This is a showcase of my favorite demos from the dreamhack beyond and gamescom online showcases.

0:00 Intro
00:21 Mechinus
1:25 Stellar watch
2:55 Prison City
5:07 The Fall of Aether Station
7:00 Odinfall
8:27 Aestik
9:54 Towerful Defense
11:16 Core Devourer
12:34 Destroy the Monoliths
14:30 Astrobit
15:48 I Need Space
17:53 Somnipathy
20:35 Complex Sky
23:09 Gift
24:31 Constance
26:33 Footgun Underground
27:53 Need for Cheese
29:25 Light of Atlantis
30:30 Turbo Shell
32:02 Soulslinger Envoy of Death
34:21 Bobls
35:47 Savant Ascent Remix
37:47 Selini
39:11 Spellcats Autocard Tactics
40:49 Terror at Oakheart
42:09 Kind Nature
44:38 Parry Nightmare
46:00 Afterdream
47:31 The Edge of Allegoria
48:50 Drova Forsaken Sin

Josh Bycer

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”

game-wisdom.com/

The indie showcases highlight the many indie games we play here on the channel. All games shown are either press key submissions or demos.

0:00 Intro
00:14 Tater Spud
1:50 Zor: Pilgrimage of the Slorfs
5:09 Recursive Ruin
7:31 Backpack Hero
9:58 Incision
11:55 Elementallis

Josh Bycer

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”

game-wisdom.com/

The weekly indie game showcases highlight all the indie games we play here on the channel. Games shown were either demos or press key submissions.

0:00 Intro
00:14 Classic Sport Driving
1:36 Voltage High Society
3:35 Blastronaut
5:59 Garlic
8:16 Spellbook Demonslayers
10:53 Mech Shuffle

Josh Bycer

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”

game-wisdom.com/

• 0:00 Intro (Steam)
• 00:19 Empires Shall Fall (Steam)
• 2:15 Iron Marines Invasion (Steam)
• 4:18 Gaiatrek (Steam)
• 6:34 Acolyte of the Altar (Steam)
• 8:40 Distant Bloom (Steam)

Editor’s Note: Our presentation of Josh Bycer’s NextFest finds continues. Tomorrow will be the last in this sequence, I think.

Josh Bycer

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”

game-wisdom.com/

More games from Next fest 2023 worth checking out.

• 0:00 Intro
• 00:20 Phoenix Springs (Steam)
• 2:24 Axon TD: Uprising (Steam)
• 5:14 Froggy’s Battle (Steam)
• 6:24 Spellrain (Steam)
• 7:57 Bulwark: Falconeer Chronicles (Steam)
• 10:20 Lapsus (Steam)
• 11:25 Lords of Exile (Steam)

Josh Bycer

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”

game-wisdom.com/

A video review of Tiny Thor played with a press key provided by the developer.

• Store Page

Josh Bycer

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”

game-wisdom.com/

This is a double indie game review of Decarnation and Nocturnal, both played with press keys provided by the developer.

0:00 Intro
00:14 Decarnation
4:05 Nocturnal

Josh Bycer

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”

game-wisdom.com/

For this perceptive podcast I spoke with the designer of Horace: Paul Helman. We talked about how the development of the game went and the challenges of fine-tuning the various elements of it.

• Buy the game on steam
• Follow the Developer on Twitter 

Josh Bycer

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”

game-wisdom.com/

A double indie game review featuring OTXO (played with a press key) and Cassette Beasts (played with a retail key)

• 0:00 Intro
• 00:20 OTXO
• 4:50 Cassette Beasts

Josh Bycer

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”

game-wisdom.com/

This is a double review of Meatgrinder and Anglerfish played with a press key and retail key respectively.

• 0:00 Intro
• 00:16 Meatgrinder
• 2:55 Anglerfish  

Josh Bycer

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”

game-wisdom.com/

This is an indie showcase covering the demos I check out during the Latin American Games Showcase for 2023.

