The Palace on the Hill
Play as a teenage boy who uses his passion for art to escape poverty.
Set in a small and secluded hillside village in India, overlooked by the ruins of a 15th century palace The Palace on the Hill is a cozy management game which follows the story of a young boy, Vir as he discovers his passion for painting stories.
Made with beautiful painted 2D graphics, you explore ruins, meet people, set up a farm, manage a tea shop, fish, and run errands.
The unique mechanic in this game takes the branching narrative style of storytelling and applies it to create paintings inspired by Indian miniature art.
The paintings, each depicting a particular event in history, are strung together to form a story of the past.
Each painting can have hundreds of possible combinations of choices which helps in creating a unique experience for each player.
Read More: Best Management Exploration Games.
Welcome to Goodland
You could never have known you would end up in a situation like this, yet here you are: helping a Mexican cartel with money laundering. The cartel doesn’t listen to excuses, and it rarely gives second chances. You would not wish to disappoint them. You know what happened to the last person who did.
And so, you start small in a secluded town in Minnesota; a place surrounded by beautiful forests, yet filled with dark secrets. There are several factions already in play here and they will not want to share their influence with a rising force… but can you survive without allies?
You will need all your courage, ingenuity and perseverance if you wish to overcome the challenges laid before you. Even those closest to you might betray you, but you might also find allies in the most unexpected of places.
-
Plan your actions, acquire businesses, protect and promote your business
-
Balance your reputation with the police and two local criminal gangs lest your unreliable comrades turn against you
-
Make choices and face consequences that aren’t always immediately apparent; there is no such thing as a perfect solution
-
Embrace the corruption and climb the ranks in the cartel, try to ask the FBI for help… or find another way to ensure your safety and independence
Read More: Best Management Crime Games.
Lobotomy Corporation | Monster Management Simulation
This game is really great. I don’t usually play games like these as I usually go for FPS and multiplayer games, but this was a nice change of pace. My friends got me into it and I blame them for my addiction. Managing all kinds of abnormalities and trying not to let everyone die was a fun experience. The only qualm I have with the game is when it bugged for me. At certain points in the game you gain more abnos in the facility to produce energy and learn more about them to make the game easier. I had a glitch that would just kind of yoink abnos and department research. I restarted the game multiple times, asked for help on reddit and a discord server, but all I got was “That’s Lobotomy” and one guy who tried to help. It’s a bit glitch so I understand that weird stuff happens and nobody can really help, but that set me back a bit. I just had to uninstall the game for a bit apparently. I can’t wait to continue my journey in more games.
– Real player with 116.4 hrs in game
Read More: Best Management Indie Games.
I stopped playing for a few months and when I got back a patch broke my game so it wouldn’t boot up. Angela refused to let me start it for a week straight and gaslit gatekept girlbossed me into a month of unpaid overtime when it did work. I am writing this review from the Shelter of the 27th of March because I forgot how all the Abnormalities worked while away. Ha ha.
I’m going to die down here! Ha ha.
– Real player with 106.8 hrs in game
This Is the Police
After finishing the main storyline of this game and playing it for ~29 hours, I am incredibly torn on this game. I love it, and yet, there’s some parts of it that really bother me. Ahead may be some spoilers, but I will try to put those in between tags.
Let’s talk core gameplay loop first. There are so many cases you will send officers to and many you will get through through simple math which the game explains to you very early on. This is the basis, but the game offers many distractions. The community will come calling, as will city hall and eventually, bad guys in multiple different shapes. This will eventually get incredibly hectic, which I experienced as fun. There’s a detective (and one other) minigame where you try to piece together the cases frame by frame and I simply loved it to pieces.
– Real player with 31.4 hrs in game
I always have a difficult time writing a negative review about a game that I liked for the most part. So how about I do this: I will first tell you what I really liked about the game, because, if you do like it yourself, you should totally buy it. And then I will explain what I really hated about it.
If you don’t like to read, then watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlLk-t-kCl0
And yeah, I fixed the sound and redid the vid.
So what did I like about the game?
1. 80% of the story. The story is brilliant for the most part. I love novels that put the protagonist up the wall, and when he/she tries to react, they get their backs pushed further up the wall to the point of barely having any control of the situation.
– Real player with 27.6 hrs in game
Game Director Story
Game Director Story is an unflinching and satirical look behind-the-scenes at how big-budget AAA games are made. Based on first-hand accounts by industry veterans, Players will experience the emotional roller coaster of guiding a team through the agonizing decisions and compromises needed to ship a game.
You will take on the role of a newly hired Game Director in this character-driven narrative experience, responsible for balancing your relationship with your team, publisher, press, influencers, and fans.
Decide how you want to handle real industry situations like crunch, technical debt, inclusivity, micro-transactions, sexism, exclusives and more, and be prepared to deal with the impact of your decisions on your team and the game.
- Based on real-life scenarios
Based on real events contributed by veteran game developers, players will experience the emotional roller-coaster of game development. Experience all phases of development, making difficult decisions while guiding your team to the euphoric finish line of shipping a game.
- Balance competing relationships.
