It’s Black Friday, the day when the entire planet Earth goes completely insane and spends all their money on things they don’t need for 5% cheaper than it was yesterday. Planet Earth this year bought itself a brand new moon, although the old one is fine, just because this one has Bluetooth. So distract yourself from all that by discovering 12 amazing new games.
As is the case with Indiegeddon, I do not endorse these games, as I have not played any of them. Instead, I just think they look so interesting, fascinating, scary, or weird that I can’t help but write about them. Most of them aren’t out yet, but the most helpful thing you can do for developers is give them a Steam wish list: it makes a big difference.
Read more: 10 incredible games that you should add to your favorite list right now
There’s bound to be at least one game here that’ll make you check its release date and wish it came out sooner, unless you’re a gray geek who feels the need to tell the universe he’s real. thinking they are all the same. terrible. We feel sorry for you, that one person. Just a pity, really. For everyone else, woo-hoo, let’s get started!
border collapse
Everytime I see a space-based RTS that looks cool border collapse, I thought, “This will be one! This will be the game where I conquer my fear of menus!” And then I failed. But maybe it will is this, because damn, it looks brilliant. Four years has been done, by just one person, this looks like it came from a team of 100 at Paradox. Just watch the spaceships explode! It’s all about taking over a procedurally generated star system, with information and logic at its core. But then you can also design your ships, attack enemies, and do all those cool space strategy stuff I wish I had grown up with.
Developers: Fox stuttering studio
Release date: 2023
Receipt
You, a squirrel named Bill who is very good at crafting, come across an alien baby in your garden that is in need of your help! It is a story as old as time itself. Result, Receipt, is a simulation game in which you must craft, grow, and arrange everything the alien kid needs to survive. And all to explore the concept of recycling. It’s the weirdest elevator pitch, but it looks like it could be adorable.
Developers: Marijenburg
Release date: TBA (demo in Feb 2023)
We were cheated
Dig into the game: A 1- to 4-player couch co-op game about trying to sustain a spaceship under natural disaster circumstances, but also in split-screen, where you see both the inside and outside of your ship at the same time. Sorry. Everyone will be able to take on different roles on the ship, from captain to janitor, as things happen on board while trying to protect you from enemies. It’s all about chaos and multitasking, or as I prefer to describe, failure as a team.
Developers: Rarebytes
Release date: 2023
quartet
quartet looks like an extremely faithful classic-style JRPG, but with a new twist in its turn-based combat system. Indeed, yes to be eight characters in the thumbnail above, but you’re fighting four at a time, being able to tag characters in and out as appropriate. It’s also a quartet of stories, four stories to choose from, played in any order you want, and of course in a October tourists somehow they intertwine as you play through them all. It’s an ambitious project for an indie team of five, but it looks like they’re working on it.
Developers: Something classic game
Release date: 2023
dreamy
That man has a very small head. That said, this is dreamy, a visual novel that just got a Kickstarter hit (raising over $30,000), gives people the chance to watch handsome young men staring at each other wistfully. It’s boooooy looooove. With that, there are mysterious deaths, reality-invading dreams, and demons from the past that must deal, for protagonist Noah, in an adventure that looks like an adventure. Save is written and drawn very beautifully.
Developers: Film studio two and a half
Release date: Early 2024
tidal sky
Coo, look at this! It seems the rarely discovered attraction between point-and-click adventure and RPG. tidal sky is a sci-fi story about a civilization on the brink of war, telling the personal story of Rin, searching for her missing father, and, you know, saving the planet Numen. (NUMBER!) It promises that your decisions will determine your personality, as you explore the isometric world, and honestly, I want to play it already.
Developers: Entertainment in the high sky
Release date: second quarter of 2023
Terra Invicta
Elsewhere in space… Terra Invicta is another super deep space sim, this one immediately reminds me star, but with a much more specific focus: Earth. This is from a group of modders, best known for XCOM: The Long War. The success of that mod made them professional and Terra Invicta is their first commercial game, a geopolitical space exploration simulation in which you are preventing (or even supporting) an alien invasion of their home planet. ta. The game was released a few months early and is proving very popular with reviewers on Steam, thanks to its complexity and scale.
Developers: Pavonis . interaction
Release date: Out of stock now (early access)
Blocks shoot at you
Like Arkanoid, but the blocks you hit will shoot back at you! How this is not a thing. (I think you’ll actually see that there’s an example of this on the Amiga Rupture 3400 in Germany, in the parallel dimension of Raaaaaaa – That Guy.) Blocks shoot at you seems like an obvious idea, but I’ve never seen it before: Bullet Hell overate. This looks like it might be my new obsession, which I’m awfully terrible at.
Developers: seudo nimm
Release date: TBA
Phobolis: Take off your teeth
I love it when I can’t tell if it’s the nasty video trailer or the classic FPS trailer. That’s the whole scene right now. phobolis fits right in, its sketchy trailer looks at first glance like a ruined VHS video that will curse your grandkids, then cuts into a grimy, old-school shooter. You can take alpha test build of the game through Itch to monetize or wait until next year when they plan to go live.
Developers: Amon26
Release date: Early 2024
Space boat
Call me crazy, but I can’t resist a game about a space cat detective investigating a crime on an interstellar cruise ship covered in sentient rugs. As Domino, the detective cat said, you explore the ship from a third-person perspective, trying to catch a jewelry thief. It’s brilliantly realistic, based on a ridiculous premise, as you’ll see in the full half hour of gameplay in the video above.
Developers: Recombination game
Release date: TBA
Parts no
I couldn’t write one of these without including a card game – there are rules. Parts no is a cyberpunk approach that promises to incorporate Magic: Gather with Kill the tower. You choose three characters out of nine, each with their own deck of 40 cards. And setting deck size means no deck thinning! Woo! What attracted me was the combination of cards, epic 3D monsters, and cyborgs swinging arms and weapons on the other side of the board. There’s a demo coming out spring 23, and I’ll definitely play it.
Developers: Robot Cat Co., Ltd
Release date: winter 2023
Extreme Evolution: Drive to God
Always complete on a foundation of non-linear illusions that exist, that’s what my grandmother taught me. No one refuses sage advice, here it is Extreme Evolution: Drive to God by Sam Atlas, creator of the 2022 IGF Nuovo nomination, Space Hole 2020. extreme evolution looks spectacular, as if David Lynch did Mower, and I think I’ll dream about this short trailer for the rest of my life. Oh my god that spider virus.
Developers: Sam Atlas
Release date: 2023
