I love games that let you unwind in a Zen kind of way. Whether it’s arranging your personal belongings in a title like Unpacking, or driving across a lonely highway in the calming silence of the night in Euro Truck Simulator 2, I can always appreciate it when a game lets you completely tune out the outside world to the point it becomes almost therapeutic.

Taking players to an alternate 1984 filled with secrets, betrayal and deception, the game will follow Daniel McGovern, an agent working for the omnipresent Leviathan Corporation in East Germany.

A post-apocalyptic action-RPG that takes place in the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone, the game will have you step into the boots of a parallel world-hopping planewalker trying to survive the nightmarish dangers of the Zone after it’s been altered by the mysterious, high-energy material known as Chernobylite.

And while the main meat of the game does involve mopping up bloodstained floors and cleaning up a multitude of messy rooms at the behest of the mob, the single father protagonist of Crime Scene Cleaner is doing all this shady work for a good reason – to help with his severely ill daughter’s medical costs.

Man, how do I even begin? Dark and Deep is a game that kept me in a cautiously optimistic mood at first, because clearly a good deal of work had gone into it. It’s a first-person, narrative-driven adventure game with puzzle-solving and mild exploration as its main focus, featuring a storyline that’s hoping to blur the lines between the real and the nightmarish.

Set in a land where the gods and their people have mysteriously vanished, players will follow the journey of Juno, the Chosen Outcast, as she attempts to rebuild the world and bring back all that was lost.

In it, players will take on the role of seasoned paranormal investigator Alan Rebels as he takes on a case that promises to be something different – this time, you see, Alan travels to the mysterious island of GodStone in search of his missing father.

Inspired by Studio Ghibli films, Slavic folklore and medieval Europe, Scarlet Deer Inn will have you follow the adventures of Elise, a mother of two who, despite being a completely ordinary person, will end up experiencing situations both unusual and potentially terrifying.

Guess who loves pixel art games around here? Well, we do. You can probably see where this is going, but I’m going to tell you anyway: we tried a bunch of demos, picked out our favorites, and now we’re here to tell you about them. Trust me, there are some juicy titles in here, so do read on!

No new release date has been set for the Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth developer’s latest project, but needless to say, the delay has been announced for a good – and fairly obvious – reason: the game needs further polishing and quality improvements.

Welcome to GTOGG’s August 2024 edition of Promising Indie Game Releases, where we highlight indie and non-mainstream titles that we believe deserve your attention – in other words, “look at all this potentially cool stuff you might’ve missed otherwise”. That would’ve been too long for a title, though.

Arriving later this summer – on August 2 – as a free update to everyone who already owns the base game on PC or Switch, the Definitive Edition is going to include a so-called endless embalming mode that does exactly what it says on the tin: it lets you embalm an unlimited amount of bodies.

Taking place in a world being invaded by The Meat, a hostile biomass of flesh that devours anything and everything in its path, the game will have you take up arms and – hopefully – blast this intergalactic threat off the face of the galaxy.

Taking place in a dying, abandoned world enveloped by fleshy abominations, the game will have you discover fragments of your own troubled past while trying to avoid the nightmarish monstrosities that haunt the pitch-dark landscapes surrounding you.

That’s a surprising title, I know, but hear me out – what if the giraffe at the local zoo mutated into a nightmarish spider creature? I know, right?

Very clearly inspired by survival horror greats such as the earlier Silent Hill and Resident Evil installments, the game introduces an interesting twist with its setting: it takes place in 1916, during the First World War, and stars a lone French soldier in search of his brother.

Now, you may be wondering what I meant by “deflection-focused”, so let’s go over that real quick: Deviator will have you traverse many diverse landscapes and tackle countless dangerous foes, but the way to victory isn’t necessarily through endless button mashing – instead, you’ll want to avoid getting hit and skillfully parry/deflect all your enemies’ attacks.

Taking place in the vibrant, bio-magical world of Nauris, inspired by Avatar and Stranger Things, the story will have you explore the inherent darkness of this otherworldly universe as you peer into its madness-infested depths from the parallel viewpoints of multiple characters.

The game wastes no time when it comes to grabbing you by the collar and pulling you right into its creepy, Lovecraftian bog of otherworldly secrets, utilizing narrated quotes from the original story to set its eerie mood.

NIGHTMARE OPERATOR takes place in the ruins of Tokyo (in 2036, to be precise) as it’s being haunted by eldritch monstrosities, that is, youkai inspired by urban legends and Japanese folklore.

Mountains of Madness is pretty much an exploration simulator, where 90% of your gameplay will consist of wandering around massive open spaces and trying to find your way forward with varying levels of success.

Welcome to GTOGG’s July 2024 edition of Promising Indie Game Releases, where we highlight indie and non-mainstream titles that we believe deserve your attention – in other words, “look at all this potentially cool stuff you might’ve missed otherwise”. That would’ve been too long for a title, though.

When I first came across Felvidek, the initial emotion I felt was probably... confusion. I was taken by surprise by what I was seeing: a retro-style RPG set in medieval Europe (more specifically, 15th century Slovakia), with engaging turn-based combat, extremely lofi graphics, dialogue scenes that alternate between the serious and the outrageously comedic, and a plot that takes a handful of unexpected turns?

Set years after the events of INDUSTRIA, the sequel will follow the adventures of Nora, a scientist from East Berlin, 1989, who ended up stuck in a parallel dimension while trying to find her missing colleague.

The genre of brick breaker video games is as old as time itself – a genre that most people probably associate with oldschool, tried-and-true titles like Breakout and the original Arkanoid. Needless to say, I approached Firebat Revolution, an absolute love letter to that bygone era of gaming, with ample curiosity; as I wrote in my initial coverage of the project, Firebat Revolution does a great job of authentically recreating the style and feel of a game that could’ve come out for PC in the mid-1990s.

The sun is out, our drinks are cold and we’re sweating buckets – in other words, summer is officially here, and with it, yet another Steam Next Fest has arrived to give us a lovely truckload of indie demos to look through. As usual, we’ve found a handful of gems we’re very much looking forward to sharing with you.

You awaken as a vampire, weakened and ravenous, driven by an insatiable thirst to reclaim your former power and forge a dark empire. The game thrusts you into a world where survival hinges on resource gathering and castle building, all in the relentless pursuit of becoming the ultimate vampire overlord...

Taking place on the now-abandoned tourist paradise of the titular Dimhaven, the game will follow protagonist Emily Ravenstone on her journey of discovery as she attempts to unravel the mysteries behind the scenic island’s fate – while also trying to find her missing uncle.