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 nineteen more games I have not played.
499/ All Living Things
Uncover the secrets of the philosopher’s stone by solving twelve intricately animated puzzles that reveal the mysterious hidden meanings within alchemical images.
Crash notes: Finally we’re going to get a game from Saint Vulture who has been making cool-looking stuff for years.
Windows, Mac, Linux | Steam Link | Unreleased
500/ Starless Abyss
Earth has fallen. Science and the Occult have united forces to brace for the arrival of the Eldritch. But will the efforts against this strange, alien race be enough? Play as one of many Proximae used to help defend humanity in this turn-based, roguelike, intergalactic deck builder.
Crash notes: Another deckbuilder! Soon I will have collected the set of all deckbuilders. The pixel art looks mighty cool, though.
Windows | Steam Link | Released Apr 2025
501/ Rift Riff
Jump a rift, fight off monsters, plunder their world. A strategic mix of juicy tower loadouts, varied monster behaviors, and forgiving mechanics.
Crash notes: My brain wants to call this Rift Raft. I swear I will continue to call it that in my head canon. From Adriaan de Jongh (Fingle, Hidden Folks, Secret Shuffle).
Windows, Mac, Linux | Steam Link | Released May 2025
502/ Biophobia
A woman is violated by a man. In a final act of rebellion to preserve her humanity, she takes control and opens her stomach. Unable to finish what she started she waits for you, and asks you not to look away.
Crash notes: Free. From what I can discern without playing this is hard on the art side. In case the first line gives you pause, this is from the Steam synopsis: “There are no portrayals of sexual assault, drug/alcohol abuse, or self-harm.”
Windows | Steam Link | Released May 2025
503/ MIRO
MIRO is a narrative driven exploration game set in a procedural universe. Explore, evolve and discover secrets in this thrilling adventure where you set your own path.
Crash notes: Mentioned by Matt W in the last Crashbook comments, this definitely captures my interest. Described by John Walker as “a modest No Man’s Sky set in Proteus” although there is shooting.
Windows | Steam Link | Released Apr 2025
504/ Eufloria Classic
Eufloria Classic brings back the original charms of the long-unavailable indie classic, updated for a new age with a plethora of new content and features, including extreme moddability.
Crash notes: I loved the original free Dyson prototype but never got around to the commercial release of Eufloria – it was the beginning of the end of keeping up with all the games I wanted to play. But “Eufloria Classic” is coming soon.
Windows | Steam Link | Unreleased
505/ Without a Dawn
Without a Dawn is a dark, psychological, and philosophical visual horror novel featuring hauntingly beautiful pseudo-ASCII art.
Crash notes: Looks. So. Good.
Windows | Steam Link | Released May 2025
506/ Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon
Step into a dark reimagination of Arthurian legends in this first person, open world RPG. Explore a world stuck in everlasting autumn, witness falling legends and make meaningful choices woven into a complex, branching storyline.
Crash notes: From what I can tell this looks like Souls game but doesn’t have Souls difficulty. Anyway, it looked nice from afar, so into the list it went.
Windows | Steam Link | Just released
507/ City of None
A metropolis crumbles into ruin as powerful Barons satisfy their greed upon souls lost in time. You are but one spirit, with a wooden body left to rot in the wild…
Crash notes: Currently nothing much to see other than an empty website although you might be lucky and get an update or two from Noel Berry’s web page. I think this came to my attention via this one Bluesky post.
Site Link | Unreleased
508/ Trails
TRAILS is a cozy puzzle game in which you plot routes for floating sand ships. Deliver vital cargo to remote outposts – without collisions, dead ends, or backtracking. Every move counts in the wasteland.
Crash notes: I’ve even got a Steam key for this one but its clean look drew my eye. It’s a rail puzzle recast as sand ships that operates as a blend of Railbound and Cosmic Express. Hope to give this is go at some point.
Windows, Mac, Linux | Steam Link | Just released
509/ Herald: The Interactive Period Drama – Complete Edition
Herald is a choice-driven adventure set on the high seas. Board the HLV Herald and uncover its dark secrets in an intriguing tale about tyranny and servitude.
Crash notes: Herald has been in development for well over ten years. Its first parts were released in 2017 but now it is finally complete.
