Pixel Primers

September's Mechanic of the Month is Silksong's Swift Step. Unlocking Swift Step transforms the game into an acrobatic dance of dodges and air dashes. Honestly some of the best movement mechanics I can remember playing in a 2D game
#Silksong

YouTube video by pacthesir - The Random Video Channel Um Jammer Lammy Title Screen

youtu.be/GQx6otcvSmM?...

Was similarly concerned when the excellent Nemesis System was patented in 2021. In another world we would have seen a whole wave of indie and AAA devs pushing the nemesis system in exciting new directions. Instead, it's appeared in 1 other game since 2014, and then WB closed the studio

This kind of thing is bad news for game design. 'Summoning a character and letting it fight another' is far too broad a concept and should never have been taken seriously in court, but it shouldn't be possible to patent game mechanics anyway gamesfray.com/last-week-ni... #gamedesign

Slay the Spire 2 has been delayed but it wasn't Silksong's fault, promise Slay the Spire 2, the sequel to the roguelike deck-building game that spawned a genre, has been delayed. Developer Mega…

Now it's been confirmed we're getting Hades 2 and Silksong in the same month, I'm more relieved than ever Slay the Spire 2 pushed their release back today. Love all 3 games, but there's only so many sequels we can squeeze into the back half of 2025!
#indiegame
www.eurogamer.net/slay-the-spi...

Nintendo kicking off their Direct with theme parks, museums and movie tie-ins feels significant. Nintendo have always been sitting on some very valuable IP, but haven't always capitalized on it like many other companies would. This definitely feels like it's started to shift now

As a British person of a particular age, it’s also reminding me a lot of 90’s television. There’s a bit of Knightmare in there (as well as the board game Atmosfear). The sassiness of the Cryptmaster himself also keeps making me think of Richard O’Brien from The Crystal Maze

Every mechanic in the game – from puzzles to character abilities – revolves around clever uses of words and letters. I particularly like how you expand your character’s health bar by adding letters to your name

Cryptmaster (@thecryptmaster.bsky.social) is a wonderfully weird game. It feels like what might have happened if the Typing of the Dead games had continued to evolve in surprising ways, and eventually became a whole new genre. Love that Fighting Fantasy / OSR art style too

#indiegame

I'm currently playing through Cryptmaster, which has impeccable atmosphere and some brilliantly inventive word-based mechanics

Caught up with The Royal Writ (@theroyalwrit.bsky.social‬) over the weekend, which is an exceptionally charming roguelike deckbuilder. The animation team really deserve to take a bow on this one

#indiegames #animation

Love the look of the 3d models on this. Wishlisted!

As excited as I am for Silksong, their surprise September release date must have been scary news for the other devs releasing this month. It might be harder for other indie devs to get press attention this month, so it's a great time to shout out any other new releases you're enjoying

#indiegames

Love the look of these time freezing mechanics!

There’s nothing flashy about Öoo’s bomb mechanic. You place a bomb (or a segment of your caterpillar body - I’m not really sure!) and then blow it up to create motion. When it comes to extracting all of the potential depth out of a simple concept though, Öoo is an absolute masterclass

Mechanic of the Month! Each month I'll be highlighting an exceptional game mechanic from a recent game. For August's mechanic I'm choosing the bombs from Öoo by @namataka.bsky.social, which has to be one of the most elegantly designed games I've played all year

#indiegame #gamedesign

Finally got my hands on the Sable book by the folks at @lostincult.co.uk. When playing Sable it always felt like it was a real passion project for everyone involved, so it's great to see the whole creative process captured so well here

#indiegame #indiedev

Played a short game as some grumpy mole people last night, but sadly their civilization was really held back by their leader being an idiot (the idiot was me). Apologies to my mole friends.

I know I'm a sucker for a sandbox strategy game with a ton of DLC, so for my own safety I've been trying to stay far away from Age of Wonders 4.

I finally caved in this week. It's time for bird pirates.

Sounds like it'd make a great pitch for something like Boss Fight Books! Feel like Infinite would a great one for letting you discuss lots of aspects of game design and the industry. An interestingly messy game for sure

As somebody who grew up in England playing systems like the Amiga and BBC Micro, it kinda did feel like this! Oh that Sonic the Hedgehog guy looks ok I guess, but have you spent time with this cursed egg?

I do think the prettiness of the Ori games can sometimes be a bit overdone. Sometimes it can be hard to read what's happening on screen because there's so many lighting and particle effects competing for your attention

Great list!

Celeste feels like an all timer when it comes to this too

Both of the Ori games for sure. The progression you get to make from being a little ground creature to rocketing through the air is extremely satisfying

100%. I've never cared for space marines, so for years I thought 40k wasn't for me as a setting, but there's so much interesting, weird, often funny, world-building in that universe.

The world tour mode on the PSX Alpha 3 was so good! Wish they'd find a way to include it in one of the modern collections

Very excited to play this incredibly weird skate boarding game soon

Good in-depth game genre analysis like this is surprisingly rare, and Doc's stuff is always worth a read. Hopefully going to be followed by a part 2!

Looking good! Some very satisfying looking dodge animations and visual effects there