“Following a tragic stroke of fate, Alfred embarks on a journey north in search of redemption. In this single-player road trip adventure, you’ll travel to beautiful places, capture memories with your camera, meet interesting people, and even make some new friends.”
Platforms: Windows
Release: 2021
“A hardcore real-time tactics and stealth game set in an ever-changing Spanish Monastery. 5 inmates are imprisoned under different pretences. In order to escape they must face their phobias and risk worsening their conditions before madness completely takes them…”
Platforms: Windows, PS5, Xbox Series X
Release: Spring 2021
“A serene and evocative experience, free of danger, frustration or death. Players will explore a meticulously designed world brought to life with delicate art, detailed animation, and an elegant original score. Through the game light puzzles, platforming sequences, and optional skill-based challenges will reveal themselves as more of Gris’s world becomes accessible.
“Gris is a hopeful young girl lost in her own world, dealing with a painful experience in her life. Her journey through sorrow is manifested in her dress, which grants new abilities to better navigate her faded reality. As the story unfolds, Gris will grow emotionally and see her world in a different way, revealing new paths to explore using her new abilities.
Platforms: Windows, Mac, PS4, iOS, Android, Nintendo Switch
Release: December 13, 2018
“A pixel art action adventure game with an incredible atmosphere, intense combat and an epic story. You play as Aenor and will travel the past and the present of the fallen world. Your journey will be with charming colleagues, and your choices will shape your story.”
“The world, characters and effects are portrayed as gorgeous pixel art with dynamic lighting. Every character animation are fluid in each direction, and the orchestral soundtracks immerses you into the game. The combat is based on attack, dodge and shield, similar to Dark Souls, but there are also contextual decisions like The Last of Us. Fight like a skillful expert with combinations of basic actions and contextual actions, without having to memorize long skill lists. Each battle is fluid, yet intense. “
Platforms: PC, PS4, Xbox, Nintendo Switch
Release: 2021
“A point-and-click adventure game set in a post-apocalyptic world. After the Great War, all humans are wiped out. Embark on a journey through a vast world, full of interesting characters and engaging puzzle games. The only survivors are decaying service robots and humanoid lizards that were born from a long nuclear fallout.
“Our story follows Delta, who is a small service robot and like any other robot, he is just trying to survive in this harsh environment. One day he is forced to embark on a journey through a vast post-apocalyptic world in order to find his lost friend. Because of his small size, he needs to use all of his wits to overcome all dangerous scenarios and challenges.”
Platforms: Windows, Mac, Linux, Nintendo Switch
Release: TBA
“A first-person action-puzzle game where you have the power to create small black holes called “Rifts”. Rifts pull in and destroy almost everything in the environment, including yourself. You’ll use this power to destroy obstacles, solve puzzles, and move yourself at very high speeds.
“Black holes are extremely dangerous, and it’s very easy to kill yourself accidentally or destroy things around you. Much of the challenge of Gravia comes from performing controlled actions with a tool that is anything but subtle. On the other hand, most of the environments in Gravia are designed to be highly destructible, as there’s a special joy that comes from watching the world fall apart around you. Most large, destructible objects in Gravia bend and deform as they are drawn into black holes.”
Platforms: Windows, Mac
Release: early access 2020
“An open-world air combat game, featuring fast, brutal aerial dogfights and deep exploration of an incredible fantasy open-world set not only above the clouds, but also amongst the waves and down through the sunken, ocean depths.
“Become the Falconeer and soar through the skies aboard a devastatingly powerful Warbird. Uncover secrets lost to the sea as you join or oppose different factions and clans scattered throughout The Great Ursee. Take advantage of multiple Falconeer classes with individual stats, weapons and warbirds that can be upgraded through winning battles, completing quests, discovering secrets, or applying Mutagens or Chants. Use ocean thermals and energy to dive, dodge, barrel-roll, and twist to gain an advantage.”
While the critic reviews seemed good before launch there seems to be control problems and some UI bugs in the PC version, so definitely a good idea to do some research before purchasing.
Platforms: Windows, Xbox One, Xbox Series X
Release: holiday 2020
“A first-person shooter of old, re-imagined using modern rendering techniques. It reaches the quality you expect from a AAA experience while adhering to some of the aesthetic technical limits of older hardware.
“The game features a hand-crafted campaign from industry FPS veterans, a fully-integrated level editor, and a built-in community map browser for instantaneous action with nearly limitless levels to play. Get ready to paint the walls red. This is the Boomer Shooter you’ve been waiting for.”
Platforms: Windows, Mac, Linux, PS4, Xbox, Nintendo Switch
Release: November 10, 2020 (early access)
“A classic film noir type adventure game with dark humour, adult themes and very, very dangerous animals.
“Sonny Featherland and Marty McChicken were once legendary detective partners, but time had passed them by. Sonny is a burnt-out, alcoholic ex-cop, who spends his days in an abandoned hotel, while Marty hides behind the facade of a star-detective, but slowly he’s losing himself. Now they’re back together again on a case bigger and much more dangerous than anything they’ve ever encountered before.”
I received a key for this from the developer and although visual novel/point-and-click stuff isn’t really my thing I decided to give it a whirl because the premise of chickens as police is pretty interesting to me.
I wasn’t planning to play much but I did get a bit sucked into the story and ended up going through the first chapter which took about four hours. There are four chapters I think and I’m a bit of a slowpoke, partially because I lost like 20 minutes trying to get a high score in the target practice minigame. The game feels quite polished mostly because of the art and voice acting (which is almost always great) but I also didn’t really encounter any bugs, except one time I did things out of order and the characters talked about visiting a place they had already been (maybe they were trying to block out the body they had just found).
The questioning/interrogating of characters is probably my favourite bit (choosing the right dialogue options based on your updating knowledge of their personality) especially because I’m not sure what happens if you completely screw it up and getting the “True Detective” stamp at the end is a super satisfying relief after previous anxiety.
The game is mostly about visiting locations, talking to characters, and trying to learn who you can trust while unraveling the mystery. It feels like there might be a lot of depth to the characters, but I’m not far enough in to make a determination on that. The writing overall seems good and the dialogue is pretty decent I think although it misses the mark a couple of times for me as I’m not super into noir.
I’m not sure if I will continue, although I really want to meet Miranda the giraffe, but that’s definitely mostly a factor of the visualnovelness (it’s not a hard-core one but I’m severely lacking in patience at the moment), so if that’s your jam it’s definitely a game to look into.
Platforms: Windows, PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch
Release: November 5, 2020
“A game about jumping through shades in a challenging and lively environment, touch the light and it’s over! This fast-paced 3D platformer takes elements of light & animation and adds them directly to the gameplay, delivering an experience that you will only find in Schim.”
Platforms: Windows, Mac, Linux, Xbox, PS4, Nintendo Switch
Release: TBA