tonks.net

Saros

Fri, 28 Aug 2026 16:05:14 +0000

Each session playing Saros ends the same way: palms sweaty and neck stiff from tension, accompanied by a sense of elation or linger sadness depending on how the last run through the yellow-tinged world of Carcosa went.

I am not a fan of rogue-likes, preferring to make linear progression rather than banging my head against a wall for incremental gains. Where Housemarque have improved on their spiritual forerunner Returnal is with a persistent upgrade tree that converts the effort of each run into tangible progress.

Titanium Court

Thu, 28 May 2026 15:12:33 +0000

Spoilers Ahead

Wandering the woods one night you find yourself transported to the world of the Titanium Court: an abstract realm bobbing along an infinite and impossible sea, where faeries wage war by day, then at night the kingdom collapses and is rebuilt anew. This day/night structure is the game’s core loop, although what the ‘game’ part would be is harder to define. Titanium Court is a melange of genres, mixing an addictive just-one-more-go match-3 game, light resource management, strategy and visual novel, then wrapping them all up in a striking 2-bit teal and pink presentation.

INFRA

Thu, 26 Feb 2026 14:10:03 +0000

INFRA is a game that has haunted me for the last decade or so. Released back in 2016, I played a handful of hours of INFRA and then abandoned it – which, considering the content, is ironic.

Over the prevailing years I have occassionally thought back on this strange Source Engine game and wondered: ‘what is INFRA, exactly?’

In INFRA you play the role of a civil engineer in a fictional Baltic city, tasked with investigating engineering structures and documenting signs of dilapidation and mismanagement over one long day. The game was released episodically over a few years and, when combined, it’s three acts result in a hefty game with an estimated 20 hours of content. And what is that content? To be reductive, INFRA is a walking simulator. You interact with buttons, valves, switches in an attempt to resuscitate old factories and ailing pump stations, slowly uncovering a conspiracy to undermine the integrity of the city’s public works. Occasionally collapsing tunnels or combusting pipes introduce moments of peril, plus there is some light platforming in-between, but mostly this is a slow, meditative exploration of one of the most cohesive and fully realised virtual worlds I have experienced.

s.p.l.i.t

Wed, 28 Jan 2026 15:04:28 +0000

Developer Mike Klubnika continues to develop the lore of his cruel near-future dystopia in which the Torment Nexus has been realized in this short game, following on from 2024’s much acclaimed Buckshot Roulette. Over the course of this 30-40 minute vignette, you are placed in the shoes of an engineer trying to sabotage a malevolent superstructure by running commands on your retro-future terminal, using real Linux inputs to move around the system and manipulate files.

Many Nights a Whisper

Wed, 28 Jan 2026 14:41:05 +0000

How do you give weight to a single action in a videogame; a medium that exists around the concept of game-overs and do-overs? The recent Rogue-like boom is one example of how to raise the stakes, but Many Nights a Whisper takes this concept and distils it further.

You are placed in the shoes of the Dreamer – an apprentice being mentored for a ritual that takes place every decade in which you will have a single attempt to slingshot a flame into a large brazier, miles away. Secondary to this, on the week leading up to the ritual you will meet nightly with the townsfolk and choose to either grant or deny their wishes. These wishes range from the practical (“I wish cigarettes were cheap, and good for you”) to the ethically/morally dubious (“I wish my dog would live forever so I never have to watch her die”). On the night of the ritual, if you successfully sink the shot then all the approved dreams come true. If you miss, then those dreams will never have the chance to be realized.

No, I'm not a Human

Wed, 28 Jan 2026 11:55:49 +0000

At it’s heart, No I’m Not A Human is a study in discrimination. The game puts you in the shoes of a hermit, living in his humble Eastern European home when Earth is hit by the double-whammy of scorching solar flares that render being outside during the day intolerable, and the emergence of murderous human simulacra from beneath the earth.

In the first days of this apocalyptic scenario you are tasked with taking in refugees escaping a mix of scorching heat, rabid dogs, power-crazed militant FEMA soldiers, and, of course, killer alien mimics (dubbed ‘Visitors’). The catch is that you never know if a new arrival is an alien in disguise or a distressed human being. Over the course of 2 weeks you are drip-fed a slew of deductive methods by the local news to help you identify who amongst the populace are aliens masquerading as humans, from perfect teeth to hairless armpits, to rapid eye movement. Symptoms - you soon realise - that in isolation are typical human attributes and behaviour.