The Crooked Man

The Crooked Man

Despite the graphics (which personally I find charming and nostalgic), JRPGs like Uri’s “The Crooked Man” tend to be very story driven and puzzle oriented with multiple endings. It also deals with some sensitive subjects such as anxiety/depression, suicide and death of a family member. If you don’t like those kinds of games, this probably isn’t the one for you. However if you don’t mind those elements, I would sincerely recommend this game. It takes around an hour to complete each chapter (minus the prologue), giving it a total runtime of around 3-4 hours. It is well worth the money and has good replayability due to the multiple endings, great atmosphere and an emotionally gripping storyline.

Real player with 18.9 hrs in game


Read More: Best 2D Story Rich Games.


The Crooked Man is one of my favorite games of all time, often because of the simple visual RPG Maker games (and other platforms) people stop playing because they think it will not be so cool. You are severely deceived! Uri is amazing in the games she produces and I think this is her best game!

Exploring dark elements in an extremely psychological plot with a unique sensitivity, Uri builds memorable characters intertwined with each other by constant internal conflicts in a way that makes it impossible for the player to identify with any of them - or perhaps even everyone. Link this to a dynamic narrative and to the possibility of the player deciding which direction David will take you will have in his hands the proposal of The Crooked Man.

Real player with 10.8 hrs in game

The Crooked Man on Steam

Air Marty

Air Marty

An…interesting game. First, let me talk about the downsides of this game: some typos in the game and some of the minigames were either a bit hard or the controls were a bit finicky (I wasn’t sure which it was in all honesty). Both issues I have with the game are actually pretty small overall. I did thoroughly enjoy myself playing this game, so that definitely outweighed any downside I had with the game. There are a total of 64 (technically 65) endings, which I did love. I didn’t realize at first that I could use the continue feature to pick points in the game so I can get the various endings a lot quicker than redoing the whole game every single time. I expected a comedy (which it most definitely is) but I wasn’t prepared for a dark comedy (which a lot of the endings get pretty dark, so a warning for anyone who is sensitive to dark jokes and

! themes of suicide/self harm). Strangely enough, I did also thoroughly enjoy the artwork in-game. It was varied and some were (purposefully?) odd/bad, but it was unique and added another comedic effect to the game.

Real player with 10.2 hrs in game


Read More: Best 2D Indie Games.


The game was worth the money and time I spent with it. This is this developers first game, you can definitely feel it. There is a level of polish missing that while isn’t too distracting is definitely notable.

The game takes quite a long time to launch. There is a button binded that brings you directly back to the menu instead of a pause screen. There is a button that skips the menu that takes you directly to the level select. You can spam these buttons and reload the menus really fast and cause the soundtrack to restart rapidly. The way certain controls feel on multiple levels feel very floaty and weird. Not being able to skip through the dialogue fast enough to replay a mini-game can be a chore, especially if the mini-game isn’t very self explanatory and you can fail some of them instantly.

Real player with 5.6 hrs in game

Air Marty on Steam

Cartomante – Fortune Teller

Cartomante – Fortune Teller

A short but fun game set in a fantasy/modern setting where you play a witch who earns her living telling peoples fortunes.

The game has a beautiful art style and does a great job at world building. It has interactive dialog that succeeds at being mysterious, intriguing and often times funny. The game is short but very replayable with various different readings you can get for each person that results in different and often unique outcomes, you can play the same day over and over with different results each time.

Real player with 5.9 hrs in game


Read More: Best 2D Visual Novel Games.


This is a really good game. Short, but incredibly charming, an absolute steal for the price.

The dialogue is extremely well written, and it manages to be funny and thought provoking. If you’re like me, you’ll keep replaying it (and reliving the same day a la “Groundhog Day”) until you get the best (or worst) possible ending for all your clients.

Definitely do not sleep on this one!

