Indie Spotlight - Part 31

Motorslice

Imagine if you could simply ignore gravity and treat the megastructure as your own personal obstacle course. In Motorslice, you do just that as you cut your way with P through a world as unyielding as exposed concrete. You feel the rhythm of the movements with every wall run à la "Prince of Persia" and know exactly when to pull the trigger for the next jump. It is this mechanical perfection that we value so much in high-quality hand-wound movements.</p

You guide your chainsaw through the guts of giant robots and watch the sparks burn up in the dark architecture. There's no long talk, just the immediate action and the feeling that your every move has a real consequence. You defeat the bosses in passing, relying entirely on your timing and intuition. The soundtrack drives you forward as if you were at the wheel of a car without driving aids on the racing line.

The quiet moments, in which you can briefly concentrate on the stunning architecture, give you a contemplation that you would hardly have expected in this hectic pace. You look at the megastructure and realise that less is actually much more here. "Motorslice" is the digital equivalent of a handmade one-off that dispenses with everything superfluous. We take our hats off to so much stubbornness and a clear edge.

Dead As Disco

The sticky feeling of spilt gin and tonic on the dance floor still clings to your soles as Charlie Disco raises his sticks. In this world, there is no polite asking, here it is mercilessly staged. You navigate through a panopticon of sonic power that makes every conventional visual habit look like a cheap copy. Every hit feels heavy, almost as if you were hitting the drums yourself.

Own songs become the fuel for this revenge fantasy against the idols of the pop industry. In "Dead as Disco", the integration of your own music is a cultural prerogative for people with real taste. You adapt your tactics to the tempo of your favourite song and experience a dynamic without artificial brakes.

The visual impact of the neon-drenched worlds is as sharp as a perfectly tailored suit. The fact that this title has only just launched in Early Access only adds to the appeal of the unfinished game. You savour the rough edges and enjoy every absurd idea from the developers. Take a seat in the VIP lounge of madness, because admission only costs your full attention.

Wax Heads

The crackling of a freshly played vinyl disc mingles with the smell of old paper and dust as you enter the record shop "Repeater Records". In this wonderfully quirky microcosm, you take over the shift behind the counter and navigate the wishes of an eccentric clientele. It's not just about selling, but about the tactile experience of guiding the right needle into the right groove. You can feel the love of analogue detail in every hand-drawn corner of this shop.

The search for the perfect sound turns into detective work between crammed shelves and faded posters. You rummage through piles of records, study cover art and rely entirely on your musical intuition to fulfil even the most unusual customer requests. In Wax Heads, every interaction with customers is a humorous little story about passion and musical obsessions. The fact that the game has such a charming comic aesthetic makes a visit to this digital record shop a real pleasure.

Behind the scenes of "Repeater Records", however, there is more than just the humdrum everyday life of a salesman waiting to be discovered. You delve deep into the local music scene, make contacts with oddball musicians and help save the shop from imminent closure. The affectionate comic look is spot on and celebrates the imperfection of the analogue with every line. We bow to so much dedication to music culture and look forward to the imminent release of this little indie gem.

TetherGeist

A low hum in the air accompanies every step through the floating ruins of TetherGeist. The connecting cord becomes the most important tool and at the same time the greatest challenge in this strange environment. You quickly learn to utilise the forces of physics to catapult yourself over gaping chasms. It's a dance with the void, where timing is the only compass you have.

The game dispenses with unnecessary ballast and concentrates entirely on the haptic experience of manipulating gravity. You swing from platform to platform, with the physical feedback of the string speaking a language all of its own. It is the freedom of movement in a world that defies any conventional navigation pattern.

At the end, what remains is the feeling of having touched something unique that cannot be easily pigeonholed. The secrets of this world are waiting to be unravelled while you do your rounds as a ghost. TetherGeist is a cultural promise for all those who are looking for something special and are not afraid of the abyss. An excellent example of how much character there can be in digital art.

Duck Side of the Moon

We all remember that one summer when a goose shook the world order. Since then, we have known that feathered escalation is possible at any time. "Duck Side of the Moon" takes that thought and sends you into space, only much more relaxed. You control Doug, a stranded astronaut duck who is stranded somewhere between moon dust and self-discovery and first has to figure out how to get back home at all.

There's more to this duck's everyday life than first meets the eye. You hop over floating rocks with a jetpack, collect resources, craft useful gadgets and patch up your crashed spaceship. The whole thing is pleasantly calm, without enemies, without stress, but with lots of little moments of success. The encounters along the way are particularly nice, for example with strangely talkative stones that give you tasks as if it were the most normal thing in the world. Meanwhile, your ship slowly grows from a crash landing into an amazingly cosy home.

And that's exactly the appeal: you drift through this galaxy, complete small tasks, continue to build your ship and at some point realise how much time you've spent simply waddling around. Even the quack button suddenly takes on meaning. In the end, perhaps the universe is just a huge swimming pond in which we are all a little lost. A brilliant intergalactic spectacle that proves that the universe could definitely do with more beak!

→ If you want to delve even deeper into the world of indie games: You can find more highlights in our "Level Up" section - and of course of course in the current issue.