nyohkay, time to start my itchio (and eventually steam) halloween sale recommendation thread

as ever, i focus primarily on older, lesser known and weirder games that tend to get less exposure, as big games don't need the help - and i'm starting with free/PWYW games!

onwards!
MOUTH SWEET ($PWYW!) - a short but deeply unnerving horror game in gameboy colors. you are the latest underpaid temp worker at C.C. & C. not only do you have to fulfill strange tasks, but invisible beasts wander the halls - and the company doesn't care. https://lovegames.itch.io/mouth-sweet 
DUST CITY ($PWYW!) - the very first 3D game by Kitty Horrorshow, and a fantastic way to get into her incredible body of work. i'll let her own words summarize what you can expect here in these low poly, quietly unnerving vibes. https://kittyhorrorshow.itch.io/dust-city 
The Uncle Who Works For Nintendo ($PWYW!) - this one blew up years back but its been long enough that some of you might've missed it. short horror interactive fiction about a friend who has access to more games than they should. *play multiple times*. https://ztul.itch.io/the-uncle-who-works-for-nintendo
SABBAT: DIRECTOR'S KVT ($PWYW!) - a long time favorite. the place is here, the time is now. tonight is the night. conduct a ritual to transform yourself into the multi-beast of your choice, and give the world what it deserves. https://ohnoproblems.itch.io/sabbat-directors-kvt
Beneath a Withering Moon ($PWYW!) - "Our world is lost. Strike one down and countless more come writhing through the interstice."

you have only two minutes to cast a spell that will banish the darkness. get it done. https://modus-interactive.itch.io/beneathawitheringmoon
Dead Function ($PWYW!) - a small RPG taking great inspiration from Mother 3 and casting it down the alley of that place where creepy, goofy, and funny meet. you're Lil Brick, a kid with psychic powers, putting 'em to work on clearing out the graveyard. https://kill-idol.itch.io/dead-function 
Rxcovery ($PWYW!) - from the creator of MOUTH SWEET, this SaGa inspired RPG has you inside your own coma, trying to collect enough Dream Dollars in 30 minutes to pay off your exorbitant real life healthcare costs. play repeatedly, stats carry over! https://lovegames.itch.io/rxcovery 
DYS: Eternal Space Jail RPG ($PWYW!) - another one from the MOUTH SWEET creator, this is a 3D roguelite dungeon crawler... made in RPGmaker! 7 classes like Riot Queen and Brain Wizard! reincarnate, mutate, and fight like hell to escape your space prison! https://lovegames.itch.io/dys 
PAGAN: Technopolois ($PWYW!) - the first of the PAGAN games by Oleander Garden. self-described as "An Entirely Pleasant Nightmare", find yourself lurching through a quietly uncomfortable world of old magic and dead malls, where you are alone, but not. https://oleandergarden.itch.io/pagan1 
The Loch: A Scottish Fishing RPG ($PWYW!) - what it says on the tin, and a bit more too. use an RPG combat system to reel in fish in a small, warm but not saccharine, seaside scottish community (all created by a very real and very good queer scottish guy). https://hxovax.itch.io/the-loch-a-scottish-fishing-rpg
Hello Charlotte (Episode 1) ($PWYW!) - a clearly Yume Nikki inspired game, but one that's a fair bit more willing to talk directly to the player as it goes along. control a living puppet. meet her strange friends. keep her alive. or don't. https://etherane.itch.io/hello-charlotte-ep1
that's enough for now - gonna take a lil break here to get some other things done around the house. i'll be back with more recs today and for the entirety of the itchio halloween sale - especially as i think creators will go 'oh shit i forgot to put my work on sale' lmao. enjoy!
oh yeah also one lil thing - i of course encourage you to donate to the creators if you can, but if you like what they made, i also encourage you to leave a review! it can do a lot to boost their spirits (and get their games more visibility in general)
hey who's ready for some more itchio halloween sale recs

