Weekly Overview of the Bundle For Ukraine | Gaming
Horrific Discoveries Await: WOBFU Page 16
Time to get into some spookier stuff
Overview
Another game-heavy page, but also another duplicate-heavy page. The split of 22/8 would normally make me sweat in order to get it done within the week, but when there are 15 duplicates the number of games shrinks quite considerably.
But I’d rather talk about the title choice I made and the sheer coincidence of how so many games on this page were some kind of horror/thriller. Of the 9 games I looked at this week, 4 of them had explicit themes surrounding fear, with another one adding to the idea of displaying visuals aimed to unsettle. It’s a neat happenstance, and I rarely get themes that cover an entire page overview as succintly as this one does. Sure, there are adorable games on the page as well, but counterpoint…
I’ve got nothing. Onward!
Video Games
Home — A Unique Horror Adventure
Let’s start the fear train with a game called ‘Home’, subtitled as a unique horror adventure, by the Canadian indie duo BancyCo (formerly Benjamin Rivers Inc). You’ll join a unnamed protagonist as they awaken in an abandoned house to thunder. How’d they get here, and why are they hurting? That’s where you come in.
At its core, Home is a narrative adventure about discovery and interpretation, as players will wander the halls of the house and subsequent locations in search of where they are headed. This starts with the simple objective of ‘get out of the house’ so that you can ‘get home’, but it becomes evident that these are just devices to move you forward.
The true objective is finding out everything that has happened around you. Blood is on the walls, bodies are scattered in strange locations, and the protagonist walks with a limp. All you can do is interact with these discoveries and piece together possibilities while solving the puzzles of exploration. This could include finding a key to get through a door, or jumping down a shaft to find the exit.
Adding to all this is the fact that everything must be confirmed by the player. Every item acquired, every lever rotated, requires the player to choose ‘Yes’ in order for it to occur. There is no passive decision making in this game, only affirmative action. And this lays the bedrock of fear. Games have conditioned us to always think about what if we chose the other option, and in narrative/detective games every decision can have consequences.
Think back to Oxenfree, for example. Players could make no decision, but that would be counted as a decision for the plot. Home employs the opposite idea for the same effect as you are now always aware of what you must choose, and that makes you just as nervous as to whether or not you are making the right choice. You could grab the gun, but would it be better if you left it behind? The irony is that many of these binary choices aren’t as difficult as they appear, but the affordance players have about narrative choices makes them feel as if they do.
I won’t lie, Home actually has me mixed, and that’s not something I usually discuss in these overviews. I completed the game and stared off into space for a bit to process what I had learned, only to realize I couldn’t pinpoint why I felt so unsatisfied. This might be exactly why I’ve recommended it; there are so many things at work that it is hard not to sink into the 1.5 hours of game in the first playthrough. I haven’t even gotten that deep on the narrative, to the point that I could probably do an entire writeup on the story and decision-making process alone.
Will I? Hard to say. Best thing I can say is that this game is a curious adventure that uses your decision-making process against you, while also giving you all the tools in the world to find the story within. It can go anywhere if you want it to, so give it a try and see for yourself.
RB: Axolotl
RB: Axolotl is a visual novel/narrative adventure game by Actawesome, a solo indie dev. Initially released as a demo in 2018 and fully launched in 2020, players follow the tale of 5 adorable axolotls in a tank spearheaded narratively by Axy the Axolotl. Unfortunately, as you soon find out, much of that descriptive sentence is a lie and you’re about to get plunged into a terrifying tale of horror and existential dread. It’s always the cutest looking ones, isn’t it.
As with many visual novels, we view much of the game through the eyes of Axy. He’s a carefree, airheaded individual who knows he loves summersaults, peanut butter, and fellow axolotl Lanna. He doesn’t care about the complicated stuff, like remembering last week or how he ended up in the tank with the other four. That worrying is for the resident scientist and ‘void’ researcher Nio. All he wants to do is impress Lanna and live happily. Unfortunately fellow axolotl Enc goes out of his way to make sure that Axy knows what a horrible individual he is, second only to the utterly terrified Liam.
It doesn’t take long to realize that the world is not as happy as Axy wishes to view it, as Enc torments Liam with verbal and physical attacks while Lanna tries to help him feel better. Nio is obsessed with understanding the void to the point that he’ll sacrifice his own body parts to gain knowledge (don’t worry, they grow back!). The tank is tense with the sound of banging and the unknown, and no matter how much Axy might wish to ignore it, we cannot. For we are viewing Axy’s life and must watch as the world unravels around him.
