Games I played for my Indie Night streams!
A lovingly crafted storytelling experience that aims to creatively and still respectfully share the true stories of others with the wider world. The creators talked to real people who experienced real events in their lives, both uplifting... and traumatic.
I found myself on a walk through laughter, sorrow, anger, disgust, hesitation, empathy, frustration, and compassion. You will find yourself having to decide between difficult moral decisions, and facing grim realities. But you will also find time to breathe, experience humour and joy. You may even come to learn the value of dark humour and why it exists.
So many experiences, so much emotion... and it all takes place on a remote little island called 'Elk'.
Some of the stories and visuals may be difficult to swallow, so I will warn you that if you are a highly sensitive individual (that's okay!) or have major triggers, you will want to proceed with caution. The creators used an incredibly respectful approach to re-telling these stories, in a way that does not reveal identities of the anonymous, while not taking away from their emotions and lessons.
Having said that, I highly recommend this journey.
Content Warning: Topics and some visual references of self-harm, suicide, discrimination, murder, pet death, and deadly accidents.
This is just the demo. You can find the full version on Steam, as well as part of the Humble Games Collection!
This delightful little game scratches every single itch an adventurer-crafter would ever have; foraging (obviously), mining, farming, mobs, bosses, collecting, crafting, automating, achievements with rewards, tool and weapon upgrades, pets, and more! All in one neat little bundle with very satisfying game feel!
It does all this without the clutter of upgrade trees or complicated UI by choosing a more simple and clean design that doesn't overwhelm the player. For example; your tools, gear, and their upgrades are not part of your inventory. Instead, they are part of a sort of 'passive effect collection' instead. When you upgrade a tool in a crafting station, you don't see a big messy tree, it's just whatever the next upgrade up is. This design choice means your inventory isn't half taken up by all your tools and variants, and finding what you want to craft is much more efficient.
I ended up playing more of this game in the past few days because of how good it is. Definitely pick it up if you can!
Another gem by Daniel Linssen, creator of the games "Sandstorm" and "Reap". This is less a game, more an 'experience'. A person walking by may think that it's just a relaxing simulation of pixel planets that you can manipulate the climates of, but clearly there is something more to be discovered here.
Another classic by one of my favourite creators, 'Vectorpark'. As the alias implies, Vectorpark creates a variety of weird but oddly satisfying interactive vector simulations that you can mess around with. Vectorpark used to have a website, but these days, you can find their collection of vector based oddities over on itch.io! Sadly, some of their classics seem to have been lost to time, some of which, whether you noticed or not, were a part of the long lost and forgotten yet memorable media of the early internet.
A lesson on cherishing the little things, for you know not what lies ahead. A game that starts out peaceful, tranquil, and relaxing, but (very) slowly yet suddenly turns into a heartbreaking tragedy as all the world returns to dust. I'm not great at emotional expression, but believe me, I really was feeling this one. I just had no words (or sounds) for it. Highly recommend giving this one a try.
A word of warning: the protagonist walks very slowly, supposedly to emphasize the slow-paced aspect the game showcases. This is only a problem because of how fast the day cycle is. I found myself having to really rush the day, and there were a few times simply reading a letter somehow took up an entire day, so I ended up just skimming them instead of actually taking the information in. This creates a sense of anxiety or urgency that I don't think was intentional. It's possible this was meant to add a layer to the 'what matters most' kind of feeling, but feeding my goats (my only friends), watering the plant (hope), and reading letters from my loved ones (self-explanatory) all seem pretty important to me. Still a good game if you only care about maybe at most two of these things.
One of my favourite little indie games, and one of the first I played when I first discovered the unique and wonderous world of itch.io all those years ago! I must have played this one quite some time ago, and wished to return to it and bring it back into the light. I'm actually wanting to do a full playthrough to find all the secrets, notes, and beasts. I highly recommend checking this game out for yourself!
I was largely expecting some short comedy about being a cat in purgatory messing with people, but got something quite different from that. It ended up being longer than expected, and has much more substance than I anticipated. I will do a full playthrough of this game!
A short and very sarcastic and funny little choose-your-own-adventure. I've played it before a number of years ago and wanted to bring it to the forefront again as it's just this goofy little gem. Being that it is a short game, I wouldn't want to spoil too much, so I recommend playing it for yourself!
An exploration game about a not-so-short hike, mostly because you get caught up in the world! Collecting shells and feathers, talking to friends, getting outside, and forgetting about the troubles of the city. I honestly love this game and will play more of it, but in my own time as I want to be able to just relax with it. It reminds me of growing up and living in British Columbia, and I miss that place with all my heart. I didn't hike much per se, but I was often outdoors, at the lake, fishing, picking wild blackberries, things like that.
A very cute little indie game about an old lady just trying to make sure her cats can get out and find new homes. Fairly short but sweet!
It might be easy to look at a game like this and label it as being like 'Papers, Please', but I don't find that to be entirely accurate for this game. It has more of a 'Sort The Court' kind of vibe where you pretty much just say 'yes' or 'no' based on what you personally fancy.
The Final Boss is definitely lacking content and could do with more than the same few forms, as the Inbox would often pile up with multiple copies of the same exact form and it was often unclear whether or not signing multiples of the same one in a day had some kind impact. The maker does acknowledge this in the description, though, and they seem to be planning on updating the game in the future to feel less repetitive and expand on the story more!
