For a few reasons, the end of May has become a sort of deadline by which many puzzle and thinky games set their launch dates. This year is no exception, and several much-anticipated titles have already announced their impending releases.
The Cerebral Puzzle Showcase is a huge Steam sale celebrating the kinds of games we love (run by our buddies at Draknek & Friends, and kicked off with some exclusive announcements of our own...) and this year when it begins on May 28th a bunch of new games are dropping, several of which we've had our eyes on: the do-your-own-cartography game Map Map, Michael Brough's latest roguelike 868-BACK, and the non-violent creature-cataloging metroidbrainia EMUUROM all arrive that same day.
EMUUROM is definitely a game the community has collectively been excitedly awaiting, as we've followed the development progress for a long time now. News of the release less than a month away is sure to get people excited: this odd beast of an exploration adventure, with its metroidvania platforming, lack of combat, creature scanning mechanics and focus on gaining knowledge and uncovering secret layers is both unique and also extremely enticing to fans of sprawling exploration games that ask you to engage your brain. (We like to call these "metroidbrainias".) The beautiful lo-fi pixel art aesthetic doesn't hurt either.
868-BACK is the sequel to the acclaimed roguelike 868-HACK, one of several compact, very thinky games of this style from the mind of Michael Brough, after whom the niche genre has come to be known as "broughlikes." What you can expect is to be confined to a pretty tight grid space, maneuvering in close quarters with enemies and making use of a unique set of abilities each time you play to creatively wriggle out of tough spots. The 868 games in particular feature lots of risk/reward choices, allowing you to siphon credits, energy and valuable data out of the world around you. This new one adds many layers to the established formula, and I'm very excited to dive into it on May 28th.
Map Map is one of the cutest games in an upcoming wave we're currently watching in our scene: cartography games that task you with charting, drawing and exploring landscapes seem to be having a moment recently. In this one you're part of a gang of kids exploring uncharted islands and it's your task to make sure you all know the lay of the land, using various tools and landmarks to create detailed maps of the environment. We published a review of the demo on the site not long ago, and as with these other titles, you'll only have to wait a few short weeks until May 28th when the full game arrives on Steam.
I hope news of these titles and some new release-date trailers have helped generate some hype for you: the end of the month is going to be a feast for fans of games that make you think. There are already even more releases announced around that time such as Phonopolis from Amanita on May 20th, and yet another May 28th release with What's the Password? coming from the creator of Luck Be a Landlord. Keep your eyes open for lots more reporting about all the exciting things on the way.
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