i'm probably gonna include a couple 'technically not on sale but it's cheap as is anyway c'mon' here and there because, y'know, c'mon
DON'T WAKE THE NIGHT ($7.19 CAD) - you are a spirit, and you have been summoned by a community of witches to act as a judge on something that tears at their bonds. you can never have 'perfect' knowledge, and the burden of responsibility is great. https://brujeriaatwerk.itch.io/dont-wake-the-night
Milkmaid of the Milky Way ($2.49) - a rhyming point and click adventure set in 1920s Norway. you are Ruth, a woman living an isolated life on a farm when the dairy economy is low, when out of nowhere, a spaceship arrives and turns your life upside down. https://machineboy.itch.io/milkmaid-of-the-milky-way
Hypnospace Outlaw ($14.99) - my 2019 GOTY. in an alternate 1999, you are a moderator for a Geocities-esque webspace, one that's accessed exclusively in your sleep. hilarious but bittersweet. think "Where In The Internet Is Carmen Sandiego?" for gameplay. https://jay-tholen.itch.io/hypnospace-outlaw
The Rainsdowne Players ($2.79) - an RPG about a struggling theater troupe, desperate to impress the audiences, or at least, survive them hurling bottles at your performance. describes itself as a fusion of Paper Mario, Majora's Mask, and Rhythm Tengoku. https://rainsdowne.itch.io/the-rainsdowne-players
Long Gone Days ($11.24) - a modern set military RPG, focusing heavily on cultural and language barriers in war. people are the focus much more than the combat here - there are no random battles, and keeping morale up is crucial. still in development. https://laburatory.itch.io/lgd 
Tusks: The Orc Dating Sim ($2.00) - what it says and so much more. you and a group of gay orcs are making an annual journey to a mythical take on Scotland's Highlands, with great exploration of intimacy, culture, bodies, and one's relation to them. https://hxovax.itch.io/orc-dating-sim 
ART SQOOL ($2.49) - "make art, achieve creative fulfillment, that's art sqool babie!".in an abstract world with candy coated colors, wander around, make art, and have it all graded by an artificial intelligence! https://glander.itch.io/art-sqool 
Golf Peaks ($1.99) - a golf themed, card based puzzler. using the movement cards given to you, work to get your ball from the start all the way into the cup. over 100 levels! https://afterburn.itch.io/golf-peaks 
1870: CYBERPUNK FOREVER ($PWYW!) - indigenous cyberpunk interactive fiction, tackling colonialism, history, community, communication, and distrust (and how it's earned). highly recommended. https://satandaddy.itch.io/1870 
All Our Asias ($PWYW!) - by one of the co-creators behind Even The Ocean and the Anodyne games comes this lo-fi surreal adventure dealing with identity, race, and nationality. you are Yuito, entering your dying father's memory space - looking to reconnect. https://han-tani.itch.io/aoa 
Mutazione ($13.99) - a "mutant soap opera", where the day to day life of small town gossip matters just as much as your own personal journey. coming to Mutazione to care for your grandfather, you garden, make friends, go to concerts, and simply live. https://akuparagames.itch.io/mutazione 
10S ($2.00 in a bundle with 4 other games) - take the chaos of dodging bullets in a high intensity SHMUP. now combine it with tennis. then add a whole strange, discomfiting world to explore on top of that. https://itch.io/s/37701/a-sale-but-this-time-its-haunted-by-the-scary-ghost-boy-from-the-grudge
okay, that'll be enough for the night! i'll obviously keep adding recs as the sale goes on, and i'll fold in steam sale recs too once that goes live.

i also have my own itchio bundle sale of 8 works of mine for sale if you wanna check that out... https://itch.io/s/36874/itchio-halloween-sale-2020
...or if you wanna just throw $ directly at me for some reason for sharing these recs, i also have a ko-fi https://ko-fi.com/spacetwinks 

