Interesting games on itch.io: May 17

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!

Petit Voyage

Greensong was developed for the NYU Game Center Major Studio class, so it’s a student project, and you’ve got to say based on what this game looks like it’ll offer, these students have a bright future in the industry ahead for them. You can download this one for free, but be sure to leave the students constructive feedback and messages of support – itch.io is a massive learning opportunity for these people.

I haven’t played a good grognard game in many years now. I’m a big fan of them, having been so since Harpoon from way back in 1989. Hex of Steel really impresses me, as it’s a game that a 21-year-old has developed as their very first commercial project, despite a failed Kickstarter and having very little money to actually work on it with. That takes some real guts to get out there like that, and this game really does look like it has delivered the old Matrix Software-style tile-based wargame experience.

Last up this week, we have a story-driven cyberpunk game that has some really impressive aesthetics and vision. NeuroNet casts you in the role of an AI whose job is to monitor and manage a city-wide AR network – the NeuroNet. In doing so you’re going to apparently “learn what it means to be a human in a world that is losing itself to technology,” which is a theme I reckon we’re all going through here in the real world, whether we’re aware of it or not. 

The game itself seems to crib ideas from titles like Reigns; you need to make a series of decisions that will affect the balance of the city across a number of vectors, with your ultimate goal being to make tough moral choices that will ultimately keep everything in balance. Mechanically that’s quite difficult to achieve, but with 23 different, fully-voiced characters, six hours of gameplay, and massive presentation values, this does seem like a game that is full and ambitious in scope.