The Flipside of Gaming
This is the recording of our Debut Devs Showcase stream, focusing on first-time indie devs and student projects. If you want to sign up for a future stream, here are the rules and sign-up page
00:00 Intro and The Last Empire
28:44 Basket Bots
50:27 Climb out of Hell
1:25:20 King Static
Owner of Game Wisdom with more than a decade of experience writing and talking about game design and the industry. I’m also the author of the “Game Design Deep Dive” series and “20 Essential Games to Study”
We love it when we find weird and unique indie games to tell you all about! Our alien friends to the left herald these occasions.
Neal.Fun makes lots of great games and game–adjacent amusements. Every one is a winner, and Cursor Camp is just the latest of the lot.
When you load the page it’ll inform you that the page wants to take over your cursor. Let it, but remember that you’ll have to press Esc(ape) to get it back. It needs it so it can let it to fun things, like slide down slides, float down rivers or ride carousels!
There’s quite a lot of fun things for your summering cursor to do! There’s movies and Popeye cartoons in the camp theater to watch, there’s a cat to pet, there’s chairs to sit it, seashells to collect, hats to wear, chandeliers to knock about, and much more! And you can do them all with a horde of other pointers from around the world who are exploring too, each with a little flag to indicate which country they’re in.
Low-powered machines like my Pi 500+ may struggle with all the 2D effects going on, but other than that the only thing wrong with it that it doesn’t remember anything about your session when you close it. So if you want to have a go at collecting all nine achievements (noted in a book in the cabin lobby), you’ll have to do it in one sitting. Fortunately they’re not difficult to earn, and even easier to re-earn.
There’s even what seems to be a backstory to the camp, which you can uncover by reading the book in the treehouse, playing with the radio there, and maybe also interpreting the drawings on the wall of the cave. Are they just quirky easter eggs, or is there some meaning to them? I don’t know; maybe you can figure it out.
Cursor Camp (web, $0)
There’s a good chance, even if you’ve been nursing as heavy a Balatro addiction as I have, that you not even know that there’s a cutthroat competitive Balatro tournament that’s been running for three seasons, or even competitive Balatro at all.
Balatro Multiplayer (homepage, GitHub), a.k.a. “Balaatro,” is a mod for base Balatro that adds a robust versus-play component to the base game. While the stake and deck may (or may not, it’s heavily configurable) be selectable between the participants, each player plays with the same random seed, and will find the same shops, the same tags, the same deals (presuming their decks have yet to be modded) and so on.
The mod has a few extra Jokers that add additional nuances to the game when played against a human opponent, but in Major League Balatro they try to keep the settings as close to standard Balatro as possible. The basic idea is that all but the first of the boss blinds are replaced by Balatro deathmatches against an opponent. Each plays their own round simultaneously, receiving updates on the score progress of the other player’s round. At its end, the player with the least chips in the Blind loses one of four lives. You also lose lives if you fail to make the normal escalating score challenges of the Small and Large Blinds each Ante.
Even if you lose, you still get the money and other rewards from playing the Blind as if you won. One potential strategy is to not make a strong effort on early Boss Blinds, saving consumable resources (especially Glass Cards) for later bosses, but Balatro being Balatro and focused as it is on super powerful exponentially-growing strategies, it’s easy once you start losing to keep losing.
The third season of Major League Balatro has just wrapped up in a battle between Dr. Spectred of Balatro University, possibly the strongest Balatro player in the world who’s pulled off tricks like earning the rarest achievement, Completionist++, from scratch without losing a game, and Bean, a very strong player themself.
If you’d like to follow Major League Balatro, either in the future or to watch prior seasons, you can do it on their Youtube channel. Or you could just watch the finals with commentary, although beware: it’s 5 hours and 50 minutes long! Maybe you might turn up the playback speed, or skip around, or to the end.
Everyone in the Balatro community is waiting for news of a major update to the game, teased by its creator Localthunk, that is promised to add lots of new Jokers, but in the meantime there’s certainly lots of other things going on there, from competitive play to lots of insane mods.
