PAX West grab bag
I got the con crud 😭
Hey folks!
Happy Friday! Hope you've got some nice plans for the weekend. I'm finally home and settled after my travels, so typically, I've spent most of this week sick in bed.
I don't know about you, but when I was younger and ill at home, it felt as though I was "cheating" to be playing games, and that my time should be spent either fully asleep or looking forlornly out of the window as I sniffle miserably into a tissue. Maybe that episode of The Simpsons where Lisa becomes addicted to Dash Dingo affected me more than I thought, but as I've grown older, I've come to appreciate the restorative value of a good sick day spent playing games, and I'm happy to report that I'm feeling much better!
I've spent most of this week horizontal playing The Blood of Dawnwalker and a couple of embargoed (👀) things that I'll be writing about over the coming weeks, so this week's Friday issue is going to be a little round up of some games I played at PAX West last weekend. I'm also going to be ending with a good news feature. Good News Gaming was a show I worked on at GameSpot back in 2020, and I loved making it. It was a nice little reminder that it's not all doom and gloom out there, even if it might seem like it, so I'd like to bring that sentiment back for LFG.
Next week, I've got a game that I can't wait to chat about, I'll leave you with these emojis as a clue. Let me know next week if you got it right! 🪡👗🧵
This week, paid Supporters can enter a giveaway to win a code for Wax Heads! To enter, link your Discord and join in the #giveaways channel!
The giveaway will be live until Sunday 13th September, so get your entries in now!
If you're not a Supporter, hit the button below to join! There are plenty more giveaways, bonus newsletters, and my eternal thanks to come.
Curve Games
Wax Heads is a cozy-punk narrative sim about working in a struggling record store. Chat to quirky customers with unique tastes, explore a handcrafted record collection, fall in love with bands (and their drama!), or just slack off with your colleagues - whatever gets everyone’s groove back!
PAX previews
I sadly didn't have as much time to play games at PAX as I hoped (ain't that always the way!), but I managed to hit a few, which I've got impressions of below. Thank you so much to folks who stopped me to say hi or that you read the newsletter at PAX and The MIX, it was so lovely to meet you <3
The Final Cut of Lilith Cunningham
If you liked the Mind Place/evidence board mechanic of Alan Wake 2 and the footage editing of Dead Take, then this is the game for you. Drawn to a hotel by a message from her estranged daughter, Lilith Cunningham discovers a film reel that, when edited, can change reality. There are multiple people caught up in the hotel's mysteries, and by editing the film, you can determine their fates.
The Final Cut of Lilith Cunningham wears its influences proudly on its sleeve, and there's a lot for Alan Wake 2 and Twin Peaks fans to love here. I played the first twenty minutes or so, and really enjoyed how it toed that delicate line between being creepy and just a little bit zany. If you try out the demo, make sure you watch the TV segments! Editing the film reel has noticeable effects in the world: a door that was previously locked can now be opened, for example, so I'm eager to see how much puzzle solving we'll be doing as we chop up reality in the editing bay.
It was also satisfying to have manual stages to edit the film: you have to grab the right film strip and put it in place, then pull the lever, only then will the world change. It made me feel involved, rather than just passively experiencing everything. Eager to see more of this one!
Causeway Studios
Regret has chased Lilith across the years… but a chance to escape is within reach. Drawn in by a message from your estranged daughter, you must reshape reality with a mystical Film Reel to solve a mass vanishing. To erase your guilt, you'll decide what… and who… to leave on the cutting room floor.
Remaining Grace
I wasn't prepared for the opening of Remaining Grace.
It's very simple: a black screen with text and sound, but it managed to make an enormous impact, and it's an intro I won't forget any time soon.
Remaining Grace is a ghost story. It's a story about the lives we lead, the people we connect with, and what happens to them when we're gone. Grace has died, and after three years, her spirit is disturbed, and she can inhibit the bodies of her loved ones, jumping between them through touch as they carry on without her.
The demo is a touching look at grief, but it's also a reminder of the impact we can leave on others, even if we don't realize it, and looking back on our lives with a touch more kindness than we often afford ourselves.
ambedo studios
Grace Tao died 3 years ago. This is her quiet ghost story. Guide Grace's spirit across 3 time periods, slowly piecing together the constellation of relationships that defined her life — the people she loved, the unspoken moments in between, and the events that led to her death.
