Every new Wholesome Direct results in my game wishlist overflowing with cute and cozy games. Hovering around the top slots from the showcase’s 2024 edition is Squeakross: Home Squeak Home. (It helps that I love pet rats, having had two pairs in the past: Cow, Pig, Leigh, and Zoe.) The puzzle-solving and home-decorating game is about you, a little mouse,…
Tetris Forever is, in one sense, not really a collection of games for Tetris fans. The game library includes multiple different versions of Tetris, which is more like a Tetris spin-off than actual Tetris. There are also three different versions of Hatris, which is categorically not Tetris at all. There’s…
When Type-NOISE: Shonen Shojo was announced at Indie Live Expo 2024, it…
Solo developer Andre Gareis and publisher Dear Villagers have partnered together to…
Every new Wholesome Direct results in my game wishlist overflowing with cute and cozy games. Hovering around the top slots from the showcase’s 2024 edition is Squeakross: Home Squeak Home. (It helps that I love pet rats, having had two pairs in the past: Cow, Pig, Leigh, and Zoe.) The…
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Tetris Forever is, in one sense, not really a collection of games for Tetris fans. The game library includes multiple different versions of Tetris, which is more like a Tetris spin-off than actual Tetris. There are also three different versions of Hatris, which is categorically not Tetris at all. There’s…
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When Type-NOISE: Shonen Shojo was announced at Indie Live Expo 2024, it was one among many titles that caught my eye. Unfortunately, the news didn’t make it into my catch-up about the event, but I want to rectify that! Today, a demo for the mind-bending graphic novel adventure RPG about…
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Solo developer Andre Gareis and publisher Dear Villagers have partnered together to launch narrative, non-linear detective game Mindcop. Set to launch later this year for PC, PlayStation, and Nintendo Switch, Mindcop puts you in the shoes of the titular detective, trying to determine which of a camp’s inhabitants is a…
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I don’t think I’ve played a lot of games developed in Indonesia, but the ones that I have remain with me: Coffee Talk, its sequel, and A Space for the Unbound are great examples. While more horror than cozy, Let Me Out can teach its players about Indonesian mythology. Fascinating!…
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After Untitled Goose Game, I’ll check out any game about a bird doing pesky things to local hoomans. Because of this, Just Crow Things makes perfect sense to me. How could you not want to play a game with something called poop modes?! This punny sandbox adventure has you playing…
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What if you were playing a JRPG where the combat system was actually a puzzle? That’s the best way to think of Thistlemine. On the surface, it looks like a simple indie JRPG, but you’ll realise that there’s something different about this one by the time you’ve run into your…
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Full disclosure: I have no semblance of a green thumb. Sometimes it feels like I can just look at plants and kill them. I think that’s why I have come to appreciate games with/about gardening in any capacity: I use video games as an escape, and escaping to something you…
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I’m obsessed with Botany Manor and it hasn’t even launched yet. What I’ve seen of the first-person botanical puzzle game set in a historically accurate 19th-century Somerset manor is soothing yet also tickles my mind a little bit. It is the debut game of Balloon Studios and published by Whitethorn…
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With shooters, you would expect bullets to be constantly flying. But Children of the Sun turns this concept on its head: the player can only fire a single bullet per level. One! I really love this idea. The game is a visually-striking psychedelic revenge road trip with a blend of…
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