demo-a-day - august

i didn't have a ton of time, so i decided to keep it short and sweet today. instead of playing one of my steam demos, i decided to play something that was sitting around in my itch.io games folder - cupid's chatroom, a chatsim about finding the man of your dreams. i didn't end up playing much of it, but i really liked what i saw! all the characters have their charm points, though my favorites so far are zzzleepy and sundaefundae.

i don't actually know if i have the most recent version of the demo - it's been sitting on my computer for a while - but it ran perfectly fine! i didn't see any menus, though; i couldn't figure out how to save or anything. i don't expect most chatsim games to have logs since you can just scroll back in the chatroom, so that wasn't a problem at least. maybe there's a more up-to-date version that i can save in, or maybe i'm just missing something.

all in all, very cute! they met their kickstarter goal and are working on the full release. i'm sad i missed out on the kickstarter, but i'm looking forward to it regardless! i'll be sure to finish my demo playthrough soon.

i've been in a visual novel mood since i picked up seraphim slum yesterday, so i figured it made sense to play a visual novel for today's demo. i chose one that's been sitting in my steam library for a while. you play as nika skylar, a royal alchemist catboy (called a felinis in this world) who must investigate an incident that threatens civilization. the demo is short and sweet - it took me 17 minutes to play - but it's enough to get a feel for the writing and the main character. i really like skylar; he's strong-willed but very caring. we only get a glimpse of the love interest in this demo, so i can't say much about him, but he is very cute.

the writing is a bit flowery, but in a way that fits the game's regal fantasy setting. it never reached purple prose territory, and it was still simple enough to get the point across pretty concisely. there were a few mistakes with punctuation - multiple lines ended without periods - but otherwise it was really well done. i enjoyed it! the art is also gorgeous and i love the character design. i don't actually play that many fantasy games, but i've always been fond of fantasy designs, and they were nailed perfectly here.

i'll definitely be getting the full game! i recommend checking the demo out if you're a fan of fantasy and boy's love. the demo doesn't reach the inciting incident of the game described on the steam page, only some of the leadup, but it still tells you enough to decide if you'll enjoy it.

a wildly different game from the rest of these, leaf blower co. is an enjoyable leaf blowing sim. it's in the same vein as powerwash simulator, i think, though i've never played that one. you're a woman who's just moved back home and has decided to open a leaf blowing business. i think this evolves into a general lawn care business as you unlock more things - i know you can unlock a weed killer, and after my first job i unlocked a shredder, though i didn't play to test that out.

there's not much to say about this one! the graphics are nice - not hyper mega realistic, but believable. it was a bit hard on my computer at first, but i think that's just because i'm the queen of having too many tabs open in my web browser. i actually had to close one of my windows to get it to run at all. the controls are simple and intuitive, except for sprinting. to sprint, you have to hold down the left analog stick, which is hard to do when you're using it to move. at the start, you have a rake and a leafblower at your disposal; the rake allows you to get leaves in hard-to-reach places, while the leafblower is the star of the show.

this is the kinda game i think i'll enjoy playing in short bursts on occasion rather than something i actively sink a bunch of time into. another game like that for me is viscera cleanup detail - a calming, simple game to keep me busy for a little while. the game is set to come out sometime this year, so i'll be keeping my eye on it!

i've been in a bit of a cozy mood today - drinking pumpkin cream chai, reading books in bed - so i figured a cozy game would be perfect for today's demo. this one is a pretty early demo, but i still had fun with it! tailside is a game where you're the new owner of a cafe. there's not much story to it so far; the demo is more an exploration of mechanics than anything else.

the mechanics are pretty easy to grasp! i got a bit confused at first moving the coffee from the grinder to the moka - you're supposed to click on the grinder after you've clicked on it to grind beans, and i thought it was kinda confusing that it's the same action - but i got the hang of things quickly. i was initially expecting more of a click-and-drag type of thing, but the coffee-making is all done through clicks. this is fine, though, and didn't detract from my experience any. you can also decorate the cafe with chairs and tables, but since the only customers you serve in the demo are little sprites that just stand around wherever to drink their coffee, there isn't much point to it. they allude to decorations bringing in customers, so perhaps this mechanic will be more important in a later build.

the art is very cute! i wasn't expecting pixel art based on the banner for the game, but i suppose a lot of pixel art games don't have pixel art banners. either way, it's a delight. i love a good pixel art game.

all in all, a very sweet game! it's still in the early stages, but i see a lot of potential. if the demo gets a substantial update later on, i'll probably revisit it. don't expect a whole lot, but if you want to kill 20 minutes with a cute demo, check this one out!

this game is super cute! its demo has been sitting in my steam library for a while - i think over a year at this point, haha - so it's about time i bust this one out. it's an rpgmaker creature collector with major halloween vibes, which is fitting for its upcoming october release date. both you and your pipkins fight side-by-side against enemies. the pixel art is stunning and cute!

