Exploring The Itch.io Collection #3

Even more of this! I promise, it's the last one this month. With this article, we've reached the games that can be finished in 10 minutes.

Experiences

Just kids becoming friends, regardless of species.

Summer Gems: Two young kids, one human girl and one frog, meet on the seaside beach. They share gifts, your character writes to the other, then receives the response. It’s cute, raises a good point about environmentalism, but stops at showing this budding, momentary friendship over three scenes.

Arigatou, Ningen-San!: In this game partly developed by USC Games (of WereCleaner fame), you just arrived in the neighborhood and are tasked by a bird to befriend all the local animals… by petting the Heck out of them with the mouse. No real goal past that, and the only funny thing to this one is how the animals get squished as you “pet” them.

Dawndusk Dream Sewer: In this isometric experience, your character is going down some dream sewers and speaking to the people trapped within. All the way down to some sort of chaotic deity. I didn’t feel much for the esoteric, absurdist discussions in there.

Miles of endless corridors, and not a single bathroom in sight.

Hotel Paradise: Look for your room in a seemingly endless hotel. There is no rhyme or reason as to where the rooms are located, so don’t try to figure it out with logic. Just keep walking through the halls until you finally spot your room number. Apparently, each number is completely personal, no other player will have it (though considering there’s a maximum of 999 rooms, I personally doubt that statement). Very basic gameplay, intriguing concept (and finding your room WILL take a while), but this game doesn’t offer a lot else.

No Wheels Racing: A parody game about a race where none of the cars have wheels. Pick a driver! Pick a car! (There’s only one.) Pick whether you want wheels (not available) or no wheels! Then, it’s off to the races, and all you can do is stay in place, honk, or press Escape to get disqualified! …Yeah, it’s just a quick joke, especially with the build-up to the “race” or how racers honk their horns louder the longer you wait. Silly thing.

And then, of course, judgment gets passed on what you've
made of Heaven based on which folks you've let through.

The Political Compass: Devil’s Labyrinth: A visual novel in which you’re the new hire who must choose whether to send souls to Heaven or to Hell… the latter, with EVISCERATION! The “practice souls” you get are all a bunch of exaggerated stereotypes: The crypto bro, the ultra-rich, the app developer, the reality TV watcher, y’know. Guess the game tries to be comedic, but I didn’t feel like it was particularly funny, and any commentary felt wasted.

for|rest: In this walking simulator, you visit a completely grey, lifeless forest. You can click the mouse button to wave your hand at transparent thorny vines to make them disappear, which causes colors, plants and fauna to reappear in the area. Sometimes, though, a girl may appear instead… can you hear her story? While I appreciate the concept, I think I missed out on the ending because at some point I could no longer find any vines to erase, and so I was seemingly stuck. It’s a good and meaningful idea presented in a very artistic (if low-poly) manner.

All things you can do with ropes and little spheres.
Hey, that's creative!

Il filo conduttore: Italian for “the common thread”. In this experience, all you can do involves strings and little balls. Activate things, make music, see what odd interactions happen. Every scene is something different. You could be excused for thinking most of this was done with live-action objects. Nice little thing, good for at least one playthrough.

Otherside: Is supposed to be a trippy, puzzle-based experience with psychedelic visuals (the page describes it as Myst meets the ending of 2001: A Space Odyssey), but I tried playing it thrice and each time, I either got stuck because puzzles were unclear, or a new screen just failed to load (with no way to leave using, say, the Esc key). Ain’t trying it again, nope. Hard pass.

Not sure what this machine is supposed to be, but...
it's all very ominous.

please: A horror/environmental storytelling game in which you are the repairman in a building in an odd… place and setting, is the best I can say. You’re asked to “please” repair stuff downstairs, always machinery that's left unexplained. We never quite know what’s going on, but we do hear sounds by the doors, and we’re left wondering. The ending doesn’t help either, mking things even more ambiguous. Sound design’s great here, graphics are low-res 3D but work great for the desired effect. Recommended!

Conversations With My Anxiety: A visual novel in which the player is on their first date with a woman named Gina, and the date isn’t going entirely as planned; thus, the player’s anxiety butts in to make things more difficult, especially to weigh in on what’s going on. You always have the option to let anxiety win, but there are different bits of text to read depending on which option you select. Accurate depiction of living with anxiety. I bet there’s quite a few possible endings, too. Do check that one, I liked it.

