What’s indie news today?

Hello and welcome back to another of our weekly Indie News Roundup sections. It’s your one-stop… article for the latest indie goings-on. And with preparations for Rezzed already underway, along with a couple of new games to chat about, there’s no time for small talk, so let’s get to the big talk.

Leftfield Submissions Now Open For Rezzed 2019

EGX Rezzed might seem a way off but preparations are already underway for the convention’s Leftfield Collection. The little shop of curiousities is home to the more experimental indie games on show at Rezzed, and whether they’re close to being finished or just an early mock-up of the game, developers can send in their games for the convention now.

Past titles that have shown up in the Leftfield Collection include Hello Games’ Joe Danger, and last year’s inclusion of the flying adventure game, Above, a game that we thought looked pretty nifty and arrives in early 2019.

If you’ve got a game you think would be a great addition to the Leftfield Collection, then you have until 18 January, 2019 to get your submission in. You can find all the details for the submission process right here.

Gris Arrives Today After Releasing A Haunting Trailer

Devolver Digital has taken a break from its usual hijinx to get everyone a bit more excited ahead of the already much-anticipated arrival of GRIS. Now the title actually released today (13 December) for Switch and PC but the reviews for GRIS still aren’t live at the time of writing, so we’re just gonna look at that trailer again.

The trippy little trailer offers up an unnerving snapshot of what GRIS offers. With is titualr character shown being overtaken by what looks like a manifestation of the trauma that the game sees her trying to work through.

It’s very much a game about its story rather than its challenge. And with a stunning water colour design, a pretty slick soundtrack, and an intriguing story backing it up, GRIS looks set to be a delightful game to spend an afternoon getting through. I can’t say that with any certainty because – as I said – the bloody reviews for the game still aren’t out yet.

If the peaceful looking vibe of GRIS isn’t what you’re looking for when it comes to Devolver Digital, then you might want to take a look at Ape Out, which is about an ape who’s on a rampage – Devolver really is an eccleptic publisher, isn’t it.

And Finally… Super Animal Royale is a … thing

Looking to shake up the rules to battle royale games, developer and publisher Pixile has gone and thrown a bunch of cute animals with guns into a death arena.

Super Animal Royale, which released this week on Steam, offers a top-down imagining of the battle royale. Matches include 64 player brawls that only last six minutes, meaning there’s a fair amount of action going on in the game’s safari park setting.

You’re able to choose from a selection of kittens, pandas, foxes, and other little critters, before parachuting down and killing enough of your fellow ani-mates to make Watership Down look like an actual kid’s film. The twist of the game is that players will have to deal with a restricted “fog of war” mechanic that’ll mean you can only see a restricted amount of the screen. This, according to Pixile, means that players will have a better chance of hunting other players down before getting into the game’s nitty-gritty end game. We’ve seen a fair few battle royale titles this year but I’m fairly certain this is the first that stars animals as combatants.

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