See what’s indie news this week.

Hello and welcome to another of our Indie News Roundups. It’s our weekly segment that gets you up to date with a handful of stories that may have managed to tiptoe past you in the last week. So get yourself a cup of something, get yourself a seat, and get yourself caught up.

Dustnet is an FPS set in a deconstructed Counter Strike map

Some videogame maps are so beloved that they almost feel like a character. One such map is Dust II from Counter-Strike; so iconic is this collections of streets, tunnels, ramps, and platforms, that developer SCRNPRNT decided to rip the map apart and use the terrifying bare bones of Dust II to create Dustnet.

Dustnet is, technically, an FPS but you’d be forgiven for thinking that it’s the product of a developer who’s been tripping balls for a week or so. This is mostly because Dustnet’s portrayal of Dust II is a de-make of the map, stripping away everything and leaving only the skeleton of the map to play in.

The clever thing about Dustnet is that it allows players to join in from a computer, VR, and AR perspective, with the roles and abilities switching with each playstyle. At its core, Dustnet is selling itself as an unending deathmatch, though it’s also a title that “investigates the player’s relationship virtual space.” It means that along with shooting your mates, you’ll also be able to work to gether to explore the abyss, and even edit the map.

Dustnet will release on July 16 for PC and Mac, with VR support for Occulus Rift amd HTC Vive, as well as a free AR app for iOS and Android.

Stranded Sails wants to abandon you on a desert island when it arrives in October

Developer Lemonbomb Entertainment has teamed up with publishing firms rokapublish and Merge Games to announce Stranded Sails, a game that’s promising a little bit of Stardew Valley, a dollop of Harvest Moon, and a sprinkle of old school Zelda when it arrives on PS4, Xbox One, and Switch in October.

I know what you’re thinking: Harvest Moon and Stardew Valley are essentially the same thing, and we’ve been promised these kinds of hybrids before. First of all, settle down, friend. Because yes, we’ve heard a lot of this kind of thing before but Stranded Sails looks the part already. The game drops you off on an abandoned island where you’ll have to scavenge resources, build a little settlement, and work to keep what survivors are left with you alive and, if you can be bothered, happy. The Zelda aspect presumably comes in here because along with surviving, Stranded Sails will task you with uncovering the mysteries of the island and coming up with some way of escaping, we’re also expecting some encounters with a ghoul or possible creature on the island as well.

Stranded Sails doesn’t have a specific release date yet but it’s being touted for an October release for PS4, Xbox One, and Switch with a digital and physical copy available for all platforms alongside a special signature edition for PS4 and Switch.

And Finally… Playdead has been leaking images of its next game for ages apparently

This comes last because the chances are you’ve already come across it. Yep, Limbo developer Playdead has apparently been leaking images of its next project for a while. Screenshots were initially spotted and posted on Resetera earlier this year, following the not-really-an-announcement announcement back in 2017.

Since the latest images were shared earlier in the year, two more images were spotted in Playdead job listings. According to comments from Playdead co-founder Arnt Jensen made when speaking with PC Gamer, the new project won’t stick to the formula of previous Playdead games Limbo and Inside, instead it’ll be a “3rd person game with a much larger area that you can move around.” That all sounds well and good but the latest images look a lot like what we’ve come to expect from Playdead, meaning that the developer either can’t tell the difference or that it’s being quite selective with the images it’s sharing. I don’t know why but I’ve got a feeling it’s the latter.

Playdead hasn’t given any indication as to when we’ll see this next, still unnamed, project but at least we have those pictures… yay.