Paws and Claws, a pretty wholesome DLC for the fantastic and stylish Children of Morta has managed to raise a rather nice lump sum for charity.

"We have a piece of truly wonderful and heartwarming news for you today! The Paws and Claws charity DLC has proven to be a huge success and ever since its launch, we've been able to raise MORE than $130K for animals worldwide!" - Dead Mage & 11 bit studios

Not an essential DLC for the game by any measure, and it's a completely different experience to the main game overall. However, it's just so wonderful that you should probably buy it anyway. It adds in an animal shelter system, a herd of various animals to visit you, a new treats mechanic for animals, animal-related character boosts and quite a bit more. 100% of the proceeds of Paws and Claws goes to the Humane Society International (HSI) .

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The developer confirmed the figure is PC platforms and Consoles combined for the total. Considering the low £2.99 / $3.99 / 3,99€ price - it means it's sold quite a number of copies.

You can buy Children of Morta from GOG , Humble Store and Steam . We can easily recommend it.

After being available in some form since 2012, RUNNING WITH RIFLES (RWR) seems to be finally hitting it big with a sudden surge of thousands flocking to the top-down tactical shooter.

For Osumia Games, this has been a long-deserved moment in the spotlight. They've supported Linux with RWR since 2012 during the early Beta builds and it's a huge amount of fun to run around in. It's currently 80% off on Steam, which has probably helped the surge of players, however it's done the same discount multiple times in the past which did not cause much of a surge until now.

How big a change are we talking? Well, RWR usually only saw around 100-300 players. Now? It's been seeing multiple thousands with a new record set of 14,149 online on Sunday, May 16 2021.

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What caused it then? Well, it wasn't Twitch livestreams like Among Us saw, instead it looks like it might have been YouTube and specifically the Asian market with multiple videos hitting 10s of thousands of views and some in the 100s of thousands ( like this one ). It shows once again, how powerful a market it is and translations can really help sell a game with RWR seeing text translations to Simplified Chinese, Korean and plenty more.

You can buy RUNNING WITH RIFLES on Steam with 80% off until May 21. Also on Humble Store but no discount.

After a long time of waiting with the last proper release in 2018, the Unvanquished team have managed to do it! The next version 0.52 Beta is officially out now and waiting to be played.

What is it? A free and open source first-person shooter with strategy elements, that puts humans vs aliens. It's a fork of the classic Tremulous, think of it like the well-known Natural Selection series with both sides providing very different gameplay overall.

This marks the first Beta release too, as the team explained they "think the engine and the game experience are polished enough to remove the alpha flag and wear the beta one". The game engine used, the Dæmon engine, also saw its own dedicated blog post to explain all the advances over the last two years - as expected there's been a huge amount of changes, including a "single rounding error that was the cause of many bugs" - oops. The amount of work that went into the underlying game engine is simply marvellous, with it being more bug free and advanced than ever.

As for the game itself, the list of what's changed is just as ridiculously long. The new player experience is much improved, there's new presets for different keyboard layouts, the UI now scales with your screen resolution, there's now graphics presets to easily switch between modes, many graphics improvements and the list goes on. It's pretty safe to say that Unvanquished 0.52 Beta is like a different game.

Check it out on the Unvanquished website .

After some time of being an Epic exclusive, HUNTDOWN has now released on GOG and Steam making it available for Linux from developer Easy Trigger Games. Note: personal purchase.

Was it worth the wait? Absolutely. It's insane - in the best way possible. It reminds me of Broforce for the over the topic action, which remains as my all time favourite action platformer. However, HUNTDOWN is already looking like it might end up taking the number 2 slot - it's just that good.

"In the mayhem-filled streets of the future where criminal gangs rule and cops fear to tread, only the bounty hunters can free the city from the corrupt fist of felony. Lay waste to the criminal underworld and make a killing in this hard boiled action comedy arcade shooter."

Featuring hand-painted gorgeous 16-bit styled pixel-art, it's an absolute feast for the eyes combined with the incredible fluid action back up by the pumping soundtrack. The voice acting is absolutely spot on too, fits in perfectly with each character. It's weapons and boss battles that make it ridiculously enjoyable though with such a fantastic mix available. Small guns, shotguns, machine guns, huge mounted weapons, a guitar, a bat and the list goes on - blowing things up just feels seriously epic here.

