Gotta start somewhere, right?
The Guerrilla Games showcase this year had trailers for like, 60 games, or something, and no woman can play 60 games. Who do you think I am, Santa? You think I can slow time to infinity when I need it? So I’ve done you a little roundup of the games that caught my eye this time. There’s some action, some horror and some puzzles. Fun for all the family!
Needless to say (though I’ll say it) this is a very subjective list, and it’s not to say that all the other games featured were bad at all. I recommend you take a look at theSteam Event pagefor a longer (though still not exhaustive) list. But this’ll give you a place to start!
This is a weirdo one, right off the bat. It’s brand new, and comes from Strange Scaffold (Xalavier Nelson Jr.’s studio, who, disclosure, used to write a lot for us). You explore a forest from a top down, grid perspective to carve a path through it and kind of decide what you want to do with it. There’s interesting stuff to do with how the cursor controls, as I am told you “use your mouse to swipe quickly through raging rapids or inch forward to avoid being swallowed by quicksand - as you decide whether to make this a better place or strangle it.” Read Katharine’sbig interview with Xalavierto find out more about it.
What is it?Appliance-based retro horror anthologyWho made it?5Word Team, tinyBuildWhen’s it out?TBA
Ialready wrote about this one tonightcos I thought it looked well cool. I’m into horror anthologies, and really love the grubby, retro style of this one. Plus the fridge angle is weird and cool, right?
What is it?Ugly-lovely RPG where you appear to play as a Monty Python character??Who made it?Black Tower Basement, Nordcurrent LabsWhen’s it out?Coming Soon
Honestly I kind of don’t know entirely what this is - like, I know it’s an RPG where you get increasingly glorious loot and fight incredibly unsettling monsters, and I know you somehow do everything with your mouse. But I don’t knowwhat it is. I can tell you one thing sure as mustard, though: I bloody love when someone puts loads of effort into being able to make incredible, beautiful things with 2D pixelart and then makes absolute bag-of-spanners monstrosities. Face God and walk backwards into hell, my friends.
In this late-stage capitalism sim (with a bizarrely stacked cast of actors I really like) you play the actual last human worker in an otherwise automated warehouse of talking robots. We are promised “rich characters performed by an all-star cast in a story filled with heartfelt drama, biting satire, and intense action” and “hand-painted 3D art” but I’m here for the unionisation, pals.
What is it?Pokémon but you make your own monsters by smashing two things togetherWho made it?Bytten Studio, Raw FuryWhen’s it out?Coming Soon
Just a couple of weeks ago I was on our podcast talking about how I wish you could smash two things together and get a third, new thing! In Cassette Beasts, an RPG adventure in the same vein as Pokémon, you build you gang of fighting pets by combining any two of the 120 creature sprites on offer. Gotta say, I’m excited for the possibilities with this one.
