Weekly Overview of the Bundle For Ukraine | Gaming
Weekly Overview of the Bundle For Ukraine Page 25: Puzzles and Software Every‘ware’
WHERE DID THEY ALL COME FROM? (Also An Update)
Overview
Holy software update. Page 25 decided that it didn’t want to change from the previous page, and is an identical spread of 9/21. That’s a bit unsettling on its own, until you realize that there are also no duplicates as well to add to the stress.
There was also a very strange pattern here, where many of the video games were puzzles. I know that isn’t saying much, seeing as there were only 9, yet it’s hard not to notice when nearly 50% of the games were explicit puzzle games, and more had a lot of puzzling elements to them. Will that alter my feelings on them? No, but it’s a fun little tidbit.
Update
Edit: Turns out I got a tad overzealous. When I ‘looked’ ahead, I was already on the next page to prep for today, and looked ahead to 27. Long and short, upcoming blog this Friday, the below update has been edited to showcase how things will actually go.
I’ve said before in this bundle that I don’t like looking ahead too far so that I let the games wash over me and get my honest feelings on them upfront. While true, I do prep the next week’s entries in the database through basic organization, and what I’ve found for the week after next is going to be brutal as the number of games and software flips. I had hoped that I would be able to prep ahead of time thanks to the past few weeks being somewhat ‘sparse’ but even with that preparation I’ve found myself woefully lacking. Couple that with a bunch of added stress thanks to my job shifting around and I’m not in the smoothest of ships right now.
Next Friday you will see a blog, but after that things are going to get spicy. I’ve decided to start looking farther ahead than normal, not necessarily to spoil the fun but to ensure that with holiday season rapidly approaching I am able to properly section off my time without things getting messy. This way I’ll be able to give brief heads up when things get delayed.
It always happens right near the end, doesn’t it? We’re only 9 pages from the end, and this is the first time all year that I’ve suddenly had to make such a statement. But that’s life, y’know?
On with the bundle!
Video Games
Find Me
Find Me is an adorable platformer created by Team Invenio, a group of girls that were in middle school at the time for the 2017 Girls Make Games Summer Camp. They went on to win the grand prize during the GMG competition for the camp, and ended up taking advantage of the opportunity to kickstart the full release of the game to showcase it here now. So what is this award winning, now full fledged title?
We are a shadow, ripped from the body of our host (a small girl) after an accident. The shadow needs to return to the body to ensure that she can wake up, but while shadows are made of light they are also removed by them. So begins the perilous trek back to find ourselves, navigating through various town pieces by jumping on all manners of objects in order to dodge the light and reach the end.
Each region has its own themes and subsequent themed platforming, from the fireflies of the town to the electrical panels of the arcade. The only constant is the need to avoid light, even if there is an amount that can be stood in before the shadow dies, and the ‘dirty’ patches. These are regions of strangely condensed shadows, which our protagonist can enter to increase her speed and dodge out any harm.
While exploring the areas through platforming, you’ll notice very quickly that there are dozens of possible paths you can take during some areas. These are mainly to keep the flow of the game going based on where you were coming from and the current trajectory, but they also hide a secret. In each region there are 4 photos of our girl’s past, highlighting what she’s been up to in her spare time.
For example, the town is covered in cats, and the first photo details her finding a box of kittens. What happens next is unknown unless you find the polaroid pictures, accompanied by little written remarks to give further context. The photos are a sweet way of encouraging exploration while also adding some lovely context (and giving GMG their own shoutout in the arcade, how cheeky).
It’s an adorable little experience that really accentuates the fun that can be platformers. Death can be a pain, but the autosaves ensure that even players as bad as myself aren’t pressured to be perfect at all times. Sure there can be some hiccups along the way (looking at you, rockets) but they rarely detract from the overall enjoyable experience. It’s a neat game empowered by a good cause, and one that you should try out if you haven’t already. It isn’t that long, so no excuses on that front.
Inner Tao
Inner Tao is a zen puzzle game created by Le Slo, a solo Spanish indie developer. Players are simply trying to get the black and white circles to cover the small squares through the control of their own Yin and Yang circles. If only it were that easy.