0:00 Intro
00:29 Super Crane Bug
1:56 Uniduni
3:07 Tiny Witch
4:21 The Bunny Graveyard
5:45 Super Hiking League DX
7:33 God Machine
8:44 Hannah

Josh Bycer

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”

game-wisdom.com/

This is a double review of Lunistice and A Space for the Unbound. Lunistice was played with a retail key, and Space was played with a press key provided by the developer.

• Lunistice
• A Space For the Unbound

Josh Bycer

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”

game-wisdom.com/

This is a spotlight of my favorite games played during Base Builder Fest 2023, all games shown are either demos or EA builds.

• 0:00 Intro
• 00:28 Steamworld Build
• 3:12 Lumencraft
• 4:53 Aloft
• 6:47 Astro Colony
• 9:43 DeadCraft
• 11:38 New Cycle
• 13:16 Songs of Syx
• 14:47 Darfall 

Josh Bycer

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”

game-wisdom.com/

A game I played while doing IGF judging, this was a visual novel choose your own adventure mixed with some deck building. You play a child heading to humanity’s first colony, over the course of 10 years, you’re going to see a lot, experience a lot, and have a role to play in who lives or dies. There is a lot of variance going on here in terms of what endings and routes you can go down. Every life experience you get will earn you cards, and your deck is literally made up of all the good and bad things that shape your life.

While not for everyone, if you’re a fan of visual novel/RPG games, this is a must play for you.

2: Last Command

What happens when bullet hell and snake team up? We get Last Command. This game has you exploring the digital space in the future where there are no more humans left to figure out what is causing malfunctions. All combat is based on you controlling a snake that has to gather data in order to use it against enemies. Meanwhile, enemies attack you with a variety of bullets and patterns that would be right at home in a bullet hell shmup.

This is not an easy game to play, and I ran into some issues with some of the advanced challenges. This is a great game if you’re looking for something different and challenging.

1: The Case of the Golden Idol

After Return of the Obra Dinn I was hoping we would see more investigation-styled games, and The Case of the Golden Idol fits that category with multiple challenges to your critical thinking skills. Each vignette involves the golden idol and a murder, and it’s up to you piece together how it all happened by examining the scene and putting the clues together one dialogue box at a time.

While the game starts off easy enough, soon it grows to multiple screens of people and situations to parse thru and the complexity of the cases grows fast. This is the perfect game for someone wanting to flex their critical thinking skills and I hope between it and Obra Dinn we start seeing more of this style.

Josh Bycer

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”

game-wisdom.com/

This is a double review of Neverawake and Lucy Dreaming played with press keys for both on PC.

Josh Bycer

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”

game-wisdom.com/

The weekly indie showcase spotlights the many indie games we play here on the channel. If you would like to submit a game for a future stream and video, please reach out.

• 0:00 Pogo Champ
• 2:10 Grapple Dog
• 4:16 Peppy’s Adventure
• 6:25 Elven Warmaiden
• 10:00 Strange Horticulture
• 11:56 Deflector 

Josh Bycer

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”

game-wisdom.com/

An interview with Jordon Morris who designed the metroidvania Haiku the Robot for a chat about the game and metroidvania design. We spoke about the creation of Haiku, how the environments were designed and balanced, and more about making a metroidvania.

• Buy the game on Steam
• Follow him on Twitter
•  My full run of the game

Josh Bycer

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”

game-wisdom.com/

For this Perceptive Podcast, I spoke with one of the designers about the mobile game Dizzy Dwarves about starting their first major game development, working on mobile in today’s market, and more.

• The game on Google Play and the App store
• Follow them on Twitter

Josh Bycer

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”

game-wisdom.com/

For this perceptive podcast, I spoke with Erik Andersen about his upcoming game So to Speak. We discussed designing a game about learning Japanese and still providing entertainment as well as education.

