Come see all the games, more games than one can play. I put some of them in my special book, thinking of days distant with hours unturned.
In this episode, twenty-three more games I have not played are added to the Crashbook.
220/ CRT7
CRT7 is an experimental music-puzzle game. Place pentominoes, play music, generate power, repeat. The more you play, the more strange devices you unlock, allowing you to solve escape-room style puzzles to explore further. What secrets are hiding in the dark?
Crash notes: The followup to SOLAS 128.
Windows | Steam Link | Unreleased
221/ HAAK
HAAK is a Metroidvania-Platformer. As the mysterious wanderer Haak, you embarked on an epic expedition across the vast cyber-wasteland to find your lost brother. Explore deserted cities and metro, refine your weapons and hack skills, and uncover the secrets behind metal and dust.
Crash notes: Just won the ‘Best Indie Game of the 2022’ at the 10th Jincha Awards.
Windows | Steam Link | Unreleased
222/ Aloft
Survive on floating islands caught in an eternal hurricane in this atmospheric sandbox survival indie game. Build your base and sail the winds to discover new islands and fight back fungi corruption while upgrading your gear. Reach the highest altitudes and brave their challenges.
Crash notes: This gets points for an interesting setting.
Windows | Steam Link | Unreleased
223/ Atlas Negro: Infernum
If Hell is a state of the soul, this story is the descent to the inner abyss. Atlas Negro: Infernum is a disturbing first-person story , where the end of the world is combined with psychological terror in a survival horror experience with a strong narrative component.
Crash notes: I cannot find information about this outside of Spanish websites but this seems to be an extension of the horror anthology Atlas Negro which already has a podcast component. Release date is, errr… Christmas Day?
Windows | Steam Link | Unreleased
224/ Colossal Cave
Acclaimed game designer Roberta Williams revives Colossal Cave as a retro, point-&-click, cave exploration puzzler. Based on the original 1970’s design by Will Crowther & Don Woods, the origin of adventure games, this 3D update maintains its vintage charm, while revitalizing it for modern gamers.
Crash notes: Not sure I want to play this but there’s a Crashbook law that states I have to include this regardless. A Colossal Cave remake steered by Roberta Williams!
Windows, Mac | Steam Link | Released last month
225/ SokoChess White
SokoChess White is a puzzle game about pushing Chess pieces into their destination and overcoming various obstacles. Enjoy 70 different handcrafted levels with a unique twist on the Chess formula.
Crash notes: Followup to puzzle game SokoChess released last year, which I streamed last month! SokoChess is hard but engrossing. Developer Daisy Games has previously featured in Crashbook with Sokobos.
Windows, Mac | Steam Link | Unreleased
226/ Chestnut Grove
How do you go about your life when self-isolation has become the new normal? CHESTNUT GROVE is based on my personal experience of quarantine and features 100% real documents and notices.
Crash notes: Developer says it’s short, around 30 minutes of playtime.
Windows, Mac | Steam Link | Released last month
227/ Cygnus Enterprises
Take charge of a derelict outpost on a faraway planet. Rebuild your base and manage your employees help it thrive. Battle fierce creatures and gather resources in a lush alien environment.
Crash notes: Despite some of the trailer visuals, I think it’s a 2.5D game. It’s been in early access for a couple of months but current reviews suggest gameplay and performance both need a lot of attention at this point.
Windows | Steam Link | Early Access
228/ The Telwynium
Your home, the village of Willows Dene, burns at the hands of the shadowfell. Only the power of the Autumn-Aldor Dwinn stopped it from being overrun completely. Now, led by the Aldor, you flee to the west, for the White City, Aldarris. With you are your childhood friends Tani and Witt, the irritable Uplander Otarr Stronghorn, and a colossal golen of mud and stone, summoned by the Aldor as the shadowfell attacked.
It is your first night away from Willows Dene, and you have first watch.
Crash notes: I hadn’t realised Powerhoof also worked on adventure games. The Telwynium is a dive into 90s adventure nostalgia. Book One was released on itch.io last year; Book Two was just released last week. PWYW.
