If you’re reading this it means that you managed to survive the spookiest holiday. Congratulations! Celebrate your continued not-being-scared-to-death with a cornucopia of new games! This week we have a painted visual novel, a demo for a wacky pizza adventure, and a dream-team of horror superstars! Check out all of our recommendations below.
The Doll Shop is a game that you’ll be surprised to learn was developed in just three days. I’m not sure what kind of elven magic transpired to make this possible, because The Doll Shop is easily one of the prettiest games I’ve seen all year. Every character and background was hand painted by art students in France over the course of a 3 day workshop, and it makes the game uniquely striking.
The adventure takes place in a remembered time in the Japanese countryside, but it feels more magical than real and is helped along by a hybrid love and horror story. This doesn’t really extend to the mechanical interaction in the game as you’re clicking your way through a fairly normal visual novel but it lets the plot and art really take center stage. Oh, and it’s free so you can let it munch up some of your free time guilt free.
Put on your apron and chef hat and get ready for adventure. Pizza Tower is still in the oven, but we have a little appetizer out in the form of the Pizza Tower demo. Slip and slide your way through a platforming adventure (that bears more than a striking resemblance to Wario Land) and get your pizza as the goofiest pixel art you’ve ever seen zips by.
I do want to temper your expectations here: there is a fair amount of placeholder assets in this demo and it’s not particularly long -- but it still feels like a great taste of what’s to come. Pizza Tower’s full launch is still a fair distance out, but this demo has piqued my interest and I’m happy to recommend it.
Halloween may have passed, but that doesn’t mean you have to stop playing horror games. In the Silence Under Your Bed you can treat yourself to the finest horror tales told by a pair of in-game bored teens (the game is written by horror masters Cassandra Khaw and Kevin Snow) and enjoy all of the scares and drama this brings. Fortunately the visual design continues the narrative excellence with a brilliant combination of the familiar and the horrific and helps really bring the words to life.
The Silence Under Your Bed is a great game that is full of twists and turns, but its real success is in its ability to attract a world-class creative team and produce something that is absolutely tonally perfect.
What have you been playing this week? Let us know in the comments below.
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