When the seas boil into the red giantess of our sun, one grand monument will escape the ravages of solar apocalypse. Secure in the Humanity Memorial on Titan, future civiliations will find an ancient leatherbound tome with a thousand pages. It is the Crashbook.
A new page beckons, containing fourteen more games I have not played.
358/ Date Time❤️: Melissa❤️, Morris❤️, Anna❤️
Date, Flirt and SURVIVE through this animated retro-horror dating sim, set in the era of the 8-bit computer! Explore a vibrant world, and meet FUN characters along the way! Will your choices earn you a ❤️SMOOCH❤️ from these digital cuties or your DOOM?
Crash notes: There is a lot going on in the trailer.
Windows | Steam Link | Unreleased
359/ HER TREES : THE PUZZLE HOUSE
“HER TREES : The Puzzle House” is an unusual escape game. There are no items to acquire, You have to move and combine objects to solve the password. Solve the mystery of this strange room.
Crash notes: I’m sorry… I just love the monochrome art. I’M A SIMPLE MAN WITH SIMPLE TASTES.
Windows | Steam Link | Just Released
360/ Lonely Space
Lonely space is an old-fashioned sci-fi immersive sim game. You find yourself awakened from hibernetic sleep in the docking bay of the Cassiopeia space station. All your crew gone long time ago. You have to resque them and find out what’s going on on the station.
Crash notes: I’m not entirely convinced as it seems more derivative/nostalgic than being its own thing. But my fingers betray me. I must commit it to Crashbook.
Windows | Steam Link | Unreleased
361/ Skaramazuzu
Enter the mysterious world of Skaramazuzu, and get ready to be tested. Meet strange beings and whimsical personalities, face challenges, and solve riddles in a hand-drawn, black and white 2D world.
Crash notes: Looks cool, right? Picked this up from Konstantinos Dimopoulos on social media.
Windows | Steam Link | Unreleased
362/ SUMMERHOUSE
A tiny building game about beautiful lived-in houses. No rules or restrictions, just pure creativity.
Crash notes: In the same genre ballpark as Townscaper but the graphics are a little more Cloud Gardens. It’s already earned an Overwhelmingly Positive badge on Steam.
Windows, Mac | Steam Link | Just Released
363/ Munch
Kill. Eat. Evolve. Grow your monster and incite Chaos in this reverse-horror action roguelite. Devour the Followers of Order to gain different grotesque bodies forged from the elements Flesh, Nekro, and Stone. Master and stack abilities to crush their god Ördo and bring back the Gods of Heavy Metal!
Crash notes: Just caught my eye, you know? I haven’t been able to ascertain whether there’s something potent going on under the hood.
Windows, Mac | Steam Link | Unreleased
364/ Godsworn
Godsworn is a classic mythological RTS. Experience an epic fantasy retelling of the northern crusades, where pagan gods and their tribes clash against crusaders and armies of heaven. Choose a divine hero, rally worshippers alongside mythical creatures, and smite the unworthy!
Crash notes: A new RTS that looks pretty swish.
Windows, Mac | Steam Link | Early Access
365/ Outcast: A New Beginning
Explore the breathtaking alien world of Adelpha, support the local Talans in their struggles and fight your way through fast-paced battles against invading robot forces in this 3rd-person, open world, action adventure sequel to the 1999 cult classic.
Crash notes: Yes, twenty-five years later, they’ve only gone and made a sequel to Outcast? I bought the original Outcast and played it for about half an hour, planning to return to it later. I moved to Japan and never picked it up again. At least I got back to Thief which was similarly interrupted. One day!
Windows | Steam Link | Just Released
366/ Boons & Burdens
Boons & Burdens is a single player action-roguelike set in the depths of hell. Battle hordes of demons through 12 levels, collect gems to purchase powerful boons, and choose from deadly burdens that alter the game’s difficulty. Will you be the paragon of power or the architect of your own defeat?
Crash notes: From the developer of Gunlocked (Crashbook entry 14/215) which I had some good times with.
Windows | Steam Link | Early Access
367/ Bokura
BOKURA is a two-player puzzle adventure game. Play as two boys who ran away from their homes and work together to take yourselves somewhere far, far away. Relive the friendship of your childhood through the journey of two boys.
Crash notes: Asymmetric co-op like At A Distance and We Were Here.
Windows | Steam Link | Released Aug 2023
368/ Into the Restless Ruins
A roguelike deckbuilder where you build the dungeon you fight through. Each night use your cards to expand the ruins then battle through them harvesting Glimour from the residents, so The Maiden may grant your heart’s desire. But be warned – eventually your trespassing will awaken The Warden.
Crash notes: From Ant Workshop (Binaries, Dead End Job, Dungeon Golf).
Windows | Steam Link | Unreleased
369/ Bingle Bingle
Bingle Bingle is a ‘Roulette Builder’ game where you can create your own Roulette. Strategically combine various betting options and unique balls to create synergies, earn extreme scores, and beat the casino
Crash notes: Another Crashbook entry I’m not convinced of; it’s included here more for the curiosity value. Probably just the first of many games that hope to capture the success of Balatro. Why gamble when you can change the rules?
Windows, Linux | Steam Link | Early Access
370/ A Difficult Game About Climbing
This is a difficult game about climbing.
Crash notes: If you needed more GIRP in your life, here’s more GIRP. Apparently inspired by Getting Over It rather than GIRP.
Windows | Steam Link | Just Released
371/ My Sweet Floating in the Void
The game is a first-person puzzle adventure, with wacky and old-fashioned graphics, which will transport the player into a dreamlike, psychedelic world composed of an experimental game system that will challenge and test even the most experienced puzzle gamers in the industry.
Crash notes: I’m naturally going to raise an eyebrow at “test even the most experienced puzzle gamers in the industry” but I’m intrigued by first-person puzzle adventure aspect.
Windows, Mac | Steam Link | Just Released
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I sneakly added a fourteenth title onto the list today…
Into the Restless Ruins looks intriguing if only because, for a roguelike deckbuilder, it doesn’t seem like it’s anything like Slay the Spire? The deck is used to build a map and maybe spatial placement on the map means something, putting it more in my core definition of roguelike (“you can get jumped by multiple monsters and sometimes you have to fight in corridors”) than the typical Spirelike where maps are separate from combat and only provide a minimal choice of what battle/shop/event to encounter next.
However it would be more interesting if you were harvesting Gilmour, rewarded at the end of every level with ambient sustain-heavy guitar solos. Also I followed the Steam link to Binaries, which has a Mac port (ooh) and is on sale for megacheap (hmm) and is described as a rock-hard puzzle platformer (maybe?) which plays best with a controller (no). For the best, it is sort of giving me an N++ vibe and reminds me that, much as I love Raigan Burns, I had to uninstall N++ because I didn’t like the way it made me feel.
A Difficult Game About Climbing reminds me that I’d like to see more games with weird physics-based control schemes. Like a game where you use twin sticks or WASD/IJKL to manipulate and travel by means of a double-headed meteor hammer. Though I’m not sure I want to play these games. I beat GIRP once and I feel good about that. The seagull is the most loathsome character in all gaming (oddly the most praiseworthy characters in all gaming are also avian, the Klakar from Strange Adventures/Weird Worlds).
Regarding games with physics-based control schemes, Matt, it amazes me that nobody ripped off the simple joy swinging around on the Worms ninja rope (perfected in, I think, Armageddon) as the basis for a game. The Umihara Kawase games were very nearly this, only the implementation of the swinging mechanic is rather wonky and the game is frustratingly hard by design, which in combination conspire to largely rob it of its central appeal.