Welcome! Come through to the parlour of 2014, sir, madam, and taste
of the finest delicacies and morsels this year's small developers have
to offer. There is much in the way of cyberpunk, horror, and sparking
neon, and would you care for a canape of David Lynch with a little
Burroughs perhaps? Ah, maybe you are into feeling nihilistically bummed
out? Or, you'd rather have this hors d'oeuvres containing a whole crowd
rioting?… I see.
There were so many games I didn't manage to fit into this list, so
don't feel bad if I didn't include your favourite: 2014 is going to be
knuckle-crackingly pleasurable for small budget developers; we'll see
less known developers break through and known developers do their best
work. And all for only a tiny slice of the cash you'd pay for a big
budget shootfest. What a time to game in, my friends.
Well. Let's start with the world's most thrilling sword fighting simulator shall we? No, it's not a rude joke, I promise.
At laaaaaaast! In fluid movements of skill and half-breath decisions,
you swipe your épée low-mid-high at your opponent across clouds, mines,
castles and wilds. This long-awaited local multiplayer indie game is an
intricate, flowing game of fencing, in which you kick as well as slash
opponents through long grass and hallways. It's out on 13 January with a
Daedalus soundtrack.
A slowburn cyberpunk horror game where you must find what caused the
disappearance of everyone on an abandoned moon base. First-person
exploration, permadeath, deadzone aiming, no HUD: it's all full-eyed
horror. The game will also be available on VR device Oculus Rift at
launch, adding an extra sense of horrible dread. Atmospheric.
Futuristic. Dank. Full of tension. And it's the prettiest suitor at the
prom. GIVE IT TO ME.
David Lynchian stealth game Tangiers is described by its creators as,
"a love letter to the avant-garde of the 20th century… set in a world
built from the broken prose of Burroughs and the social dystopia brought
about by Ballard's architecture." Inspired by classic PC game Thief, it
applies Burroughs' 'cut-up' technique to constantly rearrange the
environment based on player decisions. I love this game because it seems
to emulate old ideas and create new ones, integrating some of the most
interesting concepts of literature and art. Strange and dark, it comes
to PC, Mac and Linux this year.
Whatever you think of philosophising Braid-developing
leaf-on-the-wind Jonathan Blow, his next game looks set to reinvent my
childhood favourite, Myst, by exploring something Cyan Inc's classic
title only dabbled in: the realm of three dimensions. An atmospheric
exploration puzzle game on a remote island is promised. I bet it will be
good, and everyone will be upset because it will be good.
