Free Online Game

Title: Consortium: The Tower
Developer: Interdimensional Games Inc
Platforms: PC, PS4, Xbox One
Releasing late 2017
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The ultimate single player first-person immersive sim. Explore, talk, fight or sneak through The Churchill Tower in 2042

The immersive sim. It's a small subgenre of games, an eclectic mix of themes and gameplay all bound by a goal of letting you role-play as a character in believable reactive worlds that mold to your choices and actions. Deus Ex, STALKER, Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines, a few others, but perhaps most recently, Consortium. An ambitious sci-fi game set in the confines of a single plane, yet feeling like an expansive experience thanks to the depth of its narrative, relationships, and gameplay freedom.

Now developer IDGI is back with Consortium: The Tower, an even more ambitious sequel that takes what worked in the first game and evolving those elements on an impressive scale and scope.
Consortium: The Tower takes place in a near-future London, in the massive Churchill Tower, now controlled by a mysterious terrorist faction. You play as Bishop Six, an agent of the titular organization, on a mission to observe, report, and handle the situation. How you accomplish those goals are up to you. The tower is home to a whole array of different groups -  terrorists, police, civilians, Consortium and other more enigmatic individuals - each with their plans and agendas. You can sky-dive to flank enemies from above and unleash devastating firepower, cloak and sneak through unseen, explore the tower for better routes and hack into terminals for useful data and hidden secrets.

But Consortium wouldn't be an immersive sim if it doesn't offer choices beyond the shooting and sneaking. The spoken word here is as powerful as any weapon or piece of technology; in fact, it'll be possible to be complete a playthrough without firing a shot. Find yourself in a tense standoff with an enemy squad and you can press the talk button (that lets you engage in conversation anytime, anywhere), throw down your gun to defuse the tension, and convince the group that you're not a threat or even to fight alongside you.

Going further than that, disobey your orders, go against the Consortium's wishes, and you're be disavowed by the agency. In another game, that would be a game over, but here, The Tower continues along, except now you're a rogue agent. That status may make you very valuable to other factions and individuals in the game.
While the game is already ambitious, the developers have even bigger plans if budget allows. Their vision for The Tower is one of a nearly fully-explorable environment, with areas ranging from malls and apartments to museums and industrial areas, essentially what you'd imagine an actual skyscraper of this magnitude would contain.

Consortium: The Tower is expected to release late next year and is currently seeking funds on Kickstarter. You can learn about the game here.

Title: The Last Shore
Developer: Pulpo Games
Platforms: PC, Mac
Releasing mid 2016
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A girl must sail across the ocean, visiting islands and collecting powerful artifacts, to confront the gods and save her family

Inspired by games like Zelda, Shadow of the Colossus, and Proteus, The Last Shore is an adventure across an ocean fraught with monsters and mysteries. Wielding blade and bow, you guide a young woman on a seafaring journey to defeat the gods.

The Last Shore drops you in a vast randomized sea, filled with islands, towns, dungeons, and other locations. From vine-choked temples to towering mountains, each island is unique, offering dungeons, monsters, puzzles to solve, or items to gather. The sea is just as varied, featuring both calm waters and massive underwater monsters to avoid during your travels. Sailing across the ocean is a mechanic to be explored and mastered.
To face the gods and other beasts, you'll be able to equip powerful weapons, from the bow of Artemis to a sword of light found deep within Ares' volcano. Combat looks to be fast and focused on deft evasion and precisely timed attacks.

Text is sparse in The Last Shore's tale of adventure and adversity. Instead, its narrative is told through the environment, animations and music, and the game's vibrant pixel art.
The Last Shore is slated for a mid-2016 release and is currently seeking funds on Kickstarter. You can learn more about the game here.

Title: Song of Horror
Developer: Protocol Games
Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux, PS4, Xbox One
Releasing 2017
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Story-driven third person survival horror

Developer Protocol Games first revealed Song of Horror earlier this year. Unfortunately, their first attempt on Kickstarter failed, but now the game is back, Greenlit on Steam and slated for consoles, and looking even more terrifying.

