Lost Castle20163 factsHunter Studio · Another IndieGame page →Lost Castle quietly became one of China's first indie breakout hits on Steam: the original has sold more than 2 million copies worldwide, and the series neared 3 million once Lost Castle 2 arrived.noisypixel.netThe sequel Lost Castle 2 entered Early Access in July 2024 and left it in June 2025 having already sold 700,000+ copies on its own.noisypixel.netIts signature meta-progression is grimly funny: you sacrifice your dead heroes' souls between runs to buy permanent abilities for the next treasure hunter in line.store.steampowered.comRead 1 more fact
Totally Accurate Battle Simulator20216 factsLandfall GamesGame page →TABS was conceived at a week-long game jam in a Swedish castle in 2016 — and its rough alpha builds went viral on YouTube and Twitch years before the game officially launched.en.wikipedia.orgLandfall deliberately releases on April Fools' Day: TABS hit Early Access on April 1, 2019 and left it exactly two years later on April 1, 2021 — part of the studio's running April 1 tradition.en.wikipedia.orgIts battle-royale spin-off Totally Accurate Battlegrounds (TABG) started as an April Fools 2018 joke, racked up 3 million+ downloads within days, and later went free-to-play — on April 1, 2021, the same day TABS hit 1.0.landfall.seThere is a third 'Totally Accurate' game most players never saw: Totally Accurate Battle Zombielator (TABZ), a standalone zombie-survival spin-off released for April Fools' Day 2017 and never updated since.landfall.seThe Unit Creator and Steam Workshop let players build and share custom wobbler units, factions and campaigns — community content that has expanded the game far beyond its 130+ official units.store.steampowered.comLandfall's press kit proudly cites TABS being 'rated 20th best Steam game of all time' by review score — it sits at ~98% positive across roughly 142,000 Steam reviews.landfall.seRead 4 more facts
Worms Crazy Golf20112 factsTeam17Game page →Worms Crazy Golf carries an 'original concept' credit for Andy Davidson — the creator of the very first Worms game in 1995.en.wikipedia.orgA decade after release it found a second life on Amazon's Luna cloud service in 2022 — without ever getting online multiplayer.en.wikipedia.org
Cloudpunk20204 factsION LANDS · ION LANDS, Maple Whispering Limited, Merge GamesGame page →Set in the floating voxel megacity of Nivalis, you play Rania, a night-shift courier for the semi-legal 'Cloudpunk' delivery service, under the motto 'Don't miss a delivery and don't ask what's in the package.'store.steampowered.comA standalone expansion, Cloudpunk: City of Ghosts, launched on 25 May 2021, adding a new protagonist (Hayse), street races and multiple endings.en.wikipedia.orgA post-launch free update added a first-person on-foot mode and later a first-person in-cockpit driving view; the game has no native VR support.pcgamer.comIt won the DevGAMM 2020 Grand Prize and Excellence in Audio, and was built in Unity by the Berlin studio ION LANDS.en.wikipedia.orgRead 2 more facts
Monster Hunter Rise20217 factsCapcomGame page →Rise was the first Monster Hunter built on Capcom's RE Engine — the Resident Evil 7 engine — with director Ichinose citing its C# scripting and faster build times as reasons for the switch.en.wikipedia.orgThe series-new Wirebug enables aerial traversal, weapon-specific Silkbind attacks and Wyvern Riding — briefly mounting and steering monsters against each other.gamespot.comThe rideable Palamute dog companion never depletes stamina — a design choice made explicitly with Switch portability and pick-up-and-play sessions in mind.en.wikipedia.orgThe tower-defense-style Rampage mode, where you defend Kamura Village from monster hordes, was inspired by the Hyakki Yagyō — the Japanese 'night parade of one hundred demons' myth.esportsreporter.comFlagship monster Magnamalo began as an 'armored tiger' and 'ghost of a warrior' concept, with samurai armor and hitodama ghost-fire motifs darkened until it read as a sinister yōkai.monsterhunter.fandom.comThe 109-track score was recorded in Japan, Los Angeles and Abbey Road Studios in London, leaning heavily on vocals and traditional Japanese instrumentation.monsterhunterwiki.orgIt won the Grand Award at the Japan Game Awards 2021 and Famitsu's Game of the Year, scoring 38/40 in Famitsu's review.nme.comRead 5 more facts
Road 9620215 factsDigixArt · RavenscourtGame page →The procedural road trip assembles each teen's journey from ~30-50 minute segments — the devs counted 148,268 possible story permutations, so no two escapes from Petria are identical.80.lvIt's set in the summer of 1996 during a rigged presidential election — authoritarian incumbent Tyrak vs. opposition candidate Florres — and your accumulated choices across multiple teens' journeys can tip the nation's fate.en.wikipedia.orgCreative director Yoan Fanise cited Into the Wild, Tarantino, the Coen Brothers and Bong Joon-ho — and based lovable hacker Alex on Data from The Goonies, and bumbling duo Stan & Mitch on Porco Rosso's air pirates.goombastomp.comThe 28-track OST mixes synthwave (The Toxic Avenger, SURVIVE of Stranger Things fame, Robert Parker, Kalax) with folk act Cocoon — collectible cassette tapes unlock the tracks in-game.road96.bandcamp.comFrance took notice: it won 5 of its 7 nominations at the 2022 Pégases (the French national game awards), including Best Indie Game and Best Narrative Design.gamersheroes.comRead 3 more facts
Minecraft: Story Mode20153 factsTelltale GamesGame page →The game became digital-orphanware: after Telltale's 2018 collapse the license lapsed and Story Mode was delisted from every storefront in 2019 — legally unobtainable ever since.whats-on-netflix.comIts Jesse is voiced by Patton Oswalt (male) alongside a star-studded cast including Paul Reubens, Scott Porter and Sean Astin.variety.comIn 2018 it became one of Netflix's first interactive shows — a fully pre-rendered adaptation running on an enhanced Telltale Tool, streamed until its December 2022 removal.variety.comRead 1 more fact
