Song of Bloom By: Philipp Stollenmayer / Kamibox Developer Philipp Stollenmayer, aka Kamibox, is hard to put in, well, a box. His games jump from genre to genre, and are often quirky and bizarre. Take Verticow, for instance, which has you tossing cows and other objects the farthest distance you can. I usually gravitate more toward his puzzle games, like supertype, which gives each letter of the alphabet a physical weight and…
Takoway By: Hexagoon & Daylight Studios Takoway is an upcoming puzzler from Hexagoon and Daylight Studios that I've had my eye on for a while now. It has you guiding a six-tentacled hexapus named Tako around a lab to help him escape captivity. What makes it so interesting, though, is how you have to shift perspectives in order to navigate him around. I only played through the first few levels so far,…
Telling Lies By: Sam Barlow / Annapurna Interactive Sam Barlow's Her Story is one of my favorite video games, perhaps the one that's stuck with me the most. I clearly remember back in 2015, getting it a few days ahead of release and thinking I would just play for a little bit and then get back to cleaning my apartment. But my home stayed dirty that day, because I couldn't put my…
For the last few years, I've been going to Playcrafting's summer games conference called Play NYC. Last year was pretty lacking on the mobile front so I didn't cover it, but I wrote about my experience in 2017. This year had a pretty good turnout for mobile games, as well as games that seem like a great fit for the platform. I also checked out some PC games that looked interesting and…
SNIKS By: Shelly Alon There are few genres that are as perfect for touchscreens as relaxed puzzle games. My iPhone has given me a renewed appreciation for puzzles, and I always get excited when one is announced that offers both clever mechanics and an art style that's easy on the eyes. The latest one to grab my attention is Shelly Alon's SNIKS. I played a very early demo version of it a…
Unhatched By: Filip Loster Ever since the Tinder-inspired Reigns released, many developers have realized that binary choices make great one-handed mobile games. The high score-chasing dungeon crawler, Meteorfall, applies this concept to monster battles and is one of my all-time favorite games. I still check in every day to play the daily challenge. So when I heard of another contender entering the ring, called Unhatched, my ears perked up. Developed by Filip…
Sky: Children of the Light By: thatgamecompany Sky: Children of the Light is a breathtaking upcoming game from Journey and Flower developer, thatgamecompany. I'd signed up for beta access months ago but only got my invitation this past week. I've since spent about two hours in this gorgeous world and thought I'd share some of my early impressions. First off, the game is free. There is an in-game shop, but it's empty…
The Gardens Between By: The Voxel Agents Back in 2017 when The Voxel Agents announced their dreamlike adventure game, The Gardens Between, I desperately hoped it would come to iOS. But there was no plan to do so, and when it released in 2018 on PC and other platforms, I tried not to pay too close attention in order to keep my jealousy at bay. But it still seemed like it would…
