Covering in-person gaming events can be very ironic. Often, my ill-advisedly overstuffed schedule means I’m playing indies or en route to playing indies while I need to watch indie showcases. This was the case for the Guerrilla Collective’s lengthy presentation. But I quickly righted this wrong when I finally got to my hotel in LA — after making a quick detour to the Easy Allies’ studio to chat. It’s from this showcase and the hands-on event that I drew up a list of games I got to check out for myself that I hope you are all keeping an eye on.
Fallen Aces
Speaking of getting into LA on day zero of Summer Game Fest, Fallen Aces publisher ensured we had plenty to talk about on arrival. Glowing outside a cluster of hotels popular with show-goers was a sign that read, “We Love You. We Miss You. We Hate Money.” It was a stunning protest and show of support for the number of developers who would no longer be attending the event due to the industry’s staggering layoffs.
This buzz might have attracted me to the Fallen Aces booth at Guerrilla Collective’s live party, but the game is what stayed in my mind all night. The visuals are glorious. Hand-drawn as they are, they support and accentuate the title’s over-the-top scenario and action. I’m running from my life. A strange voice on a strange call warns me I have just seconds to escape before I’m murdered. Then, I’m off — beating murderous thugs and scrambling for safety.
A crime noir FPS, Fallen Aces is about smartly taking on scores of bad guys by using the environment — and its hidden nooks and passages — to your advantage while picking up anything and everything to act as weapons. Broken bottles, lead pipes, and toys all serve in a pinch. My favorite was a wooden bat I discovered in a display case of a comic book store. I hope that wasn’t too valuable a collectible.
Guitar the Death
Not long after making my way into the crowd for the Guerrilla Collective hands-on showcase, I heard whispers of Guitar the Death. Everyone I ran into that had played the “pop and violent 2D Platformer action game” insisted it was a title I couldn’t miss — and its station’s constant traffic was a telling testament to its popularity.
Undeterred, I managed to wade through the congestion and get some time on the sticks. I was worried that the action would pale in compassion to the praise, but it didn’t. Just as promised, Guitar the Death was just as clever with its platforming as it was brutal with its kill animations. I used amps laying about the levels to boost my jump and reach previously safe foes. Strumming my deadly strings emits a blast that sends everything flying in a wave of blood and destruction.
And while events like these are great for discovering games you might not otherwise have played, it can be hard to learn more about what you’ve just experienced. Luckily, the developers explain some of the background of my bloody rampage on steam, stating, “The main character is an electric guitar whose owner was murdered. Shake the amp to jump, electrify the floor to activate gimmicks, and destroy all enemies in the room.”
AI Confidential
It’s a sign of the times that the first thing the developer says of their title is, “No AI’s are being harmed (or used) in the development of AI Confidential.” So, we can all go forward without concern — though I can’t help but wonder how often they had to make that assurance at last week’s show.
Living in a world populated by personality-filled smart devices, I — a relatively new repair person — am called to the house of an internet sensation to fix what seems like a small problem. My client is away on vacation, and a few nights ago, the camera on his AI dog sitter stopped working. It should be a straightforward final housecall of the day.
But something is clearly off. After verbal sparring with a handful of less-than-helpful household AI units and observing a few suspicious things around the house, it’s clear the dog sitting robot’s camera isn’t the only thing malfunctioning. The most important problem is that the AI’s charge, a Shiba Inu named Captain Crunch, is nowhere to be seen. There’s also spaghetti splattered everywhere. And I don’t have a lot of time to get to the bottom of the mysteries because my boss is pushing to “deactivate” the dog sitter, and the owner suddenly decides to cut his vacation short.
Fowl Damage
Ready for a confession? I didn’t get to go hands-on with this one at the live gathering, despite all my efforts. Luckily, the demo also went live a few days later alongside Steam’s Next Fest, and I lept at the chance to play. I’m so happy I did because Fowl damage skyrocketed up my to-watch list.
The premise is as simple as it is silly. Players guide a platforming egg through a labyrinth of passages. However, eggs are not a hardy bunch, and whatever gives this breakfast of champions the ability to roll and dive through its sci-fi surrounding didn’t confer upon it any special strength.
So, the challenge is to avoid cracking your fragile shell while high-tailing it out of your prison. It’s not an easy challenge, and I splattered my precious insides all over the levels many many times. The key is testing my limits — how far I can fall, the distance I can launch, and how to use the environment to my advantage — so I’m able to navigate ever faster. This last becomes deadly necessary when a mechanical pursuer picks up my trail.
Bloodless
Rurouni Kenshin fans might perk up for this one, as you play a female ronin who has turned her back on violence. Whether violence has turned its back on her is a whole different story. Despite the character’s preference for peace, I soon find myself enmeshed in non-lethal combat, which requires me to counter at just the right moment to disarm my enemies.
Along with its old-school pixel style and intriguing combat concept, I’m also a huge fan of the game’s health mechanics that center around brewing different types of tea. Foraging through the landscape offers up different ingredients for my restorative brew, changing its boosting properties with its components.