(or, in more self-promotion, i have a just released pay what you want twine of tips and tricks about managing ADHD!) https://spacetwinks.itch.io/spacetwinks-adhd
hope you find something in this thread to enjoy that you wouldn't have expected otherwise! enjoy videos games!
hey hey, gonna do a couple quickie additions to the sales rec thread before heading out to take care of some chores, here they come
Last Word ($3.19) - an RPG that takes place in one building, in one night, in a world where getting the last word in a debate grants you literal power. has a debate combat system that plays like a high speed fusion of mancala and rock-paper-scissors. https://merlandese.itch.io/last-word 
Master Spy ($0.99) - challenging fusion of stealth and precision platforming, feeling like it takes inspiration from things like Elevator Action and Impossible Mission, but takes away all combat options. GREAT soundtrack. https://turbogun.itch.io/master-spy 
Desert Child ($5.39) - a Cowboy Bebop inspired side-scrolling shmup, oozing style for miles. you're a young hoverbike racer trying to get enough cash to get off planet before something goes horribly wrong. also fantastic music. https://akuparagames.itch.io/desert-child 
Anatomy ($2.99) - "every house is haunted."

another work by Kitty Horrorshow, this has you explore a home, find tapes, and "study the physiology of domestic architecture". here to stress you out and make you anxious, less to make you leap in fear. https://kittyhorrorshow.itch.io/anatomy 
anatomy is not actually on sale, but like i said earlier in the thread - it's cheap, c'mon. 3 bucks. it's definitely worth it.

alright i'm gonna go take care of some things, back with more recs later tonight. enjoy videos games!
boop, i just woke up from catching up on some sleep debt, so you know what that means:

more itchio sales recs, followed by me getting mad at ducktales for the NES
Treachery In Beatdown City ($12.99) - one of my favorite games of this year. semi-turn based beat 'em up combat from devs who have deeply studied and dissected what makes a beat 'em up work and what doesn't. fresh to death. https://nuchallenger.itch.io/treachery-in-beatdown-city
Short Creepy Tales: 7PM ($3.99) - the first in an anthology series of horror games. spend a weekend as children in an apartment block, seeing things in the world that the adults don't, with cryptic secrets hanging underneath pleasant warmth. https://cellar-vault-games.itch.io/short-creepy-tales-7pm
Paranormalscape ($PWYW!) - in the far flung future of 2014, you are paranormal agent Kristy Reynolds, investigating the disappearance of people within an apartment complex - and the hiding cause of it all. https://hellcake.itch.io/paranormalscape 
Frontier Diver: Aquatic Research Center ($PWYW!) - head deep beneath the sea, looking into the world of the ancients, but finding something new - not all of it friendly. think Aquanaut's Holiday combined with creeping isolated dread. https://modus-interactive.itch.io/frontier-diver 
The Silence Under Your Bed ($6.66 in a bundle with the OST) - two teens, looking to kill time as they wait for food to arrive, tell each other scary stories through the night. a fantastic collection of short horror stories, perfect for the month. https://itch.io/b/606/the-silence-under-your-bed-ost
Butterfly Soup ($PWYW!) - queer asian girls, baseball, and the trials and tribulations of queer asian girls who love baseball that are falling in love with each other. just a few hours long, and absolutely worth all of them. https://brianna-lei.itch.io/butterfly-soup 
10 Beautiful Postcards ($6.00) - "THE IMAGE IS HOTEL TO THE BRAIN"

not actually on sale, but, it's $6 c'mon. seemingly endless explanation in a bizarre, shifting world that feels like what you'd see if you gave a cartoon a trepanation. weird, great shit. https://thecatamites.itch.io/10-beautiful-postcards
gonna cap it there for the night! steam's halloween sale is supposed to start tomorrow, and i'll be covering that platform too, but i truly hope you found something here to try! itchio is WAY better for devs, no bullshit to haggle through, can set their own cost share. enjoy!
hey hey, it's what a bunch of you have been waiting for: the STEAM part of the halloween sale rec thread!

where possible, i'll still be linking to itchio for games instead, as they pay out way better for devs - please buy on itch when possible!

