Depressed animal economic collapse adventure Night In The Woods exists in a strange place in my consciousness. While I absolutely love so much about it, from the characters to the art to the music and beyond, it’s not particularly my sort of game – I’m more of a hands-on, solve problems kinda guy.
I’ve also seen almost everything the game has to offer, thanks to friends streaming it several times over, and now I might have to tune in again to see what’s fresh, thanks to the game getting it’s very own director’s cut version, extended and expanded to coincide with its console launch. Welcome to Weird Autumn.
The wonderful Night In The Woods will receive “a whole bunch of new content” later this year with its ‘Weird Autumn Edition’ update, developers Infinite Fall have announced. Promising “new weird”, “new crimes”, and “old tales”, they say to “think of it as the Night In The Woods director’s cut.” I’ve just about come to terms with the initial coming-of-age crisis so sure, I should be up for more when the free update hits on December 13th. Read the rest of this entry »
While Instagram is replete with unicorns and mermaids, videogames seem intent on sticking with cute foxes as their go-to adorable animals. Foxes have been having a “moment” for YEARS! All of which is my way of saying that Tunic [official site] is an adorable-looking adventure starring a fox which has a new trailer.
I believe I first saw Tunic at GDC but it was during an evening mixer which was so packed that I couldn’t actually elbow my way over to the game. Seriously. It was like being a kid on a commuter train. FYI I have been designing a prototype commuter snorkel over on Twitter for exactly this sort of scenario. The game itself has been kicking around far longer but under its previous name, Secret Legend. John loved the hands-on time he had with it a couple of years ago. Now there is a Tunic trailer which we can all watch to see more of the game’s current state: Read the rest of this entry »
In a shocking turn of events, the colourful homecoming adventure Night in the Woods [official site] did not get delayed this week, causing it to become available on your PC mere hours ago. This is bad news for me. We’ve had our ‘Night in the Woods has been delayed again’ article ready to go for weeks, based on all the other timesit’s beenpostponed, and now we’ve been totally blind-sided. That’s why this news piece is so late. I’ve had to re-write the whole thing from scratch. Read the rest of this entry »
So sure, Night in the Woods [official site] is delayed once more but, y’know, stuff happens. At least this latest delay is only a few weeks. Besides, given the state everything will be in after New Year, I probably wouldn’t have time for it on its original date of January 10th. The cute explore-o-adventure about a college dropout cat returning to her home town, where something strange is happening in the woods, is now expected in early February. Read the rest of this entry »
The launch of Night in the Woods [official site] on may be an entire year away, on January 10th in 2017, but- oh god, that’s really soon. Everything that seemed a year away is now almost tomorrow. I can’t handle a feline dropout’s problems now – I’ve barely started on this dropout’s. But life, as I’m told it often will, keeps on rolling. So fine, let’s get into it, let’s enjoy a delightful new trailer looking at the explore-o-adventure game’s beautiful cartoon world, knife fights, and mystery of what might be in the trees. Read the rest of this entry »
Overland [official site] is a turn-based post-apocalyptic road trip simulator. You drive a car across America, beset by hideous bugs that emerge from the ground and eat your gang of survivors, while everything burns around you, and you try to survive against overwhelming odds. On paper, it’s precisely the kind of game that should be taking up all of my free time but the reality isn’t quite what I hoped for or expected.
Our Alec was quite taken with post-apocalyptic road trip Overland [official site] when he played the first early access version in April. You might have been out of luck if you fancied a go yourself, though. At the time, developers Finji were only selling keys in limited quantities, a new wave every now and then. Well, now everyone’s welcome. If you want into early access, $20 will see you right.
E3 is almost over and there has been plenty of hype for all the new projects. Of course, not all games can showcase a 10 minute gameplay demo of the main character failing to love his own son. So here’s a trio of games from independent developers you should look forward to.
Overland [official site] is a sorta-turn-based strategy meets sorta-roguelite, and comes from the folks behind the deathless Canabalt, progenitor of the endless runner as we know it. I shouldn’t draw too many comparisons, as that was a long time and several games ago for Adam and Rebekah Saltsman, but it does share a strong sense of style, a refreshingly exposition-free approach to the end of the world and a constant sense of encroaching doom with Canabalt. I’ve been keeping half an eye on it for a while now, intrigued by how it seemed to pair XCOM tactics with a survival theme and creepy rocks-monsters, so I signed right up when its ‘first access’ build appeared on itch.io a few days back.
Oooh! Night in the Woods [official site] will be coming out this fall. I’m not sure how much of a “thing” Night in the Woods was – we talked about it a fair bit in the hivemind secret chat palace but, in case you’ve forgotten, here are the basics:
Otherworldly walking sim Proteus [official site] is very much an RPS favourite: a dreamy, good-natured, no-pressure place many of us retreat to when the shooting and the jumping and the icon-collecting gets too much. Half the reason for Proteus’ joyfully calming effect is David Kanaga’s prettily ambient soundtrack, and how perfectly it fits the evocative, wooly-edged art. In PANORAMICAL, which occupies a place between game and music tool, Kanaga’s compositions move front and centre. Read the rest of this entry »
I know what you’re thinking: “Shadowy forest, spiky monsters, swinging log trap, silhouettes a-go go – this’ll be one of those there Limbo ’em ups!” Pal, you’re a chump. Feist [official site] lets you fight back, for starters, flinging pointy sticks through their faces. Feist may have a touch of Limbo look (with lovely colourful backgrounds!) but it’s a fighty platformer, not a puzzly one.
Feist is out now, released last night for Windows, Mac, and Linux.
Adam Saltsman is probably known to you as the creator of Canabalt, the infinite runner with the fabulous glass-smashing sound. He and fellow developer Rebekah Saltsman are now setting up a studio, Finji, to bring together their many game projects under a single name. That includes Overland, a collaboration with Shay Pierce; Portico, a turn-based sorta-tower-defence-ish game previously called Grave; Capsule, a really neat, extremely difficult space game about asphyxiation which you can buy right now; and Night in the Woods, the Kickstarter funded adventure game from Alec Holowka, which Finji are helping publish.
