Indie Game Social Justice Bundles Reviews

Hey swampers, it's been a minute :) Many of us have picked up the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality and the Humble Bundle for Racial Justice. While they're no longer on sale, there were 1.7+ thousand items in these bundles. Nearly all of these are small indie games, which I personally adore.

So here's a thread for posting about the games we played, what you thought of them, and whether or not you'd recommend them. I know there's probably a lot of mediocrity in these thousands of games, but there are sure to be some really cool ones! Feel free to stick with the formatting or go your own way :)

A Mortician's Tale

In this game, you play as a mortician working at a mom-and-pop funeral home. The game is designed to be a way to learn more about standard funeral practices and death. The "gameplay" is mostly reading, and drag/drop interactions with cadavers. There isn't any sort of puzzle aspect to this game, but there is a small story arc that I found myself invested in.

If you do end up playing this, be sure to read all the emails and check the website (in-game) every chance you get! There's a lot to learn; I was particularly pleased with the segment they gave about death practices for members of the LGBT+ community.

Concept:        ★★★★☆
Design:         ★★★★☆
Beauty:         ★★☆☆☆
Replayability:  ★☆☆☆☆

Playtime: ~1 hour
Recommend: If you're interested in learning more about death/funerals

MirrorMoon EP

This was a wild one - the game opens up with very few instructions and an nebulous story. You're tasked with completing a movement based puzzle on a planet with a movement mirrored moon (hence the name). Once you beat the first puzzle, you're allowed to roam the galaxy to seek out other puzzles on different planets. It's unclear to me if this is procedurally generated or was hand-tuned, certainly has the procedural feel to it.

This could be considered a "strand-type" game in that if you're the first to visit a planet, you get to name it. I visited planet "Pork" and planet "Gamer". Each planet has a puzzle (or nothing at all). There's a bit of a mix with Elite Dangerous: your travel is not instantaneous and you have to monitor fuel consumption. I went off to a distant planet (~10 minutes out of the start zone cause that unlocks you an achievement) and named it "Trans" 😁🏳️‍⚧️. See if you can find it!

The "story" aspect of the game is supposed to end when you find the "anomoly". There are a ton of planets to visit though so I'm not sure how long it would take to get there.

All in all this was a lovely game, I might poke around with it a bit more. If you've played Antichamber, the game had a very similar feel to it.

Concept:        ★★★★★
Design:         ★★★★☆
Beauty:         ★★★★☆
Replayability:  ★★☆☆☆

Playtime: ~15 minutes for first puzzle, lots of content after that
Recommend: Yes, it's a quick one and it's very pretty.

Night of the Consumer

You might have seen Limmy play this one recently on his channel. It's a pseudo-horror game about the gripping fear one must bear as a retail worker. Very funny gimmick - you have to stock shelves while avoiding the zombie-esque customers.

The more you play the easier it gets, as the items to be stocked are always the same and you get used to the aisle placement. The controls are super finicky though; I found when I twitched my mouse because a customer spooked me I had spun around a dozen times. And there were times when I was "safe" but a customer still managed to find me.

I didn't beat the game, but I got SO close (on the last box). I'll probably jump back into this another time once my heartrate settles down.

Concept:        ★★★★☆
Design:         ★★☆☆☆
Beauty:         ★★★☆☆
Replayability:  ★★★☆☆

Playtime: ~20-30 minutes if you're a real gamer
Recommend: Definitely worth a few attempts!

Secret Little Haven

I have so much to say about this game. This is a game of a trans woman in 1999 discovering herself through AIM-esque internet messengers and a classic looking online forum. It's a very simple game with few mechanics (you mostly interact with a fake operating system) - I'd say it's "visual novel++", as it's very story driven but there are still other interaction aspects that happen.

The game also has one puzzle sequence near the end that involves some fake terminal/programming stuff. It's cute and quite original in the way it implements the puzzle!

That said...god this game was so relatable on several levels for me. It showcases a lot of the different struggles transgender women might face:

Wait you can do that? Just be a girl?

If I don't think about it, it will go away. It's more of a headache than it's worth.

It's okay to feel this way? And if I think I might be a girl than maybe I am one?

I faced many of the same questions and struggles myself, and in every interaction with other characters the answer is clear: you can't be certain how things will end up, but you'll figure it out, and you will make it through with the support of those who love you.

It's apparent the creator also had many difficulties with her father; almost every character in the game, most especially you, have painful father-child relationships.

