Free Itch.io Games #6

Who loves free games? I love free games! And Itch.io has plenty of them to try. So here we have 4 more free games, straight off the pages of Itch.io. Let's check them out!

1.Hard Mode 101

Source:Itch.io Page

Hard Mode is a RPG visual novel style game created as a collaboration between Austin Shyu, Calvin Lu, Mina Li, and Tracy Lee. In Hard Mode 101 you have to face down your every day choices and balance your graces, happiness and well-being to remain a balanced and functioning human being. We do this by battling our challenges—quite literally in this game. In order to wake up and get out of bed, you must defeat the alarm clock!

This game was quite funny, and I got a good deal of laughs from it. It was definitely worth the short play through. You can try the game for yourself free from Itch.io *here*.

2. Blomst

Source: Itch.io Page

Blomst is an adorable dungeon crawler created by Baku. You play as a young lady, traversing the depths of dungeons to slay skeletons and… pick flowers? Yep! This game is still in development, though on hold, so more updates and expansions should be coming. I found the little time I spent with the game very enjoyable. I had some trouble with the mouse controls though.

I find pixel graphics just adorable and this game is very cute. The environments are rich in color, and something about dungeon crawlers just takes me back. If you want to try Blomst for yourself, you can download and play for free from Itch.io *here*.

3. The Cat Who Didn’t Want to Take a Bath

Source: Itch.io Page

Cat Bath is a short and simple platformer created by AshleeJames, Ali Krouse and Zach Rubenstein. You play as a cat, and as a cat, you hate water. So when bath time comes, it’s time to hide. Your objective in this little game is to collect the fish around the apartment while avoiding your human. If the vision bubble around the human gets to you, then you’ll be caught and subjected to the awful bath.

My highest score was 20 fish before I got caught. You use the mouse to look around, space to jump and WASD to move, but using the touch pad on my laptop worked awful for this game. It was also hard for me to aim while jumping, so I missed a lot. The music is alright, since the game is meant to be short, but it would become boring if it played for a long time. I did really enjoy the idea of the game, and I had fun despite my control issues. If you want to try the game for yourself, please download from Itch.io *here*.

4. I Like Walking Very Much

Source: Itch.io Page

ILWVM is a walking simulator game created by Camel504, where you play as strange spider walking through a beautiful and immersive landscape. The landscape is so beautiful, I stopped walking at a few points to admire it. The sound effects are also very atmospheric—the rustling leaves in the breeze, the twittering birds, the sound of your footsteps. The creator states: “This game inspired by some my experiences in social life. Hate incites a desire for recognition, and it starts to make another hate.”

The game style is a little bit like LIMBO that the foreground is almost all shadow, with the light source shining from the background. I like this style, and it works well for this story. The game is about a half an hour long, but be warned that when you get stepped on, that’s not the end of the game! The first time I played, I turned it off after I got stepped on cause I thought I did something wrong. It’s ok. This is a beautiful game to behold, and it’s free! You can download the game to play from Itch.io *here*.



As always, be sure to leave your comments of encouragement or helpful criticism on the game pages. 

Happy Gaming, Friends!

Bell

Imaginary Friends for PC

“I had imaginary friends and even they were mean to me.” –Oliva Wilde

Source: Itch.io Page

Imaginary Friends is a retro style horror RPG created by mannytsu using RPG Maker software. You play as 14-year-old Hailey, who has spent her entire summer vacation alone in her room. Her mother wants her to go outside and get together with her friends, but she doesn’t have any. When Hailey accompanies her mother and brother to the store, something strange begins to happen… Before she knows it, she finds herself in a strange world. To get home, Hailey will have to confront her childhood, and look deep inside herself so that she can move forward and grow.

I don’t play a lot of horror games, and I don’t know what made me decide to play this game to begin with, but I am glad that I did. For good portions of the game, I was just waiting for the jumpscares—but they didn’t come. No, the horror aspect of this game comes from the atmosphere of uncertainty and unease that are created. I use a headset with one ear piece because having both of my ears covered makes me anxious(I might miss something important, like if my daughter needs me), but I imagine the atmosphere would have been intensified if you used both. Particularly in the school towards the end of the game, the shuffling and whispers were pretty unnerving for me.

Source: Screen Capture from Game

I also died a lot in my playthrough, and I mean a lot. Everything and everyone is out to kill you, so save often. Make extra trips back to save points to save again. I must have saved 50 times by the end of my game. I came to think that everything was going to kill me, even inanimate objects—who knows what could happen.

The game is in a charming top down retro style, which I love. In addition to the sprites, drawn images appear of each character next to their dialogue boxes. The artwork for the characters is well done, and the environments are wonderfully made as well, able to be either dark and foreboding, or light and whimsical. The NPCs in the Cloud Kingdom are varied and interesting, as are the dolls in the doll house. All around the style of this game was great. The music and sound effects did a great job of complimenting the environments as well. 

One particular thing that I liked was that during some parts of the game, you would traverse though crayon dawn areas that would flow into the normal game backgrounds. This is something unique that I haven't seen in many games before, so I really liked that. 

Source: Screen Capture from Game

In addition to the horror aspect of the game, the game also has some great puzzles to solve. I did always enjoy a good puzzler. The puzzles aren’t overly difficult, but enough to make you think. I did get help up a little bit in the school because I wasn’t being thorough enough in my search for what I needed. There were puzzles I did not complete. There is a safe in the school that requires two different keys and a combination to open, but I only managed to find one of the keys.

The story is about loneliness, the difficulty of making new friends, and moving on. Hailey will need to reconcile her past friendships and move forward to make new friends. For as unsettling and tense as the game was, the ending was oddly uplifting. I appreciated the entire ride. Kudos to mannytsu for putting together such an amazing game.

Source: Screen Capture from Game

You can try this game for yourself by downloading the game for free on Itch.io *here*. As always, I hope that you’ll also leave your words of encouragement and helpful criticism(if you have it), that way the creators and continue to develop their skills.

Happy Gaming, Friends!

Bell

See the Gaming in Pajamas Compendium *HERE*

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