Song of Horror is a survival horror game that promises to blend the old-school fixed angle horror of classic Resident Evil and Alone In The Dark with a modern approach. You control the fates of 16 characters, all haunted and stalked by an insidious eldritch Presence, a cast of normal men and women against an ancient cunning evil.
While the characters in Song of Horror are weaponless, they aren't defenseless. You can run, and hide, slow its advance, avoid its shadowy clutches by carefully watching and listening for clues, But if the Presence does kill you, the story isn't over. Similar to games like Heavy Rain and Until Dawn, Song of Horror features a narrative that molds around character deaths.

I was able to try out an early demo of the game, featuring the first chapter set in the Husher Mansion. (Each chapter takes place in a different location.) For a game that still at least two years away, Song of Horror already feels polished and promising. Don't expect many jump scares; the tension and dread here comes from knowing you're not alone; that you're being stalked by a force that can kill you in a moment anywhere anytime; that can't be stopped, only slowed and avoided. The experience is one of measured pacing, cautious careful exploration, and moments of desperate flight as you try to outrun and delay the Presence.
Song of Horror is currently seeking funds on Kickstarter, and is expected to release in mid 2017. You can learn more about the game here; the demo should be releasing publicly soon.

Just a short post for today, but there are a lot of interesting indie releases and projects on the horizon. The gorgeous hand-made adventure game Lumino City is releasing on iPad tonight and frenetic roguelite shooter Galak-Z is finally coming to Steam tomorrow, so you can definitely expect impressions of those soon.

In the meantime, here are some promising Kickstarters to watch, as well as a few games on Greenlight that might interest you:

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On Kickstarter

Doko Roko

Doko Roko is a 2D rogue-like, vertical action game with an emphasis on lightning-fast combat and rich atmosphere 

Collect strange and ancient magicks to do battle with the more hostile denizens of The Tower. Wield massive swords forged from meteorites and cursed earth to slay the many dreaming demons who climb the tower alongside you. A frenetic and responsive combat system that is easy to pick up, but difficult to master.

Wanderer

Wanderer tells the tale of a man called Rook, a greying convict who wakes from cold sleep aboard a massive orbital prison facility to find that it's crash landed on the ruins of an abandoned Earth. 

With the guidance of a hacker named Jin and the aid of a ragtag group of survivors he recruits along the way, Rook must locate and explore the nine cell blocks which have detached from the prison's central tower and scattered across Earth's ghostly wasteland.

Puzzle Depot

In Puzzle Depot, you start out as Todd Torial, Box Pusher 3rd Class, who's just been “volunteered” as a test subject for the facility's CryoFreeze program. When he wakes up, he finds the facility is in chaos. As you navigate your new, more dangerous world, you realize it's not just the facility that's fallen to ruin, but the entire planet.

On Greenlight

Cally's Cave 3

Join Cally and her friends in this action-packed run and gun platformer, conquering insane bosses, exploring to find secrets, and levelling up EVERYTHING. Use your weapons to level them up and evolve them into their ultimate forms! 

Unlock new character abilities like the Triple Jump, Dodge Roll and Water Wings. Use a second playable character, Bera to unleash crazy awesome ninja moves and solve challenging puzzles.

The Mooseman

The Mooseman is an atmospheric 2D adventure game set in the mysterious lands of Perm chud’ tribes. The player's avatar is the Mooseman; a mythological character from perm animal style objects, which we were greatly inspired by.

Intersection

InterSection is a spatially-challenging puzzle game based on manipulating two 2D planes aligned to your player in 3d space. You are linked to two worlds; the dying world of your people, and a young, green world. Use this link to connect these worlds and save your people.

Title: GRIP
Developer: Caged Element
Platforms: PC, PS4
Releasing late 2016
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Inspired by the classic Rollcage games, with a lethal mix of heavy weapons and ferocious speed, GRIP is a new breed of combat racer.

There's nothing quite like a good arcade racer. Burnout 3, Motorstorm, Need for Speed. More recently, the indie revival seen with Distance, Drift Stage, Power Drive, and others. The arcade racer is synonymous with high-speed action, over-the-top tracks, fun handling unmoored from realistic physics, and GRIP promises all that and more.
A spiritual successor to the PS1 Rollcage series, GRIP isn't concerned with realism. It's about combat racing at incredible speeds, taking out rivals with a vast array of weaponry and pick-ups ranging from missile barrages and railguns to manually-directed shields and EMPs. Across unique alien landscapes, your big-wheeled armored car can throttle up walls and ceilings with reckless abandon, evading obstacles, maneuvering around vehicles, and taking physics-defying shortcuts.

