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five angels come and name it fire is about a young moth that sets out to explore a world that is at the same time both quite naturalist, yet phantasmal. It is an occult, esoteric, delicate, and gloomy poem – with a language and imagery that reminds me to the lyrics of Tom Rapp and some of the darker parts of the output of Witthüser and Westrupp. For me, this is the best game in the authors repertoire.

The basal gameplay principle is well executed here, and for a jam-game of this scale, Escape Guldur has a surprisingly good overall production and balance – playing through it is a fun and satisfying experience

Despite being technically simple at a first glance, Agentia utilizes ideas drawn from poetry and philosophy that lie outside of the usual repertoire of game development. The way of drawing and describing the world is poetry in itself – nothing here is arbitrary – every layer of Agentia is a intricate poem, open to interpretation. This game is a masterpiece.

The player controls a girl that has to find a way through a dungeon maze while collecting notes and evading an angry Minotaur that chases her. You have no way of fighting back; the enemy has double your speed, so there is no way of escaping in the open field either – instead, you have to use your wits and get him stuck within his own maze...

The games aesthetics are great: Abstract images are shown between the levels, the texts and the title are somewhat cryptic – the overall atmosphere is mystic, occult, and mythical. ... „I, The Living Flame“ is probably as artsy as a non-abstract 2D Gameboy puzzle game can get.

You walk through various dream-scenes, crossing silent forests, shadowy temples, cold cities, floating palaces… These images and scenes are phenomenal, and the great strength of this game – they are creative, strange, and beautifully realized...Quantum Origination is a great game, and one can tell that a lot of time and thought was invested into this. The level of detail, the craftsmanship used in its creation, and the creativity of the shown world make it a unique game in every aspect, and one of the best „psychedelic“ games I can remember playing.

Located in the perfect spot between minimalism and aesthetic, looking like a abstract or concrete painting that came to life, and its pentatonic scaled sound effects and reluctant, for the most time invisible user interface are a perfect fit. ... Whetever you are a casual puzzle player or an hard boiled enthusiast – Pocico will offer you a good time with its witty, deep gameplay and its great style.

The game captures the atmosphere of old low-budget productions damn well, and felt highly nostalgic for me – while playing probably remarkable better than these titles ever did; the whole atmosphere is dreamy, enrapturing. Fitting to this, the environmental message is there, but – and that has become a rare thing – one with a positive note: The robotic, world devouring flies might still be defeated in the end.

Short interactive fiction fantasy game with a well written story.

Minimalist, down to earth, nearly non-violent dungeon crawler roguelike.

The sound design and graphical arrangement is minimal, the (often randomly chosen) texts are written greatly – they are highly poetic, beautiful, fey ...In „A row of chairs abandoned on the beach“, humans do consequently become coast, night, and sky – but the world is turned into a living, equitable, and vivid instance in return.

PRAXIS FIGHTER X shows pretty well both the chances and limits of following a traditional formula as a single game developer: It is rock solid in any aspect, and even good in some – but within a genre that is so rich of great and colorful games, many of them more experimental in both gameplay and sound, a bit more boldness in design-decisions on every layer might have been better – and ironically this is underlined by the very fact that it does everything it actually does probably as good as one can possibly expect from an underground game production. If you don’t mind the formulaic gameplay the likeable story, the very well polished gameplay, and the overall high quality make it a great pick for underground gaming enthusiasts and shoot ‚em up veterans alike.

„The Archivist and the Revolution“ is a well realized, highly political piece of hyperlink fiction that doesn’t need to hide behind most of the contemporary commercial science fiction stories I’ve read in the past few years; its direct language, its naturalist approach, the – rather pronounced – gameplay elements, and its clear political agenda make it enjoyable to underground gaming enthusiasts and a larger audience alike.

Solitary Stars feels much more like a window to its own little cosmos, and evades simple interpretations not only through the amount of different ideas and topics that are touched, but also through a skillful utilization of the hypertext technique.

Cartography of known spaces could be best described as a collection of digital-age poems.

"There is a lot of cozyness to be found between old ruins in the middle of deep woods, between small hamlets in which simple people live off the land, all framed by large mountainsides with deep dark castles and towers that hide powerful magic."

The level design is pretty good, difficulty and progression are well measured, and did I already say that the sprites are damn well made? Nothing experimental, ground breaking or even surprising here, but in the end „Blobworld“ is a rock solid, well made little platformer that comes a long way with its rather limited resources.

The throughout fine and coherent production, the the trenchant quality of writing and the consequence in utilizing the means of video gaming subsume to a great and unique gaming experience. Highly recommend to play this; a run will take you roughly 15 minutes.

..in the end, the supposed restrictions are broken – this game offers us its own answer to the question how free the individual really is.

This game holds an elegant, hypnotic beauty and goes down the path of minimalism in a bolt and consequent way that makes it rather unique – the playtime is probably around one minute. It is an adaption of a poem that doesn’t really attempt to refresh anything, and isn’t interested in re-contextualization; this is an approach that bears the risk of gliding into a uncritical relation to the source material, and of getting a bit dusty – the game plays very much like a game that was released when the poem came out could have looked like, like a forged relict from an era that predates the medium; and looking at the developer and their affiliation with goth this might have been exactly what they wanted to do.

The fact that the developer couldn’t bring themself to complete it, but left the full horror as a non-realized, yet threatening indication prevented by bugs and other small faults they never could iron out makes it somewhat more complete – not necessarily as a game but surely as an piece of art, that escapes finalization just as its topics it deals with escape the imagination of probably nearly any empathic person.

One of the digital poems done by Ondřej Throň.

The games that they created over the last five years are connected not only by common themes (among politics, mental health, social inequality, and the bleakness of a world shaped by commodification), but also by their playing with and occasional bursting of medium-limits and standards – all of them exist on the boundary towards the interactive fiction and often show a high amount of literacy; they are clearly more on the „art“-side of gaming, and often leave much room for interpretation

This is SF as it should – in my book – be done.

Noisy, distorted tunes accompany you while you ravage through deserted industrial sites, Calligari-esque streets and paganic churches – a dense, interesting and unique experience.

The production value of this games is incredibly high. The sprites are charming. the sfx is satisfying, and at the best moments you turn up the volume to get out more of the music when entering a boss fight. ... According to the linked profiles the developer is employed as a lighter within the game industry, and I believe their experience in professional productions is apparent in the games - but on the other hand it is clear that these productions are labors of love. I strongly recommend to check them out.

A racing puzzle game set in a world that eludes both our senses and our concept of space.

Art style and audio design (including music) are dense, fitting and coherent. The combination of hostility, strangeness and angularity is very unique and fun, The scope of the current game is large, it feels feature complete, and I didn’t encounter anything that could count as a bug.

„Hide and Seek“ is a singular project that successfully utilizes the big leeway it creates by its mixed media approach.

Hardcore surrealist walking simulator/collectathon that is haunted by the ghost of David Lynch.

...in the end I have to say that it is one of the better contributions to the discussion of environmental destruction that I have perceived in a fictitious setting recently.

https://thunderperfectwitchcraft.org/arcane_cache/2023/06/19/the-roots-of-all-ou...

A big bonus for this game is the great humor. ... This is what makes a game that would be normally just a good, well executed exemplar of a common concept to something really special.