Once again we have reached the last month of a very particular and complex year, which also saw several really interesting independent video games. Not only on the international scene, but also on the Italian scene. As usual by now, this time too we’re going to offer you what indie studios are ready to give you, to end 2022 on a high note. After our advice offered in the last special of the best indies of november, now it’s time to discover the best indie games of the month of December! Let’s find out together news proposed by independent videogame studios for this monthalso finding some ideas on how to spend the end of the year holidays with some fanciful titles!
5 Indie Video Games by December
1. Glowfish Interactive – Trifox
The first video game chosen for our December indie selection is a production that also arrived among the finalists last year Indie X, Steam’s online event to celebrate and reward the best indie ideas. Among these was in fact also emerged Trifoxand action adventure platform which we have tested for you in the PS5 version. What was it like to have a good old 3D platformer back in your hands?
Without too many words, let’s enter the crazy world of Trifox with a very first tutorial which throws us into the fray. We are in the company of a fox, the strong point of this title, who struggles between levels in search of coins or defending himself from enemies and traps. The real basic experience is to acquire new skills, to be exact 27 and divided into different classes. We will have to combine up to 4 techniques together to create the combo we like best.
Developer:
Glowfish Interactive
Price:
13,99 €
But what is the history what is behind this game? Quite reduced to the bone, the narration tells that our fox friend, while she is watchingndo television, takes a blow on the head from strangers, who there they steal the remote. We will have to take revenge for doing us this damage, and we will become “three foxes in one”. Let’s explain ourselves better: we will have to manage skills according to a system of 3 classes: the warrior, the wizard and the engineer. Each will help us navigate a world full of references to classic old school platformers, including Rachet ‘n’ Clank and others.
Also looking at the artistic style low-poly, the initial feeling is that we are dealing with a title with a minimalist experience, deceiving us. We are called to weigh our choices well, given that the difficulty of the game will be considerable as we deal with enemies and boss fights. Experimenting with skills is fun and functional to get to the end of each level. A title therefore of which we do not anticipate anything else, but which we also recommend for the fluidity of the game engine that we experienced during our test.
2. Studio Evil – Retro Gadgets
We had interviewed some time ago two members of the Studio Evil team just to learn more about the background of Retro Gadgets. This is their new work dedicated precisely to amarcord creations, to make us take a dip into the past and with our own hands. Let’s see together what it is.
Looking in detail at how this title seemed to us, we anticipate that it was a cross and a delight for us be able to get your hands on the workbench of this technological and very nerdy workshop. Retro Gadgets is a heart sinking, being able to feel a certain exhilaration in building something from scratch. Without missing the frustration of when we can’t figure it out, we don’t deny it.
Developer:
Licorice ehf, Studio Evil
Price:
19,99 €
The first impression we had was actually that we were doing DIY jobs, giving us a certain freedom of choice. Unfortunately, the lack of tutorials didn’t make it easier for us to master the elements in the drawers. However, some basic projects help us to practice with, turning out to be a project that undermines the preconceptions and classic styles of a video game. All that was needed was the desire to experiment and throw away, in a constant trial phase.
Ultimately, it is certainly not a project for everyone, we had guessed it right away. Pros and cons of this game situation, but the community that supported this title could become a core of gamers loyal and able to improve this title in bottom-up logic. Making it perhaps even more accessible to others.
3. Thera Bytes – Zombie Cure Lab
Thera Bytes is a small German indie studio that just recently released a not too Christmasy title, to appear among the indie video games of December. Zombie Cure Lab try to follow in the footsteps of famous titles in the genre, including Two Point Hospital, Prison Architect e Timberborn, with a lot of content coming soon as well. Let’s find out closely, however, what we have been able to try so far in our version for Steam.
Zombie Cure Lab is a sandbox that offers us a zombie cure laboratory to manage, in an alternate reality. Unlike many stories set in a zombie apocalypse where there is no solution to the pandemic, this time we are in a world where a cure has been found. Our task will therefore be to set up a laboratory from scratch to treat the undead captured and who will assault our walls during the night.
Developer:
Thera Bytes GmbH
Price:
24,99 €
Upon starting our game, we will have the option to choose between various proposed areas to start the work to our laboratory. We recommend starting from the tutorial area to better navigate the first buildings to be built and to explain how to defend the walls, including weapons with freezing ammunition for immobilize the zombies and take them to the chambers for treatment of care.
Once healed, these will be community members, assigned to work on one of the useful activities, but which the AI will not always enforce them. Also, after building the research base, we put some of our villagers to work to accumulate research points. Finally we will also have to provide food, both humans and cured undead. Net of some gameplay-related issues, we also appreciated some additional content, such as the Game Wiki, which is very useful for better understanding the game world. An interesting and tantalizing title therefore to manage this strange union between humans and the undead. Not your classic Christmas title, but a playthrough is well worth it.
4. Chestnut Games – One Many Nobody
Recently released on the national independent scene, we continue our selection of December indie video games with a local title. One Many Nobody seems to want to resume “One, no one, one hundred thousand” by Pirandello, and the Italian team Chestnut Games has just released this little gem. Let’s see together how the test on Steam went!
This time it is a puzzle platformer with a retro graphic style in pixel art, full of traps and puzzles that will test our intelligence and reflexes. The game is set in the not too distant future, where energy resources are exhausted. Science seems to have found a solution, but things are getting tough for us. We wake up in a factory that looks more like a prison, with few memories and confused. It will not be easy to get out of here, as the levels in which the game is structured teach us.
Each of them occupies only one screen and the goal is earn the exit. Clearly, our task as players is to show our hero how to do it, between stages with lethal traps, lasers, armed guards, and many other classic platformer elements. However, the exit will always seem far and distant… Sacrifice is also one of the narrative pillars, and of the gameplay, of this title, where the cloning machines will help us to clone ourselves and let our old avatar get trapped somewhere, but in a functional way to the solution. And without any possibility of salvation.
Developer:
Chestnut Games
Price:
9,99 €
Not happy, the developers have also devised a system in which we have a maximum number of “existing” clones available in each level. So if we need one more step in a cloning machine, one of our copies will have to sacrifice itself choosing the quickest option for suicide. We don’t have a time limit, so we can weigh our moves. A non-trivial title, therefore, like its pixel art graphics, a vintage choice perhaps now widely exploited and offered on our screens, but in this case pleasant. A title therefore not to be missed, useful for testing your wit and also your conscience.
5. Bulwark Studios – Ixion
We come to the last title of our selection of indie video games for the month of December with Ixiona title that takes us beyond the solar system thanks to the work…