We love it when we find weird and unique indie games to tell you all about! Our alien friends to the left herald these occasions.
NANDgame is one of those puzzle games that’s really an educational game in disguise. By hooking up wires and relays, then logic gates, then larger pieces of basic computing hardware, you construct a basic processor from first principles, step by excruciating step.
Of course, the difference between a puzzle game and an educational game is only if the skill the puzzle requests you to learn has some objective use in our physical world. Tetris masters are robbed by the rest of the human race that their unique skill can’t be used to write software or design cars or something, for the kind of effort involved in getting good at all these things is exactly the same. This puzzle, at least, can get you on the road to designing low-level computing hardware, or at least started on that road.
Now that’s out of the way, I’m not completely happy with this introduction to computing architecture. It is true that you can start with NAND gates and, from them, derive all the other logic gates, and from there the rest of computing in its entirety, and this game has you do essentially that.
But NANDs are not the simplest gate to understand. Even their name comes from combining two other gates that you’re not introduced to first. And forcing the player to invent one out of relays, which you are actually required to do here, is a difficult first step. If you aren’t already well-versed in the kind of thinking this involves I’d suggest making use of the hints for each level, because the game gives you no other aid. It is a real trial by fire, and without prior exposure you’ll be staring at the relays for a while wondering not just what you’re supposed to do with them, but why.
But if you can power through them all, again using hints, it is really rewarding to know that, if you had the parts, you could construct a simple processor from first principles. It is difficult, but this is a good introduction. I’d treat it as kind of a test, and that the actual game is learning what you’re supposed to do to win by looking it up from other sources, including the help system. That’s to say, it’s all bosses, with the skills learned to defeat them coming from what amounts to GameFAQs.
NANDgame (web)
This is a review of Freeride played with a press key provided by the developer.
Owner of Game Wisdom with more than a decade of experience writing and talking about game design and the industry. I’m also the author of the “Game Design Deep Dive” series and “20 Essential Games to Study”
I’ve said it more than once: what’s the use in having a blog if you don’t use it to tell people the things you like?
Here’s what I’ve been enjoying lately on my Switch 2. These are store links, but we get no affiliate or advertising dollars from them, they’re provided just out of convenience.
Cruise Elroy’s great retro-styled action platformer Annalynn (Switch, Steam, itch.io)
Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream (Switch), a social sim abounding in quirkiness
UFO 50, for many things but especially for the addictive Party House (homepage, Switch, Steam)
Caves of Qud, the terrific true roguelike, filled with equal parts, with atmosphere almost as great as its challenge, but also two accessible easy modes (homepage, Steam, GoG, itch.io)
Chibi-Robo, the sleeper hit for Gamecube where you help a tiny housekeeping robot save a fractured family and also discover the secret of the house’s living toys (Nintendo Gamecube Classics)
Kirby Air Riders, Masahiro Sakurai’s remake of the Gamecube cult classic, with even deeper gameplay, robust online multiplayer and so much fun that it oozes out of the system’s USB-C ports (Switch 2)
Dragon Quest I+II HD-2D Remake, not just a conversion but a redesign, not always for the better but still great (Square-Enix page, Switch)
Blippo+, Yacht and Panic’s sci-fi tale of interplanetary communication told through the medium of an exacting recreation of 90s satellite television (homepage, Switch, Steam, Playdate; currently on sale for Switch and on Steam)
For this episode of the perceptive podcast, I spoke with Jake Houston who is a solo developer working on his rhythmic RPG Game Over. We spoke about working on the game, RPG design and more.
Owner of Game Wisdom with more than a decade of experience writing and talking about game design and the industry. I’m also the author of the “Game Design Deep Dive” series and “20 Essential Games to Study”
We love it when we find weird and unique indie games to tell you all about! Our alien friends to the left herald these occasions.
Some time back, I don’t remember how long, I made a Metafilter post about Nickireda’s weird and fun mixup game Return to Castle Monkey Ball, free on itch.io.
