Need a warm cup of escapism? I sure do, and thankfully a good bunch of indie developers have decided to let people claim their games entirely free for a while.
Following on from our little list of good free games (and some open source), and the quick tip of Pipe Push Paradise (also awesome) we have some more picks for you. Why? Well, governments around the world are telling people to stay at home and we're here to help you get through it, at least a little.
So what else do we have for you? Some good picks, that's what. All of these will allow you to claim them 100% free to keep on itch.io, although each usually lets you donate too (and do if you can to support indies!).
First up we have the unconventional JRPG, Last Word, where you use "mannerisms of speech as weapons". Sounds pretty amusing! By that same developer we also have ECON, a minimalist abstract board game about matching up tiles and it's damn cool.
Tentacle Head Games have put up their real-time strategy From Orbit, which has you attempt to make your way home and land on various planets for resource gathering. A wonderful idea, nice streamlined gameplay and procedural planets so you won't get bored through multiple runs.
Colorfiction have also set multiple titles free including:
All three are quite, well, unique. Take becalm for example, it's a little 5 minute journey while adrift on a boat at sea and it looks quite lovely. Meanwhile Nightline, is inspired by late nights on New York's subway system, and it includes both sounds and graffiti art that were captured through various real-life parts of it.
A real sweet one next from Circus Atos, who've put up Little Mouse's Encyclopedia, one that's really fantastic to do together with a younger audience to get them interested in a little nature. A great one since you might not be able to get out right now. A little learning, a little reading and a sweet game.
This next one is where things get a little…wild! Rémy "Trasevol_Dog" Devaux has built a collection of 5 highly polished, vibrant and crazy arcade-styled game made like something out of a game-jam. Pixel Session Vol.1 is the name and entertaining you is their game. Each game in the collection is supposed to have a single simple but "special" gameplay mechanic.
Yokereba is next with their unique competitive platformer Jumpala, another I'm quite personally fond of. You spring and leap across a bunch of small platforms to change them into your colour, each is worth a certain amount of points when they fall off the screen as it scrolls up. Brilliant idea.
We also have two titles from Aether Interactive which are part of the same narrative universe. There's Localhost, a very stylish text-based adventure where you're making difficult decisions about wiping what seems like self-aware programs. The other is Subserial Network, a multi-window computer-in-computer experience about tracking down synthetics attempting to become less human and more machine.
Nuclear Throne, a rather excellent twin-stick action roguelike-like from Vlambeer is also free. Not sure how long for as it's not listed.
Fugue in Void, a 45-minute exploration adventure is also 100% off for a limited time. The developer says it's the "perfect break from all those action packed games out there".
Minit, a strange black and white retro-adventure game where you only get sixty seconds to live is also free, although this seems to be only for 1,000 copies so you need to act fast on that.
If you do enjoy something, let us know in the comments.
None of that take your fancy? Well, a quick nod to GOG.com as they just made a list of their free games too.
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Last edited by Shmerl on 17 March 2020 at 10:16 pm UTC
I can fully recommend Last Word. The story is captivating, and the battles are mostly entertaining, although the "war of attrition" that occurs frequently in battles is a bit boring.I bought and refunded the game because I was so disappointed in the battle mechanic. I really liked the idea as written in the blurb, but I didn't enjoy the implementation.
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