Battlestar Galactica Deadlock201712 factsBlack Lab Games · Slitherine Ltd.Game page →It is one of very few games set during the First Cylon War — the conflict the 2004 series only ever showed in flashback. Slitherine's own pitch is 'a strategy game set in the renowned Battlestar Galactica universe, during the First Cylon War', and the launch announcement opened with 'The Cylons have rebelled!'www6.slitherine.comThe whole game was built by five people — a fully licensed Battlestar Galactica title shipped on four platforms by a core team of five, plus outside contributors such as the composer.gamecloud.net.auIt is Australian, made in a Perth suburb called Leederville. Kotaku Australia's announcement headline was simply 'An Australian Studio Is Making A New Battlestar Galactica Strategy Game'.blacklab.gamesThe studio did not chase the licence — the publisher did. Slitherine asked Black Lab which IPs they would like to work on, Turbett listed several including Battlestar Galactica, and 'they went and made enquiries, and did most of the work securing the license'.gamecloud.net.auAuthenticity was locked in before a single mechanic or story beat existed: Turbett wrote the design pillars first — 'we had to make an authentic Battlestar experience' — and the team resolved arguments by asking which option was more true to the show.gamecloud.net.auIt is a WEGO game: both sides issue orders blind, then everything resolves at once in full 3D — the system Black Lab had already built for their previous game, which led PCGamesN to call Deadlock 'Star Hammer with Cylons'.pcgamesn.comThe Cylon hacking mechanic is built directly on show lore: because Colonial ships of that era were still networked — the very reason Galactica survived the fall in the 2004 miniseries — Cylons in Deadlock can hack your vessels and shut down hangars and targeting systems.pcgamesn.comThe Anabasis DLC turned a turn-based tactics game into a roguelite. Named after Xenophon's march, it has you escort a mixed military and civilian fleet home through randomised jump destinations on dwindling resources, with Cylons in pursuit; Slitherine billed it as 'completely revolutionising the game'.store.steampowered.comThe final DLC let you field ships from forty years later. The Modern Ships Pack added six modern-era vessels including the Mercury-class battlestar and the modern Basestar — but they are deliberately barred from the story campaign so as not to break the First Cylon War timeline.store.steampowered.comIt was given away free, then deleted from every store. Slitherine made it free-to-keep during its 25th-anniversary sale in July 2025, then on 15 November 2025 delisted the game and all its DLC everywhere with no reason given — while confirming existing owners keep playing without restriction.www6.slitherine.comIts biggest day came nearly six years after launch: the all-time Steam concurrent peak of 2,125 players was set in April 2023.steamcharts.comSlitherine ran organised 1v1 esports tournaments for it for years, including the 'Caprica Cup' and a Season 2 finale tournament with a prize pool.api.steampowered.comRead 10 more facts
Yes, Your Grace20205 factsBrave At Night · No More RobotsGame page →Yes, Your Grace was near-solo developed by Rafal Bryks over roughly a five-year cycle in a Polish village; the landscape and harsh Polish winters shaped the game's design and setting.en.wikipedia.orgIt was Kickstarter-funded in November-December 2014, with 570 backers pledging GBP 7,192 against a GBP 6,000 goal.kickstarter.comIt grossed around $600,000 in its launch weekend, credited to an effective trailer and its many localized translations.en.wikipedia.orgDevelopment stalled for years after a publisher deal collapsed; Bryks reclaimed the rights while working a full-time job before signing with No More Robots.en.wikipedia.orgA sequel, 'Yes, Your Grace: Snowfall,' released on 8 May 2025.braveatnight.co.ukRead 3 more facts
Fran Bow20156 factsKillmonday Games HBGame page →Fran Bow is deeply autobiographical: the story grew out of painful episodes in co-creator Natalia Martinsson's life and a fantasy world she invented as a child, so making the game became a form of emotional therapy for the couple.gameskinny.comThe game was crowdfunded on Indiegogo, raising $28,295 in August 2013; original development took about three and a half years.en.wikipedia.orgKillmonday Games is a two-person married studio — Natalia Martinsson (art/design) and Isak Martinsson (code/music); every visual in Fran Bow is hand-painted and it features 50+ unique characters.killmondaygames.comSwallowing the pill 'Duotine' switches Fran's perception into a gruesome parallel version of each scene — a core reality-shifting mechanic; the story follows 10-year-old Fran, committed to Oswald Asylum after witnessing her parents' murder and separated from her black cat Mr. Midnight.en.wikipedia.orgIt shares a universe with Killmonday's later game Little Misfortune (2019).en.wikipedia.orgFor the 2023 console release the game was rebuilt from scratch in Unity (the original 2015 PC version was built in GameMaker Studio).killmondaygames.comRead 4 more facts
Forza Horizon20123 factsPlayground Games · Microsoft StudiosGame page →Forza Horizon evolved from a scrapped Project Gotham Racing reboot pitch before becoming Playground Games' festival racer.en.wikipedia.orgIt is the only Forza game rated T by the ESRB — every other entry in the franchise carries a lower, E-family rating.en.wikipedia.orgThe fictional Colorado map was distilled from 30 real locations and over 50,000 reference photos; its online servers were finally shut down in August 2023.en.wikipedia.orgRead 1 more fact
Super Animal Royale20216 factsPixile · Pixile StudiosGame page →In the lore, Super Animals are lab-grown clones: bio-engineered by Pixile Industries researchers and born from 'Gestation Pods' invented by the character Dogna — identical DNA, no parents.wiki.animalroyale.comFounders Michael Silverwood and Chris Clogg have been friends since age 3, both studied at UBC, prototyped the battle royale in early 2016 and quit their jobs in December 2017 to build the team.mp1st.comIts signature vehicles are two-seater Giant Emus — the front rider steers and pecks while the back rider whips for speed — and rollable hamster balls that flatten opponents; every match starts by dropping from a giant eagle.animalroyale.fandom.comThe line-of-sight stealth system — players hiding in shadows and tall grass vanish from view — was built by modifying a Unity plugin for performance across 64-player matches.gamerant.comFull cross-play AND cross-save across PC, PlayStation, Xbox, Switch and Stadia shipped with 1.0 on day one — August 26, 2021.thesixthaxis.comA late-2023 Turnip Boy crossover event added limited-time quests and a permanent 'Super Apple Cat' breed — one of many themed events that keep the 2018-born battle royale alive into 2026.gonintendo.comRead 4 more facts
Rustler20215 factsJutsu Games · Games OperatorsGame page →Your 'radio' is a bard: you hire bards who follow you around as a 'sweaty personal radio', dynamically changing the medieval hip-hop tunes mid-battle — the game's spin on GTA's car radio.gog.comHorse theft literally reskins GTA carjacking — hence the official subtitle 'Grand Theft Horse' — with knights and guards standing in for police wanted levels.en.wikipedia.orgThe game was crowdfunded on Kickstarter in February 2020: 1,469 backers pledged CA$38,117 against a CA$25,000 goal, funding it with a week to spare.worthplaying.comIt's dense with Monty Python references: the Holy Hand Grenade, a 'Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition' quest, a Black Knight who insists ''tis but a flesh wound', and French soldiers taunting 'your mother was a hamster'.mundobytes.comThe soundtrack fuses lute-driven medieval instrumentation with rap and trap — tracks include 'Thug Life Poor Life' and 'Gangsta Guy' — composed by Paweł 'Chervinsky' Czerwiński with guest artists.gog.comRead 3 more facts
