I don’t really write about new releases that much. A large reason why is that I never know what to focus on. What deserves attention, and what doesn’t? Thankfully, Steam stepped up a bit ago with a personal calendar on its front page, which highlights upcoming new games to the tastes of the user. So, I thought it’d be fun to share the stuff on my calendar, because I think they’d align with the interests of this blog.

So, here’s my month of recommended games for the rest of August. I omitted games that plainly aren’t indie (sorry Steins Gate) and games that use AI (not sorry), and well, some days were just empty. I’m sure something released on those days, but Steam refused to share with me.

Horse Magnifier is by sketbordcat, and it’s a game coming out on the 10th about magnifying pictures of horses with various lenses. Horse pictures become weird grotesqueries as you magnify parts of them, making for goofy images and fondly reminding people that you can make funny images without slop engines. It’s somewhat of a puzzle game where you’re presented a mangled (affectionate) horse, and you have to figure out how to make a normal horse look the same.

It looks like a casual, relaxing time. Not entirely my thing, but I get why people would like it. It promises to let people create custom levels with steam workshop support, and I just know that it’s going to get loaded with Umamusume stuff. It’s only a matter of time.

Coming out on the same day is Color Fear, a horror game by West View dealing with a children’s show. The Color Fun Coloring Show is an educational experience like any show for young children! It happens to be educating you on colors! And home invaders. The show’s host Peach wants you to present a color for the show, so go about looking for a color to present before an intruder decides to present the color of your blood. It generally seems to be a fusion of mascot horror and analog horror.

Personally isn’t my thing at all, but I know there’s an audience for games like this with stuff like Garten of Banban and Superliminal being big games and analog horror being a hot thing; not big in my circles, but they definitely have circles.

Royalty Free-for-All is an party brawler game coming out on the 11th by AAAA Games LLC, where public domain characters are thrown into a hand-drawn cartoony world to square down. The game has veterans of the party brawler genre in mind, whilst working to make mechanics such as wavedashing understandable for newcomers. The steam page advertises itself with an endorsement by well-known Super Smash Bros Melee pro Hungrybox, who considers Royalty Free-for-All to be better than Ultimate.

I personally think the game looks nice, though I’m not knowledgeable enough about the party brawler scene to make a proper guess on how the game would be received. I’d honestly get the game for myself, but I really don’t have the coordination and reaction time for fighting games like I used to. But honestly, if you like party brawlers like Super Smash Bros, I recommend looking at this!

James Bond is hot shit this year with Silver Light and discussions on who the next James Bond actor will be. But how about we step back in the past with something else coming out on the 11th? Agent 64: Spies Never Die is a first-person shooter by Replicant D6 designed in the vein of console shooters of the 90s like the Goldeneye game. You are secret agent John Walter, going on a pulpy spy thriller adventure to fight the machinations of the appropriately named Dominic Pulp. You can also be John Walter’s co-worker I guess, since the campaign offers co-op.

Agent 64 offers a whole bunch, like a bunch of modifiers you can add to the campaign and remixed missions. Just wanna fight it out? There’s an arena mode where you can fight other players online, and a local splitscreen mode to truly emulate old FPSes.

Honestly, Agent 64 looks really fucking cool. It really does look like a love letter to the past while refining bits of it to be more palatable to modern audiences (the parts of it that don’t jack off to realistic graphics, anyhow). I think it’s a solid pick for the shooter fans out there.

On the 13th, Rusty Lake delivers the next installment of its point-and-click adventure series with Servant of the Lake. The series that the developer names itself after has been running since 2015, building off the studio’s Cube Escape series. In this new installment, you are hired as a housekeeper for the normal Vanderboom family, decades before Rusty Lake: Roots. You’ll go about performing your duties through puzzles, and as you poke around the rooms, you’ll end up poking into a family mystery.

I honestly haven’t heard of this series before, which is a shame since they have a fairly sizable catalogue. If you like adventure games, this might be worth looking at. I don’t know if you’re required to play Rusty Lake: Roots before Servant of the Lake… but even without discounts, that game is pretty cheap, so why not check it out anyway?

For another narrative experience releasing the same day, we have Lemon+Blood and polygon cove’s soulstation. In this visual novel between fear and love, the protagonists find themselves at the Station, a surreal afterlife that protagonist Kin is particularly drawn into. Will it be devoured by the world, or will it escape? soulstation is a 10+ hour story dealing with lovely things like abuse, grief, suicide – the works. The game also boasts of a huge soundtrack by polygon cove, with a sister album called 21st Century Trauma Addict slated to come out the same day; I’ve been listening to polygon cove’s other stuff and I think it rules.

soulstation is absolutely something in my wheelhouse. I admire the game’s attitude and the DIY nature, and I liked reading the dev logs attached to the Steam profile. I feel that fans of melessthanthree’s stuff would also like this? I’d happily get this, though I feel that I need to be in the right headspace to properly play it, and my headspace is pretty much determined by dice roll nowadays.

But let’s continue with the psychological horror narrative experiences! Releasing on the 14th, we have Sister Other Paranoia, developed by HazeDenki and published by Serenity Forge. Heading the project is the writer nyalra, who was behind the game NEEDY STREAMER OVERLOAD. So let that set your expectations.

A man that develops the power to read minds finds himself shutting himself away from the world, especially after writing a light novel that winds up creating envy that he can pick up on. The only person he can truly trust is his little sister that lives with him, and it winds up creating a toxic codependent relationship as he grows more hostile toward the outside world.

Seems pretty normal! Might not entirely be my thing if it goes an incesty route… but is it right to worry about that when the protagonist is willing to kill people and brain blast them into killing themselves? Much to consider.

