I don't know about you fine and fancy folks, but where I am, the sun is shining, there's a beautiful breeze blowing, and my hair looks extra cute. Which means it's time to close the windows, ignore all our social calls, and play free indie games in our pajamas. For our three courses this week, we have a visual novel where you may not even be able to trust yourself, an RPG adventure about a world of dolls where not everything is sunshine and smiles, and a platformer where the only source of light you have comes from your very limited weaponry.
Who is Mike? (Windows, Mac, Linux, free)- Fervent Studios offers up a creepy scenario in this thriller-style visual novel... what if you woke up in your own home in the middle of the night... to see yourself standing in front of you, calling you an imposter and demanding you leave? That's exactly what happens to Mike (um, well, both of him), and figuring out what happened isn't as important as figuring out who the imposter is and deciding what to do with him. It's on the short side and doesn't provide many answers even on the best ending, not to mention some obnoxious and unfair trickery at a certain point, but its creepy premise may be enough to hook you and keep your fingers crossed for a sequel!
Queen Mary's Script (Windows, free) [Mac user? Try freeware tool RPG Hub]- In Gabicho's surreal dark RPG, a little girl whose life feels dull and empty winds up with a very special doll named Clause... who, as it happens, turns out to be alive. He's willing to help Mary and make her life happy, but is he really as selfless as he tries to seem? Mary soon discovers that the world of dolls isn't as happy and carefree as she thought, and she'll have to fight her way towards any sort of happy ending. The game uses a somewhat clunky manual, non-turnbased battle system, but its sense of style and morbid whimsy makes it stand out from the crowd.
Roguelight (Windows, Pay What You Want, including free) - Daniel Linssen's little platformer may be a little simple, but it's also simply lovely, and the retro style is just the pixel-flavoured icing on top. (What do pixels taste like? Whatever your favourite childhood meal was, of course!) Delve as deep as you can into this cavern filled with monsters and other hazards, but the catch is, the deeper you go, the darker it gets, and only your arrows can provide light... so it's too bad they're in such limited supply. Roguelight was made for GBJam3, which is sort of funny because if any of my Game Boy games had looked and played like this when I was a little girl, I would have been a lot happier with that overpriced, battery-devouring monstrosity.
Roguelight is free /technically/, but it would be nice if it was made clear that the dev is, in fact, asking for money for the game.
I leave the option open for anyone who really likes the game to donate and support me, but I don't at all mind if people want to play the game for free, so I think labeling it "free" is fine. I'd much rather people play for free than not play at all! :)
Simple mistake, my apologies. :) I was half asleep when I finished writing this using my template and forgot to change it. It has been updated.
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