All posts tagged in Indie developer
Mar 16, 2023
A Combination of New and Familiar
Jump into the fantastic world of Togges, where an endless wall keeps the known universe safe from the dangers of the unknown. The leaders of each domain maintain the balance, and the King protects all of existence.
It’s your job to solve puzzles and use the living blocks, called Togges, to do so. Spread and stack the Togges around the vibrant world to keep the threat of the void at bay and save the galaxy. Complete 7 massive levels, but take your time. There’s so much to discover and look at in the world. You’ll discover a futuristic city in the Savannah, and explore the whole kingdom that’s made out of carrot cake. There’s no lack of interesting and fun things to find in Togges. Make friends all around the cosmos as you adventure, too. Each character has a unique story for you to listen to, packed with humor.
Along with the 7 main levels, Togges has 30 bonus levels for you to puzzle through. Use the different abilities of the different colored Togges to solve puzzles, as well as find all sorts of collectibles. This game takes inspiration from fan favorites like Katamari, Pikmin, and Super Mario Galaxy, and boasts about being a revival of the golden era 3D platformers, so it’s sure to be packed with loads of fun.
Available Now!
This colorful and beautifully designed game is available pretty much everywhere now! You can find Togges on Steam (where it’s on sale until March 23rd!), Epic Games, GOG, Nintendo Switch, Playstation, and Xbox.
For more platformer fun, check out Frogun and Pile Up.
- Nov 16, 2022
Relax and Build
City building games certainly aren’t a new concept. We’ve even covered a few of them, like The Colonists, where you control a fleet of robots who do your bidding. Harvest resources, refine them, and use them to build your city. There’s also Before We Leave, which has you rebuilding settlements on the surface of the earth and eventually colonizing space. You’ll have to manage your resources, build, and harvest crops. SimCity is also a popular one where players have to make certain decisions to keep their citizens happy while building up the city. Gourdlets stands slightly apart from the rest.
Gourdlets is a cute city builder by developer AuntyGames promises to be even more relaxing. There are no tasks to complete, no resources to gather or refine, and no citizen requests to meet. It’s simply a delightful little sandbox city builder perfect for those who want the creativity of a city builder without the pressure of tasks and requirements.
You start the game with a railroad, a small piece of land, and a bench. It’s up to you to grow the land and make it the city you want to see. You can lay down several types of terrain, like grass, sand, dirt, and snow. There are trees, flowerbeds, and even fences to use for decoration. And of course, there are a few different homes you can place. Design and build the wonderland of your dreams in this charming pastel sandbox, and watch as the Gourdlets move in and live their little lives. What will you create?
Available Now
Gourdlets is available now to play for free on itch.io. It is also coming to Steam, but currently has no release date available. You can add it to your wishlist, though. You can also follow the developer, AuntyGames, on Twitter for updates, or read the comments on itch.io for information on updates, as AuntyGames is active there too.
For another city builder, check out Biz Builder Delux!
- May 12, 2020
Picontier is an upcoming pixel art-stylized miniscape RPG. The game’s 2D art style, alongside its life simulation elements, make it comparable to the likes of Stardew Valley and the original Harvest Moon games.
Picontier is currently in development by game developers Kan Kikuchi, and indie game dev company SKIPMORE, who are best known for their Fairune and Drancia series titles.
The game is being published by Flyhigh Works Co., a company established in 2011 that specializes in localizing Japanese, English, and Chinese titles. They have published numerous notorious and successful titles such as Cat Quest, Cat Quest II, Celeste, Subara City, and more.
It was originally hoped the game would release for a variety of platforms including PC, PS4, Nintendo Switch, and surprisingly, Nintendo 3DS. However, it will now release solely on PC and the Nintendo Switch eShop.
About:
Picontier is a slow living miniscape RPG game allowing players to enjoy life on a whimsical island after they are washed ashore. Its life simulation elements include farming, crafting, fishing, and mining. Like Stardew Valley, the game also appeals to the more adventurous of gamers by offering excitement. Players can journey to the game’s dungeons to fight monsters.
Additionally, the game contains a charming story and a variety of strange island creatures to communicate with. Some examples include a giant blue water beaver and an enormous cow snoozing on a ranch. The game therefore seems to tick all the boxes where depth is concerned.
Features:
- Farming
- Crafting
- Fishing
- Mining
- Dungeon crawling
- Fight monsters
- A charming narrative
- A variety of interesting and unsual characters to interact with
The following Switch announcement trailer gives an exciting insight into what to look forward to in Picontier
There is currently no set release date for Picontier. However the following tweet posted by Picontier’s Twitter account suggests it could be playable as soon as this year.
