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Just Read the Instructions (yes, that’s the name)

Bored of Games where all you do is shoot a bunch of zombies? Just read the Instructions adds in puzzles as you mow your way through waves of robo-like enemies!

Explore a surreal environment with your friends! This game is a co-op, and solving the set of instructions given to yuo allow you to access the next level.

This game is for those who want just a little something more in their classic shooters.

Both the environments and the monsters give you something interesting to look at as you brainstorm your path through the game.

Just read the Instructions is available to Beta, and is due to come out sometime in 2021 on Steam.

From their Steam page

by Abby Zarakovich

Vivid Knight

This Upcoming game on Steam has all the cuteness of a mobile game paired with the dungeon crawl adventures found in early MMOs.

Vivid Knight fits its name and reunites the modern gatcha with it’s fantasy-based ancestor (the MUD).

It’s character designs (varied and colorful as the name implies) works well with the graphics that accompany the randomly-generated dungeons that are the base of the game.

Mixing and matching the crystals that represent characters let you fight mobs and move through the dungeon, moving your party and the story along.

Vivid Knight’s building on the respected genre of dungeon crawler may revive the fun that nerds in ages past have enjoyed for themselves, and bring the 8-bit style of game into a new era.

Overall Aesthetic: The gems and art style are cute, with good color choices!

Gameplay: As someone who like randomized dungeons, this is one that drew my eye: I like how some rooms are optional, and if you don’t want to do something, a whole bunch of room types have option to not engage.

from the game’s Steam page

Castle Flipper

Castle Flipper is a Building and Decorating Simulator for medieval castles!

This game isn’t just castles, either: it also includes the surrounding land, and  sheds, barns, huts, houses, mansions, palaces and even pirate ships!

This game takes place in the 16th and 17th centuries, so in addition to the usual Medieval buildings, you will also find some Baroque and Renaissance elements that add variety to the gameplay and give you more options for interior decoration.

To be released May 27, 2021 on Steam, Castle flipper looks to be a fun simulator, including both rampant destruction and detailed creation.

It has lovingly rendered wooden details, and goes from the basics of building (frames and pillars) to the furniture and placement of decorative elements like suits of armor and fur rugs.

Images from their STEAM site

START AGAIN: a prologue

How do you feel about Time loops, dear reader? Does the monotony of the same day over and over and over bore you to tears? Or does the hope to fix your mistakes blind you to the truth that the loop is whispering?

START AGAIN: a prologue has multiple endings, and is based on a series of short comics.

Providing a swift kick in the chest and eyes full of tears, you follow Siffrin in this story in the second person, and meet friends to help you on your quest.

Defeat monsters as you learn about the loop that has trapped you in it’s claws!

The game is available here!

From the Creator’s Tumblr

Rail Route: The Train Dispatcher Simulator Game

Early Access on June 23

Hypnotizing with it’s elegant minimalism, the spray of numbers and times across the screen a soothing balm to the organized mind. It’s the base form of a puzzle game, meant to challenge you and engage you, driving you to do better than yourself, to improve times, and techniques, and flourish in one of the most classic forms of transportation: the Train on the Rail Road.

The Game engages with that base videogame urge to watch numbers go up, to streamline your new ability to the best of your power.

Upgrade your trains and railways, solve the puzzles given, and even build your own Railways. Edit and Automate your maps to create the smoothest ride anyone’s ever seen in Rail Route: Train Dispatcher Simulator.

An example screenshot from the Game’s Steam page

 

Sherwood Extreme

A free-to-play spin on the classic Robin Hood tale, Sherwood merges it with what any love about modern PvP games.

Building on the aesthetics of Middle Ages Europe, Sherwood is rendered in stylized polygons, with a wide range of customization for your player character.

Sherwood has abilities unique to Co-op, and maps in environments ranging from seaside pirate ships to nighttime forests.

I Love the way they have the tutorial text integrated into the game’s background scenery. It both blends really well while still catching the eye of the player.

