Dogs Throwing Swords II: Three Barks To The Wind is a sequel — I think — and ‘shoot ’em up’ made by Lily V, a solo indie dev out of the United States. Players are thrust into Dogwoods in which a horned devil named ORELIA is causing havoc for all. Only three heroes will stand against this, and it’s up to them (and the player) to defeat this evil with the power of barks. And swords, somehow?

Before we even get to the barking, players will decide their team of three out of the four possible dogs, with choices such…

This was supposed to be a standard double, but unfortunately Patches of Adventure hit a snag that I cannot find a solution for; it just won’t boot. Normally I would simply skip titles like this and just download another, put a little statement about how this title doesn’t work and that it may in the future, but I’m currently part of the playtesting group for GameSlice so my time is a bit more limited than normal.

So here’s Compel; I’ll return to Patches of Adventure at a later date if I can get a solution, and put a link to…

Idioctopus is a cute movement puzzle game made by BadgerHammer Games, an indie studio based out of the United Kingdom. Players follow the tale of a single octopus in love, needing to find their way to their soulmate, with one major issue; both of them are utterly incompetent at… well, everything.

That’s where the player comes in to be a guiding light. As the blue octopus seeks the purple, they can only move in a singular direction until a wall impedes their movement and move in a new direction. Traditionally this will be in a clockwise rotation, but can be…

ZEPTON is a 2D voxel shoot ’em up made by REZ, a solo indie dev utilizing PICO-8 for this project. It features a ship flying through the sky, armed with some sweet weapons, and needing to survive for as long as possible per the shoot ’em up tradition.

Interestingly, ZEPTON features the camera behind the ship rather than from above, so the uncontrolled thrusters shoot the player ‘in to the monitor’ so to speak and can move the ship around the screen from that angle. This means that a crosshair is imperative to play the game properly, for players need…

A Day in the Woods is a digital reimagining of the traditional sliding puzzle game made by RetroEpic Software, the studio that created the fantastic digital board game Flash Point that was featured earlier. Unlike that co-operative title, this features a young Little Red Riding Hood on her way to her grandmother’s, but instead of finding that there is a Big Bad Wolf stopping her she instead finds out that apparently every elderly individual has decided to take up residence in this forest.

Players are not actually Little Red but a sprite companion who helps move her across the forest…

Miasma Caves is an exploration adventure made by Windy Games, an indie studio based out of the United States. As the draconid Lesath, players will dive in to the local cave systems to discover the source of a dangerous gas known only as the Miasma so that she can save her village, and possibly find some treasure along the way.

Miasma Caves is predominantly a game of searching, exploring and returning to the surface to do it all over again. In fact, it might be easier to reference titles such as the old MotherLoad and SteamWorld Dig for their gameplay…

Lizzi Crossing is a puzzle fusion title made by Eva Lee, an indie dev making bite sized titles out of the United States. This title has our little adventurer friend braving a land full of tall grasses in the hopes of finding the exit, but fearing that they may step across spiked mines. Thankfully, there’s some lovely hints through numbers to give a bit of a confidence boost.

The fusion here is the usage of a Minesweeper grid with the side notations of a Nonogram. While I was familiar with Minesweeper — thanks, Windows — Nonograms weren’t something I was…

Super Skull Smash GO! 2 Turbo is a retro platformer made by TACS Games, an one man indie studio, and published by Poppy Works out of the United States. This little adventure features a megenta coloured individual who is tasked with twarting the Evil King once again as he attempts to create an army of the undead to curse the locals, defile the grounds, and just continue being the worst of people.

Do note that while this is a sequel, I have no actual knowledge of the first installment — I can only comment on this title here.

Gameplay follows…