Crashbook #35

They found it in the gloom of a forgotten loft, pressed into the dirty blanket of foam glass insulation. In his final years, the old man had scribbled down every strange idea, every vivid dream, desperate to save these treasures of the mind. Twenty years after his passing, they uncovered the Crashbook.

A new page turns, revealing twenty-seven more games I have not played.

571/ Titanium Court

A surreal strategy game for clowns and criminals.

Crash notes: This game was a total secret – except to the 283 indie developers who sang its praises as soon as it got on the IGF noms. And then it took the Grand Prize! And then it got released!

Windows, Mac | Steam Link | Just released

572/ HYPNOS

HYPNOS is a first-person adventure and exploration game, set in a lovecraftian megastructure fever dream. Enter the Nameless City at the edge of Dreams. Follow the trail into the shadow of the Holy Mountain. Embrace your destiny.

Crash notes: The trailer shows off some divine sights. What this is, I cannot tell you.

Windows | Steam Link | EA

573/ I Saw a Flying Saucer

An interactive fiction about a man who lost his wife and goes in search of a UFO that shouldn’t exist.

Crash notes: Says it’s a “cinematic experience with short playtime and a single ending”.

Windows, Mac | Steam Link | Unreleased

574/ Dap

Dap is a horror-action-adventure about gathering and protecting a pack of fragile creatures called Daps. Lead your Daps to safety through an eerily beautiful world, fighting off threats, solving puzzles, and avoiding the infection that twists your companions into something alien and terrifying…

Crash notes: This looks intriguing but also stressful! Reviews suggest that you probably need to play through this twice.

Windows | Steam Link | Released Sep 2021

575/ a permanent echo

Uncover Sabotage, Conspiracy and Counter-Revolution in this cyberpunk detective mystery. Using a mind-probing interface, you explore and act within memories, collect facts, meet agents of change and enormous corporations. Build your case against a person torn between idealism and turmoil.

Crash notes: From Three More Years who made Mini Mini Golf Golf which was an IGF Nuovo Award finalist.

Windows, Mac | Steam Link | Unreleased

576/ Hocus Focus

A cozy gamified focus tool to help you work, study, or relax to soothing tunes. Customize your space and summon your focus with productivity tools. You’re a student in a magic university – control time and weather, unlock new locations, collect cute Mitzkins, and level up in-game and in real life!

Crash notes: Meant to be a focus tool as you can set your own task limits and timers in the game, but I’m wondering if fiddling with your ‘magical workspace’ and collecting cats might prove too distracting?

Windows, Linux | Steam Link | Unreleased

577/ Quite a Ride

Pedal through the fog, but never look back. Trapped in a constantly shifting horror, you must ride, conserve your phone’s battery, and decode cryptic messages to escape. Explore, survive, uncover the truth.

Crash notes: Someone described this under the trailer on YouTube as “Pacific Bike”.

Windows | Steam Link | Unreleased

578/ Eclipsium

Longing for light, a sunless world begins devouring itself. Every step shifts the landscape beneath you as you search for what remains of her.

Crash notes: Surreal but also somewhat graphic – sign me up.

Windows | Steam Link | Released Sep 2025

579/ Planet of Lana II

As greed and power divide the tribes of their home planet, Lana and her little companion, Mui, must stand together against the forces reshaping their world – struggling not just for survival, but for the soul of their home.

Crash notes: Okay, it’s been three years but somehow this sequel feels like it’s out fast? I mean, I haven’t played the first one yet! It was featured on Crashbook #18.

Windows | Steam Link | Released Mar 2026

580/ Memory’s Reach

Memory’s Reach is a first person puzzle-adventure metroidvania. Explore labyrinthian megastructures, solve mind-bending puzzles, and wield fantastic alien technology in a quest to reveal the legacy of a doomed civilization.

Crash notes: Beguiling but I have this nagging feeling I’ve seen a lot of games that have a similar vibe of hygenically clean SF environments integrated into an alien world (Subnautica, Claire de Lune). I’m getting old. This kind of thing used to be my jam.

Windows, Mac | Steam Link | Unreleased

581/ 1 Billion Spells

Can a freshman wield the power of magic? Enrol in the academy and create your own crazy, fancy, weird, and powerful spells. Battle rogue magical creatures in this strategic arena survival roguelite.

Crash notes: From Icedrop Games (developer on LOK Digital) this arena shooter looks like you have to construct spells from components and see how they work? The teaser comes off more like an auto shooter.

Windows, Mac, Linux | Steam Link | Unreleased

582/ DEMON DUST

DEMON DUST is a Survival Horror Dungeon Crawler with a unique, mouse driven interface. Gain knowledge to survive and reach deeper and deeper floors.

Crash notes: Looks like a dungeon shooter with exploration elements – a lot of hidden stuff to find. But the reviews cite all sorts comparative experiences from Ultima Underworld to King’s Field.

Windows | Steam Link | Released Feb 2026

583/ CiniCross

CiniCross is a dark fantasy roguelite where nonogram puzzles meet dungeon crawling. Solve increasingly complex puzzles, choose your path through a branching dungeon, and bend the rules using powerful artifacts. Each room is a puzzle. Each boss, a deadly challenge.

Crash notes: Good to see a new puzzle combat mashup, although the first comment I saw on Steam said it got too difficult. MAYBE THEY JUST CAN’T SOLVE PUZZLES

Windows, Linux | Steam Link | Released Feb 2026

584/ Astro Protocol

Astro Protocol is a high-stakes, turn-based 4X space strategy game distilled into intense one-hour matches. Six factions, randomized maps, tech trees, and anomalies ensure every run is unique. Victories are earned against challenging opponents that play to win.