Other racers aren't the only targets for your powerful arsenal. The tracks, set in futuristic cities, alien jungles and sprawling deserts, feature destructible environments to crash through and obliterate. The chaotic high-speed action will be spread across a career mode, an arcade mode with numerous modifiers, and time trials. And if blowing up AI racers gets boring, you can blow up your friends in GRIP's local and online multiplayer modes.
GRIP is slated for potential release in late 2016, and is currently seeking funds on Kickstarter. You can learn more about the game on its website and Facebook/Twitter pages.

Title: XO
Developer: Jumpdrive Studios
Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux
Early 2016
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Command a ragtag fleet of starships to escape an unbeatable enemy and save what's left of humanity

Mankind faces a threat unlike any other: a faceless relentless armada that outclasses us in every way. This unstoppable enemy ravages across the galaxy, abducting humans for unknown purposes. As master tactician and commander aboard the lead battleship of a meager fleet, you must rescue your people and defeat this seemingly unbeatable foe.
Inspired by works such as Battlestar Galactica, The Lost Fleet, and FTL, XO offers strategic space fleet combat, driven by desperation and overwhelming odds. Forget negotiations or colonizing or empire-building; your only goal is survival and enduring long enough to gather your forces. Jumping from planet to planet to collect necessary resources like air and fuel, rescuing disabling ships to add to your fleet, and dealing with the stress and tough decisions of being a leader fighting a war of attrition. You will face mutinies and rebelling generals, will need to make sacrifices, and keep your people strong and focused, if you want to save humanity.

XO's combat occurs on a 2D plane, where you set waypoints and select targets in real time. Time is an important factor in battle; using an ETA slider, you can designate units to flank enemy vessels at the same time from multiple angles, or have your forces attack in waves, among myriad other strategies. The game's vector-art aesthetic turns each encounter into a vibrant spectacle of fleet-to-fleet combat: enemy vessels releasing swarms of fighters and massive harvesters clamping onto disabled ships to extract humans, as your fleet retaliates with point defense cannons, particle accelerators, and defensive sandcasters.
One of the most fascinating aspects of XO is the developer's hard sci-fi approach to every aspect of the game, from ship design to combat. Momentum and physics must be taken into account while setting waypoints. Collecting resources requires you to send diveships to gather fuel from gas giants or water and air from habitable worlds. Planets are procedurally-generated based on their location in a solar system, so distance from a sun determines if a planet is frozen over or a barren molten rock. Even the ship design and weapons tie into this realistic approach: your battleship's large radiator fins at its rear are there to shed heat waste generated by powerful laser cannons.
More information on XO's development and gameplay can be found on the developer's blog; XO is currently seeking funding on Kickstarter, and votes on Steam Greenlight.

Hello, readers! Just wanted to give you a heads-up that I'll be away on vacation for the rest of the month so the article output for July is going to be less frequent. But don't worry; I'm bringing my laptop with me, so expect impressions of Feist, as well as news on upcoming games, throughout the month.

Title: Umbra
Developer: SolarFall Games
Platforms: PC, Linux
2016
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Open world, free progression hack 'n' slash! Turn into a personalized Apocalyptic Form and unleash your powers upon your foes!

Thanks to Unreal Engine 4, Unity 5, and CryEngine, one thing is certain: we can expect some wonderful graphical fidelity from indie games in the future. One only has to look at projects like The Soul Keeper or Kholat. Umbra is another game to add to the list: an isometric open world hack-n-slash built on CryEngine and boasting gorgeous magic effects, detailed environments, and dynamic AI.
Across dank dungeons, woodland ruins, and other more exotic locations, you face powerful enemies and towering bosses in Umbra, striking down foes with melee weapons and magic. I was fortunate to play an early prototype of the game and the combat is where the game shines. Energy bolts twirl through the air, lightning crackles through hordes, ice leaves fields of frost in your wake. Magic lets you raise the dead, unleash waves of flame, and other feats, and the CryEngine-enhanced visuals turns every battle into a colorful spectacle. Grass sways from the force of explosions, water moves dynamically, stone columns crumble, and the glow of your attacks subtly illuminates the environment.
Umbra promises more than just magic attacks and steel to lay waste your enemies. Apocalyptic forms imbue your character with special abilities and buffs: demonic wings to leap across the battlefield, teleporting dash, a third arm so you can wield three weapons at a time, a tornado that draws in and stuns surrounding enemies, and much more. You can even combine any three of those forms to devastating effect.
Umbra is currently on Kickstarter, at 168% funded and only a few hours left in its campaign. You can learn more about Umbra on the game's site.

