Today’s Indie World was a fairly low key string of announcements, with no last minute stunners or showstopper drops (besides, of course, crabs). As such, the show concluded with some very quick rapid-fire clips of upcoming indie games, including some available today — and a port of a modern masterpiece. We’ve got:
- OneShot: World Machine Edition (DANGEN Entertainment and Future Cat LLC, Summer) – This marvelous piece of metafiction lands on console at last, bringing the tale of Niko and the World’s Sun off of PC for the first time. OneShot was one of the best games of the past decade, and even in this briefest of snippets we can catch glimpses of new additions and tweaks like character profiles. Don’t miss out on this one.
- Gibbon: Beyond the Trees (Broken Rules, Available Today) – An ecological adventure game featuring fluid movement systems through hand-painted environments, Beyond the Trees follows a Gibbon attempting to find their home as their habitat is destroyed. Developed with the purpose of raising awareness about the real life plight of Gibbons (an extremely endangered conglomerate of species threatened by poaching, deforestation, and climate change).
- Idol Manager (PLAYISM and Glitch Pitch, August 25th) – A business sim and dark comedy about you managing the newest hit idol girls in Japan’s pop industry. You’ll manage girls, cultivate their talents, release music, and deal with encroaching scandals as they pop up. Despite their peppy demeanors, the life of these idols is rarely a happy one… Can you make them succeed in this cutthroat world?
- Card Shark (Devolver Digital and Nerial, June 2nd [demo today]) – An adventure through 18th-century France full of daring and deception. You’ll engage in all manner of trickery and cheating as you play cards with the highest and lowest echelons of society, unraveling a curious and far-reaching mystery along the way. Much of this one lays shrouded, but it’s undeniably enticing.
- Cursed To Golf (Thunderful and Chuhai Labs, Summer) – A “golf-like adventure,” you play as a Cused Golfer trapped in Golf Purgatory who needs to play their way out of the underworld so they can return to life and achieve victory in the tournament you were on the cusp of winning. Set in a side view with goofy additions like hazards and power-ups, will you be able to putt your way out alive?
- A Guidebook of Babel (Pixmain and StarryStarry, Fall) – A story-focused game centered around the Butterfly Effect, as you board a cruise ship that will take you to the afterlife – but you can change the events of the past and rewrite the future in the process. Your choices will have a ripple effect in this light yet heartful adventure about the nature of life and death.
- OPUS: Echo of Starsong – Full Bloom Edition (Sigono, available today) – Last but not least comes a narrative VN/puzzle game about songs and space. “Starsongs” – music of great power emitted by certain asteroids – have become the center of conflict when a young man, Jun, stumbles upon a young woman, Eda, who can sing Starsongs herself. A distinct artstyle forms the backdrop for this romantic space opera.
Phew! That’s a lot of games, actually! But they all look interesting, and with some details now a little clearer, hopefully you have an idea of what titles you might be interested in. I know I do! The answer is: all of them.
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Written by Amelia Fruzzetti
A writer and Nintendo fan based in Seattle, Washington. When not working for NinWire, she can be found eating pasta, writing stories, and wondering about when Mother 3 is finally going to get an official localization.
