Apr 3, 2024Indie Highlight
Growing Up by developer Vile Monarch puts you in control of your life as you control every aspect of your childhood and on into parenthood. Choose your friends, learn what you want, and find that perfect someone to raise a family with. Customize your character with a wide range of clothing and hairstyles. And explore a unique game with rich storytelling full of choices for you to make!
Get lost in the nostalgic sceneries of the 1990s as you navigate life with friends and family in Growing Up. It was an era of rapid social change, plus saw the rise of pop culture, and you get to experience it all by visiting 30 different locations across your city. Visit the movies or listen to music at the local street shop. Learn and master over 200 different skills that can land you in some pretty incredible jobs like astronaut or video game company CEO. Build friendships, get into arguments, fall in love and start a family, and more. Each choice you make influences the narrative you unlock, making this a great game to replay to get different outcomes.
Where will your story take you?
Growing Up is available now on Steam!
Millenials is an immersive college life sim that lets you experience life as a dedicated college freshman.
Mar 7, 2024Indie Highlight
Tracks of Thought is a charming adventure RPG where you play as an adorable ladybug. Your usual commute has taken a strange turn when your train plunges into a mysterious tunnel. Everyone has forgotten the final destination. Where is everyone going and what happened? It’s up to you to investigate and find out!
There are dozens of passengers on the train with you that you can talk to. They can help you solve the mystery, but not everyone in Tracks of Thought is interested in talking! Use a card-based battle-of-wits system to resolve any conflicts and find common ground with them. You might need to be logical, sensitive, or charismatic depending on the person. Choose your cards (and words) wisely to get their help! Each encounter will reward you with new cards or pieces of information necessary to solve the mystery of the train, so get to know everyone and help them out as you make your way to the Control Room.
Tracks of Thought is coming to Steam sometime this year!
If you want more train-based games, take a look at Overcrowd: A Commute ‘Em Up, or Unrailed 2!
Oct 4, 2023Indie Highlight
Next up in the Halloween recommendations is Mutazione!
Over 100 years ago, the “Moon Dragon” meteor struck a popular tropical resort town. Those who survived began developing unique mutations. At first, rescue teams tried to help. As they retreated, however, the survivors created a small isolated community called Mutazione. And now you play as Kai, a 15-year-old who’s traveling to the community to take care of her ailing grandfather, Nonno. Except, Nonno has other plans for Kai.
Spend your days helping grandfather Nonno as his health fails him. Make new friends with the other inhabitants of Mutazione. Even plant musical gardens and trade seeds with them. Also attend BBQs, boat trips, and band nights to get to know the town. But most importantly, embark on a journey to save the people from the lurking darkness. Secrets and betrayals simmer under the surface of this friendly community, and it just might tear them apart.
They survived an apocalypse, but they might not survive the small-town drama!
You can find this charming supernatural story on Steam, Epic, GOG, PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch.
More Halloween game suggestions can be found here!
Jul 19, 2023Snack Size News
Songs of Glimmerwick is a charming story-driven RPG where you play as a young witch. You’ll be attending the renowned university of magic in the land of Glimmerwick. Complete narrative quests that focus on unique characters and an intriguing story. Attend classes to learn new magic, have fun at bustling festivals, keep an ear out for some juicy drama. Don’t forget to listen out for some mysterious rumors. Learn new skills like talking to frogs, plant crops, and even cast spells using the power of music!
Coming soon to Steam!
Jul 3, 2023News
I love cats. I also enjoy both mystery and adventure games. In the upcoming Peace Island, we get an alluring combination of all of these things. Currently in development by Eric Blumrich and a small team of experienced devs (known for games like Prune and Grand Theft Auto V), this game is already gathering attention online.
You’ll play as cats! Starting out, you’ll be playing as the cat named Elizabeth. The day before, she was was coaxed into her pet taxi and dreading a trip to the veterinarian. She never sees the vet, though, instead falling asleep. When she awakes the next day, her human is nowhere to be found and the door is open.
