With a combination of fantastic musical guests (if you don’t know Alex Moukala then please get to know him) and a variety of indie games, the Future of Play was the perfect way to spend a Saturday. From queer as (bleep) dating sims to cooking toward your dreams, I found plenty that I’m gonna add to my wishlist while I ponder how to clone myself so I have time to dedicate to all these games. Here are, at the very least, 15 of the ones I was really into.
Breeze in the Clouds
Description: You’re a pet corgi that ends up in the world in the clouds and gains weather powers. You’re tasked with defeating pollution and fixing the weather.
Why I’m excited: Please refer to the description about a pollution-fighting corgi, thanks (also the good boy USES HIS FISTS to fight).
Developer: Stormy Nights
How to support: Check out the website!
Calico
Description: Calico is a silly and sweet day-in-the-life community sim game where you are given an important and adorable task: rebuild the town’s cat café and fill it with cute and cuddly creatures! Build up your café by filling it with cute furniture, fun decorations, yummy pastries, and get it bustling with animals again!
Why I’m excited: I just wanna be a magical girl, restore a cat café, and fill it with fluffy buttheads like my own. The game’s already available, but now there’s a new update!
Developer: Peachy Keen Games
How to support: Grab it on Steam!
Cook Serve Forever
Description: Cook your way through the bustling solarpunk city of Helianthus as Nori Kaga, a food cart chef aspiring to make it big like her role model, the Culinary Queen herself, Chef Rhubarb. This all-new IP from the creators of the million-selling “Cook, Serve, Delicious!” series features hundreds of ingredients, a dramatic fully-voiced story, tantalizing sidequests, gorgeous artwork, and gameplay that simulates the rhythm and tactility of cooking.
Why I’m excited: The gameplay kinda has the mechanics of a rhythm game where you hit the buttons in time, except for cooking. I need that in my life. Also, I wish cooking were actually done that way.
Developer: Vertigo Gaming
How to support: Wishlist on Steam, planned 2023 release!
Infinite Guitars
Description: Infinite Guitars is a rhythm RPG where players must dodge through rhythm-based attacks and retaliate with electrifying Guitar Solos. Set in a world devastated by a great mech war Infinite Guitars features beautiful anime-inspired art, beautiful environments, and a 100% original, jam-worthy soundtrack.
Why I’m excited: What if we got more rhythm RPGs? This time with epic guitar solos!
Developer: Nikko Nikko
How to support: Wishlist on Steam, planned 2022 release!
Kabaret
Description: Kabaret is a dark fantasy folklore adventure game. The story unfolds through the eyes of Jebat, a cursed boy who is uprooted from his small town to a mystical, violent, and unforgiving monster realm. Astray and lonely in a place of unfathomable cruelty, Jebat confronts monsters both supernatural and human in the Kabaret.
Why I’m excited: Dark. Fantasy Folklore. Adventure. Game. Also, one that explores Southeast Asian myths.
Developer: Persona Theory Games
How to support: Wishlist on Steam, planned 2022 release (Q3)!
Loddlenaut
Description: A cozy underwater survival game that takes place on a polluted ocean planet. Repurpose marine debris, take care of axolotl-like alien creatures, and uncover the ocean’s mysterious past.
Why I’m excited: An interstellar custodian, you say? And we’re going underwater? Let me get my SCUBA gear.
Developer: Moon Lagoon
How to support: Wishlist on Steam, planned 2023 release!
Lost Twins 2
Description: Lost Twins 2 is an incredibly cute puzzle adventure that will challenge your brain power. entertain, and maybe even inspire you. Guide Abi and Ben on their journey as they move across platforms engage in challenging puzzles, swap tiles to create paths, and overcome obstacles to reunite and find their way back home.
Why I’m excited: The concept is intriguing with the twins being on the same screen, but not sharing the same space. I’m expecting to get frustrated with the puzzles, feel rewarded when I get them right, and happy when I finally get to my twin.
Developer: Playdew
How to support: Wishlist on Steam, planned 2022 release!