Title: Elsinore
Developer: Golden Glitch
Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux
Release: 2016
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Consider, for a moment, the Shakespearean tragedy. Tales of betrayal, death, love, prophecies, mystery, ruin. These stories have influenced literature and other mediums for centuries, and now Elsinore promises to combine Hamlet's story of revenge and murder with the adventure game genre, as you attempt to prevent a massacre witnessed in a prophetic dream.
As noblewoman Ophelia, you find yourself caught in a four-day time loop during a period of political tension in Elsinore Castle. Using knowledge gained over multiple loops, you can influence and manipulate events and individuals. However, this interactions are more than simple branching dialogue parts, as each character has their own schedules, desires, plans; thus your actions can have ripple effects that influence other character's behaviors and fates. Perhaps you'll learn more about the Denmark-Norway conflict in the Great Hall or end up locked in the dungeon. Perhaps you'll betray and assassinate or be killed yourself. Discover secrets, witness new events unfold, and experiment across loops to prevent the foreseen tragedy.
Elsinore is planned for a 2016 release, and is currently seeking support on Kickstarter and Steam Greenlight; stretch goals include voice acting, additional animations, an iPad version, and new areas and characters such as Fortinbras' War Camp. You can learn more about Elsinore on the developer's Tumblr page.

Title: TerraTech
Developer: Payload Studios
Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux
Releasing 2015
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Design and build vehicles out of modular blocks. Fight enemies, discover new parts and corporations, and harvest natural resources.

I first learned about TerraTech while browsing through the Screenshot Saturday page a few weeks ago and was instantly intrigued by the hulking vehicles and interesting art style. If you've seen games like Scraps, Kerbal Space Program, or Mobiloid, you know the basics here: a wide variety of parts to use, build any kind of vehicle you want. While Scraps focuses on multiplayer arena combat, TerraTech has a much more ambitious expansive scope. Set in open procedurally-generated environments, you set out from your base, gathering resources, taking control of territories from different factions, create more powerful fleet of vehicles to command and to protect your base, and add to your own vehicle with new parts and weapons. From drills and spikes to lasers and cannons, you'll need a powerful arsenal to defend yourself against enemy vehicles; with the right parts, you can even take the skies and attack from above. This focus on exploration and single player sets TerraTech apart from other vehicle-building games, and even more promising, multiplayer is also planned.
The current demo build offers several challenges and an environment where you can explore, build, and fight, and even at an early stage, TerraTech shows a lot of promise. The vehicles look cool and feel powerful and it's fun to just augment and improve your simple starting creation into a massive, menacing beast of a machine. You can learn more about TerraTech and download the demo here. TerraTech is currently seeking funding on Kickstarter.

Title: Twin Souls: The Path of Shadows
Developer: Lince Works
Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux
Releasing 2015
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Twin Souls combines the essence of stealth classics like Tenchu with the modern approach of recent gems like Mark of the Ninja and Dishonored.

In November, I wrote about the freeware student project Path of Shadows. It was a third person stealth game, set in a cel-shaded landscape, granting you mastery over the shadows as a mystical assassin. It was a short experience, but fun, unique, and very promising. Thankfully that promise won't be squandered, as the team at Lince Works has taken what worked in the original prototype and expanded it into a full-length spiritual successor, Twin Souls: The Path of Shadows.
Much remains the same. You're still an assassin with the mystical ability to control shadows, allowing you to teleport between patches of darkness, use the shadows to swallow corpses, and strike from impossible angles.Twin Souls promises to expand on and evolve what made the prototype so fun: large multi-tiered environments; a larger array of shadow powers that let you traverse rooftops, create decoys, and more; more varied enemies such as archers and other mystical foes. The stylish cel-shaded aesthetic returns as well. While many current stealth games focus on making you more powerful and well-equipped, a silent predator stalking his prey, Twin Souls finds inspiration in games such as Tenchu and Splinter Cell; you're outnumbered, easily overpowered in direct combat, and you have the option to remain an unseen ghost or take down your foes one-by-one.
Twin Souls: The Path of Shadows is currently planned to release in 2015. You can support the game on Kickstarter; it has already been Greenlit.

