Dukkido@Awesomecon Writeup - Fingut Edition!
Fingut didn't miss a single game this time! Unless...
Dukkido returned to the world of the real so that countless children and a big yellow garlic man could play it! This time we had two setups, and some people got to play on the new Steam Deck control layout. The reception was great, and the whole showcase was overall more relaxed and casual than our past outings.
Fingut has once again taken the liberty of playing some games, and by some, I mean absolutely all of them! Unless he forgot one, in which case I am deeply ashamed on his behalf, and will direct any criticism directly to the man himself.
If you were at AwesomeCon and your game isn’t here, crap!! How did we miss it?! Send it over and we’ll add it to the write-up.
Ashcroft
Steam - Bluesky - Discord
Ashcroft finally scratched my itch for an indie take on the Smash Bros. Melee adventure mode, complete with bosses and surprisingly difficult platforming sections! It takes place during a zombie apocalypse of dubious origin. Zombies will burst forth from the windows, ground, and other unexpected areas during a fight. This, combined with the randomly spawning items, gives everything a very ‘bar-fight’ feel.
The game is an impressively complex platform fighter, with a great attitude and a LOT more content than you would expect at first glance. I didn’t get a chance to try multiplayer at the showcase, but it seems like a real blast for couch co-op! Give this one a Wishlist!
Base Battles 3
Itch - Website
The long awaited sequel to Base Battles 2 emerges… Actually, I played this game way back during Game Your Future, and didn’t get the time to replay it during Awesomecon. From what I remember, it’s a micro-RTS inspired by Pikmin, Starcraft, and the like. If you want to try it yourself, Base Battles 2 is available now on Itch! The developers make a lot of cool little games, so make sure to check out their other stuff as well!
Birdteeth
Steam - Bluesky - Discord
Birdteeth takes the spot as my “most promising” experience at the showcase. The build was a bit rough around the edges, but the game itself has a fantastic idea and I’m so glad to see the developers open to feedback. The game is about feeding birds, and then commanding the birds to solve puzzles in the environment. It really has teeth in it! The visuals are gorgeous, and the game has a relaxing atmosphere.
While somewhat rough around the edges, the game feels like a legitimately interesting learning-puzzler. Check it out on Steam, and try out the demo!
Bruisin Cruisers
Steam - Bluesky - Website
Bruisin’ Cruisers returns! This one was also at MAG, but I finally got a chance to play it at AwesomeCon! This punchy, arcade-y bruise-em-up is about driving up and smashing everything in your way. The slick and clean pixel art combined with the jammin tunes makes BC a delight to play.
This game is one of those “small but big” games. My initial impression was that of a short, fun, flash-game length experience. But then it kept going. And apparently, it really keeps going in the full version. This sandwich-filled wonder will keep surprising you, follow the project on Steam! This is a must-buy for me. I hope it’s out soon…
Caxtilteca
Steam - Bluesky - Website
Caxtilteca is a mini-rts that plays a bit like a competitive Pikmin built around the classic Dune-style harvesting mechanic. Your units are either following you or wandering around the map chopping trees, grabbing gold, and delivering it to your bases which you construct around the map. The queen, regnant, tax-collector-y character wanders around the map, and if your base has enough gold in it when she arrives, you get some points. Players can attack and destroy eachother’s units and bases, making for a very cutthroat territorial dispute.
Overall, the game’s pretty fun! The PvP mode is solid, and I hear tell of a possible story campaign… Give it a follow on Steam!
Cicada Chirp Academy
Itch
Awesome scientifically accurate woop-em-up! This competitive ‘tuning’ game puts you in the shoes of a Cicadian student determined to beat the “garbage-tier mating call” allegations. 1v1 your opponent and try to match the example tone, whoever’s sounds are closest wins the prestigous privelege of accessing the Cicada dating pool.
Very rad! I compared it to a “top-quality Wario-Ware minigame,* hope to see more! Check the game out on Itch!
Commanders of the Wicked
Itch - Bluesky - Discord
Commanders of the Wicked is a diamond in the rough! I found a couple bugs while playing, but the overall game is very promising. It takes inspiration from Dragon Quest Monsters, and actually comes with its own real life card game! I got a card for the pig porcupine creature, which I named Dog. You can battle, capture, and fuse monsters to create stronger combinations.
If you like Dra-Q monsters, or are just a fan of monster-catching RPGs in general, try out the demo on Itch!
