Grab a free dog opera from the Proteus musicman
Oikospiel Book I free til end of the month
Oikospiel Book I is a game about fevered landscapes, classic literature, operating systems, opera and the need for dog-based unions to stand against cruel labour practices. It is a series of strange and wonderful things, from David Kanaga, the chap who made the strange and wonderful music in the likes of Proteus and Panoramical. Upon its release two years ago, Alice O deemed it "one of the most surprising and delightful games I’ve played in yonks."
It is precisely because of that two-year anniversary that Oikospiel is now free, free, free until the end of March.
Oikospiel defies easy explanation, which is not because it is wilfully unapproachable, but because it is so many different and wildly inventive things all at once. This is why it was a deserved winner of the Nuovo prize at the 2017 IGF awards. Here's a trailer, to shed no light whatsoever on the matter.
This difficulty in description doubtless presented many barriers to persuading folk to try it back in 2017, but here's one very good, inarguable reason: it now won't cost you a penny. It's free, until the end of this month, from the Oikospiel Itch page right here - though you can pay a sum of your choosing should you wish to.
If you are unsure how much you should pay, rejoice, for there is a marvellous tool here which helps you calculate, including the option to generate wind-based power for dog-based use by frantically waggling your cursor around. Can't say fairer than that.
Any proceeds which are made during this time will be donated to the nascent Game Workers Unite union initiative - very aptly so, for Oikospiel partly concerns the dubious practice of 'crunch' extreme overtime in games development. If this sounds too allegorical for you, it also features playable characters including a dog, a fox, a snake, a spider, a rabbit, and a ghost.