What’s indie news this week?

Hello and welcome back to another of our Indie News Roundups. This week is a mixed bag for you, so let’s not waste time chit-chatting and just crack on, eh?

Bob and Prickle lets you play as a killer pickle (for a while)

Who wants to play as a killer pickle with a baseball bat!? Well, that’s what Bob and Prickle will let you do – for a while anyway. Mostly you’ll be playing as an unemployed guy called Bob who is not a giant killer pickle.

Bob and Prickle is the latest game being developed by Crealode Games, which was behind the surprisingly addictive Unrect. This time around we won’t be building forts as a small blob… thing though; instead, Bob and Prickle promise a fast-paced platform shooter. The trailer only shows us a snippet of what’s in store, but it should be enough to have the game pinned firmly on your radar for 2020.

As for the story, Bob and his pickle pal are working to upend the evil NZT corporation which is looking to take over Bob’s town, Lightbul City. As any decent tyrannical corporation should have, NZT has a fair few cronies to send out to murder you. Thankfully, old Bob seems pretty handy with a gun, with the trailer showing him bouncing all over the shop making short work of the hard-working NZT employees.

While Crealode founder, Sedat Güç, developed Unrect as a solo project, the team has grown for Bob and Prickle. Sedat told us that the following on from the early reaction to Bob and Prickle, the new team “feel motivated and excited,” about the game.

Bob and Prickle will arrive on Steam in 2020.

Afterlife is a live-action VR game, and that’s pretty nifty

Afterlife, a live-action VR game developed by Signal Space, is available on pretty much every VR device going right now.

The game tells the story of two parents dealing with the death of their child. Along the way, Afterlife promises a branching narrative that supposedly gives way to a fair few different story outcomes and even more endings.

It’s an interesting idea for a VR title, and the trailer for the game gives off a psychological horror vibe brought about from the parent’s grief. Though I think it’s worth mentioning that it does feel like watching a very depressing home video at the same time, but I suppose there is a gap in the market for that.

And finally… Modern Wolf is a new publisher looking to put developers first

It’s a strange time in games. Players are finally getting to see the nasty side of some studios, with sexism, crunch, and mass redundancies among the list toppers for crap thing developers have to deal with if they want to make games.

We’re seeing a few organisations take a stand against this now, with the likes of GWU paving the way for developers to unionise and work to make the job a little less backbreaking. The same can be said of new indie publisher Modern Wolf. The new label, being funded by former Splash Damage CEO Paul Wedgwood, is working on the platform of a “no-nonsense approach to employee wellbeing,” and that’s a pretty grand message to hear from a publisher.

At the moment, Modern Wolf has a collection of strategy, life sims, and platformers on its books – one of them is called Skeleton Crew and it looks adorable. The five games will be coming to PC, with no word on a possible console release.

If by some mad coincidence, you’re a developer working on a game, you can send it over to Modern Wolf at hello@modernwolf.net