Screenshot Weekly – Laser-Loving Underwater Artists

Welcome back to Screenshot Weekly !

! Every Tuesday, IGM brings you exclusive looks at upcoming games in various stages of development. The featured image introducing each game will always be original, and made especially for IGM, so you’ll see them for the first time right here! Without further ado, let’s take a look at this week’s screenshots (remember to click the pictures to appreciate them in all their fully-sized glory):

Awaken: Underwater Odyssey

Awaken: Underwater Odyssey is especially unique in that it is a shmup with a detailed narrative. Taking place on Neptune decades after humans have begun to colonize the watery planet, everything is smooth sailing until a colony outpost loses contact with one of its remote mining sites. When what should be a routine mining operation seems to have hit a roadblock, the outpost sends out a Leviathan-class mothership to investigate, which then, upon arrival at the mining site, deploys a Kraken squad to descend beneath the planet’s cloudy surface in search of the lost miners. What they find is a secret no one is prepared for. Awaken: UO features upgradeable ships, three distinct weapon types, and a secondary assist function on a cooldown timer, allowing the player to call in much-needed backup. The game is scheduled for release on PC in September, with solo developer Pavel Hurkahoping to port it to Android soon afterwards.

The Virtual Laser League

I never really did anything fun as a child, but if How I Met Your Mother taught me anything, it’s that Laser Tag is one of the great American pastimes all children should try. (And also that the longer a story goes on for, the less likely it is to have a satisfying ending. But I digress…) Anyway, if you’re looking to rekindle a lost love for Laser Tagging, or you just wish you could get into a competitive sporting event that doesn’t require too much physical exertion, Virtual Laser League might be the answer. According to the devs, “the game has great potential to bring eSport games to the next level.”  Oh, and it’s also got Oculus Rift support, if you really want to feel like your back at the mall playing Laser Tag. The development team at Clockwork Game Studio is currently running a Kickstarterfor the game, and hopes to be able to develop the project for both Mac and PC. Maybe lasers are just what the FPS genre needs to spice things up a bit.

Artisan: Going Home Again

Do you ever wish games were more down to earth? No aliens, no weight of the world on your shoulders, no “chosen one” nonsense? Artisan: Going Home Again does, and the two-lady team at UnseenKingdom Studiosis doing something about it. Sisters Amy and Melissa Lester told me that, “The story is very much a slice of life tale. The hero is faced with the news that her parents are selling their rental property; her childhood home. She decides to try and buy it from them, which means leaving her job at their diner and trying to make her way at the only thing she considers herself good at: Art. I really wanted to make a game where the adversary wasn’t something evil, but rather, a natural part of everyone’s life.” One of the outfits in the game is based on the works of Stan Sakai, known for the Usagi Yojimbo indie comic, of which Amy takes inspiration from. (Amy does the art while Melissa codes. THey share writing duties.) She even donated a painting to an auctionhosted by CAPS, in support Mr. Sakai’s ailing wife.

That’s it for this week’s Screenshot Weekly . Be sure to come back next week to see more exclusive looks of the latest indie games in development! Let us know in the comments section what upcoming indie games you’d like to see featured in a future installment. As for any indie developers who would like to see their screenshots featured in an upcoming segment, feel free to send an email to IGM at editors@indiegamemag.com with the Subject Line: “Screenshot Weekly”. Or, if you’d like to be part of our Magazine’s Screenshot Monthly segment, include that in the email as well!