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 any of these games are good. But maybe someone else will play them. Maybe someone else will discover they are good.
In this episode, 15 more games are added to the Crashbook.
77/ G String
Slip into the Standard Issue Biosuit as Myo Hyori, a gifted Korean teenage girl who must face the perils of the future. Survive many hazards, explore a seemingly endless metropolis and beyond as the world around you implodes and history marches towards its inevitable conclusion.
Crash notes: Popped up on Twitter and was curious why I hadn’t heard of this before. It’s over a year old.
Windows | Steam Link | Released Oct 2020
78/ FEWAR_DVD
A rapid arcade game. Avoid the swords. Find the key. Enter the portal. It’s a migraine.
Crash notes: Saw the trailer of this and knew I would never play it. But with its heart-pumping fast pace and visuals designed to pull your visual cortex inside out, I knew it had earned a spot in Crashbook.
Windows | Steam Link | Released Dec 2021
79/ Pleroma
A set of dreamy, interconnected environments for the player to explore, experience, and unravel at their leisure. There is no shooting in it, and no jump scares. There are some bits that people may consider mildly spooky (or even spoopy), but I would not classify it as a horror in any conventional sense, unless you consider existential angst to be horrifying, which you should.
Crash notes: One of those Crashbook entries I jotted down then instantly erased the memory of how I came to find it. Some sort of “walking simulator” type game, possibly.
Windows | Itch Link | Released Jan 2020
80/ Know by heart
Childhood friends reunite after spending a long time apart, revisiting old memories and rekindling their friendship. However, something beyond their control will ruin this reunion.
Crash notes: ICE-PICK LODGE KLAXXON
Windows | Steam Link | Released Feb 2022
81/ Abermore
Inherit the role of a mythical thief and pull off the heist of the century in Abermore, a first-person RPG where stealth is your key to fame and fortune. You have 18 days to ransack houses, sell stolen loot, acquire new gear and form alliances to prepare for the ultimate heist.
Crash notes: Thieflike with procgen?
Windows | Steam Link | Releasing Mar 2022
82/ Ghost on the Shore
An exploration game about emotional ties that transcend even death. Riley is faced with a headstrong ghost, urging her on an adventure across atmospheric shores, uncovering the island’s tragic secret. Choices in dialogue shape the bond between the two, ultimately deciding Riley’s fate.
Crash notes: I’m not necessarily drawn by the “consequences” of your actions as I might once have been but could be interesting.
Windows, Mac | Steam Link | Released Feb 2022
83/ Alephant
A word-less abstract puzzle game about language.
Crash notes: I played Lucas Le Slo’s prototype version of this some time ago; the mechanics intrigued but I didn’t keep playing until the end due to some UI aggravation. But I love the design and theming of Alephant so I’m still pleased to see it going commercial; would be interested to give the new version a go.
Windows | Steam Link | Unreleased
84/ Graphwar
Graphwar is an artillery game in which you must hit your enemies using mathematical functions. The trajectory of your shot is determined by the function you wrote, and your goal is to avoid the obstacles and your teammates and hit your enemies. The game takes place in a Cartesian Plane.
Crash notes: Scorched Earth for mathematicians. Or Worms if you’re a little younger. I’m not sure I want to play this but love that it exists. Free.
Windows, Mac | Steam Link | Released Feb 2022
85/ Dreams in the Witch House
Dreams in the Witch House is an open world horror adventure game, where you guide Walter Gilman, as he prepares to face the dreaded May-Eve witch ritual in the legend-haunted city of Arkham. Choose your own approach and reveal the secret of the Witch House before it’s too late.
Crash notes: This weird screenshot may suggest a first-person adventure – but the game is more like a point-and-click. Looks charming.
Windows | Steam Link | Unreleased
86/ Mossfield Origins
A small cozy city builder style game, where all buildings are built from the same foundation and upgraded via tech tree! Take your time and build the best self sustaining community for your residents in this chill, relaxing builder, with no time pressure or external forces.
Crash notes: “Small cozy” and “chill, relaxing” caught my eye here.
Windows | Steam Link | Unreleased
87/ Hirilun
Hirilun is a time-trial-based first-person platformer in which you will explore a dark and strange city. Run, jump, glide, sprint and dash to achieve the best possible time, and compete with your friends in worldwide leaderboards.
Crash notes: Reminded me strongly of Santa Ragione’s Fotonica. Black and white aesthetic reeled me in.
