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NeuroNet: Mendax Proxy is the upcoming title from Dream Harvest, an upcoming choose your own adventure styled cyberpunk visual novel and it looks brilliant.

While Dream Harvest are also working on the strategy game NeuroSlicers (which will also come to Linux ), NeuroNet: Mendax Proxy will be coming out first but they're not giving a date just yet. NeuroNet: Mendax Proxy is also confirmed to be launching with support for Linux.

"You are an artificial intelligence charged with managing a city-wide augmented reality network known as the "NeuroNet". Embark on a journey of self-discovery as you learn what it means to be human in a world losing itself to technology."

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Features:

• A branching narrative that takes you across the city of Catena, exploring humanity's reliance on technology and its power to be both our saviour and downfall.
• Manage a variety of city resources tied to the state of affairs within Catena. Balance the city's financial prosperity, how the public perceives you, the axis of order, and your degree of power.
• Meet and build relationships with 23 diverse, fully voiced characters, each with their own wants and needs.
• 6+ hours of gameplay with over 5000 unique story cards.
• Discoverable mini-games and secrets.
• An expansive Codex packed with gorgeous character and environment art.
• A unique original soundtrack.

Definitely excited about this one. With some wonderful visuals backed up by what sounds like a thoroughly interesting story in a visual novel adventure style setting with a cyberpunk theme.

You can follow it on itch.io and Steam .

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.

Scarlet Hollow, a rather excellent horror-novel adventure is getting a second paid episode that will enter Early Access with Linux support on June 11. This follows on from the successful Kickstarter campaign late last year, and the free release of episode one which you can play now.

"Trapped in the dying Appalachian mining town of Scarlet Hollow for the funeral of your estranged aunt, you quickly find yourself at the center of a dark mystery that threatens your life and the fate of an entire town. Who lives, who dies, and the fate of an entire town rests on your shoulders."

Watch video on YouTube.com

Features:

• A heavily branching narrative where your choices matter . The relationships you forge and the decisions you make will dramatically alter your journey.
• Terrifying and funny. Charming characters and snappy dialogue flip to pulse-pounding horror at a moment's notice.
• A complex relationship system that changes how characters act around you. Characters don't just like or dislike you. Become friendly rivals, bitter adversaries, best friends, or mild acquaintances with everyone in town based on how you approach the story.
• Trait-based dialogue and role-playing. Scarlet Hollow's dialogue system is driven by role-playing elements that let you choose who you want to be. Are you quiet and observant? Hot and clueless? 21 different character builds change how you interact with the world and how your story unfolds.
• Original monster designs inspired by Appalachian myths and cryptids. You won't find any predictable vampires or zombies here.
• Five romance options. Whether you're into goths, dads, Youtubers, mysterious recluses, or lo-fi beats to study and water your plants to, we've got all your bases covered.
• Dozens of meticulously hand-drawn and traditionally inked backgrounds. Every background in the game is drawn by hand and inked on massive 19x24 inch paper.
• Hundreds of immersive sprites. Each major character has dozens of hand-drawn sprites that interact with backgrounds and capture a full range of lighting, emotion, environment, and outfit changes.

The plan is for the full experience to stay in Early Access until all 7 episodes are done.

Follow on Steam and play the first episode free on Steam too.

Oddventure is a crazy turn-based RPG about the misadventures of Charlie, a girl trapped in a cursed fairy-tale world.

We previously covered the launch of the Kickstarter, which at the time did not have a Linux build of the demo available. After asking the developer, they promptly put one up. As it turns out, it's using the open source Godot Engine too which we weren't aware of before! Wonderful to see more excellent looking games use it.

"Oddventure is a JRPG about the misadventures of Charlie - a nihilistic and rebellious teenage girl with anger issues and social awkwardness. Charlie searches for her troublesome brother Bonzo and ultimately for a way back home. The setting is the Kingdom of Luxia, a land straight from original Grimm Brothers’ fairy tales with a dark, Nietzschean twist."

Watch video on YouTube.com

One note: currently it seems the battle UI doesn't like the gamepad action button, so you need to use keyboard Spacebar. The developer has been made aware of this.

After playing the demo, I'm absolutely sold and decided to back it personally. It has some good quirky dark humour and an excellent style. Very intrigued to see the full game and I expect this to absolutely be a big hit when it releases in full later in 2022.

You can fund it on Kickstarter and follow on Steam . Download the new Linux demo from itch.io or Game Jolt .

Since it has already hit the goal, we've added it to our Crowdfunding Page .

Exploring a romantically wretched city as a strange alien creature, Aolta is a thoroughly weird casual experience for those of you who like games aimed at an adult / mature audience.

"Aolta is a casual RPG where you play as an eponymous alien who lives in a romantically wretched city. Sit back and enjoy the game world... relax at the night club, stroll down the streets and meet interesting creatures and discover their stories. You can find a job that suites your abilities or you can skip work and resort to foraging. Meet someone to love, become the lord of the local music industry, retire to another planet, and/or maybe get married."

Features:

• Discover many activities around the city which includes dancing, loitering, smoking, drinking, getting high and fighting in the pits.
• Romance up to six main characters and unlock their endings.
• Befriend dozens of other characters and learn their secrets.
• Collect spirits for your bottle city!
• Develop your character by working on your stats which allow you to survive and ultimately get what you want.
• Features several animated sexual scenarios.
• Unlock several endings, collections and achievements.
• Engaging music and atmosphere.

You can buy Aolta for $10 from itch.io .

Free Game Friday! Fancy trying out something completely bizarre? EXsynchronos from developer Ravee is a true cyberspace adventure and it looks fantastic visually.

The developer describes it as a "transhumanist action packed cyberspace metahorror" and frankly that's about as good a description as you're going to get on this one. It's a complete visual overload on the senses with puzzles, exploration, platforming and shooter elements, all wrapped in a dense atmosphere. You control a Pr0x (Process Resurrective gh0st eXistence), "one of the most advanced virtual technologies that was ever developed" possessed by a human soul.

Prepare for lots of flashiness:

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There's a huge and completely wild story behind it too. In fact, it's actually part of a series with this being the third (although you don't need to have played the others). Feel free to check out meloveyou and awaren3ss as the first and second episodes if you want the entire story but it's all quite disconnected.

When you download EXsynchronos, you get an 18 page PDF full of lore and words from the developer at the end, it's truly something to read through.

Play free on itch.io . You can donate if you like it when downloading.

This looks absolutely brilliant. Oddventure is an upcoming adventure RPG from Infamous Rabbit and Pineapple Works that follows a girl trapped in a cursed fairy-tale world.

"Oddventure is a JRPG about the misadventures of Charlie - a nihilistic and rebellious teenage girl with anger issues and social awkwardness. Charlie searches for her troublesome brother Bonzo and ultimately for a way back home. The setting is the Kingdom of Luxia, a land straight from original Grimm Brothers’ fairy tales with a dark, Nietzschean twist."

Watch video on YouTube.com

It's currently crowdfunding on Kickstarter, with a goal of €20,000 they need to hit by June 5. I'll be massively surprised if something that looks this good doesn't get funded. Looks like it's off to a good start with over €3,000 pledged less than an hour after launch. For Linux fans, it's good news too as they're supporting "PC (Windows, Mac & Linux) and Nintendo Switch" with it being "actively developing and testing the game on all platforms".

Features:

• Meaningful choices – EVERY decision matters, sometimes in the most unpredictable ways.
• The friendly RPG where nobody has to die... but can. In a horrible way.
• Unique and EMOTIONAL turn based combat system with cursed-image-like enemies.
• Countless hidden secrets, references to pop culture and fairy tales.
• MEDIEVAL FURRIES?!
• Frog milk as a currency.
• Bitter-sweet comedy mixed with some coziness and dark humor.
• Dope and climatic OST.
• A life changing gaming experience.

You can fund it on Kickstarter and follow on Steam .

Thunder Lotus appear to have done well with Spiritfarer, their unique management game with a rather cozy atmosphere and a theme based around looking after the dead.

For those who haven't played it yet: you build a boat to explore the world, then befriend and care for spirits before finally releasing them into the afterlife. During the game you build, farm, mine, fish, talk to lots of different people and travel across the seas and eventually say goodbye to spirits you've looked after. In a press release they noted that three separate updates are coming that will "notably expand upon the game’s main story, as well as adding additional characters, locations, and quality of life improvements" and all will be free.

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“We’re tremendously happy with the praise Spiritfarer has received since launch” says Spiritfarer Creative Director Nicolas Guérin. “It’s attracted a very passionate group of fans too, which is great because the team is excited to keep supporting the game with new content this year! I’d be remiss if I didn’t thank our fans for their crucial input as we explored various ideas for new Spiritfarer content. Your feedback definitely helped us zero in on the best path forward for the project!”

Additionally, they shared that Spiritfarer has become the most successful game Thunder Lotus has launched to date. Not without some controversy though. Overall, it is an absolutely lovely game and well worth spending some time with. If you want to see their new roadmap it's up here .

You can buy Spiritfarer on GOG , Steam and Stadia .