The Big Adventure Event, presented by Indie Game Publisher Hitcents, is here and I’m excited for lots of demos from January 20th (aka now) until January 24th! This event will give us insights into a bunch of different games through Live Gameplay and streams, Dev Q&As, Rewards and Giveaways, Special Announcements, Multiplayer Lobbies and more found on the official Hitcents discord. Furthermore, you can find all the demos on this page right here on Steam if you’re interested in playing through a bunch of them.
That announcement aside, I won’t write about many demos, as I did for other events, mostly because I find it a bit too overwhelming personally and because the “fear of missing out” is big in this one. What I am going to do, however, is present you with some thoughts on a few demos I already played as well as further thoughts on games you gotta keep an eye out for!
For the event, I was approached by a few different developers to play their demos. One of them was Space Boat, which is a humorous investigative narrative game set on an intergalactic cruise ship inhabited by various carpet-based lifeforms. As Inspector Domino, a space cat detective, you’re charged with finding a shapeshifting thief. That thief caused some intergalactic troubles which is why you gotta find your way onto “Princess Andromeda”, the largest cruise ship in the galaxy, and talk your way out of tricky situations. The demo took me about 35 minutes to complete with one crash of sorts happening. Bugs happen, it’s a demo, after all, but my experience was really good overall. The voice acting is fun, the jokes made me chuckle here and there, and the puzzles are satisfying. Definitely worth checking out!
Another lovely demo that I got to play comes from German Indie Studio Hanging Gardens Interactive whose game, Sonority, will launch in March 2022! In Sonority, you play Esther who is exploring the rockery to find a magical melody that will allow you to cure an old friend of a mysterious disease. The gameplay focuses on musical-themed puzzles where the differences in notes enable you to rearrange staircases and rotate platforms. To be able to progress, you solve puzzles, explore the area, unlock hints, and talk to a Racoon. After 30 minutes, I was done with the demo and while it is a bit rough around some edges (graphics mainly), I found it pretty intriguing and a lot of fun, especially with the interesting puzzles that it faces!
Next up, Ghost on the Shore by Belgian developer “like Charlie” is a stunning exploration game about emotional ties that transcend even death. Accompanied by a voice in your head named Josh, you step into the role of Riley who is exploring the Rogue islands, trying to uncover the secrets of this distant place. Right from the get-go, I felt at home here with the two voices accompanying this walking-sim. As you explore the serene landscapes, you’ll find yourself falling in love with these characters and the chemistry they have. Throughout your little hike, you may find choices to make that will decide Riley’s fate in a branching story, as well as locations that can be drawn, puzzles that can be found, and objects that you can interact with, revealing stories from the past. I really enjoyed this little trip and while it was relatively short (at only 27 minutes), it definitely left me wanting more!
At last, I also got to play The Plague Doctor of Wippra by German solo dev Electrocosmos. The Plague Doctor of Wippra is a historical Point ‘n Click Adventure where you try to help as many people as you can in dire times where the small town of Wippra is plagued by disease, fear and agony. As medieval superstition and religious zeal mix into the threat of the Plague, you find yourself in the role of the plague doctor Oswald Keller. The situation is difficult, so you’ve often got the choice of standing up against misbeliefs and the ignorance of the people or to do as they say and report every case of the “Black Death”. The mechanics themselves are relatively simple with the mouse button being used for the main gameplay. The Pixel Artstyle is lovely but it makes it sadly a bit hard to see what you can interact with or what objects actually are. I found myself stuck on a few occasions but I still managed to complete the demo in only 15 minutes, which is pretty short. If you wanna see it for yourself, definitely play the demo!
The Big Adventure Event also features many other demos, like an updated build of Beacon Pines and demo builds of other cool games like NORCO, Starstruck, Lamentum, and others! Not only are there demos, though, but also new releases that you may wishlist now (there are way too many cool games coming out in 2022!) as well as a big sale for a lot of releases that are already out. Lamentum in particular is something that I’ve reviewed before and that I can highly recommend if you wanna think about picking it up. Beacon Pines has been a great deal of fun when I last played the demo, so I’m looking forward to seeing what has changed, especially as I love the universe and as I interviewed one of the developers a while back!
As always, there are a lot of great releases being announced on events like this one – and with Steam Next Fest being close as well (February!), the trend will continue onwards. I’m glad that there are events like this to promote Indie Games in particular as it offers discoverability to some real Indie Gems. I’d just hope that these events would last longer so that you could play more than just a few demos each time. Did you find any gems this time around? If so, feel free to share some with me in the comments. Would love to find more!
Cheers!
This post was first published on Indiecator by Dan Indiecator aka MagiWasTaken. If you like what you see here and want to see more, you can check me out on Twitch and YouTube as well. If you find this post on a website other than Indiecator.org, please write an e-mail to me. Thank you!
Indiecator 
Leave a Reply