#PitchYaGame is back for another round, and developers from all across Twitter are sharing their games with the world. We combed from another batch of them and handpicked our favorite top 10 games (in no particular order). Enjoy, and be sure to follow these devs and projects.
For more top indie game pitches, check out our top 10 list from the first #PitchYaGame event.
Theropods
What’s better than dinosaurs? Dinosaurs and aliens! Theropods, an upcoming point-and-click adventure game, has them both.
In Theropods, we play as both a young dinosaur hunter and the mysterious spaceman who crash-landed on her planet. The two unlikely allies band together to find a crystal that can send the spaceman home and is also the power source of the bloodthirsty barbarians that enslaved the hunter’s people.
I love me some old-school point-and-click, and Theropods seems to have plenty of puzzles, but also action, humor, and lovely pixel art. Oh, and let’s not forget the dinosaurs (and at least one alien). Fans of all of the above should go wishlist the game on Steam.
Neko Ghost, Jump!
Neko Ghost, Jump! is a puzzles platformer the offers a new perspective on the genre, quite literally. Not only can you switch between your regular form and an invisible “ghost form,” but you can also switch between a 2D camera and a 3D one.
Change your perspective at the right time should let you solve jump puzzles quickly, and compete for the top spot in the leaderboards. In fact, we already played the Neko Ghost, Jump! demo, and discovered that going against the clock is both very fun and very rewarding.
If you enjoy challenging platformers with interesting twists, consider backing the game on Kickstarter.
Lost in Play
Lost in Play wants to take you back to your childhood when every stick was a mighty sword, and every rock hid a treasure (or something gross but equally as awesome). Or as developer HappyJuice Games puts it – when “the border between reality and imagination wasn’t there.”
In this adventure game, you play a brother and sister “on their journey through imaginary and surreal landscapes” as they try to find their way back home. They’ll face many a danger (both imaginary and real) and solve many a puzzle with the help of new friends they find along the way, like this weird little frog we see in the video below.
The animation is what drew my attention to Lost in Play in the first play. It’s so bright and friendly and just looks like a wonderful cartoon. The team behind the game is made of experienced developers and animators, which is probably why it looks so good. You can follow Lost in Play on Steam, and check out the studio’s previous game, The Office Quest.
Cloud Jumper
Cloud Jumper’s beautiful skies are full of pink clouds and flocks of birds. These give the game a relaxing and almost hypnotic vibe, which is what By developer Bob Madden is going for. By his own words, Cloud Jumper is a “chill game about floating islands.”
In Cloud Jumper, we’ll be piloting a floating ship that sails between these floating islands. We will dock to trade items with the residents and help them rebuild their homes. There’s also a crafting system, in which we use the resources we collect to make different items, presumably to upgrade our ship, sell to residents, and to complete quests.
I look forward to see how the game will encourage us to explore and help characters in creative ways. Or to just sail through these gorgeous skies.
Text Platformer
Text Platformer is not the official name of this next game, but I couldn’t find one so that’s what I’m calling it. Developer Febucci is working on a platformer that uses text bubbles as the platforms. I think it’s really neat.
We haven’t seen much from this unnamed title, but according to the video pitch, the text you’ll decide to jump on will impact the overall game. We can see that the player can select the difficulty but making a series of slightly complicated jumps to reach a text bubble that says “I’m the best,” thus proving they are, indeed, the best.
But that’s pretty much all we have to go on. That, and the cool visual effects that cause the text to move and distort as you walk and jump all over it. I’m keeping an eye of this one, for sure.
Pocket Wheels
Like many of you, I, too, spent my childhood constructing over-the-top Hot Wheels racing tracks in my room while playing Re-Volt on my bulky, cube-shaped computer monitor. Pocket Wheels takes what we loved best about these moments, and combines them with classic objective-based collectathon mechanics.
In Pocket Wheels, we drive toy-sized cars on a life-sized race track. This isn’t a racing game, and instead, we will be driving to complete objectives around the house. Our tiny car can jump, much like cars in the fantastic Rocket League, which will allow us to overcome different obstacles and even play mini-golf.
Not much else is known about Pocket Wheels, except that it will be launching on Steam sometime in the unknown future.
VoidTrain
In Voidtrain, you build a train and fight interdimensional Nazis. Now that is a pitch I can definitely get behind. There’s a little more to the game than trains and killing Nazis, but I think it should be enough to get you on board (get it? On board? I crack myself up).
You’re a crew member on a train zipping between dimensions, and it’s your job to keep it running. Collect resources to fix and upgrade it, and fight off various monsters (including the aforementioned Nazi). The faster and more efficient your train is, the more dangers you’re going to attract, which sounds like an interesting take on adaptive difficulty.
Survival game and first-person shooter fans would be happy to know they can play it in co-op. Don’t forget to wishlist the game on Steam, so you’ll get notified when Voidtrain leaves the station.
Up North
Up North classifies itself as a Midwestern RPG inspired by the Persona series. It’s a narrative-driven, turn-based game where we fight demons and people with mystical powers in a mysterious Renaissance fair.
Up North will combine real-time gameplay within its turn-based combat, much like we saw in Cris Tales (which was also inspired by Persona), except that here we have a slight twist. Your goal in battle will be to “reveal enemies for who they really are,” exposing grim reapers and demons as just regular fairgoers.
The game aims to capture the feeling of what it’s like “to live off the grid with a group of really weird people,” drawing from the dev’s own experiences with such communities. Just like the protagonist says in one of the screenshots below, you can consider me sold.
Spirit Trail
What do The Legend of Zelda, Metroid, Hyper Light Drifter, and Hollow Knight have in common? They all inspired Spirit Trail, a new 2D action-adventure title. And you can absolutely see these influences in the game’s pitch.
The video embedded in developer Thierry Bongard’s tweet shows an example of the game’s combat and monster design. The creature design is supposedly inspired by Studio Ghibli’s works, and I guess I can see that – especially the green blob monsters.
Bongard also says there’s a lot more to Spirit Trail than punching enemies. It’s an exploration-focused game set in a gloomy, dreamlike world. As someone who loves at least two of the games cited in this pitch, I’m planning on keeping an eye on Spirit Trail. I suggest you do the same.
Bull out of Arles
Bull out of Arles is yet another colorful point and click adventure on this list. I love point-and-click games, sue me (please don’t sue. I don’t have any money, I write for a living). It’s also the sequel to Feria d’Arles, a story about a young girl who dreams of becoming the bravest matador in all of France.
Bull out of Arles presumably continues the story of the same young girl (her name is Molly, by the way) in the hard to pronounce the French city of Arles. It might involve bulls, though I’m not sure. In any case, the game looks adorable, with old-school graphics that remind me of Day of the Tentacle.
Frankly, I never heard of both Feria d’Arles and its sequel before this round of #PitchYaGame, which is exactly why I love making these lists. I get to discover all sorts of cool indie games and tell you, dear reader, about them.
Bonus: Pawnbarian
Pawnbarian is on this list mostly thanks to the pun in its title. It’s a “minimalist, chess-like, rogue-like puzzler,” and while I’m not a huge fan of roguelikes, I do love the game’s aesthetics. The red, white, and blue color scheme reminds me of Kunai, which I enjoyed.
I also love the clever use of chess mechanics during combat. It looks like every turn you choose which chess piece you want to move as so you can travel across the tiny board to attack or avoid enemies.
You can try a demo of Pawnbarian on Steam. It’s been more than a few years since I played any version of chess, but I think I’ll give this one a try.
