Interesting games on itch.io: November 16

I’m a big fan of itch.io for the freedom and open platform that it allows for developers to be creative, experimental, and directly canvas the audience for feedback for games that are not yet ready for primetime on Steam and its ilk. In addition, itch.io allows you to be transgressive, subversive, and downright dangerous. It’s a true “art gallery” for game ideas and creative developers, and it should be celebrated for that.

What makes itch.io a little difficult at times is finding things that are interesting to play. Discovery is a real issue when great ideas are buried among high school projects and nasty little efforts to scam a quick buck from players. With that in mind, I thought what might be helpful to readers would be if I did a brief write-up of interesting games that I’ve come across on itch.io each week. In many cases these games will be unfinished or “in development,” but I’m highlighting them because they promise something special and are well worth keeping on the radar.

Note: I also haven’t played these games. I highlight them as interesting based on the itch.io description and concept. Where I find the time to do actual reviews or other coverage, I will compose separate articles on the game in question. These aren’t so much an endorsement (or piece of criticism) as they are a head’s up.

Naturally, if you want to pick up a couple of the Dee Dee visual novels while you’re there on itch.io to support our work here, I would be eternally grateful! There’s a new one that recently came out, Sade!

Dice Gambit

In the game, you’ll need to combine the four basic elements (earth, water, fire and wind) to create new elements in the environment. Furthermore, you’ll need to find and power up a wide range of different costumes for the girls, as each costume gives the girl a different element and new unique abilities. These costumes can be further customised for additional depth. Finally, the environment itself is fully destructible, and by smashing your way through the city, you’ll be able to find new paths and hidden treasures. All while commanding cute magical girls. What a wonderful concept.

I like when a game tells you everything that you need to know about it from the title. I also like when the first line of the description is something like “a mediocre translator burned out by capitalism.” I’m pretty sure I know the person this game is based on (note: that’s a joke I have no idea if this game is based on anyone, but it’s certainly relatable). 

But anyway, I Became Gay… is a yuri visual novel about two people from the… great… city of Chicago. According to the game’s description, it is “the first major project by the Prof. Lily visual novel collective, who aim to tell stories that face our harsh subcultural reality head-on.” In other words I don’t expect that this game will have much chill to it, but it could be profound and provocative, and that would be good too. It’s a decent-length VN, with around 50,000 words, and “sex” is a bullet point, so yay to that. 

The other three games this week have all been gorgeous in one way or another, so I needed something singularly ugly to balance things out. Land Battles Tactical is going to seem very, very ugly to most people, but to grognards like myself, this brings us right back to the old Matrix Software games and Harpoon Classic! Remember Harpoon Classic? Probably not. But I have fond memories of getting right into this stuff.