Perfectly Peculiar Pixels [issue 2]

🟧🟧🟪 Happy New Year! Nothing but (legally!) free games this week!

Author

Igor Kolar
January 05, 2025

Gaming has been around long enough to have its own equivalents of classic literature. The Marios, the Pac-Mans, the Zeldas, the Dooms, Red Alerts, and so on. They taught us to crawl so we could fly now, or given the state of the industry, limp somewhat enthusiastically towards the future.

But you already know and/or have those games, so the following are interesting footnotes in the ongoing history of video games.

Itch.io should already be your regular hangout

Evoking the style of a C64, but using pixel art in genuine 3D space, this is a showroom-grade tiny game in its completeness

Adopt an orphan game from MyAbandonware

.kkrieger might seem unremarkable in all departments. But it is a masterclass of optimization, showing what procedural generation can do with a FPS in under 100kb

Itch.io and MyAbandonware.com should be your regular stops for inspiration, to see how things were done before, and how things are done today. Itch features many ‘studies’ in efficiency by featuring games from various game james from around the world.

Epic’s disappointing but FREE Game for the week

Can’t say I understand what the developers thought they were bringing to the industry with yet another generic, multiplayer only WWII FPS.

“Don’t like it? Make your own then!”

Shorter than any superhero movie, this free turorial uses a free and open source engine with free assets from itch to teach you how to make your own (free) game!

This week’s outing from Epic might be underwhelming, but if you get a minimum of 52 free games a year, they can’t all be bangers, and like some popular new year’s resolutions, it’s a good idea to just remember to show up, and see for yourself.

Historical moments from the old internet

Between holiday blues, the cold weather, and a worsening global situation, I think we can all appreciate the upbeat, though definitely not deep message of the legendary paladin as we jump into 2025. Happy new year everyone.