Indie Round-Up
It’s been yet another exciting week full of awesome gaming news and here at COGconnected, we like to give a little extra love to the little guys, the indie devs that don’t have millions of dollars to put behind their dreams and still manage to put out titles with fantastical worlds that we love to play in. It’s been an interesting week as an indie title that’s been out for 2 years is having its biggest moment yet, and an underrated title from earlier this year is coming to the Switch with new content. Let’s dive right in!
Among Us 2 Cancelled
You may have scrolled past “Among Us” during Steam or App Store sales in the past but over the past couple of weeks, its popularity has exploded, and become one of the most popular games on Twitch. The game’s recent success has prompted its developer Innersloth to full-out cancel the sequel that was announced a little over a month ago. Innersloth has decided to move all the content they were planning for Among Us 2 over to the first title, including a new stage, a friend system, and accessibility options like colorblind support. I would also assume that those plans include console ports, which the developer has recently mentioned is challenging due to “communication issues.” Players have also begun asking for new minigames or “tasks” in the future, but it remains to be seen if that is part of the developer’s roadmap. I think it’s an interesting choice to scrap the planned sequel and I wonder if it means that the data Innersloth has collected over the past month implies that the first game would be more profitable than releasing a sequel. In the short time, I’ve spent with the game, I’d also like to see some new tasks, as well as better ways for the imposter to conceal their identity – perhaps a cloaking mechanism or other ways to sabotage the team’s efforts. If you haven’t tried it out yet, it’s worth a shot for only $5.69 CAD/5.00 USD or free on mobile devices.
Mike Bithell Announces New Game
The developer behind John Wick Hex and Thomas Was Alone has announced their latest experimental genre mashup, The Solitaire Conspiracy. Pitched to his Twitter followers as “What if Solitaire, but extra, with powers and a full FMV storied campaign,” it’s a narrative-driven sci-fi solitaire game about the fall of a spy agency named Protego. Kinda Funny Game’s Greg Miller will play a character named Jim Ratio, who helps players save their crews from AI spies. The game will include a full story campaign mode, as well as a Skirmish mode and nerve-wracking Countdown mode. It’ll also feature narration from British actor and comedian Inel Tomlinson, as well as music from Battletech’s Jon Everist. The game’s steam and Epic Games Store pages (where you can wishlist it now) also clarify that the title is separate from Bithell’s “Circular” text adventure series, which consists of Subsurface Circular and Quarantine Circular. The game is set to launch this coming October 6th, and to be honest, I think it’ll be the first time I play Solitaire in over twenty years. I personally haven’t played too many of Bithell Games’ titles, but I adore Mike Bithell’s charm and perspectives in the Play. Watch. Listen. podcast that he does with Alanah Pearce, Troy Baker, and Austin Wintory, and I’m looking forward to playing this unique twist on a game I usually consider to be for the most boring of retirees.
Umurangi Generation Coming to Switch with New DLC
If you haven’t heard of Umurangi Generation or tried it out yet, believe me, you’re missing out. It’s a photography game set in “the shitty future” set in Tauranga, Aotearoa (Aotearoa is the Maori name for New Zealand), and some have been endearingly referring to it as “Cyberpunk Snap.” You play as a courier for the Tauranga Express tasked with taking photos of an increasingly militarized city at the precipice of the apocalypse, and it’s got a super stylish soundtrack. Earlier this week, a new DLC pack simply titled “Macro” and Switch port for the game were announced on the game’s official Twitter. The Macro DLC seems to include quite a bit of new content, and the trailer for it really drives home just how bad I am at that game. It includes a whopping 4 new levels: Tauranga Underground, The Hangar, The Gamers Palace, and The Depths. There’ll also be a few new camera features including selfie mode, shutter speed adjustment, box frame, and players will now be able to crouch to get just the right shot. Players will also be able to traverse the new levels in a shiny new pair of roller skates and stick it to the man by tagging walls with spray paint, effectively making it Jet Set Radio’s hot cousin. The Macro DLC is set to drop on November 7th, and there’s no Canadian price confirmed yet, but the American price of $9.99 converts to $13.37 CAD. You can pick up the base game now on Steam for $17.49 CAD/$14.99 USD, and if you’ve been itching for a good photography game, this one comes with a high recommendation from yours truly.
Two of October’s Shiniest Indie Games Coming to Switch
Nintendo’s hybrid console has been a great home for indie titles since its release in 2017, and that doesn’t seem to be changing anytime soon. This week two developers revealed that their respective titles would be making their way to the Switch alongside PC releases, and for one of them, that means an all-platform launch day (minus Android and iOS but like, whatever). That lucky title would be the hotly anticipated cyberpunk-slasher Ghostrunner, and the other would be Outerloop’s Falcon Age, which was originally released for the PS4 with VR support. It’s exceptionally doubtful that the Switch version of Falcon Age will support VR, but what’s stopping you from sticking it in a bunch of cardboard and strapping it to your face? Nothing, and now that I think of it, that goes for Ghostrunner too. Falcon Age will be coming to Switch and Steam on October 8th along with all of its previously released content updates, as well as touch controls for petting your falcon on Switch. Ghostrunner will drop for just about everything under the sun on October 27th to whet your cyberpunk appetites until November 19th.
New Momodora Series Game On the Way
As part of the franchise’s 10th-anniversary series, developer Bombservice has announced that a new Momodora pixel art game is on the way. They didn’t release much outside of a short teaser revealing the announcement on the official Momodora Twitter, and that this would be the final story arc of the series. Bombservice also revealed that they’ve teamed up with online storefront The Yetee for a small merch line including pins and art prints to celebrate the series, with more on the way in the future. If you’re unfamiliar with the Momodora series, that makes sense, as it seems to be a relatively niche franchise (and if I’m wrong just blast me in the comments). The first two games were originally released on indie platform itch.io, with the third and fourth gaming coming to Steam. The fourth game, Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight was released back in 2016, and can currently be played on Game Pass, so check it out if you’re into Metroidvanias and retro action-platformers.
Also, you may remember the unfortunate series of events that befell Lab Zero Games, the studio behind Skullgirls and Indivisible from a couple of weeks ago. It turns out that some of the team members have come together to form their own new studio! It’s great to see that they’re still eager to make games despite the negative experience they had before, and I can’t wait to see what they do next. As always, let us know what you think of this week’s roundup in the comments, and be sure to keep it locked to COGconnected for all your gaming news!
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