Alpha Beta Gamer

Jenny LeClue is a well crafted point and click puzzle adventure in a similar vein to the Professor Layton series, in which you play a brilliant young female detective in a book narrated by (and affected by) it’s author.

Jenny LeClue follows the story of Jenny as she tries to clear her mother of a bogus murder charge, soon uncovering a web of lies and deceit. Inspired by Professor Layton, Broken Age, Twin Peaks and Sherlock, Jenny LeClue offers charming hand-drawn animation, intelligent puzzle design, humor and interesting characters, all wrapped up in an intriguing story of murder and corruption.

The Alpha Demo is a very well polished experience, featuring excellent art design and clever puzzles. There is a little of the classic point and click adventure style ‘use object A on object B’ puzzles, but the majority is the far more enjoyable self contained puzzles as seen in the Professor Layton series.

The game also promises an intriguing meta-story, with Jenny’s decisions affecting the action of the Author of the book she is a character in, and his actions affecting her adventure. It will also boast branching pathways caused by decisions in game, and an innovative approach to interrogating suspects, with you able to move the camera around to better observe visual cues and determine whether they’re lying or not.

With it’s gorgeous cartoon-like visuals, intriguing story and innovative gameplay, Jenny LeClue really impresses. An intelligent murder mystery that’s well worth investigating.

Play the Alpha Demo, Free (Win, Mac & Linux)

Speak of the Cloud, a wonderfully animated point and click adventure, has you trying to save your stubborn grandfather who won’t leave his house.

An alien invasion has started in your area. Everyone is evacuating as soon as they can, but your stubborn, old, grandfather seems to think that the aliens are not a problem. He’d much rather sit in front of his TV and ignore the UFO’s swarming around the town. Watching a tennis match seems to be the only thing he is interested in. He feels that if he ignores the aliens, they will leave him and his precious TV alone. It’s up to you to get this old man off of the sofa and out of the apartment.

This short game takes place in a relatively small apartment building. Using the objects around you, you must talk to neighbors and come up with some solution to get your grandpa to leave the room. Hooked to the TV, will you be able to make this man get out, for his own good?

Speak of the Cloud was made for Adventure Jam and the devs plan to expand on it into a fully fleshed out version. We can’t wait to see where the developers, Mechanic Moon Studio, take this game next as it’s already a charming, humorous and delightfully drawn adventure. A cloud with a very silver lining.

Play Speak of the Cloud, Free (Windows, Android & Browser)

Take Frogger, add in a little Puyo Puyo puzzle action, wrap it in poetic overtones, and you have She Who Was Once Lost. In this straightforward puzzle jumper, players take point as a firefly faerie attempting to cross a river of adorable creatures that are more deadly than they let on.

While making their way through the waves of enemies, the player will encounter lines of poetry that describe She Who Was Once Lost, a mysterious She who is made mention of throughout the game. Played in stages, the monsters will vary in size, speed, and technique in order to prevent the player from reaching the other side. Some enemies blink in and out of view, allowing the player to pass or get caught when they re-materialize.

The game experience is enhanced by a balmy soundtrack by Pathetic Experience that makes this perilous journey seem more like a daydream. Searching for this mysterious character becomes the only drive, and pushes the player through endless waves of interesting and cute creatures, which resemble sea creatures but have some rather illuminating names.

Play the Alpha, Free (Win, Mac & Linux)

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The Monkey Fortunetell is a very silly fortune telling game that features a superb soundtrack, some dangerous dance moves and mystical fortune telling monkeys.
Obviously it’s pretty doubtful that these monkeys really can tell the future, but they sure know how to have a good time, busting some serious shapes to the sci-fi dubstep theme tune that accompanies it. Mad as a barrel full of monkeys.
Play Monkey Fortunetell, Free

The Miskatonic is a beautifully hand-drawn 2D side-scrolling horror comedy visual novel, where you play as a odd female protagonist with a huge shotgun in a demonic university. It’s inspired by H.P. Lovecraft, with old school survival horror puzzles and ‘harrowingly humorous’ dialogue.

The Miskatonic‘s appeal is its nice aesthetic design, wonderful character designs, a great atmosphere in a beautifully grim world, and horrifically fun dialogue interactions between the unique characters. Dark, humorous and stylish stuff.