Forza Motorsport 520134 factsTurn 10 Studios · Microsoft StudiosGame page →Drivatar debuted here: anonymized telemetry from every player — braking points, cornering lines, aggression — was trained in Microsoft's Azure cloud into AI profiles that raced other players while their owners were offline.forza.fandom.comTop Gear's Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May narrate the career mode — the full trio, with Clarkson returning from Forza 4.en.wikipedia.orgIt was the first Forza with open-wheel racing — IndyCar and Formula One cars finally joined the garage.en.wikipedia.orgComposer 'DJ Drunken Master' is Lance Hayes — he called FM5 his final Forza soundtrack, sharing duties with British composer John Broomhall.djdm.comRead 2 more facts
Mordheim: City of the Damned20156 factsRogue Factor · Focus EntertainmentGame page →It is the first-ever video-game adaptation of Games Workshop's 1999 tabletop skirmish game Mordheim.en.wikipedia.orgIt is set in the ruined Empire city of Mordheim in the Warhammer Fantasy world, devastated by a twin-tailed comet that scattered warpstone and drew rival warbands to plunder its ruins.en.wikipedia.orgIt uses permadeath and persistent injuries — wounded warband members can be permanently maimed or killed, forcing ongoing recruitment and roster management between skirmishes.store.steampowered.comIt launched into Steam Early Access in November 2014 before its full PC release on 19 November 2015; console versions followed in October 2016.en.wikipedia.orgRogue Factor switched the game from Unity 4 to Unity 5 mid-development to upgrade its lighting, shadows and post-processing.mcvuk.comIt was the debut title of Montreal studio Rogue Factor (a branch of Cyanide), which later made Necromunda: Underhive Wars, another Games Workshop skirmish-game adaptation.pcgamingwiki.comRead 4 more facts
Tribes of Midgard20215 factsNorsfell · Gearbox PublishingGame page →You play the Einherjar — fallen Viking warriors resurrected from Valhalla to guard the seed of Yggdrasil and hold off Ragnarök, in co-op tribes of up to 10 players.en.wikipedia.orgThe Epic-hosted dev interview title says it all: 'How Thor movies, a love of co-op, and survival inspired Tribes of Midgard'.unrealengine.comNorsfell deliberately cut survival-genre staples — no hunger, no thirst, no permadeath — to keep it accessible; optional permadeath only arrived with 2023's Valhalla Saga.tribesofmidgard.comEach in-game day lasts about 10 real minutes, and a coordinated tribe can finish a Saga run in ~30 minutes — the roguelite loop is built for repeat runs, not one long campaign.progameguides.comIt sold 250,000+ copies in about three days and half a million in week one — Gearbox Publishing's Viking co-op bet paid off fast.techraptor.netRead 3 more facts
Killer Is Dead20133 factsGrasshopper Manufacture · XSEED GamesGame page →Despite the 'a Suda51 game' branding, the credited director is Hideyuki Shin — Goichi Suda served as executive director and writer.en.wikipedia.orgThe optional 'Gigolo Mode' — wooing women with gifts while X-ray glasses let Mondo leer at them — became the game's defining controversy, widely panned as sexist even by otherwise positive reviews.en.wikipedia.orgOne-armed executioner Mondo Zappa is named after Frank Zappa — and his score comes from Silent Hill legend Akira Yamaoka, Grasshopper's in-house audio maestro.en.wikipedia.orgRead 1 more fact
League of Legends20093 factsRiot Games · GOA Games Services Ltd.Game page →League of Legends (October 27, 2009) was built by DotA's own people: founders Brandon Beck and Marc Merrill hired DotA Allstars designer Steve "Guinsoo" Feak and Steve "Pendragon" Mescon, who ran the mod's biggest community site dota-allstars.com — making LoL the defining mod-to-industry pipeline story.en.wikipedia.orgBy 2016 Riot reported over 100 million monthly players — for years the most-played PC game on Earth, and the World Championship became esports' benchmark event with stadium finals and nine-figure peak viewership.en.wikipedia.orgIts universe outgrew the game: Arcane (2021/2024) won multiple Emmys and became Netflix's flagship game adaptation, while spin-offs (TFT, Wild Rift, Ruined King) turned Runeterra into a multi-genre franchise.en.wikipedia.orgRead 1 more fact
Roblox200614 factsRoblox CorporationGame page →It was almost called something else three times over. Prototypes from December 2003 ran under the names eBlocks, then GoBlocks, then DynaBlocks, before the team settled on Roblox ahead of the September 2006 launch.en.wikipedia.orgThe founders' previous company made physics software for classrooms, not games. Baszucki says watching children build things in Interactive Physics is what gave him the idea: 'seeing how kids lit up when they were creating things using our physics software made me think of what would be the ultimate platform for our imagination'.forbes.comCo-founder Erik Cassel died of cancer in February 2013, eight years before the company he helped build went public at a valuation of roughly $45 billion.en.wikipedia.orgRoblox skipped the traditional IPO entirely, going public by direct listing on 10 March 2021 — shares opened at $64.50 against a $45 reference price and closed the first day valuing the company near $45 billion, up from about $4 billion just over a year earlier.en.wikipedia.orgThe famous 'oof' death sound was never made for Roblox. It came from the 2000 PC game Messiah, was pulled in 2022 over a copyright dispute, and only returned in July 2025.en.wikipedia.orgA game built by a small team in four months set the platform's all-time concurrency record: Steal a Brainrot reached 25 million concurrent users in September 2025. Roblox cites it as evidence that its platform compresses what used to be multi-year, billion-dollar development.s27.q4cdn.comThe top 1,000 creators on the platform averaged $1.3 million each in earnings during 2025, up more than 50% year on year. Roblox paid out $1.5 billion in Developer Exchange fees that year.s27.q4cdn.comRoblox has been banned or restricted in a long list of countries, almost always over child-safety concerns — among them China, Turkey, Vietnam, Iraq, Qatar and Oman. Russia blocked it in December 2025 and restored access in June 2026 once age-gating was in place.en.wikipedia.orgIn August 2025 the Louisiana Attorney General sued Roblox, alleging the platform facilitates the distribution of child sexual