Recommendation: Ducksoup Dungeon
Let’s jump right into Ducksoup Dungeon. It’s a free web browser playable rogue-lite on Itch.io by developer Richard Lems, also known as Blastmode Games. You might have heard of Lems’ work on the game Mighty Goose. In the game I’m discussing here, Ducksoup Dungeon, you choose one of four heroes. It is playable in a web browser or can be downloaded. Starting with “Slashchicken,” the first hero is a chicken. Gameplay With amazing…
Earth Day Game Pick: Tadpole Tales
Today is Earth Day, and that’s why my free game pick for the day is Tadpole Tales. I played this last year with a fair amount of amusement at the concept. The art style is juicy and vibrant like a Miyazaki film or perhaps some other manga animation. It’s an arcade-style game. This doesn’t mean it’s confined to an arcade cabinet somewhere, it’s a Steam title that’s easy to start and has a…
Hivemind 2: Stargrove Scramble is A Sweet SNES Style Indie
Hivemind 2: Stargrove Scramble is a 2D pixel art platformer part of a 2021 Newgrounds dev jam with an “egg” theme by the dev group Team Bugulon. You play a little cloaked lizard, progressing through various spring-sunset-toned environments, collecting candies that in turn give you eggs that you can use to hurl at enemies and unblock paths. The music is a touch above fun, along with the sound effects, making the game have a…
Moonstuck is Literally Impossible, Stop Now
When I posted this game, the dev joked to me that I’d done a really great job, which if you watch this video, you’ll realize is hilarious. The game is literally impossible. What? Why am I writing about that? It’s free, otherwise, there’d be an uproar on Steam. Gameplay Moonstuck is a 2D platformer from CozyGames and Black County Games available on Steam just released today. It utilizes a very difficult mechanic involving…
Octarina, A Game About an Octopus Trapped in a Sushi Factory
Octarina is a physics puzzle game about an octopus escaping a sushi factory (don’t worry, you’re on the side of the octopus!) Using your squiggly limbs and momentum, propel yourself around the interior of the factory with the intention of escaping. You can use suction cups to climb structures and hurl objects at switches to reverse conveyor belts and such. Gameplay There are three modes: speed mode, story mode, and “the floor is lava.”…
Bunny Bye-Bye is a Cute, Simple Indie Game
Okay, IN MY OPINION, but it’s cute and it’s the free game today. Actually, I really did like Bunny Bye-Bye and it deserves a break from my sardonic quips. This is a 2D pixel-art platformer about a little alien named “bobe” who needs to clean dust bunnies around a space station using a vacuum called a clean0tron. I can’t promise I have a ton to say about this game, but it’s a neat…
Easter Pick: Super Star Duck
There’s a really neat ItchIO developer called “eggnog.” They’re publishing all sorts of harmless, fun games apparently. In Super Star Duck: Escape From Nefarious Castle, you’ve got the option to play as Esdee, Flan, or Bean, a duck, hippo, and dog (respectively.) The game is one of many free games on ItchIO that I cover, not because it’s a great place to lurk, but because indie developers love the attention there! Why wouldn’t they?…
Gummy Shooter Looks SICK (And You Can Play it On Your Phone)
Mostly created for its novelty probably, Gummy Shooter is an amusing side-scrolling thumb blaster. To be honest, I’ve never tried anything like it before, but I was moved to try the Android category of ItchIO as I was out and it was really quite easy. I don’t always cover games like this, because there is a conflict with how much praise I can gloat over a game versus how simplistic they actually are,…
Random Free JAM Games: Daydream (Kowzak)
Daydream is a simple keyboard controller platformer made for an ItchIO Dev jam. The protagonist is a woman on a bus daydreaming out the window, as you control one of three recurring daydreams, jumping over obstacles and creatures and avoiding water. It varies from creative to bizarre. I know it seems like I’m just picking these games randomly, but the purpose is to provide inspiration for whatever I need to work on next…
Hip Witch is a Simple Groovy Magic Cozy Game
Hip Witch is a free adventure game released on Steam this week by developer Studio Hip Sword. The environment is handmade, and the storyline involves a lost young witch boarding in a state park, where she begins a quest to investigate odd happenings on the park’s grounds. It is playable with a controller or keyboard and is short but charming and cozy met with positive reviews. Gameplay in Hip Witch: You Got Spells,…
Caves Ablaze Feels like a Super Old School Platformer
Caves Ablaze is a 2D Metroidvania Platformer. Play as a ball of fire that completes puzzles deep underground by using flames and dashing abilities to unlock paths. Avoid water and slowly make your way to the surface. Playable with an X-Box Input Controller or keyboard. This was the inaugural free games post for the FGV blog. Not a lot documented here, but a perfectly enjoyable game. Caves Ablaze Gameplay Ah, okay, another fore…
Indie Spotlight: Fayburrow – a Super Cozy Student Project
