Come on in, get yourself a nice cup of coffee or tea and pull up a chair.
Yesterday, I had the pleasure of visiting GamesCom 2023 in Cologne, together with my daughter and my nephew. What an experience! And what I especially liked was that the audience of such a gaming event has really diversified! I’ll tell you more in my special blog later on!
Anyway, here’s this week’s news.
Update for APICO: The Call of the Sea
Are you enjoying the beekeeping sim APICO? Well, the Steam version is getting Update 3.0, called What Lies Beeneath, this fall. What Lies Beeneath invites you to dive into the crystal blue ocean waters surrounding the APICO archipelago and explore its depths. There will be new areas, forage-ables, quests and, of course, a new kind of underwater bees.
There’s also a new mechanic that’s going to be added, fishing! Skipper’s dad, Captain, arrives at the archipelago to teach you the ins and outs. Plus, the update includes quality-of-life improvements, like a newly added trash can and chest auto-deposit. This will help to make your beekeeping more efficient than ever.
Passpartout 2 Coming to Switch
Last April, the second Passpartout game made it to Steam. Paula reviewed Passpartout 2: The Lost Artist and had the hardest time persuading the art critics to buy her art. If you are feeling creative and really enjoy art and design, you will however be pleased to know the game is coming to the Switch.
Step into the shoes of Passpartout, a once renowned artist whose glory was lost after a mysterious disappearance, and help him revive his art career. The town of Phénix is full of charming folks who can use an artist’s talents, so grab some art supplies and get ready to paint a masterpiece!
The game will have new ways to play on the Nintendo Switch, including using the touch screen to paint, with stylus compatibility. Switch players can also take advantage of the Joy-Con gyro feature to paint or stick with the tried and true original stick controls.
Spellcaster University Coming to Consoles
Management sim Spellcaster University has been out on Steam for two years now. The reviews on Steam are very positive: you get to develop a prestigious university of mages. Build rooms, train your students, fight orcs, slay the bureaucrats, manage your budget…It’s quite a busy job to manage a university.
Now, the game is going to magic its way onto consoles (Switch, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PS4 and Xbox One) as well, early 2024. There will even be two different physical versions on the Nintendo Switch, PS4 and PS5: a standard edition and the Spellcaster University Deluxe Edition. This Deluxe Edition will be limited to 300 copies per platform, and will feature a wraparound box sleeve with alternate cover art, a poster and a keychain. This one will only be available at RedArtGames.com.
Lil Gator Just Got a Lil Bit Bigger!
When Mina reviewed Lil Gator she gave it our highest rating of Two Thumbs Up, writing:
While it’s a shame something so wonderful as this couldn’t have existed 20 years ago, indie developers are certainly making up for it now by releasing amazing, beautiful, wholesome, adorable, and nearly perfect games like this as passion projects. There is a lot of love in Lil Gator Game, and I can’t wait to see what this dev has in store for us next.
Well, we now know what the developer has in store for us! Both the Switch and the Steam versions have gotten more content!
Lil Gator Game’s New Game+ provides a whole new level of exploration from the get-go. Using completed saved data from previous playthroughs, players can use their stacked toolkit and bracelets of power to customise their lil’ hero and wander the vibrant islands completing quests.
As if that wasn’t enough, players can now play Lil Gator’s ‘baby mode’. Accessible right away from the setting menu, players can climb, swim and glide the whole game as the rambunctious kiddo!
Finally, if you want to play the game with the kiddies, Lil Gator has been translated into French, German, Brazilian Portuguese and Spanish (Latin American).
My Time At Sandrock Release Date Pushed Back
While we were expecting a release date of September 26 for My Time at Sandrock, the game is unfortunately delayed. The successor to My Time at Portia will now make it to the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5 and Xbox One/Series S/X on November 2nd. Of course, Steam will get the full game as well, after it’s been in Early Access since May 2022. By the way, even in Early Access Paula liked the game a lot.
The team behind the game has been hard at work making sure the game is the best it can be upon release, but they feel a delay is necessary to ensure the final game’s quality.
SteamWorld Build Coming on December 1st
SteamWorld Build is a city-building strategy game where you play the architect of a SteamWorld mining town. Jack, a prospector and his daughter Astrid Clutchsprocket have found the AI Core. The AI core is a purple-eyed sphere with wires hanging out of it.
Unfortunately, the core can’t do anything in its current state, but with the help of the good SteamWorld robots, that should be fine to sort out. However, buried deep underneath the desert are the broken remains of ancient technology that can lift the robots away from their crumbling planet and into space. So all the robots must work together to build an old Western-style town in the desert. In addition, the town you build supports the mine, and the mine supports the town.
Paula liked the demo last January, so she’s pretty pleased SteamWorld Build is coming to Steam, Xbox X|S series, Xbox One, Playstation 4 & 5 and Switch on December 1st. It will be available on day one on Xbox Game Pass and Steam players who own the SteamWorld Complete Bundle will get a 20% discount on Steam.
Europa has a Demo
Beautiful-looking Europa, with a release date in 2024, now has a demo live in the Steam Shop.
On the moon Europa, a lush terraformed paradise in Jupiter’s shadow, an android named Zee sets out in search of answers. Run, glide and fly across the landscape of the moon Europa. Take the role of android Zee and explore this lush terraformed paradise in Jupiter’s shadow. Solve mysteries in the ruins of a fallen utopia, and discover the story of the last human alive.
We will have an impressions article up soon, if you want to try it yourself: the demo is here.
That’s it for this week; thanks for reading!