I'm too honest, my response would be "it's a first date, of
course I am." But I'd still have hope the date goes well.

Self-care

Take your time - I know I'll need some time myself to
write down what I want to leave behind.

little boats of farewell: A point-and-click story in which a ghost participates in the ritual of leaving paper boats to float down the river at the end of the year with what the memories they want to leave behind. Along the way, you can talk to the others there, hear what they’re willingly forgetting on the dawn of the new year. You can even pick things off the ground to decorate your boat. At the end, once you’re ready to let your paper boat go, you’re encouraged to write down your own message. Feels therapeutic. For a 10-minute game, this touched me more than I thought it would.

Social reach

A HerpWitch and their weird little critter.
No matter which one it will end up being.

To Be A HerpWitch: A riff on Pokémon created for a Nonbinary Game Jam, you play a nonbinary character who dreams of becoming a HerpWitch, AKA a trainer of Familizards. They are first seen dreaming of the classic “boy or girl?” question from early Pokémon, choosing neither. They get ready for work, then head out. They weren’t set to get their own Familizard, but an unlikely twist of fate leads to them getting one regardless. It’s cute, and I get that it’s short because it was for a game jam, but it does leave one wishing there was more.

down.: Self-described as “a short, somber atmospheric experience about depression, anxiety and the inability to forgive oneself”, this game is just the character walking towards the right and finding notes from her own mind that belittle her and push her to suicide. …I get the point, dealing with those thoughts is rough, but there's almost nothing to gameplay, nothing to interact with, so it feels otherwise uninspired. Maybe don’t play that one if you’re already struggling on that front.

Misophonia is decreased tolerance to certain sounds or what
causes them, hence why the character is struggling to
get past someone blowing their nose.

Escort Yourself Out: An autobiographical game about suffering from eating disorders, anxiety attacks, misophonia, and other trauma-born issues, and learning to live with them. The author made this game for a university thesis, and most of the game is a discussion on her part about how these issues affect her day-to-day life and her studies. The more game-like portions are the author escorting her younger self across a busy store, and you hold down a key to offer comforting words to help her get through all these encounters.

Plain games

Beat that evil witch! You can do it! Good boys!
You're gonna get treats if you win!

Dogs Throwing Swords II: Three Barks To The Wind: A shmup with a clever concept. Three dogs are chosen to fight the witch that has corrupted the woods and the desert. Each dog has a type of attack, the three go through the stage as a group, and you can change their position with Left-shift or their order with Left-Ctrl. Each doggo has their own health, which depletes when they’re hit specifically. Two worlds of two levels each, and two boss fights. With its 16-bit look, this game is adorable. And fun, too! Makes me wish there was more of it.

Bunflower: A Game Boy Color-style game in which your player bunny must collect three pieces of food (namely, plants) before a blizzard hits. You obtain them by helping people around bunny town. It’s super easy, but neat and just the kind of game you could give a kid that’s starting their journey in gaming.

Well, I need food! Just watch me, I'll be back
before the storm. Promise!

Filing this one under "disappointments". Might have
enjoyed, if it didn't bazoo-krash constantly.

Bazookrash: ACAB, am I right? Morlando the bear wants to sleep, but the damn sirens in the distance keep him up. Time to grab the firearms and unleash Hell on the night noise. First-person shooter, aim for the pink cars, leave the civilian blue ones alone. You have a rifle, a gauss and a bazooka. Decent idea and concept, it could have been fun, but the damn thing kept crashing on me.

Stophat: You play as a rich jerk’s hat and must try to land on your owner’s head as many times as possible, though he will start moving to avoid you. A and D to move left and right, S to descend. As another quickly-made GameJam entry, this is as basic as it gets, but… yeah, feels rather meh.

It's got the basics, so there could be a larger game
in the same genre made by the same person someday.

Gigabit: In this 2.5D platformer made in 16 days for a Halloween game jam, you play as a little robot who has to get through six stages with Halloween theming. Each time the robot hits the floor or a wall, little debris come flying out. If you get stuck, hit R to restart the level. Move with A/D or the arrows, jump with W, Up or Space. While enjoyable, it does feel like someone’s first attempt at 2.5D platforming, as some platforms aren’t defined well and there are slight issues with lighting that make some threats hard to spot. But it’s a commendable product, especially if made in this short a timeframe.

