itch.io's Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality

[windfisch]

Most of you probably are aware of this massive bundle:

Quote:

"Update: The bundle has been a huge success so far and many more developers have submitted their projects. We've added a new round of games & more. All previous and future buyers get instant access. There are now 1,000 projects included.

We live in a time of racial injustice, inequality, and police brutality against black people. We hope that everyone takes a stand in any way that they can. We’ve partnered with creators from all across our platform to support organizations that are working directly with those affected.

We reached out to our community and an unprecedented number of creators donated over 740 projects to be part of what we believe is the largest bundle ever. Over $3,400 of paid works are available Pay-what-you-want with a minimum donation amount of $5.

All proceeds will be donated to the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and Community Bail Fund split 50/50.

Please note: No Steam (or other external keys) will be given for bundle purchases. Only direct downloads will be available on the itch.io page.

If you’re looking for more ways to help try here: blacklivesmatters.carrd.co/

#blacklivesmatter"

So far over 3.9 million $ have been raised and there are still 5 days to go*. This thread is supposed to serve two main purposes:

• 1. raise awareness of this bundle while it's still going
• 2. talk about games and other projects included in the bundle and give recommendations of things you enjoyed
  

There are many well-known titles like Night in the Woods, Oxenfree, Glittermitten Grove, Octodad, 2064: Read Only Memories, Nuclear Throne, Runner 3, Celeste and more. But on the other hand, there are also tons of smaller, lesser-known works here that may also deserve some recognition. So what have you tried out and what would you consider gems, hidden or otherwise?

btw: Special shoutout to HG101 for submitting the book "The Guide to Classic Graphic Adventures"!

---

*UPDATE: So the bundle is officially over, with over $8 million raised. Not bad, not bad at all. Thanks to all who participated, especially to those who organized this and who submitted their projects!

I hope that we will keep posting here about interesting games and other stuff found in this bundle.

However, my biggest hope is that all of us, wherever we may live, will come up with more creative ways to oppose systemic oppression and violence like:

• instrumentalized xenophobia/racism
• police brutality
  
• injust criminal justice systems
  
• slave labour
  
• poverty
  
• war

Of course these did not start yesterday and they won't be over once the media stop reporting eventually. So let's not forget. Let's keep questioning authorities, discuss with others, write articles, create art, be disobedient, organize, protest, and strike, strike, strike! Let's put some pressure on selfish politicians and their rich donors.

Thanks!  

[windfisch]

Tiny Dangerous Dungeons

A neat, bitesized Metroid-like platformer, featuring Game Boy-aesthetics. It's got tight controls, good level-design and graphic design that looks as clean and cute as the one from Konami's Kid Dracula. There's only one main music track, which sounds fine on its own, but can get old after a while. Luckily music can be switched off. Another minor complaint would be that already used keys aren't marked as such, so it's not always clear if you've got the right key at hand. However, there are only 4 keys total, of which one is a visually distinct boss key, so it's not a big deal overall.


Celeste

Late to the party and yeah, it's as good as everyone says it is. Unlike the deliberately crass and ugly Super Meat Boy, the beauty of the visuals and music nicely contrasts how challenging the game can be. It's also very well paced, giving you some breathers, like story bits. One thing that surprised me, was how seemingly effortlessly the game manages to combine at least three radically different art styles: low resolution pixel art for gameplay, expressive, hand-drawn portraits for dialogue and a clean, low-polygon 3d-view for the world map.

edit:

Shipwreck

*Heavily* inspired by Link's Awakening. For the most part it seems fairly competently made, but lacks some polish: Combat seems a bit off compared to LA, which I suspect is due to less knockback animation. And the overworld feels pretty empty, since there are no enemies and not much else to compensate for this. I played untill the second dungeon, then I lost interest, because the game did not offer me anything I haven't seen before (and better). Still, for a low-cost Zelda-clone it was okay. I've seen worse for sure.

[dsparil]

I’m surprised that I’ve already played 13 of these which is still barely 0.9%! I’ll be surprised if I even crack 2%. I do wonder about the terms for some of the asset packs as the one I downloaded just to poke around didn’t mention any.

My perspective on these comes as having paid for them individually sometimes on sale but sometimes full price. Skipping over the obvious Celeste (liked it), 2064 (didn’t like it), Octodad (too short) and Oxenfree (liked it):

Actual gems

Wheels of Aurelia
A really nice coffee break game about a former kidnapping victim going to confront one of her abductors. It’s set in Italy during the spring of ’78 when a politician was actually kidnapped (and later murdered). It’s not that heavy on the kidnapping aspect and is more about general Italian society at the time. You just drive up the coast of Italy and chat with your varying traveling companions. It only takes 15 minutes to play through once, but the point is to explore all the different paths that lead to the 16 endings. I would say this is the real standout gem as the reviews were awful, but I feel like they didn't understand the concept of a coffee break game. I played the Switch version, but the mobile one has some extra info about Italy at the time. I'm not sure if the computer version does.

