edmund McMillen was working on for a while, but had put it on indefinite hold to work on other projects. However, it's back on the development table, and I'm sure a good amount of people will be pleased to see this bizarre take on the virtual pet genre.
2. Wattam
Developed by Funomena and published by Annapurna Interactive
Back to charming we go as I show off this game. To be honest, I think a good amount of the appeal in this game for me is one of the main guys behind the game: Keita Takahashi, the creator of the Katamari games (well, he worked on the first two.) That game was my not-actually-a-drug drug of choice back in the day, and I played every one of them, not counting the mobile phone ones. I even bought a Vita for no other reason except to do a Let's Play of Touch My Katamari because literally no one has done a complete Let's Play of it. Unfortunately, the recording equipment costed too much, so my plan didn't pan out. It's just as well, though. Touch My Katamari felt like the least enjoyable of the games, even with some of the cool stages, like the stage that was basically a literal Hell. Anyway, hope Wattam lives up to that bizarre appeal Keita is known for.
Being made by "sqrlyjack"
Yep, this game again. The early development materials are somewhat bare bones right now, but it looks like it's an RPG in a similar vein to the Mario and Luigi games in how you explore and battle. I've said several times as to how it's a...unique concept, but I've following the game for a good while out of curiosity. Heck, I knew it before it was re-branded and when it was a fan sequel to Space Funeral. The oddball humor worked back when it was a fan sequel, and I'm still optimistic that this game about a transgender 90's video game mascot will do fine. Besides, given that very minor controversy when someone accused The Red Strings Club of unfairly sexualizing a transgender character (note that one of the game's creators is transgender, so the argument against the game had little solid footing,) maybe some spicy press over a sexy bobcat that was once male might do some good things.
Also, speaking of transgender, I had a question I asked to some Steam folks that was never answered (because I'm basically a hermit on Steam.) I figure if I ask it here, maybe I'll get more of a response? I'll give it a shot.
How many video game characters do you know that could be considered transgendered?
When you've got your first answer, subtract all the ones used for cheap jokes ("Oh noes! I thought you were a hot chick! Yuck!") and let me know the second answer as well. Personally, I can think of 3. There's Rin from the Catherine remaster (although their introduction trailer caused concern about their representation,) that one NPC from the newest Baldur's Gate DLC, and the previously mentioned character from The Red Strings Club.
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