Ludokultur

Mosa Lina by @wombatstuff will probably be this year's king of emergent gameplay and, therefore, a strong contender for my personal game of the year. Random level, random tools, find a solution, next one. Super fun! 😍

Demo is available on Steam, full release in 8 days! pic.twitter.com/MEQSRrPAsl

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

Cobalt Core by @RocketRatGames is one of the #roguelike deckbuilders I'm looking forward to the most. The demo oozes polish. Beautiful pixel art. On top, combat comes with a simple but servicable positional element that too many genre entries are lacking. Keep an eye on this one! pic.twitter.com/PgmKtIkEqy

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

One of the top GOTY contenders is here! 🤯 https://t.co/2WjDQuvbID pic.twitter.com/O2PWhunS4i

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

It's amazing how after years and years of making game dev gifs, @wombatstuff has finally created the gift that keeps on gifing… pic.twitter.com/kDzfT7j1gk

— Fabian Fischer 🎱 Rack and Slay (@Ludokultur) October 18, 2023

Don't forget to put on your tentacles, kids! 🐙 pic.twitter.com/UfwHREab8v

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

Hey there are roguelikes on @puzzmotoday! 😮

(Yesterday's Typeshift, no spoiler.) pic.twitter.com/zmlR1jkZY2

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

Butterfly above spikes not scary at all… pic.twitter.com/f1pVlXntyV

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

I can get over that platform by building a weird tentacle elevator, but I can't possibly get over how cool this game is… pic.twitter.com/SWsmcS1PtB

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

What a meaty patch for such a plant-based game. Turbo Mode was easily #1 on my feature wishlist. 🤩 https://t.co/HKdyHJWO6Z

— Fabian Fischer 🎱 Rack and Slay (@Ludokultur) October 31, 2023

This week in #SuperAutoPets: Mushroomed eagle defies lynx artillery! 🦅🍄 pic.twitter.com/sH8pywiYXN

— Fabian Fischer 🎱 Rack and Slay (@Ludokultur) October 31, 2023

Can confirm the Snake Farm update is a lot of fun! 🐍 https://t.co/AIBMQyAmpo pic.twitter.com/vBH2HLd5Zi

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

Wild level editor levels require wild solutions! 🤓@wombatstuff's Mosa Lina just gained infinite replay value in case you missed it… pic.twitter.com/FVe1iFMuVM

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

I'll just say this: @WarcraftRumble cements Blizzard's current reputation among people who, in any way, take games seriously. pic.twitter.com/RtWHLHquSV

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

Couple years ago I made a prototype called "You Are The Tower" – tower defense with just one central tower you control directly. Now that Talented exists, I don't have to make that game anymore.

Pretty neat for $1.49 and bonus points for the randomly generated skill tree! 🙂 pic.twitter.com/no0ao6dNuc

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

That's what happens when you hang out in the Ludokultur Discord! 🤷‍♂️ https://t.co/M3Wt9c5miw

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

In Cursorblade by @realpeachdev your mouse cursor is your avatar. You slash and dodge through waves of enemies, picking upgrades between levels. Haven't really noticed my playstyle change much based on which upgrades I get, but it's a pretty satisfying "cleanup" experience. 🧹 pic.twitter.com/F52QPq4MWZ

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

Typecast by @GutterArcade is a new typing-based highscore chaser, but in this one you don't type out words but have to hit individual keys to attack specific kinds of enemies while moving through them via direct mouse movement. Pretty unique take on the genre! pic.twitter.com/rYtK1nISt8

— Fabian Fischer 🎱 Rack and Slay (@Ludokultur) November 8, 2023

Here I thought I had escaped the "one more match" @FootballManager cycle by not buying it anymore and then they put it on Netflix… 🙉 pic.twitter.com/KT76cr88px

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

Gorgon Shield by @oliver_joyce has a demo! Really unique hero carousel game where you rotate your party towards different platforms that have each one of them perform different actions like fighting monsters, looting treasure, healing up etc. Check it out! pic.twitter.com/gNKRtrPsBf

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

"Raw Random" mode feels so appropriate! 😍 https://t.co/6rHZNDQ5yh pic.twitter.com/t6eu4YQhJE