• Follow the game on Twitter
• Find it on Steam

Josh Bycer

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”

game-wisdom.com/

For this perceptive podcast, I spoke with Brian Cronin to catch up and talk about his next project: Business Challenges at the End of the World and using an AI to generate the art for the game.

Play it on Itch

Josh Bycer

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”

game-wisdom.com/

For this episode we reviewed the store page for the game Dracula’s Castle, if you would like us to look at your page in a future episode, please reach out.

Store Page 

Josh Bycer

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”

game-wisdom.com/

Our indie showcases highlight the many dev-submitted games and demos we play here on the channel. Please get in touch if you would like to submit a game.

• 0:00 Monster Harvest
• 2:47 Recompile 
• 4:40 The Night is Grey
• 6:56 Space Tow Truck 
• 8:42 Fire Tonight
• 10:16 Arboria 

Josh Bycer

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”

game-wisdom.com/

Each indie showcase highlights the demos and developer submitted games we play here, if you would like to submit a game for a future piece please reach out.

• 0:00 Sanabi
• 1:51 Outcore
• 3:14 Bada Space Station
• 5:07 Hourglass
• 6:29 Detained: Too Cool For School
• 8:03 Cleo a Pirate’s Tale

Josh Bycer

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”

game-wisdom.com/

The Indie game showcases highlight the many developer-submitted games and game demos we play here on the channel. If you would like to submit a game for a future stream please get in touch.

• 0:00 Road 96
• 1:32 Maritime Calling
• 3:35 Kulebra and the Souls of Limbo
• 6:12 Spookware
• 8:14 Super Catboy
• 9:25 Berserk Boy

Josh Bycer

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”

game-wisdom.com/

For this indie dev showcase, I went with some of my favorite boomer, and not so boomer, shooters that I’ve played lately.

• 0:00 Cultic
• 1:42 Project Downfall
• 3:14 Hrot
• 5:04 Arkos
• 6:41 Dread Templar
• 9:14 Fallen Aces

Josh Bycer

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”

game-wisdom.com/

The indie showcases highlight the developer submitted games and demos I play for Game-Wisdom. Please reach out if you would like me to play your game.

• 0:00 8 Bit Adventures 2
• 1:30 B.ark
• 3:09 Omno
• 5:53 Poker Quest
• 8:24 Clown in a House
• 9:59 Vesper

Josh Bycer

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”

game-wisdom.com/

The latest indie dev showcase, where I play developer submitted games and demos over on game-wisdom. If you would like to submit a game for a future piece, please get in touch.

• 0:00 The Oddinary Highway
• 1:54 Gori Cuddly Carnage
• 3:37 The Vale Shadow of the Crown
• 5:29 Skeleton Crew
• 7:06 Aethernaut
• 8:40 Sad RPG

Josh Bycer

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”

game-wisdom.com/

For this interview, I spoke with Christian and Stefan of Studio Centurion to discuss their game Line War, and how they’re trying to build a new kind of RTS game that focuses on strategy as opposed to micro. We spoke about how the game came about, thoughts on RTS gameplay, and more.

• Twitter
• The game on steam

Josh Bycer

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”

game-wisdom.com/

The indie showcases highlight the many dev-submitted games and demos play on Game-Wisdom. If you would like to submit a game for a future piece please reach out.

• 0:00 Advent Neon
• 1:41 A Tale of Paper
• 3:21 Knight of Exile
• 5:20 Pale Night
• 7:07 Sail Forth
• 8:42 Jupiter Moons Mecha

Josh Bycer

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”

game-wisdom.com/

With all the indie games I play these days, I tend to have to double up with my showcase videos I edit this week. This means more indie games for you to check out.

• 0:00 Chernobylite
• 3:18 Cristales
• 6:20 Death’s Door
• 8:36 Triversal
• 10:02 You Suck at Parking
• 11:28 Lazr

Josh Bycer

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”

game-wisdom.com/