Ludokultur

Storms in @TheCycleGame look way too cool to just sit inside and wait them out… pic.twitter.com/a9g4CLB9eh

— Fabian Fischer 🎱 Rack and Slay (@Ludokultur) April 2, 2023

Been a while since I checked out the alpha of Shogun Showdown, but now the free "Prologue" demo is out on Steam! The turn-based tactics fencing #roguelike gameplay feels more polished than ever. Easily one of the full releases I'm looking forward to the most this year! pic.twitter.com/AsAmCX1epy

— Fabian Fischer 🎱 Rack and Slay (@Ludokultur) April 4, 2023

Could be the best Mushroom Scorpion you've seen in a while @TeamWoodGames! #SuperAutoPets pic.twitter.com/v0bfQ6tXpX

— Fabian Fischer 🎱 Rack and Slay (@Ludokultur) April 5, 2023

Been sleeping on it but @rollerdrome is cool! Third-person arena shooter where you're constantly moving (on roller skates) and perform tricks to refill your ammo. Also, bullet time. Just how different the movement feels and how important it is make for a breath of fresh air! pic.twitter.com/06b8voI0IJ

— Fabian Fischer 🎱 Rack and Slay (@Ludokultur) April 6, 2023

At first sight @CrabChampions may look like a meme hit in the vein of Goat Simulator, but I saw enough "It's not a joke!" comments to check it out. It's not a joke. It's basically Risk of Rain 2 with weirder (but also more interesting) movement tech. Fun stuff! pic.twitter.com/DY25dWLB3q

— Fabian Fischer 🎱 Rack and Slay (@Ludokultur) April 10, 2023

Wildfrost by @deadpanjam: Most beautiful #roguelike deckbuilder in a while. Unique gameplay via timing elements. BUT: Dramatic reset problem (long runs, static difficulty). Reviews already dipped to "mostly positive". Could be great with tuning / proper difficulty ladder though! pic.twitter.com/VbIg8qAnaq

— Fabian Fischer 🎱 Rack and Slay (@Ludokultur) April 12, 2023

I swear the dialogue option said "pet" and not "punch"!

(Beyond the Long Night by @NoisyHeadGames is out now in case you didn't know.) pic.twitter.com/nESa9GXklb

— Fabian Fischer 🎱 Rack and Slay (@Ludokultur) April 17, 2023

As a fan of the original (and 2D in general), I miss the hand-drawn art and being able to see everything without scrolling (one of the design pillars of Rack and Slay btw). Nevertheless, glad to see its one-of-a-kind gameplay preserved and future-proofed for years to come! 🙂 https://t.co/no1VP3C68g

— Fabian Fischer 🎱 Rack and Slay (@Ludokultur) April 19, 2023

Haven't played too much yet, but can already safely say this is one of the best releases of the year so far in my book! https://t.co/xPfNZJ9c7R

— Fabian Fischer 🎱 Rack and Slay (@Ludokultur) April 20, 2023

Wall World is a resource mining #roguelike where you move along a mysterious wall. Feels Dome-Keeper-ish (with a moving base). I liked the 20-minute sessions better until I realized being successful just means resetting the 20-minute timer. Also heavy on (dark) meta progression. pic.twitter.com/ZcNzM7O3EE

— Fabian Fischer 🎱 Rack and Slay (@Ludokultur) April 25, 2023

Dungeons & Jewels shows the potential that's still to be found in the "#roguelike match-3" direction with a nicely focused design: Special abilities clear certain board patterns. Relics influence tiles passively. Enemies are defeated via specific color matches or sequences. Neat! pic.twitter.com/GuLViVVeUb

— Fabian Fischer 🎱 Rack and Slay (@Ludokultur) April 26, 2023

Lucky Luna by @builtbysnowman was one of 2022's best mobile games. With Laya's Horizon they now made the best one since Poinpy. Flying around rarely felt this fun. Lots of races, parcours, exploration. A joy to play!

(All games mentioned via @netflix btw, incredible curation!) pic.twitter.com/iUhsHGuB0o

— Fabian Fischer 🎱 Rack and Slay (@Ludokultur) May 3, 2023

Path of Achra by @Ulfsire is a build sandbox #roguelike. All kinds of skills to synergize with the equipment you find. Thankfully it's more streamlined than e.g. Rift Wizard. Though I'd still love to see a draft mode where you don't have access to the full set of skills each run. pic.twitter.com/tpWPInprBS

— Fabian Fischer 🎱 Rack and Slay (@Ludokultur) May 7, 2023

Forest Fire by @ChuteApps is a fun micro game about igniting forests, oil patches and infrastructure. This both fuels your little flame's health and also levels you up to unlock power-ups (you choose 1 of 3 in #roguelike-ish drafts).

Very neat pixel-by-pixel fire effects btw! 🔥 pic.twitter.com/OBj88yBX5t

— Fabian Fischer 🎱 Rack and Slay (@Ludokultur) May 9, 2023

Neophyte by @RegalPigeon has been getting cool updates the past couple of months, including new characters like the Alchemist who has no base health regen, but gets more potion drops, i.e. synergizes with potion-triggered effects (e.g. fiery explosions). 🔥 pic.twitter.com/2SBTT3Sh6B

— Fabian Fischer 🎱 Rack and Slay (@Ludokultur) May 13, 2023

Poosh XL by @theadamvision is a one-button arcade game that gives me Super Hexagon vibes in the best possible way. pic.twitter.com/kz0LFrmBob

— Fabian Fischer 🎱 Rack and Slay (@Ludokultur) May 21, 2023

Halls of Torment by @Chasing_Carrots is a Vampire-Survivors-like with old-school Diablo aesthetics. The nostalgia factor is there, but I'm hoping for more interesting upgrades in the full game. The Prelude has a whole lot of rather flat math stuff (do more / take less damage). pic.twitter.com/4xsskXsqVR