abuse material — a suit filed partly after Roblox sent cease-and-desist letters to a YouTuber running sting operations against alleged predators on the service.edition.cnn.comRoblox made age checks mandatory worldwide in early January 2026, using facial age estimation or ID verification. By the end of that month 45% of its 144 million daily users had completed one — and the verified data skewed younger than what users had previously reported themselves: 35% under 13, 38% aged 13 to 17, 27% adult.s27.q4cdn.comThe company open-sources some of its own child-safety AI, including a real-time child-endangerment detection system, an LLM-based moderation model, a personal-information classifier and a real-time voice-toxicity classifier.s27.q4cdn.comPEGI gave up on assigning Roblox a fixed age number. In September 2022 it replaced the previous PEGI 7 rating with a Parental Guidance advisory, explaining that 'given the large variety of user-generated content that is available in Roblox, we feel this is a more suitable solution'.pegi.infoIts virtual-concert experiments predate the metaverse hype cycle: Lil Nas X debuted the single 'Holiday' with a Roblox concert in November 2020, followed by Zara Larsson, Twenty One Pilots, David Guetta and others.en.wikipedia.orgRoblox's stated long-term goal is to connect one billion users and take 10% of the global gaming content market. It reckoned its own share at 3.4% at the end of 2025.s27.q4cdn.comRead 12 more facts
How to Survive 220163 factsEKO Software · 505 GamesGame page →The series' cult mascot Kovac returns — the survival-guide author now coaches you via grainy webcam broadcasts, and the game's DLC and Ultimate Edition carry his name.store.steampowered.comThe sequel swaps the first game's tropical archipelago for the swamps of Louisiana, and its structure shifts from a story campaign to a persistent camp you build and defend across multiplayer sessions of up to 16 players.store.steampowered.comIt spent nearly a year in Steam Early Access (from October 2015) before the full September 2016 release published by 505 Games.store.steampowered.comRead 1 more fact
Trailmakers201915 factsFlashbulb GamesGame page →The studio exists because Microsoft shut down its predecessor. Flashbulb Games was founded on 29 April 2016 in Copenhagen by the leadership of Press Play, after Microsoft closed that studio - and the team bootstrapped Trailmakers with the leftover proceeds from the Press Play sale.gamereactor.euMinecraft indirectly killed the team's previous studio. After Microsoft's $2.5bn Mojang acquisition, co-founder Ole Teglbjaerg says "our entire support team was moved over to support Minecraft" - and Press Play, whose Kalimba had been BAFTA-nominated, closed in 2016.gamereactor.euThe three founders sit at the top of the credits roll: Ole Stubbe Teglbjaerg (Production Director), Rune Malmskov Dittmer (Executive Producer) and Mikkel Thorsted (Creative Director) founded Press Play together after studying at Roskilde University.mobygames.comLEGO was the explicit design framework. Teglbjaerg said the team had "always been huge fans of Lego", and cited Besiege's success as proof that "this open way of making games, where it's more about systems working together than a story" could work.gamereactor.euA YouTuber wrote the final boss music. Composer Carl Lindegaard found Trailmakers content creator ScrapMan's metal project Catarinth on Spotify and recruited him for "The Megadrill", which appears on the official Pioneers soundtrack.notebookcheck.netPioneers was almost a rogue-like. The team prototyped rogue-like mechanics for nearly a year before settling on survival and crafting for the free 2.0 overhaul.notebookcheck.netThe team more than doubled mid-production on Pioneers, growing from 15 to about 40 people including a batch of seven or eight interns arriving at once - creative lead Christian Laumark called the scaling "brutal and hard".notebookcheck.netCommunity members are in the shipped credits: the Special Thanks list is largely Trailmakers community handles - Datoda, Cheetah, NoxDraconem, XuT, Gnimacz, Kronogenics, The Mann, Alvaroping and ThatOneRandomFox.mobygames.comIts biggest day ever came seven years after launch: the all-time Steam concurrent peak of 8,113 players landed in March 2026 with the Mech Amok DLC, beating even the Pioneers 2.0 launch month.steamdb.infoIt reached 5 million players, 1.8 billion minutes played on PC and over 550,000 Steam Workshop creations by February 2025.pressreleases.triplepointpr.comNordisk Games, a subsidiary of Danish media group Egmont, bought 43% of Flashbulb for DKK 16.5 million before acquiring the studio outright in November 2021 - with Dittmer noting Nordisk "always been super-supportive while at the same time being happy to let us dictate the direction of the business".gamedeveloper.comIt took a slow road to 1.0: Steam Early Access on 30 January 2018, Xbox Game Preview in April 2019, full release on PC and Xbox One on 18 September 2019, PS4 in May 2020 and PS5 in August 2022.mobygames.comThe Pioneers map is 10km by 10km and supports up to eight players per server.pressreleases.triplepointpr.comDevelopment was outsourced in three directions: props by Spain's Stage Clear Studios, external QA by NapNok Games, and formal playtesting by Player Research Ltd, whose four researchers are individually credited.mobygames.comNot a single writer or narrative role appears anywhere in the credits - and the game's alien characters speak only non-verbal gibberish.mobygames.comRead 13 more facts
Signalis20227 factsrose-engine · PLAYISMGame page →rose-engine is a two-person German studio — Barbara Wittmann and Yuri Stern — who describe Signalis as roughly an eight-year project. Early prototypes were shown at the PLAY Creative Gaming Festival in 2014-15 and exhibited at Hamburg's Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe in 2016-17, years before the 2022 release.signalis.wiki.ggIt deliberately recreates a PlayStation-1-era survival-horror look fused with a 1990s anime aesthetic, right down to an optional CRT mode that mimics period television.en.wikipedia.orgThe reference density is extraordinary — Lovecraft, Chambers' The King in Yellow, Ghost in the Shell, Evangelion, Kubrick, and the painters Böcklin and Bracht — yet critics noted it wears those influences openly without feeling derivative.en.wikipedia.orgThere are five distinct endings, decided not by a simple choice but by hidden Leave/Circle/Death stat tracking based on playtime, combat performance and NPC interactions. The secret Artifact ending needs three keys and a 20-digit code, and only unlocks after a first completion.signalis.wiki.ggAt its centre is a queer love story: the android Elster searches for her missing partner Ariane across a decaying totalitarian star system — the thread that drove its GLAAD and Gayming Awards recognition.en.wikipedia.orgIt has no voice acting whatsoever — every line is on-screen text, in all eight supported languages.store.steampowered.comReviews were strong across every platform — Metacritic 84 on Switch, 82 on Xbox One, 81 on PC and 80 on PS4, with 85% recommending on OpenCritic and a 9.5/10 from Destructoid. Polygon placed it 12th on its 50 best games of 2022.en.wikipedia.orgRead 5 more facts
