ReportWire

Tag: Jenny Jiao Hsia

  • Old-school platforming, Metroidvania horror and other new indie games worth checking out

    [ad_1]

    Welcome to our latest roundup of what’s going on in the indie game space. As ever, it’s been a busy week of new games arriving and details of upcoming releases emerging. Before we get to some of those though, the nominees for the second annual Indie Game Awards were announced this week.

    There’s a nice mix of big hitters and smaller, but equally worthy titles among the Game of the Year contenders. Those are:

    • Absolum – Dotemu, Guard Crush Games and Supamonks

    • and Roger – TearyHand Studio

    • Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector – Jump Over the Age

    • Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 – Sandfall Interactive

    • Consume Me – Jenny Jiao Hsia, AP Thomson, Jie En Lee, Violet W-P and Ken “coda” Snyder

    • Hades II – Supergiant Games

    • Hollow Knight: Silksong – Team Cherry

    • Keep Driving – YCJY Games

    • Pipistrello and the Cursed Yoyo – Pocket Trap

    Consume Me and and Roger are two I’ve been meaning to check out for a while. I’m also yet to hop into Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, which is arguably the frontrunner here — it’s looking like the favorite for top honors at The Game Awards next month as well.

    There are a whole bunch of worthy contenders in other categories, from hits like Discounty and the charmingly bittersweet Time Flies, to solo-developed projects like Spilled! and Vile: Exhumed. The supremely addictive Ball x Pit picked up a nod, but it’s going against the tremendous Öoo (and Absolum, Hades II and Silksong) in the gameplay design category. It’s neat to see Playdate game Taria & Como earn recognition too.

    The Indie Game Awards ceremony takes place on December 18 at 6:30PM ET. You can watch it on YouTube and Twitch.

    New releases

    The new release I’m most looking forward to trying when I have a chance is Windswept, a precision platformer that’s inspired by similar games from the ’90s like Donkey Kong Country. Marbles the duck and Checkers the turtle each have unique movement abilities, and you’ll need to swap between the pair to best navigate environments. You’ll be trying to help them get back home after a storm whisked them away.

    There are lots of secrets to discover across the 40-plus levels, animal buddies to ride and much more. I grew up with games like this one from WeatherFell and publisher Top Hat Studios, which looks completely up my alley. Windswept is out now on Steam, GOG, Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S for $20.

    The Devolver Digital-published Possessor(s) is something a little different from Hyper Light Drifter studio Heart Machine. This is a horror-inflected Metroidvania and the developers drew inspiration from platform fighters for the combat. Here, high school student Luca forms an alliance with a demon in need of a host following “an interdimensional catastrophe.” They team up to stay alive and discover what led to the disaster.

    As with Heart Machine’s other games, it looks very pretty, but reviews for Possessor(s) — which is out on PS5 and PC — have been fairly mixed so far. Things haven’t exactly been going great for Heart Machine overall. The studio last month laid off staff and ended development of Hyper Light Breaker, which remains in early access.

    As with its earlier game Before Your Eyes, Nice Dream says its latest project, Goodnight Universe, is best played with a camera. There’s the option to interact with the game using your eye movement and facial expressions. That makes a lot of sense for Goodnight Universe, which casts you in the role of a six-month-old baby with psychic powers. Little Isaac just wants familial love, but a shadowy tech corporation is looking to take custody of him.

    Skybound Games is the publisher of Goodnight Universe, which is available on Nintendo Switch 2, PS5, Xbox Series X/S and Steam for $20. A Switch version is coming on December 18, and an update that will bring camera support to the Switch 2 edition is on the way.

    Bonaparte – A Mechanized Revolution is a turn-based strategy game that affords you the chance to shift the outcome of the French Revolution. An opportunity to revolutionize the revolution, as it were. You can defend, depose or even reform the monarchy.

    As the title suggests, you’ll have mechs at your disposal in battle — to that end, this reminds me a bit of the clockpunk soulslike Steelrising, which was also set during the French Revolution. Bonaparte – A Mechanized Revolution, from Studio Imugi and co-publisher 2P Games, left early access on Steam this week. It costs $20.

    Upcoming

    I’m very happy to continue this little run of including a dog game in this roundup every week with something new on the beautifully titled Barkour. As part of Steam Animal Fest (which runs until Monday and includes a sale on games like Tunic and Hello Kitty Island Adventure), Varsav Game Studios unleashed a new trailer and an updated Steam demo.

    Here, you play as Agent T.H.U.N.D.E.R., a special agent with gadgets galore and plenty of bite to go with the bark. On missions, you can play the stealthy way, fight your enemies head on or carry out barkour parkour runs. Varsav Game Studios is hoping to release Barkour in 2026.

    Next up, we have release dates for a pair of cafe sims, starting with Tailside. As a furry cafe owner, you’ll be looking to perfect the art of coffee making so you can serve delicious concoctions to your patrons. You can even create foam art on lattes for an extra-special touch.

    In this game from solo developer Coffee Beans Dev, you can customize your cafe to your liking. There are no timers to worry about, so you can play at your own pace. Tailside is coming to Steam on January 21. A demo is available now.