Love Shore
Description: In the cyberpunk metropolis of Love Shore, gods, cyborgs, and humans fight, mingle, and fall in love in the criminal underground. Make choices, form relationships, earn enemies or allies as either Sam or Farah, the two S.Humans finding themselves and uncovering the secrets buried deep within their unsleeping city.
Why I’m excited: Gods, cyborgs, and humans? Oh my. I’m sure this will be fine.
Developer: Perfect Garbage
How to support: Wishlist on Steam!
Malice and Greed
Description: Malice & Greed is a Roguelike Turn-based RPG where you force enemies & bosses to join you after each fight, sell them to the Shady Smuggler, and butcher them to steal their skills. Customize & upgrade a new team every run to build the ultimate combo as you battle to reach Nirvana!
Why I’m excited: Because it sounds f*cking bonkers! Sell your enemies? Butcher them for skills? What is happening??? Game is already available, but now there’s new gameplay features.
Developer: Xendra
How to support: Grab it on Steam!
Onde
Description: Onde is a relaxed audio adventure where you ride waves of light and sound to traverse a wondrous world. Explore the depths of the ocean to the far reaches of space, navigate melodic environments, and enjoy intuitive puzzle-platforming along the way. Onde’s smooth sound-surfing offers a meditative experience for everyone.
Why I’m excited: A relaxing music game with beautiful visuals and a soundtrack to match. The perfect thing to play after a long day of work.
Developer: Lance & 3-50
How to support: Grab on Steam, and look forward to the Nintendo Switch and iOS release later in 2022!
OU
Description: The place is U-chronia, a hazy world that lives in hazy memories of the distant past. OU, a young boy, wakes up in a dried-up riverbed without any memories of his own. He meets Zarry, an opossum with a flaming tail, who guides him on a journey to find out his story.
Why I’m excited: The opossum’s tail is on fire and he sets things on fire. I’m easily entertained, but the atmosphere has me worried about getting attached to our new friend.
Developer: room6, G-MODE Corporation
How to support: Wishlist on Steam, planned 2022 release!
Pen Pal Princess
Description: Pen Pal Princess is a queer romantic comedy visual novel set in a technologically modern fantasy world. A satire of modern online dating, the game explores themes of long-distance relationship building and takes a closer look at how we present ourselves to others online. Correspond with potential suitors through letter-writing, email, and instant messaging to convince them to rescue you from your secluded princess tower!
Why I’m excited: Kiss Kiss (writer letters) Fall in Love!
Developer: Compact
How to support: Wishlist on Steam, planned 2022 release!
Railbound
Description: Railbound is a new track-bending puzzle game from the makers of Golf Peaks and inbento. Connect and sever railways across the world to help everyone reach their homes, and solve over 100 clever puzzles ranging from gentle slopes to twisted passageways.
Why I’m excited: What if puzzle game, but trains?
Developer: Afterburn
How to support: Wishlist on Steam!
Spiral
Description: Spiral is a third-person narratively driven exploration game sharing a poetic vision of cognitive degeneration seen from the inside. It tells the story of Bernard, a man who wishes goodbye one last time to the memories that built him from his early childhood to who he is today. You accompany him on this journey, bearing witness to his life and remembering for him as his mind slowly unravels into the void.
Why I’m excited: Sometimes, I just feel like crying, I guess. Trying to gather your memories before they fade away? Yeah, I’m gonna cry.
Developer: Folklore Games
How to support: Wishlist on Steam, planned 2023 release!
ValiDate
Description: ValiDate is a romantic visual novel about 13 adults in Jercy City navigating new relationships and the harsh realities that come alongside them.
Why I’m excited: A mature-rated dating sim with 13 dynamic characters that is extremely queer-friendly? I need this, like, yesterday.
Developer: Veritable Joy Studios
How to support: Wishlist on Steam, planned August 2022 release (and is also coming to Nintendo Switch)!
(Featured image: Persona Theory Games/Playdew/Veritable Joy Studios)
