Steam Indie Cup Celebration: Dread XP Picks Part 2
Independent game competition Indie Cup recently declared their 2020 winners. You can check those out by clicking here. But we at Dread XP like ourselves some underdogs, and feel obligated to show off the other cool games who were a part of this contest. Just because they didn’t win the gold medal this year doesn’t mean they aren’t awesome. We’ve picked out a handful of indie horror games from Indie Cup that are winners in our hearts.
I, Dracula: Genesis
You probably can’t name two genres that go together better than “roguelite” and “twin-stick shooter.” Ever since Binding of Issac made it work nearly perfectly, many other games have tried and put their own fun spin on the formula. The latest? I, Dracula: Genesis. The game combines some lovely pixel art with traditionally wacky upgrades to create a game that manages to look like a really unique entry to the genre.
After all, it’s not many of these games that give you an upgrade that turns the game into a first person shooter instead. From boomerang guns, to molotov cocktails, to a sword, to a wild gun that spawns little frogs that jump towards enemies and then explode, I, Dracula seems to have quite a bit of fun stuff going for it. I mean, at some point in the trailer the character replaced their normal means of movement with four giant spider legs that could squish people. That’s fantastic.
I, Dracula: Genesis is being developed by Moregames. It’s currently available in Early Access.
The Life and Suffering of Sir Brante
Sometimes you don’t need moving images and explicit horror elements to terrify a player. Sometimes you just need a lot of choices and a dark fantasy world. You can find both in The Life and Suffering of Sir Brante, a word-heavy RPG where you need to challenge the current ruling class and try to forge your own way in a world where gods don’t really care for that. You’ll do so through one of the most important things: many many choices.
A visual novel with RPG elements, your choices will give your stats, reputation, and other boons and curses that decide how events will play out. Naturally, it will eventually end in your death. This is dark fantasy after all. However, just because you die doesn’t mean it’s the end, as you can take your experience into your new life. You’ll need it too, if you want to do something totally different in your next life.
The Life and Suffering of Sir Brante is being developed by Sever and is set to release some time in 2021. You can nab a demo of the game here.
Through the Nightmares
When you were a kid you very likely heard about the Sandman, who help you get to sleep at night. Through the Nightmares kind of has a Sandman, albeit he’s one that dives into kid’s nightmares to help battle them. This is done so in a very pretty and fast-paced 2.5d platformer. You’ll have to jump around, dodge attacks, and listen to the beat of the music. Yes, Through the Nightmares times many of its traps to musical cues.
All of this comes together in a game that looks rather lovely. Also, rather difficult. There’s no denying that it seems like you’ll be doing a lot of dying and restarting before you finish Through the Nightmares, but that’s not a bad thing. Super Meat Boy did fantastic with its hard difficulty settings. Hopefully, so can this game.
Through the Nightmares is being developed by Sandman Team and is set to release before the end of 2020. You can try the demo of the game here.
Orange Cast
I love a goof sci-fi shooter. I really just love any sci-fi shooter, as getting to explore alien worlds is always a lot of fun. I couldn’t help but notice Orange Cast out of the games, thanks to its sci-fi setting and shooting. While I’ll admit I have no clue what was going on in the trailer at all, I certainly saw some stuff that I could like. For example: there was a submachine gun that caused a dude’s head to explode. Yeah give me that, I’m in.
The trailer showed off some fast-paced third-person shooter combat, which did a good enough job showing off and making me want to play the game. Sure it was still entirely in Russian, but subtitles can always be added. Honestly, I just like how the game looks like a mix of Mass Effect and Dead Space. Sure that’s a pretty surface-level reason to be interested, but what can I say? I’m a rather simple man.
Orange Cast is being developed by Team Rez, and is set to release on January 21st, 2021. You can try the demo of the game here.
Noch
If you knew someone was behind the destruction of the entire world, then you know it’s probably time to find them. Noch is such a game, with one or two people deciding to hunt down a woman named Lisa before she manages to destroy the world. That’s an objective that makes sense, as you don’t want the world to be destroyed. Just that, along the way, you may have to deal with reality bending and snapping in ways it probably shouldn’t.
A first person game, you’ll either play alone or team up with a friend. You want to find Lisa, but you have to deal with reality breaking. How do you do so? With tools available to you right now. That means using a baseball bat to smack wolves out of the air, or a shot gun to take them on from afar. Along the way things get more strange, with the moon turning pink, eyes staring at you from space, and a woman teleporting around to taunt you. Hopefully, you can stop the world from breaking any further.
Noch is being developed by Fair Games Studio and Noostyche and is set to release on November 10th, 2020. You can try a demo of the game here.