when you start the game, you get to select your character and choose a class and type for them. right off the bat i thought this was super cool - it really gives you a chance to customize your playstyle. i chose tank naturally, though i didn't end up doing super tanky things. i think it's what gave me a taunting skill, but i only used it once by mistake lol. i also chose light as my type, just because i thought it'd be cool. the steam page talks about setting your character appearance, which i would expect meant i could customize my appearance, but i just chose from male, female, or bonus character. i chose the bonus character because she was a cute bunny girl.

combat is pretty typical rpg fare, but it's still fun! there are a lot of type matchups to keep track of, which you'd think i'd be better at being a pokemon fan, but i immediately forgot everything as soon as i read it. the game's only downfall is that once i had four characters in my party, the game started lagging really hard on the experience gain screen. this made the thought of going back when i wasn't strong enough for the demo's final boss really unappealing, so i didn't end up finishing the demo. hopefully that's something they fix in the full release!

all in all, a very fun and cute game! it scratches that creature collecting itch. i've added it to my wishlist, but with the experience screen lag i am a wee bit wary. i'm sure that'll get fixed before release, though. i recommend checking it out!

i've had my eye on this one for a while! the demo gives you the choice of either playing the first five days or playing one day in sandbox mode on a file that's farther along. i chose the former and i had a great time! i didn't end up playing the full five days, partly because of the time and partly because you can't save, so none of that work would get carried over into the full game. still, i had a lot of fun! it's a farming sim in a 2.5D world, a style i've been fond of since my danganronpa days. i usually play 2D farming sims, though i did have harvest moon: a wonderful life when i was a kid, so i'm familiar with other styles.

the farming is the same as your typical farming sim, but some crops you can pick early to get something different. for example, if you pick an onion early, it comes out as a green onion. the game also features a somewhat strange mechanic where if you charge a tool before you use it, it takes less stamina.

the story of the game is the usual "you're tired of your corporate/city life so you decided to go out to the country" fare, but you're on a cursed island with almost no inhabitants and you have to invite people to the island over time. it seems you have some influence over who comes to your island - when i was writing the invite, i got to choose a personality type i was looking for - but since i only played through two days, i never actually saw anyone show up. i plan on picking up the full game though, so i'm looking forward to it!

princess farmer is SO cute you guys. it's 100% my aesthetic. the demo actually starts you out on day 2, which means no tutorial. this was a little frustrating, but i managed to get the hang of things without it. it also means i'm not 100% clear on how the story starts out, but i didn't feel lost or anything. it's an easy game to just jump right in and start playing, and i think the demo is meant to represent that feeling. i only played one of the two episodes available, but i played enough to know i want the full game! it didn't even take me too long to get full hearts on a level.

it's not exactly like your typical match-3 game - rather than sliding pieces around to match them, you have to maneuver different columns of vegetables by pulling up and replanting them. this means you can't push a column down if you don't have any vegetables in your hand. i really enjoyed this, though it took some getting used to. there are also three options for playstyle - fast-paced, slower puzzle solving, or more balanced. i chose the second option, but i still ended up with a lot of timed puzzles, which i didn't expect given the description of the play style. they weren't too fast, though, and i never felt panicked trying to get a high score.

all in all, this is a really fun and cute game! i love the gay bunnies and the story is really enjoyable. i actually downloaded the ios version like over a year ago but never played it, but i'm glad i'm giving it a chance now. i'll probably the pc version since i don't play games on my phone much.

this was a fun one! i haven't played a card battler in a while; they're one of my favorite kinds of games. the gameplay really holds up here! the battles here are framed as debates, so cards have elements based on that: factual, rational, and emotional. there are also different little sections of HP - short for hypothesis points here - that correspond to each element, and cards can do more or less damage depending on if they match. you can also heal and block, as well as do something called "prep" which i didn't fully understand. i don't know if the game failed to explain it or if i just skimmed over the explanation by mistake. i think it's a sort of counterattack? either way, the combat is fun all around.

as for the story, it's a little thin. the idea is that you're going around trying to convince people to use less mana, as the world is quickly running out. there are short cutscenes before and after each battle, but they kind of leave something to be desired. i wish there was more to them! each one is pretty similar, too: character is using mana for something, player characters try to convince them not to, battle, characters say they won't use mana so frivolously. only one character has broken that mold so far. i can't say if this is how the story will go for the full game or if this is just a demo thing, but it was a little disappointing. i guess i don't normally go to card battlers for story in the first place, but if a game is gonna have a story, i'd really like there to be some meat to it!

i'm not sure if i'll get the full game. i enjoy the gameplay, but i wasn't really pulled in by the story or writing. i like the concept of "battles" that are actually debates, though the only dialogue in battles is the grunts characters make as they fight. i'll have to sit on this one for a bit.

on the bright side, there is this guy. he's awesome. i love the noises he makes.

i didn't feel up to doing much gameplay-wise, and i didn't want to wait and risk forgetting to play a demo, so i decided to go for a visual novel today. i've played most of the visual novels by nomnomnami - credited here as sophie gray - so i was sure i would like this one. and i did! the demo is short, but it's enough to get a feel for her writing style and what the story has to offer. her style is simple but effective: not particularly flowery, but not boring either.

