As if the previous fifteen indie games weren’t enough for you, here’s another collection of interesting independent projects in development that you should probably include on your wish list. Scroll through it to discover at least something that will catch your eye (wallet).
Whenever I turn off the Indiebat signal, I always get about ten times more emails than I could ever have time to cover. That means I feel guilty. My method is to randomly click through the hundreds of emails, which seems just like any other method. But I still feel guilty. At least this lot was lucky, I guess, but the question remains: there are too many games. Stop it. Stop playing all these games. Think of my guilt.
Wait, no, don’t stop playing the games below, because now I’m interested. These are allowed to do. And all the others that will be fantastic, can be done too. Just bad games, okay? Stop playing bad games. We’re glad we made it clear. I’m tired. Keep reading.
Developer: Clockwork Pile
Departure: 2022
Demo / Wishlist
OMG, is a cross between Project Zomboid and X-COM. Shardpunk: Verminfall is a survival game-based strategy game, which seems to be a combination of wandering RPG, turn-based tactical combat, and survival resource management. Which discourages me and attracts me. Definitely watch the trailer above, because the longer I watched, the more I wanted to play.
Developer: SmoothBrainDev
Departure: autumn 2022
Demo / Wishlist
Yes yes Yes. As many 90’s style shooters as you can make, please, the independent gaming industry. Since the evening, I can’t eat enough. The incision looks exactly what I’m looking for, with its grotesque gibs, creepy Build-like graphics, and strong Quake vibes.
What’s so great about this genre called Boomer Shooter is that they are like we remember the FPS games of the 90’s, rather than what they really were. Nostalgia softens all rough edges and games like these are designed to match. This one will come out in three episodes, each consisting of seven maps, starting this fall. I can not wait.
Developer: 502 Studios
Departure: 2022
Demo / Wishlist
This is such a beautiful concept! Developers for the first time 502 Studios are making a collection of arcade games, played in an arcade game, with the intention that players pass each other, trying to get the highest scores. Except that instead of the one who stumbles upon your local arcade game, these leaderboards can recognize everyone else playing in the rest of the world.
The games aren’t all arcades from the old school either, which is definitely a trampled ground. Instead, they seem like very different ideas, small action games, complicated puzzles in the style of Puzzle Bobble, single-screen shoot ’em ups … My only concern is the name, because “502 “will not catch anyone ‘s attention. World’s Arcade maybe? I do not know. They don’t pay me any consulting fees.
Interesting facts: 502 say that when this appears on Switch, it will be Guatemala’s first game on any Nintendo platform!
Developer: Selva Interactive
Departure: 2022
Demo / Wishlist
OR WILL IT BE? (see above) Because Illuminaria is a Guatemalan game too! It is unknown at this time what he will do after leaving the post. Aside from my personal idiocy, it seems like a very fun time, a game in which you control a swarm of robots with the intention of gathering resources and building bases, along with some tower defense fights. Check out the trailer, because there seems to be a lot going on.
Developer: Noisy Head Games
Departure: 2022
Wish list
Well, this game has better audio: Beyond The Long Night is made by a team of three former Frontier audio developers. It’s a double-edged sword, where you float on a beautiful pixelated world on a pile of balloons, with what look like really interesting boing attacks. It has been successfully launched, and is intended to be “elevating” and “charming,” which sounds just the tone.
Developer: Triheart Studio
Departure: now (early access)
To buy
There is a law that says all game genres must be crossed with deck construction, before the Great Curse can be lifted off the ground and Metroid Prime 4 can be released. Golfie is fighting for the good fight here , combining the construction of roofs with … golf. Yes, golf. A “career-based minigolf table builder and roguelike” says his Steam information in case you think he was lying.
It’s been available on Early Access for a few days now, and it looks so completely crazy that I can’t resist taking a look at it.
Developer: Cyberpooch Studios
Output: TBA
Wish list
Freelancer love letter is likely to be something many people would like to read. This is the theme of Solara: Starlight Horizon, which aims to offer players options for “exchanging, extracting, chasing rewards or smuggling illegal goods.”
“I feel like a freelancer,” explains the developer, “more than any other space simulator, it made the space feel ‘alive’ with how they handled trips within and between systems, and I want to recapture that feeling.”