With its August 29 release date not far off in the distance, it won’t be long until players can find out where the story of this wandering sword-wielder goes.
Hyde’s Haunt & Seek
You have to love a game that can make literal strangers into high-fiving friends — and scowling enemies. Truthfully, I almost missed Haunt & Seek’s station on the bustling show’s floor. A waving arm, however, caught my attention. Acting as a party as well as a showcase, the Guerrilla Collective’s hands-on event is quite noisy — something that many of the booth’s denizens have to fight against.
Following an effective game of charades, I understood this game needed one last player and offered to step in. The beat of the music and buzzing of voices fell away as the tutorial launched. Here, I learned the game was an asymmetric multiplayer with a mischievous sense of humor.
As a ghost, it was my job to play pranks on the single mortal who dared step foot in my domain in order to trigger a haunt. The would-be ghost hunter wasn’t completely unprotected, though. He held a flashlight capable of detecting and temporarily putting my and my ghost team out of commision. for my session, team ghost dominated.
Splodey
Networking is so important in this industry. It’s why going to these in-person festivals is crucial for not only journalists but also creators of all kinds. If it weren’t for the fact that I ran into a member of the publishing team behind Splodey earlier this year at GDC, I might not have had a chance to play it.
Now that I have, I’m super in. The mechanics, the humor, the creativity, it’s all I wanted. The basic rundown is Splodey is a platformer with no jump button. If, like me, that doesn’t immediately set your radar beeping, then try this. It’s a game centered around “potion propulsion.” It all starts with a frustrated student. Apparently unable to make anything besides exploding brews, the failing would-be wizard turns to chaos and decides to raze everything to the ground.
So, uh, there are some morally grey areas here, but the gameplay is unambiguously fun. In the introductory level, I’m presented with a climbable tower. But who needs to climb when you have combustion and no jump button? So I simply blow a path through the obstacle with my elixirs. Things get more complex and mind-bending as I travel farther in, learning how to use my brews to yeet myself through the air and even how to cross levels that crumble beneath my feet. The game actually released the week of Summer Game Fest, so you can go test your concoctions right now.
Pinball Spire
Yoku’s Island Express is an all-time classic. Ever since playing it in 2018, I’ve been on the lookout for a game able to similarly blend narrative and pinball-like mechanics. Nothing has quite hit like the little mail carrier’s adventure, but my interest in the genre combo promted me to home in on Pinball Spire.
The game leans into the pinball aspect, with narrative sprinkled in on top for the demo I played. Its pixel aesthetic and slightly creepy beginning has my attention. It is my quest, I’m told, to explore the dungeons of a spire that ominously materialized one day. So, they start me off in the catacombs — because where else would one start search a massive deadly structure?
I needed to hit a glowing yellow polyhedron in the center of the room using two paddles down billow. The task would seem almost easy if not for one minor detail. The room I start in is the catacombs, remember? Due to that, the lower half of the level is delightfully piled with skills. Skulls — by the way — that happen to be the exact same color as my pinball protagonist. So, not only does my every flick of the paddles fling skeletal heads around, but it also makes it increasingly hard to see where I am. It’s a great start.
Robots at Midnight
Turns out, robots need their sleep as much as I do because they get super cranky after the clock chimes midnight. Officially categorized as an action-RPG, it’s easier to think about the game’s combat as an accessible version of a Soulslike. Quick light attacks and hefty strong ones filled up most of the action, but parrying is key — as is keeping an eye on your stamina.
I did alright for myself while the sun was up, defeating a bat-carrying, baseball-themed monstrosity. Combat was undemanding and not quite as fluid as the game’s inspirations. However, these elements may work well as an introduction for players to the genre. The developer, sitting at my elbow, seemed pleased when I was able to determine on the fly when I needed to heal — something he was always ready to remind me to do. But he was less forthcoming when I asked about the titular robots and their late-night transformations.
You see, defeating the boss had left me outdoors when the dreaded hour struck. I was alone and had just used up all of my health items. My hubris prompted me to head out, swinging in the direction of the numerous mechanical enemy — eyes now glowing red in the darkness. At first, things didn’t go too bad. I was dodging and duking it out left and right. That didn’t last long. A robot twice the others’ size emerged from the void and almost immediately ended my brilliant run.
The Remake of the End of the Greatest RPG of All Time
Eventually, I will remember the hilariously long title for this game. Until then, I won’t have any trouble keeping its alluring concept in mind. Burying the lede, the developers lead off with a version of their Steam spiel:
“The Remake of the End of the Greatest RPG of All Time” (TRotEotGRPGoAT for short) is the last hour of a lost (nonexistent) JRPG, “remade” in 3D pixel art complete with director’s commentary, the digital manual, and archival footage.
And that’s fine. But when I jumped in and released I was collecting in-game pieces of a meta game manual, I immediately asked if they’d played Tunic. Only then did the team reveal that title was an inspiration, and began to talk more about the larger narrative that has players “uncovering the meta-narrative of why they’ve never heard of this game, why they can only play the last hour, and why it’s being remade.”
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