INDECT: A platform game about a cyberpunk future. Or, rather, a demo for such a game, as it only contains a tutorial and two levels, the second of which already ramps up the difficulty. Your character can move with the arrows, jump with Space and shoot with alt. Not a lot to get immersed, though it looks promising. Notably, in the second level, new enemies appear when backtracking over a path that didn’t have them before. Unfortunately, the project is on hiatus.

Nigel: A game that homages Nigel the gannet, a real bird with quite the history. You play as Nigel, who becomes a matchmaker for the couples of animals on Mana Island, solving simple puzzles to make them meet. After solving all the puzzles, Nigel gets to pick a partner of his own... a concrete bird statue. Very easy to finish, but it’s the thought that counts.

Now, how to get the two kiwis together...
Kiwi! Kiwi, c'm'ere! There's another kiwi for you!

She's gonna have her step count through the roof
once this night is over.

Night in the Storm: Help Vera the lighthouse keeper seagull through the night in a very faulty lighthouse. Gotta keep the boats safe! Close the window so the bottom floor won’t flood and short-circuit the generator, change the lightbulb every time one burns out, and repair the engine that rotates the light when it also stops. It’s a stressful stormy night! This one is fun, and I thought it was a good thing that you could zoom out to see the whole place at once to keep track of what you must work on. Great-looking sprite art, too.

We're so devoted to the job, we'll even try selling to your dog!

This Call May Be Recorded: You’re a new telemarketer/scam caller annoying people over the phone. Gameplay is split in two parts. The first part has you click the “Stop” button and trying to land into the blue areas over a green bar. The more successful hits you get, the more annoying your pitch is to the person called. They respond with spite, and the second part has you blocking the words from your ears by clicking where they’re coming from: Up, down, left or right. Five callees, with an increasing difficulty level. The last one is GREAT. Loved that game.

A spider in the bathroom. Someone sampling the
wines for free. The homeless guy at the door.
Truly, even for monsters, retail is Hell.

Vampire Night Shift: Designed to also work on Game Boy emulators. You play a vampire who works a night shift at a store. Help the rude customers, stock the shelves, and deal with other supernatural events. Your boss tells you early on to do everything to avoid getting fired, but that never comes up again, as far as I know – though I do suspect some events can happen differently based on your actions. Fun one, I liked it. I love the GB aesthetic, it’s cozy nostalgia.

Akuto: Showdown (formerly, Akuto: Mad World): An isometric multiplayer game (with extra options for single player) where your character must kill every other character in the arena. You can move in eight directions, throw your sword at opponents and NPC enemies alike, try to kill more than you get killed. There seems to be a whole bunch of different environments to fight in, and hazards to encounter, but I lost interest real fast when the NPC and hazards turned out too good against the player.

There's chonk, then there's C H O N K.

Fat Bear Week: A bear awakens for the yearly bingeing before going back to sleep. The bear starts off normal, but after eating enough it’ll turn round and roll around the stage to eat, then keep growing as it eats more. Each stage has a special flower hidden in it, and keeps track of how many of each kind of edible item you caught. There are five bears available, the last of which is unlocked only by eating everything in each of the three stages. This is harmless and easy enough, and I could see this as a quick game for younger kids.

Laser Paddles: Pong, with powerups and lasers! And by lasers, I mean it; the CPU paddle is programmed to shoot as soon as it can, tearing holes into yours. There are lots of powerups on the screen, and those cause balls to bounce around the screen with various effects. There are multiple balls, but all that matters is which side the last ball gets through. Tons of modes that switch up gameplay, possibility for multiplayer, etc. It’s not my cup of tea, but it’s exactly what it set out to do, so it’s fine.

This game gets hard fast, AND both the bounce mechanics
and hitboxes are kinda wonky. Nothing to help our pumpkin...

Pumpking: A platformer in which you control a pumpkin along a lengthy continuous stage still split into levels for simplicity. Stomp on opponents, or jump even higher by bouncing on their heads; collect coins, extra hearts, and later down the line, look for keys to unlock the path going down. Nothing too groundbreaking, just a decent quick thing with a Halloween theme. Though I did think the bouncing ability was hit or miss, and that some sections were a little cheap here and there.

