The Electronic Entertainment Expo is just weeks away and the organizers of Indiecade have revealed their lineup for gaming's biggest tradeshow, promising hands-on with several new and developing games from independant developers.
Some of these games aren't exactly brand new, but they do represent some of the more exciting indie games nearing release. Here's the list:
Hohokum (PlayStation 4): Developer Honeyslug has been developing Hohokum's colorful universe with artwork from Richard Hogg. This game focuses on exploration and vibrant graphics.
CounterSpy (PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, Mobile): Dynamighty has combined spies with 50s and 60s aethetics to put players in the shoes of an agent of rogue third spy agency C.O.U.N.T.E.R.
Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number (PlayStation 4): Hotline Miami thrilled players with its 80s art and synth soundtrack and all that bloody action, but Wrong Number promises a "brutal conclusion."
Thralled (OUYA): This title stars Isaura, a slave who loses her child and is tormented by her past. Players help her escape and search for her lost son.
Toto Temple Deluxe (OUYA, PC): This 2D local-multiplayer platformer challenges four players to "hold on to a goat for as long as possible."
So Many Me (Ouya, PC): This game features 2D puzzle solving with a unique art style. Players help Filo save a world by evil.
Road Not Taken (Ouya, PC): This puzzle game asks players to find their way through an "ever-changing forest in the aftermath of a brutal winter storm."
FRACT-OSC (PC, Consoles): We reviewed this inventive music indie a few weeks ago. Read Paul Tamburro's full review here.
What?!? Oh… (Table): This experimental tabletop game features randomly chosen starter emotions, settings, and comments to create party conversations you'll never be a part of twice.
DREI (Mobile): Players around the world will work together to build a tower in this game focused on "skill, logic, and collaboration."
Long Take (PC, Console): This game challenges players to keep an platform-jumping hero within the viewfinder to record a cool video.
Grow (Table): This strategy games challenges players to think across three dimensions with territorial acquisition, a modular board, route building, and light simulation.
Slap .45 (Table): This game features "three of life's most fundamental elements (slapping, westerns and making rash decisions)" which somehow turns into an action-packed card game where players shoot each other.
Project Heera: Diamond Heist (PC, PS4, Xbox One): This next-gen team-based multiplayer game pits thieves and cops against each other in a battle for precious diamonds.
Hack N Slash (PC, Console): This Double Fine game gives players the ability to hack into the game's code to battle monsters and finish the game. Click here for more details.
Elegy for a Dead World (PC, Console): British Romance-era poets Shelley, Keats, and Byron offer players three long-dead civilizations to explore and players must write about what they find.
Celestia (PC, Mac): This "vocal interaction game" lets players guide a star through the universe in order to absorb satellites and defend against threats.
BLOOM – The Game (Installation): This "interactive architectural installation" makes a commentary on game design at large by allowing individuals to try their hands at "crowd-sourced" assembly.
Story Pops (iPad, iPhone): Young readers can use this smartphone app to interact with stories or create their own narrative events and roleplay with characters.
Close Castles (Mac, PC): This "fast-paced competitive city builder" features fighting game mechanics where players can destroy an opponents creation, drop houses, lay out roads, and watch their citizens attack.
XING: The Land Beyond (PC, Oculus Rift): This first-person puzzle game gives players the chance to go between life and death to solve environmental problems and use powers like rain and snow.
Anamnesis (PC, Oculus): This game features a near-future Los Angeles infected with a deadly virus. Players can use Oculus Rift VR goggles to inspect "psychological imprints" to gain narrative insight on the characters around them.
Tetrageddon Games (PC, Mac, Flash, iPad, iPhone): This gallery collects cultural taboos, icons, and humor to create "a narration of the dynamic times we are in."
Glorkian Warrior: The Trials of Glork (PC, iPad, iPhone, Xbox One): Comic book artist James Kochalka and indie studio Pixeljam have developed this "Galaga-style shoot 'em up" to look like a cartoon with simple platforming mechanics.
please be nice 🙁 (PC, Console): This game allows users who beat it to add a new feature for the next version which then allows the next player to beat it to add a new feature.
Cave! Cave! Deus Videt (PC, Mac, Linux): This visual novel was inspired by "16th century Dutch painter Jheronimus Bosch" and gives players the opportunity to meet a "weird messanger who seems to know too many things about one of Bosch's most enigmatic paintings."
NOVA-111 (PC, Mac, Linux): This sci-fi turn-based adventure game features real-time combat where players hope to save famed scientists.
T.R.E.E. (PC, Mac, iOS): This "community-driven art development game) gives players the chance to grow and shape a treet over the course of days or weeks.
Choice Chamber (PC, Console): This game "is designed to be played while being streamed live on Twitch and anyone watching can participate by simply typing in the chat box." Sounds like Twitch Plays Pokemon.
…and then it rained (Mobile): This game features an abstract world where players have to "catch colored and different sounding rain drops by dragging and reordering matching towers" for a meditative experience.
Bounden (Mobile): This dancing game wants players to "twist and twirl elegantly, or get entangled with a friend" by holding the device and tilting it to follow a path on-screen.
Monstermatic (Mobile): Players can create their own monsters on iOS so that creations come to life with personalities unique to each new monster.
Paparazzi (PC, Console): This multiplayer game challenges two players to take on the role of celebrity and paparazzi. One will try to avoid the cameras while the other will try to snap the perfect picture.
Choosatron Deluxe Adventure Matrix (Table): This game is designed for easy assembly which blends digital and analogue storytelling with a focus on social reading, learning, and play. Players will have their own tales printed while they contribute to a much larger story.
We'll be visiting Indiecade at E3 2014, so stick with GameRevolution for all of our coverage from the show.