arcane cache

Crystal Slaves might be described as a story-focused dungeon crawler, but this honestly doesn’t cut it. A short and more fitting description: This game is experimental, bold, and rather challenging – but not in the sense of difficulty. Returning readers might have noticed (or know otherwise) that I only do positive reviews on this blog. […]

Ondřej Throň is a game developer who seems to be mainly interested in exploring the possibilities of narration and storytelling over the means of interactivity. The games that they created over the last five years are connected not only by common themes (among politics, mental health, social inequality, and the bleakness of a world shaped […]

Azimuth is a extensive spaceship shooter metroidvania game. On a patrol through far-off space, you come upon a wrecked space colony – once a collaborative science project in an attempt to create intergalactical understanding. What happened to its inhabitants? On the search for survivors you fly deeper and deeper into the planets core, slowly pioneering […]

Its October. Just the right month for some underground game necromancy. Typhoon 2001 is a game that draws heavy inspiration from Tempest and its successors, the series that probably invented the tube shooter. When you see footage of Tempest, it looks much like the ideal arcade game – using the simple means available not only […]

The solar system tastes like chicken is a short science fiction game with leanings towards hyperlink literature. You play a self-aware sun that, in a distant future, devours her solar system. While doing so, you meditate about the things you wolf to expand your own existence, and how they and you are related. You might […]

The Fair is a experimental exploration game developed for Gameboy dealing with environmental destruction, the melting of digital and non-digital spaces, sound and magic. You explore a area that might have been depleted by a power plant; the fishes that once were the source of life and a centerpiece of the towns culture have disappeared […]

I’m back from vacation, and put one of my more recent problems back online and into public beta: CASSANDRA aims to realize many of the ideas that I worked out in the underground game manifesto while focusing on the narrative part of gaming. A while ago I had the idea to do some simple 2d- […]

hwilson did quite a few games until now; many are variations of the classic „Breakout“ concept – meaning that you use a paddle to reflect a ball flying in a room, preventing it from getting into your dead-zone and try to hit targets with it while doing so. Other than most common exponents of this […]

The Arcane Cache takes a break over the late summer; new reviews will come in early September. Till then, we recommend to browse through our old reviews, check out our games, or connect to others who are into underground gaming via Lemmy. Have a nice late summer.

Nil Rider is a mixture of a racing and a puzzle game that is set in an Escheresque world where space is functioning by laws unfamiliar to most of us. The developer, Zeno Rogue, made several games set in such strange worlds. Their dimension-hopping roguelike HyperRogue is not only one of my favorite games of […]