Crash notes: A 4X game in which a session lasts an hour? Now you’re talking.

Windows, Mac, Linux | Steam Link | Released Feb 2026

585/ Crisol: Theater of Idols

Crisol is a survival horror adventure set in a twisted version of Spain. As a soldier captured by religious dogmatism, you must use your own blood as ammunition, without draining to the point of death. Explore the cursed island of Tormentosa, uncover dark secrets, and battle horrifying enemies.

Crash notes: Art direction here is off the scale.

Windows | Steam Link | Released Feb 2026

586/ Key Fairy

A hand-drawn, pacifist, folkloric, bullet-hell. Grapple and dance around monsters to collect their shattered stars, weave your way through twisting paths, encounter strange folk, uncover ancient magic, and evade forgotten gods in this frenetic 2D action-adventure.

Crash notes: Looks absolutely stunning. I must underline the words bullet hell for the aging gamers amongst us.

Windows | Steam Link | Released Feb 2026

587/ Relooted

Reclaim real African artifacts from Western museums in this Africanfuturist heist game. Recruit crew members, plan escape routes, acquire the precious cargo, and bounce out of the joint as fast as you can.

Crash notes: I love the conceit.

Windows | Steam Link | Released Feb 2026

588/ The Mound: Omen of Cthulhu

In up to four player co-op, form a group of explorers searching for treasure. In this cursed jungle, danger is everywhere and monstrous creatures alter reality. Stay clear-headed and tame the jungle before it devours you…

Crash notes: A new one from ACE Team with some writing from Team Kyratzes.

Windows | Steam Link | Unreleased

589/ Dreams on a Pillow

From an award winning game designer, Dreams on a Pillow is a folk tale based on the true events of the 1948 Nakba. Play as Khadra, a young woman fleeing a massacre in this stealth-puzzle adventure game. From Palestine to Lebanon, join her journey as she endures invasion and perceptual distortion.

Crash notes: As a Palestinian game, this has been going through it recently. When the crowdfunding went live, BlueSky immediately marked the developer’s account as spam. (Fortunately, reversed now.)

Windows | Steam Link | Unreleased

590/ Derelict Star

A precise momentum-based platformer that emphasizes exploration and navigation puzzles. Run and jump your way through a wide variety of obstacles and challenges as you explore an abandoned derelict freighter. Be careful: getting in is often easier than getting out!

Crash notes: Raigan Burns (N++) really thinks this is special. Absolutely not for me but I’m pretty sure some of you will love this shit. (Someone is going to point out my love for Super Cable Boy and I am going to delete that comment.)

Windows, Mac | Steam Link | Just released

591/ Xenonauts 2

Wage a global war of resistance against an alien invasion. Command turn-based tactical battles, build a network of covert bases, directly control your fighter wings, and achieve strategic victory in a simulation of asymmetric warfare against a technologically superior foe.

Crash notes: One of these days I will play, properly, an XCOM style game. Although playing anything would be an improvement right now, *giggle*.

Windows | Steam Link | Just released

592/ Neofeud 2

An ex-military robot turned go-go dancer teams up with a refugee goth hacktivist revolutionary and a billion-year-old socially awkward alien — unlikely partners in a struggle to overturn the chessboard, shaking the social and cosmological fabric of the universe(s)…

Crash notes: The original Neofeud emerged nine years ago, a point-and-click with a homegrown vibe. I never played it, but I do have a copy lying around here somewhere… Anyway, Silver Spook has finally delivered a sequel after many years of work.

Windows, Linux | Itch Link | Just released

593/ LOVE ETERNAL

Wander a castle built of bitter memories in LOVE ETERNAL, a psychological horror platformer with devious trials and an unsettling, experimental narrative. Find a way out – or live in Shelter forever more.

Crash notes: Yow, beautiful work. Absolutely not for me but I’m pretty sure some of you will love this shit. (Someone is going to point out my love for VVVVVV and I am going to delete that comment.)

Windows | Steam Link | Released Feb 2026

594/ Stardream

Stardream is a story-driven investigation game set in a retro 60s-inspired space ark. As Darlene, a taxi driver turned into a pressured investigator, uncover a hidden truth that could shatter a perfect society.

Crash notes: Definitely not No One Lives Forever but that 60s styling and trailer narration really made my NOLF spidey-sense tingle.

Windows | Steam Link | Unreleased

595/ Labyrinth.os

Before dying out, the smartest of the world from before left a machine, A machine with the power to restart the world, The Thirteen Architects who were built to maintain this machine dubbed it: The World Egg.

Crash notes: Well, I know sod all about this, but

Windows | Itch Link | Just released

596/ Moves Of The Diamond Hand

Immerse yourself in a first-person urban RPG, powered by dice and intrigue. Along the way, you might even shape the fate of a city. Become a Master of Disguise, a Master Sandwich Maker or … something else. Whatever it takes to get the gig, right?

Crash notes: Cosmo D is back.

Windows, Mac, Linux | Steam Link | EA

597/ The House of Hikmah

The House of Hikmah is a fully voice-acted, narrative-driven 3D adventure game exploring grief, legacy and the search for answers after profound loss. Solve puzzles, encounter historical scholars of the Islamic Golden Age, and uncover timeless lessons in a beautifully imagined House of Wisdom.

Crash notes: An Islamic fantasy game.

Windows | Steam Link | Just released