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Tag: Indie of the Week

  • Gambler’s Table Review: Can’t Stop Flipping, Won’t Stop Flipping

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    I have two monitors on my desk. Normally, the left one is reserved for work chat, and the other I use for writing and for checking the web. But lately, something else has been hanging out in the corner of my left monitor: Gambler’s Table, a new idle coin-flipping game out now on Steam, that I can’t stop playing.

    The goal of Gambler’s Table is to click a coin to flip it over. And then flip it again. And then again. And again. And again. When this coin lands with the money symbol facing up, you get a dollar. When it lands heads up, showing a skull, you get a skull point that can be used to buy hats.

    Don’t worry about that. Just keep flipping. Quickly, you’ll have enough money to buy a second coin to flip. And then a third coin. A fourth coin. That’s a lot of coins to flip by yourself!

    Don’t worry, Gambler’s Table has little minion men you can buy who will also flip coins for you. As you rack up more money, you can buy upgrades that make coins flip faster and increase their profit per flip. Eventually, you’ll get silver coins. And gold coins. Before long, you’ll be waving your cursor around to flip dozens of coins in seconds, thanks to an upgrade that removes the need for clicking. Earn enough money, and a skill point will be provided, offering a powerful upgrade that is permanent. Then you can wipe the whole table to start over, earning even more money and getting another skill point in the process. Repeat…forever?

    A part of me understands that what I’m doing is mindless and that I’m only doing it because, like so many gamers, I have a need to see numbers go up. And yet, I keep flipping coins, building up a massive amount of money, wiping the table clean of all coins and minions, and starting over. Every so often, I stop and use my skull points to buy a new hat for my minion. It’s my treat to them for flipping coins. Then I catch them resting on the job and have to give them a hard poke to get them back to work. Coins won’t flip themselves, you know? We all have a job to do here at Gambler’s Table.

    In fact, I’m wasting a lot of time right now writing this when I could be over there, on my other screen, flipping coins. My minion boys are doing it. But if I helped them, things would go so much faster. So I’m done telling you about Gambler’s Table. I don’t have any time to tell you about its incredibly smooth animations and wonderful coin-flipping noises. Nor can I talk about the sillier upgrades that are available later, and the wonderful effect that happens when you wipe the table clean for a new run. I have coins to flip, damn it. Now leave me be.

    Editor’s note: In the hours since receiving this blog from Zack, we’ve not heard from him. Emails and texts have been ignored. His wife called and said the door to his basement office is locked, but she can hear a clicking noise and what sounds like someone humming “Flip…flip…flip…flip.” We are hopeful Zack will return soon.

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    Zack Zwiezen

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  • Oddcore Is A Trippy, Fun, And Very Good Backrooms FPS

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    Liminal spaces and the “backrooms” have become overused concepts on the internet, with people labeling any room or area that is even slightly off as some creepy space. It’s annoying and tiring. But I still like the idea of eerie, dead areas hidden in our world in places like forgotten hallways and empty hotel rooms. I also like fast-paced boomer shooters that feel great. So I’m a big fan of the newly released indie FPS Oddcore, which mashes all of this stuff up into one stylish game.

    Out now on Steam via early access, Oddcore doesn’t have much setup. One moment you’re hanging out in a room in your house, watching TV, before you suddenly clip through reality and enter a strange multidimensional hubworld called Oddcore that acts as a demented spin on a theme park. Sort of. It’s all very, well, dare I say…odd! Though it’s unclear why you’ve ended up here or what “here” even means, it doesn’t really matter much once you get past the tutorial. All that matters is lasting as long as you can as you hop between different liminal spaces and strange dimensions, killing all the bizarre monsters you encounter along the way with guns, swords, special abilities, and much, much more.

    What kind of game is Oddcore?