This may take a bit of explaining due to how simple it is, yet absurdly complicated. You control the ‘seeds’ or dots of the Yin and Yang symbol, conveniently also drawn with the traditional curved line to appear as a Yin Yang symbol themselves. Switching between them, you need to use them to push the ringed circles onto the dots. Simple enough, but the circles you control are part of the Yin and Yang — that means they cannot exist within the same colour that they are.
Like colours can only ‘push’ like colours, so using the above picture as reference, the Black circle player’s control can only push the black circles. When they get pushed onto the black area, they immediately flip to white to keep with the Yin and Yang philosophy, but that means that the Black circle can no longer push them and players need to switch to the White. What the Black seed can do is enter the now white circle, for it remains in the opposite environment. When controlling the White seed, players can now push their own Black seed around. The easiest way to understand is that there is one constant rule; colours must always exist on top of their opposites.
The Yin and Yang duality alters the presentation and approach so much that you’d be forgiven for not realizing that this is actually just a Sokoban puzzle. After all, you’re pushing blocks to specific locations and need to ensure proper positioning to do so at all times because you cannot pull. Yet this presentation is what makes the game so engaging, so much fun to explore and get mad at. Even the puzzles are delivered in pairs, both having a specific theme yet slightly different in execution.
Presentation is everything, and Inner Tao dives headlong into it. While you might not get the most ‘relaxing’ experience when you’re gnawing on your brain to solve a puzzle, it may be a great time nonetheless.
Fantastic Fetus: Prebirth
To round out our puzzle-filled game section, we will divert heavily with Fantastic Fetus: Prebirth by Fantastic Humans, an indie team in the EU comprising of Aleksandra Jarosz, Michael Hartinger, Sebastian Merkl, and Thomas Feichtmeir. Dubbed a “pregnancy simulator” and created within 3 months, you will follow TamaMama in a Tamagotchi-esque game where you take care of her for 9 months to prepare for her upcoming childbirth. In Poland. During 2016.
If you aren’t aware of what occurred during that year, the game (and blurb) quickly catches you up to speed in various ways, but here’s the gist. In 2016, Poland put forth new legislation to further the abortion ban to remove all exceptions, making any and all abortions illegal no matter the circumstances. This prompted thousands to march in the street on the day dubbed ‘Black Monday’ and collapse the bills support.
So what exactly is the game? Players will follow TamaMama, who has recently become pregnant, and assist her in ‘day to day’ life while a child grows within her. It’s your job to feed her, keep her happy with prayer and music, and have her perform basic cleaning of her apartment. Each day in game represents a month of TamaMama’s life, and throughout the day there are events that occur for you to solve like sudden pangs of hunger, becoming sick, and more. Once you believe them to be solved, and have exhausted all resources that you wish (happiness items refresh every event), then you can skip forward in time to the next event.
Each new ‘day’ begins with TamaMama exclaiming something, and to engage more closely with your ward you can interact with the item she mentioned to get a better perspective on her mental state and feelings. Other items will only give symbols to give insight, but can also assist in understanding how the game is going. None of these affect her happiness, mind you, so if she’s fearful you’ll need to listen to the radio and not keep clicking on a bookshelf.
Every night the game shifts into an unsettling ‘Fetus Creator Mode’, where you add parts to the growing fetus within her. These parts are all fantastical, mind you, turning the future child into a strange entity beyond mortal understanding. Once you have selected the part, the next day begins, and you are left wondering just why you are doing this.
In case it wasn’t obvious, this is a game about highlighting the absurdity of anti-abortion sentiments and the removal of choice. TamaMama reflects numerous times on this, whether the radio points out strange double standards made by the public or that players must ‘maintain a weight below 99kg!’ in order to ‘win’ at pregnancy. The child growing is not ‘real’ yet, so the game lets you do whatever you want with it since it is in a state of existential limbo. When it does arrive, however… well I’ll leave that for you to find out.
Needless to say, Fantastic Fetus: Prebirth is an unsettling game to send a message wrapped in a cutesy aesthetic to make it easier to swallow. It doesn’t take long, merely 30–60 minutes to witness the ending, but that’s all the time it needs to discuss its themes and the results of removing bodily autonomy for all women. If you want to learn more — and get some sweet extras like an in-depth guide to the game — then download it and see for yourself.
