I continue to be a liar. A fraud. I said I’d be randomly picking games, then said I’m just going with Anthology of the Killer. I was going to start playing that, but then I saw that Steam Next Fest is going on. So whoops, I’m checking some game demos right now, instead.
Pipistrello and the Cursed Yoyo is a top-down action adventure by Pocket Trap. Pippit is the nepo baby nephew of Madame Pipistrello, the city’s energy magnate, and he uses her money to finance his sick yoyo trick escapades. Madame Pipistrello developed a new form of energy that requires sucking out someone’s soul, and in a rarity for her ilk, she chose to shelve it because it’s horribly unethical. However, her business rivals team up to get rid of her with the stolen technology to power their own ambitions. Pippit gets in the way and his yoyo is imbued with part of his aunt’s soul, and if he wants to continue his nepo baby lifestyle, he’s got to get the other parts of his aunt’s soul from her rival magnates.
Pippit swings out his yoyo like a sword, and if the yoyo encounters an angled wall, the yoyo bounces further for as far as the string allows. A technique you learn lets him throw his possessed yoyo off the string as a projectile as a sick yoyo trick that can clear through rows of enemies, though he’ll be weakened until he gets that yoyo back on the string. GIFs on the store page also show more combat skills and movement tech, promising more versatility in the future.
It plays great, nothing to complain about. I really liked the boss fight the demo throws in because the boss also plays off the shooting at walls mechanic you regularly use and it makes for a fun challenge, and you know, bosses that reflect the player are always kino to fight.
A mechanic that I think is neat is how it handles skill upgrades. There’s a skill upgrade tree that costs money, but the unique thing is that instead of paying things upfront, it’s a contract system. You’ll have the upgrade, but until you pay off the contract with freshly acquired cash, you’ll suffer a penalty with the upgrade. I think it’s an interesting wrinkle to add to upgrade trees, which I usually don’t respect.
Pipistrello looks great and sounds great! If you’re a fan of the Gameboy era Legend of Zelda games, this is something you’d be at home with. I also think the writing is kinda fun, it feels like a goofy crime story. Pippit’s not really a good guy and Madame Pipistrello probably isn’t besides the soul thing, but the villains are rival industry mobsters! Who knows what they can do with the wonder of soul power?
There’s no definitive release date set yet, but this is something I’m looking forward to. The demo leaves a good impression, definitely a must play.
Thought Experiment Simulator by HoHo Games is a pretty simple game based on complex ideas. You’re presented with an interactable simulation of a thought experiment while a narrator yaps at you. The store page explicitly points to The Stanley Parable as an inspiration, and to be honest, your mileage may vary on this.
Story mode is interesting because every level opens with a few philosophers discussing the thought experiment within the confines of their own philosophies. Or at least, how the developer believes that philosopher would approach the problem. Story mode essentially educates the players on philosophers, their views and thought experiments, explaining the implications inherent in a thought experiment while introducing different perspectives on them. I don’t know how broad this game will end up being education wise, but I think something like this would be neat for public school students to play as an edutainment tool.
If you’re done with learning though, you can play a challenge mode where the levels are tweaked into minigames with set goals (if you can pretend Sisyphus’ goal is attainable, for a second). The thought experiments become WarioWare minigames where you clear them as fast as possible for higher scores within an increasingly lower time limit. It’s sort of limited right now since only a fraction of thought experiments is available in the demo, though I can see it becoming more substantial in the full release. The minigame interpretation of the tragedy of the commons is such bullshit, though.
For something else quick and easy – yet more fast-paced – I checked out Glyphica: Typing Survival by aliasBLACK. It’s an arena shooter where you have to survive for as long as possible, but the twist is that it’s a typing game. Type out words above enemies to open fire on them – or input button combinations if you have a controller. I dunno, neat that there’s controller support, but it feels like it defeats the point of a typing game.
You’re completely stationary, so all you have to focus on is typing. When you level up or open a chest, you can get an upgrade or an additional weapon to back you up. These weapons I feel also influence the way you play. It’s sensible to type out the words closest to you, but if there’s anything with AOE, you can focus on a target surrounded by allies; a few weapons spawn autonomous drones if you type a word with certain letters, you’d be sure to focus on words with those letters. It feels very much like the roguelike systems of Vampire Survivors, though of course instead of being a game that calls on you to focus on dodging while your weapon collection tears shit up, it’s a game about getting your words-per-minute up to get those weapons firing.
The game starts with enemies swarming you that die the moment they touch you, and new enemy types gradually get introduced. Some enemies will shoot you from a distance, taking attention away from the grunts. A fun tanky enemy obscures the second half of their word until you start typing away at them, which I think can trip people up if they’re just typing on autopilot. All simple to deal with, but of course, their strength is in numbers. It is a survival game after all, and they’ll take you down eventually, high WPM be damned.
There’s also a gradual metagame upgrade system. It’s not putting me in debilitating contracts, so whatever.
It’s not one of those games with a lot to say, but you know, sometimes you need something simple to chill with. It might be handy for me because my blood circulation problems have been fucking up my hands again and I need to get these things moving.
I was unhealthily obsessed with Balatro for a while, but I chose to cut myself off when I accomplished 50% completion, update be damned. I already spent more than 100 hours, I’m done. But though I’ve cut myself off… the soul of a gambler calls to me.
And so, we end things off with Dungeons & Degenerate Gamblers, by Purple Moss Collectors. There is a place where people obsessively play a fucked up version of blackjack, indebting themselves to the dungeon’s unknown master. Entering the normal tavern front, you’ll play your way through unfortunate souls and fantasy creatures in hopes of confronting the soul behind all this.
Blackjack players have health bars, where the score difference between the final hands is the amount of damage being dealt to the loser. As such, busting on a hand is even more painful than it normally is since it’s a zero. You can actually check your draw pile so you can make a fair guess whether you should push your luck or stand with a losing hand that will hurt you less.
The plain normal cards have a basic ability that does things like heal you if you get a blackjack. There are negative cards that will give you a little more breathing room for drawing up to a blackjack. Then there’s a whole lot of more weirder cards. There’s the Dis-Card that lets a player remove any played card to upset the balance of the game, the Trap Card that forces the opponent to take the same amount of damage as you to drag them on your level, Business Cards that you swap with an opponent’s card, there’s literally just the Scratch card from Slay the Spire to deal instant free damage etc. Winning a match lets you add any of these cards, enabling the construction of a bizarre blackjack deck as you go further through the dungeon.
While building your deck up is a randomized experience, the denizens of the dungeon actually have set decks. The gambler will try his luck with a scratch ticket card to get high points, the wizard gradually blasts you with low powered cards with one that gradually gets stronger the longer the match goes on, the teacher will borrow your cards with library cards and play pi, etc. You can learn how these enemies play and try to counter them within the choices you get, which I really appreciate.
Like Balatro, Dungeons & Degenerate Gamblers puts a familiar card game through a deckbuilder roguelike spin. I’m not sure if it’ll have the same ease of access to play since there’s a lot more mechanics in play for the sake of card combat, but I’m liking this game.
The current iteration of Steam Next Fest ends on the 17th, so consider checking these games out and other ones while it’s still ongoing!
Indie Hell Zone 