Real player with 2.9 hrs in game

Cartomante – Fortune Teller on Steam

These Nights Alone

These Nights Alone

Definitely, Mr. Lenard and I have a problem! You can’t knock on the door when i just got sober XD By the way, great ambiance and music. Boo for Lenard, yay for emerging indie developers!

Real player with 3.8 hrs in game

Thank you for the nice free game ^^

Passwords were difficult ill admit that besides that whole game is really good i must say, story is entertaining and interesting and we love the fact that there are multiple endings.

Making game so you get to have choice in your own actions is nice as well plus putting puzzle pieces together is real nice an entertaining point in game as well.

First password hint is fine its basically a synonym but second i would make hint area larger if you know what i mean not giving it too much away.

Real player with 3.2 hrs in game

These Nights Alone on Steam

Unusual Findings

Unusual Findings

It’s the 80s and the Christmas is coming, Vinny, Nick and Tony are young and their new cable signal descrambler just arrived. That same night while trying to decrypt a pay per view adult channel, they pick up the distress signal of an alien spaceship crash-landing in the woods near their town… Things only get weirder as they realize that the towering alien is killing very specific members of their community!

Explore the world oozing with nostalgia, check the Video Buster Store for clues, challenge other kids at the Laser Llamas Arcades, go learn a new trick at The Emerald Sword comic store, try to get along with the punk looking Lost Boys at their hideout or even dare to ask THE BULL, the quintessential 80s Action hero, for some help!

Follow the story that pays tribute to 80s classics like The Goonies, The Explorers, Monster Squad, The Lost Boys, They Live, Terminator, and Aliens among others and a gameplay that combines mechanics of Point and Clicks masterpieces like Full Throttle with its own unique twist and more.

Your decisions do matter, and the way you make these three friends interact with each other increasingly affects their friendship and the whole story, changing the way they solve the game puzzles, the locations they visit, the answers they find, the story, everything.

Uncover the truth hidden behind the alien invasion… well sort of. Why here? Why is it killing locals? How can the boys stop it? Will they tune in the adult channel after all? The answers to these and other questions… in Unusual Findings.

  • Follow the Sci-Fi coming-of-age story. Three friends fighting together against the unknown… things (maybe against some known things too).

  • See, Grab and Talk action tokens, an inventory to use and combine items and your wits it’s all you need to play.

  • Stylized Pixel Art. All the charm of pixel art of the past with more colors and the new effects of the future. Some pixels look so real they can almost jump out of the screen*

  • Go back to a simpler time where mix tapes were a thing, Commodore 64 was a king, kids could play outside late at night and the only thing to worry about was THE GIANT KILLER ALIEN TRYING TO GET YOU AND YOUR FRIENDS.

  • The decisions you make affect the relations between characters and thus the puzzles, the game progression and the story.

  • The most radical music a synthesizer can play. Cool popular Synthwave Music alongside catchy tunes made exclusively for the game to power up the 80s vibes.

*The pixels do not actually jump out of the screen, In case you actually see a pixel jumping out the screen please visit an ophthalmologist… or/and look for psychological help.

Unusual Findings on Steam

Valiantia

Valiantia

‘Valiantia’ is a role-playing game. Solve the puzzles.

Altis, a female knight, and you, Leonale as her confidant, were ordered to do missions. You can help her ease the problems, making the decision, or make them more complicated. Her fate depends on you.

Multiple endings. Depend on your choices, your actions, and random events.

Features

  • Jokes, love comedy, drama

  • Teasing Altis (like cooking fried worms and give it to her)

  • swim and drowning

  • drunk

  • cooking, swimming

  • boxing

  • blood and gore

  • solve puzzles or make them more complicated

  • sneaking and assassinate

  • Each enemy has a unique style.

  • random equipment

  • upgrade equipment

  • random event

  • choices and multiple ending

  • creative cutscenes

  • playtime 6 up to 20+ h

control

The game can be played with a keyboard or a controller.

