Dark Flame, from Warren Smith, is a metroidvania heavily inspired by the 2D entries in the Castlevania series, featuring a sprawling maze-like world, fast combat, and RPG-style upgrades. Choice plays an important role here, as players can modify their weapons, manually level up individual stats, and decide whether they want to play the role of the good guy or give in to the power of the dark side. Players who fully explore the environment can uncover hidden weapons and unlock new powers.
Despite a failed Kickstarter campaign, development on the game is moving forward for the PC, although there is no announced release date. A pre-alpha demo is available on IndieDB, and here's a video of some guys playing the demo:
To find more promising 2D games currently under development, be sure to check out our Master List.
Tasukete Tako-San : Save me Mr Tako, from Christophe Galati and publisher Nicalis (1001 Spikes, Cave Story+) is inspired by the Game Boy titles of old, with its simple sprites and 4-color palette... but without motion blur, and with color themes extending beyond varying shades of pea green. The game tells the story of a war between octopi and humans, but one octopus refuses to fight, casting off his octopussy armor and diving into the sea to save a drowning woman who was made to walk the plank. The octopus' quest sees him adventuring through platforming environments as he moves through underwater caverns, speaks with NPC's, dons a variety of outfits, gains new abilities, and even moves onto the surface to travel through the human world.
There's a demo on the game's IndieDB page, but it's from 2014. Still, the game has been getting regular progress updates and gained Nicalis as its publisher in 2017, so things are moving forward. The game is planned for PC, Mac, Linux, and Switch later this year.
To find more promising 2D games currently under development, be sure to check out our Master List.
Hakoniwa Explorer Plus, from Suxamethonium, is an isometric open world action-adventure offering quirky and crass humor at every turn (the trailer below will give you a pretty good idea of what you're in for). You must fight your way through hordes of monsters and buxom bustle-busting female bosses in order to open up new regions of the map, which you are generally free to explore as you like. Speaking with villagers lets you find new locales, but be careful, because attacking them or otherwise pissing them off will result in them attacking you... and dang it, stop touching their butts! Each new region offers new gameplay challenges, including climbing towers, hidden rooms filled with treasure, and even swimming through submerged dungeons.
The game was originally released as freeware in Japan, but it has been greatly expanded in the "plus" edition, offering double the content with more locales and enemies. Hakoniwa Explorer Plus is now available on PC via Steam and Playism. Check our coverage here.
Aggelos was developed by Storybird Games, the studio behind the Finding Teddy series. The game is a traditional action-adventure where you play a sword-wielding hero on a quest to defeat an evil villain and rescue the princess. Along the way, you'll stab the hell out of bears, birds, hermit crabs, spiders, and other wildlife that stands in the way of your victory. Along the way, you'll learn new sword attacks and projectile-based spells to defeat your enemies and reach new areas, and you can level up to increase your strength and defense. Per retro adventuring standards, a number of friendly NPC's await you in a village to help point you in the right direction.
Moonlighter from Digital Sun Games is a roguelike action-RPG starring a shopkeeper named Will who dreams of becoming a hero. By venturing into the nearby dungeons, Will is able to acquire rare items for sale in his shop, which in turn further funds his adventures, allowing him to upgrade his shop, purchase better weapons and equipment, and craft new items. Of course, he also has to manage his shop and make determinations as to whether he should keep or sell valuable artifacts, and how much he should sell items for. He can also fulfill requests for customers who request specific items... and try to prevent customers from stealing his hard-fought goods! The game offers randomly-generated dungeons and loot drops with loads of tough enemies to face, leading to greater rewards for players who make it further in, with dungeon bosses offering rare items when defeated.
The game is now available for PC and Mac via Steam, GOG, and Humble Store, Xbox One via Microsoft Store, and PS4 via PSN, and a Switch version is coming soon. Check our coverage here.
In case you don't already know, Ori and the Blind Forest is a wonderful game. It's an atmospheric metroidvania set in a beautiful world with well-crafted environments, an interesting moveset, and an emotional yet wordless story... and it was our 2015 Game of the Year. Microsoft and Moon Studios (game site) have returned with a sequel entitled Ori and the Will of the Wisps, which is once again set in a lush and beautiful world filled with amazing creatures, with an adventure-platformer setting where the player explores an open world and gains new abilities to reach new areas. The game stars Ori, this time on a quest to assist a young owl who comes from a tribe of owls that have been wiped out, presumably related to the villainous owl, Kuro, from the original game. This time around, Ori is able to access spells to combat his enemies, and wield melee- and projectile-based weapons, putting a heavier focus on combat over the more platforming-focused original... although there are some new environmental navigation abilities as well.
The game is coming to PC and Xbox One in 2019.
To find more promising 2D games currently under development, be sure to check out our Master List.
Flynn: Son of Crimson from Studio Thunderhorse, is an adventure-platformer where players explore a colorful nonlinear world, fighting monsters, uncovering secrets, and speaking with NPC's. The game stars a redheaded hero named Flynn, who was orphaned as a child, and he must uncover the secrets of his past and uncover the mysterious power that lies within him. Flynn will find himself smashing through obstacles and enemies with an axe, blasting them with a bow and arrows, and slashing them with a sword, and as he unlocks new abilities, he'll be able to smash through stone barricades, climb walls, and grapple across gaps.
The game is coming to PC, Mac, PS4 and Xbox One, but does not yet have an announced release date. A demo is available on the game's Itch.io page.
To find more promising 2D games currently under development, be sure to check out our Master List.
Skelly Selest is the latest game from Caiysware, the developer behind the chunky low-rez roguelike dungeon crawler Straimium Immortaly. Skelly Selest also features roguelike dungeon crawling through chunky low-rez environments, but offers numerous other game modes as well, including several arena combat modes, super tough one-off challenges for expert players, and even a card game inspired by Final Fantasy VIII’s Triple Triad. In most of these modes, players dive into the action equipped with an axe and a gun, but the gun only has five bullets. By killing enemies with the axe, bullets are restocked, keeping players on their toes as they deal with different enemy types. The game features loads of stackable powerups that significantly alter how players take on each run, as well as several unlockable characters, each with their own strengths and weaknesses.
The game is now available for PC via Steam. Check our coverage here.