alright, onwards!
killer7 ($7.99) - with No More Heroes 1 and 2 getting a re-release, now's as good a time as ever to get into suda51's strangest game. a stylish and surreal adventure-shooter, featuring you as a psychic collective of assassins, the Smith Syndicate. https://store.steampowered.com/app/868520/killer7/
Diaries of a Spaceport Janitor ($2.49) - one of my personal GOATs. the universe is full of adventurers - you clean their trash, dream of a better future for yourself, while trying to rid yourself of a curse of a screaming skull. beautiful and bittersweet. https://store.steampowered.com/app/436500/Diaries_of_a_Spaceport_Janitor/
The Friends Of Ringo Ishikawa ($7.49) - River City Ransom meets the day to day living of Shenmue, all centering around the quiet existential crisis of a teen delinquent in their last school year. features lo-fi beats to beat ass to. https://store.steampowered.com/app/846110/The_friends_of_Ringo_Ishikawa/
We Know The Devil ($3.99) - a short, atmospheric, unnerving VN about 3 teens stuck at a christian summer retreat that is just like our own, yet not at all. hear the devil. choose who stays and who leaves. see what the voice in the static can give you. https://store.steampowered.com/app/435300/We_Know_the_Devil/
Raging Loop ($19.49) - a horror visual novel set in rural Japan, and taking inspiration from games like Werewolf/Mafia. haruaki fusashi has gotten lost in a mist covered settlement, just as people are starting to die - and the killer could be any of them. https://store.steampowered.com/app/648100/Raging_Loop/
Where The Water Tastes Like Wine ($4.99) - wander depression-era America on foot and on rail, hearing and spreading stories, watching them grow and change as they travel the continent too - all to pay back your debt to a wolf that beat you at cards. https://store.steampowered.com/app/447120/Where_the_Water_Tastes_Like_Wine/
Pathologic 2 ($17.49) - Russian supernatural horror mystery, placing you as a doctor in a secluded rural town, investigating a plague - and a murder. you have 12 days to save as many as you can, including yourself. resources are scarce, and so is time. https://store.steampowered.com/app/505230/Pathologic_2/
The Silver Case ($7.99) - need even more suda51? then try his very first game at GHM. a mix of visual novel and proto-walking sim with two intertwined stories about tracking a serial killer, but the world turns far more surreal and bizarre from there. https://store.steampowered.com/app/476650/The_Silver_Case/
Heart&Slash ($3.89) - 3D roguelite brawler taking heavy Megaman Legends influence, you play as Heart - a freed machine fighting their way through endless waves of others who'd stop you dead. tons of weapons and abilities to unlock! https://store.steampowered.com/app/326840/HeartSlash/
Strange Telephone ($3.49) - for the Yume Nikki fans out there, this one's for you. you've become trapped in a world with only an imposing floating door before you - and a living telephone that can 'dial' into other universes to help you get back home. https://store.steampowered.com/app/705290/Strange_Telephone/
Stories Untold ($2.49) - if you've been curious about text adventures, but needed a good onboard, try this. a collection of short horror story games that puts a modern wrapper on old school interactive fiction like Zork and A Mind Forever Voyaging. https://store.steampowered.com/app/558420/Stories_Untold/
Dandara ($5.99) - a gorgeous Brazilian metroidvania with a unique form of movement, having you 'flip' from surface to surface instead of running anywhere. not a story of good vs. evil, but of 'creation' and 'intent'. https://store.steampowered.com/app/612390/Dandara_Trials_of_Fear_Edition/
The Shivah ($1.49) - another rec thread, which means i am once again repping this game. a murder mystery with a down on his luck rabbi who has been given a suspicious, massive windfall that he needs to get to the bottom of, while also confronting his past. https://store.steampowered.com/app/252370/The_Shivah/
hohkay, gonna stop for now - will likely be back with a few more recs later tonight, and of course, continuing through the rest of the sale. hope you found something you like that you didn't expect!
eyyyyy it's 8 pm, time for a couple more sales recs why not?
PAGAN: Autogeny ($3.33) - find yourself scuttling through the remains of an abandoned MMORPG, only to find that while it's very lonely, that doesn't mean you're ALONE. clamber through a digital past, uncomfortably preserved. https://oleandergarden.itch.io/pagan3 
D ($2.09) - are you like me and are a sucker for clunky PS1 era survival horror? well, then you need this! laura harris tracks a mass murderer - her own father - to a hospital, which then twists into a mansion where time and space lurch sickly. https://store.steampowered.com/app/510590/D_The_Game/
The Witch's Isle ($2.99) - not actually on sale, but, c'mon.

