GwG Recommends: Indiepocalypse Picks
Don Everhart, Contributing Editor
As Nate Schmidt wrote in his piece on the Indiepocalypse project, the power of curation should be carefully considered. Recognition of small creators and their projects can reclaim the possibilities of games as an expressive medium. The pages of Indiepocalypse are given over to a broad range of authors and their work. And as with a zine about an underground music scene, its pages contain more than might initially meet the eye. Each page is an invitation to a game, each game an interactive expression of its designers. If the pages of Indiepocalypse are a marquee, these are what’s playing once you step inside the theater.
Considering the existing curation done by Pizza Pranks, we would say that every Indiepocalypse game is worth playing. With that said, Gamers with Glasses is exploring the games with its pages. If they’re worth playing, they’re worth playing critically. Here are thoughts on three games that were featured in Indiepocalypse No. 12: Tony Rawr, Baby Labor, and Astrid & The Witch.
Tony Rawr
Image: Tony Rawr’s skatepark and its low-pixel denizens.
There may not be much to Tony Rawr, but what’s there tells a story about a young skater making friends at the park for the first time. There's just enough here to signal some different kinds of friends and relationships - the encouraging older brother, the older dude who opens their own shop, the poser, that kind of thing. And the thing is, that’s just enough.
As a game and experience, this is like a playable one-paragraph piece of microfiction or the 15-second hook that leads into a song. Tony Rawr brings players into the low key moments of stepping out into the world and making a friend or two, becoming part of a scene. Sometimes, you only need a little bit of material to capture a feeling.
Play Tony Rawr here for the perspective of a young tiger.
Baby Labor
Image: Reporting Baby Boy Jackson to corporate HR. The back of the head of HR’s chair is turned towards the player. I’ll leave it up to you to play the game for the shocking reveal.
The internet likes to play with the absurd. In Baby Labor, this takes the form of offices with strange proportions, a searing color palette, dialogue that takes place through typography with bizarre kerning, and of course, a misanthropic antagonist in the form of a giant baby with dark, sclera-less eyes.
The plot of the game involves workplace nepotism and abuse, which arises from a combination of the antagonist, corporate HR, and vague corporate structures and language. Its story unfolds over a few scenes of dialogue, which rapidly flip the script on the player. The game begins with dialogue options, with the player asking standard interview questions of a candidate named (and shaped as) Baby Boy Jackson. Baby Boy doesn’t respond to them more than he derails the whole interaction. That mismatched communication persists all the way to the end, when said baby turns that corporate language on the player.
I see clearly what Baby Labor's designers are going for, but I’m not sure if that lack of subtlety is a good thing. Playing the game is like watching a performance where someone holds up one sign that reads, "this is the point!" together with another that reads, "and aren't I wacky?" To me, that's at odds with Baby Labor's more pointed and absurd possibilities. If you want to play with absurdism, you should be prepared to hit harder than this.
Then again, maybe subtlety and absurdism are overrated. It sucks when someone gets a job because they have something in common with your boss, and sucks harder if that person gets promoted and starts to lord it over you. Visualizing byzantine corporate structures in nightmare proportions and colors, with a plot that moves inexorably forward no matter what you say, is as good an expression of frustration as any.
Play Baby Labor here and sear your eyes for yourself!
Astrid & The Witch
Image: Astrid welcomes her new neighbor, The Witch. The Witch is discomfited by the degree to which Astrid appears to be impervious to The Witch’s wards.
As a longstanding way to dip one’s toe into the waters of game development, games made in RPG Maker have a certain signature style. That style is proudly worn by Astrid & The Witch, which also takes heavy influence from recent games like Undertale. In terms of comfort, that’s a good thing. This looks and plays like a great old freeware game - but it's a fun new freeware game! I was pleasantly surprised by little details that make the game more open, especially the ability to craft potions that grant abilities. By the end, the game’s story had an assembled party of a Grandma (the titular Astrid) and a collection of Monster Daughters. All of them had every ability in the game. We were pumped up. Then we all went to hash things out with Mom (The Witch).
Some of the writing of Astrid & The Witch is a little one-note, with most characters falling into the same kind of dialogue. There’s just a tad of “same voice syndrome” going on. Nonetheless, there's a good-naturedness to the narration and dialogue. A few jokes even landed pretty well with me, particularly one within the final battle. This is an easy recommendation for a game to breeze through and enjoy, especially now that it's been ported to HTML5. It’s an accessible story, told with inviting mechanics and charming characters. Grab a friendly beverage, be kind to your neighbor, and enjoy.