Title: A Song For Viggo
Developer: Simon Karlsson
Platforms: PC
2015, In development
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A point and click-game made of real paper, about a parent who accidentally kills his son Viggo. This game is about the aftermath.

I've always considered video games to be the most versatile form of entertainment, able to immerse and engross the player in a story and atmosphere in ways not possible with books, TV, or film. A Song For Viggo's subject matter is heavy, bleak, an exploration of depression and loss and grief. It's not the kind of premise you'd expect in a game, or even a movie for that matter. It drops you into a life shattered by the death of a child, and the roller coaster of emotions that follow. Keep your broken family together, while also struggling with the aftermath of this tragedy, making decisions and choices both big and small.
But the powerful narrative isn't the only reason A Song For Viggo deserves your attention. From the haunting piano score to the meticulously-handcrafted paper art style, the game is truly unique in terms of aesthetic and visual atmosphere.
A Song For Viggo is still in alpha, with a tentative release set for mid-2015. You can support the game on Kickstarter.

Title: SuperHOT
Developer: SuperHOT Team
Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux
Currently on Kickstarter, Summer 2015 release
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SuperHOT was one of my favorite indies of 2013. While only a short prototype developed for the 7DFPS challenge, it was a promising game that combined stylish minimalist art with a unique "time moves when you move" mechanic, turning shootouts into art in motion and a puzzle action as you weaved between bullets and planned around your limited ammo. It was a project just begging to be expanded and explored further...and thankfully the developers thought the same. SuperHOT is back, bigger and more stylish than ever before.
The innovative mechanics and oh-so-satisfying gunplay remains intact, but the appearance and scope has evolved and matured. The minimal art has been upgraded to a textured, more detailed look that retains the contrasting red-on-white color scheme of the original. The gameplay has seen similar growth, promising a larger arsenal of guns and explosives, smarter and varied enemies, an endless arena mode, and Oculus Rift support. Perhaps what's most exciting about this expanded SuperHOT is the developer's vision for new levels: "shootout in a subway train, showdown on the top of a skyscraper in rain, jumping into a moving elevator...fighting in the middle of a motorway during rush hour." No longer will SuperHOT's action be confined to corridors and simple rooms, but expanded to visceral scenarios that rival the best action scenes.Oh, and swords. You can slice bullets in half with a sword. SuperHOT is currently seeking funds on Kickstarter (almost 50% funded in only a few hours!). You play the original prototype here.

Title: Hover: Revolt of Gamers
Developer: Fusty Games
Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux, PS4, Xbox One
Releasing 2015
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Between the crazy Jet Set Radio, the interactivity of Mirror's Edge and inspired by films like "The Fifth Element" or "Star Wars", Hover let you play as a Gamer Team from another world, appalled at the dictatorship in their city.

Take Mirror's Edge, Jet Set Radio, mix with the towering sci-fi cityscapes of The Fifth Element, add multiplayer, and you get Hover: Revolt of Gamers. A first/third-person parkour game set across the bustling districts of a futuristic alien city, Hover combines free-flowing acrobatics with tricks and stunts in an open world.
Set in a video game-hating dystopia, you're the member of the Gamer resistance, helping citizens, tracking down secret warehouses of confiscated consoles, and fleeing police drones. Equipped with a high-tech suit, the sky is the limit as you leap across rooftops, grind along rails, slide along walls, pull off flips and stunts while fluidly racing through the city. Hover can be played from both a Mirror's Edge-inspired first person perspective (complete with Oculus Rift support!) and a third-person view to better admire the animations and stunts. But chaining high-flying combos across the city and through hover traffic is always better with friends, and Hover promises to also offer seamless online multiplayer, allowing you to race and compete in co-operative and competitive modes.
Hover: Revolt of Gamers just oozes potential and promise, from its vibrant colorful visuals and its fluid open-world parkour to its ambitious cities and multiplayer. You can learn more about the game on IndieDB and support it on Kickstarter. The campaign is already more than fifty percent funded in less than two days, and stretch goals include new characters, new game modes, a bigger game world, a full soundtrack from Jet Set Radio's composer Hideki Naganuma, and a Wii U version.

Hover was Greenlit in February.

