Indie World December 11, 2019

Apologies, all, for the lateness; we collectively ran into troubles that made publishing this difficult. Yesterday’s Indie World Direct brought not just fun animations but information on ports, re-releases, and entirely new announcements – including more than a few curveballs. All of which are below:

Sports Story, sequel to 2017 indie darling Golf Story, features additional sports – soccer, tennis – that mix with each other, as well as a general expansion of the first game’s premise. Releases “mid-2020.”
Streets of Rage 4 will include Adam, a character who’s otherwise never appeared since his role in the first game. Releases “first half of 2020.”
Gleamlight, a Metroidvania in a stained glass world, eschews writing and a UI to encourage exploration without additional help. Releases “early 2020.”
Bake ‘n’ Switch is a parter brawler co-op game involving baking doughs. Releases “summer 2020.”
Supermash is a genre crossover that mashes two separate genres – action adventure, Metroidvania, platformer, JRPG, bullet hell, stealth, life simulator – together to get a unique experience “every time.” In the presentation, director Joseph M. Tringali adds a code for a particular level. Releases “May 2020.”
The Talos Principle: Deluxe Edition, a remaster of 2014’s beloved puzzle game, releases today!
Sail Forth uses a procedurally generated map you explore with a fleet of sails. Releases “2020.”
Dauntless will be getting the “Stormchasers” content expansion, coming first to Switch. Before then, it releases today.
Murder by Numbers turns Picross style nanograms into a 1990s Hollywood murder mystery. Music comes from Ace Attorney composer Masakazu Sugimori; art is from Hatoful Boyfriend artist Hato Moa. Releases “early 2020.”
Stranger’s Wrath HD, a remaster of 2005’s Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath, releases “January 2020.” Pre-purchasing available later today.
SkateBIRD, a game with the most descriptive and literal title in this list, releases “late 2020.”
Liberated uses a neo-noir comic book setting to tell a variety of stories and game genres across each in-game comic panel. Releases “2020” as a timed Switch exclusive.
Boyfriend Dungeon crosses dating sim and dungeon crawling for a game where you can romance your weapons. Releases “2020.”
Dreamscraper is an action-puzzle game about depression, where actions taken in the real world affect how you fight in your subconscious. Releases as a timed Switch exclusive in “early 2020.”
The Survivalists, set in the universe of The Escapists, is a survival game set on procedurally generated islands. Releases “2020.”
Axiom Verge 2, Thomas Happ’s sequel to his 2015 Metroidvania, is announced after approximately four years of development. Releases “fall 2020.”

The Japanese version of the Direct had additional information about Japanese release dates for Switch games that haven’t launched in the region.

The Direct itself:

My reaction: This was a good Direct (most of the games grabbed me pretty quickly), but what stuck out most to me was the interest in fusing genres, even genres that don’t theoretically even “make sense” for each other. Supermash is the obvious example by far, but Boyfriend Dungeon and Murder by Numbers (the latter of which I’ve been waiting for with bated breath for months) also do this. Golf Story is making the next leap by being about multiple sports – all at once. Bake ‘n’ Switch kinda sorta seems like a direct fusion of Super Smash Bros.‘ “fighting party game” premise, too, and Liberated appears to take mixing genres to a literal, even cross-medium level.

This sentiment didn’t dominate the show, but it was pervasive, and not in a bad way. The games look imaginative, and we’re seeing more of them draw from a reasonably wide array of styles, palettes, and presentations. It’s something I’ll try to keep an eye on for the next “cycle” of games. Which may be a while, given how vague the release dates were this time around. But it makes me wonder if that’s what’s the next big thing, whether I’ve just been ignoring or forgetting earlier examples, and how long this trend – if it is a more serious trend – is going to last.