New Blip: Huntdown

Huntdown, from Easy Trigger, is a 90's arcade-style shooter where each of the major gangs has taken over a section of the city, and bounties have been placed on their heads. You must hunt them down, as the title suggests, blasting your way through baddies on your way to each level's end boss, going it alone or bringing a friend in local 2P co-op. The game features a dark and gritty style with a rundown city covered in graffiti and packed with thugs wielding heavy-hitting shotguns and machine guns. Players smash through glass, blast exploding red barrels, and generally blast sprays of hot lead into everything they see.

The game is headed to PC via Steam, PS4 via PSN, Xbox One via Microsoft Store, and Switch via eShop later this year.




To find more promising 2D games currently under development, be sure to check out our Master List.

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New Blip: Hazelnut Bastille

Hazelnut Bastille, from Aloft Studio is a veritable love letter to The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, featuring isometric top-down action through interconnected dungeon rooms, with sword-based combat, a (cross)bow and arrows, bombs, and loads of potions and other items to aid you in your quest. Players must solve environmental puzzles, slash enemies, hunt for keys, and make thier way to the boss room. The world is full of life and color, with charming sprite designs for the pink-haired protagonist, the enemies, and the screen-filling bosses. Players take on the role of the heroine as she gets swept up in a grand adventure and seeks answers to the history of her world.

The game is coming to PC, Mac, and Linux via Steam, but does not yet have an announced release date. For some reason, there is no official trailer, so here's 10 minutes of some guy playing the alpha demo, which you can sign up for on the game's homepage:




To find more promising 2D games currently under development, be sure to check out our Master List.

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New Blip: Hell is Other Demons

Hell is Other Demons... ain't that a fact. Hannes Rahm is here to show you just how nasty Hell can be, as you blast hundreds of demons in the face with a huge array of weapons. The game is a sidescrolling arena combat actioner in a 4-color that is continuously populated by waves of terrible demons waiting to milk your raging arsenal for its sweet hot bullet juice. As you destroy demons, and face off against terrible boss creatures, and keep your buns out of the burning lava below, you unlock new weapons and abilities to aid in your quest for destruction, and leaderboards await those who rack up a huge score. Plus, music is being composed by The Algorithm, and sound design is being done by Magnus Palsson, best known for his work on VVVVVV.

The game is coming to PC, Mac, and Linux via Steam but does not yet have an announced release date.




To find more promising 2D games currently under development, be sure to check out our Master List.

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New Blip: Death Trash

Death Trash, from Crafting Legends (game site), is an action-RPG set in a post-apocalyptic world that mixes sci-fi and grotesque horror to create disturbing scenes accompanied by dark humor. Various factions are struggling for power and fighting for resources, and something about the "Evergrowing Heart pounds for the Flesh Hive"... yeah, no idea what that means, but it should give you some idea of what you're in for. Gameplay focuses on blasty-shooty combat enhanced by item crafting and psionic powers, with a focus on dialogue - with options that provide some pretty nontraditional choices - and the ability to kill any NPC. The game supports 2P local drop-in/out co-op if you and a friend want to get weirdly uncomfortable together.

The game is coming to PC, Mac, and Linux, but does not yet have an announced release date. There's no trailer yet, but here's a lengthy developer interview to get you all caught up:




To find more promising 2D games currently under development, be sure to check out our Master List.

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Target Acquired: Light Fantastik

Light Fantastik, from Hayali, is an odd platformer with light puzzle-platforming elements. Set in a land where a sickness has transformed everyone into squares with eyes, one square takes it upon himself to trek across the world in search for a cure. There is a light world where everything is clearly visible, and a dark world where things are obscured, and the square must move between both in order to navigate the environment. This is done by pressing against white wavy lines that act as connection points between worlds, and later via teleportation points. When travelling into the dark world, the square can jump considerably higher, but the lower visibility makes it harder to spot enemies and platforms. In addition, controls in the dark world are reversed, adding further challenge to environmental navigation. As the game goes on, the player takes on other forms in the dark world, including a square that cannot stop jumping, and a circle that cannot stop moving.

The game is now available for PC via Steam. Check our coverage here.

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New Blip: Noita

Nolla Games is a studio made up of Petri Purho (Crayon Physics Deluxe), Olli Harjola (The Swapper), and Arvi "Hempuli" Teikari (Environmental Station Alpha), and they have returned with Noita. The game is a physics-based action platformer, but what sets it apart from the other games in the genre is the fact that physics are applied to every pixel in the game world, bringing about shenanigans you haven't seen since the PixelJunk Shooter series, only this time in a chunky pixellated world. You can freeze water and then blast through chunks of ice, smash objects to make them break and collapse, cause lava to flow into an open space, electrify pools of water, or burn through flammable gasses to ignite the air in a room and burn through your enemies... or yourself if you're not careful. This is a roguelike game featuring spellcrafting, permadeath, and procedurally generated environments filled with dangerous enemies and elements.

The game is coming to PC via Steam but does not yet have an announced release date. Watching the trailer is highly recommended to grasp the possibilities that rise as a result of the Falling Everything Engine.




To find more promising 2D games currently under development, be sure to check out our Master List.

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New Blip: UFO 50

Over at 8 Bit Horse, we manage to get through a game a week, so imagine our surprise when we found out that a team of developers has decided to create a single release with a total of 50 games! We've made it through some multi-game collections before like Retro Game Crunch (7 games) and Pixel Session Vol. 1 (5 games), but nothing like this. So, we have no idea how we're going to tackle this one when it comes out, aside from covering nothing but this for an entire year. At any rate...

