Itchmas in July #1 (August 2022)

It was discussed on the Discord a few months ago that we should do another smaller Itchmas event in the middle of the summer as an addition to the regular Game of the Month. We planned to do this for July but I guess we all just forgot about it. 😎

It will be similar as the 12 Days of Itchmas we did but on a smaller scale. Each person can nominate two games. Nominations must be games available on Itch.io for free so that anyone could get them and participate.

Once the poll is closed, the seven games with the most votes will be revealed one at a time (one per day for a week). As with the regular Game of the Month, I will take nominations up until 2-3 days before the end of the month, then post a poll here to cast the final votes. Let the nomiations begin!

My two nominations are Nonsense at Nightfall and Satan Loves Cake.

I nominate Klifur and Tobu Tobu Girl Deluxe.

I nominate Celeste Classic 2 and Slide in the Woods

I'll nominate Wonderflower and ᗢ

Oh, heck yeah. Looking forward to this.

My nominations:
> Cloacaphobia - "Cloacaphobia is a 90s VHS found footage survival horror that plays on the fear of sewers, realistic situations and claustrophobic environments with a gruesome atmosphere."
> SELF - "SELF is a short game about a lost soul. Recover the fragments of your SELF. Be touched by the higher being. [Platformer]"

Also happy to see Siver nominate ᗢ again, so I don't have to this time. lol

- Matt

I'm going to nominate Tomato Clinic, a fun little Visual Novel about going to a vampire blood donation clinic and learning about them which I found charming and Cute with a bit of emotional, along with Mimi's Delivery Dash, a game that finds heavy basis in one of my favorite movies of all time (Kiki's Delivery Service).

Oh, heck yeah. Looking forward to this.

My nominations:
> Cloacaphobia - "Cloacaphobia is a 90s VHS found footage survival horror that plays on the fear of sewers, realistic situations and claustrophobic environments with a gruesome atmosphere."
> SELF - "SELF is a short game about a lost soul. Recover the fragments of your SELF. Be touched by the higher being. [Platformer]"

Also happy to see Siver nominate ᗢ again, so I don't have to this time. lol

- Matt

I set it aside to play it myself when it didn't win last, but then I didn't get around to it, so nomination stealing time it was

My Two Noms are Brick Break Remix And Super Snake 3D

I would like to nominate Sort the Court! and Elden Ring GB.

Does demos of games that fully released recently or will be released soon on other stores count?

If demos are allowed, I nominate Candle Prick (https://moraguma.itch.io/candle-prick), a really clever puzzle game, and Undergrave (https://wired-dreams-studio.itch.io/undergrave), which is a rather punishing roguelike with good core mechanics.

I'm running a little late with real life stuff. I'll try to compile all the nominations as soon as possible and post the poll on the 29th or before...

I just now noticed this thread so making some real quick nominations at the last minute.

Unciv "is an open-source recreation of Civilization V for the Android operating system and Desktop." Free/open source games tend to be janky but I'm still interested, HLTB says it's 2 hours long?

Everything is Garbage is an "absurd factory game by Free Lives. Create everything from motels to obelisks - all powered by garbage and with a wonderful musical beat." Haven't played but I liked their prototype of Terra Nil so it should be decent.

I'll most likely close the nominations and post the polls later tonight (so in the next 3-4 hours or so)...

The poll is up!! I'm trying a new poll maker since Doodle no longer offers the possibility for text choices, which is lame. Awyways, StrawPoll looks really nice so far...

https://strawpoll.com/polls/ajnEN2JmBgW

Also, I've created a Collection on Itch.io with all 20 nominations. It's much easier to have a quick look at all the nominations that way.

https://itch.io/c/2668749/itchmas-in-july-1-august-2022

Just a friendly reminder to all that this is still ongoing.
So far 27 participants for the GotM and 10 participants for Itchmas.

GotM poll: https://doodle.com/poll/zxekcw22bzvcrega
Itchmas poll: https://strawpoll.com/polls/ajnEN2JmBgW
Itchmas nominations collection: https://itch.io/c/2668749/itchmas-in-july-1-august-2022

And just a friendly reminder to all that this is still ongoing.
So far 36 participants for the GotM and 13 participants for Itchmas.

GotM poll: https://doodle.com/poll/zxekcw22bzvcrega
Itchmas poll: https://strawpoll.com/polls/ajnEN2JmBgW
Itchmas nominations collection: https://itch.io/c/2668749/itchmas-in-july-1-august-2022

I will close the polls in approximately 24 hours...

