Village Monsters: A Pleasant Town Sim Borrowing From Made Up Myths

Village Monsters is a solo dev project from Josh Bosser. It’s a pixel art town sim that departs from conventional titles with an alternative community of friendly monsters. The game plays on similar genre themes as Stardew Valley but the content goes into the outsider/quirk genre of games with its monster acceptance communicated in each character’s unconventional friendliness. It departs from too much comparison by offering a vast amount of exclusive unique story concepts in each character’s backstory and dialogue. Players can also enjoy activities like treasure hunting, fishing, exploring, working, and contributing to the town itself. Village Monsters is… Read the rest

Necrow Co. is a Fun Little Platformer

If this headline doesn’t raise an eyebrow, then stick with two, because this article is tapping into some unexplored territory with the game Necrow Co. by creator Zahran Worell. The game Necrow Co. is a 2D pixel platformer, playable with either a controller or keyboard. It’s a light narrative about a crow who starts work for a company of reapers, featuring a cozy skeleton psychopomp grim dispatching you to a national park filled with spookies, squishies, and don’t-touchies (terms coined on our end.) Abilities are basic: move left and right, jump, and shoot a sort-of crow song wave that disables… Read the rest

Some Resources For Using Copyright Music in a GameDev

When I went to learn what was involved in making my visual novel, this surprisingly was not so simple. Do not get me wrong, I’m here to give you the goods, but when it comes to music, graphics, or anything really, the way copyright protection works is stern yet often confusing. So, let me get you going here. Don’t fret–or do! I’m here to tell you that things are not hopeless. More specifically: how to obtain copyright-free music. So, let me paint the picture: copyrights. Yes, “copyrights.” Copyright is the law that protects the intellectual property of artists, writers, and… Read the rest

Dark Dragonkin is A Little, Simple Indie I Played

Dark Dragonkin is an indie dev project from Twintertainment that is a top-down pixelized fantasy RPG/dungeon-crawler. Players control multiple characters in a group to make them work together to defeat enemies and advance the story. This game is still deep in the dev process with a potential audience of RPG fans and general indie gamers. It feels very attended to as a solo dev project though, and the potential to scale abilities and environments into a fully fleshed world is entirely real. So, I sat down with Dark Dragonkin and played through the first level. I recommend if you test… Read the rest

Escaping Winter is a Simple Little Indie I Played

Escaping Winter is a strategy game about a forest colony that has to survive the winter every few turns. It’s safe to say that this is more of a JAM than anything, solely representing some conceptual ideas. Indeed, civ strategy games are not my forte, but I think this idea is unique enough. If unprepared a winter might be the downfall of a society if it lasts long enough. Luckily it just makes the fire put-put a couple of times. This is a small solo project, nothing to overanalyze. I liked the title screen though and this demo has what… Read the rest

Indie Demo Reviews 3/4/2021

So here’s a brief compilation of some cool indie demo reviews of games I played recently, which deserve a little cred. (Please note: some of these games have been released since I tried them, so they might be associated with a price in the Steam Store links.) Indie Demo Reviews 1: Jennifer Wilde: Unlikely Revolutionaries This demo is super short, but it lets you try out the mechanics and the art style. It’s a hidden object story game, that has a grand plot involving the ghost of famous author Oscar Wilde in the jazz age Parisian roaring twenties. This game… Read the rest