Washware

by BuilderAtWork.

Washware is a hyper realistic clothes washing simulator. Incredible. I cannot fully convey how excited I was to discover that my virtual wash cycle was going to take 12 actual real world minutes.

There’s no particular reason this game had to be made in Roblox, of course – you could just as easily make a realistic clothes washing simulator in Unity, or Godot, or anything else. But this game perfectly demonstrates the thing that makes Roblox so interesting to me: the idea that every game can be multiplayer. Even when that game is a clothes washing simulator. What would games look like in a world where that was the default design paradigm?

[Play on Roblox (account signup required)]

(via G.P. Lackey, thanks!)

Give Up the Ghost: a puzzle checklist

by gate.

Give Up the Ghost is an excellent new puzzle game from the creator of last year’s delightful puzzle-platformer Control the Body. It’s especially good as thinky puzzle games go, which is saying a lot these days – the genre’s having a bit of a renaissance right now.

What I really like about this game is the sheer volume of weird mechanics it plays around with, which include:

  • A very elegant lock and key system
  • Portal blocks that teleport you around, and can contain other levels, Patrick’s Parabox style
  • Cloning tiles that make copies of whatever you push on them

…and a few more besides! The first couple of levels sort of just throw all these mechanics at you, and it’s fast and playful and fun and for a while I thought that’s what the game was going to be. But after you’ve had a chance to warm up, the game reveals itself to be something much more devious – slower and more deliberate, with excellently designed lynchpin style puzzles that require careful thought. Highly recommended.

[Play online (itch.io)]

Pebble

by Marvin Wardius.

Pebble is a cute and polished 3D platformer. It starts out a bit on the easy side for my tastes, but by the time you reach the lava stage, the design bares its teeth and the platforming really clicks into place. An impressive piece of work from a solo developer!

[Download for Windows (itch.io)]