Windows | Steam Link | Released Mar 2022
88/ Bits and Bops
Bits & Bops is a collection of original rhythm mini-games. Featuring over 20 mini-games filled with catchy music, snappy gameplay and gorgeous, hand-drawn animation, Bits & Bops is sure to brighten your day.
Crash notes: I’m not much of a rhythm gamer, but take a look at this on Twitter – just lovely.
Windows, possibly Console | Site Link | Unreleased
89/ Discolored – Episode 2
All the colors have gone missing from the world. While on a mission to bring them back you discover you are being hunted by those who would see the colors banished. Your only hope is a woman in red who may be holding the key to preventing the world from becoming discolored.
Crash notes: I enjoyed the original Discolored which I covered in a 2020 Transmission. Pleasantly surprised to see a sequel coming out.
Windows | Steam Link | Unreleased
90/ Hyperbolica
Hyperbolica is a whimsical Non-Euclidean adventure with mind-bending worlds full of games, puzzles, mazes, and secrets! Immerse yourself in reality-warping geometries where lines can never be parallel, horizons are curved, and space grows exponentially.
Crash notes: I believe HyperRogue is all sorts of genius but I didn’t really love playing it. Recently I saw the trailer for Hyperbolica and was similarly impressed. But would I love it?
Windows | Steam Link | Released Mar 2022
91/ Telepath Tactics Liberated
An SRPG fan’s SRPG! Imagine Fire Emblem with destructible battlefields; the ability to place traps; the ability to shove enemies off cliffs, into lava, or into each other; and a built-in campaign creator.
Crash notes: This is a remake of the original Telepath Tactics from 2015. I haven’t played it, but I hear it was meaty.
Windows | Steam Link | Released Mar 2022
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One warning: Hyperbolica is *short*. like, less than two hours long.
88: Kitty!
Zara, that makes it even more likely that I will try it 🙂 Although I guess with a price > £10 and a runtime < 2 hrs that might make some people think twice. Oh, I can see there are already some disappointed Steam reviews mixed in with the good. Matt, no lie: it is the kitty that got this on the list.
The kitty seems like an adversarial NPC, somewhat like the most hateful character in all of gaming: the bird from GIRP. But it is a kitty! How can I be mad! Especially because I can’t play this game anyway.
Incidentally the most sympathetic character in all of gaming is also avian, the Klakar from Strange Adventures in Infinite Space/Weird Worlds. They take your crappy stuff and give you better stuff!
I’m surprised Know By Heart hasn’t made more of a splash, considering it’s by Ice Pick Lodge. That said, I haven’t played it yet either…
Matt, I’ve seen other Bits and Bops footage but it wasn’t cute as the kitty one. Infinite Space/Weird Worlds, there’s a last from the past. Not played a round of that for a long, long time.
Kat, ditto everything you wrote.
Dreambook: I dreamed about a game that would be a series of chess puzzles, with nonconventional boards and squares with special powers, where the goal in each level was to trap a specific piece (like checkmate except it’s not the king you’re checkmating). The narrative between the levels would be about a Hatfield-and-McCoy sort of feud where the members of two families kill each other off until two bare kings are left. Pawns promoting to queens is explained as someone picking up a shotgun.
As someone who loved Invisible Inc., Cryptark and Void Bastards’ proc. gen. heisting (The Swindle I still need to investigate), Abermore really excites me. And it’s only 9 days away! No Early Access either!
Hyperbolica looks crazy. Alephaunt looks gorgeous. And I can definitely see Fotonica in Hirilun as well. The first-person speedrunning/time-trial genre definitely seems to be hotting up!
D’oh: Alephant! Oops.
I love putting together Crashbook, it allows me to share with you my frustration that the human lifespan can only accommodate a finite number of games. I may be compelled to buy Abermore, Gregg, but I’m not sure I will find the time to play it.
Matt, somehow this reminds me of the unknowable game of Azad in The Player of Games.
“I don’t even see the media; all I see is 60 hours, 45 hours, 130.”
– Cypher, The Matrix
I always wanted to do a video of someone in a book shop or games store (or now on a streaming service) looking at everything and the covers just being time… but that felt too depressing and first-world-problem-y! 🙂
Getting misty-eyed here for that time I would look out at the sea of books and think of all the unconquered pages awaiting me. Now, I’m wondering which page I turn will mark my death
This isn’t Crashbook but I am just going to leave it here.
It occurs to me that:
I will be teaching philosophy and games in the fall
at some point I will probably share my screen to show a game
the students will be able to see that I have a bookmark labelled “what is a game”
the bookmark goes here
A miserable pile of secret levels?
Matt, did you enter academia just to troll students? Was that it?
I *also* troll colleagues