Throughout the game, you will meet 8 other cats. You’ll need to gain the trust of these cats and eventually gain their friendship. At different points, you will control each of the different cats. Each one has unique strengths, weaknesses, and roles.
The world of Peace Island – outside from being Peace Island – is an open-world based on real-life Maine. Inside the island are 4 defined communities. These are Peace City Landing, Greenwood Farms, Ellison Heights, and LaFlamme Fishworks. These are settlements, farmlands, coastlines, woodlands, and more!
The story of the game is that the humans have all gone missing. The mystery is plentiful. There are an invasive species on the islands, artifacts and documents left behind, and 200 years worth of alternate history to unravel. Not only do you have to figure out what happened to the humans, you have to use the divergent storylines to decide if they are worth bringing back.
Peace Island is currently in development for PC, Mac, and Oculus VR. There is no set release date, yet, but a beta should be coming soon. You can check out more and support the game on Patreon. You can also see daily screenshots on Twitter.
Don’t worry – I have your fill of cat games! Take a look at The Good Life, Another Sight, and Calico – just to get started. I also have mystery game suggestions – like the newest iteration of Layton’s Mystery Journey and the kooky Lord Winklebottom Investigates.
Jan 12, 2023Indie Highlight
In this cute and cozy little visual novel game, Witchy Life Story, play as a customizable, fully emotive witch of your own design. You are the youngest member of the esteemed and magical von Teasel family. You aren’t exactly the star of the family, though. Grandma has set you a test, and should you fail, you’ll receive no more magical training. The task? Save the harvest festival in the small village of Flora. And you only have two weeks!
You and your crow familiar, Ramsey, will spend your time gardening, using your plants in spells and rituals, getting to know the villagers, and helping them make their upcoming harvest festival a success. Fulfill orders for the villagers, including relax incense or chitchat potions. You’ll craft spells, perform tarot readings, and lead guided meditations. Witchy Life story even has three romanceable villagers! Two weeks is enough time to make the festival a success and for you to make some big life choices, right?
Witchy Life Story is now available on Steam. There is even a free demo if you’d like to give it a test spin!
for other witchy, fun games check out A Garden Witch’s Life, Little Witch in the Woods, and Mika and the Witch’s Mountain.
Nov 28, 2019Reviews
Lost Ember is an adventure game where you play as a wolf that has the power to inhabit other animals. Travel across beautiful landscapes and discover what happened, through memories, to the ancient civilizations now in ruins. Lost Ember is available now on Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PS4, and Steam (current 10% discount). I’d like to thank Mooneye Studios for supplying me with a PS4 code in order to share this review with you today!
When I started to play Lost Ember, I was expecting to really enjoy playing as several animals from birds soaring through the skies to fish swimming in the depths of the sea. What I wasn’t expecting is the emotional journey I was about to embark on complete with amazing voice acting and a breathtaking soundtrack. Although the ending is a happy one considering, be prepared for some tears!
Lost Ember is a tale of the Yanrana people and their once mighty city. They believe that by giving their dead their traditional funeral, their spirits can freely pass on to The City of Light. You awaken to a talking ball of light wondering why it can’t pass on and why it appears trapped with no one able to hear it. As it is said that those that are denied The City of Light stay behind and take the form of animals, the ball of light, or rather spirit guide, assumes you must be a Lost Ember, a lost soul. Together you set out to remember who you were in your past lives and if you can be redeemed.
All names of the Yanrana people are carved into medallions that they wear around their necks. You find one with the name Kalani inscribed on it. Another spirit appears and bestows upon you powers that will help get you were you need to go. Scattered around several environments like lush green hills, snowy hilltops, and dark caverns, are memories represented as red smoke. With each memory regained, you can break through “barriers” and move forward. I don’t want to give away more than that as this should be experienced for one’s self. Piecing together what I was seeing had me constantly questioning what kind of person my character was. The larger point of the premise is to see things through others’ perspective.