[X] = Cancel, Menu

[Z] = inspect (become a soldier)

[Shift] = run (become a soldier)

Valiantia on Steam

ALONE

ALONE

I normally don’t leave reviews, but I just finished making a let’s play of this game, and I enjoyed it so much I had to leave a like. Nice Job DrakeCraft! The game can be both funny and suspenseful and creepy and is just an enjoyable treat. 7/5 pineapples!

Real player with 5.5 hrs in game

alone’s a sweet one with a nice pacing & concept.

however it’s really short in length, which is kinda sad. would’ve loved to play more of it.

still, a solid indie game that was not lacking in overall quality.

just that kevin macleod song I’ve heared too much in my life kinda disrupted my immersion, complete silence would’ve been more fitting in my opinion.

Real player with 2.6 hrs in game

ALONE on Steam

Dark Abyss

Dark Abyss

I really like the potential with this game, the combat feels really nice and the dodge while a little wonky is quite versatile, the combo attacks are awesome and the parkour challenge for the 4th heart slot is quite nice.

In the future i hope to see more enemy variation, higher quality sound effects and a more fleshed out boss fight for the dash ability, other than that this game has really good potential and a strong foundation, keep up the work and i look forward to the next update :D

To anyone wondering at time of review the game is only about 20 minutes long AT MOST. It is very early access and is more of a tech demo. If you want to support the developer i highly recommend purchasing this.

Real player with 0.2 hrs in game

Dark Abyss on Steam

Dust to Dusk

Dust to Dusk

A well-written short horror story!

The actual main plot was quite unexpected for me and I had a lot of fun with the puzzles.

A lot of effort was put into it with a lot of CGs and plenty character portraits! I was very happy about the game having a gallery!

I think it’s a well-spent few hours, especially considering the low price.

If you would still rather have a look into the game before buying then you can watch a part of my playthrough:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9qJFgAqXiE

Real player with 4.9 hrs in game

I wasn’t too sure what to think about the overall plot until I got everything in the gallery and unlocked one last side story. I don’t want to spoil anything, but I would highly recommend that you make the effort to do so as well. Otherwise, you’ll really be missing out. If you enjoy horror-themed adventure games with heart behind them, you’ll love this. I had a great time, and it was packed with way more content than I expected given the one dollar asking price.

Real player with 4.4 hrs in game

Dust to Dusk on Steam

Fight’N Rage

Fight’N Rage

Good game overall, takes a lot of things from classics maybe to the point where it starts hurting the game own identity.

Gameplay is a mix of classic beat-em-up with a few mechanics from fighting games, most enemies are archetypes you will recognize if you’ve played SoR1-3 and Final Fight, also features branching levels.

Has a fairly spiky difficulty curve (some level branches in particular are much harder) and has a really high difficulty ceiling (less so than say SoR2 but not by much), lower difficulties accessible enough for most to have some fun (especially easy mode which is almost insultingly easy), difficulty curve turns to a cliff once you start looking past hard mode which means most won’t ever see the last two difficulty levels.

Real player with 159.4 hrs in game

Being a child of the 80’s and 90’s, there was no shortage of beat em‘ up games. Titles such as Streets of Rage, Final Fight, and Double Dragon were all the rage and kept you entertained for hours on end. Sadly, the current gaming landscape is nearly devoid of games such as these. Outside of a few gems that are still years old, beat em’ ups are pretty much dead. Thankfully, Indie developers don’t know this and are still cranking them out. This is where Fight’N Rage comes in!

I only recently heard about Fight’N Rage, and that was only due to me looking at another game – which I won’t mention. Instead, I began to see comments about a little-known game in development. One that had quite the following. My interest piqued, I started to search for the game and found little information. Buried beneath dead websites and Reddit posts, I found the name of the developer and the title – Fight’N Rage. A game that inspired by countless Beat ’em up titles from the past and puts a spin on it. There are references to those games littered everywhere as well.

Real player with 57.8 hrs in game

Fight'N Rage on Steam