In the Midnight Hour, She Wants Mo’ MoMo
Featuring big names from a variety of fields, MomoCon has become Atlanta, Georgia’s deepest bow to the worlds of animation, comic books and all forms of gaming. The event grew from its humble beginnings amongst a few dedicated students at Georgia Tech in 2004 into a gigantic annual affair. Boasting an impressive 105,000 square feet of all types of gaming, it’s now the southeast’s largest fan service convention.
Now Featuring Mo Indie Games
This year also marks MomoCon’s first foray into the realm of indie game showcases, and a large swath of the showcase floor has been allocated for exactly this. After poring over numerous submissions, here are the 20 finalists that have been announced, each of which is vying for a spot in the judge’s top five:
Among the Sleep
Krillbite Studio
Among the Sleep is a first-person horror adventure with a twist: you’re playing as a toddler. Everything is scary when you’re so little!
Avoid It
Studio RO
You can’t identify IT. For It takes many shapes. The only thing that is certain is that IT wants you dead. Avoid It is a one-button action game for iOS. Time your jumps to dodge the claws, fangs and horns of a relentless foe.
Get Avoid It from the App Store
Back to Bed
Bedtime Digital Games
The dream world and reality blend as spirit creature Subob attempts to guide sleepwalker Bob from his slumber-inducing job back to the safety of his own bed. Back to Bed may well answer the age-old question “if Escher and Dali shared a brain and made a puzzle game, what would it look like?”
Get Back to Bed from the App Store
Get Back to Bed from Google Play
Checkpoint Champion
Protostar Games
A free game for iOS and Android, Checkpoint Champion features racing and off-road driving with a simple two-button control system and lots of short but challenging levels.
Get Checkpoint Champion from the App Store
Get Checkpoint Champion from Google Play
Chronology
Osao Games
A thoughtful puzzle platformer about an inventor and a snail, Chronology features clever time travel mechanics and lush animation inspired by Hayao Miyazaki.
Createrria
Incuvo
So you want to create great games, but you have a slight problem: you have absolutely zero artistic ability, no clue how to approach sound design, and you can’t code without the aid of a ring from a 1950s era cereal box. Fear not! Createrria (for iOS) has you covered. With a few short clicks, taps and drags, you can create your own games. Make them light and simple, or weave in an involved narrative. Upload your creation to the community, and play through the creations of others. Learning to create games is a game unto itself.
Get Createrria from the App Store
Doctor Who: Legacy
Tiny Rebel Games
The legendary time traveler meets the ever-popular gem-matching genre in Doctor Who: Legacy. With over 60 hours of content and appearances by every incarnation of The Doctor from the television show (not to mention iconic monsters like the Cybermen), this is a surprisingly rich offering, especially for a free-to-play mobile and Facebook game.
Get Doctor Who: Legacy from the App Store
Get Doctor Who: Legacy from Google Play
Play Doctor Who: Legacy on Facebook
Dyscourse
Owlchemy Labs
A Kickstarter success, Dyscourse is a narrative-driven adventure game with plenty of emphasis on choice. As an art school graduate crash-landed on a desert island, will you lead your quirky group of fellow travelers to survival?
Hay Ewe
Rocket Rainbow
Help Matilda the sheep guides her lambs to safety through 70 levels in Hay Ewe, a puzzle adventure for iOS.
Get Hay Ewe from the App Store
Just Shapes and Beats
Berzerk Studio
Jumping with bass-heavy chiptunes, Just Shapes and Beats is a fast-paced space-avoider. As the beats reverberate, projectiles fly in every direction, so stay out of their way! As the tempo intensifies, it’s about as difficult as dodging raindrops in a hurricane.
Shapes and Beats – official site
Keebles
Burnt Fuse
IGR reviewed Keebles back in 2014. Fictivetruism explained how it “takes the game design concept [of games like Little Big Planet and Crayon Physics] and gives players the tools to create their own solution to a given level.”
Read our full review of Keebles.
Lumini
Speelbaars
Relaxing but engaging, Lumini sees you guide a species to survival through an atmospheric, lushly colored world. Lumini was recently approved on Steam Greenlight.
Not A Hero
Roll7
Clean up the city in this comedic but blood-soaked 2D shooter. Not A Hero features fast-paced and cover-based combat, brightly colored pixel art and a a time-traveling rabbit who is also the mayor.
Reassembly
Anisoptera Games
Build yourself a spaceship and explore a multitude of procedurally-generated galaxies in Reassembly, a Kickstarter success with stunning vector-based graphics.
Rollers of the Realm
Phantom Compass
What starts as one girl’s quest to retrieved her stolen dog quickly escalates to the unearthing of an ancient threat to the realms of humankind. Each character is represented as a pinball, each one possessing a slightly different roll and special skills that can be activated. Each table’s main set of flippers take damage under enemy fire, getting shorter with each strike. RPGs and pinball may seem like an unlikely pairing, but Rollers of the Realm gets it really right.
Read our full review of Rollers of the Realm.
Get Rollers of the Realm on Steam
Shadow Puppeteer
Sarepta Studio
Shadow Puppeteer combines platforming with puzzle-solving in a play of shadows and illumination. Inspired by Nordic art, the game tells the story of a boy and his shadow in an aesthetically interesting package.
Spaera
Blazing Orb
Spaera is a new take on the block-rockin’ beats style of Lumines Live.
StarCrawlers
Juggernaut Games
StarCrawlers is a modern cRPG dungeon crawler set in a outer space that requires you to build a crew of renegade adventurers, taking jobs from mega-corporations to hunt bounties, sabotage rivals and conduct corporate espionage. Sounds like Legend of Grimrock meets Firefly, which is pretty fricken’ awesome.
Get StarCrawlers via Early Access on Steam
STASIS
The Brotherhood
Another Kickstarter-funded offering, Stasis is a 2D isometric, point and click, sci-fi horror adventure game inspired by LucasArts classic The Dig. Stasis was recently approved on Steam Greenlight.
The Talos Principle
Croteam
Featuring ingenious puzzle mechanics and a heavy intertwined narrative, a robot seeks answers about the value of his own individuality, all the while led along by the voice of an invisible presence.
Read our full review of The Talos Principle.
Get The Talos Principle on Steam
20 Devs Enter, 5 Devs Leave
From these finalists, five titles will ultimately be crowned as MomoCon 2016 finalists. The teams behind these selections will each net a $1000 prize, a display area and a dedicated panel at the conference. Awards will be announced May 30th; the awards ceremony will also be streamed on Twitch.