UFO 50 is a collection of 50 games from a collection of developers including Derek Yu (Spelunky), Ojiro Fumoto (Downwell) Eirik Suhrke (Skorpulac), Jon Perry (Time Barons), and Paul Hubans (Madhouse). The games cover a variety of genres and play styles, including shooters, RPG's, puzzlers, brawlers, and platformers, with single player, cooperative, and competitive games in the mix. Each game has a single director in charge of the concept, but with other team members contributing assets, design, and programming assistance. They games aren't quite as long as traditional commercial titles, but they aren't throwaway 5-minute experiences either. The collection is essentially a 50-in-1 cart, but not filled with Chinese knockoff crap or reskinned versions of other games.

The game, er, games are coming to PC in 2018, with other platforms to follow. The trailer is below should give you some idea of what you're in for:




To find more promising 2D games currently under development, be sure to check out our Master List.

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Target Acquired: Treasure Adventure World

In 2011, Robit Studios released a freeware game called Treasure Adventure Game, an action adventure title with a large open world to explore, creatures to kill, puzzles to solve, and treasures to find. The game took Stephen Orlando more than two years to create. Now, he he's back with a vastly expanded version of the game called Treasure Adventure World which features new content, new music, and a new visual style. The player controls an adventurous girl who sets out with her parrot to traverse a number of islands – to which she sails in a magical shrinking/growing boat that fits in his pocket when not in use – speaking to NPCs and embarking on various quests, slowly opening up the world metroidvania-style as new abilities and equipment are earned, such as digging down through piles of dirt and diving beneath the the sea.

Treasure Adventure World is now available for PC via Steam, GOG, and Humble Store. Check our coverage here. The original Treasure Adventure Game is also available for free on GOG and FilePlanet.

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Target Acquired: Zwei: The Arges Adventure

If you prefer the Japanese side of action-RPG's, complete with its spikey-haired protagonists, chibi characters, fat kittens, and heavy leanings toward the pastel section of the color palette, then you may want to check out Zwei: The Arges Adventure from Nihon Falcom, which just made its US release. The game is the first entry in the series (released simply as Zwei!! in Japan) and a direct predecessor to Zwei: The Ilvard Insurrection, and if those words make sense to you, then you probably already know about this game. The game is set on the continent of Arges and features Pokkle and Pipiro, a pair of step-siblings who find themselves thrust out of their daily routines and into a grand quest as they search for a set six of holy idols that have been stolen from a shrine. They're not trying to save the world, however, but are in search of fortune and glory, as a huge reward has been offered for the idols' return. The game features plenty of silly humor with an overall lighthearted feel, a food-based leveling system, and a handful of minigames.

The game is now available for PC via Steam, GOG, and Humble Store.




To find more promising 2D games currently under development, be sure to check out our Master List.

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New Blip: Guacamelee! 2

A sequel to Guacamelee! is coming... and given that the first game was a pretty dang outstanding luchador-meets-dia-de-los-muertos metroidvania set in a beautiful world, this one needs your immediate attention. Guacamelee! 2, from DrinkBox Studios, picks up seven years after the previous game. After luchador Juan Aguacate defeats the evil Carlos Calaca, a new threat rises and threatens spacetime itself! Once again, you must use your super stylish wrestling moves to bash your way through monsters while unlocking new abilities that aid you in combat and allow you to more fully explore the environment. You'll be travelling between dimensions, body slamming baddies, performing precision platforming feats, and fighting fearsome bosses in your quest to save the Mexiverse!

So far, the game has only been confirmed for PS4, but the last game came out on a bunch of platforms, so you should see it elsewhere soon. The game has no announced release date.




To find more promising 2D games currently under development, be sure to check out our Master List.

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Target Acquired: Snow Fall

Snow Fall, from developer EHTechnology, features a winter-clad warrior dashing through five themed environments (two of which are snowy) in search of an evil being who is capable of destroying entire galaxies. Armed with only a shotgun, the protagonist faces off against some fast-moving foes and stationary enemies that can attack with a distance... and his starting weapon isn't terribly effective against them. However, by collecting materials in the environment, the player can craft more powerful armaments in the form of rifles, machine guns, and lasers, allowing him to tear through enemies more quickly. Most environments are nonlinear, allowing the player to explore in any direction, with materials, checkpoints, and the keys to open level exits often placed off the beaten path.

The game is now available on PC and Linux via Steam. Check our coverage here. I couldn't find a trailer for the game, or a website for the developer, who is based in Russia. So, here's a video of someone else playing the game (in Russian):

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Target Acquired: Heroes of Hammerwatch

Crackshell, the developer behind Hammerwatch and Serious Sam's Bogus Detour, has returned with a new top-down action game set in the world of Hammerwatch, entitled Heroes of Hammerwatch. Instead of the handcrafted levels featured in the studio's previous games, the newest release is a roguelike action adventure with procedurally generated levels. Seven character classes are on offer, each with differing stats and playstyles, and any experience earned by the hammerwatching heroes is retained for future runs, allowing players to level up and dive in again. The game also features online 4P co-op in case you'd like to crawl some dungeons with a few remotely-located pals, and players can import their characters into a friend's game. Players will find themselves battling hordes of enemies, avoiding traps, finding secrets, and grabbing loot on their way to the top of the Forsaken Spire.

The game is now available on PC and Linux via Steam and GOG.

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