Last week Nintendo decided to forgo another standard Indie World showcase in favour of a series of five short daily videos entitled Inside The House of Indies – “highlighting game updates, announcements, and more from our indie partners”. Twenty games were covered and nine of the titles were same day shadow drops, the highlight being Sports Story.
The biggest news from the five-day event was that the much-anticipated Sports Story – first announced three years ago – was shadow dropped on Friday. The follow-up to Sidebar Games‘ lauded 2017 debut title Golf Story, this new sports-themed RPG expands the scope across multiple tracks, courts, and fields but a solid release date had yet to be pinned down. Now, not only did we get delivered another full trailer for the title but the entire game launched same day, exclusive to Nintendo Switch.
Other games that caught our interest were atmospheric open world puzzle adventure The Gecko Gods (Inresin, Super Rare Originals) which reminded us of Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker and Breath of the Wild (but played as a four-legged gecko).
Sail Forth (Festive Vector, The Quantum Astrophysicists Guild), a 3D open world sailing game where you build and customise your own fleet of sailing ships to take on the perils of pirates, monsters and freak weather on the high seas.
The Captain (Sysiac Games, Tomorrow Corporation) pixel art sci-fi narrative adventure game has some appeal as did The Punchuin (Shin’en) where you are a hard-hitting penguin in a match-3 puzzler that covers multiple levels, minigames and two player competitive mode. Meanwhile Undying (Vanimals, Skystone Games Inc.) could pack an emotional punch where you are a mother and son in a zombie apocalypse. When the mother is bitten by a zombie, she must fight both an external and internal struggle to make sure that her son survives.
Following a week of new indie announcements, Nintendo announced the opening of their Indie World Holiday Sale which runs to January 1, 2023 on the eshop.
Here are the all the five videos and summaries of what to expect in each (note, games listed by closest release date):
Inside the House of Indies, Day One:
- Floppy Knights (Rose City Games), card-based tactics adventure game — Out Now
- Mortal Shell: Complete Edition (Cold Symmetry & Playstack), action adventure RPG, entire game including all DLC — Out Now
- Roman Sands RE:Build (Arbitrary Metric & Serenity Forge) – a new curio from Paratopic developer — Summer 2023
- Pupperazzi (Sundae Month & Kitfox Games), dog photography game, a relaxing game where you seek and snap shots of man’s best friend — Early 2023
Inside the House of Indies, Day Two:
- The Captain (Sysiac Games & Tomorrow Corporation), pixel art, scifi adventure game — Out Now
- The Punchuin (Shin’en), from Fast RMX and The Touryst developer comes a pixel art match-3 puzzler with a hard-hitting penguin — Out Now
- The Gecko Gods (Inresin & Super Rare Originals), a puzzle platform adventure game. Think Breath of the Wild and Wind Waker but played as a gecko — 2023
- Risk of Rain Returns (Hopoo Games & Gearbox Publishing), expanded remaster of original Risk of Rain — 2023
Inside the House of Indies Day Three:
- Sonority (Hanging Gardens Interactive & Application Systems Heidelberg), music puzzle adventure game — Out Now
- Sail Forth (Festive Vector & The Quantum Astrophysicists Guild), ocean going adventure where you build and customise your fleet to take on the perils (and monsters) of the high seas — Out Now
- Tin Hearts (Rogue Sun & Wired Productions), 3D puzzle game where you must get tin soldiers safely across 50 levels — April 20, 2023
- Potion Craft: Alchemist Simulator (niceplay games & tinyBuild), a chillaxing crafting game where you combine ingredients to make a variety of potions — Spring 2023
Inside The House of Indies, Day Four:
- Melatonin (Half Asleep), a rhythm game across a diverse range of surreal dreamland minigame levels — Out Now
- Hyper Gunsport (Necrosoft Games) — Out Now
- Afterimage (Aurogon Shanghai & Modus Games), 2D action adventure fantasy game — April 25, 2023
- Smile for Me (Serenity Forge & LimboLane), a point and click where you try and restore happiness to the world — Spring 2023
Inside the House of Indies, Day Five:
- Sports Story (Sidebar Games), the sports RPG sequel to Golf Story is finally here! — Out Now
- Sea of Stars (Sabotage Studio), top down Secret of Mana-inspired prequel to The Messenger gets a small update — Summer 2023
- Dust & Neon (David Marquardt Studios & Rogue Games, Inc.), twin stick roguelike shooter in an epic post-apocalyptic Wild West — Early 2023
- Undying (Vanimals & Skystone Games Inc.) — mother and son zombie apocalypse survival RPG — Spring 2023
