A few things I learnt this past week. First, the Summer Games Fest is actually what most of us remember as E3 from years and years back. Second, I will get annoyed when another time someone discusses God of War Laufey on the Internet (seriously; stop talking about it. We know, the game looks great!). And third, the India Games Showcase is the partner of the Summer Games Fest — and it’s just not talked about enough. So I’m here to tell you all more about the games I’m excited about from this event that streamed on June 8. There were all of 40 game trailers/gameplays displayed, all by indie developers in the country. So I want to preface my thoughts by saying that this tiny shortlist doesn’t do justice to how heartening it is to see so much cool stuff happening here.
As a person who has been wearing glasses since I was very young, ‘Farsight’, an atmospheric horror game by Studio Noori, seems quite interesting. There’s not much here to glean from the trailer, except that a person who goes to take an eye test, gets magically transported to those areas that turn up in the eye test — like the field with the parachute, and the place with the red church. Only, there are some dark monsters that apparently lurk in the corner. Jury is out on the actual gameplay, but the premise is sufficient to make me play this game when it comes out eventually.
In ‘Flip Flop Fury’, you are but a lone flip flop levitating in the air. You must navigate your way through crevices, gather powerups, and eventually smack your target. To be honest, the only reason I’m into ‘Flip Flop Fury’ is because it has inherent raw chaotic energy, and potential for a lot of interesting custom levels (if they choose to go that way). It does have a certain golf with friends vibe to it, although it is listed as a single player game.
‘We Are So Cooked’ is probably the one I’m most looking forward to. It’s an online co-op game where a group of people are trying desperately and very secretly to sneak a corpse from a hotel room. Cooperative sneaking about isn’t something I’ve done in a videogame before, and I am quite looking forward to a few hours of fun and a lot of laughs when the game comes out.
I must admit that I’m also nervous, while also looking forward to ‘The Detective’s Apprentice’. It’s ridiculously difficult to make a good detective/puzzle game, and I’m one of those discerning people who will quit it if it doesn’t scratch that itch. And what I see of this game does seem promising so far. It looks good, has some interesting gameplay elements and appears to have a “phased” approach to puzzle solving. If this isn’t almost as good as ‘Lorelai and the Laser Eyes’, or the ‘Return of the Obra Dinn’, I will be surprised (and a bit upset).
The game that was most aesthetically interesting to me was ‘Orbital Outbreak’. It’s a roguelite hoardshooter on a tiny spherical planet. It boasts a bunch of updates and modifiers — as a typical horde shooter game does. And also has the added little feature of being situated on a constantly rotating spherical ball.
Most of these games are all the first games that these studios have ever made — and I’m curious to understand what others think of it. There’s no clear timeline for the release of a lot of games showcased, and I’m only hoping that this list grows bigger and better by the time next year’s Game Showcase comes around.