There were ninety-three exhibitors in the indie game area at Tokyo Game Show this year and some more who were in the main area. I wasn’t able to look at every game, but here is the lowdown on some of the ones I did check out. [You can read the second set of TGS Tidbits here]

Grim Hearts

This game is to be the first from United Arab Emirates developer Ego Punch Entertainment. It’s a co-op RPG designed with couples in mind. 

The two player characters are a couple, and their interactions and the situations they have to get through together are being designed by someone who’s had a marriage not work out before. Ego Punch wants it to be a game that helps players figure out if they are compatible in practical ways, able to work together as a team. 

Ego Punch was also showing off some animations they’ve done, and if the work they’ve done on cartoons is any indication, the animations in the game should be awesome. It’s a pity that there are no screenshots available for the game yet.

La-Mulana 2

Last year at TGS, Nigoro announced plans to rebuild the La-Mulana 2 engine in Unity. This decision was made so that they can work towards releasing on many platforms at once instead of spending time, resources, and energy on ports after an initial launch.

They’ve spent the last year learning how Unity works and almost have the game back to the state it was at a year ago. From here on out, they anticipate being able to add more features and content at a good pace.

Ninja Pizza Girl

There’s not much new to say with regards to Ninja Pizza Girl, but that’s mostly because it plays exactly like Disparity Games’ Kickstarter pitch for it led me to expect. That’s a rare thing, which is partly because game development is such an iterative process, but it’s still nice when it happens. The game is a fast-paced platform about death-defying pizza delivery scenarios.

PooPride

Perhaps the silliest serious game I’ve ever encountered. The developer wants people to pay more attention to poop, since the state of one’s poop can provide vital information about one’s health.

Medical science can analyze poop in detail, of course, but even the look of it can give useful information. All of the characters in the game are therefore poos of different shapes, colors, and sizes, including the God of Poop.

In terms of gameplay, it’s an auto-racing game in which the player must slam on the brakes with the right timing to be the one closest to the edge of a cliff without going over. It’s currently only available for Android.

Qubot

This newest title from Qubit Games gives the player a party of four voxel robots which can be customized in much the same way as ships in their previous game.

Gameplay is a little bit billiards and a little bit robot brawler; the player sends each of their robots bouncing around the arena in turn, damaging any enemy they bump into. They also get off one final attack in one of a wide array of attack patterns when they come to rest.

Shadow Shooter

As someone who enjoys archery, I find it hard to find a game that really captures the experience. It’s just not the same without drawing back the string yourself.

Shadow Shooter uses a real bow for its controller, though. It has sensors and a mobile projector mounted on the handle, allowing the player to look for targets anywhere in a 360 degree radius. It’s the project of Assistant Professor Masasuke Yasumoto at the Kanagawa Institute of Technology.

The Swords

This is an upcoming mobile title from Sunhead Games, the makers of A Ride Into The Mountains. This time, they’ve taken inspiration from a novel which is famous amongst Chinese speakers but unknown to most Westerners.

The game is themed around swordplay, with a varied series of challenges which make good use of the touchscreen to really give the player the feeling of parrying incoming blows. This is coupled with art based on traditional Chinese ink drawings, I found it very engaging.

More TGS tidbits here