Wireframe Magazine #69

In the early 2010s – a time of mainstream popularity and growth in the indie game development scene – a number of titles came out that revelled in the ‘retro’ era. Shovel Knight charmed everyone with its diligent attention to the NES palette and old-school sensibilities, Super Meat Boy channelled Nintendo’s ‘hardcore’ platforming level design (and even borrowed its use of “Super”), and Volgarr The Viking was an arcade-style love letter to classic beat-’em-ups. For a while, 1980s and 1990s game design was jumping into a renaissance, thanks in no small part to developers who were raised in the familiarity and nostalgia of these eras having developed the skills to channel it in their own work. In the late 2010s, we also saw N64-like titles jump into the ring, with…

In his 2013 TV special, How Videogames Changed the World, writer and broadcaster Charlie Brooker put Twitter at the top of his list of world-changing games. He argued that Twitter is more than just a social app – the thrill of getting retweets and followers, Brooker said, creates an addictive loop much like a video game. If you agree with the argument, then it certainly feels, at the time of writing, as though Twitter’s nearing some sort of endgame, much like an MMO in its last months before shutdown. As Twitter flounders under its new multi-billionaire management, another unfeasibly wealthy person, Mark Zuckerberg, is having issues of his own. Because, whether he admits it or not, Zuckerberg has gone from social media pioneer to game developer with his much-vaunted Metaverse.…

It all began with one artist and a single image. About five years ago, Swedish artist and developer Adam Stjärnljus opened Photoshop and began working on what would eventually become Planet of Lana’s key art. It depicted a solitary young girl dwarfed by a lush alien landscape, a small, canine-looking creature standing loyally by her side. For over a year, Stjärnljus kept working on that germ of an idea, about a girl on a quest to rescue her sister from invaders with Mui, her animal companion, helping her traverse the treacherous landscape. From there, it would be another two years before Stjärnljus’ fledgling studio, Wishfully, could get the funding it needed to finally get the game into production. But throughout, that initial piece of artwork has remained the team’s “guiding…

We’re well familiar with the ingredients needed to achieve an asymmetrical multiplayer horror hit by this point. Take a fan-favourite slasher series (usually from the 1970s or 1980s), pit four friends together against its iconic killer within a singular location, and have them try to survive or escape the grisly scenario while completing rudimentary objectives before the time runs out. Simple, right? Except in Sumo Digital’s faithful interpretation of 1974’s The Texas Chain Saw Massacre movie, it’s anything but. The Nottingham-based studio is instead taking special care to ensure that its twist on the tried and tested genre is made up of more than just Leatherface. Now it’s a family matter. “If you’ve seen the original film, he’s all about family,” explains lead designer Kelvin Moore. “Fair enough, he’s got…

Whereas most 2D Metroidvanias have players digging down in search of an adventure, The Siege and The Sandfox sets itself apart by forcing its titular, ill-fated protagonist to set their sights upwards. Cast out into the caverns below after being falsely accused of assassinating the ancient city’s king, proving your innocence means clambering up through the labyrinthine depths, evading enemy patrols, and mastering a generous suite of smooth parkour abilities. It’s also one of the dustiest genre entries we’ve seen from the indie scene yet, not only contributing to the game’s overall aesthetic, but also reinforcing the developer’s intention to prioritise stealth over combat. You are an assassin, after all. “There’s no killing,” says Olly Bennett, chief executive officer at Cardboard Sword, in reference to the palace guards you’ll regularly…

You could call it Chekhov’s Mech: if there’s a giant robot in a game, you can guarantee that it’ll punch or shoot something eventually. Not so in Lightyear Frontier, though, where the hulking staple of Japanese anime is well and truly tamed: instead of giant swords or laser rifles, your mech is the farming equivalent of a Swiss Army knife. With you at the helm, it can plant seeds, water them, harvest the resulting crops, and even build other bits of tech and equipment to help your growing farm run more efficiently. It’s the distant future, and you’re a pioneer striking out on a lush alien world. As Lightyear Frontier begins, there’s just you, your shiny red mech (which you can customise, naturally), and your crashed spaceship, which doubles as…