    As revealed during the State of Play Japan showcase this week, the latest entry in the Coffee Talk series is bound for Steam, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and Nintendo Switch on March 5. Chorus Worldwide Games and Toge Productions’ Coffee Talk Tokyo places you in the role of a barista who hears out their clientele.

    The drinks you make (which you can enhance with sprinkle stencils for latte art) help shape your conversations with customers and have a bearing on the branching storylines. Coffee Talk and Coffee Talk Episode 2 composer Andrew “AJ” Jeremy returned to craft another lo-fi soundtrack for the latest installment.

    A release window for InKonbini: One Store. Many Stories was confirmed during the State of Play Tokyo stream as well. It’s coming to Steam and consoles, including PS5, in April. There’s a Steam demo available now.

    From Nagai Industries, this simulator puts you in the role of a college student and employee of a small-town Japanese convenience store (a konbini) in the early 1990s. You’ll decide which products to sell, and order and restock goods. More importantly, you’ll have to deliver exceptional customer service. That involves having conversations with customers, which will sometimes end up having an impact on their lives. It seems quite lovely.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Hades 2, slot machine horror and other new indie games worth checking out

    [ad_1]

    Welcome to our latest roundup of what’s going on in the indie game space. It’s been a packed week, with tons of new releases worth highlighting and Tokyo Game Show taking place.

    Before we get started, make sure to check out our recap of Kojima Productions’ 10th anniversary showcase if you need to catch up. I can’t quite get my head around how a literal walking sim from Hideo Kojima might work. Sony had a bunch of things to show off during its PlayStation State of Play this week, including a few tasty-looking indies like Chronoscript: The Endless End. So too did Xbox in its Tokyo Game Show stream — Double Dragon Revive looks neat, as does Rhythm Doctor.

    Also, the developers and publishers of several of this week’s arrivals delayed them to get some breathing space from Hollow Knight: Silksong… only to run right into Hades 2. That’s extremely unfortunate. But the teams behind some newcomers — Baby Steps, CloverPit, Aethermancer, Star Birds and Deadly Days: Roadtrip — are doing something about that. They’ve teamed up for a special Steam sale and bundle of their games. Love to see indie developers supporting each other.

    New releases

    Hades 2 is finally out of early access on PC. The full game is now available on Nintendo Switch and Switch 2 as well.

    Reviews have been pretty stellar for Supergiant’s sequel. I played a little of it in early access last year, but decided to hold off getting in too deep until the full version arrived. And, of course, I now have a ton of other games to play. I’ll absolutely spend some time with Hades 2 eventually. But there’s another roguelite that’s soaking up a lot of my time right now…

    I feel grimy when I’m playing CloverPit. I’m imprisoned in a tiny, rusty, metallic room that wouldn’t look out of place in Silent Hill‘s Otherworld. I have a debt to pay and deadlines to meet, with some coins, lucky charms and a slot machine to help me reach my goals and hopefully escape. Failure means plunging into a dark abyss.

    Whenever I haven’t been playing EA Sports FC 26 in my free time, I willingly keep returning to this disgusting cell. I try desperately to find synergies between the lucky charms to break the slot machine and make sure I earn enough coins to resolve the arrears. Offers made by telephone, almost Deal or No Deal-style, can help while perhaps adding a greater risk of losing all my coins.

    Panik Arcade has stressed that this is a horror game, not a gambling simulator. The whole idea is to bend the rules in your favor. 

    I haven’t yet had a successful run. I did pretty well a few times with builds focused on cherries and diamonds, though deadline 11 has remained out of reach for me thus far. No spoilers here, but there’s a big jump from the 10th deadline’s debt level. 

    The game is incredibly sticky, and I can see myself sinking many, many more hours into CloverPit. (I won’t be alone there. I just watched a video of someone who put 155 hours into the demo.)

    CloverPit, which is published by Future Friends Games, is out now on Steam. 

    I had fun with the Baby Steps demo this summer, but after looking forward to this literal walking simulator for a couple of years, I realize that I’m more likely to watch a YouTube video of someone playing it than try to beat it myself. I’d probably do that on a treadmill so I can get my own steps in at the same time.

    This is the latest game from Bennett Foddy (QWOP, Getting Over It), Gabe Cuzzillo and Maxi Boch, who previously made Ape Out together. It sees “an unemployed failson” being forced to get up off his rear end and make it to the peak of a mountain. To take Nate there, you’ll need to pick up one foot and move it onto (hopefully) stable ground before moving his other leg, taking one clumsy step at a time to reach his destination.

    Baby Steps is supposed to be as funny as it is frustrating. You will fall. A lot. Sometimes in a way that erases much of your progress. But as with working out, progress is the point. If only Nate would actually use his damn arms for stability as well. Then you might really start to see some results.

    Baby Steps is out now on Steam and PS5.

    I’ve had my eye on Bloodthief for a while. It’s a vampiric, medieval take on fast-paced dungeon running in the vein of Ghostrunner with Ultrakill-style murdering. A solo developer who goes by Blargis is behind this game, which hit Steam this week.

