The Stone of Madness is a highly stylized stealth/tactics game from the Blasphemous team
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
I have to give it to The Game Kitchen, they are not an easy studio to predict! They went from making point & click adventures to grim yet stylish Metroidvanias, and now they're working on what looks like a Commandos inspired real-time, stealth focused tactics game!
Set in an 18th-century Spanish monastery, The Stone of Madness will put you in control of five prisoners, each with their own unique skills and resources. However, unlike games like Commandos where you play with a team of hardened veterans, your characters in The Stone of Madness aren't exactly the most... stable bunch. So not only will you have to navigate obstacles and deal with all sorts of enemies with them, but you'll also have to manage their phobias and their dwindling mental health.
Slay the Princess is a horror-adventure starring a definitely-not-an-eldritch-monstrosity princess, and it's quite good!
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
If you're in the mood for something a little bit unusual, you might want to check out the somewhat recently released Slay the Princess. To put it quite simply, it's a narrative-driven horror game where all you have to do is slay the princess in order to save the world. Naturally, things don't stay that simple for very long as the story quickly spirals into a myriad of different directions, time loops and other bizarre scenarios, all of which will slowly lead you to the truth behind it all.
Since trying to explain all of this through words alone is a bit of a futile endeavor, allow me to instead share with you the freshly posted launch trailer. Have a gander, it should hopefully clarify a couple of things... hopefully:
Chants of Sennaar is a clever and colorful language-based puzzle game
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
If you're a fan of puzzles games and you're in the mood for something a little bit out of the ordinary, you might want to check out the remarkably charming Chants of Sennaar. Inspired by the Tower of Babel myth, Chants of Sennaar puts you in the shoes of a traveler attempting to decipher ancient languages in an effort to restore the connections between the now-divided peoples of the tower.
In order to do that you'll need to collect, catalogue and expand upon a variety of phrases, solve all sorts of tricky puzzles, and once you find yourself in some of the more hostile areas, even do a little bit of sneaking around to get to the bottom of things! What all of this looks like in action, as well as what it sounds like, that you can check out through the launch trailer below. Have a peek:
You Should Try: Dark Souls - One of the finest games ever made, and a personal favorite
- By Ash
- in You Should Try
"You Should Try" is a series of articles where I'll showcase you a game I really enjoy while explaining what exactly makes it fun. This can be any game, new or old, indie or AAA, the only requirement is that it has to be something I've found myself greatly enjoying and in need of sharing with the world.
Today I think you should try Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition - a combat orientated RPG that is so good it practically ended up creating a genre of its own. It features an expansive and interconnected world, plenty of viable playstyles and weapon choices, a difficulty curve that will always keep you on your toes, and just the right amount of frustration to make each victory feel all the sweeter!
Brotato is a Vampire Survivors inspired arena shooter starring a Potato with serious anger issues
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
Much like Vampire Survivors from which it takes a great deal of inspiration, Brotato is a ridiculously customizable and equally addictive action roguelite. You'll start off each run with a fairly generic set of gear, and by the time you're done you'll not only have additional arms sprouting from your body, but each of those arms will be armed with some kind of absurdly overpowered (or just absurd in general) weapon that can rip and tear through the enemy hordes.
The big difference between the two games is that Brotato focuses a bit more on presenting the players with proper challenges while Vampire Survivors is all about the non-stop power trip. As such, Brotato not only comes with multiple difficulty settings to choose from, but also an additional set of sliders that you can use to fine-tune the settings in either direction. So if even you get good at it, you can still amp things up to the point where the fate of each run will rest at the knife's edge.
Dota 2's Patch 7.38b has arrived to fix up some of the recent balance mishaps
- By Ash
- in News
With Patch 7.38 the Dota 2 team redesigned the map yet again, reworked how neutral items are distributed and, as is tradition, rebalanced just about every single aspect of the game. Unsurprisingly, this sweeping set of changes has resulted in a variety of different bugs, as well as a couple of monumentally overpowered heroes.
So in order to sort out this newfound mess Valve has now unleashed the much humbler though just as important Patch 7.38b. The highlights include nerfs to Glimmer Cape and Orchid Malevolence/Bloodthorn, a widespread rebalance of neutral items, as well as nerfs to some of the overperforming heroes like Abbadon, Dragon Knight, Lifestealer and Nature's Prophet.
Slay the Spire 2, much-anticipated sequel to the phenomenal roguelike deckbuilder, is coming in 2025
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
If you're like me and you've done basically all there is to do in Slay the Spire and you're now hungry for more, you'll be delighted to hear that a sequel has just been announced! Slay the Spire 2 will bring with it a brand new engine with improved visuals and expanded mod support, new characters and mechanics, enemies and treasures, and naturally, a whole boatload of new cards to fling at people!
While it sadly contains no gameplay footage, allow me to share with you the freshly posted trailer as that should give you a bit of an idea of the sort of atmosphere Slay the Spire 2 is going for, as well as who one of the new characters is! Have a peek:
