Fire more:

Into the Grid (Native): Cyberpunk netrunning deckbuilder. Basically a dungeon crawl in neon, but it looks very nice. Plays well too. A bunch of different directions to build your deck and the card art is good. Recommended.

Gloctopus (Native): Great idea, an octopus with guns! Practice, not so much. A side-scrolling twin stick shooter that's hard to aim, and there's no indication when you actually hit an enemy, other than them vanishing after a couple of shots. Minus points because you just bounce off walls instead of scuttle along them. Also don't like the gunshot sounds. Needs more time in the oven.

Thysiastery (Native): Another "Linux" game that has no Linux executable. Runs with forced Proton. Legend of Grimlock style dungeon crawler with monochrome pixel art. Runs quite well and the vibes are immaculate. Some oldschool roguelike elements, randomly generated characters and maps, turn-based, and permadeath, but not things like mystery potions and the like. Closer than most in that regard. Recommend.

Witchy Business (Native): Cute magic shop management sim. Surprisingly hectic as soon as the tutorial is over and generally needs balance, but otherwise fine. Cat character kind of annoying.

Wirelight (Native): Right away the music is a groove. Weird little puzzle dungeon crawler with a low-res pixel art aesthetic. For some reason movement is on arrow keys, but that does play into precise directions as a mechanic so I'll allow it. Very cute, puzzles are intuitive, and commands are always on the screen so you don't have to keep track of everything. Recommended.

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Tried five:

Quest of the Hero (Native): Hard to explain, in no small part because the mechanics are not explained at all. A lot of the game doesn't make that much sense at the start, but it seems like you make a bunch of choices, either safe ones which raise a "doom gauge" or ones that hurt you but give better rewards. Most of the damaging ones have damage to health or a stat over time, but not *real* time so no idea what that even means. Advise skipping this one.

The Drifter (Native): Pixel art point and click in the classic style, about a homeless man caught up in a violent conspiracy, but somehow able to return to moments before each successive death. Good premise, well communicated and grabs the player right away without a lot of laborious setup. Demo is very short, but enough to communicate the key features. Recommend.

Bloom - a puzzle adventure (Native): No Linux executable. Runs with forced Proton. Apparently personification of Mother Earth is being bullied by personifications of Jupiter, Saturn and...Pluto, for some reason? Which causes smog? It doesn't make much sense, and honestly it doesn't matter. Simple puzzles with a colourful style. Doesn't especially grab me but maybe this is for somebody.

AbstractPunk (Native): Oldschool FPS with an eyestrain-heavy collage style, where you're an office drone on a mission to deliver a message to a high-powered executive. Your weapon is a cutout of a woman who shoots happiness, while your enemies shoot sadness back at you. Very weird, very stylish, very confusing, VERY hard on the eyes. Seems kinda good though?

Black Hole Fishing (Native): Simple incremental about a fishing pond, except you're not using standard methods like hooks or dynamite, but a tiny black hole instead. At first you scare them in using your hookless bobber, but soon you've got a stronger hole and multiple auto-restockers to make that unnecessary. Not much content so far and the graphics are extremely basic, but the idea is pretty amusing.

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I have no idea what any of that is and I love it

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This, I like. Downloaded the demo, and it's definitely going on my wishlist.

The style is great and the mechanics are solid, if a bit vague in spots. I'd normally say that's a downside, but in a game like this you kind of want that feeling of not quite knowing what everything does right from the start.

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I played the demo, and I must say the "therapeutic" aspect escaped me. And the "slow" aspect. I'd say "frantic" is a better term.

Not bad, although I doubt I'll be wishlisting it.

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You have my attention.

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Good lord. What's next, allowing vertical slabs?

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It's really not that much like Rimworld at all, so don't go into it looking for the same experience.

Personally I like it for the whole vibe of clawing your way back from near-destruction, having to literally put your ship back together before facing the bigger challenges out there. Been a bit since I've played, since I want to let a few updates pile up first, but I've really enjoyed my time with it.

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I'm still gonna wait for Skyblivion though.

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I recall playing the demo for this in 2023 I think. It was a pretty simple concept, but they focused well on their foundations. Good to see they made it to full release.

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