And... that's all for now! Might not seem like much, but over three articles, I covered exactly 80 games. Proper long reviews will be coming up soon!

Exploring The itch.io Collection #2

I've already got three articles' worth of stuff from itch.io, so you know what, I think I'll get through them right away. Still very short games here, all requiring under 10 minutes to finish.

Experiences

One of my biggest issues with these itch.io articles, right
now, is how I keep having the reflex to say these games
are short. They still take under 10 minutes to finish
at the moment!

Good Morning Hon: A game that I believe was made on RPG Maker. The story of Ash, who lives in her apartment with her fiancée Eve. That morning, she cannot shake the feeling after getting up that something’s not quite right. Sweet, yet with a devastating twist. “Why do I feel like I’m forgetting something?”

Homing: A 3D game about how carrier pigeons always find their destination. The letter being sent is recited as we follow a pigeon on its journey towards the letter’s recipient. You can control the pigeon to fly left and right, but once you let go it will always course correct towards the goal. You can get new bits of text based on which blue buildings you fly over. Clever!

It may be low-poly, but it's still looking nice.

HubWorld: In first-person view, you travel around four hub “worlds” (hence the title) while accompanied by vaporwave-ish music. The worlds are dubbed Island, Forest, World and Sky, and moving around is all you can do. Want to see the next level? Just left-click, and you’re there. The game ends after the fourth level. This one kind of hurt my eyes after a moment, and the lack of interactivity with anything meant I didn’t feel a need to spend much time playing it.

This one is a classic, for a good reason!

The Majesty of Colors: I loved this one! You play as someone’s dream, in which they were one giant underwater creature with three eyes. You control its lone tentacle, and it becomes aware of the human world after grabbing a balloon. From there, you can choose to befriend humans, rescue people or toss fish into fishermen’s boats. Or you can be hostile, kill people by dragging them underwater, and see the armed response with bombs and torpedoes. I’m told this is a remake of a classic web game? This one has five possible endings depending on your choices, so although it can be finished in five minutes, there’s enough to discover by replaying and trying different avenues to make it worth coming back to.

I spot a light in the distance. Must be relevant.

What Happened To Survey Team 4?: A walking simulator in which your character is investigating the disappearance of a team in the wilderness. All you can do is follow the path. Occasionally, you can find data cards with text from those you’re looking for, or glowing balls that you (ironically) can’t use to light the way as the night falls. This game has a horror vibe to it and offers good ambiance. For a game allegedly made in less than a day’s worth of time, it’s not bad, but it is a little empty.

Equaboreal 12.21: Set at the Winter Solstice in a world of sentient plants (that somehow wear clothes… don’t ask), the village is worried as a coming shipment of light, their main source of nutrients, has gotten lost in the woods. Basic controls moving around, not a ton of gameplay to be had. Putting aside the slightly absurd tone, the story didn’t feel all that interesting. Still, its creator likes the project enough to have made additional chapters.

Self-care

Yeah, just a "look out the window while listening to
vaporwave" simulator.

…might just ditch this category if I fail to find enough games for it, and add it to Social reach instead.

VIRTUA BLINDS: Blinds simulator. Not blindness; blinds. Watch the skies change as the day comes and goes outside, turn on the lamp, get rid of the clutter of post-it notes on the desk, turn on the TV and its vaporwave music, and relax. That’s all. Not much else to it. It can be soothing, but chances are that unless you’re big on vaporwave you won’t give this one much of a chance beyond 5, maybe 10 minutes.

Social reach

Well, Mrs. Goldman, I didn't expect to meet you
at this point in time!

Conversations with Emma: Your character encounters in Toronto the ghost of Emma Goldman, a famous anarchist who conducted leftist activities in the U.S. The conversation veers into the issues of modern hyper-capitalism and how bad things have gotten. Despite having parts with apparent choices, none lead to different results, so I think that was a bit of a missed opportunity. Hey, at least it spreads awareness of a historical figure that’s seldom mentioned otherwise.

falling is not the same as dying: A story told through text about the struggles of being a Chinese teenaged girl who's into girls, presented from the point of view of that character, a student playing tennis at PE class. Particularly brutal is the commentary on the preference for parents to have boys rather than girls in Chinese culture, and the impacts of growing up as a girl with that baggage – even if said girl isn’t even growing up in China. That's before even factoring in the LGBTQ aspect.