Everything is very visible, but not in a way that’s jarring or takes out of the gameplay. The 3-d word effects for headshots or explosives add a fun, cartoony element. Leaderboards also appear as physical objects in the game, which make the standing feel more solid.

Overall, it’s a fun simple game, that lovers of Fortnite and Apex will enjoy, especially with friends that might be new for this genre.

From their Steam Page

 

Season

A gorgeous take on the “walking game” genre, Season’s main themes  are “Travel” and “Preservation”.

A stylized game rendered in nostalgic colors, it looks like a fairytale painting. Explore a dying world and collect what remains of a world of life and wonder.

From the offical site:

Document, photograph, draw, and record life. Through a solitary bicycle journey, form your own memories, your own vision of the world around you. Your goal? Protect these treasures from being forgotten. Your quest will lead you to discover a new world; unknown, yet familiar. You will be immersed in different societies that will make you discover the mysteries of the world of Season; a surreal version of the mid-twentieth century, where thousands of years have passed without any progress. Find out what caused the last collapse and what might cause the next one…

By Scavengers studio, due to be released this year on PC and Playstation.

 

Cozy Grove

Capitalizing on the Animal Crossing craze, this adorable game adds a haunting twist!

The lovely artwork is paired with a Real-time environment and missions to go on! There is more to do as more time passes, and game play starts at a half hour and builds to over 2 hours a day.

Cozy Grove is an easier and more character based alternative to animal crossing, and has mechanics  reminiscent of Stardew Valley.

Decoration can  influences your surroundings, and Item collecting is a relatively large part of gameplay. It’s Good for casual gamers , as it’s mechanics, by design, space out playtime.

With a ratio of 3 Positive reviews for every one negative on Steam, the game garners an 80% on MetaCritic. Most of the Negative reviews don’t care for the segmented, real time play style, rather than anything technical.

The art is light and whimsical, adding to the relaxing nature of the game, while the writing keeps you intrigued with each character’s story .

The game is available in 14 different languages. and on switch as well as PC!

A snapshot of Life on the island

Art and Horror in Mundaun

Explore Alpine mysteries in a Puzzle based Horror with Mundaun! This game has a focus on Art and storytelling, and its overwhelmingly positive reviews rave about the vibes this art piece gives off.

The art of the game has a combination of Two and 3 dimensional aspects, and is entirely in black and white. The overlay of 2-d textures heightens the uncanny valley often seen in 3-d video games.  The consistent  art style provides a feast for the eyes and increases the spook factor when a monster fades into view.

The atmospheric ambience  is achieved through the use of  rough textures of the mountain , while things like plants and animals are carefully detailed. By making the sky light grey and the mountains dark, there is just enough contrast to distinguish the two as you traverse the map.

The simplified human shapes of the characters lend credence to the appearance of the monsters. Having a simple style throughout  lets the player maintain their suspension of disbelief.

The story-book-esque style contributes to the games easy-going gameplay, with minimal stats to keep track of an the ability to run or avoid monsters. The game only has  a few jump scares, relying on psychological horror to keep you on the edge of your seat.

A pleasant vista
From the game’s STEAM page

Blaseball’s Boom

Musicals and Music video, fan animations and artwork…. for a fantasy baseball browser game?

It’s indeed the case!

Blaseball is an absurdist online baseball game that was split into “seasons” (a la Apex Legends) with a rulebook with chunks that are redacted for the player. There’s a shop with in-game items purchased with in-game money won by backing teams, similar to various irl fantasy leagues.

The trick with this game is the unusual stats, the ability for you (as a player) to vote on actions of the teams or rules of the game, and “blessings” (random powerups) get randomly assigned to the blaseball players on the teams, like “performance enhancing demons” and “bloodlust”.

The trick is both in choice making, and knowing the players enough to decide which teams to bet on.

For fans, the joy is in the story telling, the characters, the competition, and the eagerness of waiting for your team to win.

Gaming News and the Ultimate Universe