Chivalry 220216 factsTorn Banner Studios · Tripwire InteractiveGame page →The Monty Python influence is official: Torn Banner cites Holy Grail and classic British comedies as 'a huge reference point' — lose an arm in battle and your knight may quip that it's 'just a flesh wound'.thesixthaxis.comAlmost anything is a weapon: ESRB's rating text explicitly notes that dismembered body parts can be picked up and thrown — as can chickens, which players famously set on fire first.esrb.orgThere is a dedicated battle-cry button whose only function is screaming insults — no gameplay benefit, pure Monty Python energy, and famously divisive in-game.monstervine.comThe whole franchise traces back to Age of Chivalry, a 2007 Half-Life 2 mod — its modders founded Torn Banner Studios and turned it into Chivalry: Medieval Warfare (2012).en.wikipedia.orgTeam Objective mode scales to 64-player castle sieges — storming gates, burning villages and pushing siege engines — double the scale of the original game.store.steampowered.comThe orchestral score by J.D. Spears was recorded with the Budapest Scoring Orchestra — and full crossplay spans Steam, Epic, PlayStation and Xbox (though promised cross-progression was ultimately cancelled).jdspears.bandcamp.comRead 4 more facts
Estranged: The Departure20203 factsAlan EdwardesGame page →It started as the free Half-Life 2 Source-engine mod 'Estranged' (Act I, 2014); 'The Departure' (Act II) was rebuilt from scratch in Unreal Engine 4.moddb.comIt was developed solo by Alan Edwardes over roughly six years, spending about three years in Steam Early Access before its 22 May 2020 full release.nintendolife.comIts localizations into more than a dozen languages were produced by community volunteer translators.store.steampowered.comRead 1 more fact
The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings20116 factsCD Projekt RED · cdp.plGame page →It is based on The Witcher series of fantasy novels by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski, following the witcher Geralt of Rivia.en.wikipedia.orgIt was the first game built on CD Projekt RED's proprietary REDengine, later used for The Witcher 3.en.wikipedia.orgIts story branches so drastically that the entire second chapter takes place in a completely different location depending on whether the player sides with Iorveth or Vernon Roche.en.wikipedia.orgIt launched DRM-free on GOG.com, reflecting CD Projekt's anti-DRM stance.en.wikipedia.orgThe Enhanced Edition (April 2012) added around 10 GB of new content and brought the game to Xbox 360.en.wikipedia.orgIt won more than 50 awards worldwide, including multiple 2011 Game of the Year honors.thewitcher.comRead 4 more facts
Knockout City20216 factsVelan Studios · Electronic ArtsGame page →Velan Studios was founded by brothers Karthik and Guha Bala — the same brothers who founded Vicarious Visions (Tony Hawk, Crash Bandicoot, Guitar Hero) back in 1991.en.wikipedia.orgIt runs on 'Viper', Velan's proprietary C-based engine — the same tech that powered Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit and later Hot Wheels: Rift Rally.medium.comThe signature mechanic lets any teammate curl into a ball and BE thrown as a projectile — a human ultimate-ball that scores an instant KO.stevivor.comThe soundtrack is built as in-game radio stations by fictional bands — first game score by the duo The Soundlings, who cited Yoko Kanno's Cowboy Bebop as a touchstone and gave every fictional band a brass section.cbr.comCrossplay AND cross-progression were on by default from day one across PC, Switch, PlayStation and Xbox — still rare in 2021.digitaltrends.comAt shutdown Velan released a free offline 'Private Hosted Server Edition' for PC so the game could 'live on forever' — though live-game progress and unlocks didn't carry over.knockoutcity.comRead 4 more facts
God of War: Ghost of Sparta20107 factsReady At Dawn · Sony Computer EntertainmentGame page →A PSP interquel set between God of War and God of War II, developed by Ready at Dawn — the same studio behind the earlier PSP prequel Chains of Olympus.en.wikipedia.orgThe story follows Kratos's search for his long-lost brother Deimos and reveals much of Kratos's Spartan childhood.en.wikipedia.orgBy June 2012 it had sold almost 3.2 million copies worldwide, making it the 19th best-selling PSP game.en.wikipedia.orgIt was later HD-remastered and included in the God of War: Origins Collection (PS3, 2011) and the God of War Saga (2012).en.wikipedia.orgIt ran on Ready at Dawn's proprietary engine (evolved from Daxter and Chains of Olympus) and pushed the PSP to its technical limits.gamedeveloper.comKratos is voiced by Terrence C. Carson, who played the role across the Greek-era God of War games.en.wikipedia.orgIt was directed by Dana Jan, promoted from lead level designer on Chains of Olympus.en.wikipedia.orgRead 5 more facts
Tharsis20164 factsChoice Provisions · QubicGames S.A.Game page →Tharsis was co-designed by Zach Gage, the indie designer behind SpellTower and collaborator on Ridiculous Fishing and Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy, working with Bit.Trip studio Choice Provisions.en.wikipedia.orgThe game takes its name from the real Tharsis region of Mars — the volcanic plateau home to the largest volcanoes in the solar system — where the crew's distress signal originates.en.wikipedia.orgInstead of an original score, the soundtrack licenses tracks from Dutch electronic duo Weval's Half Age EP.en.wikipedia.orgA full run lasts anywhere from five minutes to an hour depending on the dice — and the infamous cannibalism mechanic (eating dead crewmates to reroll) became the game's most-debated feature at launch.gamingnexus.comRead 2 more facts
Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Future Soldier20123 factsUbisoft Paris · Ubisoft EntertainmentGame page →The PC version was outright CANCELED in December 2011 over piracy concerns — then quietly re-announced a month later after backlash.en.wikipedia.orgThe Xbox 360 version let players customize weapons in the 'Gunsmith' with Kinect voice and gesture controls — a 2012 showcase for the peripheral.en.wikipedia.orgIts multiplayer servers ran for over a decade before finally shutting down on 1 October 2022.en.wikipedia.orgRead 1 more fact
