Of course, by now Indie-Penance Day has become such an institution in the games industry since its inception this morning, that people are starting to get nostalgic about the whole thing. To meet that need, here are ten indie games you likely havenât seen before that evoke eras of gaming past.
OmegaBot gives off that cosy vibe of comfy afternoons playing Amiga platform games. Except, well, a lot busier. Check out those colors thoughâgames havenât looked like this since Rainbow Islands. This is all the work of a lone developer, which is damned impressive. Itâs aiming to release early next year.
Der GeisterjÀger / The Ghost Hunter looks so spooky-cool! A blobber, that even sounds like Dungeon Master, but rendered in what looks like blueprints. It makes me think a bit of System Shock, Captive, Xenomorph and probably most of all, Cyberdrone. But you might not be 100 years old like me, and think of something more modern. Either way, this looks so great, and I hope it comes out this year as promised.
Hack Grid similarly takes me back to my youth in the gaming Stone Ages, with its CRT-aesthetics. They call it a âlove letter to DOS,â which is sweet, although it had better not need me to edit my config.sys and autoexec.bat. Itâs a puzzle game in which each piece type has its own set of rules, which makes my brain hurt just to think aboutâbut you need not think, you can buy, as itâs already out. In fact, right now itâs 35% off, meaning itâll cost you a miniscule two dollars.
Dark Sheep does not remove us from this retrozone. In fact, weâre even earlier than the above DOS era, and this time a spooOOOoooky one. Itâs a Sokoban sort of deal, but this time the âlove letterâ is written to the Commodore 64. (The only letter Iâd ever send my C64 would be a break-up one, for failing to load Pitstop II for the ninth time in a row.) It came out a couple of months ago on Steam, and is currently under $3.
Time Bandit evokes something more of the late 1990s for me (and not 1985, as you might expect), PSX-ish art, albeit with the sorts of physics developers could only dream of back then. Itâs designed to feel like the sort of game you might find on an old demo disc, and crikey, that concept alone deserves overnight success. The game is an anti-capitalist statement about labor exploitation and environmental catastrophes, but itâs also a collection of time control mechanics. Part 1: Appendages Of The Machine is aiming to be out sometime this year. Thereâs a demo version you can play now, via Itch
Star Explorers was mentioned last time Kotaku wasnât paying enough attention, but during that I committed a sin. I made a âretro No Manâs Skyâ reference, which seems to rather get under its developerâs craw. And fairly so, since Star Explorers was in development before NMS was announced, and then fell cruelly under its shadowâitâs well worth giving this article a read. Why am I featuring a three-year-old game a second time? Because itâs about to receive itâs 5.0 update, which is going to be a major one, so now might be a good time to jump in, especially while itâs under $4.
There May Be Ninety-Nine Of Us, But We Have To Win In Ninety-Nine Turns! wins best name of the day, clearly. It also wins worst Steam image, which is black Comic Sans on a white background, which is worse than a murder. This complete mayhem is the work of one Damien Crawford, and is apparently a puzzle RPG âwhere thereâs no RNG and it comes down to execution.â Iâm not sure to which era this reaches, but itâs probably not one from this planet.
Tentacle Typer is a text editor, and you cannot get more retro than a text editor, unless youâre releasing your game solely for oscilloscope. Except itâs a text editor RPG, and youâre a giant betentacled monster, and youâve got a magical mechanical typewriter, and you can interact with the gameâs world by typing whatever you want. THIS IS WHY WE ARE HERE, PEOPLE. On Earth, I mean. We evolved to reach the point where someone made Tentacle Typer
Alpha Particle by Function Unknown reminds me of that fantastic top-down art youâd get in late Amiga games, although certainly of a higher fidelity. The game also looks like something from that fast-paced era of action games, although this one apparently starts off more slowly before things get so busy. You play as a particleâwhich has to be one of the smaller player characters in gaming historyâsolving puzzles and flitting about at some impressive speeds.
Bahnsen Knights harks back to the glorious days of the Speccy! Sure, I know, you poor Americans never knew the true love that was the Sinclair Spectrum, but trust me, it was when games were good and pure. I honestly know nothing about Bahnsen Knights other than that itâs âa pixel-pulp adventure featuring a world of religious fanatics, F5 tornadoes and Ford Sierras.â But look at this art. Itâs actually against the law to want more than that.