    The basic loop in Oddcore involves you hopping into a space and then completing an objective. It might be to kill 10 enemies. Or collect seven strange items. Or to survive a corruption ambush that sends deadly giant faces at you. You know, the usual stuff. Survive, and you hop to a new place and repeat. Killing enemies earns you souls, which can be spent to extend how much time you have before your run ends or to heal you via shooting your own feet. Between every few worlds, there are vending machines that let you upgrade your gear or abilities, and random boxes that contain power-ups and other useful specials.

    Survive long enough, and you’ll earn tokens which can be spent in various ways. I spent most of mine at a slot machine inside a large arcade in the hub world. That slot machine spit out tickets if I got lucky, and I could use those to buy other pieces of gear. There’s actually a lot going on in Oddcore, and after just an hour or so of playing, I could feel it start to pull me into its web. I wanted to do just one more run…earn just a few more tokens…play just a little bit more.

    It also helps that Oddcore has primo aesthetics. It’s got that retro boomer shooter look I’ve come to expect from these kinds of games in 2026, but augments that with monsters and locations that seem out of place. I recommend turning on the VHS filter as it covers all of the strange art and retro visuals in cozy scanlines that add to the experience. But even without the VHS filter, Oddcore is a damn fine indie shooter that will hopefully only get bigger and better as it makes its way through early access.

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    Zack Zwiezen

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  • Light Up The Town Is A Cozy Game For Christmas Light Lovers

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    I love this time of year. Cozy weather. Tasty cookies and warm cocoa. Festive events in games. And of course, all the Christmas lights hanging on houses, businesses, and elsewhere. In particular, I have a soft spot for all the colorful lights that get hung up during December. They just look so magical at night and fill me with nostalgic feelings. What can I say? I’m a sucker for plastic lights.

    So when I randomly discovered Light Up the Town, a newly released cozy indie game all about decorating a wintry small town with Christmas lights, I immediately installed it and happily discovered a wonderful holiday treat that I can’t stop playing.

    Out now on Steam, Light Up the Town has a super simple premise. You play as a young anthropomorphized ferret named Bean who is going through some stuff. His father, in an effort to lift his spirits, asks Bean to follow in his own footsteps and handle lighting up the entire small Colorado town of Bellflower. If he does this, he’ll get a new bike for Christmas. There’s more going on, but I’ll leave that for you to discover on your own. The narrative isn’t bad at all, but it’s not why you should play Light Up the Town. The real reason is that decorating this snow-covered town with various Christmas lights and decorations is sublime.

    In real life, putting up lights across multiple buildings, roofs, and interiors can be a hassle of tangled cables, extension cords, and broken bulbs. Light Up the Town doesn’t include any of that. Instead, you are able to fling strings of lights in different colors and shapes across large distances like a Christmas Jedi. You can also undo your actions and cut light strings whenever you want, letting you create massively long or incredibly short strings of light. Also, don’t worry about plugs or running cords. Lights just work, regardless of where you put them. Is this realistic? Nope! And I love it. It’s all the joy of hanging lights up and making a home glow without the hassle or headaches the process can create in the real world.

    ©Meadow Studios / Kotaku

    Light Up the Town’s decorating controls are finicky at times, but mostly work great and let you quickly cover areas in lights and other decorations, like presents, candy canes, and more. I recommend playing in first-person mode, but regardless of what view you pick, the end result of putting up all these lights is always magical. The lighting in this game is phenomenal and changes based on how you decorate. Cover a house in just a few white lights? The glow will be softer and dimmer. Fill a room with 20 strings of red and green lights? You’ll create a vibrant Christmas rave. As you hang up lights, look for coins to collect. These can be spent at stores to unlock more varieties of lights and new decoration items.

    Each time I stepped back after putting up lights for an hour or so, I’d find myself lingering the same way I do in real life when spotting Christmas lights at night. Light Up the Town truly nails the festive and cozy vibes of a cold, dark night in December filled with thousands of tiny bright lights in the snow. For fans of the holiday season, put on your favorite festive songs, make a hot beverage, grab a blanket, and then dive into Light Up the Town. Just set a timer so you don’t spend your whole night decorating.

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    Zack Zwiezen

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