PAX East is over. Hundreds of games were on display, and a slew of announcements, and seemingly everyone went but me. I did not spend the weekend of the show experiencing FOMO. You cannot prove that I did (unless you follow me on Twitter, in which case you will know that I am lying.)
Instead, I had my own little event in my house where I played a load of video games. Sure, this may sound like my regular life, but…well, it is. Here’s what I played this fortnight.
Developer Dino Rocket has just released Kādomon: Hyper Auto Battlers, a creature-collecting auto-battler focusing on strategy in early access on Steam.
There is an ocean of creature collectors around at the moment. Most of them focus on the actual collecting of beasties. However, Kādomon emphasizes formulating strategies and building up an arsenal of useful items and effects.
There are more to come throughout early access. You hunt because, at any one time, you can only have 10 Kādomon. There is no extra storage. You have four team members and six in reserve, and that is it.
I discovered Distant Bloom from developer Ember Trail when compiling the new releases for the week this column is published. I was intrigued by the concept of restoring life to a barren planet combined with resource management and some base building, so I decided to investigate the demo.
This is Dungeon Clawler, the upcoming game from Stray Fawn Studios. Part dungeon crawler, part claw machine, and due in Q3 of 2024, this forthcoming release is a left turn from the studios’ previous outing, The Wandering Village.
The Steam page describes the plot as” To improve his fortune in gambling, the evil dungeon lord has chopped off your left rabbit paw and wears it as a charm.