We go onward
Unfinished — An Artist’s Lament
Unfinished is a 3D platformer in the strangest way by Dust Scratch Games, an indie dev based in Canada. Players join the game to see… nothing. Or at least, a lot of white emptiness. As if something isn’t finished.
As the stick man, you’ll learn to explore the vast blank canvas to learn of the actual puzzles and platforms hiding in plain sight. To traverse them requires ‘redrawing’ parts of your body, either your legs, hands, or head. For example, two kinds of shoes found allow the stickman to jump or run really fast. This means that exploration is critical in order to find the limb replacements you’ll need to navigate the maze of each map, and also leaves some uncomfortable undertones.
That’s the funny part about Unfinished; it’s a tale about finding how to finish something while also discovering what makes you, you. It’s a game about self-discovery, one that explores building yourself while you explore the world around you. Adding to this is the narrative by the ‘artist’ themselves to give even more of a story throughout. If you like odd games with a strong focus on exploring through story, this might be your game.
Vylan
Getting into more puzzle games is Vylan by MOSTLY MAD PRODUCTIONS. Players join a small entity with no name wanting to reach the door of all 100 levels, and the only way they can is through tile-based movement.
Using its ‘per tile’ movement, Vylan forces you to realize that both platforming and puzzling are paramount to the games functionality. Movement appears slow thanks to this tile-based movement, but you need to think fast and find shortest way possible to finish before the timer runs out. Unlike the player, the timer does not operate within the ‘turns’ time space and flows freely, meaning that decisions need to be snappy and memory needs to be perfected.
There is no gameplay outside of this movement mechanic, and it instead is the puzzles within the platforms that create the gameplay difficulty and variance as levels progress. You’ll see all of the traditional platformer puzzles from platforms crumbling, mirrors, buttons, and more as you navigate through each level. Pressing each direction morphs from snap decisions to memorization games as you slowly chip away at what needs to be done in what order to lift the restrictions on the doors or to find out how to cross the chasms.
Unfortunately for Vylan, I’m not a very good platformer, nor a good puzzler — I got stuck on level 8, for crying out loud. The accessibility options are handy, such as being able to turn off the timer or increasing it, so that I was able to find out how to beat the levels as I went. There’s an argument to be made that this could have a negative effect on later stages, but that’s a blog for a different time. For now, you’d be hard pressed to find another game quite like this, so give it a shot if it sounds interesting.
Drew and the Floating Labyrinth
Oh look, Dust Scratch Games is back again! Seen just two above this with Unfinished, Drew and the Floating Labyrinth is the second game donated to the bundle. In it you control a lost girl named Drew hoping to find her way home, but stuck in a strange maze of invisible blocks and unknown paths.
Drew’s goal is simple: reach the green cube at the end of every level to clear it. Unfortunately, her jumps aren’t long enough to reach the first cube, which reveals immediately that there’s something ‘wrong’ with the world itself. In reality this is a game about perspectives and awareness, as each ‘group’ of levels has a trick in understanding where the floor is. Take the first group, where the hint is the sides of the cubes. Many have the colours of other cubes on one side of them, which indicates that this is the direction of the next invisible cube.
Once you get the hang of this, you’ll be greeted to numerous levels using various methods to hide their platforms. There are checkerboard layouts, 2D ‘faces’ on the far walls to give indication of how many blocks exist, and many more. At the end of each group is a locked level, which slowly progresses the plot as Drew seemingly discusses her life with a strange bird. It’s a sweet little tale, accentuated by the hand-drawn assets to give child-like simplicity and a piano backing to add to the atmosphere. If you are a fan of puzzles that don’t take long to get emotional, then this might be the game for you.
Note: this is a game made in Unity, which means that if you’re using a Dualshock you’ll be spinning right round. One of these days I’m going to write my own PS4 plugin for Unity and hopefully fix this…
BOX
More puzzle platformers ahead, this time in the VHS aesthetic. Box by EllenElzai, a solo indie dev, is a game in which you are a box. You are a box collecting other boxes by navigating levels in the shape of a box. We are boxing this up.
