Screenshot Saturday Sunday: Surreal dogventures, politics, and a Hotline Miami pizza party
Save me a slice
Screenshot Saturday Sundays! Our weekly check-in with the weird and wild world of computer game development. With everyone in lockdown, what better way to feign connection with the outside world than bonding over some decisively unfinished screenshots? This week: surrealist low-fi landscapes, an unconventional crossbow, slamming the final slice, and a small bird that's once again asking for your financial support.
First up - I'm not sure what a "surreal dogventure game" is supposed to entail, but developer Aaron AKA shiisaicecream is serving up some striking looks.
Aaron's been busy, posting three compilations of low-res, otherworldly landscapes in this week's tag. Pitch black underground caverns, save for a single blue orb's glow. A radio tower, shimmering in a 420p distance. I've posted a lot of somewhat-PS1 inspired looks in my tenure running this column (and I'll probably put them on hiatus next weekend), but there's something infinitely compelling about worlds so strange they can't even be rendered crisply.
We've all been there. You're at a flat party, it's getting late, and everyone's staring at the last cold slice of pizza. Let's not get so bloody about it, eh?
Last Slice, Shattered Journal's hectic top-down arcade brawler is very much Hotline Miami at a pizza party. The twist? Well, it's multiplayer for one - four players fight it out to grab the last bite. But each round, a new ingredient adds a new twist to play. Chowed down on some spicy pepperoni, you get a speed boost. Pineapples, for whatever reason, will start teleporting players randomly. It looks a right blast, and it's gotten me mighty hungry.
Our next title isn't the prettiest - yet. But it's showing off some fantastic weapon design, with a little bit of Dark Messiah thrown in for good measure.
Developer Alexey AKA cptnsigh has been posting cool-as-hell Shady Knight weapon clips for weeks. Daggers that seek bloodlet foes, grappling hooks straight outta the Mortal Kombat playbook. But this balloon crossbow is an all-time great - a phenomenal little mobility tool that can be used to set up devilishly bouncy traps.
Finally, as a bonus this week. We know you all come here for some prime, politics-free gaming. But those gosh-dang rascals at Skatebird have only gone and sullied our screenshots with presidential candidate Birdie Sanders.