🌞🕶️ The Touryst | Nintendo Switch | Review | "The Perfect Time For A Virtual Sunny Holiday" 🌞🕶️ @ShinenGames #GameDev #IndieGames

I’ve had my eye on The Touryst since last year when my friend (and State of Play co-conspirator) Rupert suggested it as he had enjoyed playing it so much.

A few weeks later and I was watching a Digital Foundry episode on the game – naturally focussing on the more technical aspects – and I was completely sold. 

Last week, I didn’t just play the game. I inhaled it.

🦉 Animal 🦒 Crossing New Horizons: A Family In Lockdown On A Tropical Island 🏝️ #AnimalCrossing #ACNH

Animal Crossing New Horizons was released on the 20th March 2020 and swooped onto the Nintendo Switch just as the COVID 19 pandemic was really taking hold of the world.

The world needed a comfort food game and Nintendo delivered.

🏚️🧔🏚️ Change : A Homeless Survival Experience | Review | PC | "Down But Not Quite Out!" 🏚️🧔🏚️ #IndieGames #GameDev

CHANGE: A Homeless Survival Experience is an emotional homeless survival experience set in a randomly generated city with rogue-like elements.

Explore, survive, earn perks, find items and kindness to develop your character and escape to a new life.

🤠🔥 Boot Hill Bounties | Review | Nintendo Switch | "A Retro-Styled Western That’s Chock Full o’Beans" 🤠🔥 @ExpGamerStudios #GameDev #IndieGames

Presented in a visual and gameplay style most reminiscent of cult SNES classic Earthbound, Boot Hill Bounties is a game that sucked me in far deeper than I would have expected and I loved every moment of it.

🧛‍♂️ Vampire The Masquerade: Coteries of New York | Switch | Review | "Fangs For The Memories" 🧛‍♂️ #GameDev #IndieGames

An interactive visual novel set in White Wolf Publishing’s ‘World of Darkness’ made most familiar to gamers by Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines, a cult title released back in 2004 by Troika Games, Vampire the Masquerade: Coteries of New York (VTM:COTN) is a visual novel with light adventure elements in the form of choices that the player can make.

Whilst this means the game is quite casual in nature, the brevity of the writing and length of the game (3 hours or so) means that it feels accessible and doesn’t get too bogged down in dense text.

On the other hand, those who are used to such heavy-duty visual novels may feel short-changed here. 

🔥 🧙‍♂️ Alwa's Awakening | Ten Minute Taster | PS4 | "Beware The Fireball" 🔥 🧙‍♂️ @EldenPixels #GameDev #IndieGames

In Alwa's Awakening, YOU will use your magic staff and progress through a large interconnected world where you'll solve puzzles, fight enemies and defeat bosses in order to help free the land of Alwa. 

Explore and uncover the secrets by using your platforming skills in this challenging and charming 8-bit adventure game.

🏫🎒 Dead or School | PS4 | REVIEW | "Dead or…workingfromhomeduetothecoronavirus" 🏫🎒 #GameDev #IndieGames

A highly enjoyable, over the top Metroidvania with a heavy focus on action and loot. Whilst Dead or School is affected by some technical issues, the fact that this was made by a three-man development team and is so fun and addictive to play is definitely cause for celebration.

🔦 👻 Those Who Remain | PC | PREVIEW | "Stay In The Light!" 🔦 👻 #GameDev #IndieGames

Those Who Remain is an up-close, psychological horror, set in the sleepy town of Dormont.

Confront uncomfortable horrors, keep your sanity in check and survive the night.

🎮 Why I Love The PlayStation 2... 🎮 #Playstation2

Imagine there was a video game console that sold 157 million units...

Well actually there is a console that sold over 157 million units and its name is the Playstation 2.

🧠👽 Hyper Parasite | Review | PS4 | "Get Those Brains To Make Those Gains!" 🧠👽 @_Troglobytes_ #IndieGames #GameDev

In HyperParasite you are Invading a grime encrusted dystopia straight out the eighties, you're the monster the authorities warned about. 

Dragging your bloody tentacles on the greasy asphalt, you snatch body after body. 

You are the HyperParasite; an evil alien with a bone to pick with humanity…just because it’s fun.

👿 🔥 Devil's Hunt | PC | Ten Minute Taster | "It's Devil's Night 👿 🔥 #IndieGames #GameDev

The war between Demons and Angels takes you to hell and back in Devil’s Hunt.

Play as Desmond in this third-person action-adventure game, as he discovers his demonic powers with the fate of the world hanging in the balance of the greatest conflict known to humankind.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/887720/Devils_Hunt

🌊 In Other Waters | Review | Nintendo Switch | "Explore This Underwater Odyssey With Me" 🌊 @InOtherWaters #GameDev #IndieGames

When you think of “In Other Waters” on the Nintendo Switch you should imagine a text adventure-style video game overlayed with a simple but elegant UI that is steeped in atmospheric light puzzle-solving mechanics along with an intriguing storyline and an emerging control system.

