- By Ash
- in Indie Games
[Update]: Crowns and Pawns has now arrived, and with quite a few tricky puzzles in tow!
Inspired by classics like Broken Sword and Syberia, Crowns and Pawns: Kingdom of Deceit is an upcoming point & click puzzle-adventure. As you might imagine from that description alone, Crowns and Pawns will task you with solving a wide variety of tricky puzzles as you attempt to unravel a grand mystery, all the while letting you chat up a variety of strange and interesting characters.
In an interesting little twist, Crowns and Pawns will also give you the ability to customize your character from head to toe. However, instead of this simply being cosmetic, the different appearances will factor into the puzzles and how people respond to you. A pretty neat idea, I must admit!
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
Midnight Ghost Hunt is a 4v4 hide-and-seek game where a team of hunters must scour a variety of haunted locations in order to destroy all of the ghosts. Should they fail and the clock strikes midnight, the tables will turn and the hunters will need to survive the onslaught of vengeful spirits while waiting for rescue to arrive.
In order to make things interesting the ghosts are able to not only use traps and misdirection to mess with the hunters, but also posses objects in order to hide in plain sight. The hunters on the other hand have a technological advantage, and with it a variety of handy gadgets they can use to sniff out the ghosts wherever they might be hiding.
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
[Update]: Dead Cells' "Enter the Panchaku" update has added pan-based nunchucks and reworked legendary items.
It has only been a little while since The Queen & the Sea DLC brought in a bunch of new content to explore, and already the Dead Cells team has returned with more. Best of all, this time around everything is entirely free!
So thanks to the freshly released Break the Bank update you can expect to see the titular Bank as a blinged-out new biome, 3 new gold-based enemies to smash, 3 new gold-based weapons to do the smashing with, and naturally, 3 new gold-based mutations to help round everything out. What all this gold looks like in action, however, that you can find out through the recent trailer. Have a peek:
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
[Update]: Vampire Survivors devs have revealed their plans for 2023, including new content and the long-awaited engine upgrade.
While Vampire Survivors is an awesome game and one that has occupied far more of my time than I'm willing to admit, it sadly has a pretty serious issue with performance. Once you get a whole bunch of upgrades and start shooting a myriad of projectiles in every single direction, all the while the enemies spawn so quickly the screen can barely hold them all, the gameplay can very quickly devolve into a slideshow.
So in an effort to fix this glaring issue, Vampire Survivors will be getting ported over to a brand new engine this Summer. The exact details have not been revealed just yet, but according to the recent roadmap update things are already looking remarkably good.
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
Set within the same world as Hyper Light Drifter, the freshly unveiled Hyper Light Breaker is a fully 3D action-adventure with roguelite elements sprinkled in for flavor. No exact release date has been given just yet, but you can expect Hyper Light Breaker to land into Steam Early Access in Spring 2023.
As for the actual gameplay, Hyper Light Breaker will have you explore a vast and ever-changing world with an assortment of movement abilities like wall-dashing and gliding, beat up hordes of monsters and giant bosses in either singleplayer or co-op, and in order to cool off between missions, also help a lonely settlement flourish in order to unlock upgrades and discover more of the world's story. Fairly standard roguelite stuff, but considering the team's previous work on Hyper Light Drifter, I have a feeling Hyper Light Breaker will end up being a blast to play regardless!
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
[Update]: Peglin has now been unleashed, and as I've detailed in my preview, it's a fun albeit somewhat limited experience.
For the lack of a better description, the upcoming Peglin is a curious combination of peggle gameplay and roguelike progression. In other words, you'll be dealing damage to your enemies by trying to hit as many pegs and special tiles as possible, all the while managing your different upgrades, unique balls, rapidly dwindling health and scores of randomized enemy encounters.
Rather than babble on, allow me to share with you one of the trailers. It should give you a pretty solid idea of just what Peglin is trying to do and how it all plays out. Have a peek:
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
[Update]: The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe has now arrived with a ton of new and remastered content.
After being delayed time and time again, The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe has now finally been pinned for an April 27th, 2022 release date. Quite fitting given that the story is all about Stanley, who just so happens to be Employee #427!
The Ultra Deluxe edition will bring with it a variety of visual enhancements alongside a ton of new content and secrets to explore, with enough new lines to fill out a script longer than the one from the original The Stanley Parable. What exactly has been changed, however, the developers did not say, and for good reason as The Stanley Parable is one of those games best experienced without any knowledge of its story.
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
[Update]: Cantata has now launched into Early Access alongside mostly positive player reviews.
If you're in the mood for a large-scale strategy game that you can really sink a lot of time into, the upcoming Cantata might be what you're looking for. It's essentially a mixture of a classic turn-based tactics game and something like Factorio, with the end goal being not only to outmaneuver and overwhelm your opponent, but also to ensure your entire production line and supply chain don't break apart in the process.
What this kind of gameplay looks like in action, that you can get a small sneak peek at through the recently posted trailer. Have a gander, it's quite an interesting one:
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
[Update #2]: Rain World's Downpour expansion has now arrived, and so far it's looking quite good!
[Update]: The Downpour expansion will be landing on January 19th, 2023 - six years after the original launch!
In an announcement that I must admit comes as quite a shock given that Rain World launched five years ago, the Videocult team has just revealed a brand new expansion! Rain World: Downpour will bring with it ten expansive new regions to explore with "thousands of new maps", five additional characters with their own unique abilities and skillsets, as well as a tricky Challenge Mode that will push you to the limit in a variety of pre-constructed scenarios and arenas.
The good news doesn't end there, however, as Downpour will also bring with it a bunch of quality-of-life improvements and additions to the base version of Rain World. You can expect to see a new map system, a highly useful collectibles tracker, alternate routing options, tutorialized hints, and the list goes on.
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
After spending a couple of years in Steam Early Access, the roguelite 'boomer shooter' Nightmare Reaper has now been unleashed in full. As you might imagine from that brief description alone, Nightmare Reaper is all about using excessive violence to blast apart hordes upon hordes of enemies, scouring the levels for precious loot and secrets, and then marching onto further conquests armed with a variety of new weapons and enhancements.
Since words alone aren't exactly the best at describing frantic FPS games, allow me to also share with you the launch trailer. It should clue you in quite quickly on just what Nightmare Reaper is trying to do. Have a look: