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Angsty adventure game Night in the Woods released after several delays

Angsty adventure game Night in the Woods released after several delays

1 min read News
A little over a week ago, the indie-favorite 2D game Night in the Woods released after nearly four years in development and several delays. Night in the Woods focuses on narrative, telling the story of recent college drop out Mae after returning to her old coal-mining town of Possum Springs. All is
An online chatroom isn’t where you’d expect to find a platformer

An online chatroom isn’t where you’d expect to find a platformer

1 min read News
Sign up to receive each week’s Playlist e-mail here! Also check out our full, interactive Playlist section. Walkie Talkie (Windows) BY DANIEL LINSSEN Daniel Linssen must see platformers everywhere. He’s already made one inside a computer interface and one that works in tandem with a separate game. N
Balthazar’s Dream reveals what good boys dream of, and it’s ruff

Balthazar’s Dream reveals what good boys dream of, and it’s ruff

2 min read News
A soft whimper causes you to look up from your work. It’s your dog, who is sleeping peacefully in bed. Is she dreaming? Her legs twitch slightly. Maybe she’s running around in a field, chasing a squirrel. She’s too old to do that now, but you like to think that the tiny mammal stood no chance in the
Introducing DISTANT, a game about saving dreamscapes from destruction

Introducing DISTANT, a game about saving dreamscapes from destruction

4 min read News
Many words can be used to describe last year’s endless snowboarding game Alto’s Adventure, but the one that stands out for me is flow. This encompassed the curves and angles of its snowdrifts, its wordless storytelling, and how smoothly it reset you to the top of its mountain once you fell. It was a

New platformer wants you to know the environment is screwed

1 min read News
Sign up to receive each week’s Playlist e-mail here! Also check out our full, interactive Playlist section. Even the Ocean (Windows, Mac) BY ANALGESIC PRODUCTIONS Even the Ocean is a warning. It’s a game that wants to raise awareness of the human impact on the environment and for its players to spre
Visual Out asks you to embrace the glitches of a dying computer

Visual Out asks you to embrace the glitches of a dying computer

1 min read News
“They deserted us. You’re all that’s left.” These are the words that echo through Visual Out, a Metroid-like platformer set inside the guts of a broken down, dying computer. Created by Ohio-based game maker MadameBerry, Visual Out has you play as an escaped program tasked with exploring different se
Even the Ocean wants you to find balance in life, out next week

Even the Ocean wants you to find balance in life, out next week

3 min read News
One of the hardest things to achieve in life is balance, yet it is utterly essential. A balanced diet, a balanced economy, a balanced environment—these are all things that we, as a species, know that we should strive towards. It’s what Even the Ocean is all about—a narrative platformer that will be
Barnaque’s next game is about the burden of being hopeful

Barnaque’s next game is about the burden of being hopeful

3 min read News
Barnaque is one of the most interesting freeware game studios to have emerged in the past few years. Comprised of the Montreal-based duo David Martin and Émeric Morin, Barnaque has made games that are often described as “batshit crazy” and “psychedelic,” mostly because the pair want to mess with pla
“Cuba’s first indie game” wants to be much more than that

“Cuba’s first indie game” wants to be much more than that

4 min read News
Videogames haven’t been kind to Cuba. In 1996, A-10 Cuba! had players decimating Cuban military defenses from an aircraft; the following year saw GoldenEye 007 on the Nintendo 64 depict Cuba as a hostile jungle full of source-less bullets; it didn’t even let up in 2010, with the arrival of Call of D
Owlboy is a masterful tale of transcending disability

Owlboy is a masterful tale of transcending disability

9 min read Review
My girlfriend speaks softly. She’s a ghost on the phone. If you ever met her in person, you’d lean in a little when she introduced herself. You could say it’s her personality. But you’d only be half right. The other half has something to do with a very large truck that collided with her small body w
Beard Blade might be the manliest videogame of them all

Beard Blade might be the manliest videogame of them all

2 min read News
Inspired by SNES, Genesis, and GBA classics, Beard Blade is an eccentric 2D platformer that follows the adventures of a farmer as he struggles to rid his town of troublesome imps. After an encounter with a magically-skilled barber, the farmer takes on the pseudonym Beard Blade, and his beard becomes
New frantic game is basically Devil Daggers in space

New frantic game is basically Devil Daggers in space

2 min read News
There are particular games that can only exist within the confines of the technological limitations of the time they were created. Missile Command (1980) feels anxious in its simplicity: the silence of surrounding the explosions of the missiles reminds you that, eventually, no matter how hard you tr
A game that uses a real floppy disk as its controller

A game that uses a real floppy disk as its controller

3 min read News
It’s been a long time since I’ve used a floppy disk. Years and years ago I remember having a digital camera and having to load old floppy disks in it. Before that I would store small pictures and writings on a floppy disk. These days, floppies exist most in the form of save icons. But a game called
Let’s all hold hands and play Shu on October 4th

Let’s all hold hands and play Shu on October 4th

2 min read News
Some may say that the platform genre is oversaturated, but then the hand-drawn art and hand-holding playfulness of Shu comes along to throw that argument into the trash. It’s due out for PlayStation 4 on October 4th with a PlayStation Vita version arriving before the end of the year too. So keep you
Clustertruck is an absolutely truckin’ wild time

Clustertruck is an absolutely truckin’ wild time

2 min read News
Even the best poker players are playing a game of chance. That’s exactly how it feels to play Landfall Games’ upcoming Clustertruck. No matter how good I thought I was getting at it, no matter how well I had done in the prior level, something unexpected would come along and put me in my place. Part
Your childhood fears will come to life in Little Nightmares

Your childhood fears will come to life in Little Nightmares

3 min read News
As a kid, I was afraid of the dark. Afraid of the shadows that veiled the monsters that might swallow me. My imagination turned nighttime into a dizzying experience where I was constantly startled and petrified by every sudden shift of motion or shuffling sounds. I always hid underneath my blanket,
A new retro-style platformer lets other players control the monsters

A new retro-style platformer lets other players control the monsters

3 min read News
Game jams are filled with sleepless nights. Designers and artists gather for a short period of time, like a weekend, then work non-stop to create something playable in that limited time frame. A game jam is an intense and challenging way to create a game. And yet, it’s how many fantastic videogames
We All End Up Alone is an upcoming game about battling cancer

We All End Up Alone is an upcoming game about battling cancer

3 min read News
It’s late. You’re sitting on the couch staring at the TV. The phone rings. You glance away from the dim screen over at the clock hanging on the wall. You reach over to grab the phone and hold it up to your ear. “Hey, Em.” The voice on the other end sounds tired. “He has cancer. It’s … terminal.” You

Bound brings videogames to the ballet

1 min read News
Sign up to receive each week’s Playlist e-mail here! Also check out our full, interactive Playlist section. Bound (PlayStation 4) BY PLASTIC STUDIOS & SIE SANTA MONICA STUDIO Rhythm games may use dancing animations to show a beat, but not many games engage with dance as an artform. In Bound, the bea
Turns out that 11 to 14-year-old girls can make the cutest games

Turns out that 11 to 14-year-old girls can make the cutest games

2 min read News
Let’s be frank: it’s not easy working as a woman in games. The past few years have been particularly tough for us. But as women in games, each of us feels a responsibility to help and support each other while working in this space. Especially when it comes to helping young women enter the field. Whe
Hue is here to make you appreciate colors again

Hue is here to make you appreciate colors again

3 min read News
The sky is blue. That much we can agree on. Or can we? I mean, where I reside in San Francisco, it’s typically an ominous shade of grey (because, fog). In the clever new platformer Hue, from Fiddlesticks Games, the sky doesn’t have to be blue. Not always at least. The sky can be crimson red, fuchsia
Be a magical fox that can change the seasons on September 2nd

Be a magical fox that can change the seasons on September 2nd

2 min read News
Though the strangely-specific genre of “fox adventure game” isn’t exactly lonely this summer, the upcoming platformer Seasons After Fall is determined to assert its individuality. A fox wandering through a forest: good. A fox wandering through a forest in order to collect fragments of every season i
The brilliant clumsiness of Grow Up

The brilliant clumsiness of Grow Up

6 min read Review
There’s a blinking emoticon of a robot waving its arms around. It has the kind of joy that should be reserved for kids at a birthday party, not a loading screen. Once the bar is filled the robot appears again—now in full 3D, a red shell like a Lego brick—but this time it’s animated like a drunk who’
Emotional upcoming platformer turns words into architecture

Emotional upcoming platformer turns words into architecture

3 min read News
A child is standing on a scrap of paper. “This diary belongs to Izzy,” she says. As you move her across these words and to the next page, another set of words appear: “I never knew my mum. It was mostly gran who brought me up.” This is Lost Words. It’s a story-driven platformer being created by UK-b