- Oct 29, 2019
Hokko Life, created by sole developer Robert Tatnell, is one of my most anticipated indie games! Not only is Hokko Life a cute villager-life simulation game like Animal Crossing, it also brings a few new unique features to the table. Pun intended! The customization for Hokko Life goes quite in-depth with the capability to choose your character’s skin tone, to shaping and sizing your own furniture!
The game is still in early development, and since my interview with the creator and my other updates, we wanted to summarize everything we know so far! Although there is no release date or confirmed platforms other than PC/Mac as of now, let’s take a look at some older and newer screenshots which show quite an amazing progress!
Furniture and House Customization
All items you create for either inside your home, or that of a villagers’, as well as outside, you will be able to scale the size, move, and rotate! The UI has gone through many improvements including pre-set shapes that are now nice and organized under menus. Under these categories you’ll also find materials such as wood and metals to decorate with. So far you can use that painting tool to make T-Shirts, wallpaper, and flooring! The developer intends to add a option to cake decorating eventually.
Animal Character Personalities and Interaction
There’s a train station in town and at various times during the day characters will hop off the train. After you’ve met a visitor a few times, helped them out with tasks, and become friends with them, you’ll open up the option to ask them to move to town! When interacting with those villagers, there will be tons of new variety in the player and character conversations. Greetings will change depending on time of day and the weather. You can also wave at the villagers which puts them in a happy mood! Villagers will have visible reactions now; laughing, crying, getting angry, which can be triggered in dialogue.
Shopping and Accessorizing
The interior of the shops have their entire inventory laid out and on display. You can walk up to each item and interact with them before buying. The contents of the shops change every day, so you can look forward to checking what’s new as often as possible. Shopkeepers will have set hours and will otherwise have the store locked. The fashion store specifically recently got a make-over, both internal and external.
When creating your character, you can change hair color, eye color, skin color, and more! For now we get to see the most recently-added blue mohawks, buns, and buzzcuts! You can buy clothing at the above-mentioned fashion store such as hats, pants, tops, even headphones. Clothing is non-gender-specific, so you’re free to wear whatever you want too.
Activities: Farming, Fishing, Chopping Trees
The world is set up as different areas, each with their own activities and feel. There’s a dedicated town center for all your shopping needs, a lovely beach for night time strolls, some pleasant riverside walks, etc. Other core activities include farming with crops such as cabbages and radishes! Moreover, since a weather mechanic was added, rain can now water these crops. There are also the mines and forests areas that are randomly generated each day, full of lovely resources! Stuff your backpack full of these resources so you can later craft some items with them. I’m particularly excited with the adorable 3D fishing mini-game. It reminds me of Mario Party where you can scoop up some fish. There are even treasure chests added in the water that you can pick up too!
You can follow along what Robert’s working on next with his Devlog right here on his website! Of course, I’ll also be watching out for his monthly updates and will keep you posted on this adorable town-builder.
- Oct 16, 2019
We have reached out to the developers of Little Witch in the Woods, and here is what they would share!
We just can’t get enough of Little Witch in the Woods, the most adorable sim-life RPG currently in the works by Sunny Side Up Games. Given the lovely response from the community, we decided to reach out to the developers to see how much they would be willing to share about their ultra-magical and super cute game. They agreed to share their most valuable time with us, to let us get a closer look.
We would like to mention that Little Witch in the Woods is still currently in development, and any details about the game are subject to change. We would also like to mention that, seeing as how the Sunny Side Up studio is located in South Korea, there was a bit of a language barrier between interviewer and interviewee.
Who is the team at Sunny Side Up games, and what are your favorite games?
‘Sunny Side Up’ is a game development team. We are developing game in South Korea and consist of 4 members. Since we’re a small team, each person has been doing many things. There are a lot of difficulties, but we feel happiness because we are making the game to have been dreamed. We hope game players love our game too.
Meet The Team at Sunny Side Up
NOHA Concept Artist / Pixel Artist
Favorite Game: Animal Crossing
MOONBUG Game Designer / Programmer
Favorite Game: Mobinogi Online (Whole Life) – God of War (Recently)
RAMGA Pixel Artist / Game Designer
Favorite Game: Marvels Spider Man (PS4)
BLANCAT Level Designer / Pixel Artist
Favorite Game: Hyper Light DrifterWhat sort of games inspired the creation of Little Witch in the Woods?
The first time we had idea “What happens if we add witch’s story to ‘Stardew valley’?” Furthermore, we wanted to give players a chance to experience the daily life of a witch. Since we thought we needed more other things to do that, we played a lot of games. Among so many games, Animal crossing inspired and helpful for making idea.
