Welcome to Indie Supporter Spotlight, our new regular article series where we feature the awesome devs who help Indie Bandits celebrate independent games.
Throughout this series, we’ll feature news, updates, and announcements from the great projects that our lovely supporters are working on.
Let’s get to know the devs and see what they’re working on.
VanillaBeast: Ace in the Hole
Vanilla Gaming Company currently has a very interesting project in the works that certainly lives up to their “Go BIG or go home” mantra.
VanillaBeast: Ace in the Hole is a humorous retro gaming odyssey with incredible character and level design from Giuseppe Longo (Misbug) and cover art from Kyle Petchock.
The game includes a smorgasbord of gameplay styles and mechanics with levels inspired by everything from Double Dragon to California Games, to name but a few of my favourites.
There’ll also be fully voiced characters from the world of adult entertainment. However, this isn’t just a project for cheap thrills and won’t be beyond an M (Mature) rating.
In fact, if anything, this is a homage to classic gaming and Bond films with a very bombastic and tongue-in-cheek approach. The game might dub itself as a parody, but it’s clear that Vanilla Gaming Company is taking this project very seriously.
A Kickstarter campaign is coming very soon.
leif
In a completely different vein, Anaconda Game Studios‘ project is just as ambitious but couldn’t be more different than the previous project, at least in terms of tone.
LEIF is an epic Metroidvania that draws upon Viking history and mythology to transport players to a world where the events and characters are as big as the Titans and monsters they have to face.
There’s also exploration, fishing, hunting, and everything a Viking could ever want. Of course, you’ll also be solving puzzles, finding secret areas, and improving your character’s skills and abilities like in other Metroidvanias.
This father and son dev team (with some help from friends and artists) is about six months into development of the game’s prototype, creating artwork and 3D models, and refining the battle system.
This is a project that we’ll be keeping a close eye on so look out for updates from Leif and his horde on Facebook, Twitter, or in their Discord server.
Soul Passage
Like many of you out there, we also love Metroidvanias, which is good, because Soul Passage is another one that’s currently in development.
This is a really gorgeous game with a lot of character where you’ll play as a nameless warrior who’s made a deal with the Soul Keeper in an attempt to save their family.
Sadly, for the protagonist, this involves going on a long and challenging quest to gather souls, earning them the name (or should that be title?) of Obligor.
This project is very early in development, but they do have a Kickstarter planned for early 2022.
THE HERO WE NEED
Our supporters at VoDoo Studios are currently working on a tower defence game with a whole lot of charm. There’s a demo on Steam that we also played as part of our Demo Disc Live streams.
We have to say that it’s a lot of fun but the chaos will stress you out and have even heard that it’s brought some streamers to tears!
From just the demo, we can see that this has a lot of depth to explore and is shaping up to be a pretty high-quality indie outing.
It’s early days for this project and the release is scheduled for November 2022, but that doesn’t mean you can’t follow them on Twitter for updates on it.
bof1ll
The lovely people at Parti Games are currently working on BoF1LL, a light-hearted coop game where players control the titular characters Bo and F1LL.
It’s a gorgeous project where players will have the chance to restore the world. As you progress, you’ll actually get to see the difference you’re making reflected in the environment, rather than just watching numbers go up on a character sheet.
At the moment, they’re in the earlier stages of development, looking for publishers, and working towards launching their Kickstarter.
The Phantom Fellows
The Phantom Fellows is a point-and-click adventure game that’s currently being developed by Paul Korman.
This project stems from a passion for the genre, which you’ll know if you’ve ever spoken to Paul about Sierra and Lucasarts games as you’ll struggle to find somebody who loves them more than him.
A sense of adventure is core to this game’s experience so as you play, the world will begin to open up around you. The demo will give you a taster of this, but we’ve been told that the game really opens up after the demo and a few days into the narrative.
It’s due to be released early into 2022, but you can always check out the website and the Twitter for updates on the project from Paul.
Get your indie game in the spotlight
The Supporter Spotlight is one of the many ways we reward the devs who help us to keep Indie Bandits alive through generous donations and support.
As the number of supporters grows, we’ll also be offering even more to fans and devs including exclusive supporter giveaways, game nights, and ongoing shout-outs, promotion, and coverage to our top supporters.
Support us on Patreon for regular coverage or buy us a coffee/beer if you appreciate what we do to celebrate independent games.
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