Andrew

Cover by Caterina Gerbasi

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The latest edition of Indiepocalypse (the monthly alternative game anthology I run) is now out! If you don't know what Indiepocalypse is I wrote a starter guide!

The games in this month issue (as seen in the trailer) are

The Trials of Goodbye by baegho :)

You are the reaper of Death. This is the final person on Earth. You must decide if they go to Heaven, Hell, or Purgatory based on your own actions. You may choose to befriend this person or not. The choice is yours.

Warcrime Chess by @lynchpoet

A two player chess variant with hidden information, bluffing, guilt, and Robert S. McNamara

A Late Night Convo by Kristi Jimenez

Unable to sleep, Seo-jun talks to his partner Iris about their relationship and how much he appreciates her. A Late Night Convo is a short and sweet story about asexuality and finding true love.

Mycorrhizal by Abeyant

Become one with the forest’s network. A short text-based exploration game about the passage of time, memories, and the nature of decay. Made in less than 48 hours for Global Game Jam 2023.

Dream Mechanic by Augustinas Raginskis

You are the Dream Mechanic and your job is fixing broken dreams. You have been called to a tiny secluded town in the mountains where people's dreams have gone so far out of control that they started affecting real life. Each dream is a puzzle and that's where you can show of your skills and help some people.

21 strangers to interact with.

21 dreams to solve, each of which makes no sense in it’s own way.

And a town to explore. Just try not to break anything important.

The Vaults of Minos by ThunderPerfectWitchcraft

Enter the trapped Vaults of Minos and stop your former teacher, the mad professor Nimroder, from waking the cursed King Minos.

The Vaults of Minos is a fluid arcade Jump 'n Run with procedural generation - every attempt to prevent the unholy coalition between your opponent and the ancient tyrant will contain new traps, bosses, and challenges.

My Pandemic Table by Ondřej Trhoň

Fall 2020, me and my cluttered desk. Hand-drawn memories about objects too familiar, dusty digital files and home office hangover. Includes fatigued desktop simulator with original OST by friends.

Slasher U! Act 1 of 3 by Andi Santagata

SLASHER U is an 18+ reactive RPG dating sim all about America's Horniest Horror Movie University! Major in things like Masked Murder and Final Girlism (gender neutral), hook up with your classmates (who each have unique makeout & hookup minigames), and, if you're lucky, experience some form of emotional catharsis from this love letter to horror movies, goth stuff, sex, and the everlasting power of intimacy, love, and friendship!

Includes RPG-based mechanics and systems, interlocking storylines, the full gamut of Kinsey scale romances, a toggle-able 18+ mode, and super sick hand drawn art! (Game is in Act 1 of 3, Alpha version).

Young Street by Werecus

Before bipedal apes invented radio receivers, before we exchanged our gills for lungs, there was radio. Man-made transmissions mutate and extend the electrosphere. Remember the alien face of nature!

And newly commissioned for Indiepocalypse!

Give Me Up by Blueberry Soft

Frustration, compromise, cloth.

signing up for my 5th social media site in a week as a modern creative

My goal with Indiepocalypse Roundups (as opposed to Double Features) is to present a collection of games around much broader themes such as this case with the very broad theme of a shared continent of origin. My last Roundup was an appropriately timed collection of games nominated in the IGF Nuovo and this time around it's games from South America!

Highlighting games from all around the world is a core goal of Indiepocalypse, and while far from comprehensive, having contributions from (a reported) 32 different countries is pretty good! (i think) The game industry focuses heavily on US (and some Europe) based events that are, to be honest, inaccessible to plenty of people who live in the US. But luckily this is the internet and you can (basically) publish things no matter where you are!

CONURBATION (@casa) - Brazil
CONURBATION is of the earliest entries in Indiepocalypse and one I go back to most frequently when I'm asked for an example of an "Indiepocalypse game" or a game to look at first. Singularly focused and intentionally abrasive, places you in the center of urban encroachment.

Distant Memories (Mer Grazzini) - Argentina
Applying the procedural generation so commonly found in games to poetry, Distant Memories presents itself as a self-styled "Procedural-poem-catch ‘em up™". Can you have a "run-based" game without a clear objective or fail-state? Distant Memories presents its own approach to both what it means to be a game and poem.

Available in both English and Castellano.

hlina (sukinapan) - Chile
It's a simple job, help someone by looking around their house for their lost pets. Just unfamiliar enough without being completely alien, hlina conjures a surrealist world much like our own but does so without an interest in explaining why. Art often exists in a non-literal world open to our personal interpretation (or even just feeling), and games are no exception to this. And with hlina, sukinapan provides a 5 minute jaunt into such a world.

GUACUCO (@futureruins) - Venezuela
A short exploration of a beach and memories. GUACUCO is self-described as an interactive diorama and was for a time, an actual live art installation. It's core of recollecting and discarding memories inside of seashells demonstrates beautifully the conversational heart of art that exists in art even in the absence of a mechanical challenge. Never underestimate the emotional challenge presented by art.

Skate RPG (Daniel Dante) - Brazil
As it's name implies, Skate RPG is beautiful introduction of a skateboarding trick system into an RPG framework. And with the skating comes a fierce anti-authoritarian attitude. As you travel though the city meeting it's residents and learning new skate tricks, you are also assured the rich do not exist to help you and probably shouldn't exist at all. Frankly more in-game shopkeepers ought to remind of the soul-crushing nature of the 8-hour workday befor presenting you with their wares.

Available in Portuguese and English

CONURBATION was featured in Indiepocalypse #3
Distant Memories was featured in Indiepocalypse #30
hlina was featured in Indiepocalypse #39
GUACUCO was featured in Indiepocalypse #30
Skate RPG was featured in Indiepocalypse #14

(if any of the other developers have cohost handles that i missed let me know!)