6 min read
Welcome to the first roundup I posted to this blog. I’ve made some edits here as part of a cleanup/revitalisation project in July 2026 but left most of the content untouched. I am very passionate about indie games and want to shine a spotlight on games which don’t get as much attention as they deserve. A lot has changed since I wrote this first post, and reading it again now is a good opportunity to reflect.
Haneko’s Late Homework
Detritus is scattered across every surface, voices softly whisper to you from dark corners and if you’re particularly unlucky you’ll encounter an Anomaly. Haneko’s Late Homework is a short survival horror game, made for the Anomalous Entity Jam. With some clear inspiration taken from classics like Silent Hill, you’ll fight with fixed camera angles and wonky controls, despite this the game is dripping with a desolate flavour that captures that early PS1 feel. The core gameplay is basic, but given its length, it doesn’t outstay its welcome. It’s unforgiving but can be completed in around 10-20 minutes.
The most interesting part is the map which has several doors that will take you from one side of the map to the other. I thought I was travelling between floors and rooms, but when it clicked I was able to outmanoeuvre the Anomaly using Haneko’s innate ability to fold time and space. If the Anomaly does catch Haneko, you’ll witness the unfortunate end for someone’s (presumably) beloved Furaffinity OC. Haneko’s Late Homework is completely free, though let the record show that I did pay around $5 Australian smackaroos as an optional “pay what you want” price.
Find Haneko’s Late Homework here
Aether Diving
Loading into Aether Diving you’re greeted by an old friend, an MS-DOS command line interface. Shortly after a few splash screens play and the title screen appears with one of the freshest tracks I’ve heard in gaming this year. The only shortcoming is how short it is, but small miracles.
The gameplay here is kind of reminiscent of an old Flash game more than a DOS game, I was able to beat it pretty easily and there’s never much danger of failing as it’s not very challenging gameplay. The art is surreal, the same can be said for pretty much everything else about Aether Diving too. It’s short, it’s free, and it reinvigorated my Chakras.
Clickolding
A bit over a month old, but I still think about this game a lot. It doesn’t seem like the kind of game to leave an impact but it does. There’s not much to say about Clickolding that wouldn’t spoil it, so I’ll keep this brief. A grimy hotel room, a man wearing a mask and an old clicker. The game ratchets up the tension at times and is remarkably unsettling throughout.
The parallels to sex work are obvious and Strange Scaffold has delivered something that is in equal parts absurd and thought-provoking. Also, click goes clicky haha. Sorry, I almost got a bit too pretentious there talking about a game where you click a guy off in a hotel room.
Dungeons of Hinterberg
Dungeons of Hinterberg nails that holiday feeling. There is this laid-back vibe infecting the entire world, even when you’re exploring dungeons and fighting baddies. Exploring a town as a tourist, finding landmarks, visiting attractions, and meeting new people. It does all this in a grounded fantasy backdrop. The world is magical and mysterious but feels believable. Dungeons are all excellently designed with puzzles that make you feel smart when you solve them but aren’t so hard to make you pull up a walkthrough. Groups of dungeons will sometimes have a central theme or “gimmick” like minecarts which are always a welcome addition to any game I play.
Combat starts off relatively simple but as you unlock more abilities and spells enemies will start to get tougher making you think a lot more about how you approach encounters. The art style is cute and whimsical, and it’s also a delight to play on the Steam Deck given how little power it draws with its stylised cel-shaded graphics. Little touches like gusts of wind blowing leaves through and across a mountain make me want to take a deep breath in as if I could actually taste the crisp, clean air our protagonist, Luisa, must be enjoying.
The synth-heavy music can vary between really beautiful to just okay. In general, the ambient music and themes are all great and fit the mood perfectly. Combat music can feel a bit out of place against the rest of the tracks, which is my only complaint about the music. The writing can leave something to be desired, which is a shame because there is a fair chunk of dialogue and reading in this game too. I think most of the characters are fun to interact with but there is stuff I’d much rather be doing like exploring the world and delving into dungeons.
That’s probably just me though, since I don’t really get into the social elements of games like Persona either. All of that aside, games like this are the inspiration for Just Good Games, and I can’t think of a better game to christen this blog with. Microbird Games is a small team who have accomplished something massive, a thousand kudos to everyone over there in Vienna.
Find Dungeons of Hinterberg here