Windows, Mac, Linux | Itch Link | Released Jun 2022/Feb 2023
229/ Wilderless
Wilderless is a walking/hiking/photography simulator set in a fantasy wilderness. Players can explore a beautiful, procedurally generated natural open world. Tons of options allow you to configure many aspects of the world, and you can choose your initial world seed to generate different worlds.
Crash notes: Be aware of that ‘early access’ sticker; some complaints about the controls.
Windows, Mac | Steam Link | Early Access
230/ Dashpong
Dashpong is a high energy arcade local multiplayer game where you dash all around the maps at full speed. Create paddles to defend your goal and shoot the ball at your opponent to score. Enjoy the game up to 4 players in local multiplayer.
Crash notes: Gregg, calm down, I’ve already added it to the Side by Side series 7 candidates.
Windows | Steam Link | Early Access
231/ Truss
Developed for Haunted PS1’s Madvent Calendar 3: Necrosis, with 3D art contributions by G.P. Lackey.
Crash notes: Developer ompuco is always throwing out little experiments and oddities; was behind I Am Not What Remains which I loved. I have been trying to find the time to look at this and failing, which means it is a perfect candidate for Crashbook.
Windows | Itch Link | Released Dec 2022
232/ Konkan Coast Pirate Solutions
A cozy puzzle game about helping pirate ships do pirate things. Set up the simulations. Watch how the ships behave. Explore how the systems interact.
Crash notes: One of the Draknek “New Voices” grant award winners last year.
Windows | Steam Link | Unreleased
233/ A Space for the Unbound
A coming-of-age adventure where you follow two high school sweethearts on a journey of self-discovery at the end of their high school years while facing the end of the world. Explore 90s Indonesian town, uncover its secrets, use supernatural powers to dive into people’s hearts, and pet cats.
Crash notes: In the comments, some people said they cried.
Windows | Steam Link | Released last month
234/ STEREOGRAM
A split-screen platformer in a broken world. Featuring 100 rooms spread across 6 zones.
Crash notes: Yes, someone finally created a platformer inside stereograms. Could this be the world’s first migrainevania? PWYW.
Windows | Itch link | Released last month
235/ Psikodelya
Explore multiple dimensions in a psychedelic world. Solve puzzles and overcome obstacles on gravity-defying platforms.Welcome to trippy world of Psikodelya!
Crash notes: Some beguiling visuals but I’m wary of the actual gameplay.
Windows | Steam Link | Released 2019
236/ Valley Peaks
The mountains are calling! Complete routes of varying difficulty to scale summits in this wholesome yet ribbiting first-person climbing sim. Overcome obstacles, unlock upgrades, explore a mountain paradise, and get chummy with Valley Peaks’ froggy inhabitants as you climb to your heart’s content.
Crash notes: I’m seeing a bit of Grow Home here.
Windows | Steam Link | Unreleased
237/ Garden Galaxy
Discover, collect and organise to create your own unique garden in this relaxing idle / creative sandbox!
Crash notes: Lots of positivity for this in the Steam reviews but please note the word “idle” in the description. Yes, it is a bit of a clicker.
Windows | Steam Link | Released Dec 2022
238/ BABBDI
Find your way out of BABBDI. A short, first person exploration experience.
Crash notes: Free. From a Steam review: “One of my favorite gaming pastimes is going onto Sven-Coop and playing on random maps that have been mostly forgotten; this game is highly reminiscent of that experience.”
Windows, Mac | Steam Link | Released Dec 2022
239/ Moons of Ardan
💫 Moons of Ardan 💫 is a captivating city-building game set in space that allows players to rebuild and expand their civilization across the moons in a living planetary system.
Crash notes: What caught my attention was city-building on ‘small moons’ so the ground is curved.
Windows | Steam Link | Early Access
240/ Tendril: Echo Received
Tendril: Echo Received is a stealth action reverse horror inspired by Ridley Scott’s Alien. Become a blood-thirsty spawn of hell to hunt down everyone who dares to cross your path. Enjoy absolute freedom of movement on a mining station stranded in the cold depths of space.
