Hive Time, the sweet beehive building and management sim from Cheeseness hits the one year mark, celebrates with a new upgrade and a fresh little trailer. Disclosure : the developer has contributed to GOL in the past.

It might not be scientifically accurate but it sure is charming. We've seen all sorts of building and management sims from people to ants and bees too definitely need their time in the spotlight. One of the most important creatures to keep our environment alive, you gotta love the bees.

After being out for a whole year now, Cheeseness has upgraded the game with community features like chat integration for livestreams. Players watching can vote on various game features, and vote on gifts to help or hinder players. Some active chat participants may even get select to be a special bee - how lovely. For everyone else there's also new content like events, new hats, a bunch of new effects, new game options to tweak how you play for your own fun, optimisations and a lot more.

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If you missed it, Cheese also did something of a deep dive into how the release went and their thoughts on releasing a pay what you want game. See a brief round-up of some points included in our previous article .

You can buy Hive Time as a Pay What You Want game from itch.io .

APICO is a game you absolutely have to try if you love casual farming, building and exploration. It's simply wonderful as you run around collecting and breeding bees to build up an apiary. We briefly mentioned APICO back in September , being completely charmed by its wonderful non-violent gameplay that sees you keep an eye on one of nature's most important insects.

APICO is being created by two brothers, Elliott & Jamie, inspired by their love of old Minecraft mods, casual, and crafting games. They wanted to make something relaxing, intriguing, and semi-educational (just don't think about the Water Bees). Elliott builds nice things and Jamie makes sure to break them.

They're back and they have a brand new demo available, pulling in tons of changes and expanded content compared to what they teased us with originally. Here's some of what's new:

- 7 different bee species to discover, with a Crepuscular (dawn/dusk) and Nocturnal species (night-time)
- Each species has it's own unique produce that it can be got from frames
- You now spawn in a town, with a semi-story introduction! - The towns a bit empty but Skipper is around to sell you cool stuff and buy all your honey!
- New quests to take you through the new features
- A working Altar that let's you pray for good weather
- A new flower book with details on each flower including hybrid 'recipes' and special bee effects
- Tier 2 'Clockwork' machines that let you semi-automate things like cutting wood and emptying frames
- Various UI changes, all menus have been overhauled and improved
- Multiple file saves available, with physical file locations
- Actual settings that let you set scale/aspect ratio, as well as key remapping

You can see their short trailer below:

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It reminds me quite a lot of other titles like Littlewood, Stardew Valley and other casual games like that. Really great to just chilled out with and get building and exploring. Personally, I think it's going to be a big hit at release.

Want to give it a try? You can grab the demo from itch.io and Steam . At release, they say that a portion of their sales will be going towards national and international beekeeping charities.

Coldwild Games have announced their latest game following on from the wonderful Merchant of the Skies , this time they're going with a very chilled-out game with Luna's Fishing Garden.

In the game you play as Cassie, who wakes up on a strange island that belongs to a mysterious fox spirit named Luna. You're task with creating the biggest garden ever. Catch fish, trade with the fox spirit, and create the garden of your dreams by planting new trees, placing water objects, and bringing animals to the archipelago.

Designed much like their last game, it offers a relaxed approach to gaming. You can play it like an open sandbox experience, or follow the plot. You can't lose the game in Luna's Fishing Garden so you can just go at your own pace. Check out the new trailer below:

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Main Features:

• Hone your fishing skills : catch more than 20 different types of fish, each with its own behavior and extra challenge to catch.
• Create your own garden : plant beautiful trees on the islands, place floating objects on the water, and bring in new birds and animals!
• Enjoy your stay : roam around in your boat, watch the seagulls fly, sit back and relax. This peaceful world welcomes everyone!

You can follow it on Steam and it's due to release in March 2021.

Forest's Secret is a free (you can donate) adventure game with a nonviolent theme where you play as a traveller who has just arrived at a quiet forest settlement called Wabika.

