Darkest Dungeon is a rogue-like dungeon crawler and town/character management sim. Released a long time ago, I was able to purchase it with all the DLC for < $10. The base game was < $2.

Two negative aspects of this game are inherent in any true "Dungeon Crawler": gameplay can be long and repetitive. Keeping your dungeon crawls interesting is up to you; you choose the missions and characters that complete them. If you ignore most of the 17 classes and choose the same zone and mission type, that is your fault!

Abandoning the mission and saving your characters lives is also your choice to make. Declaring a loss and pulling your characters out of danger is functionally very easy, even if the decision is hard to make.

I'm probably not obsessive enough to try all of the DLCs, but definitely feel that I got my money's worth.

Descended from the classic "Worms" multiplayer artillery game. Personally, I've only got vague memories of playing shareware Scorched Earth.

Arcanists 2 feels like a bigger variety of attacks and effects than just projectiles and explosives. Movement, minions, blocking, and even "rocket jumps" are important.

It can be played from the browser, PC application, and Android after downloading and installing APK file. A slight struggle for the APK, had to extract the ZIP from Files application first, then install with another!

Lot of people have been enjoying the multiplayer and I've heard no complaints. I've only completed the tutorial; the game is a bit unpolished but seems to be playtested enough to have a robust community.

Play Arcanists 2 in Browser

Arcanist 2 Downloads

Arcanists Discord

I played Battle Bay for over a year... in 2019. It's been a while. It was the game that drove me to get an Android tablet. Would have been interesting on PC.

It's been on life support since I stopped playing but still hundreds of players. When you start out, you face AI opponents which put up a good fight and help you learn the game. It feels competitive, and it's Rovio so they understood the free-to-play monetization pretty well by this point.

If I'd played World of Warships I might have more insightful things to say, but I have not. Battle Bay was fun to do the incentivized fights and get the loot drops. Enjoyed everything about the progression and the PvP matches.

Install Battle Bay on Google Play

Well, here's a game I haven't even tried yet, but several people I know are going to test out the launch: [https://ravendawn.online/en](Ravendawn Online)

It's a free MMORPG, but I'm assuming I'd quit once the $8 per month subscription becomes too much of an advantage. So perhaps think of it like a cheap paid MMO. I guess the key will be if they introduce pay to win for gameplay advantages.

It's launching today, if you're trying it let me know what you think!

In September teams form and develop new visual novel games for "Spooktober". The games are submitted by midnight October 1, and freely available for at least one month while the judging occurs. That means hundreds of new free games for us on Itch.io this month!

Almost all of these are straightforward visual novels, with a few choices along the way. The submissions had to be Halloween or "spooky" themed visual novels. Typical length is 10k words. I'm very impressed by what some people can do in 30 days; a lot of these promise "To Be Continued".

Some links to my favorite games so far:

• Satan is an Astronaut

• This Magical Girl is a B*tch

• Witcharoo

• Reaplaced

Link to the DevTalk Discord

Haven't played this one in years, thought it was cancelled but it's still running! "Blue Manchu sold Card Hunters to new developers The Knights of Unity!"? This is according to fictional in-game GM "Gary". There's a tiny bit of voice acting. Card Hunter just turned 10 years old. It is a meta-"tabletop RPG" on your computer, and actually combines strategy, deck-building, and dice-rolling.

Now it looks like it's Steam only, was there a web version before? The important thing is, my old account name and password still worked! Free to download and start. The "pay to win" currency is "Pizza Slices", regular currency is gold.

You have a 3-man/elf/dwarf party, each can equip weapons, armor, and skills of various rarity. Weapons provide 6 cards each, others 3 cards. Looks like about 36 cards per character. You can also save and reload your character / equipment loadout.

You explore "dungeons" to unlock more of the map, gain experience and gold. These look like square-grid tabletop miniature boards. By playing the available cards from your 3 characters, you move around the board or attack. Each side (you vs. monsters) alternates play, one card at a time. When you have no more cards to play, you can end the round and new cards are drawn. Dice are rolled for attacks and defense, affected by the attack and defense cards; some attacks cannot be blocked, depending on the direction the miniature is facing. There are also different types of damage and resistance.

Some premium dungeons locked with "Pizza Slices". There are also "campaigns" with a few battles in series, and specific rewards at the end. Most dungeons can be replayed, but might not be rewarding beyond the fun of playing.

There is multiplayer! Usually you'd battle 1v1 for more treasure chests, but there is also co-op for the dungeons. Looks like a small player count, these are gonna be the hardcore veterans!

This is a very good free game.

So, I just played Unciv before and never bought the actual series. Figured I'd mention them since I see a sale is on right now. Apparently people have a lot of opinions on which is better.