War of the Western Deep
War of the Western Deep transported me back to being a kid, thanks to its stunning hand-animated visuals and classic point-and-click adventure gameplay.
I have such fond memories of being at my friends' houses, gathering around the family PC, trying our best to progress in adventure games like Monkey Island or Simon the Sorcerer. We would be enraptured by the colors, the art, and would endlessly repeat the jokes that we maybe didn't quite understand fully yet. War of the Western Deep nails the feeling of these old school adventure games, and I am utterly besotted by its art style, full of anthropomorphic animals straight out of old Disney movies like Robin Hood. I also loved how it dropped you straight in: this world has a history, and politics, and you are maneuvering your way through the machinations of bigger things that are happening around you.
I didn't manage to get any combat in this demo (I outsmarted my foe by other means!), but I'm interested to see the game's take on it, as I saw my demo neighbor fall into a scrap.
Sunsgrove Studios
Explore a lush, hand-animated world as you solve puzzles, meet intriguing characters, and duel nefarious foes in tense sword battles. Join Mirren, a royal courier sent to the dangerous Border Coast on the eve of war, and immerse yourself in this innovative mix of adventuring and cinematic combat.
Forgery Craft
I do not condone forging papers but Forgery Craft made it pretty satisfying to do. I spent about 20 minutes on this demo, grabbing my tools and getting settled into working as an art forger. Copying things isn't as simple as stamping one image onto another, you need to adjust the size of things, composition, how it's leaning to make it as authentic as possible. There's a great tactile nature to the game, a preciseness to creating copies, or using an eraser to clean up mistakes, or a blade to get rid of them completely.
As mentioned in my Lilith Cunningham impressions, I love it when games let you get stuck in, so I am excited to continue my life of crime when the game comes out next year.
Frozen District
Master the art of forgery in this story-driven simulation game. Start with altering documents by changing single signatures and dates. End up forging entire art pieces that could fool any museum expert.
Valor Mortis
I'm a big Soulsborne and Soulslike fan, (I'm writing this while wearing my Lies of P shirt, so you know I'm legit) and so I immediately started picking up what Valor Mortis was putting down. There are a lot of familiar touch points with Souls games, from Bloodborne's health regain mechanic to how leveling and equipment works. I adore the setting: the rancid, rotting battlefields of the Napoleonic wars, filled with creatures made more grotesque because they used to be human once.
The swap from third- to first-person really took a minute to fully click for me. With third-person, there's so much more visual space to watch out for attack cues and then figure out how to respond appropriately. In first-person, the close quarters nature of everything requires a different kind of... visual processing? That's the best way I can think to phrase it. I felt like there was even less room for error, but then again, that made success all the sweeter.
Lyrical Games, One More Level
Valor Mortis is a first-person action soulslike from the creators of Ghostrunner. Rise from death as a former soldier of Napoleon’s army. Wield supernatural powers, battle horrifying monsters, and unravel a conspiracy that threatens all of humanity.
Some good news to end the week!
As mentioned up top, some nice news to end this issue. This week is one for the indie developers who may be reading, as I wanted to highlight two new methods of game funding that just hit the news. There's been so much game funding being cut over the past few years, it's a breath of fresh air to see new avenues springing up.
- The first one is the Nova Games Foundation, founded by Geoff Keighley and Mark Cerny. Each year, 20 grant recipients will receive $100,000 to put toward developing new ideas, with more funding becoming available as projects progress, as well as mentorship from games industry icons like Hazelight's Josef Fares. Applications will open up in December, and the first recipients announced in March. For more details, check out Stephen Totilo's write up in the link above
- And another is FRAME1GAMES, a new funding initiative from CAA (Creative Artists Agency) which aims to fund, accelerate, and market new independent games, and like the Nova Games Foundation, will give developers access to industry mentors to help guide them along the way. I caught up with the team not so long ago, and I'm excited about the wealth of experience they have under their belts already. Applications are now open, submit your games at the link above
That's it for this week! I'll be back on Monday with Peek at the Week, have a great weekend!