Developer: ub4q
Departure: 2023
Wish list
A visual novel, with all the sexy moments you could expect, but with an atypical art style and a focus on the things that go wrong. Or, in fact, “destruction, dating, and betrayal,” as the description says. Eight years of accomplishment, this is the work of solo developer Ruqiyah, under the name ub4q, with the intention of releasing it next year.
According to Ruqiyah, you will have “the ability to befriend, hook, betray, or betray four party members,” while taking a trip to “overthrow a tyrant.” I really like the darker tone of it.
Developer: Kodo Line
Departure: September 15, 2022
Wish list
I’m going to argue that it’s a good sign when I see a first screenshot of Stardeus and find myself saying “Oh wow,” out loud. A “wow” that encompasses both, “This looks hugely awesome” and also, “My brain will never fight this.” Luckily, you’re not an idiot like me, so you’ll most likely love the idea of such a complex shipbuilding and resource management space game in which you explore a procedurally generated universe.
Check out the trailer above to get an idea of the scale. Lithuanian indie team Kodo Linija aims to arrive in Early Access this September.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=TLGGveXwGJgsLiQzMDA1MjAyMg
Developer: 9FingerGames
Output: TBA
Demo / Wishlist
Well, that looks and sounds splendidly disgusting. A metroidvania-me-do in which you play a beehive-minded alien monstrosity that kills enemies, absorbs their consciousness and memories, and then carries their skulls. All while drinking and slipping creepy through its levels. You’re trying to find a cure for a virus, so it’s okay to be like that. That’s all right.
I love the details of the trailer animation, the way your alien’s tentacles hold on to the wall, or how it transforms into different shapes as it jumps and slides. This really reminds me of two favorites, Carrion and MO Astray.
Developer: Vertical Reach
Output: TBA
Wish list
Ooh, give me PS1 horror vibes. Alex Young is trapped in a strange old mansion, and you wouldn’t know it, he’s full of traps, puzzles and all sorts of ways for her to die.
It’s focused on the brain rather than the combat, but with what seems like a constant sense of danger lurking, and a bunch of other captives who will try to rescue you as you progress. It’s great to see a PS1 horror game developed as a long-running game, and I’m very interested in following the progress of this one.
Developer: Excellent Rectangle
Departure: December 30, 2022
Demo / Wishlist
Like no other, there hasn’t been a good hockey video game since NHL 97. Don’t get me wrong, puckfaces. Maybe Tape To Tape can break that truth by combining the noble sport of punching on ice with … roguelite elements. Seriously, check out the trailer above, because I also need you to have the “Sorry, what the fuck?” moment just at the end.
He’s in the middle of a Kickstarter, but he’s always surpassed his goal (that’s like a hockey term, right?) When he’s more than a week away.
Anyway, at least I didn’t go down without explaining myself first. Look up, look at it.
Developer: Psychic Software
Output: TBA
Wish list
I’ve written a lot of “RPGs” today, but still not in terms of what immediately comes to mind when I read the term. To me, those three letters mean Baldur’s Gate, Planescape: Torment, that kind of business. And The Necromancer’s Tale evokes those same vibrations.
It has spells and characters with circles attached to the feet and skellingtons to strike with swords. You know, a good RPG. It also has 150 NPCs to talk to, a story full of missions and turn-based combat that your grandmother used to do.
Developer: DirectDoggo
Get out now
To buy
There’s not much science behind what I include in these lists, but starting an email with the words “A game about going out with phones and laying eggs” does the trick. It’s not a phone dating simulator, it’s a phone dating simulator.
Dialtown came out in February and I can’t understand a universe I’ve never heard of. As its own store page says, this is a game where “most people have head phones.” Oh, and dogs have gramophones for their heads, while cats have replaced theirs with keyboards. It is, of course, a visual novel, and you are looking for that sweet phone with which to relax, for your desire to find “a wet well where to lay your eggs.”
Developer: Dapper Dog Digital
Departure: 2022
Demo / Wishlist
And of course, we end up with a game about playing a pig-based vaccine that is injected into a dog’s body.
Bio-Gun is a metroidvania-pop, set in the super-drawn interior of your pig host, with a bit of double-shot action and 2D frame-by-frame animation from the old school. All in the name of saving the kind of dogs.