On the first day of July Itchmas
my true friends sent to me...
Everything is Garbage by vfqd

Synopsys: Create intricate garbage powered supply chains all with the ultimate goal of powering the great Obelisk of Startups.

Just completed Everything is Garbage. I voted for it because of how absurd it looks, but almost didn't because I wasn't sure i'd like a factory game, which I don't know much about but seem pretty overwhelming for me.

It was kind of overwhelming but luckily short enough I was able to complete it on my 3rd try. Couldn't find a refresh button so if you run out of garbage, you just have to restart the game (unless there is a shortcut I missed).

Speaking of the ending, I wasn't sure if I completed the game after having the Obelisk go off a couple times, but according to the itch.io page, it seems to have an anticlimactic ending.. Loved the game, had such a fun time. It was so absurd, at the end requiring 2 men, one in a grey sweatshirt to come up with the idea for crypto.

Played Everything is Garbage. Not really my kind of thing but it was cute and absurd and I can appreciate the ridiculousness. The sound design was fun too. I messed up my first try, not really understanding things, but did it on my second go. In as much as there is an end anyway.

Just completed Everything is Garbage. I voted for it because of how absurd it looks, but almost didn't because I wasn't sure i'd like a factory game, which I don't know much about but seem pretty overwhelming for me.

It was kind of overwhelming but luckily short enough I was able to complete it on my 3rd try. Couldn't find a refresh button so if you run out of garbage, you just have to restart the game (unless there is a shortcut I missed).

Speaking of the ending, I wasn't sure if I completed the game after having the Obelisk go off a couple times, but according to the itch.io page, it seems to have an anticlimactic ending.. Loved the game, had such a fun time. It was so absurd, at the end requiring 2 men, one in a grey sweatshirt to come up with the idea for crypto.

I was worried about that too until I found that you can sell buildings with right-click, then it's easy to enough to 'recycle' everything into Banks or food markets for a quick profit. I completed the game on 1st try but in the end it took just as much time as the average completion.

But yeah, I loved Factorio and got sucked into a few Clicker games back in the day and even for me the gameplay was meh. Loved the cows and humans 3D models fumbling around, though. The game is ridiculous and I guess it's poetic that it starts with garbage and ends with Bitcoin.

Everything is Garbage
Completion: August 01, 2022
Main+Extras 29m 37s
Notes Built and obelisk and fed it ideas

Short and concise little game about building systems to change resources into different resources to ultimately reach the final item. While the systems work really well the game ultimately has no real ending and is continuous at the end with the last item not really offering anything other then some light effects so the end result is rather disappointing. Still there is a good game in here that just needs a bit more work

6/10

On the second day of July Itchmas
my true friends sent to me...
Celeste Classic 2 by Maddy Makes Games

Synopsys: A PICO-8 platformer about hiking around a mountain, made in three days for Celeste's third anniversary.

...aaannnd done! ;)

Completed in 38 minutes with 11 strawberries and 351 deaths. I recommend this to anyone who liked Celeste.

I'm lacking behind but I just played Everything is Garbage for around 30 minutes. Unlocked all buildings and islands, then let it run for a bit to reach over $1000.
I do really like it's simplistic and clean visual representation of economic chains, showing where things generally kinda come from. Can't have them pesky iPhones without those minor mineral miners and sweatshops. 🙏
Most of all though: I love playing with garbage.

EDIT: I also just now played Celeste Classic 2: Lani's Trek. I've never played the original Celeste but I do like a difficult platformer from time to time, so I was interested. Though I have a feeling Celeste might not be exactly my kind of flavor of this genre.
This fan game is really nicely made but it doesn't seem to be my style of platformer. The hook shot and wall jump mechanics felt kinda clunky to me. Not because they were shoddily implemented, but more because I just didn't vibe with the feel of it. I guess I much prefer the fluidity of games like Ninja Gaiden or The Messenger.
And those timed jumps here with the snowballs or the springs that you have to throw around mid-air are my kryptonite in games like this. I just don't have much fun with that stuff. If I hadn't already known that this was a short game, I might have retired this game somewhere in the second half. There were some rough moments for me.
I made it through with 9 strawberries and 384 deaths after 42 minutes of playtime. Well made, just not entirely my cup of tea.

- Matt