Another year comes to a close. We just experienced the shortest day of the year up here and I can’t wait to start seeing the sun past 4pm (16:00) again. The snow has been very sparse over here this year. Normally, I would be shoveling snow and salting the patio almost every day but have managed to avoid so far this winter.
Here are the games in this month’s dev log!
- Universe for Sale
- Gigasword
- Sorry We’re Closed
- Cryptmaster
- Rain World
- Nanomon
- Airframe Ultra
- Cabernet
- Absolute Tactics
Universe for Sale – Released on Consoles and Mobile
On December 19th, Universe for Sale was released on PlayStation, Nintendo Switch, Xbox, Android, and iOS!
Enjoy your trip to the space station in the atmosphere of Jupiter where citizens live under orange tarp to hide from the acid rain falling through the ever-failing shields. Learn about the locals, about the unusual challenges they face, and how they respond to the pressures they face. What universes will you create on the cracking space colony?
Universe for Sale is a hand drawn interactive story where you follow a mysterious cultist who’s stripped the flesh from his bones in order to reach enlightenment and a woman who crafts entire universes in the palm of her hand.
Check out Universe for Sale on console and mobile!
PlayStation: https://store.playstation.com/en-us/concept/10008484
Xbox: https://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/store/universe-for-sale/9N25VS5SPZ2V
Nintendo Switch: https://www.nintendo.com/us/store/products/universe-for-sale-switch/
Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.tmesis.universeforsale.android
Apple Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/universe-for-sale/id6624295438
GIGASWORD – New Enemies and Bosses
In October, we revealed that Akupara Games is publishing GIGASWORD, an adventure metroidvania where you must balance the weight of the Gigasword. I’m so glad to have GIGASWORD join the monthly dev logs!
The Gigasword is not only great for slashing your enemies but also allows you to unlock doors and push down pressure plates. However with the weight of carrying such a huge sword does come with the downside of your movement being impacted.
Jack, the solo developer on GIGASWORD, has been working on two enemies this month!
The first enemy is a werewolf that Jack revealed early concepts for in August in a sketch.
After a few months of sprite work, animation, coding, and more Jack revealed this beast in game. This is such a quick turnaround from concept to in game for any solo developer.
For Krail, I had to design a boss that would be fought using the grappling hook, and I immediately thought of a creature that would jump between platforms with grapple-points between them. Krail is a very agile creature; he moves quickly and constantly, meaning you won’t be able to stand still for even a moment during this battle. You’ll have to grapple to avoid certain attacks and use your increased speed to strike at just the right time. Ultimately, Krail might be my favorite boss I’ve finished so far; he’s just such a blast to fight.
The second enemy Jack revealed earlier this month and honestly gives me a bit of the creeps. Which in some way I feel was part of the goal of this boss.
Literally the day I am writing this dev log, Jack revealed new animation and attacks of this boss saying they are quickly becoming one of their favorites.
This monstrous creature is named Verrick. Once the proud chief-alchemist for the kingdom of Thoenhart, he has now been transformed into a massive, skeletal vulture. While many bosses in GIGASWORD are fought within a single screens-worth of space, Verrick’s room is quite large, allowing you plenty of area to avoid his all-encompassing attacks. As one of the biggest boss-monsters in all of GIGASWORD, this fight is sure to be an epic clash!
Wishlist GIGASWORD on Steam!
If you want to see these gifs and previews when Jack posts them, then join the GIGASWORD Discord and grab the Dev Logger role!
Sorry We’re Closed – One month since launch
Sorry We’re Closed is our newest release on PC and the community has been absolutely loving the title with a 99% positive rating with over 600+ reviews on Steam! We are so proud of à la mode games and this is an amazing achievement. Sorry We’re Closed is a nostalgic singleplayer survival horror game which combines the classic fixed camera angles and arcade-style first person combat into a thrilling story with multiple endings!
Check out Sorry We’re Closed on Steam!
There have been tons of fan art drawn by the community and I want to highlight just a few! Be sure to support these artists if you enjoy their work!
@paseriptm on Tumblr
@deepspacehoney on Tumblr
@amanitapills.bsky.social on Bluesky
Cryptmaster – Steam Cards, Plushie Shoulder Riders, and Awards!
The Cryptmaster has sent their minions to design and create more monuments of their image to take in more souls to the crypts.
First off, Cryptmaster Steam cards are now available! If you have been playing Cryptmaster, then you may already have these cards in your inventory. There are five Steam trading cards to collect.
The Cryptmaster art book also got updated to include more art and activities! If you already purchased it then you got that update for free. Check out the art book on Steam!
If you ever needed a plushie on your shoulder to help you spell, then a Cryptmaster shoulder rider might be the best option. We partnered up with Youtooz to make that a reality! Check out the Cryptmaster shoulder rider.
Big month for Cryptmaster as they also won The Indie Game Award (IGA) for Innovation! We’re so proud of Paul and Lee for their years of development in designing a unique and enjoyable dungeon crawler Cryptmaster.
If you want to see Cryptmaster take the award, you can watch it here! (psst. The Cryptmaster section starts at 38:40 if you don’t want to watch the whole video.)
Check out Cryptmaster on Steam, Xbox, and PlayStation.
Rain World – New Screenshots? + Scavenger plushie
On Twitter, with the Rain World account, we revealed four new screenshots from the upcoming Rain World: The Watcher DLC.
The community has been asking for a scavenger plushie for quite a while and we were finally able to partner with Sanshee to develop and release one. Fun fact: the design of this scavenger plush is based on the community’s favorite scavenger named Carl.
Also some very popular Downpour slugcat marshmallows pins, iterator pins, new lizard pins, and restocking many of the Rain World products including the original slugcat plush design which is being retired once stock runs out.
Check out all the new and restocked Rain World merch here!
https://sanshee.com/collections/rain-world
Nanomon – Adopt a Nanomon Posters
Our amazing in house artist Drew designed six total “Adopt a Nanomon” posters. Nanomon are creatures that live on your desktop; why not open some space for them?
The other four posters will be posted in the Nanomon Discord so join there if you would like to see the other posters!
Airframe Ultra – Broadcasts
We have been receiving these radio broadcasts from Mega City West about the crazy racing and brutality.
Broadcast 1
Broadcast 2
Broadcast 3
Cabernet – Patch Magazine cover
Cabernet was the front cover of the December edition of Patch Magazine where the developers of Cabernet, Party for Introverts, were interviewed! Patch Magazine is a publication with the focus of indie games!
Cabernet is a 2D narrative RPG set in a 19th century Eastern European inspired world where you play as Liza, a newly converted vampire, struggling between keeping her humanity and abandoning it for her new life as a blood sucker. Which direction will you take Liza?
Wishlist Cabernet on Steam!
Absolute Tactics, a turn-based tactical RPG, was released two years ago on September 15th. We partnered up with Clear River Games and Limited Run Games to launch Absolute Tactics PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch physicals!
If you love game cases and opening them up to the disk or cartridge inside then these are a great pick up.
Nintendo Switch: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Absolute-Tactics-Daughters-Mercy-NS/dp/B0DJBXTJM2/
Playstation 5: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Absolute-Tactics-Daughters-Mercy-PS5/dp/B0DJBX2CDC/
If you want to hear more news on these titles, then join our Akupara Discord, or follow us on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram!