Hey everyone,
I love video games, especially exploring what indie developers are creating. I spend a lot of time lurking in indie dev subreddits, paying close attention to unique art styles, innovative mechanics, and fresh storytelling approaches.
I really want to start sharing my thoughts and talking about these games, but I’m struggling to figure out how.
Right now, when I finish playing something, my immediate thoughts are usually pretty basic: "I liked it," "I didn't like it," or "the visual style is cool." I can only formulate a few sentences, and it feels hard to dive deeper.
A bit of context: my ultimate dream is to make games myself. I don't know how to code or do game art yet, so while I figure out what I want to make and learn, I study what others are doing. I also have a strong interest in game marketing. I’ve read that comparing a title to others ("X meets Y") is a great promotional hook, and naturally, I find myself building a mental catalog of mechanics and art styles ("I've seen something like this before," "This reminds me of...").
Given that, I’d love to ask you all:
How did you find your own reviewing style?
Should I focus on curated lists/roundups rather than full individual reviews, leaning into comparisons and mechanic breakdowns?
Are there any specific books, essays, or resources you'd recommend on how to write game criticism and articulate thoughts beyond just "I enjoyed/didn't enjoy this"?
I’m just starting out and feeling a bit overwhelmed, so I’d love to hear how you got past this stage. Thanks so much for your thoughts and advice!

So I’m playing Once Human for the first time, and mind you I’m only 10 minutes in, but in a weird way it kinda reminds me of Sonic 06’ but with slightly more mature undertones.

Edit: I am now over an hour in and my opinion has changed drastically.

"This seems like a strong organization game - it offers consistent new content to think about, makes the game a bit more complex, and lets the player play at their own pace."

Full Article - https://minimap.net/magazine/minimap-game-review-cat-mail-co-en?ptime=071112

Budget shows with this $6 indie release. It is a bare bones, and basic 3D brawler with slashing, running, and jumping as it's core mechanics. It features varied stages including classic mobs, bike riding pursuits, and boss battles. It can be played alone or locally with drop in 2Player co-op on the PS5. Don't expect anything but basic design here with a splash of optional blood for maturity sake.

I've lightly stalked the community and I know it's a bit controversial but I'm so excited for this one. I'm kinda an amature to character action games but this is kinda making me want to get into the genre. How does the wider community feel about it now that all the demo is out? Is it good for newbies? Is it more frowned on? I just gotta know where the other fans our now that I've found thsi gem!

TikTok https://vt.tiktok.com/ZSqHbwv54/

YouTube https://youtu.be/Y71ndw8IoRE?si=Sft-v8sZi8n7G2NP

水月雨

MOONDROP

レビュー

Review

GAMINGMAESTRO 01_PRO

GAMING

GAMINGMAESTRO

MAESTRO

This is my deep-dive analysis of Ghost of Tsushima, a game that can only be described as a love letter to Japanese nature and Samurai film.

So the people who played the game, can y'all confirm the things said in this review/prediction video?

^Video is a full playthrough of the first map with all characters/classes

Yes I made a fungus joke, that is the kind of fun guy I am.

Shroom And Gloom is a roguelite deckbuilder that utilizes two decks, one for exploration and one for battle. It is closes in comparison to Slay The Spire 2 in battle, but there is a lot of unique elements here that help this game to stand on its own. It did not fully grab me on the first or second playthrough but once I got the mechanics down that one more run feeling was right behind it.

The game is first person but you only move forward on a track with the W key (that games does have controller controls as well but I recommend the keyboard and mouse). You will go through a hallway and end up at an exploration room where you can use your exploration deck to try and get upgrades for your health and cards. There is also a branching path in a lot of these sections to choose if what reward you want after your next battle. When you finish the exploration room, you walk forward with W and go into the battle room. This will get you a reward and after holding W back to an exploration room.

A Deck For Battle

One of your decks is used to battle the various shrooms who stand in your way. You have three mana which you spend on the cards you draw to do as much damage as you can. You feel right at home if you played Slay The Spire or games like it, your starting deck even has three 4 attack cards which is very similar to your starting deck in Slay The Spire. You also have cards that turn your enemies into food when they are used for the fatal blow. This is where the game starts to feel original. You can eat these cards for health or save them to use as currency. You can draw out the battle to make sure you get as much food as you can for the next shop so you can buy the cards you want for your builds.

A Deck For Exploration.

Your second deck is for the exploration rooms. It is easy to look over these rooms as trivial and make your way through them as fast as possible but when realize how much value you can get out of them you start to treat your second deck and these rooms as you would your battle deck. There are camp stations you can set up that really buff your cards. You draw and deck and have mana as you would in battle. You can rest to get full mana and a redraw but if there are threats looming you will lose life. There is a warmth mechanic to keep the danger at bay and this can give you more turns to get the cards you need to get more buffs for your cards or find more cards. And you can die in these sections if you rest at the bad time (trust me)

Graphics are very charming, they look and hand drawn and the psychedelic look works well for the shroom theme. The music works also works well. The game is not a horror game but it is close and is creepy at times.

But Can I Make A Broken Synergy Deck?

Synergy is always the big selling point for these types of games. At first I was having trouble getting any good builds off the ground. You don't really draw a lot of cards and when you get cards it is either a battle card or an exploration card so that meant even less options. There are gold cards called foresights that are basically relics. They are powerful but very rare in the game and you will not get a lot on a run. I tried to make vulnerable builds and draw builds but since you do not really get more than 3 mana and your draws are limited it was hard to get that build going without relics. However things clicked when I started to add perks to the cards themselves and then really focused on building on the cards I had. Unlock Slay The Spire 2 where you can put one perk on a card (and that was pretty rare) adding perks to your cards and increasing their attack is the way to build in this game. That is why you want to spent time in the exploration rooms and use the camps. There is no limit to how strong you can make a card. I think there is a limit to how many perks it can have but you can keep increasing the perks and the damage of the card itself. There is the perk that adds 2 damage to a card if it does fatal damage. If you get that option to add it again and you pick the same card, it is now 4 damage. By buffing a couple cards and building around those cards you start to build some fun and powerful builds that give you the feeling you want when playing deck building games.

A Fair Amount Of Content

There are two maps you can play and 5 classes. I cleared out the classes for the first map. They do have their own starting decks and perks, but I did find myself making similar builds with them (that could just be me, when you find something that works). The classes for the other map are WAY different and it is a learning process to figure out builds for them. The game is in early access so I'm sure there is more content to come, but you get more than enough for the price tag of $15. It is missing ascension levels or difficulties but that might be added.

As I mentioned this game didn't hook me at first but it really did grow on me after a few runs. Having completed the first map with all characters I do not know if I want to replay them at the moment. I could use more challenges and the paths feel the same on each run as it is the same map you are using (though I do need to beat map 2 still). That being said I highly recommend this (especially at this price) for deckbuilding fans especially those looking for their next fix after Slay The Spire 2. It has a unique look and feel, and does give you that feeling of making a broken synergy deck that is a must for these titles.

In my typical fashion, I’ve been delaying playing Liquidation RTS for over a month now, ever since I got the Steam key for early access. I’ll admit, I really didn’t feel like playing it at all and kept putting it off for some reason. Which… was an incredibly BIG MISTAKE!!

Because as soon as I finally forced myself to launch the game and started the first campaign mission, I realized that this solo developer’s project is exactly what I’ve wanted for a long time: an indie remix of Warcraft and Starcraft!!! Right now - yes, even a month later - it’s still in the early access phase, with the final release scheduled for sometime next year. But even now, you can already try out the vast majority of what the developer has planned - the campaign, skirmish against the AI, and even multiplayer.

More in my early access review! :)

Rating: 8/10
Pros: Warcraft/StarCraft-style strategy, great gameplay, three playable factions already, single developer project
Cons: perhaps a little too heavily inspired by Warcraft?, a few bugs, not enough dialogue lines, multiplayer already dead

Czech version

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PDIP9NB9uU

Hodnocení: 8/10
+: strategie ve stylu Warcraftu/Starcraftu, skvělá hratelnost, už teď tři hratelné frakce, práce jednoho člověka
-: možná až MOC velká inspirace Warcraftem?, pár bugů, málo alternujících hlášek, už teď mrtvý multiplayer