#best indie games

[moonpiesanctuaryupdates]

The Nerd House Podcast | Episode 24

[tripleeyejosh]

80 Days is an incredible game that everyone should play at least once. With fantastic writing, incredible depth, and an emphasis on player choice, Inkle Studios have crafted a perfect experience of a video game.

[csidesummit]

So many games about doing a job you won't get paid for. Really puts the whole 'nobody wants to work' thing in perspective.

[blank-house]

Keyframes: First Summer Kickstarter is Live!

Finals are hell but some chance encounters might help smooth the stress over. Enjoy the last bit of Spring as a College Sophomore in this amare, slice-of-life visual novel!

💐 Keyframes: Summer Kickstarter Page 💐

[ ◉ ¯]

Hoooo boy! The kickstarter is finally live! Woo!

I've been trying to think of something sentimental to say since this is a bit of a monumental milestone-- even if it is just the start of the campaign ^^,-- but the nerves, haha they're making it really hard to wax poetics right now.

So I'll just say this straight up! On behalf of the team, thank you for being here with us! The fanarts, the love notes in our inboxes, the theories (oh my god the theories ahsdlkasdh)-- everything that came out of your sincere support and passion for Keyframes thus far has uplifted us like no other! So even if the next 30 days is unbeknownst to us all, thank you for giving us the energy to start this campaign optimistically.

Till the next post,

(BLANK) House

[ ◉ ¯]

Video credits goes to elliot*!

Play Keyframes: First Spring on itch!

[boss-poss]

See, Lethal Company's real genius is that it somehow marries two normally opposed genres, those being horror and comedy together into something greater. Mechanically it's a multiplayer looter extraction survival type game. It's designed to create stressful and scary situations by forcing you to speedrun mini randomized dungeons while monsters hunt your character to meet a certain quota (our asses are not making quota). That's not the clever part though, no, that's giving the players the ability to fuck themselves over and the hilarity that comes from it.

Anything you say into your mic is said in the game world and can be heard by certain monsters. Many items, similarly, can be used to make noise and you can bet there is little impulse control when a player finds an air horn or gets a walkie talkie. The sound of a distant honk somewhere out of nowhere is not something most players are prepared for while in a pitch black maze. Sound in this game has a doppler effect, which makes it harder to hear the further away the source is, allowing screams to fade into nothing and unintelligible yelling heard for a second before vanishing. You must rely on your senses but those are, by design, limited and regularly tricked.

Because level layouts, monster locations, and item spawns are all random, it's insanely easy to get lost or lose track of thigs, especially in the dark and especially when panicking. Seeing a bracken for the first time will almost certainly send a player running in the opposite direction and get lost, if they even see it all. No one is prepared to have a hand wrap around their face and snap their neck in an instant. It's utterly shocking and will leave you gasping in surprise to first time you experience it.

Certain weather patterns make levels harder, some even nearly impossible (looking at you eclipse), and sometimes your options are avoiding deadly lightning or not being able to see due to fog. High level moons have excessively valuable loot but also feature the worst foes and cost a fee to access, forcing a compromise between greed, ability, and resources.

Dying, likewise incurs a penalties. Your team is fined for dying and not bringing the bodies back but if you all die, all your collected loot goes poof. Gone. A team wipe can and will effectively end the run in an instant if you do something stupid like stick around when you hear "pop goes the weasel" or try to pick up that funny looking roomba. You can almost feel the pressure weighing down on your shoulders when you realize you're the last one left and you need to get back to the ship or miss the quota.

The monsters likewise, are engines of terror that are comically effective killing machines with no cohesive theme to help anticipate them. The already mentioned bracken is one of the scariest things I've seen in a game, and those technically aren't even that bad. They're completely manageable if you keep your head on a swivel and pay attention to your surroundings. Coilheads are these mannequins with bobble heads that will path to and kill you in a microsecond the moment you aren't looking at them, weeping angel style. There's a thing called the ghost girl that I have yet to see but is apparently one of the most terrifying critters in the menagerie. Forest giants. If you know, you know.

All these little mechanics, these choices that are made by and for the player, create a maelstrom of unpredictable chaos that, like a buxom blond transforming into an orgasming pooltoy, turns what would be strictly serious horror into a unique form of dark comedy that layers over it like jelly on peanut butter. You are scared, you are on edge, and it only gets worse when you know what these things are capable of, but the sheer hopelessness is something you all have in common. It's funny how little hope you have. You will die. A monster will wipe your team. There will eventually come a quota you can't beat. You were doomed from the start.

