I like the fact that classic RPGs with unconventional artistic direction are a thing. Hello to devs 🤗 A Kobold Story: Trenchcoat Adventurer @richardstampdev.bsky.social Monsters of Mican @skittzo.bsky.social Underkeep @rakeingrass.bsky.social (also Heroes of the Seven Islands)

Spider Dynasty is a bona fide Hollow Knight-clone, not just mechanically but even thematically. And even if I'm kinda sick of cheap-looking HK clones, this one caught my attention with a boss fight where you battle vertically across a vine with a snail. store.steampowered.com/app/3776560/...

GNAW is a dinosaur-themed metroidvania where you can eat your enemies and use them as fuel to heal yourself. Hand-drawn, quirky sense of humor, so far (demo), fun writing, this could be a nice one. store.steampowered.com/app/2306490/...

Oh wow, I think I've never quite seen a boss fight where you hang from a vine and basically have to fight across a vertical axis like this, that's genuinely cool shit Hopefully, the rest of the game is as inventive as this www.reddit.com/r/IndieGamin...

If you see this post a monster

Just beat Zapling Bygone, a short to medium length metroidvania where you play a hive mind seedling who equips the skulls of slain bosses and various other creatures to access their memories and abilities The game has a bit of jank, but also lots of heart store.steampowered.com/app/1489110/...

Vampire Crawlers is basically the Vampire Survivors formula applied to a grid-based dungeon crawler, where you fight card-based battles and try to survive as long as you can before you get killed. It does a lot of things I usually don't like in crawlers... store.steampowered.com/app/3265700/...

For something different, checked out Dungeons of Dusk, basically a grid-based dungeon crawler variant of boomer shooter Dusk. This could have been great, but damn if they didn't fuck it up with the weird perspective... store.steampowered.com/app/4176460/...

Checked out Ariana & The Elder Codex. Lots of trash enemies thrown your way, but combat feels strangely weightless and is mostly button-mashing. Everything suggests there will likely be more exploration at some point, though this feels more like a 2D act-RPG store.steampowered.com/app/3986690/...

Checked out Iridescent. Doesn't have the metroidvania tag but seems to be in the ballpark of 2d-act-adv with explorable worlds. I like the simplistic but effective aesthetic. Sadly, for the couple of minutes I tried the demo, I was fighting with the controls store.steampowered.com/app/2937170/...

Last demo for today, Misspell. This has a generic fantasy vibe where you're sent out to a mill or something and go through various screens killing the same kind of enemies and avoiding the same kind of spiky vines. store.steampowered.com/app/3235850/...

Checked out Little Nemo and the Guardians of Slumblerland. Not sure how I feel about that they didn't use the artstyle of Winsor McCay, but the artstyle they did go with is pretty cute and kinda great... store.steampowered.com/app/2074630/...

Checked out the LUCID DEMO. Has some solid pixel art, though I dislike how it layers various visual effects that don't quite fit. Another niggle is that the text in textboxes has a shader on them while the rest is pixel-perfect, which looks annoyingly off. store.steampowered.com/app/1717730/...

all the AI companies are talking about "AGI" being the next big thing, but Sierra On-Line figured out AGI back in 1984

I've come to hate multi-phase boss design. Also, feels like a lot of games that I've enjoyed or somewhat enjoyed in recent years have terrible final boss encounters, because they're so overdesigned that it crosses what should be a difficult but exciting final fight into what is just plain torture

Finished Pipistrello and the Cursed Yoyo. If you like your Zelda-like with a heavy emphasis on puzzles and lots of platforming where you string together multiple movement inputs to get what you want, you will be in heaven. If not, you likely want to abandon the game by the 2nd half. Or curse a lot!!

Strategical sidearm spam ♥️ Mina the Hollower's limited-time demo is available on PS5 RIGHT NOW! Hollow in today! Full game launches in Spring 2026 on Nintendo Switch 1 & 2, PS5, Xbox Series X, & Steam!

Dungeon crawler dev I've followed for years made a recent update detailing how he is streamlining his game to finally finish it. Lots of great, thoughtful changes there (and now custom dungeons). Can't wait for the finished game. entropy-game-dev.tumblr.com/post/8055525...

Just because you don't have your torch out doesn't mean nobody can see you~ Wishlist Chronicles IV: Ebonheim on steam! store.steampowered.com/app/3919080/... #ultima #roguelike #indiegame #indiedev #gamedev #pixelart

A bunch of screenshots from Children of Magia :) #indiedev #gamedev #gameboy #gbstudio

That Ultima 7-inspired perspective always feels like such a mindfuck

Sad that we never got a fan-translation of Goldenland 2: Cold Heaven because only like 50 people downloaded the fan-translation for Goldenland 2... the guy was like "why bother?" :(

This is a game you do NOT want to miss: Under the Island is a beautifully pixeled action-adventure in the vein of classic Zelda. But it´s not just a riff on a familiar game, it also has a ton of new ideas, a lot of fun characters, good writing and lots of things to discover. youtu.be/kApyOd9sLmM

