Interesting games on itch.io: November 9

I’m a big fan of itch.io for the freedom and open platform that it allows for developers to be creative, experimental, and directly canvas the audience for feedback for games that are not yet ready for primetime on Steam and its ilk. In addition, itch.io allows you to be transgressive, subversive, and downright dangerous. It’s a true “art gallery” for game ideas and creative developers, and it should be celebrated for that.

What makes itch.io a little difficult at times is finding things that are interesting to play. Discovery is a real issue when great ideas are buried among high school projects and nasty little efforts to scam a quick buck from players. With that in mind, I thought what might be helpful to readers would be if I did a brief write-up of interesting games that I’ve come across on itch.io each week. In many cases these games will be unfinished or “in development,” but I’m highlighting them because they promise something special and are well worth keeping on the radar.

Note: I also haven’t played these games. I highlight them as interesting based on the itch.io description and concept. Where I find the time to do actual reviews or other coverage, I will compose separate articles on the game in question. These aren’t so much an endorsement (or piece of criticism) as they are a head’s up.

Naturally, if you want to pick up a couple of the Dee Dee visual novels while you’re there on itch.io to support our work here, I would be eternally grateful! There’s a new one that recently came out, Sade!

Indiepocalypse #22

Vegetables Deluxe is a match-3 puzzler in the vein of Zoo Keeper, only replacing the cute animals with vegetables. Included in the game are four different ways to play – Casual Mode, Classic, Shopping and Countdown, and each of those adds its own spin to the same basic formula. Don’t expect too much innovation from this one, but with the vegetables all being appropriately different shapes and colours, and the full feature suite on offer, I would expect that this is a highly playable take on the genre, and great for hardcore retro fans.

I’m not 100 per cent sure I understand the story here behind Twin Love R, but I think it goes like this: Twin Love was a doujin visual novel that was released in Japanese only, back in 2006. It was offered as a free download, but the Website that hosted it is no longer there. So this guy who apparently loved the game decided to translate it into English and release it on itch.io. There’s no indication that he had permission from the Japanese artist to do so, but then he’s not making money from it and one imagines that the original creator probably doesn’t mind. 

It does seem like a nice little game, though! It follows the story of a high school boy who meets and befriends identical twins that have moved into his school. Though they look the same, the two girls are entirely different in every other way, and over the course of two in-game weeks you’ll become friends (and perhaps something more) with them. With seven different endings and some lovely art, this looks like it might be a bit of a hidden gem to discover.

This game looks incredibly interesting, and most amazingly of all, it’s a student project! In this strategy game, you play as a necromancer-type, who is trying to resist the encroachment of the conquistadors, by raising an army of ghouls from the dead. You’ll start out by assassinating individual soldiers, before raising them as the undead to fuel a growing war machine that will eventually let you tackle the very stronghold of the colonial invaders. 

  

Also, I know I’ve said this before, but how awesome is itch.io for letting students get their projects on an actual platform?  What a great boost for the resume.