Indietiative

Indie Game Impressions | Hidden Gems

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Want to submit a game?

As I am trying to give more Indies some exposure, I decided on more quick impressions for Indie Games, instead of full blown reviews. I am currently still working on writing impressions for the 2020 Itch.io Racial Justice Bundle, but I would like to continue this endeavor beyond those games. If you are interested in sharing your game with me so I can write some impressions, send me a mail/copy to: [email protected] And in general, thanks and my hat off to you for being awesome and working on your dreams. <3 Regards, Marco

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10 Indie Game Hidden Gems You Haven’t Played

Youtube Link: https://youtu.be/e5_9i90iPcI

Another 10 fantastic games that I hope you will get to enjoy! I might be a bit slower with my video output and review content for a while, but your support and interest in this content is hugely appreciated!

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Crystal Control II

Where to buy: Itch.io | Steam Price: $4,99

Its mainly a 2 player versus battle with a rather interesting combat mechanic. You are shooting projectiles which ultimately will let you win a round if you hit the other player. However, you dont only try to shoot the other player, but additionally activate lamps for your sides, which will then also shoot bullets for you until your opponent thakes them over again, resulting in a fun little challenging avoiding bullets while setting up the lamps yourself. Its relatively straight forward, but works well, has very nice sprites and background art and a simple highscore singleplayer mode, where you can practice the use of the charge shots and size of hit boxes, even if its clearly not the main focus of the game. Even if it feels a bit simple, its worth looking into for the vs mode. 2,5/5

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Tales from Windy Meadow

Where to buy: Itch.io | Steam Price: $7,99

A very down to earth visual novel with an incredibly beautiful animated pixel art style. It tells the story of 3 individual characters and the people around them. Its actually rather refreshing to read a visual novel that doesnt focus on crazy vampire fights or love interests, but instead explores very normal dilemmas and subtle drama surrounding these flawed and very relatable characters. The wording feels a bit off and its not particularly "exciting", but the game does a great job bring this world and its characters to life through real situations and a very believable world. If you are in the mood to listen a somber tale, Windy Meadow has a few to tell. 3,5/5

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Flat Form Fighter

Where to buy: Itch.io Price: $4,44

Its an arena fighter that is very close to Smash Bros including some of the character moves and combat mechanics (stage out for % damage). The movement, combat seems a bit unpolished and its hard not to compare the game to its main inspiration, so that might affect my judgment a bit. It has a decent variety of fighters, decent enough AI opponents to start with and as all arena fighting games should be pretty fun with friends. It has a lot of competition even in the Indie space, but still... its basically Smash Bros, so yeah its fun if you have a few people around even if I wish it had more of its own identity. 3/5

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Roll+Heart

Where to buy: Itch.io | Steam Price: $9,99

Enjoyable visual novel with an actual strategy game built in. One part of the game will have you navigate the relationships of your newfound Tabletop group in real life, while the second part is about traversing a land of goblins and orcs and having a good amount of actual tabletop strategy combat to play. Its a bit unpolished and I encountered quite a few bugs, but its a charming idea and I applaud it for combining the visual novel genre with actual strategic gameplay mechanics, even if they are still a bit on the easy side to not get in the way of the visual novel elements. Fun game despite its bugs. 3/5

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Cope Island: Adrift

Where to buy: Itch.io | Steam Price: $4,99

Its a mix of a short turnbased classic JRPG and Roguelike, in which every run might present you with different weapons, which will completely change your approach to combat. The weapon based combat system (Any weapon you find will give you access to special moves) is simple but carefully balanced so you will need to judge the situation for every combat turn, giving it enough tension to keep the player engaged. The game also offers a good amount of replayability by unlocking more secrets on sequential playthroughs, giving it a particular air of mystery that really does well to pique the players curiosity. Despite seeming rather simple at first, it actually is quite the unique little game that is unlike any other game I can think of. 3,5/5

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The Guilt and the Shadow

Where to buy: Itch.io | Steam Price: $8,99

Atmospheric puzzle platformer that draws you in with its great hand drawn pencil artstyle and fantastic animations. The puzzles arent particularly inventive, but its easy to get invested into the psychological situation of the main character diving in and out of his fantasy world due to its fantastic atmosphere. Its simple and you mostly do some walking in the game, but if mood and contemplation are aspects that are high on your priority list, this would definitely be worth checking out. 3,5/5

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Super Dunkman

Where to buy: Itch.io Price: $4,99

Fun local Multiplayer madness. Bounce against your opponents, grab the ball, dunk it through the hoop, win. The premise is simple, the controls easy to pick up and and understand and the ensuing quick paced mindgame is as much unpredictable as its unadultered fun. If you throwthis up with a few friends, you are sure to get people cheering. The game unfortunately was never finished and some graphics and AI balancing is a bit rough, but even in its current state worth checking out. 3/5