Flashlight Games and Death Kumiai will release the dark dungeon crawler indie RPG titled Annihilated for PC via Steam in Early Summer 2026: https://www.rpgsite.net/news/19648-dark-dungeon-crawler-rpg-annihilated-launches-for-pc-via-steam-in-early-summer-2026

The community behind Dungeoncrawler.org rallied together to make another #dcjam2026 again. Can't wait to see what comes out and like every year, I'll likely fail to check all of the entries 😭. Still worth it though itch.io/jam/dcjam2026

Recently finished Ghost Song, a Metroid-like that is both incredibly addictive and infuriating due to some terrible design choices, but has great writing and impeccable atmosphere. Do I recommend it? Yes! No!! Maybe?! One of those things store.steampowered.com/app/347800/G...

respect the hustle

Dungeon crawler The Darkness Below left early access. I remember playing a demo and thought the GUI was awkward, many design choices were not well thought out, and it was generally not fun to play. To this, the release adds AI in cutscenes & the title screen. store.steampowered.com/app/2814790/...

The wait is almost over. Mina the Hollower launches Spring 2026 on Nintendo Switch 2, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, and Steam.

Demo for Underkeep is live on steam, really enjoyable old-school dungeon crawler. Also I found one ending where my whole team got transformed into mushrooms, lol, first one for me store.steampowered.com/app/4346510/...

Just shouting this into the void in hopes that some fortunate soul heeds my words and buys the game. Sektori is one of the most addictive, challenging, and satisfying twin-stick shooters ever made. I can't put it down.

A deadly encounter on the streets of 21st Century Kyoto in the wake of devastation from an earthquake that also unleashed a horde of demons - and magic back into the world. A point-and-click and RPG hybrid that received an English translation in 2019. 📺: Makyouden, Nihon-Create, 1992 (PC-9801)

Did a playtest for Descent of Lunaris! Haunted moon vibes are sublime and there is a lot of fun to be had experimenting with party combos. Had some quibbles about menu UX stuff but otherwise its a good time. Recommend folks check it out :D store.steampowered.com/app/3824720/...

We should celebrate our little victories against entropy - rpgmaker.net went back online this week!

Man, after these latest Epstein releases, how can anyone not agree that all billionaires need to get guillotined

Even thought Might & Magic IX is a disaster, I do love its UI. Was probably the best "illuminated book" design in CRPGs until the Pathfinder & Pillars games, over a decade later. Although, to be fair, Oblivion also went for a similar vibe and it's one of the best things about that game.

MAYBE I'll find the time to play them over the weekend, but I just stumbled upon a fascinating pair of unusual indie RPGs on Steam that are completely free. store.steampowered.com/app/2263250/... store.steampowered.com/app/1617190/... ArmaCulture is complete. A Song Of Sunlight is 2 of 3+ episodes

Tried out the demo for Acrolyte, a pixel-art metroidvania that emphasizes 360° shooting via M+K controls, similar to Abuse or other games in that style, and large, somewhat empty levels that invite exploration. store.steampowered.com/app/3459050/...

added status ailment functionality, damaging status ailments are just treated like regular attacks, so 1. element absorption = poison heal 2. Breaking enemies turns weakens all resists 3. Breaking an enemy that absorbs poison will make them start taking poison damage #aLtProject #aLt-Project

#C64 #Kouyate #RPG progress: working on a bit more of the pirate town, adding the scripts for The Captain (BTW, I love my scripting system). Also added a few pirates as well, but they don't want to talk to me for some reason and insist I talk to The Captain...

This Promising New Action-Platfomer Is Built From The Ashes Of A "Massive" Unreleased ROM Hack For An SNES Classic.

'Official' game preservation efforts are good and should be encouraged when they happen. But that's still relying on corporations and the absurdly rich to care about the history of art and the medium. For the most part, that's not going to happen. Better to spend energy on teaching ethical piracy.

If you enjoyed my posts about Metroid games you might like to learn that I made a fully drawn strategy guide for the original game several years ago. It's free! www.handdrawngameguides.com/free-guides/...

The crowded Dungeon, a commission from 2024 for a project I am unsure the details of, but one of my favorites that I made that year.

Migami started out with developing fan games for Castlevania since at least 1998 (the-mig-page.wifeo.com) and likely much earlier, and Chronicles of the Wolf is their big swing. It has a tiny bit of jank, but the rest is an awesome Igavania-style game. Shaping up to be another great MV for 2025

I really love the teleport animation in this game. The team went the extra mile to make something almost mundane-looking in metroidvania these days look utterly splendid

That awesome feeling when you played a game for six hours, beat the big boss and realize you just finished the prologue and the big Castle is just ahead (I was wondering while my save file said I was only at 33%)

The journey begins! You might think of this alternate history a bit like an inverted castle to @jparish.bsky.social's Metroidvania Works. www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9zE...

Feeling better now, since Steam sale is about to end and @dominictarason.com got me some new followers looking for cool games, here's a personal selection of stuff that's REALLY CHEAP right now - like under $4-5, some under $1 (at least with my regional pricing) I'll highlight some below 🧵

Blade Chimera - great pixel art, fun game, not a metroidvania though, just a 2d action RPG where gated content is behind keys or story bits