Having dispensed smoke into the hive to dispel the barbs of Indie Garbo Games, reach into those little boxlike bee houses and retrieve sweet combs of Gamer Honey!
wiple.
I stumbled across this game while picking through lobokoni's body of work, and it stuck with me like little else of their stuff did. The simple art and gameplay lends the whole thing this barren yet compelling aesthetic, a perfect reflection of Seiko's situation while at the same time being a great little game. Also, I think about the second from the top comment all the fucking time.
A banger from Kate Bagenzo, who has a real talent for designing these little widgets. I love widgets; there frankly aren't enough strange ones these days and they always feel like such a treat to collect. I love tarot, too, for the same reason, so basically, this is a treat.
I have a real weakness for games with more depth than they let on, regardless of the storytelling quality of that depth - something Brkout struggles with. It's especially rare to see something as simple as Breakout put to such thorough task in this way, but I'll be god damned if this game didn't achieve that.
Exactly as bizarre, chill, and slightly annoying as the song it's based on. I remember almost nothing about this game, but being reminded it existed gave me a hit of endorphins so it goes on here. You can check in any time you like...
An aesthetic powerhouse that perfectly appreciates what's so idiosyncratically breathtaking about RPGMaker games. One of those games where you just want to click on every single object, and getting to read the text and see new sprites is its own reward. Also, a banging soundtrack.
This breaks all my rules for this bundle. It's paid, it's not a video game, and it's so short as to barely qualify as anything more than a missive. But, and this is really important: it's the best tabletop game ever made and I'm not fucking joking. I play it all the time.
I'll try to keep the paid game recommendations to a minimum, but both Toree games cost less than the price of a can of Monster and they're so vibrant. An homage to the 3D Sonic games that never were, hectic and satisfying and ever so delightfully bite-sized. Pseudoregalia with the movement tech paired down, quite literally, to a run and a jump and all the kinetics necessary to make that work. Technically a horror game but only barely.
Some of the text from this game was my laptop background for the longest time. Part tongue-in-cheek critique about Mario Kart, part night walk, part Beginner's-Guideesque relish for ripping a game apart and making you feel every agonizing moment. Play it on your own when you need to tumble something over in your mind, or play it with friends to talk while you wander.
I'm going to once again reiterate this thought: play everything Oleander Garden has ever made.
One of a handful of dreamlike experiences on this list I can only properly describe as "modernist ritual simulators", and probably one of my favorites. Oblique and cold with little spots of vivant to grip tight amongst a wasteland ripped straight out of The Doomed City. A spiritual initiate to the oeuvre of the Hex Code Coven (a la Oleander Garden and Blood Machine), I honestly cannot remember how I learned this exists. Beamed directly into my mind as a vision from some great slumbering thing, I imagine.
Unobelisk is an unparalleled titan of the RPGMaker indie scene. What's more, no one has ever played Unobelisk, so all solutions are procure on site. Starting out strange and made even stranger by its cryptic translation into English, I have never quite felt like I was using my wits to fight my way through a truly hostile, alien space as I have playing this game. The trans(post?)humanist themes mesh perfectly with its plodding, ominous pace to create an immaculate simulation of learning to live from first principles.
Somewhere between LSD Dream Emulator and a light adventure game. Meditative and eerie, but always with an exciting sense of exploration. Not so much a "horror" game as a "ritual" game. I rarely think about specific parts of it, but I'm often thinking about the general energy of the entire experience.
Beck has recommended this, I second it, not sure I need to add more thoughts. Wgat if you were a crow, etc etc