Play the Pre-Alpha, Free

Tahira: Echoes of the Astral Empire is an episodic turn-based tactical RPG with beautiful Banner Saga-esque rotoscoped animation, challenging turn based combat and a deep, character driven story.

Check Out the Kickstarter & Play the Free Alpha

Viktor is a beautifully hand drawn point and click steampunk adventure, will of colorful characters, inventive puzzles and wonderfully irreverent humor.

You aid Victor (an impulsive wild boar) on his quest to become the Emperor of Austria-Hungary, engaging in all sorts of outlandish adventures including an airship fight, meeting the love of his life in an anarchist basement and helping Tesla test a brand new incredible machine. These adventures are wonderfully represented through hand crafted animation, resembling a saturday morning kids cartoon, but with a genuinely funny adult sense of humor.

The Alpha Demo takes part in Viktor’s home and offers up a great taste of the irreverent sense of humor and (fairly) logical puzzles to expect in the full game. Viktor's home is packed with nice little touches, such as an almost accurate map of the world and a cockroach covered bathtub that doubles as a bed. You’ll also meet Victor’s best friend, a psychic and slightly mad Owl called Martin. It takes around 15 mins to complete the Alpha Demo, it’s a blast and will certainly leaves you excited for ~~more~~ boar of Victor’s story.

Check Out the Kickstarter & Play the Free Alpha Demo

Guns, Gore & Cannoli is a over-the-top, comical, Metal Slug-style action shooter, featuring beautiful hand drawn animation, 2 player co-op, mobsters, zombies and plenty of weaponry.

Set in the roaring 20′s, your old school gangster must fight, shoot, blast and kick his way through a zombie infested city run by two rival mafia bosses to find a ‘goodfella’ who has gone missing. What follows is a bombastic side-scrolling arcade shooter, with a great sense of humour and a metric ton of OTT Cartoon violence.

Coming to PC, Mac, PS4, Xbox One and Wii U, Guns, Gore & Cannoli is essentially a shiny new Metal Slug with old school gangsters – and it’s a blast.

Download the free Alpha Demo & Visit the Kickstarter Page

South Park VR allows you to roam the streets of South Park in first person, either with a standard monitor of with an Oculus Rift headset for the fully immersive experience.

The town has a layout that will be familiar to anyone who has played The Stick of Truth, and all the South Park residents roam the streets ready with a quick sound-bite (Terrance & Phillip are a particular highlight) when you get near. While South Park VR isn’t really a game per se (you can’t really interact with anything), it’s fun to roam the streets spotting the various residents, landmarks and in-jokes.

Staying true to South Park’s ethos, the animation is suitably shoddy, with the 2D characters on a 3D background working well to create an authentic version of the Colorado mountain town. As far as Rift support goes, it’s probably a waste of cutting edge technology, but it’ll certainly make you smile if you’re a fan of South Park. The in-jokes and sound-bites are what make South Park VR worthwhile, we won’t spoil it for you but MAKE SURE YOU GO INSIDE THE CHURCH!

Download the Tech Demo or Play in a Unity Supported Browser (Win & Mac, Oculus Rift or Standard Screen)

Aaru’s Awakening is a fantastic 2D action platformer with a beautiful hand drawn art style inspired by 70s animation films. You play as Aaru, the champion of dawn, a muscular beast who must travel through the domains of Dawn, Day, Dusk and Night and defeat the Night deity who has upset the balance in the world of Lumenox.

The big draw of Aaru’s Awakening is obviously that gorgeous hand drawn art style, with with the backdrops, character animations and special effects all combining to make the game look and feel like a high quality anime cartoon. The art style adds a wonderfully dreamy atmosphere to the game, which is exacerbated by the excellent, euphoric soundtrack.

As well as looking unique, Aaru’s Awakening shows inovaion in gameplay too. Utilising an Abuse-style control scheme, Aaru can aim and fire his soul into the world, ricocheting off walls then teleporting to where it lands. It’s a great mechanic that opens adds a lot of depth and some puzzle based elements to to game.

The Alpha Demo features 4 levels, and is a good taster for what Aaru’s Awakening has to offer. An excellent action platformer with some truly stunning scenery.

Download the Alpha Demo, Free

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