With INDIE INTERVIEWS, I talk to the game developers hanging here on Cohost to learn more about new games you might love.
The term "puzzle game" is a weird one. It can mean so many things! Are you playing with perception like in Viewfinder and Antichamber? Are you pushing boxes like in Sokoban? And don't even get me started on Tetris. Recently, I discovered a new subgenre that I hadn't played before: puzzle games where enemies chase you down. I talked to @mauve about his passion project Addlemoth and its inspirations.
You can play Addlemoth on itch.io
You can wishlist Defender's Quest 2 on Steam
Introduce yourself for everyone here on Cohost! Who are you?
I go by mauve, and I've been in the indie gaming scene for years doing this and that. I was a programmer on fighting game Them's Fightin' Herds for a couple years previously, and currently I'm working as a designer on upcoming tower defense game Defender's Quest 2. Once upon a time I also worked on fan translations for Touhou games, and Linux ports for Nyu Media, but that's long in the past now.
My interests are all over the place, but I'm really passionate about design, and I have been self-teaching myself pixel art and Japanese for years as well. Always happy to talk about whatever though.
Is there a project you're working on currently? Tell us about it!
Addlemoth's my main personal passion project. It's a turn-based puzzle game with a combat focus, with gameplay inspired by a long-running series known as DROD. The basic idea is that, rather than being a block pusher, the 'blocks' chase and make you move around instead.
It honestly started out as a project for me to have something to apply my pixel art practice to and, well, it kind of got a little out of hand. When I started with that, I went with JRPG-styled aesthetics since they seemed straightforward enough and something I was familiar with, and that bled over into the gameplay and scenario writing.
Over time, it's something that has become quite personal to me, over time, and I hope to be able to dedicate more time to getting it finished.
I've done everything on it, except audio because it turns out that I am quite terrible at it! @heavyviper is handling that and I couldn't be happier with his work. Check them out! ( https://heavyviper.bandcamp.com/ )