Just for Fun: Itch Game Showcase
Hey readers, I’m back after a month. Between Pride, game jams and job applications for the foreseeable future, I haven’t been on the ‘stack for a minute.
Instead, I’ll showcase 5 short games I enjoyed playing on Itch.io!
The next post will be a Main Quest before I take a hiatus on reviewing released games. The year is young, so expect game dev stories instead of what I’m working on.
If you aren’t tired of games yet, check out my 10-minute stories :)
Deo, The Last Dragon
Deo has lost its entire dragon family from fire and monstrous arachnids, and it's up to them to protect what remains of its forest home. Follow your surrogate parent Owl as you chomp on various plants and insects to get bigger and nurture the forest. As Deo, you jump higher and higher through the treetops, with the Owl giving you helpful hints along the way. This short game was created for a game jam, and its story, art, and music is reminiscent of Ghibli/Zelda. Spend 15 minutes playing the adorable Deo and eat to help your forest survive.
Don’t piss off a dragon
Play a(nother) dragon grumpy from being woken up by pesky humans. Compassionate no longer, you move the dragon’s noodly body pixel by pixel to eat all the humans you find.
Like Snake, your dragon’s movement is fixed to map tiles, with physical obstacles like ladders and blocks that change the dragon’s path. Along the way, you have to eat evil floweys soldiers to clear the level. You can’t reverse directions but you can undo if you meet an invisible wall. A cute bloop tells you when that happens when your dragon’s body ends up stuck and all over the screen. A few tricky levels sprinkled with amusing dialogue. Look forward to another chapter!
Very Human Drinking
Have you ever wondered if you’re drinking properly? Then look no further, for this game will teach you to drink like a human in 60 seconds. Jokes aside, Very Human Drinking is a great game jam example of a simple mechanic that’s addictive yet challenging.
Picking up (or throwing) a glass requires you to carefully wobble your long arm to a tap before adjusting the hand’s angle to pick up a glass. Doing the same in reverse feeds the delicious water to your human, who doesn’t seem to have a limit to how much water they can imbibe. The elevator music adds to the hilarious concept, making this game a treat.
D.A-V.E
Cyberattacks are big these days. Maybe it’s time to re-install McAfee Antivirus to stop these cybercriminals from injecting viruses into your sys…
Too late. Seems like they’ve infected your OS! But never fear, as D.A-V.E the Antivirus is here! Only, he makes you delete the viruses yourself in this game. Which is annoying. What’s the point of an antivirus if you’re the one removing them one by one, like plucking your eyebrows? At least in this game, you get to shoot them down with a retro banger in the background. This bullet hell game is difficult, buggy, and a blast to play.
Mourning Tide
The only horror game on this list, Mourning Tide is a short, challenging and tragic fishing game where you play as a guilt-ridden fisherman. With only a rusty fishing pole, you fish creepy creatures out of increasingly choppy waters, which change colour as you progress. At the end, you’re trapped in a storm as you fish out the last items. Like any good horror game, the ending is distressing and provocative.