I have a list of games.

It is a list of games that I have not played. There is no guarantee that I will ever play these games. There is no guarantee these games are any good. But maybe someone else will play them. Maybe someone else will discover they are good.

In this episode, ten more games are added to the Crashbook.

20/ Alt-Frequencies

An audio mystery set in a time loop. Record, rewind time and broadcast snippets of radio shows to expose radio hosts, conspiracy theorists and politicians.

Crash notes: This reminded me of Doggerland Radio (A C Godliman, 2018) which I wrote about after experiencing it at Rezzed in 2019.

Windows, Mac, iOS, Android & Switch | Game Link | Released 2019

21/ A Day Without Me

You just woke up and without knowing it, you were the only person left in the city.

Crash notes: From an Indonesian developer. Look I admit some of these items are taken directly from Jim McGinley’s Twitter thread of off-the-beaten-track Switch games. You got me.

Windows & Switch | Steam Link | Released 2020

22/ Mothmen 1966

MOTHMEN 1966 is a pixel-pulp featuring multiple mothmen during the Leonid meteor shower of 1966.

Crash notes: LCB Game Studio make visual novels they call “pixel-pulps”. They have an itch page and can be followed on Twitter.

Developer on Itch, Twitter | Unreleased

23/ Go Go Kudamono!

Go Go Kudamono is a game about the lime prince of a tiny fruit kingdom, who rises up to lead his nation against a threatening insect military ruled by a stag beetle emperor. Part arcade game, part political thriller and part Saturday morning cartoon– you’ll explore a world full of colorful locations and characters, negotiate with leaders, battle your way through expansive levels and collect seeds to plant new troop fruits that fight alongside you in battle. [from TIGSource, 2017]

Crash notes: Check out the GIFs on the developer’s Twitter account.

Website, Twitter | Unreleased

24/ Venineth

Venineth is a single-player game focusing on unraveling the mysteries of ancient alien technology, somewhere in the universe via exploration, platforming, and puzzle-solving, in a dangerous, distant worlds.

Crash notes: Resembles Jay Weston’s still-in-progress Exo One (which I wrote about years ago) but gamey: more Marble Madness than see the universe?

Windows | Steam Link | Released 2020

25/ Dum-Dum

Travel back to 1985 to discover more about the self-proclaimed “greatest operating system of all time.” Navigate the weird quirks of Hogo OS 1985 Edition, solve puzzles, play mini-games, and unravel the story behind why this one-time cutting edge computer system was mysteriously lost to time.

Crash notes: Dum-Dum has been in early access for a couple of years but finally escaped this month. Jay Tholen (Dropsy, Hypnospace Outlaw) tweeted: “This self-published faux-OS sim … seems to occupy the same tinkery corner of the genre as Hypnospace. Seems to be packed with content, reviews from 8 to 50h playtime.”

Windows | Steam Link | Released Sep 2021

26/ Wayward Strand

Wayward Strand is a heartfelt interactive story, told in a unique and curious way. Play as Casey Beaumaris – intrepid teenage journalist – as she visits an airborne hospital for the first time. Uncover the airship’s mysteries, and explore the lives of its inhabitants.

Crash notes: This appears to have a real-time element like Infocom’s Deadline and The Last Express: the clock keeps ticking and things happen even if you’re not there to see it. Also, “airborne hospital” in case you missed that.

Windows | Steam Link | Unreleased

27/ Exit: A Biodelic Adventure

In the world of excessive biotechnologies, an epidemic is ravaging the human race, infecting people’s neuronet implants and enslaving them to the mysterious Worm. Who are you: a fighter of the infection, or a hunter of new prey?

Crash notes: I saw a picture of “bioflash drives”. That was it.

Windows | Steam Link | Unreleased

28/ Choo-Choo Charles

Navigate an island in an old train, upgrade it over time, and use it to fight an evil sentient train that terrorizes your home. Charles is hungry; don’t be his next meal.

Crash notes: BONKERS. I wonder if this would be like Miasmata, but with a train?

Windows | Steam Link | Unreleased

29/ ElecHead

Crash notes: No synopsis on the Steam page of this Japanese game but in this puzzle-platformer your head is a battery. Whatever you touch is powered up and you can remove your head. Action-oriented. Due out on October 14. Won Amateur Division Excellence Award at the Japan Game Awards 2016 and Best Game Design Award at Tokyo Game Show “Sense of Wonder Night” 2020.

Windows | Steam Link | Unreleased

Download my FREE eBook on the collapse of indie game prices an accessible and comprehensive explanation of what has happened to the market.

Sign up for the monthly Electron Dance Newsletter and follow on Twitter!

4 thoughts on “Crashbook #2

  1. John Walker talked about Dum Dum at Buried Treasure and it sounds pretty cool! But not for Mac, alas.

    (Though I’m not entirely trusting of Walker on puzzle games, since his favorite puzzle game is Hexcells which I find bland. Wait I was going to tell you that RYB is like Hexcells if it was good but you already said that. I agree! Hexcells’ puzzles are too big and too often involve pixel-hunting over fifty rows to find the one that is marked 6 and already has 6 rows filled in, RYB occasionally has that issue but more often forces you into interesting deductions on small fields. Unfortunately I don’t think it’s possible to avoid the issue where mistakes reveal information if you’re doing handcrafted puzzles of this sort.)

  2. I have hope that I might play some of the games on this ever-increasing list. SNKRX was a pre-Crashbook “Caught My Eye” entry. Industria, that I’m playing “on Twitter”, would have been in the list if I had been maintaining a list at that time. You might to be interested to know that I’m always taking note of how many Mac titles there are in the list, because Matt W. This definitely wasn’t a good Matt W episode, although platforms for Unreleased items may be in flux.

    (Yes, I think we came to the conclusion back in Ouroboros that there isn’t a fix for that Minesweeper problem unless you say, “oh dear you suck, this puzzle is over” as soon as you hit a mine.)

  3. Oh I was looking at the old Cityglitch posts wait we weren’t talking about Cityglitch here that was on Twitter. Anyway I just wanted to mention that Cityglitch does have a setting where you can make the levels display the perfect move count. Though it’s chaotic enough (in a technical sense) that that was something I only wanted to try after the first playthrough, and I’m certainly not going to go for all of them. I did play though the whole game within about 24 hours of downloading it so I guess I did find it compelling! Though there’s one or two levels where I’m like “I don’t know what I just did but I’m glad I don’t have to do it again,” in fact one was a level I didn’t have to do at all since I had already beaten the final boss, well I don’t have to do any of this stuff do I?

  4. I originally played Cityglitch on mobile, I wonder if it was true back when I wrote that article, that perfect move count wasn’t signalled in the game. (I did play through a lot of Cityglitch; I can’t remember exactly when I threw in the towel. Third city? It’s been awhile…)

Comments are closed.

Related