Dukkido
Steam - Bluesky - Discord - Kickstarter
What the heck? This game again? Pee-yoo! Really though, we made a lot of improvements to onboarding, accessibility, and overall polish in preparation for this showcase. Based on our feedback from this event, I think we’re just about ready for a public demo! Look forward to it over the next couple of weeks, I won’t put a date on it just yet, but we’re confident it’ll do well! Please fiddle our socials if you haven’t already, it helps in a vague way!
Gloxinia
Steam
A FMV Space Channel 5-like! Wow!! Gloxinia is definitely not what I expected, the game is magnificent! Truly inspired and full of talent, it was a delight to play. The game’s not afraid to give you a real challenge, and is extremely accessible despite the lack of a “conventional” rhythm game interface.
I couldn’t recommend this game more, this is a “must-stream-to-friendgroup” for me once it comes out. At first, the game seemed like some sort of… Just Dance-type game, which is why I didn’t play it during MAGfest (my feet hurt too much to even consider dancing...) I’m glad I finally gave it a shot, because this project is wonderful. We’re even considering… well, maybe I shouldn’t spoil it. Wishlist NOW!
Gun Man 2
Itch - Buymeacoffee
Holy crap, this game is nasty… in the good way. Don’t get me started on Gun Man 3. That’s not a joke, I also got to try that one, but I definitely won’t spoil it. Gun Man 2 is a twin-stick co-op blaster type game with a lot of Treasure and Megaman DNA, which I appreciated a lot. Also, I just so happened to kick ass at the game…
Play it now on Itch! It’s completely free! I recommend trying it out with a buddy, the co-op mode is a much more worthy challenge. Also check out more of Isaac’s games, I played several of them at the showcase and this guy is a mastermind.
Hugby
Website - Bluesky
Hugby’s here! I love seeing this machine around. Hugby is a competitive rugby game where you draw paths for your lovable little bears and watch them kick a ball around. A nice back-and-forth treat for two players, if you see this table at an event, give it a play with your buddy - and make sure to hug it out after!
You can see more of the dev’s ultra cool arcade machines on their Website! If you want Hugby at an event, you can shoot them an email as well.
Hypno Halo
Steam - Bluesky - Website
We also saw this one at Game Your Future! Hypno Halo is a snazzy rhythm game with a snazzy controller. Mash up to 8 keys to the beat in this minimalist halo score-attack experience. I say immersive because the game is legitimately mesmerizing - I’d find myself feeling intense tunnel vision after playing for some time, but in a pleasant way. The soundtrack is the bomb, full of some top-tier trance and other EDM tunes.
The game’s actually on sale on Steam right now! Until March 26th, apparently. If you’re not sure, you can also try out the demo.
Last Writes and Jumbo Pumbo
Itch - Itch 2
Double whammy! Could have been even more than double, Josephalapod had a bunch of their games rolled up in a cute little “game selector,” which could be explored with some snazzy buttons. I got to try Last Writes, which was an arcade-y action game where you kill enemies by encircling them with the strokes of your pen. I also got to play Jumbo Pumbo, an incremental game about growing the biggest pumpkin possible.
They’ve got a bunch of solid FREE games on Itch! I also got to play a round of VolleyBird, which is a competitive bird-based volleyball game. That one was set up on a snazzy arcade machine, and supported up to 4 players.
Memoralysis
Steam - Bluesky - Website
This game is a humble and classy visual novel by the team “Mads England.” You play a detective in a dramatic locked-room mystery, and wield your power of “Memoralysis” to dig into the minds of the suspects. Ask prying questions, peer into the missing memories of the guests, and get to the bottom of this increasingly bizarre murder… I won’t spoil much, but the art and overall presentation in this game is delightful, and the writing is accessible and fun.
Wow! What a treat, try out the demo for the first of hopefully many entries in the Memoralysis series on Steam!
Nekomancer
Steam - Bluesky
Nekomancer is a well-polished doodle-puzzler with some pretty art and effects. You play as the titular -mancer, and use your cursor to draw little shapes which can flip the world, defeat enemies, and more… Full of hand-crafted levels, some of the later puzzles are seriously challenging. Don’t even think about drawing anything naughty…
Standing Cat games show a lot of promise, and their first title is a real bombshell! Nekomancer is a great puzzler at a great price point, give it play on Steam!