— Fabian Fischer 🎱 Rack and Slay (@Ludokultur) May 22, 2023

Dizzy Rogues by @kumakare is a neat new micro game that feels a bit like you're doing a whirling-blade sword dance performance. Certainly quite unique! pic.twitter.com/EN3Dcz093d

— Fabian Fischer 🎱 Rack and Slay (@Ludokultur) May 24, 2023

If you thought a turn-based MOBA wouldn't work, Inkbound will convince you otherwise. Great gameplay with many potentially clunky edges polished off. That said, (esp. solo) runs lack variety (too few abilities / bosses) but I trust in @ShinyShoeGames to improve on that during EA! pic.twitter.com/jQLPp25zo7

— Fabian Fischer 🎱 Rack and Slay (@Ludokultur) May 25, 2023

Hellscaper by @ESzanton is a cool deckbuilder take on @dr_d_king's Tiny Islands. You assemble cards of certain types and with different effects, that are then randomly pulled as Tetris-ish "blocks" you place on a grid to maximize your score. Looking forward to where this goes! pic.twitter.com/sf9UVtGFDp

— Fabian Fischer 🎱 Rack and Slay (@Ludokultur) May 30, 2023

The @quasimorph prologue is out. It's a turn-based #roguelike with a focus on guns not unlike Jupiter Hell. However there's a Tarkov spin with survival-ish resource management and being able to "extract" and bring items to your meta storage for future missions. Interesting twist! pic.twitter.com/SoK6F9cigT

— Fabian Fischer 🎱 Rack and Slay (@Ludokultur) June 1, 2023

Friends vs Friends by @Brainwash_Gang is a fresh twist on arena FPS games where you draw abilities from a deck and use them throughout the match. I love how fast the rounds go! Matchmaking can be wonky though as there's no proper rank, Elo or anything like that at the moment. pic.twitter.com/sk1vPKu2Tq

— Fabian Fischer 🎱 Rack and Slay (@Ludokultur) June 2, 2023

Just as an update, @ShinyShoeGames have been killing it with super regular balancing updates, fixes and improvements to Inkbound since launch. They are absolutely on top of player feedback. Exemplary usage of early access. Also I'm starting to unlock the weirder cosmetics yay! 🤡 https://t.co/knXgPRiyQU pic.twitter.com/nOmK5T4ciZ

— Fabian Fischer 🎱 Rack and Slay (@Ludokultur) June 7, 2023

Shmups, bullet hells, boss fights. Things I usually don't care for. The Void Rains Upon Her Heart by @VeyeralGames is impressively well-designed though. 99 bosses, tons of #roguelike modifiers and very granular difficulty levels. 5 years of EA, 74 updates. 349 👍 reviews, 0 👎. pic.twitter.com/i6okQTkzoS

— Fabian Fischer 🎱 Rack and Slay (@Ludokultur) June 14, 2023

BREAKING NEWS: Falcon fueled by suicidal Betta Fish kidnaps Nyala to summon huge Golden Retriever that ends up saving the day for unemployed Baboon. 🤯

Gotta love #SuperAutoPets! 🏆 pic.twitter.com/AKIYEDFxJq

— Fabian Fischer 🎱 Rack and Slay (@Ludokultur) June 15, 2023

Backpack Battles by @TweetFurcifer is available as a free demo on Steam. It's a mix of Backpack Hero item / inventory management and the Super Auto Pets async auto-battler format. Already polished and interesting, low on content for now but with huge potential for the future! pic.twitter.com/XwUgvjRItb

— Fabian Fischer 🎱 Rack and Slay (@Ludokultur) June 19, 2023

Trouble Juice by @dietzribi is a juicy (duh) side-scrolling #roguelike. Not too innovative, but fun all-around and super efficient (full run = 10 minutes, I'd love to see more roguelikes do that). Also achievements are laid out in a bingo board. Games need more bingo! Worth! 👌 pic.twitter.com/FemMf3nyrC

— Fabian Fischer 🎱 Rack and Slay (@Ludokultur) June 20, 2023

Tales & Tactics is a #roguelike auto battler by @table9studio (creators of Slay the Spire's amazing Downfall mod). Well-made, complex and very close to TFT. If you've been looking for a single-player version true to the roots of the genre (i.e. original Auto Chess), try the demo! pic.twitter.com/9bWLKxgkvb

— Fabian Fischer 🎱 Rack and Slay (@Ludokultur) June 21, 2023

Dicefolk by @leapgamestudios is a tactical dice-building #roguelike. Unique combat with rotating units and you being able to decide when enemy actions trigger. All actions can be queued, feels very snappy. Another great @GoodShepherdEnt pickup, looking forward to full release! pic.twitter.com/EAA1lSqltF

— Fabian Fischer 🎱 Rack and Slay (@Ludokultur) June 23, 2023

Shogun Showdown is out in EA. Its core tactical #roguelike gameplay is among the best this year. However, runs outstay their welcome by ~30% and could use more variety (maybe just by shoving less content into every single one). Some tweaks and additions could make this a classic! pic.twitter.com/oN4Qk6YVyn

— Fabian Fischer 🎱 Rack and Slay (@Ludokultur) June 27, 2023

Knight Overloaded is Brotato meets Backpack Hero. Rough around the edges, but certainly interesting to see the whole "item drafting + inventory management" mechanics creep into more and more genres as of late. You're making quite a splash here @thejaspel1! 😀 pic.twitter.com/htj8Edszwq

— Fabian Fischer 🎱 Rack and Slay (@Ludokultur) June 29, 2023