I never did make that post about what I saw at VCF (Vintage Computing Festival) Midwest, even though I still have all my photos. Some time soon!
In VCF Southeast a few weeks ago though, there were a number of hopeful indie developers who had their products on display, and were nice enough to show them off and let people play them, and I figure it would be a shame if I forgot to give them a post here. So here are a few things you might want to check out. Many of these games have been unfairly overlooked by the machine hearts of the internet’s various algorithms, may they rapidly rust into ruin, so please give them a few minutes of your time, and just maybe buy some or all of them.
Polyroll (Steam, Switch) from Spicy Gyro games is a Sonic-style platformer with great level design! It’s currently 70% off, selling for a scant $1.79 on Steam. It’s also on sale on Switch for $2.
Venison County (Steam preview, demo) is an upcoming game from Cutter Oyster, a retro-styled FPS survival game. The game is played in a sequence of waves. The door to the cabin that ends a wave only opens once you’ve defeated the zombie enemies. You can pick up sigils that give you special powers, but each rune also increases the number and ferocity of enemy attacks. Between waves you can choose to discard your sigils, losing the powers but reducing the difficulty. You can also buy weapons and ammo between waves. Of special note, reloading is a little minigame, pressing a button while a bar is in a certain range, that you must manage while running from the zombies. It’s due out in full late 2027.
Attack of the PETSCII Robots (sale page) wasn’t among the indie games, but I think it counts as one! It’s been for sale for a few years now.
Casey’s Gold (sale page) from Audacity Games is a terrific Atari 2600 game made in the Activision style, sold on cartridge by classic dev Dan Kitchen, brother of Garry Kitchen. I played through a few levels of this and it’s quite a bit deeper than you’d expect from a 2600 game, with secrets hiding in unexpected places. It rewards players willing to experiment, and with good observational skills.
IsoMetro (itch.io, Steam $20) from Grimesoft is a grid-based city building game that will put many people to mind of the classic SimCity 2000. Electronic Arts bought out originating studio Maxis long ago and seems only to care about their properties so long as they’re about individual Sims instead of a whole city of them. IsoMetro certainly looks terrific, although I didn’t get a chance to play on the floor.
Business 98
Hoverdrive (Steam preview) is about piloting car through weird neon landscapes with changeable gravity, pulling off impossible stunts as you go. It’s not out yet, but it looks very cool!
Ad Blocker (Steam $6) is a player-vs-player action-puzzle game that feels a bit like Puzznic. Snogbert (Steam early access $8, free demo) is a platformer with randomized elements. Both are from Justin T. Alexander. I just have photos of the banners here unfortunately.
Nature’s Bidding (itch.io prototype, Steam preview) is a multiplayer battle platformer where you customize your character as you go with good and bad elements. The title comes from a phase before each fight where the players bid money to avoid taking on curses. You lose the money you bid regardless if whether you win or lose; the player with the lowest bid gets the curse. Once cursed, the curse sticks with you throughout the rest of the game, so you can get piled under a whole host of bad effects. And yet you still want to save money after the bidding phase to buy powerups to improve your character. It’s unforgiving, but fun to battle it out with your friends. The fighting feels like some of the minigames in Mario Party.
Business 98 (Steam $5, with a free demo) from Five Foot Games is a “cashier simulator” with an old school Windows look, with elements of roguelike deckbuilders.
Inky in the Alien Aquarium (itch.io, $12) from Pocket Pulp is written for the Gameboy Advance. It’s a challenging block-pushing game where you have to learn the rules as you go, in the spirit of The Witness.
Asta Pool (website, Steam $15) from Cheesy Face Productions has turn-based modes that work like traditional pool, but also real-time levels where you influence the pool balls more directly. It boasts over 40 modes!
Keepsake Country (Steam preview) is billed as “A Midwestern Stealth Game,” and is still in development.
A few more:
Mouseward (Steam preview with demo, itch.io preview) is a “soulslike collectathon” with non-linear levels, hidden passages and cryptic clues.
Godless Avalon (Steam demo, itch.io demo) is a J-styled sci-fi fantasy/comedy RPG with guns.
Aethelria Cross-Dimensions (Steam preview) is an upcoming sci-fi fantasy arena shooter (that is, an FPS)
And Crypt Sweeper (itch.io name your price), from Pocket Pulp who made the above Inky in the Alien Aquarium, is a real standout, a Gameboy Advance remake of the popular DragonSweeper with some new quirks. It was playable at the show but I got so into playing it that I forgot to take pictures!
There we go, that’s everything I managed to take notes on. My apologizes to anyone I’ve left out. Thanks for coming to VCFSE and showing off your work, and I hope this drives a few eyes your way!
I took more pictures than just these, I’ll make another post later with some of the other great exhibits on display and games that were playable at the show.
