I will tell call your family, but don’t we all consider phone calls suspicious? My phone is a glass and silicon brick for displaying text which makes me unhappy.
It’s been a while since we’ve found ourselves here, watching some indie games, and once again I’m drawn to some games that are a bit melancholy, but in a healing, healthy way. . I’m not sure if that says anything great about the state of my mind right now, but hey – the night is dragging on, there’s a little bit of a crunch on the chip and it’s that time of year we be encouraged to think about family, find or else. And who in their 30s is not sad to think about that.
Federation of Enthusiastic Losers
Whose? yokond
Where can I get it? Steam
how much is this? £9 / €10 / $12
This is a game with a 2D story, in which you play as Volodya and Vitya (alternating both/either), two companions who have known each other for a long time. They sleep in bunk beds in a charmingly decorated apartment, where they also have a resident spider named Arkady and live in the hallway. Volodya and Vitya are not as subjective as some of their colleagues. They were a copywriter and a plumber – or an author and a handyman, as they said at a party they were embarrassed to be there. They are learning to be content with happiness. Volodya and Vitya were the ones helping a puppy out of a tree and immediately decided to keep it, or name the spider that lived in their hallway instead of putting it outside.
The art in League Of E Passion Losers is really delicate and lovely, like a children’s storybook. It adds a fragile atmosphere to the whole game – not only in the look but also in the feel of Volodya and Vitya. They leave the party early because they don’t fit in. But also because going home is what will make them happy. Same, my boys. The same, similar.
In my shadow
Whose? Playbae, Alcon Interactive Group
Where can I get it? Steam
how much is this? £8 / €10 / $10
I admit that I’m really asking you to boost your credibility with this one, not in the sense that it’s indie or a game, but in the sense that it’s new, since it came out in April. Listen Hey, it’s new to me, okay? Plus it received a big update just the day before, adding new levels with a devil train. Honestly, the toys you can buy these days.
In My Shadow is a puzzle platformer in which you, a girl, think back to growing up in your family home and the things that kept you apart from your family. This becomes a personified metaphor as you tackle a series of levels in each room of the house, where a silhouette of your child crosses one end of the wall to the other, navigating the Dark dangers to collect memory fragments. But In My Shadow is a hybrid 2D/3D platformer because you can switch to moving around the furniture in the room that is casting a shadow for your background at any time. It’s harder than you might think, and I often have to feel rather than logic my way through the levels.
As you go on, collecting these memories unlocks cutscenes and thoughts on the protagonist’s childhood, and the reason she hasn’t spoken to her family for several years – and not because She doesn’t love them, I promise.
Mango
Whose? Sad Mask Party, Nilware
Where can I get it? Steam
how much is this? £7 / €8 / $10
This is one of those games that is almost weird. You are an artist (big story buddy) people who make weird, slightly bizarre things, and you live in a weird, somewhat bizarre city. But when you get home and eat a mango in the rainbow fridge, things really start to unravel. You are trapped in an increasingly gruesome landscape of animals, food and mouths. Lots of mouths. Actually, something fixed by mouth. It’s a proper assault of colors and sounds, a walking nightmare simulation.
It’s also surprisingly funny at times. When I say this will make you want to text your family, I mean you’ll realize that you have some emotional baggage lurking to lighten the load (also not particularly subtle) or that you feel like you’ve had a bad dream and need reassurance with a glass of milk.