Crash notes: Reminiscent of Carrion, but has been in development since 2017.
Developer site | Unreleased
241/ Europa
On the moon Europa, a lush terraformed paradise in Jupiter’s shadow, an android named Zee sets out in search of answers. Run, glide and fly across the landscape, solve mysteries in the ruins of a fallen utopia, and discover the story of the last human alive.
Crash notes: Holy cow, looks gorgeous.
Windows | Steam link | Unreleased
242/ Tiny Glade
Tiny Glade is a small relaxing game about doodling castles. Explore gridless building chemistry, and watch the game carefully assemble every brick, pebble and plank. There’s no management, combat, or wrong answers – just kick back and turn forgotten meadows into lovable dioramas.
Crash notes: The latest to follow in the footsteps of Townscaper.
Windows | Steam link | Unreleased
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Valley Peaks also looks kinda like Dank Mountain/A Short Hike to me. I want a Mac port so much!
Boy, Wilderless looks like Incredibly My Thing. It’s kind of hard for me to imagine controls bad enough to get people to downvote this kind of game. I hope they fix them!
I’m tempted by the Sokos, but let’s face it, I uninstalled some half-finished puzzle games a while ago because my hard drive was suffering, and I haven’t really felt the need. Like I sort of think I should go back to Wilderplace sometime but I’m not sure? I even uninstalled Inscryption about two-thirds done! (I would like to finish that sometime but the file size is very large.) Mostly I’ve been chipping away, a little at a time, on an absurdly long Slice&Dice run in the easy infinite mode that doesn’t even have an online leaderboard.
So there is a horror game about killing the Queen and being defeated by a rotting lettuce?
Yes, there is a horror game like that Matt. It is called Living in the United Kingdom.
Wilderplace is quite hard and when puzzle games get very hard I find it tempting to… just leave them for awhile. I’ve done it again to Wilderplace! I’m almost tempted with SokoChess which I’m working through, because I’m never sure if I’m solving them or pushing pieces around until the solution magically appears. I guess it’s not completely like that, but I often feel helplessly lost until suddenly I’m not. It’s not that satisfying, you know? Like I’m not solving but discovering.
I just tried Slice & Dice yesterday Matt. Jesus Christ. Did anyone warn me this thing is like crack? It may pull me off Slay – and that’s quite an achievement. But the sort of achievement which is like ‘we killed the villain by creating a more powerful villain’.
@matt w: Slice & Dice is great isn’t it? I want to play more of that.
@Joel: DASHPONG! That looks great and reminds me of Videoball which is one of the best local multiplayer games I’ve played outside of Side by Side.
BABBDI! How bizarre, I finished that a couple of nights before this post went up and it was great. I heard about it on Terry Cavanagh’s free games blog and it topped his year list above Mosaic. It reminded me a bit of Bernband and I just loved exploring that weird space. It’s single-session short so perhaps a Crashbook game you could fit in! 🙂 Curious you mention Sven-Coop too because that’s something I was looking at recently.
Europa wishlisted. I’m still trying to work out exactly what it is that clicks with me with open world/exploration games. I loved Commune Corvidae, but disliked Sable and Breath of the Wild. I think copy/paste side questing and boring collectibles are a real drag. I definitely think satisfying traversal is important for me. Hmm. Europa looked promising on all those fronts though.
CRT7 is sounding very interesting and SOLAS-128 was great so I’m keeping an eye on that.
Aww, Aloft reminds me of the ill-fated Worlds Adrift by Bossa Studios which was like Aloft but an MMO with build-your-own airships and player-made islands with Guns of Icarus-like dirigible combat. It looked gorgeous and brilliant but, alas, not profitable enough to be finished.
https://youtu.be/b30kzJmKZNs
The Telwynium looks lovely. I only knew about Powerhoof’s ‘The Inanimate Mr Coatrack’ and, wow, they do a lot of other adventure games! Your Crashbooks are wishlist stuffers Joel! Annoying I can’t wishlist Tendrils anywhere yet…
I’m no good with magic eye/stereograms. Honestly, I just cannot see anything but fuzz.
