Author: Flare

The indie scene has a fascination with high-stakes, gamble-with-your-life mechanics (thanks, Buckshot Roulette), and SIDE EFFECTS is the latest twisted entry in this dark subgenre. Published by Free Lives (Broforce, Genital Jousting), this game seats up to four players at a grimy table for a “medical trial” where the only way out is to be the last one breathing. It’s simple, tense, and delightfully cruel. You take pills. Some help you, some hurt you, and some kill you instantly. The goal is to manage your “resistance” while using items to screw over your opponents. It’s a game of bluffing, luck,…

Every so often, a game comes along that feels less like a product and more like a dream. A Pizza Delivery is one of those games. It’s a short, meditative exploration game that borders on being a “walking simulator,” but one with a scooter, a heartfelt story, and some truly bizarre puzzles. It’s a game that reminds you of Over the Garden Wall, Grim Fandango, and a surrealist painting all at once. You play as “B,” a pizza delivery rider on her final order, in a strange, liminal “non-place.” This is a world of unease and longing, and your job…

The first Amanda the Adventurer was a breakout indie horror hit, a perfect, terrifying blend of “evil Dora the Explorer” and P.T.-style VHS dread. It was a short, sharp shock. Now, developer MANGLEDmaw Games and publisher DreadXP are back, and they’re not just repeating the formula. Amanda the Adventurer 2 takes the haunted-tape concept out of the attic and into a much larger, more terrifying world. Following the events of the first game, Riley Park takes the investigation to the Kensdale Public Library to dig deeper into the mystery of their Aunt Kate and the sinister tapes. It quickly becomes…

As the 10th-anniversary celebration of TwitchCon San Diego 2025 wound down, we had the pleasure of sitting down with a variety of streamers and paranormal investigators, detune. Known for his unique blend of spooky, goofy content and his ambitious real-life ghost hunting show, Paranormal Detour, Detune offered insight into balancing a demanding content schedule, transitioning from the music industry, and his candid feelings on the convention’s most pressing issue: creator safety. From East Coast Music to West Coast Haunts Detune, who maintains an East Coast streaming schedule despite living in Los Angeles, immediately dived into the evolution of his career. Having…

Every so often, a game appears that doesn’t just borrow from its inspirations but feels like a lost relative, a familiar soul from a different dimension. Dreamed Away, the solo-developed passion project from Nicolas Petton, is one of those games. It wears its Earthbound and Omori influences on its sleeve, not as a costume, but as a genuine mark of its lineage. This is an emotional action-adventure RPG steeped in the unsettling fog of psychological horror, set against the unlikely backdrop of 1990s France. It’s a game that feels like a shared, half-remembered nightmare—one filled with gorgeous pixel art, haunting…

The celebratory atmosphere of TwitchCon San Diego 2025, marking the event’s 10th anniversary, was overshadowed by severe and recurring security failures. While Twitch CEO Dan Clancy unveiled new features aimed at creator growth during the opening Keynote, the reality on the ground demonstrated a profound disregard for the fundamental safety of its biggest stars. This culminated in a high-profile incident involving streamer Emiru, whose detailed account of harassment and attack exposed glaring deficiencies in TwitchCon’s security protocols. The Emiru Incident: Failure to Act The controversy centers on an incident in which a fan rushed the popular streamer, attempting to hug…