Pretty, Little, Pixels | Haste, Look Outside, and Urban Jungle
Finding the right moments for rest and movement is an important part of life.
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Edits: Morgan Shaver (they/them), Nathan Miller (he/him), and Bex Stump (she/her).
HASTE: BROKEN WORLDS is picking up the pieces and moving forward, with as much momentum and speed as you can handle, so you can quickly navigate through collapsing universes while you try to save what’s left of reality.
It would be easy to mistake Haste as being entirely focused on speed, but it’s equally—and simultaneously—concerned with accuracy and moving with intention in the right direction.
Procedurally generated levels add stylistic flair to a universe that’s crackling and fading away, providing exciting and colorful tracks to bounce and board through, as you help Zoe succeed in saving a dying reality.
Haste: Broken Worlds is available on Steam for twenty bucks.
LOOK OUTSIDE is a quirky and engaging role-playing game that analyzes the weight of our actions—and how we choose to spend our time—in a system that often rewards us in the short term for ignoring our neighbors and the world around us.
Look Outside very much feels like a deconstructed and modernized version of ‘The Plague’ by Albert Camus; an apartment building instead of a city, but souls who are able to choose between acting as people or monsters nonetheless.
Gorgeous, hand-drawn sprites will tempt your deepest fears, with the game’s assortment of 100+ monsters, but how you interact with the world—and the passage of time—will remind you of how meaningful our actions can be, in a world that begs you not to look around.
Look Outside is available on Steam for ten bucks.
Urban Jungle is a different kind of rhythm entirely, asking players to pause and take time for the moments and memories that give us life, instead of surrendering entirely to the corporate power structures of this world that ultimately control us.
Puzzle elements make an appearance in Urban Jungle, but it’s more about intentionally considering the spaces we inhabit, instead of just clicking through on auto-pilot.
Organizing plants and different spaces feels cathartic and healing after spending so much time in a reality that often encourages thinking that’s based around nothing more than turning one dollar into four.
There comes a time where you are able to combine those warm memories with work, and open up a shop of your own; it feels like a warm reminder that life can be better, with intention and remembering what’s most important.
Urban Jungle is available on Steam for twelve bucks.
Love the variety in the games chosen for this one! “The plague” in game form is a very compelling hook. Thanks for writing!