What platforms do you intend the game to be on?
We plan to release ‘Little Witch in the Woods’ on Steam. We are trying to release Nintendo Switch and PS4 if it can.
Do you have any idea as to a release date?
It is currently developing the game with a goal of releasing it in fall of 2020. For those of you waiting, it is also considering releasing the demo version earlier (it’s not yet confirmed).
What are your favorite unique additions to the game so far?
It may sound funny, but you know the parts where each user feels unique will be different.
We don’t focus on function. Sunny Side up is developing the game with a focus on the emotions and experiences that players can feel.
If someone can feel the emotion that we’re trying to convey in any part of the video game, that very part will be a unique part to the player.
Do you plan for there to be any sort of online functionality Little Witch in the Woods?
Currently, only a single play version is planned.
If the game goes well and many game users want it, we’d like to add online functionality later.Is there anything special that you would like to say to the followers of your game.
Thank you for your interest. I’m so touched by your warm support. I’ll repay you with AMAZING game. I really really hope ‘Little Witch in the Woods’ will give you happiness and moving when you guys play it. We will continue to communicate about the develop process and the special issues that we’re going to have to deal with through Twitter. I am not good at English, so it’s hard to answer your reply and comments but I’m understand most of your reply meaning and your thoughtful heart. Please understand that I often have used the wrong grammar. Thank you so much again.
Big Thanks to Sunny Side Up
We at myPotatoGames would like to extend a huge thank you to Sunny Side Up games for taking the time share more about their game with us. And also for making such an amazingly adorable game like Little Witch in the Woods. We wish them all the best with the rest of development, and cannot wait to get to try the game for ourselves.
As mentioned above, the best way to keep up with Little Witch in the Woods by Sunny Side Up is to follow them on Twitter.For more witches and magic, check out Witchbrook the Stardew Valley of magic
- Sep 2, 2019
We love the island life, and we love farming sims. Paradise Elsewhere is our perfect game.
Paradise Elsewhere is a currently-in-development farming sim game that captured our hearts at first glance. The game is so cute, in fact, that we felt compelled to reach out to the developer to find out all that we can about this cutest of farming sims. Keep in mind that this game is still in development, and that all details are subject to change. Paradise Elsewhere does not currently have a set release date.
myPotatoGames headquarters is located on the island of Hawaii (also known as Big Island). Any time we find a game that that shines light on the island life (like Leilani’s Island), we just about go crazy. We never thought we’d find a game like Paradise Elsewhere, that combines island living with our favorite gaming genre, farming sims. Now, the developer of this awesome indie has been kind enough to answer a few questions about the game that we are just dying to know. There are lots of goodies and spoilers to be had by following the developer on Twitter, but we needed to know more!
What is Paradise Elsewhere?
With inspiration coming from such titles as our go-to favorites like Animal Crossing and Stardew Valley, Paradise Elsewhere certainly looks to be an excellent installation in this rapidly growing genre. The developer, Chris, also mentioned being influenced by some games from his past, classics like Chrono Trigger, Zelda, Harvest Moon and Secret of Mana.
There will be mining, farming, active weather and even a couple helpful cat-people ready to sell you goodies they’ve found in their travels. In Paradise Elsewhere, you will play as the survivor of boat wreck caused by terrible storm. The game starts out with you being washed ashore a mysterious island, and beginning the struggle for survival. You will get to create and customize your character to your liking, including but not limited to two body types, custom hair style/color and more.
Chris informed us that the game begins in a current day real world, but quickly turns into land of magic and wonder. The ultimate goal will be entirely up to the player. Will you concentrate solely on making a wondrous and self sustaining farm of epic glory, or will you take the time and put in the maximum effort to discover everything that lies in the shadows of this mystical island. One feature that we were especially attracted to was the inclusion/look of the tropical plants that are part of the agricultural options.
When asked what was his favorite unique aspect of the game, Chris responded ” I really want to create an immersive environment, with a feeling of being drawn into a different world filled with living critters and deep overgrown forests and magic too. Hopefully a lot of little secrets to discover”. Paradise Elsewhere is already shaping up to be an excellent addition to our favorites list here at myPotatoGames. Chris also mentioned that the game will be released initially on PC, but that he would like to bring it to console in the future.
Keep up with Chris and his awesome game!
If you would like to find out more, as well as stay on top of things regarding Paradise Elsewhere, you can follow the game on Discord. If you are truly enamored and wish to be a real part of helping this game become everything it can be, you can support the game on Patreon!
