Search for cats in an ancient 700-year-old 40ft (12 meters) long silk scroll titled “Autumn Hunting in the Yuan Dynasty” which depicts a historical scene of a royal hunt, featuring Mongolian nobility. In this revised edition however, there are 200 distinct, individual cats diligently hidden among the artwork. With various meows and purring should you hold your mouse over a discovered cat and a hint button to guide your way, I can say that Catnip Studios has created one of the most enjoyable Hidden Object games I’ve ever has the pleasure of playing. To view the unedited scroll in its entire high-resolution glory, click the cover logo!

Catnip studios has also done other famous silk scroll artworks, such as the highly famous “Along the River During the Qingming Festival” made sometime around 1736 by collaborating artists as well as Zhao Boju's "Xianshan Louge Tu" from the Southern Song Dynasty, all for less than 1 USD! Pick this game up already! You won’t regret it!

Poor little Abigail Blackwood fell out of a window at 12 years old and died in 1902, so when she woke up as a small wisp of a soul above her gravestone much, much later, you can understand her confusion. Naturally, the first thing she does is go home in search of her parents and her sister Anne, but the Blackwood manor is… strange now. The wallpaper is dirty and cracked, strange sigils and symbols are marked on walls and doorways, iron metal sheets are nailed into walls, and the house is much, much bigger than little Abigail remembers. She can’t find her family, but she’s not alone. A large white raven claims to be a demon named Malphas, and they know your sister quite well, apparently…

6-9 hours to complete, Goetia is a point-and-click puzzle game set in a giant manor and its surrounding locations. As you progress through the game, you will slowly unlock more rooms to explore and uncover more of the storyline. While most of the puzzles were fairly straightforward, the few that were difficult were due to vague objectives and unclear directions, since you can re-read any notes and papers you previously discovered by simply pausing the game and looking at your Codex, conveniently sorted by areas. Overall, it’s a pretty solid game I don’t mind recommending, the biggest downside to Goetia is that you’re probably going to need to look at a guide to finish it.

Jusant is a 5 – 10+ hour rock-climbing fantasy game about scaling an absolutely massive tower that used to hold a large civilization in a post-apocalyptic world. Explore empty cities and find out why everyone either died off or left as you follow the anchors of a previous climbing group, trying desperately to scale to the top of the spire even as the population fled on foot across the desert. With only a baby Ballast as a companion, take your time, plan your paths, and make it to the top to hopefully find whatever it is, you’ve been searching for.

I just want to start by saying it’s impossible to fall to your death. You cannot die in this game, and it’s not difficult to learn despite the semi-manual climbing experience. While the game offers alternative pathing and some hidden locations, it was more linear than I anticipated. Overall, I had a very positive experience; your companion is adorable, the story is interesting, the game mechanics are fun and there is no rush. Jusant a beautiful and unique experience with various landscapes, and even with the dizzying heights I had a fun time exploring and looking at the ecology, which was different at each level of the tower. There are some minimal gripes, such as the game being auto-save only and only having to start at the beginning of each chapter if you missed a collectible; and despite unlocking short-cuts, those get reset if you re-play a chapter which defeats the purpose of having them in the first place. Regardless, Jusant is an easy recommendation and I highly suggest not missing out on this experience. There are color-blind modes available as well as an anti-dyslexia font in the settings!

1-2 hours to complete, Spilled! Is a short and casual ocean cleanup game about a little boat doing its best to keep the environment clean, and a larger boat causing all the trouble! Collect and recycle plastic waste, contain and clean oil spills from the water’s surface, extinguish fires, rescue animals, and collect points to purchase upgrades. It’s a pretty satisfying game with pleasant before and after screenshots, nice to check out in an lazy afternoon, with easy to manage controls.

Overall, Spilled is a very simple game with a very special message about ocean conservation efforts and keeping an environment clean and beautiful. There are several areas to explore, each unlocking a new skill or tool, and you really get a positive feeling that even small actions can have a big impact! The only real con I can think of is that it’s so short to complete! While you can re-do any chapter and area you want, there isn’t much in terms of replayability though the graphics are adorable and gave me warm fuzzy feelings. Highly recommended!

