I recently attended AltShiftPlay, a curated 3-day exhibition in the heart of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia at the Telekom Museum. This exhibition featured video games from 25 Australian game developers with diverse backgrounds and working in a range of genres. Amongst them were well known teams like House House (Untitled Goose Game) and Team Cherry (Hollow Knight), and the show featured some intriguing thinky games, which I’ve collected below:
Bosswords
Released: TBD
Pricing: TBD
To be available on: Computer and mobile
Bosswords is an upcoming word puzzle game that challenges your thinky word-skills to the max. You’re given a set of letters and you have to use all of them to construct a word. How do you fit OENA into a word? 'Moment' only has you using three out of the four letters provided, so perhaps you can try 'orange'? How far can you push the limits of your vocabulary?
Heavenly Bodies
Released: 7th December 2021
Pricing: 19.99 USD
Available on: Steam (Windows and Mac) and Playstation 4 & 5
Playing Heavenly Bodies is a somewhat-accurate simulator of being aboard the International Space Station, if the International Space Station also had free-flying man-powered spacecraft to harvest asteroid minerals. This physics puzzle game has you controlling a cosmonaut floating in 0G, and can be played solo or co-op with a friend!
HOLEY HELL
Released: 26th April 2021
Pricing: Free
Available on: itch.io download (Windows)
Made for the 48th Ludum Dare, Daniel Linssen (aka managore) takes inspiration from past games of his like Wibble Wobble, Breaker and The Sun and Moon to create a game that has a tiny player character avoiding obstacles and seeking out keys to dive deeper and deeper into a seemingly bottomless pit. It's quite a unique visual treat. Are you ready to dive into a HOLEY HELL?
Unpacking
Released: 1 November 2021
Pricing: 19.99 USD (buy the soundtrack here)
Available on: Steam (Windows, Mac, SteamOS, and Linux), Nintendo Switch, XBox One, Playstation 4 & 5, Humble Store, and GOG.com
Moving houses is never easy — the packing and unpacking, getting the help you need, and finally settling into a brand new space. Unpacking is a game about, well, unpacking things in your new home. Fit blocks into empty spaces, and decorate for the first time! With no timer or scores, the game lets you take your time to understand the story of the person whose very life you are unpacking.
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