The animals you can change into were the ones I knew about such as the adorable wombats and moles, but there were a few surprises like bison and elephants! The movements felt quite real although I found it a tad annoying to have to repeatedly press the X button to move and use L2/R2 for up and down when it would have just been easier to move around with the joystick.
As the wolf you can hold R2 to run quite fast so I found myself using that animal the most. That or a bird as it was hard not to just fly everywhere when my wolf got stuck often outside of the marked paths. This was a little frustrating for an exploration game where you can check hidden places for collectibles. Sticking to paths at times and not being able to jump down more than 5 feet or die took me right out of the moment.
Another complaint I had with the controls was the lag whenever I moved too quickly or entered another area, the occasional crash, and the glitches. I would run into invisible walls not knowing where I can and cannot go which often got me stuck trying to button-mash my way out. One time as the mole rat, which allows you to dig underground to get to another side, I rose up in a pile of rocks and couldn’t move. As I panicked, I decided to release my mole from my possession and watched as it ran off and faded from my view as I continued to be a disembodied being becoming one with the earth. Luckily, you can Restart Last Checkpoint and not lose much time.
There are no enemies and when you fall, the game just puts you right back where you were. This helped put me back into a relaxed mood as I can just sit back and enjoy the scenery and story. I also wouldn’t have been able to bear it if I had to hurt any of the animals. However, it did feel weird to possess their bodies at my will only to abandon them in areas probably far from their homes, exposed out in the open. I tried to remind myself that this was just a game. Then, when I was a fish and transformed myself back into a wolf on land, I saw the poor thing flopping around unable to get back into the water! I quickly re-possessed it, dropped it off somewhere nice with some friends, and doggy-paddled my way back to shore.
It would probably ease my mind if every time I approached the animals, they didn’t run away as fast as possible. Even though I understand that I am a wolf and therefore a predator. Are all the animals actually people inside anyway or is that just a legend? It was still nice to become these animals and have the wolf disappear and become part of the gang. You can also do many “silly things”, as the game puts it, like munching on some berries or taking a nap. It made everything feel so much more alive, and made for some great snapshots too. They also added some baby animals that you can inhabit which significantly upped the cute factor!
With all of the negatives I just mentioned, I still found myself immensely enjoying the game. The beauty and care that was taken in creating the wildlife and this emotional story far supersedes any of my grievances. My heart ached when I looked around and saw how much nature was thriving now that the humans were gone. The very same humans that over-cultivated which lead to pestilence and hunger. The song with lyrics at the end of the game along with certain revelations had me crying. Lost Ember took me only a few hours to play through but I still find myself thinking about my experience.
Oct 12, 2019Indie Highlight
We’re nearing Halloween, a wonderful time of year, and I wanted to keep you all in the festive mood this month! Although, I’ll never understand why people love pumpkins in October so much. I mean, potatoes are awesome every day of the year! Last month in September 2019, a creepy and cute little indie game gem was released for Steam, Origin, GOG and Humble Bundle. It’s a short casual and story-driven game with dark undertones but the narration by Mr. Voice and other voice acting really has me interested! If you’re a fan of A Series of Unfortunate Events, then you should probably check out this title.
Little Misfortune is an interactive story, focused on exploration and characters, both sweet and dark, where your choices have consequences. Starring Misfortune Ramirez Hernandez, an imaginative 8-year-old, who seeks the prize of Eternal Happiness, as a gift to her Mommy. Led by her new friend, Mr. Voice, they venture into the woods, where mysteries are unraveled and a little bit of bad luck unfolds. Sharing the same universe with the cult video game Fran Bow, created by the visionary dev-duo Killmonday Games.
Stay tuned for more news on announcements for PC, console and mobile versions! For another interactive and spooky narrative game, check out this article here: A Juggler’s Tale – A Sidescrolling Puppet Theater Game.