- Aug 9, 2019
We here at myPotatoGames have been keeping a close eye on Pile Up since early development. We immediately fell in love with the colorful and cardboad-style environments which included boxy animal characters such as frogs and hedgehogs. Now we’re one step closer to being able to play this adorable 3D cooperative platformer with their new Steam page here! Let’s all help these indie developers out, Seed by Seed, by Wishlisting their game today and checking out their new trailer below. You can also get caught up with us here if you missed Pile Up’s previous update.
Pile Up! Official First Trailer
About Pile Up!
Pile Up is a 1-to-4 player co-op 3D platformer for friends and families!
Jump joyfully, play together and use items you find along the way to build the wackiest piles! Coordination and creativity are required to progress through the joyful levels of the cardboard world and encounter the most friendly creatures! Experiment everything you’re in the mood for in the welcoming handcrafted world of Pile Up!Key Features
- A very simple yet deep mechanic: piling on each other!
- An adventure you can play from 1 to 4 players!
- A drop in/drop out feature allowing players to join and leave at any time!
- Crazy cardboard worlds to explore!
- Mini-games for endless cooperative fun with your friends!
- Cute box-animals to meet and help throughout your journey!
- Multiple box-items to try out, easy to learn but hard to master!
- Even more toys to unlock and have fun with!
- Skins to customize your Boxlings!
- An art direction entirely revolving around cardboard, from textures to sound design!
- A strong focus on accessibility and usability!
A soccer mini-game There’s no specific release date as of now but you can follow Pile Up’s progress with their YouTube devlogs here. You can also go to their official website to sign-up for their Newsletter or follow their links to their social media.
- Aug 8, 2019
Gamescom is the world’s largest event for tech and video games held in Cologne, Germany. Unlike E3, there typically aren’t that many press announcements with release dates but rather you’re given the opportunity to play game demos and possibly get the chance to speak with the developers. This year, Gamescom opens its doors to trade visitors on Tuesday, August 20, 2019, and to members of the public on Wednesday, August 21, 2019. Events and the show floor will be scheduled until Saturday, August 24th, 2019.
Opening Night Live
Anyone who is anyone in the industry has confirmed that they will be there including: Xbox, Nintendo, Square Enix, Google Stadia, Epic Games and many more. Geoff Keighley, host and producer of ‘The Game Awards’, will be producing and live streaming Opening Night Live. Check out his Twitter account below for the game publishers that are making announcements. Opening Night Live will also include Hideo Kojima, as confirmed by the man himself, to premiere an exclusive new look of his game Death Stranding. Opening Night Live will be streaming on all major streaming services when it begins on Monday, August 19th at 11 AM PT/2 PM PT/8 PM CEST. With this new addition of a pre-show, we here at myPotatoGames are looking forward to some amazing new reveals!
The Indie Village and Indie Arena Booth
Another new addition to Gamescom 2019 is that developers of indie games will now have considerably more space in the entertainment area. Indie Village (in hall 10.2) will be showcasing more than 140 independent developers. The central element of Indie Village is the Indie Arena Booth, which has been taking applications from indie developers for a few years now and supplying them with booths. More than 100 games can be seen in the Indie Arena Booth alone. In addition, you can look forward to a stage program coordinated especially for indie fans, the MIX.
As you know, we here at myPotatoGames are huge fans of wholesome indie games so we’ve written a list below, including their links to our previous articles for more information. You can also watch the trailer by Indie Arena Booth for the confirmed indie games for Gamescom 2019.
- A Juggler’s Tale by Dominik Schön, Enzio Probst, Steffen Oberle, Sven Bergmann
- Atomicrops by Bird Bath Games
- Coffee Talk by Toge Productions
- El Hijo by Honig Studios
- Flotsam by Pajama Llama Games
- LUNA The Shadow Dust by Lantern Studio
- Stranded Sails – Explorers of the Cursed Islands by Lemonbomb Entertainment
- TUNIC by Andrew Shouldice
- Röki by Polygon Treehouse
- HEAVE HO by Le Cartel Studio
- Ary and the Secret of Seasons by eXiin, Fishing Cactus and Modus Games
- Weaving Tides by Follow the Feathers
Other games like Cat Quest II by The Gentlebros Games are teasing that the announcement for their release date is coming soon and that they are “saving it for a special event.” We can only hope that they are talking about Gamescom 2019 as that is less than 2 weeks away! If you know of any other indie games or you yourself are an indie developer, please feel free to contact us to be added to our Gamescom 2019 list if you are attending! You can also click here to learn more about the event, the dates, the tickets and more.
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