What makes the characters fascinating is that as the game progresses, the world revelations forces the player to realize how each axolotl came to be. Without spoiling too much, things get freaky when more knowledge of the void is revealed, and each character that interacts with it becomes much more aware of who and what they are. Characters explore different personal issues, expanding on their backstories to make each decision more nuanced.
By the end, the characters do a staggering amount of growth, especially centered around Enc and Liam. It somehow gives the feeling of that ‘coming of age’ story arc, even though you learn very quickly that the traditional way this would be conveyed is a tad bit… impossible.
It does all of this by piggybacking off of a terrifying revelation at the end of Act 1, and the narrative slowly unfurls into a surreal story all being held together by an axolotl that doesn’t want to comprehend any of it. Sometimes ignorance truly is bliss, but unfortunately for Axy there is no way out of it. There are only a few choices, making this more of an interactive story than most, but that doesn’t stop it from giving you the ability to alter the trajectory a tad.
If you’re a fan of unsettling and weird narratives coated in adorable aesthetics, RB: Axolotl is a great tale to dive right into. You can try the demo out as well — I believe it ends at the end of Act 1 — if you are so inclined.
Also? I feel that.
INDEPENDANT VIDEO VIDEO GAME
What I’m about to say might make no sense, but that is for the best. INDEPENDANT VIDEO VIDEO GAME is a masterpiece in utter snobbery.
Created by Ben Weatherall and RadJor and voiced by Adrian Vaughan, this is an absurdist FMV game that started as the vocal recordings of one heavily intoxicated Adrian. You will listen to a series of ‘inspiring’ clips from an individual called Jurgen, a washed film director-turned-game-dev, and make choices that will determine where Jurgen’s prophetic dialogue goes. Layered on top of it all are visuals in grayscale ranging from profound shots of spiders and liquids to a video of feet walking on a rope.
This all sounds like nonsense, doesn’t it — and that’s the best part. This is a game about the nonsensical drivel of someone so engrossed in their own ego they’d make Freud blush. It brings up unsettling images and video feeds that connect together in an attempt to sound profound but come off as disconnected attempts at intelligence. There are so many discussions about the meaning of art and its abstract nature, yet the context and vocal performance adds so much smarm to each word that it’s hard not to have a visceral reaction.
Perhaps that is just the game developer in me, though — I’ve heard some of this jargon from people both in and outside the industry, claiming to go ‘beyond’ the genre in new ways and to expand its ‘artistic merits’. This idea that their new indie game will break every barrier so hard that it will be difficult to parse on purpose because you ‘just don’t get it’ or ‘you just don’t appreciate art’. The funny thing is that I don’t think I can tell when it’s sincere anymore, which might be why I love this game so much. It’s somehow both an indictment and a celebration of nonsense philosophy.
Then again, I could be reading too far into it — that’d make me just like Jurgen, huh. Damn, they really got me.
Your mileage of this game will vary, and I don’t mean that lightly; you might actually hate this game. But… I couldn’t help but put it up here.
The page continues:
Dangerous Roads Ahead
Our page starts proper with Dangerous Roads Ahead, a horror game created during the Global Game Jam of 2022 by Maxwell Kunze, Kyran Bush, Emma Stedman, and Samuel Hundley. In a strange 2-part plot involving game developers resurrecting an evil lying dormant in a lost Commodore 64 game and a person just wanting to get gas, players will complete small objectives in order to survive. These can range from driving along a street while outrunning a terrifying series of glitches to outmaneuvering bigfoot.
Thanks to its 90s video game aesthetic, it can range in visual choices to keep things spicy, such as how the driving is always in 2D but the in person exploration is in 3D. Due to it being a gamejam game, it may fall into the category of being a bit challenging to get into — the difficulty can be absurd at times — but for those that like the raw experience of games made in 2 days this is a great example of what is possible.
Head AS Code
We have a lot of thrilling detective games this week, such as Head AS Code by Miracle Moon. Players awaken in a strange place as Simon, surrounded by their roommate and visiting friend, only to realize that they are stuck in some terrifying death game. Unfortunately for Simon, however, the mastermind has a strange sense of humor, because this isn’t just any death game: it’s a Dating Game.
Drawing inspiration from the great thriller visual novels of Danganronpa and Zero Escape, Simon is trying to crack the code of the game while in a ridiculously convoluted system. Specifically, it revolves around the 8 unwilling participants needing to travel in pairs to solve the puzzles — aka go on ‘Dates’.
Each train stop must be solved, similarly to an escape room, so that they can return to the shared station room and use that information to uncover where the hidden ‘9th’ player is. The way the game handles this the ‘AS System’, giving the ability to interact with the room to gain information while taking into account the specific order in which some actions are taken.