3-6 hours to complete, Little Kitty Big City is a wholesome adventure game that will take you on a heartwarming journey through a semi-open world area. As a very lost indoor cat trying to find their way home, encounter a variety of animals who will offer side-quests or assistance as you navigate through the busy streets.

There are many activities to discover, such as collecting and recycling cans, tripping and being pet by humans, finding many hats to wear, gathering “shinies” for a mischievous crow, and collecting feathers for a tanuki who’s figured out how spacetime works. Overall, a cute little adventure game that can be finished in one playthrough.

A thunderstorm approaches the small town of Sainte-et-Claire, knocking out most of its power and leaving electrical appliances malfunctioning! In an attempt to cheer people up, a small but determined mouse chooses to make a big difference. Gaining electrical powers after a fortunate accident and meeting Lumion, a guardian spirit, team up to restore light – and power – back to the residents.

4-6 hours to complete, The Spirit and the Mouse is a casual game with easy puzzles, a semi-open world, and collectibles. As an electric mouse, zip through power lines, collect static from metal objects, and discover light bulbs to obtain additional abilities such as a useful electric dash, a lightbulb locator, a photo mode, and maps of the four districts. Special note; The Spirit and The Mouse offers a colorblind mode and has a dedicated squeak button as well as fun hat apparel to wear. Overall, a warm, feel-good adventure that’s easy to recommend.

Yukumo is a girl on a journey, flying an airship and soaring through the clouds when a mysterious shockwave damages her engine and she’s forced to crash-land on an Island covered by fog. Kogara, a stranded member of the Nezu cat tribe, finds her and asks for help in a mutually beneficial relationship. By restoring the Sacred trees, the fog will leave the city and its citizens will gradually return, and by collecting the tree’s lantern fruits – a fuel source – Yukumo can restore her Airship and continue her adventure. Solve puzzles, make friends, and revitalize the land in an experience no one will soon forget!

3-10 hours to complete, TASOMACHI: Behind the Twilight is a puzzle platform object collection game that revolves around collecting lanterns in an abandoned city smothered by fog. As more shrines are completed, citizens – the Nezu Tribe – move back in and the towns become operational again, enabling jump pads and more accessible areas. Puzzles are skippable, you can collect money in the streets and pay 20 coins for a teleporter to the end of a puzzle if it’s too difficult. Gameplay is pretty smooth, and after the story is completed, you get access to airship racing. This profitable mini-game significantly lessens the grind of purchasing all six outfits and furniture for your house should you want it.

3-7+ hours to complete, Loddlenaut is an underwater open-world cleaning and pet sim. Restore biomes by removing oil and trash then replant native flora and re-introduce the wildlife, the Loddles. Depending on what they eat or what you feed them as they grow up, they can change into one of 13 different types! They can follow you around and help clean up areas, but they usually stay where you put them and can play with crafted toys.

Admittedly, there isn’t much of a story – the company that caused all the problems already got shut down, you’re just the guy hired to clean up the aftermath. No enemies, no puzzles, nothing time-sensitive, no quick time events, and nothing ridiculously grindy. It’s a colorful game with plenty of things to do, especially with the most recent update, and the only thing I can say it lacks is a photo mode.

Los Angeles has fallen due to numerous natural disasters and in its ashes rose the rebuilt city of Los Diablos, a lawless city untouched by the government and run by those with power – literally. Heroes and Villains are in a constant battle for control and in the aftermath of the Heartbreak Incident, the telepathic hero Sidestep is presumed dead. Armed with the knowledge you shouldn’t have and secrets that were buried long ago, remake yourself into the greatest villain the city has ever seen.

6-13 hours to complete, Fallen Hero: Rebirth is a text-based RPG with a rare villain protagonist. LGBTQ+ friendly with optional romance, it’s a pretty amazing fallen superhero novel where every choice you make feels like you’ve made the correct one where you choose the tone and level of violence. 385,000+ words and the first book of three, the next in the series being Fallen Hero: Retribution then Fallen Hero: Revelations. Reaching the end of the novel saves that game and brings it into the second novel, and so forth. Overall, it’s a fantastic novel to invest your time into; the only thing I can complain about is the lack of a save/load system and the fact that you can’t backtrack to see the results of other choices unless you start a new game.