In a place like Metafilter, it’s not always obvious what will work and what won’t. Presentation matters for a whole lot, and there is also a random aspect to it. While no one said anything negative about it, I remember it being one of the least favorited-posts I’d ever made on the site. (Favorites are one measure I use to see if people liked a post or not. Sometimes comments just don’t tell the whole story.)
It’s a shame because the game is a perfect mixture. Not as punishing as either original game, its levels are procedural generated so a lot of rolling on your feet is required. You get a time bonus for defeating a guard. While you don’t have a weapon, you do just enough damage at full tilt to take one out in a single hit, and it feels great to do it.
There’s only eight levels (at least in the first “episode”) so it doesn’t take long to get through either. In the first version they kept Wolfenstein 3D’s graphics unchanged, meaning unfortunate reminders of Bad Person and his Stupid Symbol. Those have been removed since, which makes it less accurate to Wolf3D but also less saddening to play.
I was reminded of EFCMB by Vinesauce having recently streamed it. (13½ minutes) I don’t often return to a Gamefinds game, but given that I had made an attempt at telling people about it before I feel a slight bit of ownership here, and my previous attempts at spreading the word slightly predated Set Side B, so please go enjoy if you think you’d like it. It really is brilliant, and it runs in a web browser, even on my Raspberry Pi 5.
Escape From Castle Monkey Ball (by Nickireda on itch.io, $0)
Get Info made a substantial post on a couple of significant pieces of Japanese gaming ephemera, a four hour long program that aired overnight on March 14, 1987 that was basically 100 segments on a variety of games (and other things really), and a book that was released later that was an encyclopedia of gaming from around that time. A lot of it is as inexplicabe as Japanese media can be to non-Japanese speakers, but it’s very interesting as a gaming time capsule from the era. Clips are presented not just from Japanese properties but also games from around the world.
Nearly the whole program (with minor edits for copyright) is on Youtube (4 hours), with a table of contents with links in its description. Although, unless you have an insatiable hunger for random gaming clips, you’ll probably want to go through the TOC.
This post is mostly intended to point you to Get Info’s much more substantive piece, but here are links to a few of the more recognizable clips these days: Ballblazer, Space Invaders, Out Run, Flight Simulator, Super Mario Bros., Eliza, Zanac, Little Computer People, Fantasy Zone, Karateka, Pinball Construction Set, Marble Madness, Rescue on Fractalus, Wizardry and Galaxian. All 100 clips are also on Youtube separated out into individual videos (and with better image quality overall).
The book that followed contains Denshi Yuugi Taizen : TV Games,” presents 40 interviews with a who’s-who of game creation at the time, including Nolan Bushnell, Ed Logg, Steve Cartwright, Fukio “MTJ” Mitsuji, Trip Hawkins, Freefall Associates, Timothy Leary, Shigeru Miyamoto, Yuji Horii, Toru Iwatani, Sir-Tech, Shigesato Itoi and many more. A full scan of the book is on the Internet Archive.
We love it when we find weird and unique indie games to tell you all about! Our alien friends to the left herald these occasions.
Another one, so soon! I feel like I should post these as I find out about them, or else they’ll fade in memory, and in importance. I want to get them out to you immediately, while the bytes are hot.
Yet also, with this one, I sort of want you to discover what it’s about, the promise of that title, Trees Hate You, for yourself. That’s not how these descriptions work though. If I just say “play it, trust me,” some of you will, but most won’t, which will be something of a shame for this very silly game.
Basically, you’re trying to find your way home after a picnic, but for some reason (littering maybe?), the trees on the way back have decided to stop you. The ways in which they display their vegetative ire are the humor of the game. The ways you must discover to evade it are the game of the humor.
This is just a free demo, a preview of what developer tykenn hopes will be a longer game. I’m not sure how long they can sustain the joke honestly, but at least the demo is entertaining, if you can handle a bit of frustration. I look forward to seeing if they can sustain the premise.
Trees Hate You (itch.io demo by tykenn, $0)
We love it when we find weird and unique indie games to tell you all about! Our alien friends to the left herald these occasions.
