The Judgement of Q
After i tried it, i’m not considering it as a puzzle game only, but also a brainstorming game, where you think through this short trip about the meaning of life and about the truth of it (that’s how i would describe it). Great game from an ambitious developer and i hope there will be more games like this.
– Real player with 5.6 hrs in game
Read More: Best Abstract Puzzle Platformer Games.
The judgement of Q is one of those simple games to play when you want to chill, the puzzles are thought provoking, but not frustrating. The soundtrack is soothing and harmonic with the progression of the game. The environment design is the most beautiful aspect of the game, giving the player a sense of discovery and curiosity, that goes along with the narration, which can get somewhat confusing at times, but the game is mostly visual anyway.
There are occasional FPS drops between loading screens, but nothing that will completely upset your experience. It’s an overall calm and relaxing experience with meaningful implications.
– Real player with 4.5 hrs in game
Lucid: Parables of the Ubermensch
Great platformer, Fantastic story and nice soundtrack. Recommend it to anyone who doesn’t have any good games!
– Real player with 2.0 hrs in game
Read More: Best Abstract Surreal Games.
I love the game. Unique music and cool game design would recommend.
– Real player with 1.9 hrs in game
Recursive Ruin
Lose yourself in the Infinite Realms, a dying, fractal world of strange beauty and mind-bending physics that repeats eternally inward and outward. Uncover the secrets of seven unique locations filled with hidden spaces and strange denizens. Overcome the impossible and use circular logic to manipulate recursive physics and solve challenging, self-referential puzzles.
Begin an introspective search for meaning and experience a bittersweet story that cascades into the surreal. Use your unique abilities and shape the world to beat back the scourge known as Ichor, a malevolent substance eating away at the fabric of reality.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1561890/Recursive_Ruin
Read More: Best Abstract Surreal Games.
Glitchhikers: The Spaces Between
What do you see up there, when you consider the infinity around us? And as you wander on your own journey, who are the strange, unworldly others who probe those questions as they pass like ghosts through your travels? Were they ever really real?
Glitchhikers: The Spaces Between is about the thoughts that exist between destinations, the parts of journeys that dominate our time but not our attention, when our minds wander to parts of ourselves and our world normally left unexamined. On a late night highway drive, a quiet train car in the early hours, a walk through a moonlight park, or the endless wait in a deserted airport, we listen to weird music amid the ambient announcements of delays, and question our place in the universe.
Inspired by long travel and the stream of consciousness it fosters, Glitchhikers asks you to look inward. Find the answers to your questions, and question the answers you receive. Ruminate on life, the universe, our place and purpose in it. Voyage through a freeform narrative experience, converse with the endless inevitability, and explore the cosmic, hopeful world you find yourself in.
A follow up to the critically praised short game released in 2014, Glitchhikers: The Spaces Between is an expanded experience, reborn and reimagined.
No pressure, no failure, no optimal path, no journey exactly the same. Glitchhikers: The Spaces Between is an introspective freeform game where the player picks a journey, slips into that liminal space and has a unique experience travelling into their own thoughts, guided by the characters they meet along the way.
A late night drive, a deserted airport lounge, a moonlit walk through an empty park, a quiet carriage on an overnight train, a 24-hour convenience store. Never the ultimate destination, spending time in the inbetween creates a setting for contemplation and reflection, a mood that exists in these liminal spaces.
The hikers you meet on each journey will travel with you for a time, offering thought-provoking conversations, and questioning your place in the universe. Who will you meet? What will you talk about? Were they real or just a figment of your imagination?
An extensive original soundtrack full of chill grooves, upbeat wonder, dreamy synths controlled by your movement through space, and that one busker who makes you feel right at home: each journey has its own feel.
Glitchhikers: The Spaces Between both expands and dives deeper into the ideas behind the original Glitchhikers (released as a short conceptual game in 2014), to fully realise the concepts and present a polished and fleshed out experience to a new generation of players.
Silverstring Media are a vital and vibrant voice within narrative indie games, creating a string of short experimental titles and working as narrative guns for hire on indie darlings including Celeste, Crypt of the Necrodancer, Where the Water Tastes Like Wine, Manifold Garden and Wandersong.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1449230/
Chiasm
If you like time travel as a concept, and are frustrated with all the “time travel” games that are nothing but cooperating with your past self, then this game is for you. The logic is simple, consistent, and interesting, and the levels are perfectly crafted to showcase all the interesting consequences of the time travel model. I wasn’t a fan of the graphics or overall presentation, but it doesn’t get in the way.
– Real player with 1.2 hrs in game
Noda
I love 3D data visualization. It really works when the interface is intuitive and you can focus on your data. It’s also amazing to feel the benefit of externalizing your thoughts in a 3D space - the model that you have in your head gets visualized, so that your mind’s eye is in a feedback loop with your real eyes. From imagination to creation, your idea can take form.
