Glyph is one of the more unique approaches I’ve seen when it comes to 3D platformers. While it hits all the genre’s familiar notes—running and jumping between platforms, avoiding obstacles and collecting treasures—it’s got one little change that makes a big impact: you’re a ball, with the ball-like physics that …
I can’t tell if I love Cultist Simulator or loathe it. In some respects, it’s a remarkable game: a wholly unique mix of card game, text adventure, and resource management. Its fragmented narratives unfold in a mesmerising way through the cards played, inviting you into a grim, fascinating world of …
For Thomas Olsson of Skeleton Crew Studio, Olija is a very personal project. It’s a game about being a foreigner in a strange land, drawing from his own experiences as a foreigner living in Japan—an experience that can be exciting and awe-inspiring, but also lonely. Olija may take a swashbuckling …
Often when someone opts to make a retro-styled shoot-’em-up, there’s a deliberate choice to carry that inspiration through all aspects of the design. An old-school aesthetic comes with game systems that overtly channel those of yesterday’s classics, and the technical constraints they were built within. There’s plenty of appeal in …
There’s a lot more to a good roguelike than just permanent death and randomised dungeons. What makes the best of the genre work so well is the way they encourage experimentation with different weapons, different items, different builds—driven in part by necessity and in part by a game loop that …
Heaven’s Vault is a stunning achievement in innovative game design and non-linear narrative, woven through a story about the importance of understanding history. Usually when a game has a translation element, it’s limited to decoding a cipher: the words are all English (or whatever language you’re playing in), with letters …
Ivan the blacksmith didn’t believe in bad luck. He was happy with his simple life as the village craftsman. He was content. But that all changed when a sudden encounter with Likho, a monstrous embodiment of pure misfortune, chopped off Ivan’s arm and cursed him to a life of ill …
I don’t think anyone could have truly predicted the success of Atelier Ryza. It found just the right balance between classic Atelier‘s slice-of-life touch and a more streamlined approach to game design that did away with some of the series’ more arcane ideas—as I said when I reviewed it, it’s …
Games that use shadows as a key aspect of the game design aren’t exactly a rarity, from the shadow-based platforming of Contrast to the shadow puppet puzzles of Shadowmatic, but it’s still a concept with so much untapped potential. Case in point: NEXT Studios’ Iris.Fall, a game that brings its …
Ocean’s Heart is a game that overtly and deliberately puts its Legend of Zelda front and centre. It’s explicitly made for an audience who loves A Link to the Past and wants more of what made that game special. It’s a loving tribute to one of the most revered games …
