In an effort to highlight some LGBTQ devs, I’m looking at a few games by Autumn Rain/Candy Shark. They are a programmer that’s put a few things out, most of them free, and I thought it’d be a nice diversion from visual novels. I will not look at their commercial game, Sewer Rave, because full disclaimer, a friend of mine made music for that game. So, without further ado:

Limbocore

In Limbocore, you are a little fellow named Bug, wandering around limbo, where the only hope to ascend lies in an angel.

Aesthetically, I think the game is nice. The game is black and white with some glitchy purple pixels to reflect the emptiness and wrongness of limbo and the music is nice and spooky. All the sprites in the game always feels slightly slanted no matter how you position the camera, the world always just slightly off. Something that kinda bugged me though was that pressing movement keys always sends you in the same direction regardless of camera position, which is kinda disorienting.

Eventually you meet the angel and a frantic tune kicks in as you decide your worth… through a card game! You pick a tarot card and you do a little minigame corresponding to each one, like a cursed religious WarioWare. Some minigames can be a bit smoother to play but it’s still kinda neat. Eventually, Bug is deemed worthy of ascension and the game turns itself off.

I think it’s a nice prototype that could be improved on! Like maybe have multiple encounters with different tarot decks, or similar decks with harder variations on their minigames (but oh god please no harder variation on the sliding tile puzzles I am an idiot).

My Potion Shop

Travelers are coming to you, the potion seller, to get your strongest potions. Each customer has specific needs and you need to figure out what ingredients you have to put together a potion to satisfy them. For payment, you get little decorations in your shop.

The game’s art style is very playful and the music is chill. As a puzzle game it’s pretty easy, as you can infer what ingredients work best for what you’re trying to do based on their descriptions. In fact, there’s a little frog buddy that will tell you how many ingredients were correct in the last potion you made, so you can do some trial-and-error if you get stuck.

Overall it’s a charming time and is a good first attempt at making a game in Unity and I think it’s something worth revisiting, like making it into more of a management styled game.

Bloodsucker Library

You play as Lucille, a nice peaceful vampire that wants nothing more than to arrange her books. Unfortunately a bunch of people are out here making noise in the library, which is threatening to bring out her vampiric urges. In Bloodsucker Library, you must successfully put the books away without Lucille getting too pissed off, which is a relatable premise for any working person.

It is also a game made for a GB Jam, so its window is real small. Just look at it.

You pick up a book from the returns and follow a handy pointer arrow as you dive into a noisy library. The peacefulness icon at the bottom starts static, but it soon begins to bounce around and freak out as you encounter noise, so you gotta shush people or cool off somewhere no sound is.

The optimal way of playing this game is with headphones because you can experience the sounds as Lucille experiences them and can get a sense of what direction they are. And good god they are annoying. I don’t blame Lucille for going feral, because I would too.

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Aside from those games and Sewer Rave, Autumn Rain also made a few experimental stuff that’s probably shorter than what I’ve checked out so far. I think their stuff is neat and I hope to see more of their work in the future!