What’s indie spotlight this week?
Hello and welcome to another of our Indie News Roundup features. Every Thursday we bring you the stories you might have missed. And with new games, deals, and more unfolding this week, there’s no time to waste – to the Indiemobile!
Overcome is a game about grief and inner-demons and it’s out now
It might look cute but Overcome looks set to deliver on both challenge and depth after arriving on Steam this week.
The delightful pixel design of the game is padded out with a series of hard-as-nails platformers as you try to fight against the inner-demons you come across. Unfortunately, you won’t be doing this with a weapon but you do have a shield you can use to deflect projectiles back at enemies or else use a gliding ability to float over obstacles and baddies which should, hopefully, make things a touch easier (probably not though).
It’s the first game from Overcome Studios, taking inspiration from the journey the designer went on when fighting cancer while studying for a degree.
You can get Overcome on Steam with a 15% discount during the game’s first week, meaning you’re only spending a little over £7. After this, Overcome will be available for just over £8.
Close to the Sun announces exclusivity deal with Epic Games Store
The BioShock-inspired title, developed by Storm in a Teacup, has been on our radar for a while now and while there still isn’t a specific release date for it yet, the team announced that the game would be available exclusively through Epic Games Store for PC players. It’ll still be available on both PS4 and Xbox One but if you’re intent on playing through a PC, you’ll be doing it through Epic. Read the full story…
Devotion gets pulled from Steam after Chinese gamer backlash
Devotion, a psychological horror game from Detention developer Red Candle Games, has been pulled from Steam and all trailers removed less than a week after being released.
The game’s removal comes after the team faced a backlash from Chinese gamers after a series of misconstrued easter-eggs were spotted in the game, referencing the Xi Jinping Winnie the Pooh meme that was doing the rounds a while ago.
The developer initially said that these in-game posters were left in by accident, having been used as placeholders during development. The studio has said that the game being pulled from Steam was done in order to address a collection of “unexpected crashes among other reasons,†with a whole new QA cycle underway. The removal is only temporary by the sounds of things but there hasn’t been any indication as to when the game will be live again.
And that’s a bit disappointing because the early reception for Devotion had been wholly positive, with Eurogamer praising the game as having “moments of unease here to equal anything in a horror game north of 2000,†while The Indie News Website said that the game “encapsulates how it feels to be inside a nightmare.†So here’s hoping we don’t have to wait too long to play it again.
Trüberbrook offers up a reality-shifting adventure that you need to see
It might look like a picturesque stroll through rural Germany but Trüberbrook promises a reality-shifting adventure through a country in the midst of the Cold War when it arrives on March 12.
Having started out as a Kickstarter project last year, developer btf has since teamed up with Headup Games to see the game releasein a couple of weeks, and it looks set to deliver quite the story.
You play as an American physicist named Hans Tanhausser, who inexplicably wins a trip to the sleepy town of Trüberbrook. You’ll spend some time speaking with villagers and exploring the town before you’re dragged along “on a great adventure,†details are pretty sparse but it’s done enough to tickle our curiosity.
An interesting little feature for Trüberbrook is the way its sets were designed, being a series of hand-crafted sets that were shot before having animation added later. It means that the game’s design has an eerie, surreal vibe to it, mimicking something close to the real but tinged with those delightful, fairytale-esque graphics.
If Trüberbrook has got your attention (and why wouldn’t it!?) you can pick it up on Steam on March 12.
The new Sinking City trailer is all about investigating
The latest trailer for Frogware’s Lovecraftian horro, The Sinking City, has arrived today and it’s all about how investigation works in the game.
According to the trailer, the game will provide “zero hand-holding,†meaning that how you approach an investigation is totally up to you. The example in the trailer shows protagonist Charles Reed accusing a… fish man, of murdering someone. It’s a mechanic that’s similar to what we saw in the Sherlock Holmes games by the same developer, with cases seemingly dependant on the work you decide to put in. The trailer says that there are no right or wrong answers in the game on “different shades of black,†meaning that the majority of outcomes will most likely make you feel like a bit of a bastard.
The Sinking City is set to arrive on PC, PS4, and Xbox One on March 21.
