80 Level picked up some neat little indie gems that you might enjoy.
80 Level picked up some neat little indie gems that you might enjoy.
E3 2019 is over, locking in another record with over 40.000 attendants. This year is a transition year. All the big companies are waiting for the next generation, concealing some of the juiciest new projects. Sony has ignored the conference this year, Nintendo revealed a bunch of games for the current platform. Microsoft was the only brave one in the room, announcing their next-generation console and a new Halo game to justify the purchase.
This relative serenity helped indie games immensely. Now more than ever E3 was full of very interesting projects, which we were happy to learn about. Here’s our little list of fun titles, including some of the great picks from the community groups, which we are monitoring.
Spiritfarer (Thunder Lotus Games)
This is a management game based on the legend of Charon and heavily influenced by Miyazaki feature animation. Your main task is to help the dead traverse a river and safely make it into the afterlife. While traveling you’ll be able to explore the world, build your ferry (you can put buildings on it apparently) and get to know all of the wonderful souls you are transporting. Sounds heavy, but devs say it’s got a very nice soft tone and overall heartwarming atmosphere.
This is what the developer says:
“Spiritfarer is a cozy management game about dying. You play Stella, ferrymaster to the deceased, a Spiritfarer. Build a boat to explore the world, then befriend and care for spirits before finally releasing them into the afterlife. Farm, mine, fish, harvest, cook, and craft your way across mystical seas.”
Unexplored 2: The Wayfarer’s Legacy (Ludomotion)
Frankly, we didn’t even know Unexplored 1 existed. The sequel, on the other hand, does look like something we’d be willing to play. It’s got very nice bright visuals, everything is heavily stylized and beautifully colored. The lighting is gorgeous and the world is procedurally generated. The genre is defined as a roguelike action-RPG. You can support or get access to the current game build on Fig here.
The developer says:
“Unexplored 2: The Wayfarer’s Legacy is a completely different beast than its predecessor. With Unexplored we experimented with new ways of generating procedural dungeons. We wanted levels to feel as though they were designed by hand, rather than by an algorithm.”
Creature in the Well (Flight School Studio)
A neat variation on classic pinball with stylized visuals and unmistakable Hyper Light Drifter vibes. The project is being created by Flight School Studio – a fairly large company with a lot of great talent. The game will be available on Steam and Switch.
This is what the developer says:
“Creature in the Well is a top-down, pinball-inspired, hack-and-slash dungeon crawler. As the last remaining BOT-C unit, venture deep into a desert mountain to restore power to an ancient facility, haunted by a desperate Creature. Uncover and upgrade powerful gear in order to free the city of Mirage from a deadly sandstorm.”
Way to the Woods (Anthony Tan)
We’ve actually seen this game before, but that’s not a reason not to mention it again. A tale of mama and baby deer is beautiful, tender and tearjerking. You also get some cute mechanics, a lush world to explore and some stunning stylized visuals. As for the music, it will be composed by aivi & surasshu, guys known for Steven Universe. Anthony publishes updates on the dev blog which you can find here.
White Noise
This is one of those games that you will never be able to buy. It’s a very neat, condensed action about a determined robot, created by a duo of talented students (Preston McClary and Harry Gray) from Ringling School of Art and Design. Due to the legalities of software licensing, there’s no way these guys can actually sell White Noise on Steam. We do hope that the team will potentially be able to release it for free.
Project Witchstone (Spearhead Games)
CRPG genre is definitely getting a lot of love these days. We have Baldur’s Gate backed by Google, we have games like Pathfinder: Kingmaker pushing the fans to the limit with detailed RPG systems and hardcore difficulty. It seems it’s high time for a new breed of these games to appear.
Meet project Witchstone. It’s an open world project, full of dynamic non-linear narrative stories, complemented by turn-based tactical combat and cool stylized visuals. In the world, the player will be offered numerous option to role-play and affect the environment. It’s as if Blizzard finally did a Warcraft vision of Neverwinter Nights.
The game goes on Kickstarted this year, so keep your eyes open.
Songs of Conquest (Lavapotion)
It’s a turn-based strategy game, inspired by the Heroes of Might and Magic series. Plus it’s got some stunning voxel-like visuals that will definitely capture your heart. Plus, there will be a level editor. The problem is you won’t be able to purchase it this year, however, you can try to apply for the closed alpha here.
What the developer says:
“Combat will be a major part of Songs of Conquest. You’ll recruit troops and your wielders will command them on the battlefield. The wielders harness a magic called “The essence”. By combining your wielders skills with the essence of the troops you get access to powerful spells.”
Carrion (Phobia Game Studio)
We’re incredibly happy to see Carrion finding a publisher in Devolver Digital. It’s a very good match as Devolver really knows how to sell weird games and Carrion is without a doubt a weird project. You play as a flesh-eating blob, that roams around the space station and consumes people. The developers call it “a reverse horror”. The gore is plentiful, but it is subdued by the soft pixel art and beautiful animations.
Tiny Metal: Full Metal Rumble (Hiroaki Yura)
Switch is about to get a new tactical turn-based war game Tiny Metal: Full Metal Rumble. The original project was released on consoles and PC in 2017. The new version is gearing a bunch of additional content and grants you the opportunity to explore it in a portable format. If you liked Advance Wars, this might be just the right tank strategy for you.
Some info from the official website:
“TINY METAL: FULL METAL RUMBLE is the bigger, badder, and more metal sequel to TINY METAL. Tactical war simulation with an all-ages appeal continues with its classic turn-based system that’s easy to understand but difficult to master. Run amok on the battlefield through intense firefights and a carefully crafted story, rich with history and intrigue. Enjoy the simple, yet brilliantly colorful, units on an adventure through a fully voiced story against a backdrop of beautiful music that promises hours of fun! Designed for both casual and hardcore players, FULL METAL RUMBLE encourages everyone to engineer their own battle tactics and outwit their enemies!”
Neyyah (Aaron Gwynaire/Defy Reality Entertainment)
Aaron Gwynaire is building an ambitious point and click puzzle adventure, inspired by Myst series. The main production tools are Blender and Visionaire Studio 5. Unlike many indie Myst clones, this one actually looks very close to the original and features some beautiful visuals. No release date so far. You can support the project on Patreon here.
Three of June (Mike Garn)
This is a 2D platformer, created by Mike Garn. Mike has worked as a concept artist for a while, doing stuff for Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, Call of Duty: Black Ops 3, Star Citizen and Rainbow 6: Siege. He’s a developer now! And here’s the official description of his game:
“THREE OF JUNE is 2D platform shooter video game, taking a modern approach on the genre both in terms of gameplay and graphical pixel art presentation. In the game, a cyber-toy bear reprograms an expired military robot to destroy everything in the way of finding a little girl. The game is built using Unreal Engine 4.”
You can go ahead and check out the official website and watch Mike’s devlog.
Orion: Shadow of Teroba (From Heart We Make)
This is a single player roguelike, create by Clément Pévrier and Stéphane Mercier. There’s a world to explore here, some beautiful NPCs to see and monsters to fight. The main attraction so far is the pixel art, inspired by the Super Nintendo era classics. Follow the developers on Facebook!
How the story starts:
“Orion has fallen…sent out of the god valley by his own brother Arian…Several decades later a mysterious people living on the floating Kardia cubes has disappeared, leaving behind vestiges of the past. In the same time some Jeroba explorers emerge at the earth’s surface to find a new source of Kardia…:
If you think we’ve missed some important games, please leave them in the comments, we’ll try to add them to the net list.