Title: Prisonscape
Developer: Heaviest Matter
Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux
Currently Kickstarting, late 2014 release
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Prisonscape was among the first games I previewed all the back in September. Now the RPG is aiming for a December release and progressed leaps and bounds since last fall.
Prisonscape is an adventure RPG set, not in a sci-fi future or the grand halls of some fantastical world, but in the gritty grimy corridors of prison. Through bloody violence, sharp tongue, intimidation, intelligence, or a combination of all those elements, you must navigate the various gangs, the racial factions, the guards, friends and foes alike to endure prison life. While the gameplay discussed in the last preview remains intact, new details have emerged. The player will progress from county jail to state-of-the-art Miranda Unit, followed by two other areas. Crafting is far more realistic than other games, a layered deep process even to make something as simple as a basic shiv. Drug addiction and withdrawal, working with guards as a snitch, the ever-looming threat of a cell shakedown, Prisonscape promises to offer a "gritty, uncompromising atmosphere", compared to other prison games such as The Escapists or Prison Architect.
Prisonscape is currently seeking funding on Kickstarter. You can also vote for the game on Steam Greenlight. If you're going to be PAX East this weekend, the developers will be showcasing the game there as well.

Title: Four Sided Fantasy
Developer: Ludo Land
Platforms: PC
Releasing early 2015
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From the level designer of Perspective comes a successor to his award-winning game The Fourth Wall, a game about limits of the screen.

The first thing about Four Sided Fantasy that caught my attention was its dev team, since it composed of DigiPen students. From games like Nitronic Rush (and its successor Distance) to Perspective, DigiPen talent has proven to always deliver innovative quality experiences. Actually it was DigiPen students who developed Narbacular Drop and TAG: The Power of Paint, two indie games that inspired the acclaimed Portal series. Not only that, but the level designer of Perspective is developing the game; Perspective remains one of my favorite freeware games, a mindbending mix of 2D platforming and 3D perspective that I don't believe has been attempted since. It's those factors that attracted me to Four Sided Fantasy, a puzzle platformer about screen wrap.
Four Sided Fantasy is the successor to developer's Logan Fieth's freeware game The Fourth Wall. The core mechanic is the ability to manipulate screen wrap. At any time, you can freeze the screen, allowing you to loop around the edges. Something as simple as screen wrap might seem like it would be difficult to craft a diverse game around, but playing The Fourth Wall proved otherwise, using that mechanic to create a variety of interesting puzzles and challenges. Four Sided Fantasy builds off that original version, introducing vibrant colorful visuals and a story of discovery and exploration as a seemingly normal business trip turns into something more mysterious. The trailer hints at new mechanics, such as gravity fields and moving between background and foreground.
Four Sided Fantasy will be released in early 2015. You can support the game on Kickstarter and vote for it on Steam Greenlight. Play the original prototype The Fourth Wall here, as well as Perspective.

Title: Serpent in the Staglands
Developer: Whalenought Studios
Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux
Releasing late 2014
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The vision for Serpent in the Staglands is a mix of the addictive build customization of ARPGs and party control and role-playing elements of games like Baldur's Gate and Darklands. A throwback to cRPGs of the past with fresh new role playing designs and combat mechanics.

Set in the cold mystical forests of the Staglands, Serpent in the Staglands is an isometric real time action RPG. Playing as the moon deity Necholai given human form, you must gather your party and venture out into a dangerous landscape of expansive wilderness and grand halls. The core of the gameplay is combat: real time party control, with the ability to pause and issue commands, designing varied builds with dozens of skills, magic types, and gear, micromanaging your team and planning strategies in the thick of battle. Perhaps most appealing to me is the game's wonderful pixel style, that combines detailed designs with vibrant effects and crafting atmospheric environments.
Serpent of the Staglands will be released in late 2014. You can learn more about the game here and support it on Kickstarter (funding goal achieved).

Title: Grave
Developer: Broken Window Studios
Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux
Releasing 2015
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Grave is a first person, open world survival horror experience. Explore an ever-changing world filled with frightening creatures. Grave is a hybrid of environmental exploration and combative horror, creating constant tension as the player balances exploration and survival. Our goal is to revitalize the survival horror genre with modern techniques seen in current horror games, while retaining the survival and inventory elements of classic titles.

