Miami Waves is a game about drifting by Florian Decupper.
Why Try It: Drive down an endless seaside road with no obstacles while energetic music plays.
Mood: Chill / Hypnotic
Author’s Notes: “Done for the Flying toaster with jam weird Game Jam, which pay tribute to old screensavers. For this jam, the game must be designed as a screensaver : it should be able to play itself without direct interaction, and should only stop when the player decides to do so.”
You Might Also Like: Cyroad, The Dark Third
Shoot the Butts is a game about shooting butts by Kyle Reimergartin.
Why Try It: Shoot the butts.
Mood: Silly
Author’s Notes: “When you try your best, you can shoot the butts, and save everyone! Because there is no one left. No one but you! There might be some things to eat.”
You Might Also Like: Fax These to Smith, W▲TCH DOGS
City Lights is a game about transformation by Ian MacLarty.
Why Try It: Generate beautiful kaleidoscopic patterns and landscapes through movement.
Mood: Hypnotic
Author’s Notes: “It’s kind of a “walking simulator”/art tool hybrid. This is also the first browser-based game I’ve made and I’m hoping to do many more.”
You Might Also Like: Sunrose, sph_, Cosmogonie
Perfect World is a game about collapse by Ansh Patel.
Why Try It: An experimental text game that plays with degenerative structure, visual glitching, and unusual constraints on decisionmaking.
Mood: Creepy
Author’s Notes: “"Perfect World" is an experiment in form and structure with a twisted, ugly message on environment and body image. There are five “non-endings” that reach a point the text glitches into all the choices, creating a dead-end for the player. “Perfect World” is the third of the six games in the experimental series “Agency?” that’s built around deconstructing player agency in different ways.”
You Might Also Like: Gray Desert, Space is Red, Reverberant
Moving Stories is a game about packing up by Terry Cavanagh and Stephen Lavelle.
Why Try It: Fragments of narrative told through player decisions about what to take and what to leave; cute, simple visuals and soundtrack.
Mood: Introspective
Author’s Notes (from Terry Cavanagh): “(note: contains some NSFW content)”
You Might Also Like: American Dream, Frail Shells, Detritus
forest ambassador update
hey y’all, just a couple of updates:
- all games are now tagged by author, so if you like something you can check to see if we’ve posted anything else by the same person before!
- woodland secrets is available to anyone who subscribes at a level of $1 or more on patreon. it’s a fun little audio diary and we’re starting to bring on guests, too: we recently had aevee bee and this coming week we’re going to have j bearhat
if you have any features you’d like to see, or have games you’d like to see posted on the site, please let me know on twitter or via email (merrittkopas at gmail)
ANIME HELL 1995 is a game about self-care by Colin Spacetwinks.
Why Try It: A tender, aching bundle of related short stories about anime, time travel, and caring for oneself.
Mood: Introspective
Author’s Notes: “ANIME HELL 1995 is a twine game about depression, self-hate, time travel, dopplegangers, being sucked into a fantasy world, and more, all within the context of the VHS tape hell of 1995. 5 stories total, with the fifth unlocked after you play through the initially available four.”
The Arboretum is a game about choice by Matthew S. Burns.
Why Try It: A compelling short story paced by links and embellished with light use of audio and visual flourishes
Mood: Introspective
Author’s Notes: “Originally I was going to create a typical branching narrative, with commentary about the assumptions that dating sims make interwoven in the text. As I sank into it more, however, I got a better idea of how I wanted to talk about the subject matter, and the story became simpler, more linear and less self-aware. In its final form, The Arboretum is about 7,000 words, and though I’m not keen on placing it in any discrete category, I think of it mostly as I would one of my short stories.”
You Might Also Like: Ziva’s Conjury Mart, Venus Meets Venus
Bionic Bliss is a game about customer satisfaction by Team Lazerbeam.
Why Try It: Catchy soundtrack & simple but evocative visuals; amusing conversation-based gameplay.
Mood: Silly
Author’s Notes: “Take the role of Employee 852 as you play through a day in his life. Deal with disgruntled cybernetic-limb-recipients! Will you help them with their problems or treat them as your personal play-things? The choice is yours! Bionic Bliss features state of the art cyberpunk graphix, futuristic beatz and 6 customer interactions that give way to one of a four potential endings! Replay the game to experience them all! “
You Might Also Like: Electric Tortoise, Dating Sim
Peregrin is a game about wandering by Aeryne Wright.
Why Try It: Wander through an infinite rainy forest; converse with strange characters and see unusual sights.
Mood: Dreamy / Soothing
Author’s Notes: “Explore, relax–you have time. You are a traveler, going where the forest may take you. Who are you? Who were you? Don’t rush to the end too soon, or you may find you regret it.”
You Might Also Like: Advice Mountain, Line Crossing, Rain
FROGGY is a game about chomping by Nathalie Lawhead.
Why Try It: An over-the-top, silly story of a frog navigating a post-apocalyptic wasteland.
Mood: Silly
Author’s Notes: “FROGGY is the legendary froggame that forever changed frogtelling in the frogindustry with its groundbreaking narrative. Many critics have heralded it as the Citizen Kane of frogs. FROGGY’s most notable achievement was the accurate representation of frogs, for which it won many frogminations in froggytainment, and PC Frogger’s Frog of the Year award.”
You Might Also Like: The Alone Sword, Space Wrestler
QUID is a game about community by Suneil Rakhra, Chelsea Toner & Mitch Alexander.
Why Try It: A well-written, choice-based narrative game about queerness and community in a school setting.
Mood: Introspective
Author’s Notes (from Mitch Alexander): “In QUID, the player takes on the role of a student at a secondary school in the UK. After noticing a poster for the school’s LGBTQ Association, the protagonist attends a session of the association and makes friends with a number of people who also attend; the game then follows the protagonist as they attend classes, socialise with their friends, and even facing down a bully at the school.”
You Might Also Like: Coming Out Simulator 2014, Quing’s Quest VII: The Death of Videogames
The Womb is a game about beginnings and endings by Outlands.
Why Try It: Wander a quiet, cloudy space; pick up a number of different narrative threads as you explore.
Mood: Introspective
Author’s Notes: “There is too much stress in your life.Why not take a little time out to rest in the Womb?”
You Might Also Like: Frail Shells, Colt-55
WEIRD ORB is a game about chasing shapes by ShedworksInteractive.
Why Try It: Experience a variety of shapes and colors in space; simple, almost rhythmic gameplay.
Mood: Hypnotic
Author’s Notes: “Guide a futuristic space ship through a series of interstellar landscapes to reach light speed and unlock the ancient Alien secrets of the Orb. Can you hold it together as time and space unfurl around you?”
You Might Also Like: Cyroad, 7 Light Years, Hotline Trail
Manuel is a game about balance by Big Green Pillow.
Why Try It: Cute background music; minimal, colour-switching based action.
Mood: Chill
Author’s Notes: “Manuel is a skateboarder and a great guy. Manuel is also a tiny game made for Curve’s OlliOlli SkateJam.”