on an island where everyone loses their memories, the witch that rules it has given you an ultimatum - find her stolen urn before 4:00 AM, or her curse will strike you dead. great atmosphere. https://store.steampowered.com/app/701860/The_Witchs_Isle/
"what is E.Y.E.: Divine Cybermancy ($2.99)"

an ambitious FPS taking inspo from deus ex and system shock that lets you hack just about everything in sight

"does it play well and is easy to understand"

no

"why recommend it then"

you gain brouzouf https://store.steampowered.com/app/91700/EYE_Divine_Cybermancy/
Yoku's Island Express ($3.99) - a pinball metroidvania, featuring you as Yoku, the cutest little dung beetle that ever was, tasked with delivering mail all over the island, and getting into far more trouble than they asked for. great chillout vibes. https://store.steampowered.com/app/334940/Yokus_Island_Express/
The Lion's Song ($3.99) - a gorgeous episodic point and click adventure set in 20th century Austria. each episode features a different person's life, tying them back together at the end. a vulnerable and caring series of vignettes. https://store.steampowered.com/sub/106294/ 
Pyre ($5.99) - you've probably been playing a shitload of Hades! why not try out my personal fave Supergiant game, Pyre? visual novel mashes together with magic fantasy NBA Jam as you perform rites to try and get your band of outcasts back home. https://store.steampowered.com/app/462770/Pyre/
Spark The Electric Jester ($5.19) - when a retro style platformer isn't happy with just taking inspiration from one series, you get this. blends together mechanics from Sonic, Kirby, and Mega Man and throws in a great soundtrack for good measure. https://store.steampowered.com/app/601810/Spark_the_Electric_Jester/
Dropsy ($2.49) - before Hypnospace Outlaw, there was Dropsy. a point and click hugventure with zero text, you are Dropsy, a clown from a burned down circus who just wants to care for others. but the secrets bubbling underneath the city won't make it easy. https://store.steampowered.com/app/274350/Dropsy/
Anodyne 1 ($7.49) - what starts as a charming Zelda-alike with some light ribbing of the genre becomes something more surreal, more strange, and more violent and uncomfortable the deeper you go. has the feel of emotional catharsis by vomiting out blood. https://store.steampowered.com/app/234900/Anodyne/
Anodyne 2 ($14.99) - take 3D zeldas, make it fantasy sci-fi, then add the ability to turn into a car. you are nova, a freshly hatched cleaner who shrinks down into things to clean the nano dust corrupting them. but, of course, that's not the whole story. https://store.steampowered.com/app/877810/Anodyne_2_Return_to_Dust/
while i'd recommend both Anodyne games, you don't need to play the first to enjoy the second - the connection between them is more thematic than anything.

you can also get them in a bundle package for $21.36 https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/11556/Anodyne_Franchise_Bundle/
aaaand that'll tidy it up for the night. i'll self-promote myself just one last time in this thread that if you wanna throw some $ my way for the recs, i have a ko-fi https://ko-fi.com/spacetwinks 

more recs to come as the sale goes on! hope you found something surprising and good!
oh, wait, i almost forgot - i wanted to share one of my favorite bits from Anodyne to help sell you on the game. https://twitter.com/EsPyramid/status/1201007320412622848
You can follow @spacetwinks.
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