Windows, Mac, Linux | Steam Link | Released May 2025
510/ Decade
Explore an alternate past. Discover how its ideas develop, distort, and disappear. Seed new movements, destroy others. Subvert the rise and fall of empires, art, ideologies, and individuals in this narrative adventure game.
Crash notes: “First-time solo-dev project.” Got a scrappy upstart vibe that is impossible for me to ignore.
Windows | Steam Link | Just released
511/ Shards Between Us
With their family and home on the brink of collapse, two magical sisters must find a way to grow together. Join their coming of age journey in this healing, heartfelt head-scratcher.
Crash notes: Draknek New Voice Puzzle Grant winner: follow up to Castle of Glas which was part of the Cartomancy Anthology. Looks gorgeous but I have absolutely no idea how it plays.
Windows, Mac | Steam Link | Unreleased
512/ DESOLUS
Explore a city of Gothic architecture torn between past and future in Desolus, a first person puzzle game. Solve Escher-like puzzles through the use of black holes, traveling back and forth through time to make architecture whole again. Prevent a cataclysm which fractures reality, and save the city.
Crash notes: I don’t know why I never added this before as it obviously has my name written all over it.
Windows | Steam Link | Unreleased
513/ SAUDADE
Cross through the barren landscape looking for a big enough rock to throw yourself of off. Point and click in postapocaliptic Galiza through a cooking game with only one recipe.
Crash notes: It’s the trailer. The Steam trailer hooked me but there’s another trailer which has a very different feel. The odd, jerky animation oozes Hylics energy.
Windows, Mac, Linux | Steam Link | Unreleased
514/ Desktop Survivors 98
Desktop Survivors 98 is a chaotic roguelite dungeon crawler that unfolds right on your Desktop. Your cursor becomes the hero as you explore new rooms, battle relentless waves of enemies, and collect powerful new weapons.
Crash notes: Probably not my thing, but I appreciate how this *Survivors game has found a different theme to play out on. And that theme is Windows 98.
Windows | Steam Link | Released May 2025
515/ Queen’s Domain
Explore a mysterious island filled with secrets in this combat and traversal focused retro-inspired Action RPG.
Crash notes: Not impressed with how the combat currently comes across in the trailer but, holy shit, I love the software-rendered aesthetic.
Windows | Steam Link | Unreleased
516/ Herdling
Guide a herd of mysterious creatures on a stirring and beautiful journey into the mountains… and beyond.
Crash notes: From the developers of Far: Lone Sails – which I tried on mobile and quit pretty quickly! – this looks absolutely wonderful. Expecting this to be a similarly wordless experience.
Windows | Steam Link | Unreleased
517/ The New Flesh
Explore the strange world within the screen in this ambient exploration experience featuring the music of Red Vox.
Crash notes: Free. Yeah, so this is from the developers of Queen’s Domain which I linked above. I don’t know if I’m going to understand anything resembling a story but I’m feeling me some Videodrome here. Trailer looks wild.
Windows | Steam Link | Just released
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Woohoo, I guess everybody got the full list in the email instead of just the first title…
Biophobia i already had my eye on, but Miro, Desolus, and Saudade are all new to me and intriguing!
Joel, did i ever point you towards Diacritic? i played the demo back in february and something about its mood and style really clicked. think it might also appeal to you: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3520040/Diacritic_Demo/
oh no…. the developer shut down and Diacritic is cancelled. https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2777740/view/516335345719052511?l=english
i have not tried their previous game MOUTHOLE, which is now also delisted on steam, but remains on itch: https://anythingnose.itch.io/mouthole
Why, no vfig, you hadn’t pointed me towards Diacritic before but it’s sad that the recommendation arrives after we discover the developers are done!
Tainted Grail is supposedly more of a Skyrim-like (but with elden ring aesthetic).
Tried the demo, starts in a prison (yawn), almost got out of the starting area and then when I came back to it, the game updated and reset my progress… it did make me explore more of the prison the second time around, but then I got bored of it and uninstalled.
Overall I haven’t heard or seen anyting to suggest it does anything more than what Skyrim et al already have, so meh.
Herdling’s demo is a nice experience, it’s indeed wordless. Not sure if I’ll get the full game.
I’ve never heard of Eufloria and now I’m intrigued!