Naraka: Bladepoint20215 facts24 Entertainment · NetEase Games MontréalGame page →Its defining novelty is melee-first battle royale: a rock-paper-scissors parry system, aerial grappling-hook duels and wuxia movement — in a genre dominated by guns.en.wikipedia.orgIt was the FIRST Unity-built game to ship NVIDIA DLSS support.videogameschronicle.comBruce Lee is officially in the game: a licensed collab first added his skins and nunchaku in December 2021, revived for the Year of the Dragon and again in 2025.screenrant.comThe F2P pivot is a case study: ~10M paid buyers became 40M+ players within months of the July 2023 switch, with a ~264,000 Steam concurrent peak inside two weeks.gamedeveloper.comThe Chinese title 永劫无间 (Yongjie Wujian) roughly means 'Eternal Naraka' — drawing on the Buddhist concept of the deepest, unceasing hell.en.wikipedia.orgRead 3 more facts
Coffee Talk20205 factsToge ProductionsGame page →Coffee Talk is set in an alternate, urban-fantasy Seattle (2020) where humans coexist with elves, orcs, mermaids, succubi, werewolves and aliens; you play a late-night barista brewing drinks and latte art.en.wikipedia.orgIt began as 'Project Green Tea Latte,' conceived by Mohammad Fahmi at a 2017 game jam; Seattle was chosen partly as the birthplace of Starbucks.en.wikipedia.orgCo-creator, writer and designer Mohammad Fahmi died in March 2022 at age 32; the Steam page and later releases carry an in-memoriam tribute.store.steampowered.comMade by Indonesian studio Toge Productions (Tangerang), it won the SEA Game Awards 2021 Grand Jury Award and is one of the country's most successful indie exports.en.wikipedia.orgIt is widely regarded as a spiritual successor to VA-11 Hall-A, swapping that game's cyberpunk cocktails for coffee.hardcoregaming101.netRead 3 more facts
The Pedestrian20204 factsSkookum ArtsGame page →The Pedestrian was built by a three-person team of homeschooled brothers from Ohio (Daniel and Jed Lackey, with Joel Hornsby) over roughly a decade of development.gamedeveloper.comIts Kickstarter (January–February 2017) drew 1,408 backers who pledged $30,318 — 144% of the $21,000 goal.kickstarter.comThe signature node-connecting mechanic emerged because designer Jed Lackey found the level editor more fun than the game itself, so the team made editing the core loop.gamedeveloper.comThe team prototyped a multiplayer shooter and a survival game before settling on puzzles, and studied real urban signage (Chicago via Street View, photographing Ohio cities) for authenticity.gamedeveloper.comRead 2 more facts
Art of Rally20204 factsFunselektor LabsGame page →It was developed largely solo by Dune 'Funselektor' Casu, the creator of Absolute Drift; it was prototyped during Absolute Drift's console ports, with full development beginning in 2017.en.wikipedia.orgIts minimalist 'stylized take on nature' visual style was inspired by The Witness (2016).en.wikipedia.orgIt features an extensive photo mode usable in race, free-roam and replay, with rewind, aperture, depth-of-field and vignette controls.thefourthfocus.comIts soundtrack is 57 original synthwave tracks by the self-taught Ukrainian artist Tatreal (Slava Korystov) of Kryvyi Rih.tatreal.bandcamp.comRead 2 more facts
Röki20205 factsPolygon Treehouse · United LabelGame page →Polygon Treehouse was founded in 2017 by Tom Jones and Alex Kanaris-Sotiriou, two former art directors at Guerrilla Cambridge, after Sony closed that studio in January 2017.mcvuk.comRöki was nominated for Best Debut Game at The Game Awards 2020 and for both Debut Game and British Game at the 2021 BAFTA Games Awards.en.wikipedia.orgIts world, creatures and puzzles draw directly on Scandinavian and Nordic folklore.unitedlabelgames.comIt won Best Traditional Adventure and Readers' Choice Best Adventure at the 2020 Aggie Awards, and Best Indie Game at DevGAMM 2020.en.wikipedia.orgIts development was supported by funding from the UK Games Fund.en.wikipedia.orgRead 3 more facts
Arma Tactics20133 factsBohemia Interactive StudioGame page →It launched first on NVIDIA SHIELD and Tegra Android devices in May 2013 as 'Arma Tactics THD' — a launch title for NVIDIA's handheld — months before the PC release.en.wikipedia.orgDespite the Bohemia Interactive label, it wasn't made by the Arma team — development was handled by Bohemia's Prague subsidiary Centauri Production, in Unity rather than the series' Real Virtuality engine.en.wikipedia.orgIt holds the unfortunate distinction of being the worst-reviewed Arma release — 47/100 on Metacritic for PC, with reviewers hammering the lack of mid-mission saves.en.wikipedia.orgRead 1 more fact
Cookie Clicker201315 factsOrteil · DashNet, PlaysaurusGame page →Creator Julien "Orteil" Thiennot built the first version in about four hours of what he calls "spaghetti coding and bad pixel art" on a sleepless summer night, intending it as "a dumb little toy for a laff."orteil42.tumblr.comThe game went viral within hours of being posted as a link on 4chan's video game board on August 8, 2013, attracting roughly 50,000 players almost overnight.en.wikipedia.orgAt its August 2013 peak the site logged about 1.5 million hits in a single day, and the game still averaged around 225,000 hits per day five months after launch.en.wikipedia.orgOrteil has said the game "wasn't meant to be fun" — its psychological pull on players (the satisfaction of "getting something done") was largely accidental.vice.comThe developer-stated inspiration was the "strangely enticing lollipop-farming mechanic" of the 2013 browser game Candy Box! by aniwey.orteil42.tumblr.comThe game hides a cosmic-horror subplot: the "Grandmapocalypse" corrupts the friendly grandmas into an eldritch hive mind, spawns cookie-devouring wrinklers and turns golden cookies into wrath cookies.en.wikipedia.orgThe Steam version's soundtrack was composed by C418 (Daniel Rosenfeld), the composer of Minecraft; his five-track OST shipped on Steam launch day with the deadpan artist note "I ate a cookie once."c418.bandcamp.comWhen it hit Steam on September 1, 2021, Cookie Clicker drew more than 60,000 concurrent players, briefly ranking in Steam's top 15 most-played games ahead of Rainbow Six Siege and Rocket League.pcgamesn.com"True Neverclick" is one of the game's notorious shadow achievements: bake one million cookies without ever clicking the big cookie even once.cookieclicker.wiki.ggLate-game cookie counts grow so large they can exceed JavaScript's maximum representable number (~1.8×10^308), at which point the counter simply reads "Infinity."cookieclicker.fandom.comFor the game's 10th anniversary in 2023, update 2.052 added the 20th — and, per Orteil, final — building; he said future updates would focus on minigames for existing buildings instead.steamcommunity.comAfter more than a decade as a browser game, Cookie Clicker reached PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo Switch on May 22, 2025, published by Clicker Heroes studio Playsaurus.en.wikipedia.orgDashNet has always been a two-person operation: Orteil makes the games while "Opti" — his best friend and roommate, whom he met in Second Life — handles the servers, finances and community.cookieclicker.wiki.ggDespite being an idle game, Cookie Clicker has a genuine speedrunning scene and was featured at the charity marathon RTA in Japan Winter 2022; the game now counts 637 achievements.en.wikipedia.orgWith around 4 million daily active users, it is widely credited with establishing the idle/incremental genre; IGN called it the "greatest Idle Game."en.wikipedia.orgRead 13 more facts
