Category: author_name|Jessica Conditt

It took 20 years for Children of the Sun to become an overnight success

Children of the Sun burst onto the indie scene like a muzzle flash on a dark night. Publisher Devolver Digital dropped the game’s first trailer on February 1, showcasing frenzied sniper shots and a radioactive art style. A Steam demo highlighting its initial seven stages went live that same day…

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Playdate developers have made more than $500K in Catalog sales

Panic is celebrating Playdate's second birthday this month, and the party favors include some piping-hot statistics about Catalog game sales. Playdate hit the market in April 2022 with 24 free games. Its Catalog store went live in March 2023, offering 16 curated games for purchase directly on the device. Panic…

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Playdate revisited: Two years with the little yellow inspiration machine

Playdate came out two years ago, and it’s still miniscule and yellow with a black-and-white screen and a delightful crank on its side. Today, the device has a built-in library of more than 100 titles, none of which are Call of Duty, Dark Souls, The Last of Us or any…

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Open Roads review: Take it slow and savor the drama

Open Roads is an easy game to get lost in. It tells a twisting tale about generational trauma — the tension, lies and love between mother and daughter — with all the comfort and warmth of an early 2000s network drama like Gilmore Girls or Charmed. As a former suburban…

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Hyper Light Breaker hands-on: I’m here for the hoverboard

Hyper Light Breaker is a hoverboard sim. Technically, it’s a third-person roguelite adventure set in a luminous fantasy-cyberpunk universe, but after playing a 30-minute preview, it’s clear to me that Hyper Light Breaker is all about the hoverboard. Vicious beasts, secret alcoves and shiny weapons are secondary to the feeling…

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Children of the Sun brings FPS puzzles to Steam on April 9

Children of the Sun is a bullet-bending puzzle game set in a trippy world of cults and revenge, and it's due to hit PC via Steam on April 9. In Children of the Sun, players line up a single sniper shot and then control the bullet as it ricochets among…

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