Reviews and spoilers... [Toschi Recap #02]
Hi, Toschi here, and welcome to newsletter recap #02! I'm really happy to have already some of you with me in this journey: here, on RSS or just looking into my posts on social media. It's so fun to talk about the things I like and seeing this resonate with more people around the world.
My biggest news is that I'm officially on cohost! It was a suggestion from a subscriber and I liked the whole vibe of it (a lot of 2000s web, what I appreciate). I'm still new to the place so most of stuff are blog posts, but I hope to get more active there. You can follow me if you want too. :)
If you want to follow the example and talk to me about anything, just reply this email! You can also find me surviving on Twitter or hanging out on Bluesky or Mastodon. If you forget to check your inbox, you can also try my Telegram channel or my Steam curator profile. Now for the news!
latest from the blog
I wrote some fresh game reviews during this two weeks (and start working on bigger projects). As always, I would like to thank all the people involved on those titles for the trust in me <3
Lonesome Village (7/10): a curious mix of puzzle gauntlet and Animal Crossing-like gameplay from a Mexican team. If you like solving enigmas, it's a good recommendation!
Puzzles for Clef (6/10): a beautiful puzzle game that gets boring with so much backtracking. Still really beautiful and cozy, though.
Bounties of Babylon (4/10): a digital-only board game that uses Roll to Move in 2024 (and some other really questionable design decisions).
Storyblocks: The King (3/10): a cool idea in theory, but with a bad execution. Someone needs to try again this concept one day.
shhh, spoilers
I'm officially working on my full Playdate review! It was a blast to test all 24 games from Season One and I'm cooking an in-depth look into my experiences with Panic's console to next week.
From my "playing games shelf", I'm having fun with the alchemy management simulator The Magical Mixture Mill and the Playdate exclusive YOYOZO. Expect reviews of them soon!
One of my most expected games of the year will be launched next week! I talked about Botany Manor in my last Steam Next Fest round-up and you can bet I'll be playing it day one and writing a review afterward.
Because my brain is strange, I'm pivoting my game design efforts to a digital game project! It'll be a free, browser-based "escape room" experience about old computer tech. I will need playtesters soon 👀
follow friday
If you like puzzle games (and everything around it), you cannot miss ThinkyCon 2024, a free conference focused on thinky games. The talks are already awesome, and there's more today and tomorrow.
You may have heard about Balatro, the indie gem of 2024 so far. I played it and it's not my thing, but I understand why people love it so much. Independent of your taste, GMTK's Mark Brown published a great design video about the game and how it's hard to choose how much information you need to give players.
One of the best game soundtracks ever made is finally available in streaming platforms: even if you never played, go now and listen to Katamari Damacy's OST. And then play the game, it's incredible too.
In true Follow Friday fashion, it's great to see more people starting their own gaming writing spaces (like I did!). This time, I want to showcase GameReviewlution: Harry's review style is a little different than mine, but you will find good articles and games to follow there too!