Along with the awe of meeting the creators of games I love (and immediately fell in love with after demo-ing) at PAX East this year came an immense desire to support those developers and designers in their endeavours. Followed by an immense desire for employment that could adequately support me in my endeavours. No matter; I have faith my lord Gaben will provide in Steam sales. As for the other projects in the works, I’ll somehow convince myself that being a patron is equivalent to buying coffee. (Even though I don’t have a coffee habit to make that equivalent exchange…). As you can tell from my murder board of flyers and business cards acquired at PAX this year, there are a lot of games that I’m interested in either playing or learning more about.
Without further rambling, here’s a meandering list of the (mostly) indie games from PAX I’m keeping an eye out for:
Tunic
2019
Tunic, about a little fox in a big world, gave off vibes like Hyper Light Drifter meets Wind Waker. I managed to snag a moment with Andrew, designer and developer, and talk about his goals and inspirations for the game. He wanted to capture the feeling of being sort of lonely and exploring places you’re not entirely sure you supposed to be. The player character is a cute little vessel to enter the world of Tunic, and to me, seemed to somehow capture a lot of Andrew’s essence in its bouncy kind of run, despite me knowing the guy for all of five minutes and the character being a fox and all. I’m excited to see more of the world; Tunic is top of my list for 2019.
Rhythm of the Universe
TBA
I kind of lost my mind over ROTU when I accidentally got roped into playing its demo. Kind of to the point of people thinking I was also working the booth because I had the game’s shpiel down pat. It’s a VR game based on music theory—but have no fear if your musical career ended with middle school band, like mine did. It’s an atmospheric VR experience, a little bit like stepping into the world of Pandora in Avatar to solve puzzles and explore. If I had a VR setup, I would probably be clocking days in this game. Alas, I do not, so I’ll have to pine from afar.
Omensight
15 May 2018
Omensight was the one game for which I broke my rule of not standing in line more than 45 minutes to play. All I can really say is: worth it. You play the Harbinger, appearing in the world of Urralia during times of crisis; this crisis follows the death of the godless priestess and subsequent arrival of Voden, the destructive dark god. In a sort of Groundhog Day situation, you appear alongside pivotal characters as you try to uncover the truth of the priestess’s death, and what you discover may influence your decision to fight either with or against aforementioned characters in key battles that could reverse the fate of the land. I liked the visuals, I liked the gameplay, I liked the lore; it’s on my list.
Murderous Pursuits
26 April 2018
Murderous Pursuits is an online stealth game of cat-and-mouse; you’re both hunter and hunted, trying to prove your worthiness to your enigmatic employer, Mr. X, by tracking and assassinating an assigned target before anyone else murders either them or you. Each ten minute round takes place in one of a selection of environments aboard a Victorian-era airship— it makes me think of Bioshock Infinite, or Dishonored (though I’m less familiar with the latter). Online games historically haven’t been my cup of tea, but after trying out the open beta last weekend, I’m definitely sold.
Bendy and the Ink Machine, Chapter 4
28 April 2018
BATIM isn’t a new game for 2018, but chapter 4 will be released this weekend, and chapter 2 is also going to be revamped. Since playing the newly renovated first chapter for approximately the fourth time, I’m looking forward to the changes coming to the second and third chapters, albeit the latter will probably be later down the line. I both love and hate episodic games because whenever I finish a chapter, I immediately want to play the next section and am bummed when I find out that it’s not out yet. On the other hand, it’s a nice recurring surprise to discover the next episode has been released when I forget and then remember it a few months later. BATIM is going to be on my to-play watch until the final and fifth chapter is also out, hopefully later this year. It’s also coming to console sometime approximately soon.
Flipping Death
TBA
Flipping Death has two components that I find particularly interesting: one, it’s premise in which you suddenly become Death’s temp and it/he/she leaves you in charge while it/he/she goes on vacation, and two, the 2D graphics that mimic paper being flipped over whenever characters face the opposite direction or switch between the realms of the living and the dead. Also, I found it particularly hilarious that while Death was on vacation, you just wind up doing vengeance tasks for spirits in the underworld who have unfinished business with the living, acting like a liaison between the two.
Crystals & Curses
30 March 2018 (already out)
Crystals & Curses also initially lured me in because it was pretty. Also, one of the reps (I feel bad I forgot her name) was cosplaying as the main character, Nox, and I thought that was super neat. Crystals & Curses is a puzzle game, kind of like connect-the-dot’s cooler and much more sophisticated cousin with colours and movement, and it’s about to become the game I play when I say I’m going to bed but I’m actually just going to lie in the dark staring at my phone for a couple hours.
Semblance
Early 2018 (?? we’re fast approaching mid-2018, so)
Semblance looks a lot like the puzzle platformer Ibb & Obb to me, but single player. I had a great time talking with Ben, designer and half of the Nyamakop dev team, who provided great sarcastic commentary as I tried to overcome obstacles (and occasionally break the game) in the demo. He also told me that the core mechanic of the game, restructuring your environment to overcome obstacles, was the result of a bug that arose when trying to make the surface the character runs across look squishy. I imagine that decision went something along the lines of “aw dammit to hell why is it doing that now” to “welp what if we just made this the game,” and I find that scenario both hilarious and inspiring. Also, as we were leaving the booth, a friend of mine commented, “That guy is the most British person I have ever met” and suddenly I was able to place his accent: not British, but South African. I don’t hear anything, really, about game development from Ghana, so I am just stoked to support another developer from Africa in general.