In My Friend Carrie’s Car: A text-based game in which the protagonist is reflecting on her life dealing with eating disorders, OCD and depression, and how they affected her life through school and until now. You make choices by pressing the key of the first letter of the choice you want; you can “stay in the car”, or you can divert towards other thoughts to learn the full story. This one does hit, it shows the impacts of those issues, and some of the ways in which they impact life.

Shut up, anxiety!

1365: Made at the end of its creator’s time through high school, with the title reflecting the number of days spent in high school. And how a struggle with mental illnesses – mainly overbearing anxiety, which ends up working as a vessel for other issues such as dysmorphia, depression and suicidal ideation – made it a particularly tough couple years for them. It’s a tough subject, but the integration of mechanics into the story, such as being able to keep going even after what only looks like a Game Over, is especially clever.

Okay, Nic... try to think of a funny joke... no... not that...
fuck, that one's too dark... oh Hell no... neither... ...Nope,
every joke I wanna make will reference real-life events
and I'll hate myself for making it.

The Night Fisherman: This could be just a narrative, but considering all that’s going on right now, it feels so much more fitting here. The only controls are the mouse to go through dialogue, and the left/right arrows to change the camera angle. On English waters, you play the eponymous character, who is accosted by a shadowy boat led by someone in search of migrants passing the frontier in hiding. Unfortunately, your boat hides one such migrant under the tarp, a young child. And your choice inevitably boils down to handing the kid over to that racist monster, or keep protecting the child and get murdered for it. nICE. Very nICE. It’s tense, it’s scary, and… well, right now, it will hit really damn close to home for many people.

Plain games

And the end result is pretty, too!

Central Limit Theorem: A shmup in which you control the circle at the center of the screen. Enemies come from the edges, in three different patterns. Learn the pattern and shoot fast to beat them? Oh, it’s not so simple. Each enemy leaves a color trail behind them. If an enemy weaves through that trail, it learns that other enemy’s pattern. The challenge turns into fighting enemies that constantly evolve the longer you play. I got all the way to 55 kills, not bad for my first time. Very clever idea, though I don’t know if it could ever be expanded into something larger.

Looks cool, and I don't say that just because of the field
of ice we seem to be driving on.

Derpy Deep Drive: Drive your bus as far as possible into an endless(?) field of ice with obstacles. Everything is done with the mouse – both driving the bus and controlling the camera. When you hit an obstacle, you lose health, which is regained by driving without hitting anything. The further you go, the more common obstacles become. How far can you get? I got to 2,200m. This could make a fun minigame in a larger product.

Falling Skies: Feels like somebody’s first shmup. You control your ship, destroy enemy vessels gather power-ups, get better, go through an asteroid field, then beat up the boss. All over five levels, the total of which can be beaten in under 10 minutes. It’s not reinventing anything or being super creative, but it’s just fine for a quick shmup pick-me-up.

LAZA KNITEZ!!: A game that’s more interesting for its context than for its content. Play alone or with up to three friends, and control a knight in space that shoots lasers from its spear. Kill the other knights by shooting at or ramming into them. Solo Mode calculates your number of kills, while multiplayer is more about depleting every other knight’s health bar until only the winner stands. It’s fine as far as minigames go. Just don’t buy it at its current 100$ price tag (see link as to WHY it’s now at that price).

Dunno how to describe the look of that game/animation,
but I do know I like it.

Out The Window: a car trip sim: A game about a child watching the world through the window of a car. You have an “imaginary friend” which you make jump over obstacles. If you get a good score by keeping a streak going, you earn tokens, which can be spent on snacks in gas stations. It looks cute, and dips into that odd, shared experience we’ve all had as kids imagining stuff in the world outside during long trips. This one’s sweet.

No doggo shall escape my petting hand!!