🦖🦕 Gearstorm | PC | Ten Minute Taster | "Dinosaur Running At It's Finest" 🦖🦕 #GameDev #IndieGames

In Gearstorm you are an elite Exomarine dropped on an alien planet.

Don't just survive – make war! Build or dig a base, mine for resources, team up with other Exomarines, make AI clones to work for you, and use advanced military weapons and vehicles to dominate other players, hostile species, and other inhabitants or just run away from dinosaurs just like I did!

🙇‍♂️ DayZ - Livonia (DLC) "Sorry Everyone" 🙇‍♂️

From the developers

Livonia is the brand-new DLC map for DayZ, allowing players to experience the hardcore survival hit in a whole new environment. Up to 60 players on a server will be tasked with a single goal: survive this new unfamiliar land for as long as possible, by any means necessary.

📚🕳️ The Longing | Preview | PC | "A CAVERNOUS ULTRA-SLOW IDLE ADVENTURE" 🕳️📚 @AnselmPyta #GameDev #IndieGames

It seems strange to be writing a preview of a game that is released but, as the game takes 400 days (real-time) to complete, it felt the only way to proceed.

The game begins with an underground giant king creating your character (the Shade) from the palm of his hand and tasking you to watch over him for 400 days as he sleeps.

Following this, he promptly drops off and you are left to your own devices, wandering the labyrinthine caves and rooms that make up ‘The Kingdom’ and listening to him gently snoring.

🧟‍♀️ The Coma 2: Vicious Sisters | PC | Ten Minute Taster | "Coma Chameleon" 🧟‍♀️ @DevespressoG #GameDev #IndieGames

The Coma 2: Vicious Sisters is a Korean survival horror-adventure.

Venture from your deserted school to survive the horrors of the night.

Explore the surrounding Sehwa district and uncover the shadow realm's dark secrets. Use everything at your disposal to avoid a demoness hellbent on killing you!

🐻😼 Backbone: Prologue | "An introduction to the smoky, rain-swept world of Backbone" 🐻😼 @backbonegame #GameDev #IndieGames

A short introduction to the smoky, rain-swept world of Backbone, this prologue can be completed in under an hour and gives a high quality and a scene-setting look at what we can expect in the full game.

🕹️👕Videogames Mental Health Charity Safe in our World Tees up with Seven Squared 👕🕹️ @SquaredSeven @SafeInOurWorld

Videogames Mental Health Charity, Safe In Our World (www.safeinourworld.org) and Seven Squared recently announced an agreement to collaborate with the charity directly benefiting from the partnership.

The first in a series of collaborations is with The Oliver Twins, with the seminal character, Dizzy appearing on limited edition tee shirts. 

Available for £19.99 on Seven Squared’s website (https://sevensqua.red/collections/safe-in-our-world), this initial launch sees all royalties due to the Oliver Twins going to Safe in our World. 

Additionally, Seven Squared will be donating a portion of its profits to Safe in our World, having already donated significantly from all Tee sales to date.

🍌🎾 SKY RACKET | TEN MINUTE TASTER | PC | "Breakout With A Tennis Racket" 🍌🎾 @DoubleDashSTU #IndieGame #GameDev

In Sky Racket it’s just you, a stylish scarf, a laser tennis racket and a horde of fluffy enemies trying to blow you up back to the ground.

Mixing the classic genres of Shoot ’em ups and block breakers, Sky Racket is the world’s first “Shmup Breaker”

Play as RacketBoy or RacketGirl, guardians that have been chosen by the Capybara Goddess to save your galaxy from the paws of a destructive tyrant genius.

GAME LINK: SKY RACKET

🧙‍♀️🥔 Wunderling | Review | Nintendo Switch | *Wunderling ist Wunderbar!* 🧙‍♀️🥔 @retroidofficial #GameDev #IndieGames

Wunderling is a pixel-art puzzle platformer with a deviously casual approach and is well worth your time.

Set in a colourful, 16-bit world, Wunderling casts you as a potato-ish henchman of the land’s ‘evil’ witch, a broomstick-riding little tinker that spreads the gospel of her wickedness through the medium of an anthropomorphic cow with a TV camera strapped to its back, natch.

At the start of your quest – which will take you across many dozens of levels – you are stomped by the hero, Carrot Man, on his way to rescue Princess Pea (any similarities to existing video game characters are purely coincidental) and brought back to life by the witch and told to stop Carrot Man at all costs, thus your adventure begins.

🧛‍♀️🦇 Bloodlust 2: Nemesis | Review | PC | "No ‘Suck’ Jokes, Please." 🧛‍♀️🦇 @Vampire_RPG #GameDev #IndieGames

It’s always impressive to see what extremely small development teams can achieve on a budget, especially when tackling a genre that is usually associated with both expanse and expense.

An Action/RPG hybrid presented in third-person view that takes its cue from a mashup of both Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines (mood, lore and setting) and the Diablo series (heavy focus on loot and dungeon crawling), it aims high but the focus on the more repetitive aspects detracts from the more impressive touches that Bloodlust 2: Nemesis has to offer.