Screenshot Weekly – Icy Swords Purring on the Sands
Welcome back to Screenshot Weekly! Every Tuesday, IGM brings you exclusive looks at upcoming games in various stages of development. The featured image introducing each game will always be original, and made especially for IGM, so you’ll see them for the first time right here! (Make sure to click the pics to see them in their full screen glory.) Without further ado, let’s take a look at this week’s screenshots:
Kenshi
I’m a big fan of RPGs. There isn’t much I haven’t played, and I beat everything that I play, so when it comes to gameplay mechanics, I’ve just about seen it all before. So instead of focusing on the mechanics of Kenshi, the squad-based sandbox RPG in development at Lo-Fi Games, I became much more intrigued by the story behind the game. As the history is written, “Chris Hunt, founder of Lo-Fi Games, spent his early 20s working as a game programmer, but hated working on small cash-cow games which felt like a waste of time. So he left, and spent the last 6 years working on Kenshi full-time while working 2 12-hour shifts per week as a security guard to make just enough money to scrape by.” Having turned down other dev jobs, and even a few publishers, the team strongly states that “Kenshi is not for sale and will never be controlled by big publishers or rushed out the door to meet deadlines.” The game is currently in Early Access, and more info can be found on its website, or through Twitter and Facebook.
Icetris
You ever have that dream where it’s raining ice cubes (not the rapper/actor), and all you want to do is catch them? No? Well, you’re about to. The duo at Tenkai Game Studio are nearly finished developing Icetris, due out in time for Valentine’s Day. Co-founder Krzychu Wolski told me that “Icetris is a fast paced arcade game with retro graphics and 8-bit sound.” Originally started in celebration of the popular Ice Bucket Challenge, the developers hope playing the game will inspire people to support charity. In fact, the original version of the game had a scene where you throw collected ice cubes on your head at the end, but it has since been removed. Only recently switching to game development, Wolski told me that it’s been a longtime dream for him and his business partner to make games together. “We started our company 8 years ago and focused on making IT software. And now we’ve decided that we have to start making games – now or never.” Check out their website, or Facebook, to stay in the loop about the game.
The Purring Quest
As previously mentioned, I’m not a cat fan. So I’m just going to let The Purring Quest speak for itself: “Have you ever wanted to be a cat? Soon you will be able, thanks to The Purring Quest, which is the latest platformer to be a Steam Greenlight success. You take on the role of Kimchi the cat, who is on a journey to find his lost human. On the way, Kimchi will meet some famous Internet cats that will help him and add a touch of humor. Kimchi will have to use all their feline abilities to go unnoticed and avoid confrontation wherever possible.” While The Purring Quest doesn’t bring me any closer to tolerating the existence of cats, there is some silver lining: “Also, when you buy the game, a percentage of the money will be donated to animal welfare associations. So in addition to enjoying the game, you are contributing to a good cause.” That’s something I can get behind. The Purring Quest can be found on Steam. While the Greenlight campaign is already a success, there is not yet a projected release date for the project.
That’s it for this week’s Screenshot Weekly. Be sure to come back next week to see more exclusive looks of the latest indie games in development! Let us know in the comments section what upcoming indie games you’d like to see featured in a future installment. As for any indie developers who would like to see their screenshots featured in an upcoming segment, feel free to send an email to IGM at [email protected] with the Subject Line: “Screenshot Weekly”. Or, if you’d like to be part of our Magazine’s Screenshot Monthly segment, include that in the email as well!