Pet The Pup At The Party: Your social batteries are running dry so you fall back on your old tricks of seeking the nearest dog and petting it instead of doing small talk. You explore the procedurally generated houses, looking for the good boi or good girl. You can look for little “Arf”s on the screen or listen to guess where those sounds are coming from. You start with a 2-minute timer that replenishes by 30 seconds at each puppy petted. There are more than 52 dogs to meet! I liked that one, it’s got a very funny tone and it’s quite challenging if you get lost easily!

Guppy: Play as a little guppy looking for flies to eat. You don’t have a ton of control in your motions, alternating between the Left and Right keys (or A and D) to move around. Find flies and eat them, then hide from predators. Repeat, go for a high score. This game looks relaxing but gets quite tense at moments. I think there may also be a few secrets and scenes to look for.

Making a moon was easier than I thought. Just a click.
Also, wow, that'Ms a funky planet.

Petty Puny Planet: Play God! Here’s a brand-new planet, now add something new to it. After every decision, you rest for 100 years. How does the world change on each cycle? Do you lead them its inhabitants to wealth? Do you advance them to the point of leaving? Do you lose them all to natural disasters? Or do you take a fantastic twist to things, ending into a Lord of the Rings-style world at best, a zombie apocalypse at worst? So many possible endings. This one was fun!

The crowd is growing, better not disappoint all these
folks. Just focus! ...if the game lets you.

Stage Fright: An odd mix of rhythm and horror, you play the piano in front of an audience, using the S/D/F and J/K/L keys. However, your character is dealing with intense performance panic, and so your playthrough of each song (there’s only 4) will change depending on how well you perform. Doing badly? The screen will blur or flip upside-down. At its worst, you can expect a jump scare. But if you do well, you may see your audience in the room grow. Decent idea on paper, but the screen effects make it harder to learn a song you may already be struggling with, not to mention you need great coordination and an eye on both sides of the screen. No way to tell which notes are to be hit at the same time, either.

Stealth Fishing: You’re fishing in a marine theme park tank to rescue fish. The owners, obviously, don’t want you there. Steer the boat left and right with Z/X, control your hook with the arrows. A hooked fish will fight as you pull it up; you can let go of a fish by pressing Space. You can’t let your boat or hook be spotted by the searchlights – instant game over! You get points for staying alive, 10 for fishing out coins, and 25 or 50 for a fish. Can you survive all the way to 1000 points? It’s gonna be tough.

Stay tuned, there's one more of these coming up next Friday as buffer while I work on actual, larger reviews.

Exploring The Itch.io Collection #1

In my 2024 Retrospective at the start of the year, I stated that I had been meaning to explore the massive collection of stuff I had gathered on my itch.io account. Twice in the past, I contributed to causes by purchasing two large bundles of indie items on the platform. The result? Oh, last I counted, I had something like 2,500 items on there.

No, I didn't stutter. I know. That’s a ton.

Want to track my progress? I make sure to update the list
of tested games as I play them. You can view it here.

Itch.io is a space specifically dedicated to indie games, and plenty are on the short end. I have a bit of overlap between that collection and everything I currently own, or have owned, on Steam; when I checked, I had 23 repeats, some of which are still waiting in the Steam backlog. These bundles also included: Loads and loads of physical/board games (a category in which we can find solo journaling games and other stuff like that), tools/resources, books/novels/comics, and even a handful of apps. With the sheer number of items I had, it was tough to sort it all into categories that would make it easier for me to find stuff.

Late in 2024, I decided I’d do the exercise I do for my Steam collection, and organized the games I could find with recorded times on HowLongToBeat into a single list. I only really found, oh, 50% maybe? The end list was still something like 830 games, which means I have roughly double that to check out. Welp, I’m nowhere near done! Though what helps is that, compared to what remains of my main collection, a sizeable chunk of those games (around 350) will take me under an hour to finish. Hell, I've got plenty that can be finished in under twenty minutes.

This is only a tiny portion of what I have yet to cover. This
specific personally-curated collection, at time of posting,
still has over 300 games. Even at 20 minutes a pop,
that's 100 hours.

At some point eventually, I might trade out the Quick Reviews of Steam games for Quick Reviews of itch.io games instead, where I could very easily cover short games for several months. (I might also have segments like that for games on the Nintendo Switch Online, but I’ll see about those later.)