Each level of Box requires the acquisition of small yellow and/or blackpink boxes. Our hero, the green box, needs to touch them all to move onward, but they cannot jump very far nor high. No wall jumping either. So how does a box get to where a box needs to go? By rotating the box of the level. Pressing the right and left ‘bumpers’ on the controller will rotate the map CW or CCW depending, with our box spinning in place to match orientation. Every object in the map will rotate with the level as well to allow for new avenues of exploration. Every object, except for the blackpink striped objects. Those remain static no matter what, and this dynamic creates the basis of Box’s puzzles.
Of course within 47 levels, this simple dynamic is not the only one, and soon enough there will be regional issues and manipulations to bend your brain backwards. For something so simple it truly can get utterly mindboggling, which is the best kind of simplicity. Combine that with the CRT VHS aesthetic, complete with fuzz and all, and you’ve got an homage to a deceased era in the form of a box puzzle. It’s a great time and you’ll definitely not wish harm on one of the boxes by the end.
Cloud Serpent
Created by Tad Patterson, Cloud Serpent is a twist on the SNAKE games set in a fantastical cloud paradise. You are the titular Cloud Serpent, unable to touch the clouds and hazards around you but need to acquire the glowing balls regardless. So how will you?
While invoking SNAKE may give the immediate thought of our protagonist growing after each consumption, this actually does not occur. Each of the 60 levels only involves the need to collect the balls in any way possible while avoiding everything else. The Cloud Serpent doesn’t grow, instead staying the same size to keep maneuverable.
What they can do, however, is utilize screen wrapping to solve many puzzles. Going too far to the right will cause the serpent to appear on the left, which is the only way to solve many of the puzzles as you go since the hazards start to get trickier in their placement. This especially becomes handy when enemies get introduced in Zone 2, since you’ll need to collect things to attack while dodging away as much as possible.
It’s a small game, not meant to be big at all, but it’s a neat concept to play through and reminisce on games of its style. If that sounds like fun, give it a try.
Bring Back The Sun by Daniel da Silva
Bring Back the Sun is a platformer by Daniel da Silva, known as SmokeSomeFrogs, seen in both the Racial Justice bundle and this very bundle with his entries Flufftopia and Intra-System: Trust Issues. While his games are never the same, they do carry a single similarity; they’re all oddly open ended and keep you guessing, and this may be one of the strangest yet.
You are a little red block with legs destined to take back the sun. Where it went is not important immediately, you just need to get it. To do so, you’ll be running through dozens of levels, jumping on blocks to reach the door at the end. There are no enemies to worry about, no real ‘hazards’ outside of the red lined blocks that permanently disappear after being touched. All you need is good control over your motor skills and an eye for distance. So why does everything feel so off?
The felling of Bring Back the Sun is hard to describe, because on the surface there is absolutely nothing told to you as the player. You aren’t even told how to move when the game starts; you press buttons to figure it out from the menu, and go from there. The story is a vague ‘go get the thing’ idea, and certain abilities may never appear on your radar simply because you never pressed every button imaginable. After all, you got the main ones of movement and jumping. Yet as you go, there are little ‘secrets’ hidden in this vague world. Walls that don’t actually exist, holes in the floor that you accidentally fall through to see another person.
Bring Back the Sun is an exploratory platformer. It’s a game in which you are given little, and must explore in every aspect of the word to find out what’s going on. Even then, you might not get the whole picture; the game states that it is ‘1–3 hours on your first run’, for it expects you to try again and find something new. I shouldn’t be surprised. Da Silva has done wild stuff with their games in the past, and this minimalistic approach is no exception. If you like platformers that hurt the brain for very different reasons, then this might be your game.
Software
Wayfarer’s Deck: Depths of the Earth
Starting us off is the Wayfarer’s Deck, a collection of 50 cards by Double Proficiency. Each of the cards contains a wonder, an encounter, anything that may appear in a fantastical game. It’s there to be an alternative to a system’s ‘random encounter’ module — instead of rolling a die on a grid, you can draw a card or roll a d100/2 and let that encounter be the one to play. The cards do not contain ‘solutions’, only the scenario itself. There are no stat blocks, and there are no system explicit events. Everything is there for you to use how you see fit.
KOBUILD
Created by chriskettlefrisby, KOBUILD is a journaling game in which you build a civilization piece by piece for the greatest race ever created; the Kobolds. You (and possibly one or more others) start with 4 Kobold friends, slowly working through adventures to gain the supplies and encounters necessary to start building a home of your own. Go grab some grid paper and make your dream city.