Fe
16 February 2018 (already out)
Fe (pronounced ‘fee-uh,’ for you uncultured swine who thought it was a reference to the element iron ahem definitely not me) is on this list because it looked pretty. Yeah, roll your eyes if you want, but I find aesthetics to be an incredibly important factor in whether or not I enjoy a game. I didn’t get a chance to play, but Fe looks like a combination of Journey and Ori and the Blind Forest in 3D, the latter of which I’d recently started playing. It also made me think of the teaser trailer for FFXV, where you followed this little fennec fox-looking creature around, except this time… you are the fox? That’s actually a baby bipedal feathered wolf thing? You see where the Ori vibes are coming from.
Candleman
31 January 2018 (already out)
Okay, so what game isn’t on my list due to aesthetics to some degree? Candleman is an explorative game that plays with light and dark. You play as the eponymous Candleman in strategising use of your limited wick to get through dark environments between light sources. Thematically, the environments I saw others play looked something like elements of a cosmic library, which—say no more: I am so there.
A Fold Apart
TBA
A Fold Apart appeared on my radar a couple weeks before PAX when I was looking up Qinoto, another game based around the mechanic of folding game elements to solve puzzles. A Fold Apart is about a long-distance relationship, inspired by the relationship of the game’s creator, Mark. In all honesty, that premise drew me in because pretty much all of my relationships have been long distance and it would be so great to experience one that, well, had a happy ending. Another thing I really enjoy about it is the ungendered characters, which you can pair as you like to play through the game.
Qinoto
TBA
Qinoto was featured in the PAX Rising Showcase and it was that bit of publicity on the PAX East website that prompted me to seek it out. It’s a paper-folding game about a fox on a quest for self-discovery. It looks like a cute little game I’d play to relax on my break at work.
Rend
TBA
Rend kind of gave me Ark: Survival Evolved vibes, but not so much with dinosaurs as with ETs and otherworldly monsters. The premise of Rend, however, is survival plus a team vs. team vs. team element that’s also somehow timed (?). Honestly, those all sound like a list of things I do not enjoy in a game, but I’m willing to give it a shot. Expand my horizons and whatnot. Also, it looks—you guessed it—pretty. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Groundless
Summer 2018
To be honest, I don’t even remember how the promo card for Groundless ended up in my hands, but it has my attention because—okay, let’s just assume that all games on this list look pretty. Maybe I’m just a shallow piece of garbage and only like games because they’re nice to look at, but you kNoW WHat I APPRECIATE A GAME WITH SUBSTANCE TOO AFKSS. Anyways, Groundless is a multiplayer game where teams of two compete against each other to collect offerings for their respective god before the other team does. It’s not a PvP game in terms of combat, which I like, but there is plenty of room for sabotage. I’m hoping it has an online feature and not just for local players.
Alkimya
TBA
Alkimya completely confounded me when I played it in the demo at PAX—but in the good, I-need-to-learn-more-about-this-and-conquer-it kind of way. I’ve never played an alchemy- or crafting-based game before, and I feel like the vast menu of alchemical recipes to overcome obstacles and fight monsters will be overwhelming, but I know for sure that I’m going to enjoy the hell out of collecting All The Things to make those recipes. Also, one of the inspirations for the game was Full Metal Alchemist, and knowing that makes me want to play it all the more.
The Great Gaias
22 June 2018
Last, but certainly not least, The Great Gaias is a game I’m eager to check out because it was made in RPG Maker, the first engine I’m trying to conquer for building games (more to come on that later). I had a great time talking with Brian, one of the devs, and embarrassing myself trying to survive the Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark-inspired challenge in front of the crew (spoiler: I didn’t). The Great Gaias is based on a D&D session DM’d by Matt, creative director, and having personally attempted to chronicle the most epic of D&D sagas (you don’t even know how epic), I want to know how he managed to fit it all into a role-playing game that a newcomer can insert themselves into. What fascinates me most about the game, though, is the sidequest of building your own city, which grows and develops according to the characters you send to live there. I’ve activated my Early Access Steam key, but I’m still locked out of the game for some reason, so I can’t really say more about it. Still, excited to play this game that’s over seven years in the making!
So now that we’ve learnt that I do judge books, or games, by their covers (and yes, I do 100% judge books by their covers, but that’s a debate for another time), I’m hoping that I’ve piqued your interest in some of these titles. The tough thing about finding all these great games in development is waiting for them to be released, and I’m really hoping that they live up to everything they set out to be.
What do you think? Did I miss any crucial titles? Let me know if you have any game suggestions! Questions, comments, concerns about the games above? Drop me a line! I mean, I’m not a spokesperson for any of the games above, but we can talk about stuff. TELL ME YOUR FEELINGS ABOUT GAMES.
Kino Vance Online 