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Characters available:

• Anna Conda: Ex-commando, firearms expert, and full-time loose-cannon, Anna will assassinate without question or mercy, as long as you don’t mind the collateral damage.
• John Sawyer: Once a Special Forces cop who left the law behind. This scarred veteran has lost so many limbs in combat he’s practically half robot.
• Mow Man: Modified recon droid, stolen and empowered with banned software. Trades bodies for cold hard cash. Don’t expect to be taken alive if Mow Man’s on your six.

Gangs to take on:

• Hoodlum Dolls: Violent feral punks winning the gang war with the toothless authorities
• Misconducts: Organised hockey hooligans, experts in robbery and extortion with a penchant for explosives
• The Heatseekers: Murderous motorcycle club. These rockabilly villains style themselves on the centurions of Ancient Rome
• NO.1 Suspects: Masters of discipline and organised crime. Martial arts experts, these slick psychopaths control the night through their casinos and nightclubs

It's an easy recommendation to go get it. Honestly it was love at first sight with HUNTDOWN. Not just because I grew up with similarly styled games but HUNTDOWN is close to perfection. As for the Linux version? Absolutely great! You just can't help but small and maniacally laugh as you blast your way through it. If you loved games like Metal Slug, and other similar explosive experience do check it out. In a word — fantastic.

You can buy it on GOG and Steam .

After already being available on itch.io , the free teaser for Drova - Forsaken Kin is now available on Steam and it's been upgraded for the new release.

"Drova - Forsaken Kin is an Action Based RPG filled with handcrafted open world adventures inspired by the much renowned Gothic game series. A society has discovered the power of a dead empire: to capture the spirits that govern nature and rule over them instead. However, the anger of the remaining spirits divided them. Where will you stand?"

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Features:

• Dynamic World
  Journey through a lovingly crafted world filled with danger and mysteries, and witness the lasting impact your actions will have on your environment.
• A Divided Society
  Become a part of an isolated society grown from the ashes of a dead empire. Where will you stand when ambitious factions plunge the world into chaos?
• The Spirits of Nature
  Explore nature and encounter the spirits that rule it. Seal them and learn to use their power for yourself. But be prepared for the consequences of their anger to change your world.

The full version is planned to release in 2023, with this teaser being a very early slice of what to expect. The developer mentioned plenty is still to be added, graphics will be upgraded before the full game and so on - all the usual you expect from an unfinished game. Definitely worth a go now though, especially with the intriguing combat mechanics.

Now that it's on Steam, even more people can try it out who missed it on itch, plus they said the teaser on Steam has some exclusive extra content. Check it out on Steam and itch.io .

Released out of Early Access as a full game on February 4, Rogue Star Rescue blends together a furiously good mix of twin-stick bullet-hell action with tower defence. Note : copy personally purchased.

A game we've never covered here before and were completely unaware of it until the full release, which is a shame because it deserves a bit more attention. Featuring a non-linear story-mode along with local and online co-op options, there's a lot to like about it with the fast-paced action.

The story? The Rogue Star. A massive Rogue Star has formed from the cosmos and is on a direct collision path with us! It threatens to vaporize everything. Leaders from planets around the galaxy have assembled a top team of fighters to stop the Rogue Star at all costs. Choose your own non-linear path through the galaxy and explore each of the 10+ planets carefully.

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It really is a curious blend that works somewhat like Orcs Must Die in 2D with a little more exploration. You pick between different planets to try and save, making a few decision along the way that will affect the outcome. During each mission you explore, take down enemies, find resources and traps and then eventually it turns into a wave-based tower defence game where you need to deal with lots of enemies coming through and a mini-boss. You need to manage your inventory, upgrade traps as you progress and pick between different playable characters to get you through.

There's also some persistent progress too with a level up system. You can put attribute points into health, speed, traps and more. Since it's a twin-stick shooter at the core, there's also a decent variety in the weapons you will be using with their own strengths and weaknesses.

Absolutely loads to love about it and it really hits that satisfying over the top action feeling.

You can buy it on Humble Store , itch.io and Steam .

Here's your chance to try out the most unusual physics-based space action game I've ever seen. In Gravity in Space you fly around various weird maps filled with small planets, rocks and more in a tiny little spaceship you control with six degrees of freedom.

