Day of the Devs has been around for a full decade now, with this year’s showcase being the 11th iteration. A love letter to all things indie games, Double Fine (Psychonauts, Brütal Legend) puts out the event at no cost to the developers it invites, with some support from iam8bit, as a mini convention that is also free of charge and open to the public at large. Traditionally, it has taken place in San Francisco, and while that is still the case this coming March, a special The Game Awards-themed version took place the day after the big event in Los Angeles. We happened to be in the area, and swung by to check out a handful of games on offer. You can read all about what we got our hands on now.
Valley Peaks
Valley Peaks is an upcoming climbing simulator with an obsession of frog people. Though, frogs are pretty chill animals to begin with, so what’s not to like there? The game features a cel-shaded world, where your main goal is to climb the local peaks in each area, and place radio towers once you reach each summit for the first time. Each mountain sports easy, medium, and hard paths to climb, and while you’re not required to climb every path in order to progress, the challenge is there for those who want it. You can unlock gadgets such as binoculars, gliders, and more, and the debut release by developer Tub Club has a great camping vibe about it that will appeal to many a chill gamer. Slated for release next year on Steam.
RESISTOR
RESISTOR might appear on its surface to be a simple, cel-shaded racing combat game, but its plans are anything but. Sure, there is plenty of racing, barrel rolls, smashing cars to bits, and vast desert landscape to tear through, but there is also a story about a kid trying to save their mom, earn their citizenship, and maybe even overthrow a corporation or two while they’re at it. RESISTOR promises to bring an expansive story that is equally as important as its offroad action, with base expansion and customization options to boot. No release date yet, but it is targeting release on Steam, Epic Games store, current generation consoles, and the Nintendo Switch.
Whisker Squadron: Survivor
Whisker Squadron: Survivor is a cel-shaded, on-rails sci-fi space shooter, in the vein of Starfox but with a lot more onscreen action, as well as a focus on amassing pickups to alter the way you play. You are tasked with surviving ten waves of enemies as you fly through a sprawling megalopolis, taking out as many baddies as you can along the way. There is a story here for those who care about it, where a robotic species of insects known as The Swarm must be defeated. Your ship is pieced together with things found while playing – this is a roguelike, so each play through is different, and lasts about 20 – 30 minutes each. It just screams the type of “one more go” game for arcade die-hards and Starfox fans alike. Currently available in Early Access on Steam for as little as $11.99 USD, with a target launch timeframe of early 2024.
Kind Words 2
Kind Words 2 was a corner of positivity at Day of the Devs, which of course was itself a positive event where even PlayStation icon Shuhei Yoshida could be found amongst smiling faces and great vibes. A sequel to 2019’s Kind Words, the game runs on the same servers as the original, meaning no separation of the playerbase here. The gist is that you can write letters to random people online, but the rule is that you cannot be negative towards others. You can sit at a desk, read others’ incoming thoughts, and reply to them with as little or as much thought as you feel like. It felt kind of therapy-adjacent, and in speaking to developer Popcannibal, it was clear they were not claiming to provide therapy by any means, but the atmosphere could not be chiller. There’s even a poetry slam. You can request to join the Steam playtest right now, though there is no publicly available launch window just yet.
Thank Goodness You’re Here
Thank Goodness You’re Here is the most British game I think I will ever lay my eyes upon. You play as a small traveling salesman, who gets tasked by the townsfolk with increasingly odd jobs. It’s described as a “comedy slapformer,” where often the only solution to a particular puzzle is to give everything a nice solid slap. There is a lot of British humor here, such as helping a shop owner fill his meat pies, with the various double entendres you might expect. The game controls as a very light platformer, with your main options being to jump or slap something and watching how the world reacts to your actions. It seems like a cozy situational adventure, which will give some a nice chuckle from time to time as the various characters go about their lives. Developer Coal Supper is currently targeting a 2024 release on Steam.
