Herding creatures, surfing deserts, and surviving curses with friends

Hello friend, and welcome to another Indie Release Dispatch. The church of Silksong let out a collective sigh of relief this week as the long awaited Silksong was shown and confirmed for release this year during Opening Night Live at Gamescom. Now the internet will be surely flooded with hot takes claiming that it has not met the impossible weight of expectation, but I’m sure that it’s more Hollow Knight, and that’s more than fine. I probably should give it another go at some point.

This week my limited game time has been spent with The Drifter - a really interesting and modern take on the LucasArts brand of point-and-click adventure schtick. The dynamic menus for for using, combining, and crafting items proves that the genre still has room for innovation. But the deeply personal exploration of family, relationships, and grief - that’s the good shit that I crave. OH! And there’s some wild sci-fi future stuff going on too that’s super rad. I’ll write something up soon once I see where it takes me.

And now let’s see what you should be looking at this weekend.

What came out this week?

Herdling

Developer: Okomotive
Steam rating: Positive
Store page

If you ever dream about escaping city life and just living in the hills herding beautiful creatures to pass your days, then Herdling is a way to try the lifestyle before you commit. Created by the folks behind the FAR series, Herdling will set you out on an alpine adventure with a herd of delightful beasts. Your job is to guide them to the summit, deal with the obstacles that litter the winding mountain paths, and perhaps unravel a mystery or two along the way.

The trailer has big “this game will make you cry energy”, and the fact that one of the marketing beats is “An emotional, wordless tale of trust, survival, and companionship during a great crossing through a fallen world”, I bet you’ll be reaching for the tissues by the time the credits roll.

The big draw here is that Panic are the publisher. These folks have a knack for finding truly interesting games. Seriously, it is criminal that you (YES, YOU READING THIS!) have not played Arco yet. Go check that out, and grab Herdling while you’re at it.

Sword of the Sea

Developer: Giant Squid
Steam rating: Very Positive
Store page

The movement wizards over at Giant Squid are back with another Journey-like in Sword of the Sea, a culmination of everything the studio has learned since ABZÛ, and The Pathless. Billed as an atmospheric surfing adventure, you will be surfing across the sands and waters to restore a lost ocean. Sounds like a pretty epic time.

The world is constantly flowing with pulsating waves. When I say that I’m not talking just about the water areas, the sand dunes also ripple which creates this sensory overload of constant flow state. Paired with the chilling soundtrack from Austin Wintory, it’s easy to see that this will be more of what Giant Squid are known for, but it feels like there are some mechanically interesting additions to the flow state this time around.

Oh, and it looks absolutely gorgeous.

OFF

Developer: Mortis Ghost
Steam rating: Overhwhelminly Positive
Store page

I like to consider myself pretty clued into the history of gaming, especially from the early 00’s era as that is when I started writing professionally. So when I saw that “One of the most influential RPGs of the last 20 years is finally coming to Steam.” and had no idea WTF it was, I was immediately intrigued.

OFF is a quirky classically-inspired RPG that was originally released in 2008, entirely in French. It wasn’t until 2011 that it received an officially sanctioned fan translation, and in 2013 it was the sixth most reblogged game on Tumblr. Yeah, that tumblr.

The Player controls The Batter, a man in a baseball uniform who has been sent on a mission to purify the world. You make your way through four bizarre world zones, smacking spectres and other meanies in the face with your bat, and some other very strange things. Think Earthbound or Undertale. I think we are playing in that space.

This remaster is a collaboration between the creators and Fangamer to bring an updated version of the game to modern platforms. So if you want to play a cult classic that you probably haven’t heard of, this one has a lot of devoted fans.

Stick It to the Stickman (Early Access)

Developer: Free Lives
Steam rating: Overwhelmingly Positive
Store page

Those folks over at Free Lives are back at it again after last year’s Anger Foot with Stick It to the Stickman, a physic-based brawler where you rise up the corporate ladder of bad assery to become the boss. What does the company do? They do the thing. Can you do the thing? Is the thing kicking red stickmen in the face? It sure seems that way. And it seems like so much fun.

Free Lives have an incredible track record. Broforce, Terra Nil, the aforementioned Anger Foot. With plenty of room for new additions in Early Access, this one is definitely calling for my wallet this week.

Whisper Mountain Outbreak (Early Access)

Developer: Toge Productions
Steam rating: Mostly Positive
Store page

Technically this came out last week, but I haven’t seen many people talking about it and it’s SO MY JAM that I needed to share it. Whisper Mountain Outbreak is a co-op survival horror where you work with up to three friends to collect clues, explore the various locales, and find a way to escape and survive the horrofic curse unleashed upon the Mountain.

Featuring proximity voice chat, there seems to be a lot of teamwork required to survive, and while there is the room for goofiness, I am very into the idea of a heavily cooperative experience to ramp up the tension as opposed to the “friend slop” that we see in this genre often. It looks like Project Zomboid and Resident Evil mashed together with some escape room elements, and that sounds like a delightfully fun time with some friends.

There are six classes with randomized traits at the start of each run, and being in Early Access I bet there will be a suite of new things to explore with every update.

And that’s a wrap

Thanks for reading as always. If you enjoyed the newsletter, please share it with a friend. If you really enjoyed it, please consider dropping a few dollars in our Ko-FI cup.

See you next week with some new reviews, and another Indie Release Dispatch.