Raysing!
In Raysing!, you’re a car. Your friends are cars, too. There are no humans on this island. Have fun exploring.
Ghoul Kazool
Ghoul Kazool is an alt-control experiment where players use either their keyboard or the custom “kazool” controller to make sounds and rack up “Ghoul Power” in an endless rave throughout looping days and nights. Something in the experience may be lost when it’s played in-browser, but we think it’s still worth a look for the charming art and sounds.
Wordlock
In programmer Nick Kalita’s world, Mavis Beacon teaches magic.
Wordlock, Kalita’s top-down, illustrated dungeon crawler, merges the word-based combat of Typing of the Dead with the frantic pace of Enter the Gungeon.
Avitium
Loyalty is a difficult thing. Some have it for themselves, others for a leader, and others still for a place. Avitium, Studio MiK’s 2025 card battler, asks its audience to stand behind their ideals or die trying.
Dock King
Cozy life simulation games have gained massive popularity since the early 2000s, with series like Animal Crossing and titles like Stardew Valley (ConcernedApe, 2016) taking over the gaming world. In a post-lockdown world, escapism is popular. Go figure.
However, the appeal of kind neighbors and mist-cloaked forests is lost entirely on Keith Thomas, developer of Dock King.
Cold Calling
Ah, the switchboard. One of history’s most important and unsung political tools.
If legend is to be believed, total nuclear annihilation was narrowly avoided by a single telephone operator routing international calls.
CARNiVORY
Kill, loot, boss, repeat, return.
This is the gameplay loop of CARNiVORY, an upcoming roguelite shooter from Chicago-based studio Chowdahound.
SUPER PHANTASY FIGHTERS
SUPER PHANTASY FIGHTERS is a platform fighter developed by solo dev Andrew-P using visual assets and lore from Phantasy Star Online 2 (Sega, 2012).
That technically makes it a fangame, but that label doesn’t fully cover everything SPF has going on under the hood. Andrew-P made all the code in the game from scratch, from controls to the camera to the hitboxes, which he said he had to program twice just to get them right.
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Deconstructing the Deindexing
Gamers, we have a sitchuation on our hands.
On July 24, Itch.io unlisted all NSFW and adult content on their site in response to “scrutiny from [their] payment processors.” To say the response was overwhelming would be an understatement.
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Hotdog Heaven: Chicago
Summer means two things around here: hot dogs and AllStars.
Luckily for us here at Back Alley, one intrepid team of developers crafted an experience that marries those seasonal pillars with the threat of carpal tunnel and a healthy dose of Wii-era shovelware nostalgia.
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