whatchu playing now

Hobs Barrow stars Karlach! I haven't played it yet but the comparison to Golden Idol has piqued my interest.

Hob's Barrow has cutscenes that look like rotoscoped footage into pixel art. I liked those. Its gameplay is very different from deduction games.

helldivers 2 is fantastically dumb fun, 'live service' done right. i recall bouncing off of destiny 2 after about 15 minutes. surprisingly nontoxic and friendly atmosphere among players for the most part also

finally got sick of hades, just in time for hades 2 early access (i think)

Venba is a real heartfelt treat. If I'm a little teary while playing, it's because of all the onoins I have to chop

Finished Venda in a few sittings. Lovely lovely lovely game

It's actually my favorite game from last year, and they also released the cook book as DLC recently.

I'm intrigued to check out Animal Well, published by Videogamedunkey's Bigmode. 89 on opencritic, written up in NYT... pretty good day-one scenario for a solo dev: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/09/arts/dunkey-animal-well-bigmode.html (sub required)

i bought it. reminds me of batbarian, but easier. 60MB install size lol.

i played the first 10 minutes of it at an expo, it looks/sounds nice but i didn't really get a sense of whether it was going to get elaborate and puzzley or just ride on aesthetics

early impressions sound like it's the former, or at least that there's additional layers of more obtuse puzzles beneath the main game. i'll give it a try this weekend

have heard interesting things about it. can you turn off the scanlines?
got burned out on Monster Hunter with 4 and hadn't played the series since, but had a pang to play again so picked up Rise the other week when it was cheap. still the same basic game but there's been lots of great QoL improvements making it much easier to play, riding around on my dog while whetstoning/eating/etc never gets old.

the only option in the options menu is "turn off scanlines"

I think I'm pretty far into Animal Well. Very interesting powerups, not things you would suspect from a Metroid-inspired game. There are moments that really feel like it's a Dunkey Type game, where something unexpected happens and I think to myself "I meant to do that".

There are some cryptic bits that I haven't figured out yet. Possible spoilers: I think there's something going on with the pillars in the swordfish room, possibly a song you can play on the flute? But I haven't found anything that works. The only song I have found is the warp song.

Between Horizons seems promising except that the early Steam reviews say that its UI is pretty annoying: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1921980/Between_Horizons/

animal well is really really good, closest any game has gotten to la mulana

starts out as a very solid exploration/puzzle platformer and then slowly gets more elaborate and cryptic, but executed much better than say, fez

woah wasn’t on my radar at all but looks really cool

i beat the normal game. i need to continue, obviously.

games with similar cryptic quests: environmental station alpha did a similar thing with an optional post-game quest. Both games tiny spoiler: it had parts of a code written on the walls too. And ESA has an area directly inspired by La Mulana. Axiom Verge 1 also has a small well-hidden quest. Tunic and Fez are other ones.

finally playing case of the golden idol and yeah this is the sort of thing i like

yeah it's great

'little kitty big city' is fun so far. sort of like 'untitled goose game'

oh i got to the point in animal well where it just fully becomes fez-style ultra-cryptic codes and i think that's enough for me.

it was pretty good up until that point, though finding the last few eggs was a bit too tedious. it was really really good for a bit but that didn't really last long enough and now i'm slightly underwhelmed.

i really love the la mulana type of cryptic puzzle but not the fez type, in short

i like both style of puzzle.
I still need to find 7 eggs. i solved one of the big puzzles without looking at hints, which i was proud of the one with the symbol pillars. i think I've found 4 rabbits, which seem to do nothingness. haven't looked at any big discussions of the game yet.

finished case of the golden idol, good stuff, glad they're making a second game, i will be there day 1

next up in my 'well-regarded indie games that snuck by me' queue is void stranger

i finished obra dinn earlier this month. started it years ago but got stuck. looked up some general game tips and that was enough. great game, 10/10.

I tried a little bit of Animal Well last night, the lack of hand-holding is not sitting well with me so far.

I've also been playing Hexcells, soothing ambient Minesweeper-like but without ever needing to guess. I'm not as gaga about it as this guy but it's nice.

hexcells does rule, i have dumped many many hours into it

Tametsi is, I think, better, though Hexcells Infinite is good because a) it's actually (practically) infinite, and b) it's the right length for "about ten minutes", whereas for Tametsi it might take you ten minutes of scribbling to lock down the first move (not often!)

I beat the second phase of animal well then looked up spoilers.

Around half of phase 3 is doable by a single player -- but the other ones aren't. One can't be done on steam deck because you need to shake the window of the game. another wants your computer to have a printer connected, but there's a very hidden alternative way to get the code. Phase 4, involving the poster, is completely impossible solo. I wish they had put in clues for harder parts of phase 3, then put all of the ridiculous stuff in its own restricted area.

I was right that Fez and Tunic were inspirations as there are codes to turn your character into the characters from those games. (These are just for fun and aren't a part of any other puzzle.)

All in all I loved the game.

High praise for Lorelei and the Laser Eyes: https://www.polygon.com/reviews/24156442/lorelei-and-the-laser-eyes-review-steam-pc-nintendo-switch

saw that one the ohter day, looks cool

Cryptmaster also looks cool whatever it is - word game based first-person dungeon crawler?

cryptmaster has a steam demo which i have now completed. seems like a good laugh

Animal Well question: I've gotten the flute and I'm gearing up to do the m disc shrine but I don't know how to fast travel. I've seen the code online and I've input it while holding down the whistle button but nothing happens. I've played the song right next to the fish and all.

You need to hold the direction you want and tap the button. Wasn't what I was expecting either.

Thanks! Would never have figured that out myself.

I just realized that Hexcells is a horror game.

Like.. existential?

I'm terrified of clicking the wrong cell, and I physically react every time I do!