Blood Dungeon takes Meshoff back to their roots

Hello friends,

It has been a long time between dispatches. Sickness and the stress of getting a game shipped this year has kept me busy. Who knew game development could be hard? 

I actually haven't been doing any gaming for the past few months. The workload has been immense and by the time we get our son to agree that going to sleep is a good idea, the day is done and I need to just crash. Instead I have been reading, and getting back into comics, so that's been nice. 

What has been less nice is the fact that my wife lost her job. She finishes full time work this month, and then we have to face the reality that we might even have to pull our kiddo out of hoikuen (nursery school) to save cash. That has me pretty worried. So putting this out there - I AM LOOKING FOR WORK! 

I am packing my bags and heading back to Australia for a month. I'll be attending Melbourne International Games Week. If you are heading along there too, let's chat! Maybe we can work together. We can at least have a coffee.

Anyways, enough of this self plug. Let's get to the games! 

What came out this week?

Blood Dungeon

Developer: Messhof
Steam rating: Very Positive
Store link

Messhof are back this week, dropping their 2D platforming autoshooter Blood Dungeon. Smushing together survivor-like genre with some classic platforming, Blood Dungeon has you roaming through dangerous dungeons, collecting the blood of your enemies to level up and unlock devastating new abilities. 

There are over 100 enemy types to face, a bunch of cool questies, more than 100 weapons and upgrades, and a Global high score chart to keep you diving in for just one more run. Also the "dungeon dnb" beats are insane, which is a given because every Messhof game to date has had absolutely banging soundtracks. The art style here is also more in line with Nidhogg, which means it flows beautifully and really stands out with it's weird retro fluid vibes. 

Messhof are one of the few developers whom I will always drop some cash to support. Great to see them follow up Wheel World so quickly with this weird little release. 

Lou's Lagoon

Developer: Tiny Roar
Steam rating: Positive
Store link

If you are looking for something a little more relaxing this weekend, the cozy world of Lou's Lagoon might be just what you're looking for. This colourful crafting adventure has you flying your seaplane to the Limbo archipelago to search for Uncle Lou. When you arrive at his distress calls to find no trace of him, you will need to help rebuild a community, collect a bunch of materials, and start to unravel the mysteries of the island. 

There's a tonne of stuff to do in Lou's Lagoon. While you can focus on the quests and finding Lou, you could also just kick back and go fishing, or build, or craft your nights away in calm waters. It kinda looks like the perfect mix of creative and guided narrative, something that I struggle to find in crafting games, which is why I always bounce off (I am a simple fool who needs a quest to drive me). I really love just how NICE this looks. Maybe it's worth me checking it out to relax a little. I don't know why, but it makes me think of Slime Rancher. Probably just because how colourful it is. 

Sludgineers

Developer: Snickerdoodle Games + Funk Games
Steam rating: Very Positive
Store link

Another more relaxing title here in Sludgineers, an active Incremental Game where you need to clean, mine, and refine the pollution throughout the world. You'll be handsomely rewarded for your service as you collect cash and resources to build out your upgrade tree to unlock new and awesome tech. It Tiny Roarseems simplistic but a lot of folks on Steam are really loving it. It's a bit like Powerwash Simulator, but from an isometric pixel art view, and it's kinda neat looking. If you like idle or low-stakes games, then this might be worth a look. 

Shadow Dungeon

Developer: OO Cat
Steam rating:
Store link

DO YOU LIKE DIABLO II? HOW ABOUT GRIM DAWN? Well here's one of those, mixed with some Survivors-like elements. It comes from a solo dev, and is certainly punching above its weight when it comes to features. We're talking about 4 playable characters, with more than 370 skills to unlock. They have more than 60 unique bosses and over 200 distinct enemies to slay. Also they claim to have over 100,000,000 different items that are generated based off their 3,200 base templates. The fact that there is so many hard numbers on the Steam page makes my brain hurt. 

They have also outlined that there are more updates coming post launch, like 4 new classes, a mercenary system, tower defense challenges, a rune system, and a crafting system. That's a lot of bang for buck. 

This one is maybe not for me, but if you want to really dive into a classic Diablo II meets Vampire Survivors, this one will keep you busy for a long while. 

Combolands: Roguelike Citybuilder

Developer: Crux Games
Steam rating:
Store link

Described as a mini citybuilding roguelike, Combolands has you placing buildings in your town, stacking combos and creating synergies, and then grow it into a metropolis. Each round is approximately 30 minutes, and as you climb the ladder of milestones, you unlock upgrades, new buildings, and mechanics to keep you coming back to hit that next milestone. 

At the start of each run you will pick two guilds to use from the pool of 7, which seems to bring different synergies and combos to the table. There are also city Councillors to recruit, who all have their own progression and abilities to contend with. 

It's looks charming, and perfectly combines the ideas of a deckbuilder and citybuilder into bite-sized chunks. I might finally have to put down Against the Storm to dive into this. 

MinnMax shot a mini-documentary about my studio!

The awesome folks over at MinnMax have been doing their spotlight features for a little whole now. I started talking to Ben a few years ago on behalf of a client, but we never could get the idea of a Japan trip off the ground. Then when I joined 17-BIT I pitched it again, but our publisher at the time didn't want to make it happen, so the talks died again. Turns out third time is a charm, because we revived the talks and a few months later Haley and Sarah came across and shot a mini-documentary on our crew and what we have been doing on AWAYSIS. 

I think these videos are really great to show what indies get up to. I feel like a lot of people just assume that we all sit in the dark and play games all day, drink too much coffee, and type lines and lines of Matrix code. I think videos like this put a lot of personality out there, and really showcases how much talent people in this industry posses.

That's a wrap!

Thanks so much for reading. If you like what you see, please share it with a friend. If you want to help support me to grab some indie games to get some reviews, please consider dropping some money in the ko-fi cup. I really should get around to making that feature Indie Dispatch on there. If you didn't know, I also run Pixels for Breakfast, but our YouTube channel was deleted, and I had a kid so it's kinda slowed down a bit. Anyways, I am rambling now. Let me know what cool indies you are playing this weekend! - Steve