Interesting games on itch.io: October 26

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!

Gorf the Ghost Saves Halloween

This is another one of the qualities that I love about itch.io; it really enables “seasonal” games, which are only applicable to a tiny window within the year. Bigger horror games do work all year around (in comparison to, say, Christmas games), but with these small, tiny, non-commercial projects there’s one particular time that’s ideal to release them, and itch.io is the platform to let that happen.

Kaiju… Godzilla… and Noir… Raymond Chandler? Sign me up for that. What a great idea for a visual novel. Kaiju Noir is “quick, dirty, and satisfying to digest in one sitting.” It is “a tale of ain’t monsters, intrigue, corruption, and redemption.” How can you not be on board with this? Especially when it looks this good? The art style is amazing!

Also the game is apparently anti-authoritarian, which is another plus in my book. You’ll be able to play this one through in 2-3 hours, but with narrative choices along the way there will be a strong incentive to replay. The soundtrack will combine film noir and an “other-worldly discordance,” and I’m struggling to imagine what that might sound like, but I’m on board with it too. From end to end this game just seems great to me.

This is actually quite a different thing! On itch.io we see a lot of games that emulate the PlayStation 1 aesthetic, or the SNES, NES or Game Boy look. What we don’t see that often is a developer giving an N64-like game a crack, but that’s what Stargazing 64 has done, and it looks really neat.

  

What’s even neater is that this game is apparently tapping into the creepypasta tradition and, I mean, we’ve all read Ben Drowned. We know that the Nintendo 64 just does that stuff better. There are very few details about the game beyond that on its page – it seems to be a thing that the developer just wants you to experience, but it does look like a great way to round off the horror-themed season with itch.io.