Truss horror game? Too soon. (I love the look of it and by the sounds of it it’s more creepy than horror.)
I think you mentioned Howl in a previous Crashbook and I played the demo last week and loved it. That’ll be a day one purchase for me!
Just missed Joel’s comment!
“I’m never sure if I’m solving them or pushing pieces around until the solution magically appears. I guess it’s not completely like that, but I often feel helplessly lost until suddenly I’m not. It’s not that satisfying, you know?”
I know you’re talking about SokoChess there but that’s more or less how I felt with Wilderplace. When I was trying to explain my feelings to Hai about it I said ‘muddling puzzling’ and that’s about right. There’s some logic and working stuff out but sometimes it’s so fuzzy that you just kind of stumble into solutions. I stopped playing it, then kept forgetting about it, then uninstalled it, unfortunately. The undo situation didn’t help either.
(Joel: re: living in the United Kingdom; look at the names of the games in this Crashbook again)
Yes Slice & Dice is completely crack! Sorry for not warning you! I just finished a Blursed run (easy-mode infinite) that went 490 levels. Or rather it finished me. Unlike Cursed, the hard mode of what I did, the game does not keep a leaderboard for Blursed, but as Dylan Thomas said, I think that’s the record.
I once saw a magic eye for about half a second. This is the only evidence I have that everyone else hasn’t been gaslighting me about them for decades. And it is even more maddening! There was some platformer a long time back where the images were entirely in static, not magic eye, so every still image seemed like blur but if you played it supposedly you could identify objects because the static moved in different ways in different regions. I forget the name.
I don’t always mind muddling puzzling too much, but there’s something else about Wilderplace, maybe that I just don’t always get the mechanics that well. There’s something about the enemy target selection/pathfinding where their choices can be opaque but also extremely important, and also some of the moves between modes can be confusing. Also I feel like I don’t entirely trust the game at this point I do tell myself I intend to finish it though! It got uninstalled for disk space reasons.
I also just uninstalled Fugl for disk space reasons, maybe sometime I should try and see if I can get a more recent version than what I have, and that reminds me: I heard about a super secret passage in Feather that takes you somewhere wondrous and once, once, I found it, and then while in the passage I landed on a brazier and got stuck trying to take off again and THE GAME DECIDED I WAS SO STUCK IT KICKED ME BACK TO THE SKY OUTSIDE. I hear talk about the Big Secret of Feather and I think you could drop what you think it is in rot13? I might try again sometime but I feel like I also might look up the location of that passage, though I think I did before, even when I look it up it’s hard to find. (I am not good at spatial navigation in real life.)
Was it Lost in the Static, Matt? I have no idea how I know that but the name just came to me while reading your comment!
Truss horror game is INDEED too soon considering Truss is entertaining ridiculous fantasies of making a comeback. I feel something strange has happened in the last decade that some people – in this age of apparently limitless information and super-connectedness – can maintain an impervious fictional world bubble indefinitely.
I haven’t tried STEREOGRAM but I could see them in the examples of the website. I am genuinely curious to give it a go. There is a stereogram in the Unbearable Now, I’m sorry you guys probably couldn’t see it. I’ve no idea what game you are talking about Matt, sorry, no help here.
I’ll probably chase up Howl for a Thinky Games stream when it comes out.
Muddling puzzling: You know, maybe this is time for a new article about puzzle experiences!!!
The big secret of Feather? I’m not sure there’s a big secret of Feather other than what you’re alluding to, but I’ll ROT13 something in anyway. Gurer vf n ynetr haqretebhaq pnir argjbex juvpu zhygvcyr ragenapr/rkvgf. Lbh znl unir sbhaq bar ragenapr ohg gurer ner n ybg qbja gurer. Va n yngre hcqngr, Srngure nqqrq n cbegny gb gur pnirf juvpu gnxrf lbh gb na ragveryl qvssrerag vfynaq. V qb abg oryvrir gurer ner nal uvqqra pnirf ba gung vfynaq orpnhfr gur vfynaq vf nyernql n frperg.
