Gamescom has officially kicked off and while a lot of people opted to watch Opening Night Live (either on their screens or in person) I instead headed for Courage Cologne, a yearly tradition where a ton of indies come to showcase their games to fellow developers, possible investors and publishers and some people from the press.
I was planning on doing a “top 5 games” and playing way more than that, but I got caught talking to people and the demos some people brought were just way too long and I couldn’t stop playing, so instead I’ll share a few games you (probably) never heard of before!
While Waiting
A game about waiting? That’s perfect for me as everyone has always told me what a patient person I am and how it’s secretly a superpower. You play through various levels of a person’s life and you can quite simply beat the game without ever lifting a finger. You could even beat the game while scrolling on your phone (heck, I did so while playing the demo). It’s pretty much that joke ending from Far Cry 4 where you can let Pagan Min come back and you’re patiently waiting for him and the credits roll.
In the demo you play 10 different scenarios where waiting is involved. Being stuck in traffic and having the option to play frogger with some ducks or just stay in the car. Getting caught in a torrential downpour and you can have a coffee in the bar or use something as an umbrella or just wait for the rain to stop. Waiting for the bus and if you venture away from the bus stop to try and do optional things, you risk missing your bus. My favourite one was in a bathroom where you had to urgently go and have to wait for someone to finish, while a can of spam slowly drops its contents on the left side of the screen as an apt visualisation of your bowel movements.
The idea is clever, the cartoon approach works really well and the scenarios are funny but ironically, my patience was mostly tested by moving so slowly across the screen and even in phone minigames having to manually press the ‘close’ or ‘back’ buttons every time at a glacial pace. Still, one to keep an eye on and a perfect game for achievement hunters! (no plans for an Xbox release yet though)
Check While Waiting on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2449160/While_Waiting/
Cat Detective Albert Wilde
I had to do a double take when I saw this game as it’s really close to Chicken Police in concept, setting and visuals. Still, the detective noir setting with humanoid animals appealed to me and called me out to test the demo. I was happily surprised with the humour and gruff voice acting. Phrases like “it’s dirtier than a dog’s asshole after he hasn’t licked it clean for a week” and “all six of my nipples are tingling” had me whipping out my phone to snap a pic of the scene.
The puzzles and interactions are fairly straightforward, at least in the demo, which I can appreciate because most point & click detective games can get too convoluted quickly or require you to remember a ton of details from various case files. The focus here is more on the dialogs and in between you walk around in first person and explore/examine crime scenes.
It would have been a super novel setting & concept a few years ago, but the very close resemblance to Chicken Police felt a bit weird to me. I haven’t played that one enough to find all the similarities myself yet, so closer investigation is required. Let me grab my magnifying glass and question some witnesses later!
Check Cat Detective Albert Wilde on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1810670/Cat_Detective_Albert_Wilde/
Asfalia: Fear
I’m cheating a little because I haven’t actually played the demo for Asfalia: Fear yet, but it’s a Belgian game I wish to highlight regardless. I played the first episode “Anger” last year together with my kids (then 3 and 7) and my daughter was able to beat the game from start to finish with only minimal interventions by myself. You can read a little more in my tidbit review from back then.
It’s a point & click adventure game aimed at children and the goal is to help them use a playful game to better understand their emotions. For this reason, there is also a physical card game that can help make emotions a conversational topics with your children in a way they understand and to help them express themselves.
But back to the game! Asfalia is filled with colourful characters and silly situations for our main character Charlie to overcome. E
Check Asfalia: Fear on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2436410/Asfalia_Fear/
I hope you enjoyed having a look at some lesser-known games from Gamescom 2024 and stay tuned for many more updates over the coming days!
Robby lives and breathes video games. When he’s not playing them, he’s talking about them on social media or convincing other people to pick up a controller themselves. He’s online so often, he could practically list the internet as his legal domicile. Belgian games-industry know-it-all.