Quoting: SalvatosI only had time to try three demos, but Land Above Sea Below [External Link] was my favorite by far and a very happy find though it didn't show up in the most popular. A very beautiful "atmospheric building strategy and puzzle game where you have to build your island from tiles in order to raise its height as much as possible, to avoid it getting flooded by the constantly rising sea level." I like how you have limited turns forcing you to think and plan your moves carefully before the tide engulfs your island, but there is no real-life time limit forcing you into rash decisions (unlike another turn-based combat game I tried). Very, very cozy game and one I could see myself returning to to unwind at the end of a long day even though I normally prefer story-based games.

It looks like it's got some elements in common with Dorfromantik, but goes off in an entirely different direction. Will need to try that one.

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Quoting: Anza

Quoting: NezchanPaleo Pines You can pet the dinosaur. What the heck else do you need to know?

There's bit more to it. It's kind of Stardew Valley, but you tame dinosaurs. Wasn't exciting enough for me to actually finish the demo, but maybe for bit younger audience...

Honestly, I was being pithy. I bounced off it too, in the end, although I can see the charm.

Two things I didn't like were not the greatest signposting, like where I got a quest to search the pen at someone's house with no clue where their house actually was (I never did find it before quitting). The other is how it taught me dino taming before setting me up to have somewhere to keep it, so the poor thing was dreadfully unhappy as a result. I think that would frustrate a kid playing.

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Quoting: Anza

Quoting: NezchanWizard With a Gun (Steam Play) is a twin-stick shooter with a great aesthetic, mostly made up of mashing Bastion and Don't Starve together. That said, it's got a pretty cool gameplay loop involving progressively going back in time, and taking repeated jaunts into the gameplay area on a timer before you have to bail and return to your home base. Could be something really fun.

I gave it a go myself too. It seems bit more relaxed than Bastion and Don't Starve, but I can see the references in there. There's gathering of resources and crafting. It has been great fun so far.

One thing I will say is do NOT play Wizard With a Gun using a Steam controller. That haptic pad is utterly ass at doing the twin-stick thing. I'm bad enough aiming as it is, this just makes it ten times worse. Maybe twenty.

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Probably gonna be my last batch. Here goes.

Robotherapy (Steam Play) Heavy-handed comedy about the best robot therapist there's ever been. He said so himself, so you know it's true. Kinda blindsides you with some arcade-y bits without explaining how to control them, but otherwise pretty good. Simple choose the dialogue option stuff. Amusing enough, but not enough to make me want to buy a whole game of it.

Moving In Just what it says on the tin. You've got a driveway full of stuff and an empty house. You move in. It's kinda physics-based. Frankly, I got bored pretty quick.

Lies of P (Steam Play) For a lot of people, this is the star of the show this year, and certainly the highest profile. Basically Pinnochio as a Soulsborne game. Runs surprisingly well on my admittedly not-so-cutting-edge machine, no problems at all. About what you'd expect: stylish, ruined environments, interesting enemy designs, stamina management and a lot of combat rolls. I'm not great at it, but it seems solid enough.

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Couple of disappointments:

Soulvars doesn't start at all.

A Void Hope works fine and gives a good overview of the mechanics. It's just there's so little information regarding the plot and characters that you don't know why you're doing any of it. Doesn't really grab the imagination mainly because it's so vague.

Cozy Cabin: Coffee Boutique starts, but I have a gigantic mouse pointer, and after the opening letter, I get dumped to a quest note on a totally black screen. Cannot proceed at all, and I see other people having other issues.

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More...

Wizard With a Gun (Steam Play) is a twin-stick shooter with a great aesthetic, mostly made up of mashing Bastion and Don't Starve together. That said, it's got a pretty cool gameplay loop involving progressively going back in time, and taking repeated jaunts into the gameplay area on a timer before you have to bail and return to your home base. Could be something really fun.

