TFI Friday: 3 indie games to get your creative juices flowing
Don't leave your creative juice on the floor though, it's a slipping hazard
These past few weeks, I've felt myself to be in a bit of a creative funk, dear readers, but thankfully this doesn't seem to be the case for today's game developers. It seems they're still in full flow, as it were, and this week I've got a trio of nice things to play that'll hopefully kickstart your heart and get you in the mood to make something. They did for me, anyway.
No video this week because I, uh, let me see here... yes, it says on this clipboard that I didn't have time. How odd. But instead you can enjoy a video of the top games coming out next month, as predicted by Colm Ahern, for even more inspiration.
Incredibox
Who's it by? So Far So Good
Where can I get it? Steam
How much is it? £5/€5/$5
Incredibox came to mobile phones like over a decade ago, which is bananas, but it's new to me, dammit. For fans of Fuser, or fans of just sitting and, fucking, vibing, this is a mix 'n' match beatbox-box with all the hard work done for you. Not least of all: learning to beatbox.
You can pick from a bunch of different themes, as it were, each with a collection of four groups of sounds (denoted by little symbols) that you can drag and drop onto your choir of beatboxers. They'll then start, you know, doing the mouth thing. They're all arranged so that any combination you come up with will sound fucking cool, so it's a fun and easy way to feel creative. And if you're feeling lazy at the same time, you can select autoplay and hang out watching Incredibox do its thing.
Copy Editor
Who's it by? Christopher Jarvis, Cinq-Mars Media
Where can I get it? Steam
How much is it? £3/€3/$4
Copy Editor is a puzzle game, but one about editing swathes of text. I feel, as one says, very attacked right now. Rather than proofing, though, you're correcting, as efficiently as possible. The computer has highlighted the issues, and you need to use strings of commands to make the computer do the thing you want it to do.
For example, in the picture above (which is one of the first early tutorials) George Eliot's pronouns need to be changed, but you have to fine tune the commands or you'll replace some that should stay as they are. It's tricky and finicky, and though it's still in early access, Copy Editor will definitely appeal to fans of a bit of sudoku, or other cross-referency logic puzzles. Technically speaking writing isn't that much like sudoku, but it's not not like sudoku?
Weaving Tides
Who's it by? Follow The Feathers, Crytivo
Where can I get it? Steam
How much is it? £20/€21/$25
I'm sure we're all sick to death of orphan kids who've been adopted by a kind of basket-weaver species of carpet dragon. We've all seen 'em: living in their aerial world of giant, weirdly attractive moth people (see the header. If I ever become a furry I'm defo going to be a "Moth From Weaving Tides" furry, but since this is clearly a kid-friendly game I'm not going any further down that road).
Weaving Tides is a really sweet, gentle action-adventure type of game, where you and said dragon-thing flap about the world, weaving the holes in the floor using the dragon's thread-like tail, and combating the evil that has, somewhat predictably, come to your village. Even the combat is kind of nice, because you tie up the iguana monsters and snapping fish-dog things by weaving up and down around them. Genuinely lovely. Made me think of making all the little crochet animals I do. Honestly, reader, crochet is very relaxing and way easier than you'd think.