So why not get silly with it? Why not try to fight that bracken with shovel? Fuck him. Why not just run past a turret and try to nab that fat jar of pickles? Why not wander off from the group? You're just as likely to come back with arms loaded and the quota met as you are likely to not come back at all. You're already dead, so take the gamble, do stupid shit, repeat this hell until you can meet its horrors with grim determination and put in the effort to afford that goddamn boombox. Dance. Just press 1 and dance the fear away.

You are all united in your mortality and duty, fragile sacks of flesh working to break even at the behest of perhaps the greatest horror of all: The company you work for. You are so preposterously fucked beyond all belief from every angle there really isn't enough adjectives to describe it. And that's comedy baby, when things are so bad all you can do is laugh.

[staypuff]

try my popsicles boy

You only get one if you play my game demo though.

If you show me that you got all secrets on the title screen and you tell me your favorite scene, I'll make you a popsicle of anyone! Your very own poorly executed licensed character ice cream of any entity (or yourself!)

[3liza]

i don't understand why Tumblr is so into Mouthwashing. a dozen nearly-identical indie games come out every financial quarter. i actually thought the playthrough I watched was pretty alright, but it really lacked focus and coherence in a lot of areas which is usual for indie games of that type. I really recommend the YouTube channel Alpha Beta Gamer if you want to hear about these kinds of games.

[ganondoodle]

not to start this again but, could you imagine if hades 2 took place in tartarus and the other exact same stages again and just added a few more rocks and the only new stages were all same looking 3 rooms, added a few more NPCs but got rid of others with no explanation to be found, recolored some enemies, showed you the same cutscene 4-5 times that only contained information you already knew, cluttered the world with meaningless collectibles, had the most bland story entirely unconnected to the first part, undid anything that happened in teh game at the end, acted like the story of hades 1 never happened/mattered AND it cost 10 bucks more than the first?

and then if i said that it hardly feels like a proper sequel/i criticise it i get people telling me im wrong bc it definitely is a sequel bc its called that and an NPC couple has a kid now? that im stupid and just hate everything jsut because?

thats totk to me .__.

[annelidist]

i am making a list of Contraption-Based Games - that is to say, games that are primarily about the process of engagement with one or more Contraptions. for our purposes, a contraption is defined as a manmade device of significant interactive complexity; engaging with it is an involved, multiple-step process, and it does something interesting if operated correctly.

to give some illustrative examples, the list currently includes riven, iron lung, and quadrilateral cowboy. there are definitely a lot of games falling into this category that i'm unaware of. please write in if you have one in mind!

[kekeke32]

TOUCHSTARVED trailer theme theory??

Hi guys, hi everyone. Hope we’re doing well!

SO the full version of the trailer theme is finally out on YouTube and holy shit??? It goes so HARD!!! Give it a listen here.

After rewatching it over and over again, I noticed something so I’ll map out which lyrics appear with which character for y’all to see:

Wish I could’ve added more ss but I’m on the mobile app 🥲 Anyways, I really don’t think the dev team added the characters photos randomly ‘cause check this out:

In Ais’s part, the lyrics are about a certain weakness (ik the lyrics “my weakness” refer to a person but I chose to ignore that jskdksk) and survival. This may be a reach BUT doesn’t this reminds you of Ais’s official character description? Specifically of this part: “Ais seems capable of curing you...but a sick sense of dread surrounds him. He's beginning to suspect that he may not be as in control of his powers as he thought. Can you save each other, or will he drag you down to the abyss with him?" This so-called “weakness” could be his very own powers and he’ll need the player to help him, to “survive”.