One of the best puzzle games out there is Noumenon Games’ colorful, fun, and challenging Snakebird, its easier sequel Snakebird Primer, and their combined version on Switch Snakebird Complete.
But even Snakebird Complete costs $15. What if you just want to dip your toe in and find out why the snakebirds are the snakeword(s)?
Created by a Pico-8 dev called Werxzy, they’ve made a “demake” of Snakebird that is essentially just the original but with different levels and pixel graphics, which can even be tried out on the web. And if you’re already a certified serpent-falconeer, it even has some new tricks for you to learn.
You control up to four colorful adorable snakebirds, who you can switch between freely. Their mission is to consume all of the fruit on each level, and then escape to the next island. They all move, one turn at a time, like the snake in Snake, but in a side-view, gravity-burdened world with unexpected implications.
It’s a good idea to spend some time at the start getting used to how the SBs operate. Despite being nominal birds they cannot fly. It’s easy to get a longer one trapped against a wall, but you’re allowed infinite undo levels, and you’ll need all of them.
A snakebird that eats a piece of fruit grows one space longer. In multibird levels it doesn’t matter to completion which feathery slitherer eachs which fruit, but sometimes the design of a level means a specific bird will ultimately need to be a certain length.
To complete a level, not only must all the fruit be eaten, but all birds must make it to the goal portal. This will often be the hardest part of the puzzle. The ease with which one birdbrain can get stranded unless their snavian colleagues help them to the exit will confound you, but they should be applauded for not leaving anyone behind. (They can’t applaud themselves—no hands.)
There’s even a level editor for making puzzles to challenge your friends, or maybe even yourself if you’re really forgetful. Progress is saved between sessions on the same browser. And it’s a good thing, for the game lives up to the original’s reputation for difficulty.
So please, give these fluffy beakworms a place in your heart. I’m told that as parasites they’re completely benign!
Snekburd (from Werxzy on itch.io, $0, based on Noumenon Games’ Snakebird series)
We love it when we find weird and unique indie games to tell you all about! Our alien friends to the left herald these occasions.
There are tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of quirky little games and things on itch.io. Lots of them are worthless, some are mere cash-ins, and a few are really nice, but good luck finding them with the towering piles of meh blocking view of the horizon, or indeed anything else.
So it’s nice when you find something through the browse feature that’s a joy to play, and such a game is Emlise’s Conservation of Bass. At first glance it looks like it’s going to be another game of the type that bitsy makes it easy to construct. Nothing against bitsy or its games, but most of them are pretty simple, leaning more into the fun of exploring a little world than offering challenging gameplay.
But as it turns out Conservation of Bass only looks like it’ll be an exercise in pure exploration. It’s actually a completely linear platform-puzzler, and it requires a surprising amount of skill to get far into it. Your walking fish protagonist can only jump one space high, and can’t move very quickly, so sharp jukes in the air won’t save you. As is the custom for these kinds of puzzle games now there’s no penalty for failure, it immediately resets the puzzle for another try.
The fish’s special trick is, it can swap spaces with blocks exactly two spaces away from it with the X button, if they’re the same size as it. It can do this in all for cardinal directions, by pressing that arrow key. These are the same keys that move the fish, and allow it to jump, and it can even do this in mid-air. That’s where the control skill comes in, even if you have a solid plan for how to solve the puzzle, putting it into effect may take you a few tries, as the timing window for swapping a falling fish with a block over safe ground is pretty demanding.
Helping out is a special property of that X button that’s unveiled to you a short way in: holding it down freezes time, and lets you then use the arrow keys to decide which direction you want to swap in at a bit without needing split-second accuracy, so long as you pressed X with that same accuracy to begin with.
This is another of those games where you’re introduced to its elements slowly, which is great because the puzzles get hard fast. I got to the early levels of Chapter 3 before my pending deadline forced me to set it aside and write it up. See if you can get beyond that.
Conservation of Bass (itch.io, $0, playable on the web with optional download)
