Welcome to the new year! This time we have something very special for you – the months from December to February collected with the releases in one post. The main reason for this delay is that we had to work on many other exciting topics due to the change of trusteeship, the Global Game Jam and also the Bayreuth Games Accelerator. Therefore, sorry for keeping you in suspense! We are now allowed to introduce you to a total of eleven games that have been released over the three months. We dive into dark worlds, go on vacation on beautiful islands and show you games that are specifically aimed at children and young people in order to promote and protect them. Have fun with your releases of the months!

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With Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun, Mimimi Games already proved in 2016 how they can realize real-time tactics games. Exactly 5 years later to the day, the studio released the expansion Shadow Tactics: Aiko’s Choice on December 6, which can also be played without the main game. Apart from Steam, it is also available on GOG and Epic Games. The trailer of the game shows that it remains faithful to the high tactical and graphical level, despite a shorter playtime compared to the original. The expansion takes place in the middle of the story of the actual Japan adventure as a parallel storyline. It crystallizes how well the developers managed to link the two games: although there are several years between the releases, the atmosphere, storyline and characters complement each other in an appealing symbiosis. Old and new fans will also get their money’s worth when it comes to the gameplay: deliberately without any new features, you’ll be on the road as a five-man squad of specialists, where you’ll have to outsmart your enemies with clever combinations of skills. For more information about the expansion, we recommend the FAQ with the developers.

Let’s enter a somewhat darker atmosphere: Biolum (released on Steam on December 2) takes players on a journey to the bottom of the sea. As a VR experience, this uncanny environment is perceived in a completely different way and creates an immersive experience. You play as deep sea diver Rachael (voiced by Dominique Tipper (The Expanse)) and are accompanied by expedition leader Eva (played by Charlotte Rampling (Denis Villeneuve’s Dune)). Together you explore the mysteries of the bioluminescent VR underworld and discover that a luminescent parasite is harming the sea. This shows up as a visually beautiful glow in the otherwise nearly black ocean floor. Biolum is an interactive experience lasting approximately 30 minutes and can be played in English, French or Chinese. The game was also supported by the FFF. You can find the trailer here.

Let’s stick to the sinister atmosphere: White Shadows from the publisher Mixtvision was released on December 07, 2021, and you can find the trailer here. In a dark and absurd world you help a little raven girl to escape. At the same time you explore the contrasting black and white world and go in search of the revolutionaries. The visuals are deliberately reminiscent of George Orwell’s Animal Farm: the detailed, surreal world in a film noir look conveys the game’s narrative as a modern fable. White Shadows references the problems of the real world with a little wink. Especially gamers with a faible for black humor, challenging puzzles and absurd settings are addressed here. You can find the game on Steam here.

After The Touryst by Shin’en Multimedia was released for Nintendo Switch in 2019 and Xbox in 2020, we can now find the playful action game on Steam since the 10th of December. If you’re looking for a change from your daily routine, but your summer vacation is still a ways off, you’ve come to the right place: you’ll travel to a remote island and explore it freely, while also engaging in various activities: Play sports, dive in the deep sea, play various games and search for treasures. Likewise, you can unlock various secrets of the island. In particular, the game’s cute 3D charm is a real eye-catcher.

After EDURINO successfully completed its crowdfunding process in October, the finished starterset has been available for purchase since December. Children from the age of 4 can travel through different galaxies in the educational game “Die Welt der Worte” (“The World of Words”) and learn the basic skills for reading and writing in a playful way. More specific, the young players can learn the correct pen posture and writing motor skills and learn letters, syllables and also first words. The starterset consists of the input pen developed for EDURINO, the fox Mika and access to the learning world just mentioned. All contents were developed in close cooperation with experts. The startersets were sent out in time for Christmas.

For our younger gamers, McPeppergames offers a wonderful puzzle game: Dinosaur Jigsaw Puzzles was released on December 16 for the Nintendo Switch. As the name already promises, you can solve varied puzzles with hand-drawn dinosaurs of all kinds. The difficulty can also be adjusted individually according to the player’s wishes by changing the number of puzzle pieces. When you successfully solve the puzzle, you can also find a small balloon mini-game.

Deep Silver’s action-adventure game Chorus was also released in December, and you can find it on the Steam page here. You control the pilot ace named Nara, who has the goal of destroying the dark cult – even though it originally created her. Because of this, this task is also a confrontation with Nara’s past. Together with her and her starfighter named Forsaken, you”ll explore ancient temples and fight against the Coven and its leader – the Great Prophet. Embark on epic space adventures through the galaxy with impressive powers and powerful weapons, which you can also admire here in the Announcement Trailer and the Launch Trailer. You can also get more information in the press release from Koch Media.

Let’s move on to the month of January. Here we can present you two games on new platforms: The original release of El Hijo – A Wild West Tale was on December 3rd, 2020. About a year later, on January 25th, 2022, we now also got a mobile version of the non-violent sneaking game – you can find it in the AppStore, Google Play and Samsung Mobile. In the winner of the category “Best Family Game”, chosen by DCP, you can get acquainted with an original gameplay: the stealth mechanics are easy to learn and also diversely designed. With an exciting and emotional background story between a boy and his mother, the game is aimed especially at younger family members. HandyGames had already shared a sneak peak for the new version. You can find the trailer here.

Since January 13th, you can now also buy Farmers Dynasty from Epic Games. Toplitz Productions already released the actual game on December 14th, 2017 and players can play it on Playstation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and also find it in the Steam store. Farmers Dynasty combines a life simulation with role-playing aspects and a farming simulation. The goal is to fulfill grandfather’s dream of rebuilding the farm. Live, build and farm smartly to repair and renovate the farm. You can see the trailer for the game here.

Finally, we would like to introduce you to two games that celebrated their release in February. On February 13th, the dungeon crawler Dungeons of Dreadrock was released. The more than 100 levels were all created by hand. Primarily for iOS and Android, the game offers short play sessions, but in their entirety they provide several hours of fun. The grid-based top-down real-time puzzle dungeon crawler offers an interesting twist in both design and user experience.

Finally, we would like to introduce you to another serious game. On February 17, Sebastian Grünwald published the game called “Augen auf!” (“Eyes open!”), which was “the first full-service implementation completely from the ‘Games Studio Basti'”. The game was commissioned by and for the Bayerische Landeszentrale für politische Bildungsarbeit and is aimed directly at students. As you can see from the trailer, Augen auf! aims to sensitize young consumers to hate and disinformation on the Internet and highlights the danger of extremists at the same time. Situations are simulated in which the students make their own decisions and can see what effects they have. A change of perspective is achieved through role-playing elements in the game.