If that is a lot, just wait until you see how some of the people die, because this game doesn’t hold anything back. It’s a true-to-form death game visual novel, and only by solving the dates can Simon uncover just how the Montreal Metro system has been altered in this massive way. If you’ve played its influences, this game will feel right at home with its ridiculous yet well-crafted puzzles and storylines. For those who are unfamiliar with this style of game, it will feel a bit overwhelming at first trying to get your bearings. Once you do, you’ll have a great time solving the mysteries — or you won’t solve anything, and die. Who knows? I don’t.
Note: This is actually a remaster of the original, featuring brand new art and overhauled dialogue, so if you played the original you’re in for a treat.
Sub-Uber-Marine
A relaxing romp through the sea, Sub-Uber-Marine by Extar was originally made during Ludum Dare 48 Compo before getting expanded upon into its current form. Inspired by a certain taxi of craziness, you’ll be piloting a submarine throughout the ocean depths to find stranded divers needing a lift before dropping them off at their destination. Depending on your speed and ‘smoothness’, you’ll get a rating and a tip before setting off again to find another with your sonar.
Depending on the specific mode you might be trying to collect passengers for as long as possible as each diver adds time to the clock, or going as fast as possible within a set amount of time or divers. Pick your favourite kind of mode, and somehow relax as you search for divers amongst the sea.
Button City
An adorable game featuring a fox, Button City by Subliminal Games follows Fennel on his adventure after moving to a new town. After running a simple errand for their mom, Fennel hears about an arcade and decides to go find out more. He gains an intro to Gobabots, a competitive arcade game about making smoothies, and gains three friends in need of a fourth to compete. From here, Fennel’s life is full of quests and arcade games, practicing Gobabots while navigating his new town and learning about the power of friendship.
Thanks to the adorable 3D aesthetic and interactive world, you can lose yourself in just fulfilling random goals like picking up trash or helping people with the weather. You can play arcade games, talk to strangers, and get grounded. All in the name of a tale about a kid getting comfortable in his new town. It’s way more in-depth than it appears at first glance, and I can guarantee you’ll fall in love with the world created.
Chronology: Time Changes Everything
Somehow we continue the adorable aesthetic with the possibility for unspeakable despair. Chronology: Time Changes Everything is a narrative platformer by Bedtime Digital Games, an indie studio from Denmark that brought us the adventure Figment earlier in the bundle. Similar to Figment, players will follow an individual through a colourful world looking to solve a catastrophic problem. This time, however, the problem might have been caused by the protagonist themselves.
In the world of Chronology, the Old Inventor wakes up to a broken world. Upon finding his ticking clock, he tries to regain his memories while bouncing between the ‘before ‘ and the ‘after’. This duality in the level makes up the puzzles as you look to see how time affects the platforms and life. Finding a new companion in ‘Snail’ allows him to pause time while players can switch between controlling Inventor and Snail, adding more layers to the puzzle.
What makes Chronology interesting is not necessarily the puzzles, but the story that it builds with them. The Old Inventor trying to rediscover what happened to his world while being stuck in between them, characters from the ‘before’ now long gone giving context to how we all got here. It’s a touching little tale, and one that you can definitely submerse yourself in as you jump along with your new friend.
Stellar Interface
Our final game of the page ditches all of the nuance and dives right into blasting things forever. This is Stellar Interface by ImaginationOverflow, a roguelike bullethell designed to span the universe in order to find the galactic ‘Last Overlord’. You’ll pick a starting spacecraft, customize the starting 2 weapons, and set out on an infinite journey in the hopes that your mission will be the last to save everyone. Even if that is a bit of an oxymoron; the last ‘infinite’ journey.
Gameplay will be instantly familiar to shmup fans, with a sidescrolling ship dodging bullets and firing back with extreme prejudice and a meter to fill before unleashing your special move. Victory will grant the player a small upgrade in various ways, and they’ll get to go again to fight more ships and monsters.
Where the roguelike elements come in is in how you progress through the universe. After each mission, connecting nodes appear that allow you to choose where you want to go next. Each node has a percentile of certain events occuring, such as a ‘factory’. If a factory event triggers upon starting a level, winning will award a new ship. This goes for any of the possible events shown at each node, from merchants to sell goods to ‘Lord’. Lords are the bosses that you are hunting, and their defeat puts you one step closer to finding the Last Overlord.
Of course, you’ll be dying a lot — when you combine two of the deadliest genres together, that is inevitable. However, ships and weapon unlocks remain, meaning that you can start a new run with that fancy new ship you acquired, and install some upgraded weaponry to make the earlier parts of the game go by faster. Slap on a killer soundtrack and some gorgeous artwork and you’ve got a bullet hell that you can keep coming back to even after beating it.