This game may not speak to many who played it, but it spoke to me and it resonated with me. This game alone has made purchasing the itch.io bundle worth it.

Concept:        ★★★★★
Design:         ★★★★☆
Beauty:         ★★★★☆
Replayability:  ★★★☆☆

Playtime: 3-4 hours depending on how fast you can read/solve the puzzle
Recommend: YES (though be warned there's a lot of tlking like this 2 the othr peop le on chat and uwu *hugs*)

Fugue in Void

It's Koyaanisqatsi (the Philip Glass movie accompaniment to his score) meets Dear Esther. This is a geometrically trippy walking simulator that is supposed to be a metaphor for exploring one's own soul.

While the core of the game is as simple as walking simulators usually are, this one was just gorgeous. You can tell the creator poured their soul (heh) into this one. They do amazing things with lighting, shadows, and shapes. However, there's little continuity and no where near as much "story" as something like Dear Esther has.

There's also a lot of brutalism that I think @xXBigDawgXx would enjoy, and amazing art that @boomerJuice95 could dig too.

Concept:        ★★☆☆☆
Design:         ★★★☆☆
Beauty:         ★★★★★
Replayability:  ★☆☆☆☆

Playtime: ~35-45 minutes
Recommend: If you liked the aforementioned media, it's worth a shot. Probably would be augmented by getting high.

One Night Stand

It's a visual novel about waking up from a one night stand and not remembering anything. The art design is kind of neat but I don't personally care for this scenario at all.

Concept:        ★★☆☆☆
Design:         ★★☆☆☆
Beauty:         ★★★☆☆
Replayability:  ★☆☆☆☆

Playtime: DNF
Recommend: Not really

Gotta say, love this starred rating system and will hopefully find some time to dive into the very diverse collection of games myself soon.

Catlateral Damage

You're a cat! You're pissed off at your owners! You knock stuff over!

That's pretty much it. Each level is procedurally generated, and there's powerups/events that you can get in each level. It's a fun time if you want something lighthearted and simple to play. It's also adorable as heck.

Concept:        ★★★☆☆
Design:         ★★☆☆☆
Beauty:         ★★☆☆☆
Replayability:  ★☆☆☆☆

Playtime: ~10 minutes (or as long as you last)
Recommend: Ehh, it's fun but there's just not a lot there.

StarCrossed

A wonderful, 2-player pong + bullet hell mashup. You and your coop partner have to use the power of friendship (a star bouncing back and forth between your characters) to defeat enemies on the screen. I had the pleasure of playing this with @Loopcanal - we died what seemed to be a lot but got an A rank at the end anyway!

This game is...extremely gay. It has all of the lesbian archetypes:
- Tracer/Sailor moon lesbian
- Anime/KPOP lesbian
- High femme lesbian
- Butch lesbian
- Techie lesbian

You overcome your enemy with the power of ✨friendship✨ and love. It's adorable. I mean, just look at this cast:

Concept:        ★★★★☆
Design:         ★★★☆☆
Beauty:         ★★★★☆
Replayability:  ★★★☆☆

Playtime: ~45 minutes (for the story mode)
Recommend: If you can find a friend and can stomach bullet hells, its a great little game worth playing!

WitchWay

This is a cute, pixel-art puzzle game where you escape from a dungeon. There aren't any enemies, you manipulate blocks and lasers to progress through the levels. Along the way, you can free bunnies, capture artefacts, and enable hidden eyes.

It was fun to play, but I got lost at one point and then had to re-traverse a segment I had already gone through. I dropped it after that for a bit, then decided to push through and finish it. The art and movements were all quite fluid, the mechanics felt very clean.

Concept:        ★★★☆☆
Design:         ★★★★☆
Beauty:         ★★★☆☆
Replayability:  ★★☆☆☆

Playtime: ~1 hour
Recommend: If you like puzzle games, its cute and straightforward!

Mu Cartographer

An odd one indeed...you're thrown into an interface with alien controls that you have to fiddle with. These controls somehow alter the environment you see in front of you, and you're supposed to explore (both the area and the settings space). I played for maybe 30 minutes and did not find anything. The game seems abstruse and esoteric, though the music and interface are nice.

Concept:        ★★★★★
Design:         ★☆☆☆☆
Beauty:         ★★★☆☆
Replayability:  ★☆☆☆☆

Playtime: ???
Recommend: Not really, feels like a time sink with no reward

ISLANDS: Non-Places

While artistically different in numerous ways, this game reminds me strongly of Fugue in Void.