you play as ash, a chronically ill 22-year-old who's spent the last seven years in the hospital. she wakes up dead in an unfamiliar hospital. she runs into two other dead folk, scarlett and celadon. now, she has to figure out how to return to life. i liked all the characters a lot! my favorite personality-wise is probably celadon, and my favorite design-wise is death.

i didn't go through every possible choice, but i'm considering this the start of my first playthrough of the full game, so i won't be seeing those for a while. the game's on sale as of writing this, though it's already not particularly expensive, so check it out if you're interested!

this game is SOOOO cute! i love the low poly models and the color palatte. the game also opens with a cute 2D intro. everything about this game nails my favorite aesthetic. the gameplay is really fun too! you play as an intern designing galaxies. during your first tutorial, though, things go a little haywire...

that's right: the entire galaxy gets erased. CRAZY. after this, the game introduces us to the overworld. it's a cute 3D environment where you can run around and talk to the employees at bubblegum galaxy. the characters are all quirky and charming in their own unique way. my personal favorite is magda.

the galaxy building gameplay is really fun and pretty intuitive! i don't play a lot of games like this, so i don't know how it compares to the rest of the genre, but i really enjoyed it. you have goals you want to accomplish with each galaxy and you earn more points if tiles are the same color or the edges have the same things on them, but you're pretty free to do what you want. i only did two of the five or six planets available in the demo, but i'll be coming back to do the rest before the game releases! it has no set release date, but it's projected to come out sometime this year, so check it out!

this was a great demo! it's an action rpg, which i'm notoriously bad at, so i died like five or six times, but i think for someone who actually knows what they're doing this might not be too challenging. there are actually achievements, which i assume depend on how you treat fade, but i didn't feel like hunting them all down. i've actually been following the devs on tiktok since before the kickstarter, so i've seen most of what was in the demo already. i'm unfortunately too late to support the kickstarter, but i've finally checked it out!

rather than fade being the player character, you play as someone or something controlling her. it's a very short demo - it took me less than half an hour to complete one playthrough - so i won't go over the story of it too much. i liked all the characters, though my favorite we will probably never see again. i liked the dynamic between fade and ooma too, despite how brief their interactions were.

the bulk of combat works like a typical arpg, but you also have the option to shift into the nightworld. in it, time stops for your enemies and you can attack freely. visually, it's really interesting! i love the style the enemies are drawn in there. i found that shifting was the only way to really attack the faster enemies, which is likely what it was designed for. when the mechanic was first introduced, i for some reason decided i could only attack enemies in the nightworld, which is crazy inefficient - you can only stay there for a few seconds at a time and it takes a while to regain the ability once you shift back. you can unlock spells as well, but i never got to use any since i didn't unlock them until after all the combat of the demo was over. i think that's on me, though.

all in all, a fun demo! i'm excited to see the rest of the game. it's not coming out any time soon, but i'll be continuing to follow the devs on tiktok and i'll be following the game on steam as well.

i forgot to get pictures this time because i'm not wise. i had quite a bit of fun with this though! it pays loving homage to old-school MMORPGs, which i haven't played much of. i loved runescape and i played a little WoW as a kid, but that's about my experience. all in all, this was pretty fun! i didn't get super far, but i can definitely see myself coming back to it. i think it's fun to see all the little pretend other players running around and chatting, and i enjoy fighting with them as well.

the combat is pretty similar to an old-school RPG. you target an enemy, you attack it, and you auto attack until it dies, casting spells or skills all the while. i chose to play a paladin, so i had kick and an aggro-inducing spell i forget the name of. you can also invite "other players" to your party to fight with you. i invited one player to tackle the bandit's den with me and i really liked it! i tank in ffxiv all the time, so it felt pretty natural to me. this made me want to play ffxiv again, or maybe check out WoW finally. (like i can afford another MMO right now, haha)

all in all, i recommend it! i will say that i was a little bit confused at first - one npc i thought i had to talk to in chat, but it turned out i was supposed to give him an item. it's not always super clear what you're supposed to do, but if i understood the warning that came up when i opened the game correctly, this is intentional. it's meant to replicate the feeling of playing an old MMO, and as far as i know it's pretty faithful to that! whether you're an oldhead or, like me, you're kind of new to the genre, erenshor is worth checking out! it's also 10% off as of writing, so... :)

i had a blast with this demo! the animation is so fun and there's so much of it. the characters are charming, especially the main character ringo. i enjoy the combat, too! it's a unique take on turn-based combat imo. instead of choosing a single move, you string words together to create your attacks. one word describes the action - for example, kick or block - and the other words are modifiers that make it stronger or add an element to it. i really like the character design and the artstyle is reminiscent of old-school anime, which i've never watched but always liked looking at. i also thought wolfe was kinda fine. sorry not sorry.

i didn't complete the demo, though i think i got most of the way through. i'll definitely be finishing it later and i hope to get the game when it comes out september 19! i recommend checking it out.