Today, I plunged headfirst into the free games pile of new releases over on the Steam store. On my arrival, I discovered a cozy little visual novel among the listings called Fayburrow, and I decided to take a look at it. Fayburrow is a free game created by the self-named “Fayburrow Troupe” at VIA University College in Denmark. It just hit the Steam store today. What was first intrigue, turned into a fascination…
Loading Story Killed An Afternoon For Free
Today’s game, Loading Story, listed as developed by “potatodog” on Steam is a tad quirky but genuinely satisfying. It’s a very short game about a character troubleshooting a game loading error in an imaginary video game town, where the loading tube passes through. Just wander around and solve the mystery. It’s good that it’s free because it only takes about 20-30 minutes to play, which is fine. I’ll tell you enough about it…
Doggone Hungry: This Good Boy Wants All Of Your Snacks NOW
Doggone Hungry is a free hilarious game about an adorable pup, his favorite toy, some loveable humans, and that gosh darn cat. You’ll pounce countertops against the clock to acquire enough, and by enough I mean as many as he wants, snacks to bulk up and solve the exasperating crisis of your unreachable toy duck Quackerjack. The environment alternates between a house party or beach, filled with humans relaxing tolerating your actions as…
Runo is a Finnish Game That I Absolutely Love
Runo is a cultural indie game and a very unique project based on the Midsommer mythos from traditional Finnish culture. Its intellectual deduction and story track lead you through a complex story that involves the protagonist’s grandmother and family tradition. The story takes place in a cabin next to a forested lake. The goal is to use clues from your dad’s text messages, your personal journal, and what you observe around you. There…
Twin Stones: The Journey of Bukka is the Staggering Freebie Student Game
Twin Stones: The Journey of Bukka is a 3d animated fantasy platformer that was released in early July 2021. As it were, I received the privilege of showcasing my first pre-release game through my community at Indie Game Collective. The game was a very intriguing story involving protagonist Bukka, a runner for lack of a better word, and a, I suppose, serpent companion identified as Shiva, the god of destruction. The obstacles are…
I Played Chair Simulator, that Hilarious Freebie Indie On Steam
I must have a sick sense of humor if I decided to go on this journey so eagerly in the gaming universe. I have a sense of humor, sorry for the orneriness. C’mon though: Chair Simulator!? I love it. What’s weird is it actually wasn’t that bad. And it’s free. If you literally have nothing else to do, just try it. Obviously, the creator was tongue in cheek when they created this, but…
Nyaa-Kuza!! is a Freebie Indie Student Game
Nyaa-Kuza is an illustrated half-action interactive fiction title from the self-dubbed Catzooka Studios out of the University of Utah’s EAE program. Play as Mochi, an ex-Nyaa-Kuza brawler cat, whose cat wife, Hime, has been “catnapped” by the syndicate. You’ll traverse the outskirts of a Japanese city interacting with leads and allies in a conventional visual novel style to find Hime. At other times, the game is highly interactive with button-mashing fight scenes with…
Til Nord is a Free Student Made Snowmobile Game
Til Nord is a free open-world snowmobile game released by students at Breda University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands. The gameplay is straightforward with its mobile open-world gameplay and pulls off a finished level of design from the beginning. Ride your snowmobile around the Loften Islands of Norway. Day and night, bright snowy roads and northern light skies at night, solving delivery missions for enterprises around the village like lumber mills and…
Lab Rags is a Freebie Hidden Gem By Students With a Unique Feature
Lab Rags is an upcoming title from the student project studio Salt Mine Studios. It is an art-deco-era puzzle-level game that shares mechanics with games like Portal and its descendants. Start solving puzzles right away as a mechanical android with a neat gun similar to the classic gravity gun. You can advance within the game by respawning and then grabbing your previous housing to fling at door-opening buttons, traverse over spike pits, and…
Double Cheeseburger, Medium Fries – Why Do I Love This?
Double Cheeseburger, Medium Fries is surprisingly delightful. When I was looking at the ItchIO page for this game, I wondered if it would throw me into flashbacks as a teen, where I worked a few jobs here and there in kitchens and at counters. It managed to perfectly capture that experience–without all the real-life boredom–and add some entertaining gameplay, for what is actually a pretty simple but good game concept. If you’ve ever…
Alpaca Ball: All Stars is Free on Nintendo Switch
Alpaca Ball is about having fun. It’s exactly what you need it to be. A game about alpacas playing soccer, I mean football, I mean ball, or maybe Europe is starting to call it soccer, or maybe they only call it that because of Americas–wait, where is this game from? There’s Spanish music and the first level is Machu Picchu, which is in Peru, but the developers are in Austria, and the game…
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