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

Chess #roguelike The Ouroboros King by @oriol_cosp is now on mobile, and even in portrait orientation. 🤩 pic.twitter.com/fGcorlubHE

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

If you thought Death Must Die is the latest VS-like hit, it actually isn't *that* close to the original. The fact that attacking slows you down is enough to not make me want to automize it. Feels more like an arcade-ish, run-based Diablo so far? Not groundbreaking, but kinda fun. pic.twitter.com/8wf27PlqTr

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

Wasn't really expecting to but I enjoy "story mode" in @thejaspel1's Backpack Hero! It adds an almost Tarkov-like metagame with risky decisions: Carry an item that's useless in the dungeon but rewards you later?
Really solidifies it as one of the top #roguelike games of the year! pic.twitter.com/9R1yIuMi4I

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

New tools in Mosa Lina, let's go! 🥳 pic.twitter.com/gGVFLCKBTF

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

GGEZ #planned pic.twitter.com/SSqyb16Yg2

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

So @wombatstuff was insane enough to add the GunGun in the latest Mosa Lina update. With all the remote control shenanigans it enables, it might just be my new favorite toy… 🤯 pic.twitter.com/ukwcTcA2bm

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

🦋 "The Butterfly Duet" 🦋 pic.twitter.com/9jXySLuSeE

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

Checked out Magicraft. It fulfills the promise of being an Isaac meets Noita #roguelike. You place spells (projectiles, AoE, summons) in your wands, install "enhancements", have them trigger other spells in "post slots" etc. Not super varied yet (still in EA) but neat already! 🪄 pic.twitter.com/i7UJgWjJ7n

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

Today in the world of Mosa Lina: @wombatstuff is making me hustle to save turtles and I love it. 🐢 pic.twitter.com/HOC28IGmj8

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

Praise Dead is weirdly unique: You build a team of zombies to work and, sure enough, fight demons. The worker phase feels like a resource management mini board game, but then you go into full auto-battler mode, buy roguelike-ish relics (from a bear?) for passive effects etc. 😮 pic.twitter.com/ps223vqC7N

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

Super clever word game where each letter you use corresponds to an attack in a specific row on the board. A Brough-like word game if you will. 😀 https://t.co/08o9HpLffv pic.twitter.com/smbrQLPDEg

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

The Spellswapper is an interesting experiment: Wave defense, make a build from 4 spells, but replace one each wave. This can break a build, but there are passive items to work your way around. Clearly inspired by @kindanicegames Dire Decks which is even mentioned in the credits. pic.twitter.com/H9e02xOGRZ

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

The Ordinary Gems still got it! 😎 pic.twitter.com/93V6CmT4r6

— Fabian Fischer 🎱 Rack and Slay (@Ludokultur) December 8, 2023

Qwert by @KaratePossum is a word game with random prompts (e.g. "contains AS" or "ends with LLING"). Default mode is a bit of a typing fest (enter lots of words quickly), but "Wordplay" asks you to find *one* word (that's hopefully better than your opponent's) in 60 seconds. Fun! pic.twitter.com/8uGlXLGtdV

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

So I had a pretty bad week of covid not allowing me to do much. Slowly getting back to doing normal things now… such as building a big mean buff machine in the form of a Stegosaurus-Warthog sandwich. 🤷‍♂️ pic.twitter.com/VqNhODZFIJ

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

Fairytale Fables brings back beloved mechanics and builds from Storybook Brawl, but (optionally) in an Auto-Pets-like asynchronous format and already working with mobile cross-play? Auto-battler holiday time incoming! 🤩 pic.twitter.com/syJxYwFF5T

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

Reign of the Renegade by @da_buoys is a Spire-like #roguelike deckbuilder with dice-based (yet not super random) combat. Draft mode is a bit weird (spend meta currency to buy as many "packs" as you want), but other than that super solid and very affordable! pic.twitter.com/Hbz6eZgFZW

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

Time to pick my personal games of the year again! As usual, only considering full releases (no "early access"). First things first, here's a list of contenders. Not by any means all the new games I played this year, but the top 30 that were "in the running".

GOTY top 5 below! 🏆 pic.twitter.com/9oinJVgizk

— Fabian Fischer 🎱 Rack and Slay (@Ludokultur) December 28, 2023