Spring Comes Again
A solo journaling game, Spring Comes Again follows an elfling trying to ensure that winter does not appear before necessary. Since you are a fantastical creature, so are the forces that cause winter, and it is up to you to figure out how to stop them. Many of the solutions involve redirection and emotional control, assisting these beasts by giving them something healthier to do with their energy. If you like the works of Bell Moon or just want to fight winter, this is a good one.
World of Solaria: Sprite Pack
Back on page 10, Jamie Brownhill gifted artistic assets for a town from an RPG that never manifested. 15 pages later, the sprite pack has been added. This pack contains 44 sprites total, with 3 having updated versions of their animations and the remaining 41 keeping with their old ones (for now). The sprites are all ready to go for whatever fantasy project you may have, with the 3 updated animations being extensive and using the tools included. Give it a look!
Rivals
Rivals by Disaster Tourism is a 2 player TTRPG in which you and your friend fight to become a legend. The two of you are childhood friends, wanting to become the greatest ever, so you go on quests and fight in competitions to prove which one of you is superior. It’s all built on the simple system of ‘Rock, Paper, Scissors’, so much of the game will require your imagination to flesh out the narratives of your exploits. One of you will become a legend, it all just depends on how long it takes and who interrupts who the most.
Twelve Hundred Words
Whimsy Machine has been seen twice before in this bundle (Fight Item Run and Statuesque), but Twelve Hundred Words is a different beast. This is 5 tiny tabletop RPGs, each spanning exactly 200 words, with the rest contributing to the total stated by the title. Explained in the abstract, the games are an expression of the author’s experiences with anxiety and OCD, which allows them to be as focused as they are.
Curious Expedition Artbook
Well well well, who would’ve thought I’d see this game again. Curious Expedition was a game seen 11 pages ago back on page 14, and a game I adored for its strange and fantastical approach to colonialism and exploration. This is the artbook for that very game, containing 176 pages of dev commentary, snippets of various parts of the game, and features that were ultimately removed/forgotten. Fans of the game will love this little addition.
The Shadow Among the Stars: Book One of the Dread Naught Trilogy
Switching things up again, we dive into the realm of novels with this first book of a trilogy by Dylan Wayne Sanchez. Set in a distant future where humanity has taken to the stars, we’ll follow the greatest CSOE (Colonial Special Operations Executive) operative named Dame Bryluen Branok. When a strange threat occurs that nobody seems to understand, she is tasked with creating a team and discovering what had caused the catastrophe and bringing it and its collaborators to heel. You can read it in any way you wish.
Whispers from the Thousand Moons
Whispers from the Thousand Moons continues the space theme from the previous entry as a journaling game by Jennifer Adcock. Set in the deepest regions of space in a place known only as ‘Thousand Moons’, you are the Seneschal of the people that eke out a living in this strange yet quiet place. Since there are so many moons — by a magnitude more than the title implies— the journal entries are meant for future Seneschals as a gift for when they make the same journey. You may never meet a Seneschal in person, but your writings on the people and the moons you visit will connect you to the network.
Trick-Or-Treat Carta
Somehow right on time for the season, this is a solo RPG using the Carta System. You are a child giddy with excitement to go out and get some candy for the first time, and are unprepared for the whimsical magic that may occur whilst out and about. Collecting treats gives you courage and supplies to defeat monsters that may accost you, and events will appear to give you the chance to make friends and foes alike.
Soft Romance Ren’py GUI Design
Back again to gift us another GUI (while I completely forgot they also made As We Know It from the Racial Justice Bundle) Jaime Scribbles has given us a Ren’py GUI for ‘love’ games. It’s a custom one, aimed at games that want a softer aesthetic than the default interface. It’s got everything you could look for, from colour pallet to consistency. There is a warning on the itch.io page that may need heeding if you attempt to utilize it, so make sure to read that before using.