Maintain critical relationships and the frequently conflicting interests of your team, your publisher, the press, and fans, all while preserving your vision and staying on budget.
- Characters with heart and soul.
Get to know your team members through their stories and help them to grow as a professional or overcome personal challenges.
- Sit in on a Team Chat to check in on your colleagues
Sit in on the daily Team Chat to get a sense of how your team is doing, what they’re concerned about, and how they feel about your decisions.
- Deal with unexpected and game altering obstacles.
Live through iconic industry challenges or situations that can occur during development like “Publisher requests a last minute E3 presence”.
- Live with the consequences of your choices
With the clock ticking, choose the decisions you believe are important, and live with the consequences on your game and the team.
- Real, but humorous.
While GDS tackles real industry challenges, a healthy dose of humor and satire keeps things light and entertaining, while handling difficult topics in an approachable way.
Amazing Superhero Squad
Сompleted the game with all endings . Stunning art, that you can admire in the gallery after the game, an interesting plot. Funny references in tasks :)
Overall - a good game
– Real player with 25.5 hrs in game
Read the guide at the beginning, very useful information!) I really liked the art and the study of the world. I can’t say that the game has revealed its full potential in terms of gameplay, but you can get stuck for a couple of hours. We are waiting for the continuation of the story!
– Real player with 1.6 hrs in game
Cultist Simulator
I’m a writer, and I fell in love with Alexis Kennedy’s imagery and lore. I was never into videogames, but the storytelling and atmosphere really spoke to me. I recommend it to dreamers and problem-solvers alike.
– Real player with 1273.0 hrs in game
This game has to be the single most difficult game I’ve ever played, I wont lie.
Like it’s one thing if a game is hard as balls, but this game physically hurts to play.
It’s not even a matter of frustration or anything like that.
All I have to do is look at the game board, and then my head starts to pound.
No game I have ever played before has had me slam my head down on my desk after winning because winning means I don’t have to torture myself anymore …until my brain decides that starting a new run is a good idea, that is.
– Real player with 90.7 hrs in game
Apotheker
Puzzle games can be pretty hit or miss for me, so of course I have lots of them partially played in my library. This was one of the most fun puzzle games I’ve ever played; It’s super chill with great vibes and an interesting backstory! It took 6 hours for me to get through the casual mode, and I spent most of them at my computer with snacks and tea, cause it’s impossible not to feel cozy playing it. Especially with the music! So good.
Since it’s an indie game and I couldn’t google it, I will say: in the tutorial part at the start of the game, I bought a piece of equipment in the “office”, and when I went to make the next potion, it prompted me to buy that same piece of equipment, but the store was “sold out” and I couldn’t close the prompt or continue. It was early on anyway, so I just started over, but don’t do that :P
– Real player with 8.5 hrs in game
Challenging potion-brewing puzzle game with intriguing characters, plenty of mysterious backstories, and all the ingredients and tools you need to either save your shop or blow yourself up trying. Potions get increasingly complex as the game goes on and so do the decisions about which potions to brew and for who!
– Real player with 7.2 hrs in game
RESIGNED
INTRO
They say quitting is the easy part. Clearly they don’t know anything. Your boss hates you, the calls keep coming through as do your food deliveries. Respond to emergency calls, control police cars, firetrucks, helicopters, ambulances and more.
STORY
Sick of your job as a Emergency Call Operator, you quit. Well, you try to quit. Unfortunately, your boss’s name is Chris and thus, insults you and makes you work your two week notice from home. Now, you have to balance your diet, your sleep and your work for the next two weeks from home. Good luck.
GAMEPLAY
Control police cars, helicopters, firetrucks, ambulances and more from your laptop. Solve emergency situations, save people and stop criminals whilst also maintaining a good sleep schedule & diet, looking after your finances and communicate with your soon to be ex boss through email.
This Is the Police 2
I can highly recommend This is the police 2 for everyone who played the first game as it heavily improves on the gameplay. In every call you get to choose how your officers react, what happens after that and how it actually goes, something the first game didn’t really offer. The officers are also much more human. While in the first game they were basically a portrait with a name and a professionalism stat, here they have various more stats, individual loyalty levels and a few special traits. For instance Kamatari Kurosawa is really lazy and only does one call per day, Galen Woolbag smells bad Leo Bradhi loves coming with his own uniforms. This along with some “Can I have a day off?” questions unique to a certain officer or them asking go to a funeral when a fellow officer dies or developing alcohol problems when they see them die in front of them makes them seem much more human and adds to the atmosphere and adds a new layer to gameplay.
– Real player with 252.0 hrs in game
I loved This is the Police 1, but unfortunately this fails to reach anywhere near the same quality.
There are some genuinely good additions made here:
-
Having officers with particular skills (speed, etc) made calls much more interesting (and gave a great incentive to keep good cops alive)
-
The XCOM style tactical combat system is a very neat idea, and at times was very fun to play. I would love to see this done in any future related games.
-
The ability buy and give out equipment to cops with relevant skills was a nice touch, and made the dept. feel much more real
– Real player with 35.8 hrs in game