demos from the Latin American Games Showcase (1/2)

I learned a few days ago that the Latin American Games Showcase is happening this week. This is very relevant to my interests, so I downloaded some demos. Too many demos, really, so I'm going to break my thoughts into two posts.

⭐ I want to play this.
❓ Maybe someday if it's on sale or if issues are fixed by release.
🚫 Not for me.

⚒️ Unreleased/early access.

⭐⚒️ Oscuro: Blossom's Glow (puzzle platformer - Hongoneon, Costa Rica)

A puzzle platformer where you use magic to make flowers bloom which activates various mechanics to let you get past obstacles. This looks great. The puzzles demand some thought and precision without being totally unforgiving, and I love the fantasy storybook art style. It's supposed to come out in August and it looks like it's ready. An easy wishlist.

⭐⚒️ PancitoMerge (drop-merge puzzle - Fáyer, Mexico)

This is Suika Game with Mexican baked goods instead of fruit. Really cute, really fun to play. The objects being odd-shaped instead of circular requires new strategies, and I like the addition of selling items to customers so that it's possible to remove pieces from the bottom. I'm not sure what more the dev plans to add but this is already a solid game in its current state.

⭐ I Did Not Buy This Ticket (surreal horror visual novel - Tiago Rech, Brazil)

A professional mourner finds the wrong bus ticket in her pocket and boards a bus that isn't taking her anywhere she wants to go. Phew, this was pretty spine-tingling. There weren't any jumpscares, but the writing and bizarre nightmare imagery are unsettling. I'd like to see the rest, maybe for my next batch of October horror games.

❓ Adore (creature-collecting ARPG - Cadabra Games, Brazil)

I enjoyed the MOBA-inspired summoner combat (you don't fight, only your Pokemon do) and the potential for creating synergistic builds between your creatures. Based on reviews, the game was originally a roguelike and some of those elements remain, but it was heavily redesigned in early access because the roguelike structure clashed with the creature-collecting. Some people are still salty that the original design is gone, so it's extra hard to gauge whether the game in its final state is any good. Maybe if it's on sale I'll chance it.

❓⚒️ Beacon of Neyda (tower defense - Ghost Creative Studio, Uruguay)

I had difficulty getting started with this due to an inadequate tutorial that left me guessing a lot. With some trial and error I figured out how quests are supposed to interweave with the build/defend/repair loop. I think the concept is good but simple tasks can be a struggle due to unintuitive controls and weird hitboxes. If I walk up to an elevator and an interact prompt pops up, I expect I can get on the damn elevator, not have to shuffle around finding the exact pixel to stand on to get it to go. The most recent dev blog claims the game is almost done, which is concerning. Then again, there's no release date so who knows how much longer they'll really work on it and what might change.

🚫 The End is Nahual (variety puzzles - Third World Produtions, Mexico)

Some kind of comedy variety-puzzler with Mesoamerican folklore themes. I enjoyed some of the logic puzzles, but the arcade-style minigames really tried my patience to the point where I didn't even finish the demo. The humor is also heavily fourth-wall-breaking and sophomorically "random" in a way that I think I would get tired of over the course of a whole game. The story is immediately confusing (who is this guy? am I him? who's the offscreen person he's talking to?) and based on the dev's cheeky responses to people's questions about it on Steam, I think that's on purpose. I suspect this dev made a game very tailored to his own specific tastes, which just aren't compatible with mine.

🚫 Alexandria IV (sci-fi visual novel - J.M. Beraldo, Brazil)

You're the captain of a last-best-hope-for-peace space station and you choose how to handle various diplomatic and space opera crises. Clearly inspired by Babylon 5. This didn't grab me. The writing is very straight-ahead, like the author is just info-dumping directly from their own notes. Characters feel like collections of traits the author has decided they have, rather than organic personalities.

🚫 Dreamcore ("liminal space" walking sim - Montraluz, Argentina)

This is apparently a "liminal space/backrooms" walking simulator, which is a subgenre I didn't know existed until today. The experience I had with it was I found a dark door that said I needed a flashlight, then I wandered around a bunch of deserted halls resembling the interior of a public pool for about 20 minutes, found the flashlight purely by chance, couldn't find the dark door again, and gave up. It has good reviews, of which this one is representative: "The atmosphere is so good I could walk around in this game mindlessly for hours. 10/10!" I suspect this is one of those things like ASMR where it hits some people's brains just right and others are like... uh, is something supposed to happen?