Holy dang, so many games! It's summertime, of course, and that meant a deluge of gaming showcases. I downloaded nearly half a hundred demos to try out - a curse of plenty! Seems I should dedicate this week not to reviews whatsoever but to the Demo Dives, to be able to put even a small dent into this cornucopia of fun. I reckon that is the play here, so let's roll this week out properly with some games that caught my attention.
TECHNOTOPIA
I know this one is going to be special because the demo hooked me in, line and sinker. It has this special magic only the best roguelikes have, where 'one more run' becomes impossible to pass on. Every time I fail to sustain the increasing demands and see that 'game over' screen I instantly jump in for more. The game is a very fun idea too, a rather unique blend of a puzzler, city builder, and rougelite, where failure is expected to keep progressing. You unlock new cards, new events, and new characters to progress your story and aid your journey. The whole shtick? You're an advanced AI created to design the Perfect City. To do so you need to balance the needs and demands of the four most influential groups of power - Government, Elites, Business, and the Public. They each have their structures to fuel their ever-increasing needs.
The game itself is rather simple, but in this delightful, deceptive way, where simplicity brews complexity. The whole idea is that you cannot satisfy all four groups at once. Your cards - which are your buildings - are limited and non-negotiable, you need to play well with what you get. To counter this scarcity, each group has a unique district that you create by matching the buildings in a specific shape. This means that you can fuel two groups at once! Even putting down a chain of stores for Business can still help one of the other three groups of interest if you assemble said stores in a certain shape. Once I understood that, once it clicked, the game became a tense race against the clock, trying to keep the budget balanced week after week. Skimming on the verge of collapse! It's fun and I am quite excited to get my hands on the full version.
DAWNFOLK
Another city builder! This time in a completely different way. The focus is on a more casual experience, soft and soothing, but not without a hint of something ominous lurking in the literal darkness. You and your friendly fire named Lueur, need to guide the little folks in a dark world back into proper civilization. You will build houses, raise wheat fields, and organize religion in tiny tiles to gather food, wood, and the usual bits and bobs.
What makes Dawnfolk stand out amongst the throng of city builders is a blend of small but fun little touches you won't find in other games of the genre. For example, most building tiles have attached tiny, short minigames for gathering resources. Those are very fun because they last just a few seconds and keep the gameplay engaging even in moments of lull. Then the way you expand your playing field by illuminating the darkness around your settlement using light - a unique resource - is also a fun bit of decision-making.
All this blends very well together into a cozy experience that never feels tedious. There's always something little to do, always a tiny goal to reach. And then, a new one appears, made by your own decision. Where to expand next? What resource income needs fixing? What do I need to grow more? It's straightforward, but all the mechanics gel well together, making for a pleasant experience. Can't wait for the full game!
LINKITO
So god damn addictive. I am not a big-brain lad, wouldn't consider myself a brainiac. But from time to time a game like this just clicks with me right, and somehow wriggles its way into my grey matter. The last time I had so much fun figuring out the connections, logic, and engine was in Opus Magnum by Zachtronics, where you had to cook up some elegant machines to make alchemical compounds. LINKITO to me feels like the same, but different. Instead of building clever machinery you learn and build circuits, little pieces of electrical engineering. You connect output to input, and let the juice flow through the cables to power up various devices. And each level grows in complexity, asking more of you, to use your knowledge of each do-dat to the full extent of your understanding.
The demo was excellent. It guides you through each element with extreme clarity, making sure you get how each piece works exactly, eliminating all confusion. It's a perfect tutorial, bit by bit introducing more and more elements until you start solving some creative challenges put before you.
And there are already so many things to play with! Timers, diodes, tiny spider robots, switches, counters, motion switchers oh my! Devices galore. To add to it all, the game looks and sounds fantastic. The style is this clean technology of cold teal and warm greys, with each room having some little visual flourish to bring life to your task. It was a delight to play with and I am hyped for the full product.
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