Also releasing on the 14th, the calendar gave me ArtDock’s roguelike Lootbound. You are a grizzled hero in a dark fantasy setting, off on an adventure. You gain companions that act on their own while building up a storage of equipment and items; inventory management is an important element to work with, calling to mind things like Backpack Battles.

I’m personally not as into roguelikes as I used to be (besides one mentioned later), but if you’re into tactical turn-based roguelikes, this might be something to look at. It does have a demo out, so you might want to poke into that.

For a more relaxing change of pace, the 17th offers Tukoni: Forest Keepers, by Dream Operator and built off a series of books by Ukrainian artist Oksana Bula. You are the Traveller, and you are on a quest to get the forest prepared for the upcoming winter. You’ll be going around a handcrafted world to help its denizens through simple chores and puzzles, all making for a cute and cozy time.

The game was being developed through stressful times, given that the development’s based in Ukraine, so it’s admirable that something like this was made in spite of everything. And well, we all really need something wholesome nowadays, anyhow.

Entering Early Access on the 18th, we got Entropy by Lovely Hellplace and published under DreadXP. Entropy is an RPG taking place in a low-poly dying world. A theater performance gets interrupted by a demonic incursion into the town, and the troupe stances up to defend themselves. Unfortunately, the whole town is ravaged – yet The Player of the visiting troupe rises. Where The Player goes from there is up to you.

Entropy looks like a really cool horror themed RPG. I’ve seen some people make comparisons to the King’s Field games, though Entropy differentiates itself with a turn-based focus. The Early Access release will include the game’s first act and is said to be open to feedback as the game’s development trucks on.

The 20th brings another game to Steam Early Access: Brigador Killers by Stellar Jockeys. It’s an isometric simulator game where you build up the power to fight corrupt businessmen in a cyberpunk world. Gather weapons, build vehicles, and maybe you can find some catharsis in all this.

This game is the next installment in the Brigador series, whose previous installment is currently on sale for one more day. Consider checking this out if you’re up for what the game’s putting down.

VHOLUME is a platformer coming out on the 21st, made by Nathan Grange, Léonard Lemaitre and Niels Tiercelin. In a dystopian brutalist city, Robert goes on a quest to yell at the city’s bureaucracy about revoked ration tickets. Unfortunately, he has to deal with the problem in person, which calls on engaging in a parkour platforming adventure across brutalist architecture.

It seems like a pretty fun platformer, and it’s one that can be enjoyed with friends. Like to see the ghosts of other players race to show the optimal routes through levels/outshine you? VHOLUME’s got you.

Who out here likes deckbuilding roguelike versions of simple staple games, like Balatro? Do you like billiards? The 24th brings Ultrapool, by Icedrop Games and published by offbrand games. It’s one thing to pull off trick shots, but things get zanier with custom balls to replace the standard stuff that have unique abilities tied to them that you can combo together to pull off weirder trick shots to send your score through the roof. Of course, you’ll still need to be decent at the actual billiards part of things to see the game through.

Billiards personally isn’t much my thing, but I can see why people would like Ultrapool. In fact, if you want to see if it’s your thing, a demo is available to try out.

A game releasing on the 25th might be a bit familiar: it’s Messhof’s Blood Dungeon, the platformer bullet heaven! I checked out the demo from Steam Next Fest a while ago, and I really liked that! So, check out my past ramblings on that if you want to learn more.

But also releasing on the 25th is something for puzzle game enjoyers. Do you like nonogram puzzles? Do you like sokoban puzzles? Sokogram, by PressGtoGeorge, aims to to please/torture with a combination of both. The monogram layer of things has you creating a map of the playfield to push a stone through to confirm if the playfield you mapped out is correct. The game gets more complicated from there, with you having to navigate other things into place like a frog that hops around.

Personally, I think it looks pretty chill and a neat combination of puzzle styles. I think the puzzle game appreciators out there will like this.

The 26th also brings a cozy game, and it’s one escaping Early Access. Little Chef: Cozy Cooking by Julien Truebiger, Hello Erika, Danny van Duist and Kristin. You’re on a mission to fill your cookbook, from immaculate delicacies to weird shit. Throw stuff around, look around for hidden ingredients, and do all the things that Gordon Ramsay would probably yell at you for.

From looking at the reviews, people generally like the Early Access version of Little Chef. With the game escaping, it’ll hopefully be more refined. It’d be a short time, but a good time.

On the 28th, another game enters Early Access. Maybe you’re getting tired of Minecraft, or maybe you don’t want to support Microsoft for reasons. Allumeria is stepping up as a new alternative.

Allumeria is by Unomelon, taking the voxel sandbox in a different direction, despite what Microsoft itself believed. On the sandbox end of things, there’s a stronger focus on creativity with an RGB light system and coloring tools. When it comes to adventuring, the biomes are more defined with specialized dungeons and unique bosses, with the Steam page saying to consider them as new “chapters” for your escapades. From what I’ve seen, people generally consider Allumeria more as a 3D Terraria than a Minecraft.

I personally think the game looks great! I wasn’t pulled into this type of game back then (mainly because I lacked good equipment), but maybe this will be my chance to enjoy a voxel world.

And closing the month… we have an old friend! 10 Beautiful Postcards, by thecatamites, returns to this blog under the name Harmony Corp, exposing the walkaround collage adventures to a new audience on the 31st.

Also, wow, the Steam page points to my original review, so check that out if you wanna learn more. I don’t know if Steam adds new stuff, but I welcome picking the game up regardless.

(Also oh my god, I really need to play Dujanah.)

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Aaaand that’s the month of games that were on my personalized calendar! I really think this will be something I’ll do regularly. I gotta say, the personalized calendar’s a neat way of showcasing games that may not have been getting attention otherwise. I also invite you to take a look at your own personal calendar the next time you open Steam to see what’s on offer.