itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality

[Equinox]

Last month, a bundle on itch.io with 1,741 creative works raised $8.1 million for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and Community Bail Fund. Works included prose fiction, poetry, comics, digital games, tabletop games, soundtracks, and tools.

In short: it's a massive bundle.

Has anyone tried any of the stuff in it?

[Isis]

I keep meaning to

[Isis]

The time is now I'm opening it.

[GeorgeBailey]

Celeste and Night in the Woods alone make it worth it.

Playing Secret Little Haven rn and having a blast.

Dreaming Sarah, Nuclear throne and Octodad too.

[Isis]

Lenna's inception was on the first page, it's a roguelike-ified Link to the Past clone. Which makes sense to put out as a game since the Link to the Past community spends lots of time romhacking their game to make it quasi roguelike and play it over and over

it's pretty cute!

I found this just by navigating the items available in the bundle so maybe it's not as hard to connect with things you would like as I was scared and anxious of


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Re GeorgeBailey I know Celeste is pretty good but haven't heard of Night in the Woods (genre? not horror? )

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Equinox made me feel like a knuckledragger for the realization I will likely not access the finer literature and art available D: Maybe if something recommends something sharply

edit: the good emoji is unavailable right now?

[GeorgeBailey]

but haven't heard of Night in the Woods (genre? not horror? )

It's more adventure, there's a few scary parts but no jumpscares from what I remember. I definitely wouldn't say horror.

The art and some of the scenes is just amazing though. 10/10 highly recommend.

[GeorgeBailey]

Also, this is probably the best game in the entire pack

[caledfwitch]

i will do some quick reviews of the stuff i have already played:

celeste: i have touched this a little. im total garbo @ platformers tho so i havent gotten far at all
night in the woods: hugely recommend. probably in my top 5 games of all time (PLAYED THIS ON STEAM BEFORE BUT STILL RECOMMEND)
a morticians tale: short and sweet! i used to be into like surgical procedure flash games as a kid and this gave me those vibes. good environmental storytelling
arcade spirits: long ass vn with 6 (!!!) romance options! wowee! it was ok. if ur a lilypichu simp she voices a character here
highway blossoms: this wasnt that good tbh. i thought it would be a cute lesbian kinetic novel but some story elements made me uncomfortable. the setting for the story isnt really appropriate for some of the events that happen
one night stand: i think others would enjoy this a lot but i felt like i was under a lot of scrutiny while playing this. idk i felt like someone was looking at me under a magnifying glass HOWEVER the art style is very good and its a good game concept.
a short hike: HIGHLY HIGHLY RECOMMEND. ur a bird and u scramble around a state park. if you like animal crossing you will love this
art sqool: very cute n fun! the colors all start to blend together after a while (i wish there was some stuff for contrast like outlines) but its very cool and explorey. i like drawing
2064 read only memories: i played this a long time ago and it was very fun. this apparently takes place in the same universe as va-11 hall-a the bartending sim so if u liked that i would recommend this too
pyre: I DIDNT KNOW THIS WAS HERE AND IM SOO EXCITED!!! MYTHOLOGICAL BASKETBALL WOOOOOOO (supergiant games is probably my favorite game dev of all time so i cannot recommend this enough)

ok thats all i got for now

[Nahdia]

ego. have played quite a few of them, will give some thoughts.

[D3f3nd3r]

I bought the bundle but still haven’t touched it

[Equinox]

A Normal Lost Phone

- This was a quick 90-minute game of exploring someone's phone to discover what happened to the person. The puzzles were fairly straightforward, so the game was more for emotional impact than an actual challenge. The game comes with content warnings for bigotry and transphobia. I enjoyed this

especially in the aftermath of recent events on the site

, and it was a nice, relaxing, and quick game. The soundtrack was pretty nifty.

Another Lost Phone: Laura's Story

- This is a shorter game at 70 minutes, but otherwise it has the same conceit as

A Normal Lost Phone

. The difference in time was likely due to less reading material in the second game, which does not diminish it; it just seemed to be more dense. The game comes with content warnings for

psychological abuse

. I appreciated what this game did, and I probably would recommend it for people who want to know more about the subject matter it depicts. The soundtrack here was also pretty nifty.

[Aurathebirb]

Minit is a pretty short and fun game. Basically you have one minute until your character dies and respawns

[Errantparabola]

i played a short hike and it was so good that i did not play any of the other games

[Gammagooey]

Democratic socialism simulator: Probably a lot like you'd expect except all the characters are Bojack Horsemen style animal people. You get a lot of Reigns-esque choices, need to manage budget+worker rights+environment bars along with a little grid of simplified 'groups' of voters that each care about two topics in a specific way to make sure you get re-elected and to try to improve your position in Congress to give you more options after mid-term elections. Lasts around an hour, I played through it twice and enjoyed it.

Death & Taxes: You're a grim reaper and you're given several profiles of people and decide which ones die! The story's decent for the first playthrough, but I don't think the right way the game wants you to "balance" defying your boss sometimes with completing optional objectives your boss gives you is very intuitive, and a second playthrough doesn't change much to make playing it again feel worthwhile. If it sounds up your alley I'd recommend either ignoring all the optional objectives entirely OR going for all of them, trying to go partway with both doesn't really work.

Overland: I thought I'd like this since X-com type games are my jam but it's got borderline no story and also does not explain how to play at all, which includes you finding items at all points in the game and having no idea how to use them (do I click on an enemy to throw a rock at it or click on the rock in my inventory? How far can I throw the rock? Can I throw it at the wall to make noise? What does this fire extinguisher do? None of that is explained, figure it out yourself) and whether you should bother carrying them at all in your limited inventory. Upside: you can have a dog as a party member. Probably don't play this unless you want to be frustrated for many hours until you figure enough things out to start actually making consistently good decisions.

Celeste: I didn't play it from the bundle, I already have it on Switch and it's great! The later levels are very challenging and I still haven't gone back to play the new extra level they added in earlier this year b/c the extra level is VERY difficult. The first 3 levels give a very good difficulty curve to get you started, and if you're willing to deal with trial and error until you get precise enough on the controls to complete some sections and you like platformers, definitely play it!

Night in the Woods: I watched a Let's Play of this for over 10 hours but never finished watching it. I might one day? The game has a great asthetic and an interesting story, it's just very long. There's some neat mini-games, but for the most part expect a visual novel where you run around town to talk to everyone.

[Starbuck]

That's a ton of stuff. I wouldn't even know where to begin.

[Isis]

Minit is really good, really short.

[bugspray]

there's a puzzle platformer called speer that's pretty neat but some of the later levels introduce annoying mechanics that turn it into a precision puzzle platformer and tonally change the game completely

[Isis]

I like precision platformers so it will probably just be all gravy for me, thanks for the tip

[GeorgeBailey]

Itch.io released another bundle for the Ukraine crisis

https://itch.io/b/1316/bundle-for-ukraine

Highly suggest checking it out, I saw a bunch of really good ones like Celeste and Baba is you.