Trials of Melodosia
Based around the concept of ‘Oops! All -Class Name-’, Trials of Melodisia is a TTRPG by Sara Jeffers where you and friends must compete and conquer as a group of divas. It’s a perfect introduction for many who may not like TTRPGs but are really into music and theatrics, so let them read it and see for themselves.
will i be strong enough for you?
will i be strong enough for you? is a meditative game by Vian Nguyen, detailing how to reflect on specific themes that surround the title’s question. Escapism is a big one, especially for me and others that find their joy in fiction over reality, but there is also deep dives into generational trauma and savior syndrome. All of this is based on their own reflections of themselves, so I hope that if you are in need of some meditation that this will help.
How Peculiar
Returning to silly hijinks is How Peculiar by Aidan Bowes. Inspired by the nonsensical 1960’s British TV Dramas, you and a few other players will take on the role of detectives in search of crimes and solutions. Unfortunately for any sane reader, there is no ‘real’ answer; much like the older television days, the crimes are strange and the people involved with them are stranger. Solutions may feel like they were plucked out of thin air, because that is exactly how it was done. This isn’t a game for those wanting to be Sherlock Holmes, this is a game for people that want to be in Get Smart, and that’s the best part.
Brit School Hijinks
Won’t lie, weird to see a second British game right after another. Alas, Brit School Hijinks is a TTRPG by Librarians and Leviathans. Set in the 1990s, you’re high schoolers doing what they do best; causing mischief for their own entertainment in order to break free of the perceived ‘monotony. Of course, this game cranks that up to 11 by allowing for the absurdity to take hold, introducing revolutions, aliens, spies, and more. The presentation is what makes this game fun, because everything about it looks like a textbook from the era somehow preserved in time.
Roamers of the Dream
Continuing on with TTRPGs is Roamers of the Dream by Zotiquest Games. Inspired by the old-school adventures, you roleplay a ‘dream wanderer’, surviving through their own dreams in the hopes of finding a solution to awaken. Dreams are places of insanity and surrealism, and finding yourself living within one is dangerous at best. Events can occur that make no sense, and if you cannot find a way to awaken you may not be able to survive in either realm. While not ‘playtested’ by their own admission, the game is functional and the art is sublime.
Fuse — Retro Fusion Music Loops
Alright, more music loops! Beep Artz has gifted us their collection of 8 retro fusion loops, aimed at fitting into any game wanting to go back in time. It uses the same style of 8-bit synths across the entire project for cohesion, and will work great with any pixelated project.
Unnamed Fairy Princess Game
Funny to see Aidan Bowes here so quickly, but they’ve continued with their hijinks with Unnamed Fairy Princess Game, where you and friends create stories using the magic of fairies. Of course they are fairies, which means that bad things will happen on whims just ‘because’, which gives the strangest feeling of horror within the game. Created for fun and meant for nonsense, give it a try if you need some good evening shenanigans.
The Broccoli Complex
The Broccoli Complex is a mini-RPG created for the Jam Broccoli game Jam by Axolotl. It’s focus is on a single player looking into themselves as a broccoli jealous of the other veggies around it. You explore what it means to be a broccoli and what it means to be the vegetable of your admiration. The silliness of the premise actually works to its favour, giving you the ability to break past the usual tropes and look at what makes you, you. It’s really sweet and caring, and one to try if you are looking for something even kids can understand.
My One True Wish
Another double feature on this page! Coincidences abound. My One True Wish is by DarkJaguar from above’s Trick-Or-Treat Carta. Instead of being a kid on Hallowe’en, you are playing a solo journaling game as an individual with a Fairy Godmother. The game details the questions that the Fairy would ask you, and using tarot cards you will construct your answers and your feelings. It’s looking to be a bit of fun while revealing your true heart’s desires. How that comes about is completely unique to you.
18XX Dreams
Our final entry in the software division comes from Deep Light Games, the publishing name for Diego Barreto. The 18XX series is a grouping of hacks of the 24XX rules by Jason Tocci, which in turn is the free ruleset released based on Jason’s lo-fi sci-fi 2400 TTRPG. The hack turns the sci-fi into lo-fi history in the 19th century, and every game in the 18XX is technically in sequence. This is the sixth in the series, and highlights player’s explorations of their dreams after they break through the barrier and wander into the Dream Realm. It crashes the older style of the 1800s with the fantastical world of dreams, such as how emotions are now currency and the world may or may not be upside down.
You’ll need a GM for this one; not because of control, but they may be the only one that makes sense of the world. Good luck out there!
Duplicates
nope.