Viewfinder (Steam Play) plays with the picture plane in fun ways by having you place photos in midair, which allows you to step into them. It's a virtual reality setting, which would make a real VR version great fun I think. Essentially a puzzle game, and while you've got great freedom in each of the set pieces I'm not sure there are too many alternate solutions to any of them. Still, quite fun. And you get to pet the cat.

Landnama Demo was very short for this one, although it did give a good overview of what the game is all about. Basically a colony-builder set in 10th century Iceland. Very chill pace (so to speak), with pretty clear-cut mechanics. Exploring, upgrading the colony, managing resources, all the usual stuff. Well presented.

Escape From Lavender Island Right away I get a Tales From Off-Peak City vibe, although it's not the same creator. Very stoner vibe, and aggressively surreal. A bit janky too, overall it'd be right at home on itch.io, but here it is on Steam instead. Not much story to speak of, but there's things to do and places to explore and a corporate hegemony to bring down, so it's all good.

Necrovale Pretty decent action-roguelike with progression. Satisfying combat and gameplay loop, although there's a paucity of enemy types. Some good ideas, particularly with the hope mechanic.Pixel art quite to my taste, although not everybody likes that. You can play for quite a long time though, not sure where the demo actually ends.

Paleo Pines You can pet the dinosaur. What the heck else do you need to know?

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Moonstone Island doesn't work on Linux (Steam Play) or Steam Deck as far as I can tell. Pity, it's the main thing I wanted to try.

Kingdom Eighties is basically the same old Kingdom game loop, except you play as the leader of a group of teens on bicycles recruiting kids to do chores for money and fight the monsters. It's a fun reskin of the concept. One gripe, there's no way to quit and you need to hit close from the Steam library page.

Lueur and the Dim Settlers I tried before, but it's part of the Next Fest too. Satisfying gameplay loop, although prone to crashes for me.

Alterium Shift is a pretty serviceable SNES style RPG. Nothing too fancy really, although I hit a bit of a wall since I was given a list of items, but didn't fully remember it. Unfortunately there's no journal to actually remind you of what you're supposed to get, so it's left me guessing.

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Quoting: scaine

Quoting: NezchanThe categorization in the GOG Pride selection is so messed up. Like Night In the Woods is a game that allows you to choose your character's gender and pronouns? No it isn't!

There also aren't trans characters in Stardew Valley or Fallout: New Vegas. I have no idea why those are in the category at all, someone was definitely asleep at the wheel.

This feels like a pretty weird response... are you suggesting that only games that do all the things you mention would qualify under a celebration of Pride?

Because Pride is a celebration of the entire range of LGBT+ communities. The point is that its inclusive, not exclusive.

Anyway... Night in the Woods features multiple LGBT+ characters [External Link]. The entire Fall Out series was reasonably famous for being amongst the first games to allow same-sex marriage in-game and features various LGBT+ characters [External Link] throughout. Similarly, Stardew Valley supports gay marriage [External Link] and includes various other LGBT+ features.

Hope that helps.

Did you look at the actual page? It has separate categories for "Masculine romance representation", "Female romance representation", "Choose your gender", and "Featuring transgender characters". Stardew is rightfully in the first three, but not the fourth, and I think if someone bought that, or Fallout: New Vegas, based on GOG saying they have trans characters they'd be disappointed.

It isn't inclusive to say something has trans characters when it doesn't, or has the ability to choose your gender and pronouns when it doesn't. That's got nothing to do with diversity. Rather, it makes whoever assembled the categories look like they don't care about what representation is in a given game, and just shoved them into the categories with little thought.

Hope that helps.

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The voiceover sounds so corporate that I spent the whole trailer waiting for the other shoe to drop and reveal you're playing the villain.

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The categorization in the GOG Pride selection is so messed up. Like Night In the Woods is a game that allows you to choose your character's gender and pronouns? No it isn't!

There also aren't trans characters in Stardew Valley or Fallout: New Vegas. I have no idea why those are in the category at all, someone was definitely asleep at the wheel.

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