Grave is an upcoming survivor horror game set in a surrealist nightmare. You awaken on a mysterious desert plain, an endless landscape that shifts with each sunrise. Inspired by the work of Salvador Dali, this world is ever changing, new areas, biomes, and structures appearing with each passing day. From ruined cities and displaced forests to a sudden downpour, you can never be prepared for what weird misplaced area appears over the horizon.
But this world isn't void of danger. Otherworldly beings emerge as night falls and light is your only defense against these grotesque enemies. While this may bring to mind Alan Wake, Grave puts an interesting twist on the mechanic by offering a variety of tools from flashlights and flares to matches and gasoline and making each enemies behave differently to light. Some are easily destroyed, others are merely stunned, while others are attracted to the illumination.
I was able to play the early press demo and even at this early stage, Grave delivers a tense atmosphere. Roaming the windswept plains as haunting music plays. Stumbling upon a derelict town when night falls, a flickering match your only illumination in the suffocating black as an unearthly shriek pierces the darkness. The satisfaction of finding a generator or a gas can, or setting a patch of gas aflame with a flare to kill an approaching creature. Finding some mysterious object out in the world where there was just empty plains the night before. Grave is already scary and fun, and the creatures, weapons, and environments to come will only flesh out the game's solid foundation.
You can learn more about Grave's development on IndieDB, support the project on Kickstarter, and vote for it on Steam Greenlight.

Title: Lemma
Developer: Evan Todd
Platforms: PC (potentially Mac, Linux)
Releasing 2014
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Lemma is an immersive first-person parkour game. Every parkour move has the potential to modify the environment. Surfaces pop in and out of existence at will.

At a glance, the game Lemma probably brings to mind is Mirror's Edge. However while both feature first person parkour, one let the player loose among stark dystopian streets and rooftops while Lemma drops the you in an abstract landscape where the environment itself can help or hurt you. In Lemma, you play Joan Emerson, a physics student who enters this mysterious world and soon finds herself unraveling its secrets. It's a semi-open world, spreading out from a hub that lets you choose which areas to explore in what order you want.
Besides the parkour and abstract levels, what makes Lemma fun and interesting is how the environment reacts to your presence and how you can affect the environment. Your influence is probably most apparent; by wall-running or sliding off edges, you create a surface to continue moving, and later you gain the ability to select structures as you move as shown in the GIF above. But the environment is always your friend. From dangerous turrets and virus-like red material that spreads across the level to explosive cubes that hone in on your or throw parts of the level at you, there's a wealth of hazards to deftly evade with your superior movement.
Lemma is still in alpha, but is quite playable; you can download the alpha here to get a feeling of the gameplay and world. The developer is working on new content and additions, such as blocks that expand at your touch, switches that allow for machinery like elevators, and improved animations. You can learn more about Lemma here and on TIGForums, support the game on Kickstarter, and vote for it on Steam Greenlight.

Title: Zaharia
Developer: Inner Void
Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux
Releasing late 2015
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Zaharia is an RPG with an oriental and middle eastern flavored setting, inspired by Middle East cultures charm and made with care to be original but, at the same time, plausible and convincing.The player will be able to create his own character and use him freely, writing his own story in the world of Zaharia without neither compromises nor constraints. While exploring the game’s world, the player will discover its centuries-old history, and will come in contact with a world radically different from the ones inspired to European Middle-Age.

In the vein of Fallout, Underrail, and the like, Zaharia is an isometric turn based action RPG. But what makes the game stand out is its setting and premise. This is far from the ruined worlds of those games or Wasteland; it's a realistic fantasy world inspired by Middle Eastern culture and architecture. This is a world on the brink of leaving the mystic ways behind and entering a industrial and technological revolution. The deserts and sprawling cities hold many opportunities to build your skills and more importantly build your reputation and define your character. Stealth and taking enemies by surprise to gain an advantage is just as important as smart dialogue choices. The combat promises to be equally realistic, casting you not as an all-powerful warrior, but a skilled combatant who can easily be overpowered if cornered and outnumbered. NPC members have beliefs of their own and may even reject your orders if it clashes with their values. And they will remember your action and decisions, so your reputation and the factions you support will play a critical role in the missions you can undertake and their outcomes.
Based on the prototype demo, Zaharia has great promise and potential. While I enjoyed the gameplay, it was the atmosphere and world that was most intriguing and it's a world I'd like to see more of. You can learn more about Zaharia here, vote for it on Steam Greenlight, and support the game on Kickstarter.