i played.... so many indie games recently, i'm going to make a little thread and highlight some of the better/stranger ones

ministry of broadcast is a 'prince of persia type' platformer, so its very animation driven & unresponsive... not usually my thing but it's tough to think of many other games that pull off black comedy so well:

gato roboto obviously owes a lot to downwell (not to mention metroid) but wow this has the nicest 2D particle effects, the timing of *everything* is JUST RIGHT

Artificial Extinction is a tower defensy FPS about dangerous AI, that feels like it might have also been developed by an AI. super flat, dry monologues and a really weird unsettling tone, i don't know what to make of this

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1167320/Artificial_Extinction/

Wow, Bore Dome... you control your hands, eyes, nose all individually. It’s not QWOP, it’s something stranger and... it’s not exactly charming, because its sorta hideous, but certainly loveable. https://vimeo.com/358750281 

Katana Zero is NOT Hotline Miami, yea they're both sorta iridescent, pastel and neon but its lush, polished & expensive where hotline is rough & dirty.

it took time to grow on me bc of pacing & plot but yeah, its lush

someday soon someone will problematize cozy but until then you can enjoy short hike, it's like micro zelda but no combat, and animal crossing. the flight feels awesome:

you probably already know indivisible has great characters & animation so

Tandis is an elegant transformation puzzle, i'm terrible at it but look at these gorgeous levels i'll never reach:

a VN about the eliza AI as a therapy tool & tech more broadly. lovely backgrounds, classy solitaire app, meditation app inspired by the work of @1041uuu but to quote lisa simpson "maybe there is no moral, maybe it's just a bunch of stuff that happened"

Kind Words is very unusual. request and write positive, anonymous messages when you're sad.

to me the value of positivity has a strong correlation with various aspects of its source so i'm sorta uncomfortable with this, but its interesting?? ymmv

anodyne 2 is my undertale & i'm surprised i'm not hearing more about it! very deliberate, confident & ambitious, maybe at the cost of fidelity or polish but real successful regardless. <3 the patchwork dust worlds, the silly 20poly bird NPC, the carwash.

a bewitching revolution: there's a part of me that was a little unhappy with the easy, uncomplicated power fantasy aspect of this... but there's certainly room for uncomplicated collectivist power fantasies, especially when they're super charming:

onion games' (blackbird & million onion hotel) attempt at an RPG themed 'knitting-type' puzzle. there's a lot more here than there might seem at first glance! i appreciate the shiren shoutouts <3

WANNA SURVIVE, tactics w/thematic mechanics. zombz will grab a survivor for a turn before biting & can be shoved away on the next turn, so they're not a threat individually but can overwhelm quickly. good UI , once u learn a few shortcuts its very fast!

i didn't expect manifold garden to be about boxes and gravity shifting puzzles but there are some transcendent moments & i admit i'll probably never get sick of peering down an infinite hallway ~

i didn't expect to finish all the art homework in ART SQOOL and i still haven't, but im close. doodle people should play this and i'm one

Infini might look rough in screenshots but it certainly sets a mood and the audio is fantastic. similar vibe to what i wish xavier renegade angel was like.

An Afternoon Rippling is a 'road trip' type adventure..... the setting & dialog feels a bit like KR0 with a lighter more lofi touch.

also wow i didn't expect to hear the free design's "kites are fun" in a game but i'm glad i did:

the HOW TO PLAY screen for I'm Calling the Cops! is like a bottle of dr. bronners, this is the good stuff.

wow, Tales from Off-Peak City is Liquid Television, or Mark Beyer's Thomas & Nardo.... i haven't played any of the dev's prior work but this is a really unique adventure/'delivering stuff' game. fantastic music, I even joined their discord.

patrick's parabox - super creative and playful recursive block pushing game. keep an eye out for it, its the 'baba is you' of our times!

stikir is sorta recursive too, its a game about making itself. some nice moments & lovely little interactions, glad i got to play it! i also recommend the dev's previos game, indecision.

lonely mountains: downhill, a lazy person might describe this as '3d trials on bicycles' but a poet would write rhymes about the bikes' gorgeous physics