Super Mario Galaxy 220109 factsNintendo Entertainment Analysis & Development · NintendoGame page →Development began as a mere expansion of the first game, nicknamed 'Super Mario Galaxy 1.5', before Nintendo decided to build it into a full sequel.en.wikipedia.orgYoshi, playable for the first time in a 3D Galaxy game, was actually an idea cut from the original Super Mario Galaxy and revived here.mariowiki.comIt was directed by Koichi Hayashida and produced by Shigeru Miyamoto, with development taking roughly two and a half years.en.wikipedia.orgThe game contains 242 unique Power Stars in total — 120 standard Stars, 120 Green Stars, plus 2 extra — the most of any 3D Mario at release.en.wikipedia.orgIts final challenge, 'The Perfect Run' in the Grandmaster Galaxy, is widely cited as the hardest level ever in a Mario game — a checkpoint-free gauntlet.mariowiki.comIt holds a Metacritic score of 97, making it one of the highest-rated video games of all time and the highest-rated game on the Wii.metacritic.comThe orchestral score was performed by the roughly 60-piece Mario Galaxy Orchestra — ten more musicians than the first game used.en.wikipedia.orgIt introduced the Cloud Flower power-up (Cloud Mario), letting Mario create temporary platforms in mid-air.en.wikipedia.orgIt won the BAFTA for Best Gameplay (2011) and Best Wii Game at the 2010 Spike Video Game Awards.nintendolife.comRead 7 more facts
Assassin's Creed Mirage202314 factsUbisoft Bordeaux · Ubisoft EntertainmentGame page →Mirage started life as an Assassin's Creed Valhalla DLC — creative director Stéphane Boudon said it was originally 'just one slide in a PowerPoint presentation' pitching Eivor traveling to the Middle East.news.ubisoft.comThe protagonist is Basim Ibn Ishaq, imported from Valhalla but depicted years earlier as a young street thief in Baghdad rather than the master assassin of the later game.assassinscreed.fandom.comIt was designed as a deliberate return to classic stealth, parkour and assassination after the RPG-heavy Origins/Odyssey/Valhalla trilogy.en.wikipedia.orgUbisoft built Mirage as the series' 15th-anniversary tribute to the original 2007 Assassin's Creed.savingcontent.comIt was intentionally smaller and shorter than the RPG entries, with a roughly 15–20 hour main campaign versus their 60+ hours.en.wikipedia.orgIt is the first mainline Assassin's Creed game led primarily by Ubisoft Bordeaux, previously only a support studio.en.wikipedia.orgBaghdad was chosen over Jerusalem, Damascus and Acre because, per lead producer Fabian Salomon, it was 'the most important cultural, religious, and scientific location in the Arabic World' of the era — the game features its House of Wisdom and circular Round City.news.ubisoft.comBasim's mentor is Roshan bint-La'Ahad, voiced by Oscar-nominated actress Shohreh Aghdashloo.en.wikipedia.orgMirage was the first Assassin's Creed game to feature full Arabic dubbing, with Jordanian actor Eyad Nassar voicing Basim.en.wikipedia.orgThe team revamped stealth using a 'Splinter Cell: Blacklist' GDC talk, reintroducing a 'searching' NPC state that Valhalla lacked.gamedeveloper.comA permadeath 'Full Synchronization' mode was added in February 2024, reinforcing the game's hardcore-stealth identity.en.wikipedia.orgA free story expansion, 'Valley of Memory,' set in al-Ula, Saudi Arabia, arrived in November 2025 with reported Saudi Arabian financing — an unusual funding arrangement.en.wikipedia.orgA full mobile port for iOS and iPadOS launched on June 6, 2024, bringing a mainline Assassin's Creed to Apple devices.en.wikipedia.orgIts soundtrack fused electronic music with authentic regional artists, including Tunisian singer Emel Mathlouthi and Iraqi-Jordanian violinist Layth Sidiq.savingcontent.comRead 12 more facts
LEGO Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues20093 factsTraveller's Tales · LucasArtsGame page →LEGO Indiana Jones 2 (November 2009) was the FIRST LEGO game with a level builder — players could construct and share their own levels, years before LEGO Worlds made creation the whole game.lego.fandom.comIt also debuted dynamic split-screen co-op for the series — the screen seamlessly splits and merges as two players separate and reunite, a TT Games signature ever since.lego.fandom.comRather than replaying the first game's trilogy levels, TT rebuilt Raiders, Temple of Doom and Last Crusade as all-new remixed content — with Crystal Skull getting three of the six story chapters.lego.fandom.comRead 1 more fact
Valorant20203 factsRiot GamesGame page →Valorant was announced under the codename "Project A" — Riot's first shooter after a decade of League of Legends.invenglobal.comIts April 2020 closed beta broke Twitch records: 1.7 million peak concurrent viewers — second only to the 2019 LoL Worlds final — and 34 million hours watched, driven by drop-based beta access.invenglobal.comNearly 3 million players logged in daily during the two-month beta before the game's full free-to-play launch on June 2, 2020.dotesports.comRead 1 more fact
Maid of Sker20205 factsWales InteractiveGame page →It is set in and inspired by the real Sker House, a historic mansion near Porthcawl, Bridgend, Wales.en.wikipedia.orgIts story draws on the Welsh ballad 'Y Ferch o'r Sger' (Elisabeth Williams, imprisoned by her father) and R.D. Blackmore's 1872 novel 'The Maid of Sker.'en.wikipedia.orgIts core mechanic is a 3D sound-based AI: the blind 'Quiet Men' hunt by hearing, so players must hold their breath to avoid detection, with no weapons.store.steampowered.comIts soundtrack reimagines traditional Welsh hymns — Calon Lân, Suo-Gân and Ar Hyd y Nos — sung by Tia Kalmaru and composed by Gareth Lumb.store.steampowered.comIt won 'Heritage in Games' at the 2025 TIGA Awards.walesinteractive.comRead 3 more facts