The Adventures of Elena Temple
The cover art for the new Definitive Edition is absolutely terrible, but it’s actually a pretty fun platformer. It’s premised as a forgotten game that kept getting released for the knockoffs of more popular systems, but that’s really just a reason for the various screen filters. The original game has one dungeon that takes about an hour to finish while the DE adds two smaller ones that take about twenty minutes. It’s the kind of game that maybe isn’t necessarily worth the $5 full price but worth playing in theory.

The Rainsdowne Players
It’s a little hard to describe, but this is more or less about a theater company in some kind of fantasy/medieval setting. You put together various elements you collect around town to create a play and occasionally play a little mini game too. It describes itself as an RPG, but it isn’t at all. It’s nice, but I wasn’t able to finish it as it isn’t clear what you’re supposed to do after a certain point.

Neutral

Milkmaid of the Milk Way
I thought this was okay. It’s an adventure game initially set on a farm in 1920’s Norway before turning into a sci-fi game. The farm stuff is much more interesting than the sci-fi. It’s also rhyming for no reason, and the plot is kinda dumb.

Puzzle Puppers
You stretch dogs to solve puzzles. Not a whole lot to it.

Spell Casting
A simple line tracing game but presented in a cute way. I only played the Switch version for some like 20 minutes as there isn’t much overall substance, and it's more a game for little kids.

forma.8
I got this on Wii U, but didn’t finish it and then double dipped for the Switch version when it was on sale. This is a decent Metroidvania where you play as a flying probe. The flying aspect is fairly uncommon and it’s well integrated into the gameplay. I did think it was a little boring though so it's not quite a "gem".

Tangrams Deluxe
It’s tangrams, nothing more and nothing less. Play this if you like tangrams.

Terrible

The Deer God
Just move on past this. It’s not even worth the energy to think about let alone waste two and a half hours of your life you’ll never get back.

[windfisch]

Zenodyne R

Impressive bullethell shooter, which successfully mimics the aesthetics of some 90s 16 Bit computer or maybe the Mega Drive, especially sound-wise. Just wanted to have a quick glance and ended up playing untill I ran out of continues- it was really intense and fun. The bundle also features two similar games by the same developer: Zenohell (Zendodyne's predecessor, I believe), which doesn't look and sound as pleasant and Jet Buster, which adds cute anthropomorphic animals to the mix.

Some games I've played before:

Master Spy - Challenging, but fun stealth-platformer with a stylish retro presentation.

The Floor is Jelly - Haven't played much of it, but seemed like a well-made and fairly original physics-based puzzle platformer.

[🧀Son of Suzy Creamcheese🧀]

I still need to get this. I think there's also some free games in there, aren't there? That seems a little weird to me.

Anyway, this'll be worth it just for Celeste, Minit, Nuclear Throne and Night in the Woods. But I'll keep you guys posted if I come across something cool.

[windfisch]

Jun 10, 2020 16:58:26 GMT -5 🧀Son of Suzy Creamcheese🧀 said:

I still need to get this. I think there's also some free games in there, aren't there? That seems a little weird to me.

Yes, there are, or at least they usually seem to let you name your own price, including "just download" as an option. I also thought about it and ultimately I see their participation as a welcome gesture of solidarity. 

One positive example of a free game included here is Akurra, or more precisely a demo of it (the complete game is still in development). But what a demo it is: about 2 hours of playtime according to the developer and I think I'm already past that and not quite done. At it's core it's a Sokoban-esque puzzle game, but structurally it's like an adventure game, taking inspiration from the non-action bits of the GBC Zelda games and Star Tropics, among others. Wonderful 8 bit-like graphics, great soothing soundtrack and ambience, diverse and smartly designed puzzles (that start to make more sense the more you explore the world) and subtle, yet intriguing non-verbal storytelling - I love it!

[jorpho]

It's kind of staggering to think about just how many hours of work must have gone into these hundreds upon hundreds of games – and most of the people buying this bundle probably won't get around to sampling even a fraction of them.

I also wish it was easier to browse and search the collection, but it's probably saving their servers from being hammered. It's impressive they're holding up as well as they are, I reckon.

