Screenshot Saturday Sundays: Oversized vacuums, first-person sewing and the plague
Hit 'em with the sandals!
Screenshot Saturday Sundays! We've passed the midpoint of the year, readers, and while I'm sure this hellish 2020 still has plenty of garbage to throw our way, we can always count on this weekly dose of game dev screenshots to keep our spirits high each Sunday. This week: Dodging hoovers, a sickening forest, the cutest cyberpunk and crimes against fashion.
We're starting out this week's collection with a bit of sickness. I know, I know, we're all feeling the quarantine blues, but that hasn't stopped our beaky friend here from breaking into the woods.
For a hot second there I thought that was a cowboy, staring out at the frontier like some sort of lightly toon-shaded Arthur Morgan. But as the camera dollies forwards, we see the plague mask, and the whole scene takes on a subtle, more sickening hue. The Serpent Rogue, a bleak little open-world that sees you navigating a diseased world full of magical beasties to concoct a cure for plague-ridden villagers.
I will admit to knowing very little about fashion, what with my wardrobe consisting of some jeans and a handful of black printed Uniqlo tees. But I cannot imagine blasting strangers with a sewing kit will brighten up their style.
Fashion Police Squad is a retro sprite FPS in the vein of your Dooms or Duke Nukems. But instead of gunning down demons or cracking wise over the corpses of aliens, you're a paramilitary fashionista by the name of Sergeant Des, cleaning the streets of horrific style crimes like day-glow tees or socks with sandals. I'm not sure what kind of legal framework allows for this sort of rampant assault of pedestrians with leather belts, dye carbines and rocket-propelled wardrobes, mind - nor am I certain the prison industrial complex is bettered by replacing cells with catwalks.
You can throw sock gnomes at strangers, though, which really makes this whole "videogames" lark worthwhile. Fashion Police Squad is still in development, but you can keep an eye on it over on Steam.
I've put Pocket Wheels in this week's lineup largely as a fond callback to "rats" maps of shooters past. You know, the ones where you'd be jumping and shooting around the insides of a PC or some kid's bedroom, your burly spaceman shrunk to the size of an ant. Pocket Wheels has that same appear but with cars, letting you pretend for just a second that you're Stuart Little drivin' his wee R.C. sportscar away from Hugh Laurie, chased instead by hellish hockey puck determined to sweep the floors of impurities.
Closing us out this week - While not a game per-say, I do hope Krzysztof Maziarz decides to flesh this gorgeous diorama out into something playable.
I'm immediately reminded of Oskar Stålberg's Townscaper, a procedural building toy I've been watching like a hawk for months. Polish artist Maziarz's little scene is a 3D reimagining of his previous cyberpunk mockup illustration (pictured in header), painting a Stålberg-esque tower in delightful rust and corrugated panelling.
Maziarz does appear to dabble in the occasional jam game, and I'd love to see how far he takes these delightful dioramas.