itch.io

This game does some really unique and cool things with dialogue in a VN-type game. Unfortunately it's in service of some of the most flatly mundane writing I have ever seen. Like I am absolutely here for naturalism in games but I don't need ridiculously meandering cutscenes where characters take a very long time to discuss moving into a house or why the protagonist should change the main character of her novel. And all of the dialog is both fully voice acted (quite well) and unskippable, which means it takes soooo long to get through. Maybe it gets better as you go deeper in and get attached to the characters, but I felt like I was going insane halfway through the infinitely circular novel conversation. Would love to see another iteration on the design concepts they developed here, though! 2/5

This click-em-up is pretty in an "overuse of photo filters" kind of way, but otherwise does nothing for me. The puzzle elements feel super stock (the first things you do are rotating tiles to make a picture and a sliding block puzzle) and it makes the baffling decision of not having the cursor change when you can click to go to a new area like Myst so you a) never know when clicking on what you think is an item will move you to a different screen b) never know if you've explored everywhere unless you constantly click at every edge of every screen. The lack of a smart cursor also means you can expect a lot of pixel hunting. 2/5

Anti-collection platformer where things get harder the more coins you pick up. The platforming level design itself feels sort of eh so far, but it's a novel concept and the art and music are both very solid. Makes you realize how ingrained the collecting impulse is in you! 3/5

Charming management game with really satisfying visuals. This feels like it nails what a lot of these indie small-scale management games aim for: it's simple but it also has enough decisions and interlocking systems to not feel boring. 4/5

Grow fractal trees and jump your way toward the sun. Very pleasing as a visual experience and a cool brief thing, but not a ton of legs to it. 3/5

Collaging assets from the Unity store into what I can only describe as a vaporwave marble madness puzzle platformer. Despite that sounding like a novelty, it's actually pretty effective. The visuals are fun and creative, and the puzzle design is pretty clever and has some nice secrets stuffed into the margins. Definitely a big surprise and not something I would have thought to play if it wasn't in thus bundle. 4/5

I mean this is exactly what it says it is, so I can't really fault it. A cute interactive toy with a vaporwave vibe where you can play with the blinds and watch some TV. Yep. 2/5

Black screen when I try to open a level. The lesson is that games with "crash" in the title will crash on you. x/5

Light RTS tower defense thing. Didn't really grab me honestly. 2/5

Charming Paper Mario-esque platformer RPG. Despite some gripes (clunky platforming, bad save system), I'm having a lot of fun with this. The combat is cool and it's all very endearing. According to reviews the story goes places and I'm curious what that means. I'll keep going for sure. 4/5

I think this game REALLY suffers from the bad name and unappealing itch.io tile graphic thing, which is unfortunate because it's cool! The concept is basically what if Zelda 2 was a Metroidvania platformer and it does that well, with a world that feels terrifyingly huge, satisfying platforming, and a vaguely melancholy tone. 4/5

Cool grappling hook platformer that seems pretty big and I bet can feel great once you really get the hang of it. I found the keyboard controls kind of clunky but I guess that's my own fault. Maybe try a controller. 3/5

An accurate name because it crashes when I try to start a game. x/5

Ostensible music puzzle game that's actually about basic math. This could be a fun way to have kids in school practice addition and subtraction but it's not all that interesting as a full adult puzzle game. 2/5

Incredibly charming I Spy-type game. Great art and sound effects, interactivity beyond just finding things, and enough clues to prevent getting stuck. Great! 4/5

Beautiful little game, this. The collage art is wonderful and the soundtrack is quite good as well. Where it doesn't quite gel for me is its exploration of its themes. It combines some retellings of old folk tales with some slightly meta exploration of identity but it doesn't really feel like it coheres all that together into any kind of actual theme or statement. It's just some abstract vignettes interspersed with fairly typical "what makes you you" philosophy. Still definitely worth a go, though. 3/5

Very neat interactive animation. The animation itself is great, but the thing that really makes this is the sound design. The sounds of the crowds running around and clapping and smacking into the ground all makes it feel very tactile in a way kind of rare for this sort of game. 4/5

Really cool puzzley tactical RPG where you dial in your moves and then everything executes at once. Feels great to play and very unique, and it's garnished with great art and music. It's in early access so I'll probably let it sit till release, but very impressive. 4/5

Seemed like an okay, if unexciting, top-down crafting survival RPG thing. One of those. Then it crashed entering a dungeon and what I had seen to that point wasn't much motivation to go back in. 1/5

Cute vertical shmup with great art, but pretty standard and a little slow gameplay-wise. Also it plays in a tiny vertical window by default. Is it primarily a mobile game? 2/5

Really cool run-n-gun roguelike, with combat that feels great, cool DNA mechanics, and strong visuals. I do think the aesthetic is sometimes a little hard to read and the camera is sometimes weird, but it's very cool and well-executed on the whole. 4/5

More for the "cool idea that doesn't quite work" pile. The idea of a generational roguelite where you're building up the world over time like a 4x game is really cool, but all of the systems just feel too simple to give you much to work with and I also don't like the art at all. 2/5

Mutate yourself some kaiju, then stomp around towns with QWOP controls. Cute, but not really my thing. Would probably be fun in multiplayer. 2/5

A nice combo between one of those ambient nature games and a sort of hidden object diorama. You explore these little scenes, looking for gems and objects and then can move things around and see the limited interaction between objects. Very contemplative. 3/5

Although Pagan: Autogeny initially seems like a horror game, it quickly reveals itself as something subtler and stranger. Set in the ruins of an obscure Albanian MMO, it's both an esoteric adventure game about uncovering the internal logic of this bizarre world and a strangely moving meditation on the role of online communities in the construction of identity, and how meaningful the spaces we inhabit can be to us even after we no longer exist in them. It's also creepy as fuck. I'm not done with this game yet, and I am going to play the other two Pagan games as well, but this is probably one of the best experimental games I've ever played both because of the subtle way it explores its themes and because it's genuinely interesting and engaging to play. 5/5

This seems like a cool racing rhythm game, but unfortunately it's multiplayer-only with no AI so I'll never know. ?/5

You know. Survival crafting game. But this time you're a cat. It seems okay, but there's not really an interesting loop or a ton of motivation for exploring so it didn't really grab me. It's still in development though, so I'll check back now and again. 2/5

A pretty soothing logic puzzle game. I found it a little easy (it doesn't let you make wrong moves? Is that a setting I missed?) but the core concept is neat. There are harder puzzles but you have to go through the difficulty levels linearly so I lost interest a bit before things got really interesting. 3/5

Neat roguelite flight sim that reminds me of the days playing Rogue Squadron. I'm not sure how deep the roguelite elements are - there's unlockable weapons and ships - but the core flight gameplay is fun and there's a few different modes. Pretty cool. 4/5