PCGamer suggests:
Night of the Consumers
Far From Noise
Kids
Loot Rascals
Signs of the Sojourner
OneShot
The Stillness of the Wind
Dr Langeskov, The Tiger, and The Terribly Cursed Emerald - A Whirlwind Heist
A Mortician's Tale
Secret Little Haven

I've also seen recommendations for:
Gladiabots
Death and Taxes
Nepenthe
Jimmy and the Pulsating Mass

[windfisch]

Jun 10, 2020 23:06:49 GMT -5 jorpho said:

It's kind of staggering to think about just how many hours of work must have gone into these hundreds upon hundreds of games – and most of the people buying this bundle probably won't get around to sampling even a fraction of them.

I also wish it was easier to browse and search the collection, but it's probably saving their servers from being hammered. It's impressive they're holding up as well as they are, I reckon.

Yeah, I wish you could filter things by genre/types of media and list titles alphabetically. But, well, at least a search function is there.

Some more recently added:

Anodyne - I had mixed feelings about when I played it back then. At the very least it is a good example of devs taking a beloved game (Link's Awakening) as a basis and pretty much making it their own thing. It's strange, surreal and multi-layered. And while I think that it lacks focus and tries a bit too hard to deliver meta-commentary, it certainly is worth a try.

Hyper Sentinel - Classy update on the Uridium games, which themselves were unique takes on Defender-style shoot'em ups.

[dsparil]

The White Door - I got this off GOG a few weeks ago, but just got to it now. It's a pretty good adventure game about a man in a mental institution that's also less hokey than that sounds at first blush. I posted a little more in the game finish thread.

I tried playing Tiny Dangerous Dungeons, but the Mac version doesn't work properly on Retina display systems so no MBPs after 2011, iMacs after 2014 or MBAs after 2017. I still have an old laptop lying around, and it does work there.

[windfisch]

The White Door looks interesting, I'll check it out eventually.

Quick update: 4 days to go, almost 5 million $ raised and developers are literally standing in line to have their projects added. Some noteable recent additions include Pikuniku and Pyre, among others.

I've also had quick glances at:

• Micro Mages - A genuine NES platformer (rom included), which so far looks and plays really well.
  
• Soft Body -  A Snake-like of sorts, featuring dual stick controls, puzzle- and bullethell-mechanics and a slick presentation.
  

[jorpho]

I was directed to this reddit thread which includes a convenient spreadsheet, including a downloadable .xslx version. This is so much more convenient, even if it is lacking the pictures.

Diaries of a Spaceport Janitor has been in a few bundles before; I've heard good things.

And Yet It Moves was one of the first games I ever got for Steam, I think. Remember that one?

Backspace Bouken is another interesting twist on typing games.

Epic Battle Fantasy 4 is also in my Steam library for some reason.

ETA: Holy crap, they've added Pyre. Friggin' Pyre, from the makers of Bastion and Transistor! Also a 6 GB download. O.o

ETA2: Augh, 6 point nine GB, and of course I only had 6.7 GB free on that partition – and Firefox won't resume the download. >_< I would think there must be a better way to distribute this stuff.

[dsparil]

Just added Dogurai is a fun Mega Man / Zero inspired game with GB aesthetics. It's closer in difficulty to vanilla MM than Zero so it isn't anywhere near as brutal as MMZ can be. I played the Switch version which didn't have any issues.

[windfisch]

As a sucker for Game Boy-style action games, Dogurai is right up my alley. And controls and level design are pretty good. I'm not a too fond of the occasional quicktime inputs and the many blind jumps, though. And while I do appreciate the attempt to reproduce an authentic Super Game Boy experience, I feel like they could've done a better job in terms of presentation, even with with those self-imposed limitations in mind. The grahpics look rather nice, for the most part, but at times they lack clarity: fore- and background elements tend to blend together (similar to the first Donkey Kong Land). And the music would benefit from stronger "instruments". Compared to the best Game Boy tracks by Konami or Capcom, Dogurai sounds dissapointingly tame. Criticism aside, it's still a fun title and I'm glad I gave it a shot.

edit:

Over 6 million raised, two days left. New content-submissions have been closed, though there may be still a few appearing later, in case they somehow got overlooked the first time.

Here's a site with some interesting game suggestions regarding the bundle and here's another one that conveniently let's you filter its content (you can also easily see the latest additions).

[windfisch]

Another nice article about some games included in the bundle.

[elektrolurch]

Games I enoyed so far:
The Hex
Tonight we Riot
Democratic Socialism Simulator
....
Games I had before and loved which are in it:
Minit

This still feels totally overwhelming though.
Really glad about the money they raised.