Software
We Are Champion
Let’s get competitive. This is a TTRPG for 3–6 players by Asmus, and centres on the idea of playing ‘God’ and selecting a champion that, somehow, every other player has also chosen. The game revolves around each player struggling for control over this single champion, using a deck of cards to give some randomization to the game.
It’s ‘prep-less’, meaning that there isn’t much necessary to play the game outside of that deck, so you can take it anywhere and struggle for world domination everywhere.
A Voyage to Fairy-Land
An interesting entry for the page, this is a series of TTRPG cutouts/paper minis made by amandalee. 15 characters are available, focusing mainly on surreal fairy-like creatures. I personally cannot recognize any from my own knowledge of folklore, so it may work best if utilized in custom campaigns as either monsters or player characters. The artwork is gorgeous, to say the least, and it comes in both full colour and B&W.
Birds Love Dirt!
OK, time for some wild stuff, welcome to Birds Love Dirt! by Emily Jankowski. Inspired by their time volunteering at Kuaihelani, it is a game in which you as the players are birds and you love dirt. It divides play into three phases, where you explore the world, declare your intent, and love your dirt. It’s a silly little game that I can easily see bringing enjoyment to anyone that wants to get outside and love the ground.
Pastel Paradise
Ever wanted a relaxing TTRPG? Welcome to Pastel Paradise by Robin Fjärem, a game made for Troika on the idea of being a vacation. You’ll get one setting of a turtle island resort, backgrounds and enemies to explore, and a lot of pastel aesthetics. Best for those that love Troika, or just really want an adventure that’s more on the beachfront than the normal fantasy romps.
Hi [NAME], I’m Dad!
Let’s keep the strange ideas going with Hi [NAME], I’m Dad! by breathingstories. Created originally for the Pleasure-Not-Business Card RPG Jam, its a tiny TTRPG in which you build a card to become a good dad or dad-friend.
It’s a silly idea in which you introduce yourself to a new person with the phrase of the game, and then roll a die to see how you interact with the person further. It’s all centered on the traditional dad-like humor and stereotypes, and honestly it’s wholesome as heck.
Paradise Killer Art Works
Our final software is a bit different than the rest, as this is a collection of artwork from the game ‘Paradise Killer’, a strange detective adventure full of thrills and vaporwave. It includes a bunch of art from the game, including cut content and redesigns of characters you may recognize.
I never played Paradise Killer, but I can appreciate some horror-vaporwave aesthetics when I see it. If you are familiar with the game, this must be a fantastic addition for you to get a scope inside the game.
Duplicates
Immanence
A TTRPG about space exploration altering based on the number of people that can play. A reflective tale if solo, and interactive if not. Read more here.
TEOCALLI
1-bit roguelike in its rawest form, where movement is the only thing you need to worry about. For the roguelike purists out there, see here.
Nepenthe
Hand drawn ‘alt’-RPG that will have you struggling to figure out where to go and how to deal with being bald. More here.
Peck N Run
Arcade game about getting your bird children food on a beach. Simple pecking and running action, no complexity required. See about it here.
EVADER
Twin stick game about two nodes tethered together with a laser trying to survive and destroy enemies. Survive as long as possible. Learn more here.
Planet Diver
An arcade game about an eccentric diver going as deep as possible in various planets. My recommendation from page 35. See why here.
Clean ATTACK!
Arcade game featuring an character cleaning windows for points. Relax, grab some tunes, and enjoy. Seen at the end of page 49. Read about it here.
Blast Rush
Seemingly stereotypical shoot-em-up with a slowmo mechanic triggered by nearly getting hit. Alters perception of ‘cutting it close’. See why here.
Interstellaria
A massive collection of space-faring game mechanics, from crew management to economics, all in one package. Read about them all here.
Quible Sphere
Neon-fueled marble puzzles as far as the eye can see, complete with acceleration and hazards galore. Read about it here, shares a page with…
Catlandia: Crisis at Fort Pawprint
Massive 2D RPG following the great catmander Nugget and their party as they fight against the canines. My favourite from page 56. Read about it here.
Intelligent Design: An Evolutionary Sandbox
A strange simulation focused on learning fundamentals about DNA and evolution. Get that survivability score going. Read more science here.
Swung
A traditional platformer turned on its head as you are actually the sword of the cowardly adventurer. Keep him alive if you can. Read about it here.
Gunhouse
Bringing back those flash game era feelings is a tower defense and match 3 hybrid that nearly made my recommendation for page 16. See why here.
24 Game Poems
One of the last entries of the Racial Bundle, this is an anthology of game poems meant to challenge your wordplay. Read about it here.