Noda makes this process seamless and easy. The visual design of the world and interface is elemental and intuitive, and the resulting creations are beautiful. I used Noda to organize my music library into different genres, something that I’ve always wanted to do. It’s great when you feel at ease and meditative when creating, and Noda is the ideal VR experience for this.
– Real player with 10.7 hrs in game
Hi devs !
I bought Noda and immediately spent a whole night on it, working on my story.
It felt amazing, so thanks for that !
Here are my observations and suggestions :
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My first working environment choice was “Sky only”, but i had to renounce it when i noticed the teleport couldn’t be used there. Could you add an invisible floor to make moving possible there, and in the empty environment ?
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I made mistakes sometimes, deleted elements, moved this or that and then changed my mind…. I had to redo a lot of things. I don’t know what kind of coding it would implie, but i would definitely have gained some efficacy, had i had a “Ctrl Z” of some sort.
– Real player with 10.5 hrs in game
Manifold Garden
I have been waiting for this game for a long time and when it finally landed on Steam a year late, it was a day 1 buy in no questions asked. I finished it in a couple of days and it was worth every penny. I played this one off the back of finishing Antichamber and it might just be the perfect comedown game to that, The Witness, Portal or The Talos Principle. That hollow feeling I get when I say goodbye to an awesome game was nicely filled in by Manifold Garden and I’m here to tell you why.
PROS
– Real player with 26.0 hrs in game
It’s a great game. Fun and satisfying puzzles, interesting mechanics and themes, and fantastic visuals. For me, the first playthrough was just right in gameplay and difficulty - some thinkers, but nothing that stumped me for too long. A very enjoyable experience. One minor criticism is that it’s very linear, whereas I was expecting something more in the vein of Space Hole.
[Spoilers may follow, I’m making this a mini-guide to secret content.]
However, if you only play it once to the ending, you’re missing out on a significant portion of the game (including a second ending). And yet the game barely even prods you in that direction. I only knew to look because of the achievements and a couple things I noticed in my playthrough (not that I had any recollection of where they were once I was done). You have to really, really be looking and scour every nook to find the path through the second playthrough. I almost felt like I needed a map of the whole game - and I have no idea what that would look like, given the nature of the physics. Compared to the relative ease of the primary path, it’s a big change. I personally did not want to spend the dozens of hours on it, so I used guides when I wasn’t sure where to go next. The guide on Steam is too vague, so I recommend the video by Lilith LeBlanc.
– Real player with 17.6 hrs in game
Daffodil Yellow: A few poems from an insect collector
“Daffodil Yellow: a few poems from an insect collector” is a 3D game/interactive experience about the reconciliation between someone and a season.
The story takes place at the very beginning of summer. This season makes the collector see everything in black and white. One day, after taking a nap, he turns into a butterfly.
He will go through three memories that are dear to him, which took place during previous summers. Looking for a color in each of them, he will repaint his current summer.
Nebula Within
A life philosophy ruminating, fast-paced, geometric twin stick shooter made by the human, Nick Oueijan. Allow me to maybe put it a bit differently, one man’s escape from the black hole life tends to create for a lot of us at some point and a vessel that helped him break free from his own personal one.
Despite only using geometry shapes, the game’s visuals are very well done. Sharp, colourful geometry on a black background with tiny white, swirling stars makes for some good contrast and individual shapes stand out nicely. Game menus and selection are awesomely done, allowing you to pilot your ship and shoot to select individual options which are represented by different drawings. Even looking through your collected mantras is done by turning the pages with your ship.
– Real player with 15.0 hrs in game
Introduction
Fair warning at the start, the developer has been very kind to reach out to me as a Curator to leave a review for this game and despite me being extremely thankful that they did, this review is and will stay my personal honest opinion of the game. P.S. Considering the game this review might be a bit more of a ‘deepdive’ than normal.
Nebula Within is an Asteroids style game with a focus on zenning out and just enjoying the game and yourself with an overarching theme of motivation and relaxation.
– Real player with 7.4 hrs in game
Pink Gum
Pink Gum is a very short journey through a life as told by chewing gum bubbles. I pondered how to sum this game up in a sentence, and I guess that’s the best I could do. Not great, really.
I think its one of those things that no matter what I might say, you could go, hmm, sounds interesting, but when you actually see it, it will make perfect sense. Which begs the question “Why am I even writing about it then?”
Because I think Pink Gum is well worth checking out. For the small amount of time and money you spend, you get a visually appealing, thought provoking experience. I’m also pretty sure that my opinion isn’t enough to persuade you, so here are some quotes about the game from famous people.
– Real player with 1.1 hrs in game
Pink Gum is a short but powerful experience that tells us about birth, life and death from a unique point of view.
I really recommend this game to everyone.
– Real player with 0.5 hrs in game