"Forest's Secret is a cozy, nonviolent adventure game. You play as a traveler who has just arrived at a quiet forest settlement called Wabika, and must explore its mysterious paths, discover its ancient history, and make friends with its quirky inhabitants in order to find what it is you're searching for. There’s lots of neat little stuff to discover!"

It actually released quite some time ago, along with an additional Mystery of the Frost update that came later adding in a new story, new areas to explore and new gameplay mechanics. Shame we only just came across it as it's quite sweet.

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It's made with Java and for the Linux version, it seems to need OpenJDK 8 as it didn't work with later versions. So you can run it directly (on Arch as an example install this and lwjgl ) with:

'/usr/lib/jvm/java-8-openjdk/jre/bin/java' -jar 'forests_secret_v2_1.jar'

Nice to see more developers try out a casual adventure that doesn't rely on combat. Find the game on itch.io where it's free and you can donate there if you liked it.

I will admit that the original Monster Prom is something special as it remains as the only dating sim type of game I've enjoyed, and now there's a brand new helping of it out with Monster Prom 2: Monster Camp.

The original was an unexpected pleasure for me, as a genre I've rarely been able to enjoy.  Let's face it, " In Monster Prom I was rejected even after letting a princess ride me ", is not a typical GamingOnLinux headline. Monster Prom 2: Monster Camp was funded thanks to a Kickstarter campaign back in 2019, and it has released as of October 23 along with full Linux support as expected. Developer Beautiful Glitch mentioned how they've pretty much taken all that was tasty from the original, and threw in some spices to make Monster Prom 2: Monster Camp.

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In Monster Camp 2 you will win the hearts of a wide cast of freaky paranormal characters, at a bunch of new locations with their usual campy and absurd humour. Monster Camp 2 features over 50 characters, 350 events, 20 endings, you can choose your pronouns and pursue whoever you wish to date.

You can play it by yourself to enjoy the solo monster dating experience or play online and local multiplayer with up to four players - they said it also supports Steam's Remote Play Together, so one person can buy it and allow others to join their game provided you have good enough internet.

You can buy it on Steam , it seems the Linux build is not actually up on GOG currently.

Unspottable has you and friends all blended together amongst a crowd, and you each need to find the other to take them down. It's highly amusing and out now. Note : our key was provided to us by the developer on our Steam Curator .

Spread across 12 varied levels, each with their own unique differences the idea is always the same. Figure out who your friends are, watch movements carefully and give them a punch if you think it's them. If not, hope you can quickly merge back in and become…unspottable.

Check out the launch trailer:

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We played the demo of Unspottable here for a while and got sucked in easily, and since trying out the full game we've been completely sold on it. Unspottable very quickly entered our regular gaming sessions because it's just good silly fun that anyone can get into easily. The controls are ridiculously simple, and it takes no effort to play which is what makes it so good as a party game.

Some of the levels have a little side-quest you can do to win, as long as you're not spotted and punched-out by another player. There's a supermarket where you each need to grab a couple items, and the same for a sushi restaurant. Once you have all the items, you can then run towards the exit. Other levels have environment hazards that can smash you into the floor, or the AI might run around punching at random too. The variety here is great and really makes it unique and seriously funny when you get into it.

It's local multiplayer only, however with services like Steam Remote Play you can play online with others and you only need one copy of the game to do so.

As a game it's enjoyable for anyone, family friendly and well worth picking up. You can buy Unspottable from itch.io and Steam .

Binogure Studio, developer of City Game Studio have released their casual Zuma-like marble shooter and it seems like another lovely little coffee-break game.

With a wonderfully simple idea, you just need to shoot marbles from your little cannon towards matching colours to make combinations that set off chain-reactions, so it works very much like a match-3 puzzler, with everything gradually moving along the snake-like path and you need to remove them all before the snake at the end gobbles them all up.