    Giving so much of my attention to CloverPit and don’t-call-it-FIFA (and a few others we’ll get to momentarily) means I haven’t much time to check out Bloodthief yet. Still, I look forward to being as terrible at it as I am at Ghostrunner 2.

    One of the highlights of Playdate Season 2 is Blippo+, a parody of cable TV. The FMV experience from Yacht, Telefantasy Studios, Noble Robot and publisher Panic has moved into the color TV age, as it’s now available on Nintendo Switch and Steam.

    As you channel surf the otherworldly broadcasts and observe the offbeat alien TV personalities doing their thing, you might start to piece together a deeper story that’s playing out across the shows and news programs. Blippo+ is such a strange, wonderful thing. I’m glad it exists and that more people have the chance to enjoy it.

    Consume Me is a coming-of-age life sim about a student who is entering her last year of high school and dealing with the stress and complexity of that painful time. For Jenny, that means managing chores (such as laundry and walking the dog), her studies, dates with her boyfriend and an eating disorder. Time management is a key factor, and you’ll try to stay on top of everything by playing minigames.

    Consume Me, which is based in part on co-developer Jenny Jiao Hsia’s own experiences as a teenager, won the Seamus McNally Grand Prize at this year’s Independent Games Festival. AP Thomson, Jie En Lee, Violet W-P and Ken “coda” Snyder are the other developers of the game, which Hexecutable published. Consume Me is out now on Steam for PC and Mac.

    Hotel Barcelona brought together two famed game directors, Swery (Hidetaka Suehiro), of Deadly Premonition fame and No More Heroes creator Suda51 (Goichi Suda). The latter came up with the concept for this game, which Swery announced all the way back in 2019. So the roguelite had been in the works for quite some time before it checked in to PC and consoles this week.

    Here, you’ll fight your way through a hotel that serial killers have overrun. You can rope in a couple of friends to help you thanks to multiplayer support. In the style of many FromSoftware titles, you’ll also have the option to invade other players’ games and play spoiler by taking them out and undoing their progress. That seems really mean, though. I don’t know why anyone would do that.

    Hotel Barcelona, from Swery’s White Owls Inc. and publisher Cult Games, is out now on Steam, Xbox Series X/S and PS5. 

    Upcoming 

    Annapurna Interactive is always a publisher worth paying attention to given its strong track record. This week, it revealed three upcoming adventure games during a showcase at Tokyo Game Show. I checked out demos for a couple of them, and I’ve already added all three to my wishlist.

    D-topia is set in an apparent utopia run by artificial intelligence. You play as a maintenance worker who tries to keep things humming along by solving logic puzzles in the factory and helping out others with their problems. Your choices decide how the story plays out and, shock horror, things might not be going entirely smoothly behind the scenes.

    I dig the very clean look here. It reminds me a bit of Mirror’s Edge. The dialogue in the demo is fun too. Expect to see this narrative-driven puzzler from Marumittu Games land on Steam, Epic Games Store, Nintendo Switch, Switch 2, PS5, Xbox Series X/S and Windows PC via the Xbox App in 2026.

    Also coming to Steam, Epic Games Store, PS5, Xbox Series X/S and Windows PC via the Xbox App next year is People of Note by Iridium Studios. This is billed as a “musical narrative adventure” that sees pop singer Cadence seeking stardom with the help of other musicians who specialize in other genres. You’ll need to time your attacks to the beat to make them more effective, while genres play a role in making battles more dynamic. 

    Turn-based combat generally isn’t my bag and I didn’t enjoy it in this demo either. However, Iridium wants people to be able to play the game their way. People of Note will include the option to disable things like turn-based combat and environmental puzzles. That immediately makes the game more appealing to me, especially because I like what I’ve seen of the world, story and characters. The promise of “full-length cinematic musical sequences” sure sounds good to me too.

    The third game Annapurna showed off is Demi and the Fractured Dream. I haven’t had a chance to try the demo for this one as yet, but it looks like a Zelda-esque action adventure with environmental puzzles, platforming and plenty of hacking and slashing. As Demi, a cursed hero who is trying to save the world by slaying a trio of Accursed Beasts, you’ll have a variety of tools and spells at your disposal. Time your dodges just right, and you’ll power up your next set of attacks. 

    This game from Yarn Owl is coming to Steam, Epic Games Store, Nintendo Switch, Switch 2, PS5, Xbox Series X/S and Windows PC via the Xbox App in 2026.

    This week’s State of Play included a gameplay trailer for Halloween, from IllFonic and co-publisher Gun Interactive. We also got a release date for it. The horror game is coming to PlayStation, Xbox, Steam and Epic Games Store on September 8, 2026. Why it’s not dropping in late October is beyond me.

    This is an asymmetric multiplayer game in the vein of Friday the 13th: The Game (also from IllFonic and Gun) and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, which Gun published. Three teammates will play as civilians who are trying to save the intended NPC victims of Jason Voorhees. If you’d rather go it alone, though, you can terrorize Haddonfield, Illinois as the legendary killer in a single-player mode.

    [ad_2]

    Source link