This week has been comparatively quiet, all issues thought of. Which gave us a little bit of time to essentially dig by means of our inbox and discover thrilling indie games to inform you about in our weekly hidden indie gems feature.
As at all times, the primary half is devoted to displaying off a few of the finest trailers and divulges of the week, earlier than we get to games you’ll be able to play this weekend. Although the Steam Game Festival is over, the Summer Sale kicked off yesterday. You gained’t at all times discover the games advisable right here on sale, what with most of them being in-development or latest releases, nevertheless it’s value checking up in your wishlist to see if something we advisable earlier than is value getting at a reduction.
Hot indie games week of June 22
Rogue Legacy 2
Cellar Door shocked everybody when it determined to comply with up the favored Rogue Legacy not with a sequel, however with a brand new game in a special style. Full Metal Furies was appreciated nicely sufficient, nevertheless it wasn’t what followers anticipated from the studio.
The developer has now returned with Rogue Legacy 2, a sequel that appears to be bettering on practically each side of the unique design. The most important hook stays the identical: you might be however one in every of countless members of an enormous household. You dive into 2.5D, procedurally generated dungeons, improve your hero all through, and finally, in all probability, meet your demise.
But not all is misplaced, as a result of you should utilize a few of what you earned to improve the household manor, and make issues barely simpler for the subsequent inheritor to succeed you. Every hero is totally different, and also you by no means know what inherent benefits or disabilities they’ll spawn with.
The game can technically be overwhelmed by the primary character you get, however that hardly ever occurs. Rogue Legacy was one of many first rogue-lites to determine a manner of lessening the impact of repeated deaths typical in its contemporaries. By investing right into a persistent talent tree, you make sure that each future run may have an ever so barely increased probability of success.
All of this returns in Rogue Legacy 2, although not with no few modifications. The artwork type is extra vibrant, and character designs pop in comparison with the comparatively flat look of the unique.
Another main change is that every class now has a singular weapon, which helps differentiate every inheritor additional. This week’s shock announcement additionally got here with a date for Rogue Legacy 2’s Steam Early Access launch. The game drops July 23 for $20, and you’ll wishlist it now on Steam.
The Artful Escape
The Artful Escape is the story of a younger guitarist who, after the loss of life of his people legend uncle, units out on a cosmic journey of self-discovery as he slowly creates his stage persona.
You’ve in all probability already guessed that there’s going to be plenty of psychedelic imagery and music simply by studying that description. The Artful Escape begins out on a small city on Earth, however rapidly strikes on to alien worlds and different not possible dimensions, the place our hero is on the seek for a jazz membership that by no means seems in the identical place twice.
The Artful Escape isn’t a rhythm game, nevertheless it very a lot works music into its very material. The motion platforming gameplay is aided by guitar jams which accompany the jumps, slides, and hovers. The cosmic beings within the game’s worlds harmonise along with his shredding beats, creating some uplifting moments.
This week, developer Beethoven & Dinosaur dropped a reasonably detailed gameplay walkthrough that explains the overall conceit, and gives our greatest look but on the game.
The Artful Escape is coming to PC and Xbox One, and there’s a Steam page the place you’ll be able to add it your wishlist.
Games you’ll be able to play this weekend
Inertial Drift
Inertial Drift has a really fascinating hook for a driving game. The anime-themed, 90s retro-future racer is sort of completely about drifting, however this isn’t any drifting you’ve seen earlier than.
Inertial Drift is – and I can’t imagine I’m saying this – a dual-stick racer. The left stick controls steering, and the appropriate stick is devoted to the drift. If you’ve ever drifted a automotive in a video game, you’ll know precisely how massive of a deal that is.
This management scheme primarily makes you give attention to the drift when you preserve your pace and heading right into a nook, which is not possible to do in the true world, and in most games that simulate drifting. But what Inertial Drift trades in authenticity, it makes up for in really feel. This dual-stick setup permits you to provoke drifts at immense pace, and makes for a really flashy, anime-style look to your strikes.
This week, developer Level 91 launched a free demo titled Sunset Prologue. It permits you to check out two very totally different vehicles throughout two tracks. It’s solely a 700MB obtain, so give it a go on Steam and expertise Inertial Drift’s distinctive mechanic.
The full game is coming to PC, PS4, Xbox One and Switch on August 7.
Encodya
I don’t play many point-and-click journey games, however each occasionally, alongside comes a brand new one that’s hard to ignore. Encodya is a cyberpunk journey game very a lot within the basic type.
It follows Tina, a nine-year-old orphan who lives along with her clumsy robotic guardian. Tina is a scavenger of kinds, roaming the streets of Neo-Berlin on the lookout for something and all the pieces to maintain her. Tina and SAM-53’s designs are what drew me to Encodya initially.
The game’s world is harking back to Blade Runner – solely inhabited by Studio Ghibli characters. The protagonists are literally based mostly on a brief movie by Chaosmonger (which can be the developer) referred to as Robot Will Protect You.
Encodya is a 2D game, however characters are all 3D, which helps them actually stand out, particularly after they animate. The demo for Encodya not too long ago came to Steam, and you’ll obtain it at the moment. Keep in thoughts, nevertheless, that it’s based mostly on an outdated construct the place all the pieces was 2D, so it’s not fairly consultant of the look you see in trailers.
Children of Morta
Children of Morta isn’t a brand new game, nevertheless it’s one whose builders hold supporting with new content material since its launch final 12 months. It’s a game I wished to cowl earlier than as a result of it does some actually cool issues with the style of rogue-lites.
Morta is a top-down motion game the place you play as choose members of the Bergsons household. They’re not randomly generated, so every of them is their very own character and fight class. The roster retains increasing as extra members of the family present up. Though it’s an motion game, Morta’s strengths aren’t in its fight. What stored me coming again was how the game represents development each narratively and mechanically.
Rogue-lites/likes may be irritating as a result of it typically feels such as you’re banging your head in opposition to a wall till you break by means of, and barely something modifications between runs. Morta advances the story of its world and characters after every run, no matter your end result. Sometimes sure occasions witnessed within the run, resembling rescuing a wolf cub, or coming throughout a special member of the family in a bind, themselves develop into narrative threads that you simply get to see unfold when your return.
In gameplay, Morta permits you to hold a foreign money earned in dungeons, which you employ to spice up stats for its heroes, and lots of apply to the complete household so that you’re incentivised to modify issues up. In different phrases, it will get simpler over time.
It additionally has one of many warmest, most lovingly delivered narrations in games, which lends each story beat weight it wouldn’t in any other case have if you happen to have been to only learn it off the display. This week, the game obtained a brand new hero with new story content material. It’s obtainable on PC, PS4, Xbox One, and Switch. During the Steam Summer Sale, you’ll discover it for just $13.19. It’s additionally obtainable on PC and Xbox Game Pass.
