The legendary and indescribable Dwarf Fortress goes non-ASCII and non-free for the first time

Among the growing field of indie games, one truly stands alone: Dwarf Fortress. The unbelievably rich and complex and legendarily user-unfriendly title has been a free staple of awe and frustration for years. But the developers, in a huge shift to the status quo, have announced that the game will not only soon have a paid version on Steam — it’ll have… graphics.

View More The legendary and indescribable Dwarf Fortress goes non-ASCII and non-free for the first time

Switch game ‘Sayonara Wild Hearts’ feels like a playable, edgier ‘Sailor Moon’

As a girl, I used to wake up and start my day by reenacting the movements of Sailor Moon’s moon crystal power transformation. Though I didn’t know it, it was my extremely dorky version of a morning affirmation. It made me feel powerful, invigorated, …

View More Switch game ‘Sayonara Wild Hearts’ feels like a playable, edgier ‘Sailor Moon’

Gift Guide: Indie games for players worn out on AAA titles

2018 has been a big year for big games, and with new titles from the Assassin’s Creed, Red Dead Redemption, Call of Duty and Battlefield franchises all competing… it’s enough to make a gamer want to just quit and play something a little more low-key. Here are some of the smaller, independent games we liked […]

View More Gift Guide: Indie games for players worn out on AAA titles

‘Return of the Obra Dinn’ reinvents the murder mystery game

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Lucas Pope sure knows how to undersell his games — which, by all accounts, continue to push the limit of what we can expect from the medium.

The one-man powerhouse first exploded onto the scene with his wildly popular and morally existential bureaucratic puzzle game Papers, Please. Five years later, he’s released the equally undefinable Return of the Obra Dinn, described on his website as “An Insurance Adventure with Minimal Colour.”

LOL — I guess that’s one way to put it!

Showing an unmatched skill for turning the most seemingly boring scenarios and basic mechanics into something ingenious, Pope’s new game is in a league of its own.  Read more…

More about Entertainment, Indie Games, Murder Mystery, Watch Of The Week, and Lucas Pope

View More ‘Return of the Obra Dinn’ reinvents the murder mystery game

‘Captain Spirit’ is a flawed, admirable game about escapism and abuse

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This review contains mild spoilers for the ending of the 2-3 hour demo of The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit.

Games that address the hard truths of reality, like child abuse, are a rarity — to say the least.

So it’s truly a shame when games which take this admirable risk often feel this anxiety to suddenly veer into the fantastical. And its a dissonance that almost always comes at the expense of the real-world themes the story sets out to explore. 

Perhaps no studio and series encapsulates this more than DONTNOD’s narrative adventure game Life is Strange, and by extension, its free 2-3 hour spinoff The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit. A precursor demo to Life is Strange 2, Captain Spirit tells a story set in the same universe but only tangentially related to the sequel. Read more…

More about Entertainment, Abuse, Square Enix, Indie Games, and Life Is Strange

View More ‘Captain Spirit’ is a flawed, admirable game about escapism and abuse

Feast your eyes on these uniquely beautiful indie games from E3

The AAA games on display at E3 this year have, as usual, an amazing array of beautiful, nearly photorealistic graphics — and while they’re amazing in their own way, I always find it fun to highlight a few games that take a totally different approach to their art. Here are a few that caught my eye this time around.

View More Feast your eyes on these uniquely beautiful indie games from E3

This game tells the gender wage gap to f*ck off, and it’s exactly what we needed

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Jane Friedhoff is a riot grrrl game developerWhat does that mean? She creates power fantasies for women that let them tell the status quo to fuck right off — through the joy of unadulterated play.

Her latest title, Lost Wage Rampage, essentially reappropriates the hyper-masculinity of Grand Theft Auto, replacing the aimless male rage of the original driving game with the very real rage women feel after realizing they’re being paid less than their male coworkers. 

“It’s a game about gender inequality wrapped up in an ’80s-action-movie-comedy-fairytale,” described its animator and artist, Marlowe Dobbe.  Read more…

More about Entertainment, Social Good, Gender Pay Gap, Indie Games, and Gender Inequality

View More This game tells the gender wage gap to f*ck off, and it’s exactly what we needed

A ‘Theme Hospital’-style game is coming, and it looks heavily inspired by the original

Get ready to be hit with the nostalgia stick, because a new game inspired by Theme Hospital is coming.
The indie title, called Project Hospital, lets you do a lot of what you loved about the Bullfrog Productions game, including laying out the hospita…

View More A ‘Theme Hospital’-style game is coming, and it looks heavily inspired by the original