Plunk
Website
PLUNK! Great to see Ryan Peterson at another event, we’ve met a few times by now! Plunk is a neat puzzle game where you launch a ball into manually placed bouncers to try and score the most points. Each level is randomly generated, and there’s lots of little combo multipliers to try and chain together.
Neat project! Check out more of Ryan’s stuff at ryanspeterson.com!
Quiplit
Website
A nice little app game! You swap the top and bottom letters to try and find a combination of two words. Couldn’t be simpler, you can buy hints at the cost of shame, so even if you get stuck you can keep on chugging some alphabet soup. Or something like that. Check it out! You can play it instantly on their website!
Schism
Steam - Discord
Schism is interesting - a dedicated investigation game about some unicorn deer creatures who just can’t seem to get along with eachother. Not for the faint of brain, this game demands some - gasp - reading comprehension! The build I played was a mite buggy, but with a bit of improvement to conveyance and accessibility this will be a truly unique game. I wish I had time to play more!
If you like investigation games, you can follow Schism on Steam!
Scramble Star Crossing
Steam - Website - Discord
Scramble Star was at MAG, and while I didn’t play it there, I finally got to sit down with it for a while at AwesomeCon! This game is a fast, tetris-y competitive tile matcher with special moves, colorful characters, great soundtrack, the works! You take tiles from one side, and can switch them to the other, or drop them somewhere else. This effort is to avoid the fate that inevitably awaits all but the victor: being squashed in the middle by the mass of a few hundred stars!
I had a lot of fun with Scramble Star Crossing. As polished as it is, and with online co-op, this is an easy recommend for anyone who likes fast-paced match-3s! You can even grab a few copies and smash some stars in the Demo, which is available now!
King Scribble
Steam - Bluesky - Discord
King Scribble is another game I missed at MAG, but thankfully got to play at AwesomeCon. The game feels like a cross between a DS game and a classic flash game. You use a variety of drawing tools to solve puzzles, navigate levels, and art-platform your way to the “Doodle Kingdom.”
The game is very accessible, and the puzzles, while easy to figure out, can be difficult to execute. Time pressure, limited resources, and frantic platforming can create some challenging setups. While what was offered in the showcase demo was rather easy, I’m hoping the game won’t be afraid to show its fangs later on. Fun for all ages, make sure to Wishlist and Follow King Scribble!
Taro the Sneaky Ninja
Steam - Bluesky - Discord
Taro’s back! Really! I already reviewed this one in the MAGFest recap, but I thought I’d include it here for completeness. Still a phenomenal game, and to this day the only game where I’ve actually pulled my phone out and bought it right there on the spot. Well, pre-ordered. And I never pre-order games!
Super slick, deep as the ocean platformer with impressively difficult stealth missions and a lot of different ways to play. You won’t want to miss Taro the Sneaky Ninja!
Toroban
Steam - Website - Discord
Toroban feels like the next big brain-twister meta-puzzle sokobon blast type game to grace the world of box-pushers. I am… not very good at these, but I nonetheless gawped at the polish, scale, and mesmerizing visuals of Toroban. And all that is to ignore the most important detail, Toroban is a co-op game!
”Hebert Games,” as they’re known, brought not one, not four, not six, but eight setups to this showcase. Despite some… minor power-draw issues on day one, whole families could sit down and slide their colorful, juicy characters around in light confusion at the same time! The setup was seriously impressive.
Will I buy Toroban? Yes! It’s a fantastic game. Will I play it? Hopefully! This kind of game intimidates a shrivelled, time-starved developer such as myself, but for those with a bit more leeway, grab some friends and give it a go!
Racing What Now??
Itch
I recall the game vividly: You select a racer among a rogue’s gallery of strange creatures, my eyes were drawn to the blue horse portrait. I would spin the ball with great vigor while the developers watched with a bemused look. My horse would go slowly around the track, my actions having seemingly no impact and - bam! - I lost. I played a couple more times, won once, and was satisfied. Magnificent.
Check it out now on Itch, your questions will be answered.
And That’s it! Again!
Another showcase down! We’re getting pretty good at these. We’ll see about our next one, if all goes well we might be looking at something in April… Stay tuned! And thanks to all the devs at AwesomeCon for bringing your awesome games, and thanks to all the staff and coordinators who made the event possible, it was a blast!
Don’t forget to follow Dukkido on: Discord - Bluesky - Kickstarter
Thank you Fingut for the big scoop