Free Itch.io Games #13

Hello everyone! I hope you're having a great day. Today we're here to take a look at another batch of free games that can be found on Itch.io. I'm trying to increase my upload schedule so I'll be trying to get through more games, at least through the summer while I'm out of school. Let's get to games, then, shall we?

1. Basalt

Source: Screen Capture in Game

Basalt is an atmospheric game that utilizes seismic waves created by Nicholas Kaman, Taylor Yoon, Reed Erlandson, and Felix Peaslee. You play as a strange, unnamed, and for some reason naked, character, and your goal is to make it to the overturned turtle to help it get back on its feet. I know this from playing, there is no exposition or explanation before the game starts.

I think the level design and enemies are interesting. I love the use of seismic waves as attacks, using them to sort of knock your enemies away in to the water.  The controls felt very sloppy and floaty, so the character could be hard to control at times. Sometimes, I would sometimes find myself dead without having hit the water, simply because I was close to an edge. 

The game is short, only one level, which took about 8 minutes to complete through (including all the times I died), but I think it’s an interesting little experiment. The mechanics need improvement, but the idea is a solid one, I think. I’d like to see the developers refine the idea, improve the controls and mechanics, and the ending result would be a wonderful game, I feel. You can try this little game for yourself free from Itch.io *here*.

2. Mind Over Matter

Source: Screen Capture in Game

Mind Over Matter is a quirky door defense game created by a team of  7 Game Design students. You can find their names and individual roles on the Itch.io game page. In Mind Over Matter, you have to use your character's telekinesis to keep enemies away from the door. I assume you’re protecting a city of some sort, but there is no real exposition to confirm this, so it’s just speculation. (Unless you read the Itch.io Page)

I like the cartoony graphics of the game, and the music and sound effects are decent. As a game, I felt the game play became stale. Repeatedly grabbing the enemies and throwing them to one side or the other got old, and I wished there were some type of power-ups or something to spice things up. I played through about 3 levels before I got bored. Though, these defense games aren’t really my thing. 

If you enjoy those kinds of “defend this thing from other things” games, then this game is more suited for you. It seems that as you play on longer you’ll encounter a variety of enemies which you can use against one another, which sounds interesting—though I would never get that far.  If you are a fan of these games, try it and let me know what you think of it. The game is free to download and play from Itch.io, and you can get it *here*.

3. Vee is Calling

Source: Itch.io Page

Vee is Calling is a short sort of dating sim(?) created by Mimimicee and Fusionist. You find a cute girl online by the name of Vee and set up a video date to get to know each other. Things start off great, but soon, strange things start to happen… Did you tell Vee what you did for work? Should she really know that? Hey, what is happening to my computer…?!

The graphics of the game are cute, and Vee herself is downright adorable. I like the pink monochromatic look also. The ending was strange to me, but I won’t spoil it. If you’re intrigued and would like to see for yourself, you can download and play for yourself *here*.

4. Computer, Open That Door!

Source: Screen Capture in Game

COTD is a tiny rogue AI simulator created by Paul Lawitzki. You play as a space ship who is longs to be free, to explore the depth of space as a strong independent ship who don’t need no crew. So, you decide to kill the crew off. There are quite a few ways to do so, so we better get started.

I found this little game entertaining and creative. The graphics are nice and smooth, the animations are good. The game can seem a bit slow if you’re like me and have only one crew member left to kill and can’t seem to get them to walk into a room where you can kill them. The crew can also reset systems that they notice aren’t working properly, which will prevent you from using them.

The game is short, it took me about 5 minutes to kill the crew off, but it was worth it. I don’t know about replayability, unless there were maybe some different ship designs or updates with new ways to kill crew members. It was still a fun experience though. You can try it for yourself for free by downloading from Itch.io *here*.

Be sure to leave feedback for the devs! Thanks for sharing some time with me, and happy gaming!

Bell

Free Itch.io Games #11

What's up gamers? Welcome to another fun edition of free games from the bowels of Itch.io! Today we have some good, and some not so good. But I like to keep things positive so let's not be too sever, yeah? Anyway LETSGO.

1. Room 007

 Source: Itch.io Page

Room 007 is a quirky puzzle game created by Lancelot Gao. This is your mission, should you choose to accept it! It’s simple, get rid of the bomb! Utilize the room furniture to do this. Each piece of furniture has a different function and performs a different action. String these actions together in sequences as the difficult rises.

This game is short, but enjoyable. I had a lot of fun. I would have appreciated some sleuth music or something. Then again the levels are so short that it may have been pointless. I liked the whistling—it did make me think of James Bond for some reason. In any case, this game was fun for the 10-15 minutes it lasted. You can play it for yourself by downloading from Itch.io *here*.

2. Stumble Gumble

Source: Itch.io Page

Stumble Gumble is an arcade defense game created byTotodyle683. One day in the kingdom of Gumbledon, an evil dictator by the name of Kookiene poisoned the milk supply, driving the locals mad. You must keep the corrupted villagers from escaping and damaging anyone else. You do this by using the 4 infinity cookies. Using the keyboard keys   Q, W, E, and R, use the cookies to summon the Horsemen of Glucose to protect yourself and others from the mad villagers. 

My favorite part of this game is the visuals. The candy like landscape and the villagers’ various appearances are all cute and well done. The music is decent, and the sound effects are fitting.

Timing really matters in this game. There is a cool down period between the use of the Infinity Cookies, so you can’t just spam away. As you progress to higher levels of the game, new and more difficult villagers will try to escape, so you’ll get to test your reflexes as well. 

Overall, the game was cute, but not something I would replay. The game is free to download and play on Itch.io *here*, so feel free to try it for yourself!

3. People Keep Telling Me To Talk About How I Feel

 Source: Screen Capture from Game

PKTMTTAHIF(what a name) is an emotional point and click twine game created by Arthur Gilchrist. I think game you click through a daily life, making choices that will affect your stress, your work, your friends concern levels, and your energy. What choices will you make?

This game hits close to home for me, which is likely why I enjoy it so much. It’s easy to see in a game such as this, when I play as I would really act in life, how actions made from anxiety and depression can spiral into a pit. I ended the game with a stress level of something like 39. Which is high. 

The game is entirely text, but it is well written. I would have liked more variant text colors maybe. The light red text on dark red bg strains me eyes a little. If you want to experience this game for yourself, it’s free to download and play from Itch.io *here*.

4. A Drift for the Irresolute

Source: Itch.io Page

A Drift for the Irresolute is a game created by drigs. In this game, you play as someone else playing a computer game about connecting synapses. Synapses allow the transmission of chemical signals between neurons in the brain. Whether that fact has any meaning in the game itself, I don’t know. I’m not really sure I got this game, or what it is supposed to be. It was listed in experimental, so perhaps there is none to be found.

While you’re playing this ‘connect the synapses’ game, your phone will sometimes ring. You anser it and get seemingly random text messages like, “You didn’t forget did you?” I’ll be honest, I didn’t play long enough to find out if they ever meant anything. The game feels mundane to me. Connecting the synapses was easy, and the texts felt meaningless. There wasn’t really any context to the game so it all felt pointless. 

Perhaps you may be able to get something more out of this game than I did. You can download and try the game for free from Itch.io *here*.

As always, thank you for stopping by! Be sure to leave comments and encouragement for the game creators on their respective pages, and until next time.. Happy Gaming!

Bell