Bold and Bizarre Games Bulletin | March
We have another Bulletin for you today; a collection of interesting game-nuggets from our time sifting through the muddy indie-waters for gold.
There is, I regret to remind you, no Puzzletrunk update for you today. We've had a busy month announcing our new game label, you see, and we didn't want to rush a puzzle out the door.
But next month's Puzzle will make up for it. We've managed to lock in a game I've been trying to wrangle for MONTHS as a partner for April, and we'll have a blinder of a puzzle to go with it.
A reminder! All of the games featured in this month's Bulletin can be found in our Steam Curator page. Give it a follow!
#1 Centum
Out Now, Steam | Hack the Publisher
A fine example of Pantaloon first hearing about a game from our own community (thanks, Raffael), Centum tees up as an Escape Room type experience, but quickly evolves into something far more interesting. Leaning fully into the notion of the unreliable narrator and the nature of the reality we're presented, Centum is an adventure game that challenges the traditional conventions of not just the genre, but how we're conditioned to interact with games and their stories in general.
It took me a while to get Balls, Dice and Stickers, I'll not lie to you. Because, well, look at it. It's pure concentrated madness. But underneath that chaos is something truly compelling; a roguelike deck-builder that has you aiming balls at dice, then using stickers to trigger chains of various effects. Balls, Dice and Stickers quickly sinks its hooks in, and with 50+ stickers and accompanying functionality, there's depth for days.
#3 Asylum
Out Now, Steam | Senscape
Asylum has been a long time coming; the spiritual successor to cult classic Scratches, it's a supernatural horror set in a massive, decaying mental institute, and an ode to Lovecraft, Hammer Films and twisted Euro Horror from the 80s. Asylum puts you into the shoes of an ex-patient of the institute, as you're tasked with exploring the dilapidated halls of the building, and solving a series of macabre puzzles as you delve into the somewhat unsettling history of the institute.
#4 Qualia
Out Now, Steam|CMY2K
Qualia is brilliant. A retro-looking interactive fiction experience (and experience is the right word) that has you analysing and categorising two participants based on their answers to a set of questions. Are they human? Are they AI? Are you human?
Qualia is a lovely little nudge to the brink of existential crisis. And it's free, so you can worry about the nature of your reality without having to pay a penny.
We've featured Bundle of Joy in a previous Bulletin, but Essay Games' 'parent simulator' launches on Tuesday, and we felt it was a nice palette-cleanser to the horror and existential dread elsewhere in this month's list. Bundle of Joy is a game exploring the duality of chaos and joy in parenting, and a game parents to be - or anybody that fancies a window into the realities of parenting - will revel in.
Reminder! Pantaloon's partnered games for March is Grid Ranger
This month we've partnered with Pixeljam to give away their new game GRID RANGER, which launches into 1.0 on March 25th.
As mentioned last week, we've updated our partnership model moving forward, adopting a Draw-based system to skirt around the drawbacks of the first-come-first-served model and improve the service we offer.
Ok. That’s yer lot.
Let’s do it all again next month shall we?
pantaloon.