Raen is one of the orphans of Aurelia Cavella, a town protected by the gods and led by the Divine speaker; a man who chooses a child’s destiny and path in life from the day they are born, to who they marry, to the day they die. Surrounded by an endless forest of death and monsters, this town is the only place with human life; it’s been this way for thousands of years until Raen turns 18. Preparing to enter adulthood and get matched up to have children, mysterious markings appear on Raen’s arm and he is exiled from Aurelia Cavella. Here, in the forest, he meets an impossible hermit who speaks incomprehensible truths – his entire life was a lie. It’s time to make a new one.

17-35+ hours to complete, The Divine Speaker is a fantasy LGBTQ+ uncensored VN with multiple endings and three love interests. It's fully voice-acted with options in the settings to turn off individual characters' voices. It is super high quality, I highly recommend playing it as it’s a fantastic experience! My biggest complaint is that the ending is unsatisfactory due to the unresolved questions, loose ends, and the cliffhanger it ends on clearly setting up a Divine Speaker 2, which concerns me as I don’t see any news of a second game at the time of this review, more than two years after the Divine Speaker was released. (The Divine Speaker: The Sun and the Moon is a prequel, not the sequel.)

A retired soldier from war, Aka leaves the battlefield with his war friend Thom to one of the islands in the east, in search of a peaceful life of farming and blissful normalcy. Make new friends, visit the city on occasion, go hiking, cloud watch on beaches, play some music, and find a place to settle down. Just don’t let the ghosts of your past haunt you too much.

5-7+ hours to complete, Aka is a hand-drawn casual farming sim where you play as a war veteran. There are four islands to explore and one city, with two houses you can move into - one being your starter home that’s already furnished. Farming is simple and only really needed for quest progression at the least, the scale of what you want to grow is up to you. Overall, it’s a nice casual sim with optional minigames as well as its own card game. There are plenty of fun things to do while short enough to not be grindy. The only cons I can think of is unlike most farming games, your fully grown crop plants rot if you don’t collect them, but any planted flowers stay.

This game was given to me for free to curate, which does not guarantee a positive review, and reflects my sincere opinion.

As a seasoned agent of the Imperial Security Bureau of the Earth Empire, get assigned an easy courier mission to the far-off and exotic planet Ulthar to retrieve a vital package from your currently undercover best friend, scientist, and war buddy Samir. Things go wrong almost immediately when before your starship can even land, a call to return to Earth arrives because Samir went missing. Now there is a choice before you, defy orders to find and rescue the closest friend you’ve ever had from whatever he’s gotten himself into, or stay loyal and return home.

2-6+ hours to complete, Fallen Seeds is a Hand-drawn Mystery/Detective Dating sim with aliens and biotechnology. The first VN in a planned upcoming trilogy, Fallen Seeds features partial voice acting, high-quality art and animations, moving character sprites, backgrounds, a solid OST, and skillful writing. Created from an indie group of just a handful of people, I’m genuinely impressed as this is nicer than some of the more popular VN’s I’ve read. There is only one con, remember that this is an unfinished game, and no one has any idea how Fallen Seeds series will turn out – but if the quality and pacing remain the same there is nothing to fear.

Waking up alone in a manor full of monsters roaming the endless hallways, find the other humans trapped within and ally together to survive. The exits are fake, the windows unbreakable, the only way out is hints gained through text messages asking your group to collect shining shards of glass and make a kaleidoscope that supposedly, somehow, grants a single wish. With no memories or any recollection of who you are or how you joined this twisted game, work together so everyone can leave, or become an eternal occupant, forget everything, and quietly fade away.

15-30+ hours to complete, Psychedelica of the Black Butterfly is a fully voiced VN with 5 love interests and 12 endings, with a flowchart available for easy backtracking and route selection. Individual character voices, including the protagonists, can be turned off in the sound settings. Optional minigames grant you points to spend and unlock side stories, which reveal more game endings to explore. Overall, I had a positive experience playing Black Butterfly, and I particularly liked the unusual variety of endings as well as the aforementioned flowchart. For cons, there are infrequent oddly translated sentences and the confusing, conflicting skillset and intelligence of the airheaded female protagonist. Highly recommend.