Similarly, it is a one-shot interactive art piece told in small vignettes (12 in total). Each vignette can be interacted with by either rotating the scene or clicking on something within the scene. Your interactions play out short stories in each of the dozen scenarios, each scene combining the mundane with the surreal. In one scene you're letting eggs off of a bus to be heated within the bus stop; in another you're saving various pieces of furnature from a flood; towards the end, you're syphoning radio signals from mushrooms in order to broadcast them from a tower. All of this is extremely minimalist, with very little to interact with on-screen.

This is a beautiful, unique journey through someone's artistic vision. The the geometric rotations, the ambiance, and the sounds all work to bring the different scenes to life.

Concept:        ★★★★☆
Design:         ★★★☆☆
Beauty:         ★★★★★
Replayability:  ★★★☆☆

Playtime: ~45 minutes
Recommend: Totally, it's like a short interactive movie

KIDS

Hard to define this game...it reminds me of Gris - an interactive puzzle game that leans more on its art than really challenging trials. The game takes you through a series of scenes with faceless kids that you move around or direct. You often revisit previous scenes with certain alterations/twists. The puzzles themselves are straightforward and there was only one point in the game where I felt "lost" (it just turned out I hadn't gone far enough).

The visuals are quite fluid even though they're simplistic. They also contrast sharply with the audio, which includes very crisp audio clips of kids speaking and running.

Concept:        ★★★☆☆
Design:         ★★★★☆
Beauty:         ★★★☆☆
Replayability:  ★☆☆☆☆

Playtime: ~30 minutes
Recommend: Eh, it's interesting. There are a bunch of segments where you have to coerce unmoving stick figure child through an esophagus that I could have done without.

Changeling

A visual novel with an interesting art direction, Changeling starts out with an interesting premise about you returning to your old hometown that's filled with magic and mystery. You had some experience as a kid where you went missing. This experience haunts you and breaks down your relationship with your twin brother, as well as making you talk of the town. It's very "high school" in its story and concerns, but it provided for a lighthearted journey to a past without grand responsibilities or globe-spanning pandemics.

For reasons I'll share in a spoiler, I dropped it after the other shoe drops in the story. NOTE: spoilers for the plot ahead.

Concept:        ★★☆☆☆
Design:         ★★★☆☆
Beauty:         ★★☆☆☆
Replayability:  ★☆☆☆☆

Playtime: I logged 8h40m before I quit
Recommend: Nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnooooooope

Serre

Another visual novel; in this one you play as a gardener who has shunned the world to tend to her flowers when an alien ship crashes into her greenhouse. You proceed to share tea with this alien and eventually you two fall in love. It's super gay and very cute. That's...pretty much it

Concept:        ★★☆☆☆
Design:         ★★★☆☆
Beauty:         ★★★☆☆
Replayability:  ★★☆☆☆

Playtime: Not much more than 20 minutes
Recommend: It's quick and adorable - so yes!

Arcade Spirits

This VN is such a fun ride. I started it almost a year ago at the height of the pandemic. It's the game that I played while I was listening to police scanners when things were pretty quiet. The art is fun, the characters are lovable, and the story progression is one of moving from millennial ennui to triumphant purpose.

Arcade Spirits imagines a world where PC gaming never took off, and arcade games remained the gaming staple. Arcades exist in great numbers, with gamers flocking to them to get their video game fix. They even have a competitive e-sports scene and "arcade streamers"! It's a fun parallel universe to imagine.

There are no hard gender (and therefore romantic interest) locks in this game, which opens you up to some wonderful story-lines. There's also a great deal of content to this game, which really surprised me. Just when I thought I had gotten to the end it turned out there was another chapter!

I also took so many screenshots - this game didn't take itself seriously and I very much appreciated that!

The entertaining premise

Fun memes

Gender stuff

Cute moments AYAYA

The True Meaning of Friendship

Concept:        ★★★★☆
Design:         ★★★☆☆
Beauty:         ★★★☆☆
Replayability:  ★★★★☆

Playtime: Unfortunately I lost my play history for this (and on top of that I had it open and idle in the background while scanning so those numbers are bloated anyway), but I'd say about 20 hours for a solid run.
Recommend: Absolutely - if you enjoy video games, then you'll love this quest for one gamer to carve out a future for themselves.