Author: Jonathan Bolding

A recent Steam release from a solo indie developer has really taken off, racking up nearly a thousand overwhelmingly positive reviews since it released into early access on May 21. Rooftops & Alleys: The Parkour Game is a sport game focused entirely on the experience of parkour and freerunning—which is to say it’s not also…

Lovers of exploration-based puzzlers and clever twists on old game styles should do themselves a favor and check out the recently-released Isles of Sea and Sky. In it, you explore an oceanic world of magical islands, all of which are jam-packed with classic sokoban (block-pushing) puzzles to solve.  As you progress in the world you…

Digital Eclipse’s updated port and remake of classic 1981 dungeon-crawler Wizardry has released on Steam, letting you experience a piece of real RPG history with much more modern graphics and a streamlined presentation. In Wizardry you make a party or two of monster-battling heroes and pilot them in first person through a dungeon, fighting monsters…

There’s now a free prologue-style preview for the minimalist resource management sim Masterplan Tycoon, just released this week in the form of Masterplan Tycoon: Foundations. The  demo takes you through early stages of building out your empire of flowing stuff, letting you plop down camps, quarries, farms, and factories. Masterplan Tycoon’s basic concept is that…

Have you ever played beloved, award-winning mystery game Return of the Obra Dinn and thought “I enjoy this puzzle-mystery format but I wish it was actually very different?” If so, well, there’s a game for you now. Duck Detective: The Secret Salami is a just-released casual mystery adventure about a world of animals, stolen lunches,…

Here’s a weird new indie that has my undivided attention: Arctic Eggs, a game where you’re in a miserable future seeking to escape a dystopian prison with nothing but your wits, strong wrists, and a frying pan. You cook for others, you cook to survive, and you cook to explore the low-poly, lo-res, scanlined brutalist…

A new auto-battler RPG in the idle or incremental vein has released to pretty positive reception: Lootun, which describes itself as a game focused on “Character/Skill Progression, Item Hunting, and Inventory Management.” With a slightly more focused loop of gathering gear and picking through it as your characters auto-battle enemies, Lootun is pretty focused and…

A little adventure-mystery puzzle box game is currently totally free on Steam, with Littlefield Studio’s 2021 release Machinika Museum available at a 100% discount “while supplies last.” With the kind of detailed 3D backgrounds that might remind you of Myst, Machinika: Museum is a puzzle-box-solving adventure through machines of extraterrestrial origin. The protagonist—that is, you—is…

The science-fantasy 4X Endless Legend is free on Steam until May 23, or until they run out of their supply of nebulously free games. That’s free to keep, forever, by the way—apparently when they gave it away for free earlier this year they considered it a real success and so they’re doing it again. As…