Sophia the Traveler
Sophia the Traveler is a quaint, find-the-object game in the vein of a Where’s Waldo book brought to life. It tells the story of a real-life couple, who developed the game, as they imagined what traveling to distant places might look like when in reality they were stuck at home during the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic. Each level starts off simply enough, as you begin looking over an RV from an isometric viewpoint, with a list of items to find. Clicking on each item in the sidebar will reveal some info about them, along with a hint as to where they might be found in the current area. For those who remain stumped, an hourglass unlocks every handful of minutes which will highlight the general area of a random item. There’s no timers beyond that, no rush to finish the game, but plenty to find and interact with. Developer Memo Gogo is aiming to bring a plethora of content to feast your eyes upon, with over 1800 character assets, 300 animations, 100 buildings, etc. Many of the people and items that you click on will react to you, as well, with voice recordings performed in multiple languages so you get a taste of the many ways in which we greet one another. While there is no hard release date yet, a free demo can be had on Steam for a small sampling of the kinds of interactions you can expect.
Arco
Arco is a tough-as-nails mixture of realtime and turn-based RPG pixel art game that holds no punches. While there are three different stories within the whole game, this wasn’t really touched upon during our hands-on time with Arco, mainly because simply surviving most fights is quite a battle. Every attack or action costs a certain amount of mana (called Magia here), which is in very limited supply. The player has to carefully balance attacking with playing defense, along with managing health and planning next moves. It’s not a roguelike, and dying places you just before the battle you last lost, allowing you to simply try again when you fail. With the right strategy, seemingly any fight can be overcome. Arco currently has a release date of simply some time in 2024 on Steam, and can be wishlisted now.
Mars After Midnight
Mars After Mightnight was the only Playdate game available at Day of the Devs. The Playdate, for those who don’t know, is a purpose-built handheld gaming console with some peculiarities, including a 1-bit screen (yes, black and white only, but it’s highly reflective and easy to look at in a bright setting), a directional pad, A and B buttons, and an honest-to-goodness crank which is its main control differentiator. This analog control mechanism is used by Mars After Midnight in various ways. You play as the caretaker of an Off-Colony Community Support Center, specifically a Cyclops Anger Management course which runs, well, after midnight on Mars. The game says a lot through its imagery, and you are tasked with only allowing in cyclopes, but only after first organizing the night’s free snack offering and cleaning the previous cyclops’ mess that they left behind. Do well, and the cyclops will reward you with a tip as they head into the session. The goal is to help up to eight Martians each night, with some necessary trial-and-error as you learn what works and what doesn’t. There is even some budgeting to handle, as you’ll need to target the cyclops that live on Mars, who may not even consider that they have anger management issues to begin with. There is a lot more going on here than you might otherwise assume at first glance, and Mars After Midnight looks like a unique game on a handheld known for unique games.
Despelote
Rounding out the selection of games we spent time with is Despelote. This is billed as a slice-of-life adventure where you play as an eight year old schoolchild named Julián in Ecuador in 2001, when the country was very close to qualifying for the World Cup. You can see the ways in which almost everyone in the city become obsessed with talking about the upcoming matches, and wondering if their country really has what it takes to reach the pinnacle of the world’s most popular sport. As a kid, your main goal is to kick a ball around, and see how others react to it. Photos and audio were often taken on-locaion in Ecuador, with an art style that should be seen in-motion to be experienced fully. There is no set release date beyond 2024, and Despelote can currently be added to your wishlist on Steam.
Spreading Their Wings
There were, of course, many more games available, but only so much time that we had. There was even an outdoor section featuring a few oddball games and experiences, such as attempting to fool an AI as you tried to cross a road without being spotted as a person, food trucks, and even an iam8bit pop-up shop. While this was the first time Day of the Devs was held outside San Francisco, here’s hoping it won’t be the last! Again, since the event is free and open to the public, you are welcome and encouraged to check it out, play some games, and be surrounded by the thriving community that is the indie game development scene.
Hands-on impressions from early builds of the game and not final code.