For the sake of completionism, I figured I would give every game its moment. What to do with games that can be finished in 1 to 10 minutes? Well, just one paragraph should do, right? Down here is my first list of games from itch.io, all of which are so short they can be finished faster than it takes to listen to the radio edit of an average song. How many am I covering? Well… in this article alone, there’s 29.

To make it a little easier on myself and everyone, I decided to split these games into categories to cover them here. Some register more like experiences than proper games, some exist to encourage self-care, some are inspired by a social situation and/or try to discuss something important, and some are just plain fun.

Experiences

Look out for scattered boxes.

Guide of the Butterfly: An atmospheric black and grey game about a butterfly reaching the end while an EKG beeps and peters out, signaling death. Meant to be powerful, but felt too short for the message.

He Plays the Piano: Keep pressing keys to keep the music going. Ambient, not quite a game. Nice but not too noteworthy.

Hope’s Peak: A Western story delivered 5 paragraphs at a time, with playthroughs randomized based on the words you can choose on each screen. If you want the full story, find all the words. However, you don’t have a way to know whether you’re making progress.

Still not sure how bringing random items to it appeases
the ghost. Especially stuff that could have hurt it.

Peace of Mind: Your new house is haunted! The start screen tells you what the ghost likes. Bring it three items representing what it likes, picked around the house, and… that’s all. To grab items, they must be at the center of the screen, and you have no cursor to help you there, so it's a bit user-unfriendly. Only a concept, at best.

Wave to the people: Hold down the mouse button to wave to people and see their reaction. Nothing more. Barely a game, but it’s cute.

Monad: Create dots of black and white over a black background. Those will get larger and larger before disappearing. The result is a tapestry of circles meshing for fun visuals. You can control the speed at which the circles disappear. That’s about it for this more meditative entry.

Are we sure the snacks the mayor gave us didn't
contain any psychotropes? ...No? ...Have we checked?

Mr mayor tells your fortune recounts a story and offers you snacks: The talk screens, the drawn cards, the story beats and the “snack” are randomized, so you never know what Mr mayor is going to say or do. It’s a zany “game” without a goal, but its sheer absurdity makes it endearing. The “story” never makes sense. Thanks for the fortune!

The Spark of One: Based on a Martin Luther King speech, the idea here is all about the strength in numbers. Move around, attract one type of particles by holding down Space; carry them all to the exit, and you get zapped; on round 2, all the particles will be attracted to your square, and it’s only then that you can go through. …That’s all.

Emptiness, and then one low-effort jumpscare. Meh?

Eizoku: A very short horror game put on hiatus by its creator. A low-poly environmental narrative game with just one scare at the very end, and lots of walking on bridges. There’s probably more surprises to it than I’ve seen, if the screenshots are any indication, but I was left with the impression that the current product was bland.

The Alabaster Donut Farm: In this environmental narrative game, you visit a “donut farm” in the middle of a desert. Interacting with numbered items leads to unconnected freeform poems. Hard to tell whether there even is a plot here, though the game does end after you find what looks like a spaceship in the distance. This one didn’t leave much of an impression on me.

Self-care

Thanks Borb!

Borb the Birb: Self-care, one advice screen at a time, with a funny round bird mascot. Not quite a game, but could be useful to some.

Kintsugi: A game about embracing imperfections, inspired by the traditional Japanese art of repairing broken ceramics using gold. Soothing music, Japanese proverbs, a short but relaxing experience.

A Lullaby of Colors: Move around an endless land of colors, while enjoying relaxing music. You can often crash into bouncing balls, which will change the layout of the land and the patterns of colors on the ground. Made for both PC and VR, this game doesn’t offer much of interest.

Social reach (Heavy topics ahead)

Not if you keep saying gibberish, I'm afraid.

I Hurt Myself – Postjam Edition: A rough game about suicidal ideation. You move around, grab a knife, and metaphorically end it. Oof. I hope the maker of this one is doing better.

Just one, must choose: Pick one of the five colors. Only one. Then, the game tells you to think about the ones you didn’t choose, using them as a metaphor for any other thing in life that is “not chosen”, and thus ignored. I get it, but eh.

Life: The Game of Chance: A game about how much about life is up to luck, from where you’re born to the chances presented to you. The are no happy endings to be found in this game, to emphasize that everyone else has it rough too, and you should empathize with the life stories of even complete strangers. (Not gonna lie, after the past few years, that lesson feels sour, considering how often people make choices specifically to make the lives of others more difficult.)