Congrats on your Blursed run! I was so close to finishing a Normal run yesterday (there are two toots about it). I finished the Normal run on the demo game which only has 15 levels, so that doesn’t count. Maybe I should take on an easy run, just get that under my belt.
Are there any other games like Slice & Dice? The dice mechanic is riveting. I’m curious if it was improved on from other games and this was a first-time innovation.
“Are there any other games like Slice & Dice? The dice mechanic is riveting. I’m curious if it was improved on from other games and this was a first-time innovation.”
The folks over at Qt3 regard it as one of the best. There are a few others I’ve stumbled across: Circadian Dice and Die in the Dungeon (which isn’t out yet). There’s obviously Dicey Dungeons too but I didn’t click with that quite as much as Slice & Dice!
Lost in the Static! Yes! And it turns out to be by Friend Of The Blog Sean Barrett, and also to have been playtested by a bunch of old Interactive Fiction scene-heads. Sean was also an old IF scene-head I guess, he has a well-knownish game with a distinctive mechanic from IFComp ’01. That’s over twenty years ago! Why are we so old?
And of course, I never played Lost in the Static because it’s PC-only.
Truss, sorry for triggering. I really don’t know how she can not have got the message but look! There are the Tories, still in power, and somehow doing things! Surely this will stop at some point but I’m sorry.
So I think I am going to call Slice & Dice a Spire-like:
permadeath
strict alternation between a map with minimal (or in this case, no) navigation and combats that are barely spatialized
combat working largely by building an array of particular moves from preset moves + random equipment drops
meta-progression by unlocks only [optional?]
IIRC the game mentioned Slay the Spire and Cinco Paus (?) as inspirations. Dicey Dungeons is another obvious example and there are some other I haven’t played. Gregg, I agree, Dicey Dungeons isn’t as absorbing. Not as much variety in your options and the scaling is off IMO, toward the end of your run you often have a decent loadout so you aren’t using the new stuff you get, your added power comes from extra HP and dice and being able to purchase healthups. Which isn’t as interesting! I did enjoy working through the modes (except elimination round Witch, that was nightmarish), and I really like the story bits and background flavor, but it doesn’t have the staying power of Slice and Dice. Which is crack.
Oh Gregg, in relation to the Qt3 thread, at least on Mac you can get to fullscreen and UI resize by clicking the gear and then “options.” Though this might not accomplish what you want!
Late to the party but I do love Crashbook for its esoterica and Joel’s ability to find such compelling titles that in many cases I’ve never heard of.
Joel, Dyson Sphere Program also features curved surfaces. Definitely one to add if you like nice curves.
Sorry.
I mean… it was right there.
I’m on the fence about Colossal Caves as well. Not sure how well it would age without substantial updates, and some would argue that changing the core means changing its identity. But Roberta Williams is involved, and despite Phantasmagoria’s existence, her involvement means an automatic place on certain lists, and rightly so. I learned to read by playing Mystery House (which might, in retrospect, explain a lot about both my personality and my prose).
Ah, Dyson Sphere Program, there’s always prior art. Keep expecting someone to tell me “in 1983, there was a game on the ZX Spectrum that did this exact thing”.
The trailer for Colossal Cave just doesn’t grab at all, either, it reminds me too much of those cheap and garishly cheerful indie games that were sold direct from the internet in the early 2000s.
Important news for those who have Slice and Dice installed:
open it up
click almanac (the book)
click stats
click online
click “cursed”
And I thought I was obsessively playing Slice & Dice, Matt 🙂 Congratulations on all that self-flagellation!
I’m just committed to seeing how long I can make a Normal streak. Not that long, it seems. Usually that last level is the one that wipes everyone out but occasionally I have a terrible party who keep dying until an imp wipes them all out with a jab of his little finger.
If Slice & Dice is crack, I was like Al Pacino in Scarface.
Taking a little break from the game now!