Having to install through Steam, and then link through 2k games is weird. Indie games have it right, no linking and background apps!

Life in Adventure is a simplified text-based RPG on Android. You've got a portrait, hit-points, sanity, 6 stats. You've got gold, a small inventory, also one armor and one weapon slot which add to your "combat power".

There are 100+ pre-written encounters, often with a unique picture. You're given a few choices at each step, with success percentages listed when they depend on stats. Often you'll get a choice to begin combat, or run away. At the start of combat, you get an estimated chance of victory, and a choice to roll the 20-sided die to modify that chance. Combat is not interactive, you pit your combat power against the enemy power until one side is defeated. Defeat means a loss of health and sanity, when you run out it is "Like Every Other Death".

There are "gems" for monetization and as a reward for discovering new items and monsters. Number of things to discover:

• 131 Epilogues
• 160 Monsters
• 257 Items
• 33 Achievements

Links:

• Life in Adventure on Google Play
• LiA Discord Server

"Saint Spell's" is a pretty straightforward magical school / dating simulator. You play through a first week of classes, improving your stats and navigating through conversations with the students you meet.

The game starts with you choosing your class schedule and magical house affiliation, which affects your starting stats. You wake up Monday morning at 8AM, and choose how to spend your time in between your custom class schedule. You'll encounter different students, depending on which places you visit and classes you attend (or don't attend). Rarely you will even have to pay attention to the class!

Some students are interesting in chatting, and some are not, depending on your stats, starting house, and other factors. As a dating sim, your goal is to learn more about the characters and start a relationship. You'll need to play through a lot to get an idea of their schedules, conversation options, and preferred statistics.

This isn't a long game, and there's not much time for character development. What it does have is a "Student Spellbook" with 29 characters, so there is a lot of replayability if you wanna "catch em all". A lot of variety, no pressure, and not perverted. What else can you ask for from a dating sim :)

Saint Spell on Itch.io

A turn-based fantasy wilderness Rogue-lite. It's not as forgiving as Minecraft, you start over after death. There's a recurring focus on food gathering, preparation, and storage. Combat and equipment are also integral to the game, as is exploration to keep gathering resources for future improvement. 24 hour cycle, clothing, and terrain that affect body temperature and exhaustion complicate things.

The Wild Darkness is Android only. No porting here, the touch interface is well thought out and doesn't need many taps. After collecting a few resources, you can begin building campfires, lean-tos, and more permanent structures anywhere in the game world. You'll find altars you can use for fast travel , I'd recommend building near one of those. The map is randomly generated, but the basic milestones in a run are fixed.

Random blueprints, rare drops from dungeon boss fights, and some random crafting outcomes give a small taste of Diablo / lootbox feel in the context of turn-based Rogue-style gameplay. There are also a few "end-game" options you can choose after the main quest line, to complete your run in style and have a bonus to the next one.

There are a couple merchants hidden in the wilderness, that refresh stock every so often. Plants and animals will respawn after a number of turns, once you've explored enough zones you'll be able to make food collection routine. By that time, you'll also be growing crops and cooking with pots and pans.

This is a single-player game. There are the usual opportunities to spend money and watch ads, but as a "rogue-lite" you'll slowly accumulate perks, starting classes, and blueprints that give advantage on a new game . There's also a bit of collectible cosmetic element.

• The Wild Darkness on Google Play

Dwarf Fortress is easily recommended as a cheap game! It's not cheap on Steam, but free from Bay12Games. Spend the money on Steam if you'd like an easy way to support KitFox and Bay12, or use their Patreon. Back in my day, we sent PayPal and got ASCII art in reply!

It was a good game in 2D, and absolutely crazy in 3D. Predecessor to Minecraft. You begin by clicking "Create new world" generating the world and its history. Be sure to use the mouse in dialog windows, you may have trouble using the keyboard shortcuts for these. The default settings for "Create world" are decent, if you get hooked on the game you can experiment later and using "Detailed Mode" 😀

Once the world is created, the seasons and history will pass by for a few minutes and then you may review the world and click "Play Now". World and history are saved, and you may enter "Fortress" mode. Either click "Start tutorial", or you know what you doing.

DF is "real-time with lots of pausing", designating the mining, construction, and stockpiling jobs to be done by your dwarves and letting them do it. Periodically you will haul goods to your trade depot and exchange for useful materials. There's a lot of options fresh off the wagon, and it only gets crazier from there.

• Bay 12 Games
• Windows Download
• DF Wiki
• Dwarf Fortress Map Archive .. use the HTML5 Viewer , DF is as old as Adobe Flash!

I don't consider Coke Zero a sparkling water, so I'm going to rule "Sparkling Ice" out of this beverage category as well.

Lesson learned for me, read the ingredients before buying!