Very much like some casual mobile games, and that's not a bad thing. There's plenty of games in my own collection that I repeatedly go back to like this, simply because they're easy for a quick blast. With full Linux support, Sneak In is a wonderful little distraction.

Feature Highlight:

• 7 magic marbles: The frozen, the bumpies, the ghosts, the rocks, the bubbles, the viruses and the blackholes
• 1 new endless mode every week
• Over 200 unique challenging levels
• Easy to learn, hard to master
• Play on multiple devices cloud-saved

The developer mentioned that the game was made with open source tooling like Godot Engine , Inkscape and Blender and they're actually quite a big Linux fan being a Debian user themselves.

You can pick it up from itch.io and Steam .

Ready to make fun of your friends? The Jackbox Party Pack 7 has been released along with five amusing games. Still one of the best party games around. Well, party game… packs . Then again it should be, it would be a bit weird if a Party Pack was a bit rubbish for a party wouldn't it.

Here's what's included this time:

• Quiplash 3 - The say-anything threequel Quiplash 3 (3-8 players). It’s a head-to-head battle of the wits as you give hilarious responses to quirky prompts while everyone else votes for their favourite!
• The Devils and the Details - The collaborative chaos game The Devils and the Details (3-8 players). You’re a family of devils working together to survive in suburbia. Can you handle the daily torture of human life?
• Champ’d Up - The drawing fighting game Champ’d Up (3-8 players). Create absurd characters that will battle over unusual titles. Can you take down the heavy favourite?
• Talking Points - The on-the-spot public-speaking game Talking Points (3-8 players). Give a speech responding to picture slides you’ve never seen before or be the Assistant and approve pictures as fast as you can. Just keep talking whether it makes sense or not.
• Blather ‘Round - The pop culture guessing game Blather Round (2-6 players). Describe your secret prompt with a very limited vocabulary and hope that someone can figure it out in time. It’s a “GOOD” “FUN TIME” “EXPERIENCE.”

Check out their new trailer too:

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Something to be aware of, is that unlike the translated Quiplash 2 InterLASHional, The Jackbox Party Pack 7 is in English only. Just like their previous entries, it's designed primarily for local multiplayer. Anyone with a phone or a tablet can join in, and it's perfection when you have a few people available.

During the COVID19 quarantine, games and packs like this are a fantastic way to mix-up your day and they can be a huge amount of fun with family and friends you're able to see. Especially the drawing games like Champ’d Up, as they're quite accessible compared with the question and answer types and can be pretty hilarious when you have zero artistic talent and get beaten by an 8 year old like me. Even if you've not got anyone around, thanks to the mechanics of how people join games through the browser - you can still play it online with others, as long as you have something that can share the main game screen. For more info, they made an explainer video on it,

You can buy it on Humble Store and Steam .

To celebrate their new release, Jackbox has also put up a bunch of their other packs and standalone games on sale from now until October 19. Check out their fancy Steam sale page here for that.

Originally made for the Ludum Dare 47 game jam, Everything is Garbage has you create amusing supply chains to turn garbage into lots of money.

Created by some of the folks from Free Lives (Broforce, Genital Jousting and more), you start off with nothing but a small island and a pile a trash. What they've managed to create is a deceptively simple looking production chain sim. Nowhere near the complication levels of Factorio mind you but clever enough in the execution of it to easily enjoy the experience of turning trash into piles of monies.

You need to use this trash to spread across the map, powering farms and cows until you have enough to cash to buy up more islands and continuing spreading. Being careful while you do, to ensure you have enough money to buy the right buildings, or you can dump money back into to the trash to continue feeding the machone.

It's quite delightful actually, especially as all the chains have a little bop to them as they hop between buildings in the chain. Another example of indie developers doing really cool things. Wouldn't mind seeing (and paying for) a much expanded version of it. Wonderful.

They recently updated it with a post-jam version, along with a Linux build too. You can try it out right now free on itch.io .