larzipan

so this happened this august but I never got around to posting my reviews for the games I tried out / played. there's a steam next fest happening right this moment so I figured I'd get this draft out of the way before I create another one to ignore for the following couple of months.

Chamberbound - reminiscent of both Antichamber and Portal where you command a sphere in first person. This game unfortunately gave me such bad motion sickness I couldn't play it at all. If you like the aforementioned games and don't have issues with motion sickness I definitely recommend you try it! Coming soon.

Crypt Custodian - a very cute metroidvania, the demo of which left me wanting for more. Its various aspects of which were reminiscent of several games from different genres, yet it never felt stale or repetitive -- quite the opposite! Released 27.08.2024.

The Diary - very interesting concept for a puzzle game. I really liked it and I'd say the demo felt way longer than 30 minutes, in a good way! Unfortunately the latter half of the demo was untranslated, which kind of decreased my overall enjoyment of it. Releases in Q4 2024.

Everafter Falls - a quirky farming sim that seems to have much more to offer than you might first think it does. While I don't think I can get over some of the character design choices in this game, the rest of the graphics as well as writing was really fun! Released 20.06.2024.

Foolish Mortals - not linking this. Honestly, this would have been a great modern iteration of a classic point and click puzzle game, if the creator wasn't a white guy from the UK appropriating aspects for Black culture and trauma in the US Deep South and the Caribbean. Fuck off.

The Guardian of Nature - a point and click puzzle adventure game with a refreshingly distinct art style. While I definitely struggled a bit because some puzzle solutions did not seem entirely intuitive, it was still a rather relaxing experience. Release date to be announced.

Holstin - I chose this game simply because of how cool and different it looked and it lived up to every bit of my expectations if not more! The FPS was definitely hard for me but the puzzling part of the game was chef's kiss amazing. This game is kind of fucked up in all the best ways. Release date to be announced.

Kaiserpunk - couldn't play this because while I can easily play Manor Lords on ultra with my PC, this game made my fans sound like they were about to take off. Releases on 27.02.2025.

The Last Plague: Blight - a survival game I've kind of looked for a very long time where you play as a possibly modern man starting from the basics. The one negative I have about this was that before release at the least, you could only play as a dude. Though I am still excited to try out the full game (in co-op as well). Released 03.10.24.

LEILA - a narrative puzzle game with a large variety of puzzles, some of which may seem familiar but not stale at all. I have been looking forward to this game for a long time -- ever since I saw GlitchKraft play the demo a while ago -- and I'm so happy I could try it out myself as well. Just such a good game. Releases Q4 2024.

Linkito - a puzzle game reminiscent of the ye old TIM games, albeit with far fewer balloons from what I've seen. It's an amazing puzzler and I have been a fan for quite some while now. While it definitely makes you think really hard at times, the puzzles have so far not proven themselves impossible to solve. Released on 23.07.2024.

Medieval Dynasty - if not true to the era, then at least a very well and believably stylised colony sim. I was a bit surprised to see this game on the list and to get it but it's definitely a time-sinker, probably especially if you've got friends to co-op it with. Released on 23.09.2021.

Mirthwood - a hand-drawn medieval adventure farming sim. The game features historically correct carrots! Unfortunately, the demo did come with a lot of linguistic errors and some of the menus and actions were rather confusing and unintuitive. That aside, I still really enjoyed it and want to play more. Release date 06.11.24.

Mythwrecked: Ambrosia Island - a lovely 3D adventure game with a very varied and inclusive cast of characters. It seems to be a mix of many genres, starting from hidden object to perhaps even dating sim? I did get stuck in the demo but I'm pretty sure it was fully my own fault. Very excited to try again with the full game! Releases in 2024.

PEPPERED - an existential platformer with what seems like a ridiculous replay value. I can't quite describe the full gist of the game, but it was very good and challenging. This is something I'd recommend to anyone who has played a lot of platformers and is looking for something new. Coming soon.

Pilo (and the Holobook) - a cute fun game about scanning things, collecting stickers and learning about the game's world. I found the sticker book opening and closing after every scan extremely tedious to the point that I don't think I actually finished the demo. Releases in 2024.

Spilled! - a very cute and relaxing game about cleaning polluted waters. Unfortunately I couldn't play it for too long because it triggered my motion sickness big time. Coming soon.

StormEdge - a fun little roguelite. It seems to have released to mixed reviews, but I found it quite enjoyable. You don't need to think or strategise much, just fight and don't get hit. Released on 13.09.2021.

Tinkerlands - an open world survival game reminiscent of The Survivalists, Core Keeper and other such games in the genre. It also wishfully reminded me of Trickster Online in a way, which is why it reeled me in. While it might not really fulfil my yearning for TO, it is fun and cute nevertheless. Coming soon.

Unpacking

Edit: originally posted on 20.03.2022 on my Ko-Fi, relocated to the tumblr on 20.05.2024. Heya! This is my first game review and I hope it's an okay read :)

I played Unpacking through Xbox GamePass but I do plan on buying it for myself on the PC as well. Support indie devs!

The gameplay was lovely, except I found that for me, using the controller made the game a bit hard and tedious. I would have much preferred a mouse, especially to make zooming in and out easier as well as putting smaller things away and utilising tighter spots to put things into.

The plot, however, completely blew me away. The game looked like a cute little indie game at first, but that turned to be the furthest thing from the truth! Firstly, it is not little in the sense of content - there is a lot of stuff to do and to go through - and it takes far more than a couple of hours to play through once you really get into it. Secondly, the story. Oh the story. I don't want to spoil anything so I will proceed with caution. Basically, the first few chapters of the story can be a bit vanilla or not entirely unexpected in their direction, but the mid- to latter chapters are something completely different. Something else. It was very engaging, heartfelt and somewhat introspection-provoking for me personally.

I would definitely recommend this game to anyone who likes cozy games that are quite relaxed in their nature but that can require some thinking every now and then. Mostly about where to put your D20 or whether or not you feel (jokingly) personally attacked by the story.

Edited to add: I have now played this game via Xbox GamePass for PC and I have to say that while using a mouse and keyboard fixed the placement and zooming issues for me, switching between rooms became a new problem. Maybe there is a key for that, but I couldn't find one. Still played it two more times though, and would heartily recommend!

Here comes the review for the demo of the upcoming game Snufkin: Melody of Moominvalley! This is the first review for a game demo that I've posted on this here tumblr. Originally it was supposed to be a post of several demos, but I played this, wrote it and then had nothing left in me. So here's a little sneak peek of what I hope to start doing here?

I remember when I first joined tumblr and had my first account here.

I was still cis, barely a baby-bi and had a lot less years of lived depression behind me.