Now, about Vere’s part, I don’t have much to say tbh other than the fact that the lyrics “Cause everytime we touch” appear for the first time in his part and I guess you could say it’s related to his frequenting at the brothel? (iykwim 😏) Oh! And you could also see him being touched by a lot of different hands in the trailer. Besides that, his part ends with the lyrics “need you by my side” sung softly by the singer hmm…

Kuras’s part on the other hand, starts strongly (I suck balls at describing music so pls listen 4 urselves, you’ll know what I mean😭) and at 1:59 mins the lyrics are “Cause everytime we touch” then his face darkens a little and it stars an instrumental interlude. I don’t know what that really means but he’s sus

Mhin’s part is sung very softly as well and the lyrics “We’ve been through them all. You make me rise when I fall” are so sweet more so because I think in their route they’ll open up more to the player after going together through incomprehensible horrors and we’ll learn how to support each other <33

Finally, Leander’s part!! Now, LISTEN. His part is the reason why I even made this post in the first place lmao This mf is way too sus but first of all, the building synth progression at 2:58???? oh my god I got CHILLS. literal chills. *ahem* Moving on, his part, starts strongly the same as Kuras’s part did. Their parts are the only ones sung like that… Weird, huh? Anyway, after the lyrics “I can’t let you go. Want you in my life” at 3:49, the song gets SUPER intense and starts sounding very desperate ig?? (kudos to Dan! love his voice frfr) and Leander’s part ends with “Need you by my side”. Okayy y'all… Y'ALL. THIS IS CRAZY. In his part we have both the lyrics "I can't let you go. Want you in my life" AND "I want this to last. Need you by my side". AHHHH Leander you obsessed little bitch (affectionate)

In conclusion, there’s no fucking way the red spring team didn’t assign the certain parts of the lyrics very and I mean VERY purposefully to each LI. The parts suit them specifically well so I highly doubt it’s random but it could also just be me reading too much into this

Whatever!!! Good morning/Good night to this fandom only ^_^

[haywirehorse]

scary.....ly pretty lady

[psychhound]

[ID: a banner for a game. it is light tan with a crumpled paper texture, and reads "with breath & sword" in large blue font, and "a solo-journaling game that helps you fight anxiety as you fight monster" below it in smaller font. there is lineart of gauntlets lying over a sword with some flowers at the bottom. end ID]

You find yourself tied to the monsters. The scratchy feeling in your chest. The way your hands tremble. The sweat that dots your upper lip when your senses are telling you a monster is close, again, now, and it’s your job to fight it. To stand up for your ideals and stand up to the threat. Whether you tame it, or this is truly a monster that needs to be slain, only time will tell.

 You know you will succeed. You always have before. But that doesn’t mean it won’t be a challenge.

 Grab your gear. Put on your boots. You know how to find it. You know what to do.

 First, you just need to steady yourself.

[ID: a page spread from the game. it shows "step four" on one side, which goes over the five aspects of the game's oracle. on the other side it shows the first oracle component, where something you can taste determines what your heroic core is. the page is minimally designed, with a blue border and text on a white background, tan accents, and one image of a dragon. end ID]

With Breath & Sword is a solo-journaling TTRPG to help players combat anxiety. 

In the game, you play as a monster-fighter, who is being summoned once again due to the presence of a new monster. Each time a monster appears, you struggle with the emotional effects of the magic: effects that look a lot like anxiety. You must steady yourself before you go off to fight: in the game and in real life.

Over the course of WB&S, players will participate in grounding methods and breathing techniques to calm themselves from an anxiety attack. These methods also serve as the game's oracle in order to determine how the story goes. 

What You'll Need:

A safe space to play 

A method of writing or recording

[ID: a page spread from the game. it is the section called "the science" and goes over the psychology behind the 5-4-3-2-1 grounding technique, the 4-7-8 breathing method, and destroying journaling. it has a few lines about narrative and play therapy, and that the creator of the game used these methods in his social work with neurodivergent teens and adults. end ID]

check out the game on itch now!!

[dinkythings]

Our latest game, Best Served Cold, just got announced!

Best Served Cold is a bartending murder mystery visual novel all about building relationships with a colourful cast of characters, mixing drinks to ply your patrons and gathering clues to solve cases along the way... all set in a speakeasy in an alt-history eastern Europe.

This is the third game I've had the pleasure to (art) direct, but as I'm sure you can imagine... this one is near and dear to my heart like nothing has ever been before. I've no doubt you will all fall in love with this world, story and characters as much as I have.

Check it out (and wishlist!) on steam!

[beatcroc]

sit next to me right now.

now listen to me young man, i am talking directly into your ear now. i need you to do me a favor. you will do this for me. i need you to go to thegameawards.com, and i need you to vote in this bastard of a contest for pizza tower as best debut indie game. if it does not win youll be in big trouble mister. you will never see the light of day.

[dingyhongy]

evolution of the indie game protagonist outfit