Now available in Early Access and it will remain there for at least six to twelve months, it's actually quite surprising. The developer sent a copy for us to test early, and the control system and overall quirky uniqueness of it is thoroughly charming and like nothing else. The flight controls definitely take some getting used to as you swing your ship around various celestial bodies.

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"Unlike most other space games you are actually bound to Newton’s laws of motion — you cannot control where you go directly, but only indirectly through acceleration impulses that add to your current velocity vector. Controlling a spaceship is totally different compared to an aircraft. It is much harder. No air resistance, no maximum speed, no limits. You have to completely rethink the basic idea of flying. Float around several gravitation centers and use them to get to your target. But you must not lose focus on your enemy! You have put yourself in superior positions, avoid his mines, repel his attacks, and finally shoot him."

The training will probably take you a little while to get through, after that you can hop in to play against others in real-time online battles. Once you do get the training down, the combat needs you to carefully use the gravitational forces spread-out throughout each level to outplay opponents with your mastery of the six degrees of freedom manoeuvrability.

Your ship isn't the only unusual thing, your weapon is too. You fire off a little explosive probe, which is also of course affected by gravitational pulls so you need to take that into account for both your ship and your weapon.

Find it in Early Access on Steam .

After a successful Kickstarter campaign, the dungeon-crawling action-RPG Sword of the Necromancer is out now.

"Turn your foes into allies using the forbidden powers of the Sword of the Necromancer and help Tama reach the dungeon's depths in order to gain enough power to bring Koko back from the dead. Gather a little army of monsters, equip yourself with weapons and relics and level up to take on the guardians that stand between you and your objective."

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Features:

• Turn your foes into allies: use the Sword of the Necromancer to revive defeated monsters and make them fight alongside you.
• Gather weapons and relics: each weapon is different from the others thanks to the procedural weapon generation system, which gives them various effects and attributes.
• Fight with all your might: defeat your enemies using a variety of weapons and objects and dominating the fluid head-to-head battle system.
• Level up: enhance your character by fighting enemies and upgrade your stats. Improve your summoned monsters by fighting alongside them.
• Death is not the end: Each try gets you closer to the Necromancer. You will lose all your equipped weapons and monsters, but you will retain half the level you achieved in your run.
• Learn the truth: Discover Tama and Koko's past as you advance through the dungeon.
• Local co-op play: Use the Flask of Homunculus to create a copy of the playable character and play with a friend in local co-op game.

Sadly, the Linux version is currently a bit of a mess. They're using GameMaker Studio, which is somewhat notorious for not having the best Linux support overall. In this case though, the developer has bundled a ton of unnecessary dependencies which is causing issues so it won't launch on most Linux distributions right now. However, I've told them exactly how to fix it and it can be done quite quickly (and you can do it manually too). Even once fixed, it still has the usual GameMaker Studio problems with gamepad support being rubbish.

Find Sword of the Necromancer on Steam .

Bittersweet Birthday is an upcoming action game set inside a mysterious building. You wake up dazed and confused, there's people after you but someone is trying to help you escape. An interesting setting full of intrigue, with each fight being a unique combat encounter.

"Bittersweet Birthday is an action game where every combat encounter is a challenging and unique fight. You can also explore different areas and help many of the NPC populating them with their everyday struggles while learning more about the world and its history."

A demo was released in late December, check out the trailer:

Watch video on YouTube.com

Feature Highlight:

• A story of mystery driven by endearing characters!
• Explore a lively village with friendly residents and their interlocking quests!
• Punishing combat where reading the enemy is the key to victory!
• A darts mini-game! Well, at least darts are being used...
• Cute pixel-art characters on beautifully drawn backgrounds!
• Fully re-mappable input and support for PS4, Xbox and PC controllers!
• From 30 minutes to an hour and half of gameplay!

The features included will be expanding and changing over time of course, as this is only a demo. An impressive demo though, with a great atmosphere and game feel. Playing the demo on Linux was great! Can really see what they're going for here and it made me want more. Probably one of the most remarkable demos I've seen for a while.

Going to be one we're going to need to keep up high on our watch list. Being made with Godot Engine too, so it's great to see more there too.

Find it on itch.io .