Submerged20155 factsUppercut GamesGame page →A combat-free, fail-state-free exploration game: you play Miku, a girl who navigates a flooded, post-apocalyptic city by fishing boat, scaling drowned skyscrapers and scanning with a telescope to find supplies for her wounded brother Taku.en.wikipedia.orgUppercut Games was founded by veterans of Irrational/2K Australia who worked on the BioShock series; Submerged was made by this ex-BioShock team in Canberra, Australia.pcgamer.comThe developers cite Journey, Shadow of the Colossus and a Grand Theft Auto IV mod that submerged Liberty City as key inspirations.en.wikipedia.orgThe score by BAFTA-winning composer Jeff van Dyck won Best Audio at the 2015 Freeplay Awards.kotaku.com.auIt received a full sequel, Submerged: Hidden Depths, launched on Stadia in December 2020 and other platforms in March 2022.en.wikipedia.orgRead 3 more facts
Helldivers 220243 factsArrowhead Game Studios · Sony Interactive EntertainmentGame page →Helldivers 2 sold 12 million copies in its first 12 weeks — the fastest-selling game PlayStation has ever developed or published, beating God of War Ragnarök's 11 million in three months.gameworldobserver.comIn May 2024 Sony tried to force PC players to link a PSN account — unusable in over 100 countries — triggering one of Steam's biggest review-bombing campaigns. Sony reversed the mandate within days, though the game remained delisted in many regions.nme.comThe game kept selling long after the storm: total sales later passed 19 million copies across platforms.notebookcheck.netRead 1 more fact
Visage20207 factsSadSquare StudioGame page →Visage was born from P.T.: co-founder Jonathan Vallières rebuilt Konami's P.T. hallway in Unreal Engine 4 as a portfolio piece, and when Silent Hills was cancelled the team set out to make a game to 'fill the void' it left.sadsquarestudio.comMultiple endings were a Kickstarter stretch goal the campaign never reached — the team implemented them anyway, saying Visage 'has always been about making sure that everyone gets a different experience'.gamereactor.euThe 2016 Kickstarter was funded at roughly 343%: CAD $120,129 raised against a CAD $35,000 goal from about 3,200 backers, unlocking console versions and VR support as stretch goals.kickstarter.comA tiny Québec studio spent over five years on the game: SadSquare was founded in January 2015, entered Early Access in October 2018 and only hit 1.0 on 30 October 2020.sadsquarestudio.comThe horror is structured as a non-linear anthology in one ever-changing 1980s house: chapters about victims Lucy, Dolores and Rakan can be played in any order, with a final chapter unlocked via VHS tapes and mirror-mask pieces.gamerant.comA sanity system pushes beyond P.T.'s walking-sim design: sanity drains in darkness and near paranormal events, managed with lighters, candles, light bulbs and pills from a deliberately limited five-slot inventory.en.wikipedia.orgIn an IGN reader poll in early 2022, Visage was voted the scariest horror game on PC with roughly half of all votes cast.en.wikipedia.orgRead 5 more facts
Sackboy: A Big Adventure20207 factsSumo Digital · Sony Interactive EntertainmentGame page →Sackboy: A Big Adventure was a PlayStation 5 launch title, released day-and-date with the console in November 2020 (also on PS4).en.wikipedia.orgThe PS5 version leans on the DualSense controller: haptic feedback mimics different surface textures and the adaptive triggers add resistance when grabbing textured objects.gaming-age.comIts show-stopping musical levels are choreographed to real pop tracks — including 'Uptown Funk', Madonna's 'Material Girl' (arranged by returning LBP composer Winifred Phillips) and David Bowie's 'Let's Dance' in the level Choral Reef.tunefind.comRichard E. Grant voices the jester-doll villain Vex and Dawn French plays the noble Scarlet — celebrity casting announced via the official LittleBigPlanet account.videogamer.comAt the 2021 BAFTA Games Awards it won Best British Game and Best Family Game — beating Animal Crossing: New Horizons in the Family category — from four nominations.thegamer.comAfter Sony took the LittleBigPlanet 3 servers offline for good in 2024, wiping access to hundreds of thousands of user creations, Sackboy: A Big Adventure remains the franchise's most recent living installment.gamespot.comThe October 2022 Windows port marked the LittleBigPlanet series' PC debut; online 4-player co-op had been patched into the console versions in December 2020 after a local-only launch.pcgamingwiki.comRead 5 more facts
Bless Unleashed20204 factsRound8 Studio · Bandai Namco EntertainmentGame page →Bless Unleashed is a reboot of the earlier PC MMO Bless Online, originally built by Neowiz.en.wikipedia.orgIt released in staggered order: Xbox One first (12 March 2020), then PS4 (22 October 2020), then PC via Steam (6 August 2021).en.wikipedia.orgBandai Namco sunset the console version — servers closed 30 November 2022 — after its publishing agreement with developer Round8 ended; VALOFE then rebooted and continued the PC version.bandainamcoent.comBuilt on Unreal Engine 4, it is set in the world of Lumios, featuring the island of Telarion and the antagonist Gideon.en.wikipedia.orgRead 2 more facts
Legend of Keepers20205 factsGoblinz Studio · Goblinz PublishingGame page →The developers cite Dungeon Keeper as their main inspiration, praising its use of parody and humor; the game's tone also draws on French comedy such as Kaamelott and Le Donjon de Naheulbeuk.turnbasedlovers.comIt spent about a year in Early Access (March 2020 to its 1.0 release on 29 April 2021), with the team prioritizing a free-play mode over adding more bosses.en.wikipedia.orgIt is a 'reverse dungeon crawler': you play the dungeon boss defending against invading heroes in turn-based combat, inverting the usual roguelite formula.fingerguns.netIts 12-track original soundtrack was composed by the solo French musician T05.vgmdb.netIt was offered as a limited-time free-to-keep giveaway, which inflated its ownership statistics.cbr.comRead 3 more facts
Chernobylite20216 factsThe Farm 51 · All In! GamesGame page →The Exclusion Zone is real: the team traveled to Chernobyl repeatedly from 2014, shooting up to ~2,000 photos per room — they believe it may be the largest use of photogrammetry in any video game.pcgamer.comIt grew directly out of The Farm 51's Chernobyl VR Project (2016) — an interactive photogrammetry documentary whose field scans were reused for the game.store.steampowered.comDespite endless S.T.A.L.K.E.R. comparisons, creative director Wojciech Pazdur said the opposite: 'designing Chernobylite, we are not taking anything from those games as reference' — the inspiration was the real disaster and its people.screenrant.comYou play Igor Khymynuk, a former Chernobyl plant physicist hunting the Zone for his missing fiancée — the whole campaign builds toward a planned heist on the power plant itself.en.wikipedia.orgScanning trips ran under radiation time limits, and the team needed special permits to fly drones in the Zone — normally banned for national-security reasons.pcgamer.comIts Kickstarter doubled the $100k goal in about nine days — ending at $206,671 from 3,350 backers in May 2019.kickstarter.comRead 4 more facts