Saving You from Yourself: A quick visual novel-style game about being a therapist for transgender people. Though you don’t frequently have options to pick from, you do get to see what your questions and comments have as an impact on the trans woman your character discusses with. Thoughtful and important.

Lacrymo Tennis 2016/18: During a massive protest in France, you’re a tennis player tossing tear gas canisters back at the riot squads… at least until your lungs give up. Move with the mouse, click to swing back. Try to let as many protesters as possible through. Funny, maybe, but that's the only joke here.

Masks: Inspired by the 2019 Hong Kong protests, this text adventure is about a courier trapped in a lab as chaos erupts. Their only choice for survival may be what is found in the package they carried. Playthroughs change a little based on choices, but the more interesting part is how some text changes when you click a clickable word to highlight the gravity of the situation (ex. the word changes to something more dire).

Just plain games

Oh, and the track shape is randomized.

Hair Dash: Use two buttons to attack left or right, fend the waves of enemies. Looks nice, but is very short.

Bouncy Cars: The track is too narrow, hitting the “walls” hurts the car, and the cars turn way too fast. Hard pass.

Bear-ly There: It’s summer, time for Barris the Bear to eat a lot of fish and be full in time for the next winter! Would be fun, if Barris did move with WASD – but instead, he only ever moved when I jumped! And he moved like a ragdoll! Good thing this was short, because it was so annoying I didn’t want to play it any longer. Oh, there’s also a “poop” button.

It's not anywhere near as fun as it looks.

More bunnies in one picture means more points!

I’m Bored, Let’s Explore (Mall): Low-pixel short adventure of two friends exploring a deserted mall. Some funny comments. Not a ton to do, but it’s alright.

#hasicontent: Take pictures of bunnies in a field! Your pictures get Likes, and at every 100 Likes, you get carrots to attract more bunnies. That’s all there is to this cute game; no goal otherwise, though it’s fun to see bunnies get more and more frequent over time.

Hi-Score Boi: A gamer practicing high scores in his living room. Two modes: Endless, or go for the highest score in one minute. What’s gameplay? Pressing Space to score 1,000 points. That’s it. Sparks fly from the screen, even more if you button-mash fast, 1,000 points, that’s all. Looks nice, but it’s just bleh.

Why did the tree cross the neighborhood?

OddyTree: You are a tree seeking greener pastures, but a town was built between your forest and the one up North. It's gonna be a trip across homes and fences. You move with WASD and must rebalance yourself with the arrow keys. If you fall completely to the ground, you lose and must restart. This is the basis of quite a few mini-games I’ve played before, and here, it’s done well.

PizzaBoy: You deliver pizzas to people. You move with WASD, jump with Space, and throw your pizza slices with the left- and right-click buttons. You can often discover new toppings by meeting specific NPCs. Hard to tell whether there really is a goal here; it seems to go on forever with no indication of progress. It’s just a silly, wacky thing for the Heck of it. Which is fine sometimes.

Find the cat in every room! He hides very cleverly.

[SIBERIA]: A text adventure mimicking CRT screens, in which you play a character who has crash-landed in Siberia and must survive the elements. With some luck and clever use of what you find, you can make your way to safety. I liked this one, it’s very short, but it’s enjoyable and has a bit of self-awareness.

Where is Cat?: One of my favorite discoveries today, in this game for children you have to find numerous animals and items in seven rooms of a house. First a cat; then tiny plates, tiny glasses, tiny cupcakes, and finally, mice that will eat the cupcakes. All of this is done in an adorable art style. It’s not super difficult, which is understandable, and like everything else here it’s short, but it’s clever and well-made.

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That was a lot, wasn’t it? Yeah, that’s a lot of games in very little time. Keep in mind that I also had to remove each of these from my collections on itch.io, keeping track of what I’ve covered and what I haven’t. It’s long work! This one article represented barely 1% of all the products I have on there, and yet I haven’t even played for two hours total. I hope to do more of these in the future. I might cut down more and more on the number of games I cover within one article, as the games get longer, and I have more to say about each.

Well then, I guess I’ll be seeing you in the next article like this. There’s a reason I called it #1 – it’s not the last.