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Blast Rush

Where to buy: Itch.io | Steam Price: $3

Certainly a unique type of a shmup that I ended up enjoying. Your ship shoots constantly but your shots are so weak that they barey hurt the enemies. Solution? Spam your bombs! It works as a gameplay concept, even if it ends up creating some funky design decisions, as you always have a short break in between your bombs in between. Its a subtle change, but it works well enough that it makes you rethink how you approach typical shmup patterns. The game included a ship thats basically an "easy" mode, which is appreciated as everybody can enjoy the game that way. Fun and original, albeit a bit limited in scope and variety. 3/5

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Dawn of a Soul

Where to buy: Itch.io | Steam Price: $3

It is a mathematically based puzzle game, that requires less hard maths and more logical thinking. Every level consists of a pattern of numbers, that can be lined up, while every 6 score points you receive one "skip" that allows you to change to a different color. That in turn also increases your score multiplier, making the game focus a lot on logical deducation about the correct starting points, skip sequences and optimization. Very good and surprisingly enjoyable puzzle game. 3,5/5

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And Yet It Moves

https://brokenrules.itch.io/and-yet-it-moves Price: $10

Groundbreaking game (pun unintended) when it released and I really enjoyed it back then and would have loved to reevaluate it in 2021, so it hurts me that it doesnt work (black screen under Windows 10) and I need to rate it as 0/5

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Il Filo Conduttore

https://playables.itch.io/il-filo-conduttore Price: $1

More an interactive art piece than an actual game, this is a short audiovisual interactive experiment about a conductors string and the effects a single seemingly non-important action can have on the rest of the world. It is unfortunately very short, but absolutely worth checking for its subtle details and gentle auudiovisual cues if you enjoy thinking about modern art. If you do not, then you will likely hate it. I really like it, but I feel its impact is somewhat diminished because of its short length, as it feels like the artist managed to only begin exploring the boundaries of this concept. You definitely should give it a try. 3,5/5

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Ripped Pants at Work

https://scottethington.itch.io/ripped-pants-at-work Price: $3

Simple stealth game in a small city area. You ripped your pants and there are more than a dozen backup pants hidden around the area, which you need to find and put on without being seen. Its an entertaining concept for the novelty factor and knows how to entertain for a few minutes with its ridiculous concept, even if it doesnt have much depth or variety in its gameplay systems. The meta commentary and comments you get to hear from others around you are a well done cute touch, though. 3/5

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Puzlogic

https://ejbarreto.itch.io/puzlogichttps://ejbarreto.itch.io/puzlogic Price: $3

Unique sudoku inspired puzzle game that starts out relatively simple (No number may be located twice in each row) and then adds more elements to it that you need to keep track of and combine to get to the right solution. After a few levels of subtly increasing difficulty, that becomes surprisingly challenging and offers a good bit of number crunching logic fun. The controls are a bit cumbersome, as they require a lot of dragging even for setting reminders and the user interface might work in general better on the mobile version, but even with a mouse, its an incredibly rewarding number puzzle game. If you enjoy that genre, you will very likely enjoy this game too. 4/5

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9 Till Void

https://benal.itch.io/9tillvoid Price: $9

Another puzzle roguelike with quasi-deckbuilding elements and just judging it based on the graphics, you'd be forgiven for not giving it a second thought. The presentation and layout scream first hobby Indie project, but this game offers some seriously clever strategical gameplay decisions to the player. What makes this stand out is how your positioning on the board decides the attack you are able to use. You continuously optimize your row setup by unlocking new varied skills, which open up a ton of strategic and tactical decisions. Add a bit player progression, unlockable characters, several difficulty levels, and this is an unassuming small gem that is very, very easy to overlook and if you have any interest in the genre would definitely be missing out. 4/5

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Teocalli

https://coldrice.itch.io/teocalli Price: $1

Interesting roguelike that does a fantastic job bring its setting to life with just 1-bit graphics. While it initially seemed more of a game relying on its visual gimmick, the game has a unique focus on pattern based combat mechanics that are almost more of a puzzle in nature, than the typical RPG progression. That means you will walk around the rooms anticipating the enemy patterns and then attacking where they are likely to be next turn, making the combat a almost entirely based on positioning and spacing, which was interesting. Unfortunately the level layouts, traps and enemy movement patterns do end up feeling a bit too repetetive in the long run, but Teocalli is the perfect game if you want a quick roguelike fix. 3/5