Echoes of the Unread Dev Blog #3 Explores Mechanics And The Challenges Of Developing The NES

Retro-focused indie game publisher and developer Mega Cat Studios and Clever Cat Games are excited to announce that the third episode of the Echoes of the Unread developer blog is now live, offering even more insight into the creation of this enchanted NES adventure platformer, now on Kickstarter. 

In this latest dev blog entry, Clever Cat Studios' Matt Tuttle gets delightfully technical, unpacking the creative and coding hurdles of building Echoes of the Unread for the NES. From handcrafting custom tilesets to navigating the quirks of 8-bit limitations, Matt shares how he brought his retro vision to life—debugging, disassembling, and digging deep into the hardware every step of the way.

But it's not just about code. Matt also breaks down Echoes of the Unread’s game mechanics, including its layered approach to exploration, memorable boss battles, and the unlockable Retro Mode. This hardcore feature, which becomes available after collecting every hidden page and beating the game, introduces a brutal new twist—permadeath, pushing even the most seasoned players to their limits.

Survivalist: Invisible Strain Xbox Series X Review 7.5 / 10 "More zombies than you can shake a selfie-stick at!" 🧟‍♀️🧟‍♂️🧟 @bob_the_PR_bot #IndieGame #GameDev

Zombies are very much here to stay! Luckily, I am nowhere near tired of the shambling monstrosities in gaming, and so the chance to delve into Survivalist: Invisible Strain was very much up my strasse.

Casting the player in the role of a wandering survivor, Survivalist: Invisible Strain is playable in both campaign and sandbox modes, with the sandbox mode especially offering an incredible amount of customisation options to suit your preferred approach, with the ability to pretty much knock the zombie element on the head and focus purely on city-building and the more social aspects, should you so wish. 

The game features graphic novel-style visuals, with quite a unique screen layout, including portraits of the characters and enemies taking up a fair chunk of the screen real estate. It’s quite an idiosyncratic premise, but really does give Survivalist: Invisible Strain a sense of identity, and the focus on individuality in the game also ties in with this design aspect.

Nintendo Switch 2 Launch Day UNBOXING 📦 #switch2

Rich excitedly unboxes his Nintendo Switch 2 and prepares to play Welcome Tour and Mario Kart World. There's also the cool looking Hori Piranha Plant Camera to use which now sits proudly in GF HQ!

HORI SWITCH 2 PIRANHA PLANT CAMERA Unboxing 🌱 #switch2 #hori #piranhaplant

Rich gets his hands on the HORI Piranha Plant Camera that has been built specifically for the Nintendo Switch 2.

🔗 https://hori.co.uk/nsx-001

Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour [Day 1 Gameplay] 🎮

Rich gets his Nintendo Switch 2 on Launch Day and gets stuck into Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour.

❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️

🕹️ GAME LINK: 🔗

https://www.nintendo.com/en-gb/Games/Nintendo-Switch-2-games/Nintendo-Switch-2-Welcome-Tour-2789271.html

The NEW Lightgun project from Tassei Denki [Time Crisis & Point Blank] 🔫 @tasseidenki #Retrogaming

An astonishing new Lightgun project from Tassei Denki, who are working hard to bring the legendary arcade hit Time Crisis to the home in time for the Holiday Season!

Officially licensed, this plug-and-play package, launching under the G’AIM’E brand is a must for fans of the arcade smash-hit-shooter and indeed all things retro!

Inspector Waffles: Early Days Game Boy Color Review 9/10 "A Purrfect GBC game, this cat definitely gets the cream!" 🐈 @golosogames @Broke_Studio @HomebrewFactory #GameDev #IndieGame

A feline-centric police procedural with a lightness of touch and a sharpness in its design, Inspector Waffles: Early Days has very quickly become one of my favourite Game Boy games.

A prequel to Goloso Games’ 2021 release Inspector Waffles, Inspector Waffles: Early Days follows the cat detective in his rookie days, as he finds his place in Cat Town. 

Under the guiding eye of your partner, Pancakes (yes, this game will make you hungry), you’ll crack six cases in total, cases handed into your capable paws by your chief – Patches. 

The first of these cases deals with the theft of a rare video game cartridge (good!), and you’ll soon find yourself falling into the satisfying pattern of discovering clues, interrogating suspects and solving crimes– as well as hopefully discovering some secrets along the way!

Monster Train 2 XBOX Review 9/10 " One hell of a freight" 🚂👹 @TheMonsterTrain #IndieGame #GameDev

In most visions of apocalyptic battles between heaven and hell, between angels and demons, between God and the Devil itself, the battleground is a scarred wasteland and the warriors are on horseback, wielding swords and axes. Something distinctly more Tolkienesque than Shiny Shoe’s interpretation in the Monster Train games. If their idea is to be believed, then the final tussle on earth takes place in a train carriage more reminiscent of something halfway between Snowpiercer and the climatic fight in Broken Arrow.

But what of the game itself? I’ll get this out straight away. Fans of the original certainly need not worry. This is everything the first game was and more. Expanded and enhanced in terms of options, cards, clans and mechanics.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 PS5 Review 10/10 "I’m Terrible at Clair Obscur and I Love It" ⚔️ @SandfallGames #IndieGame #GameDev

I am comically bad at RPGs. Something about having to look at percentages and statistics during my leisure time just shuts my brain down. The lizard brain takes over, and I pour everything into strength—because obviously, swinging a sword the hardest is the best way to fell a mountain-sized Elder God.

I’m even worse at turn-based combat. I’ll inevitably end up with a team of glass cannons who get wiped out if someone sneezes on them—and they can’t even do that much damage because I didn’t bless their weapons with the Scrotum of K’Narl fifteen hours earlier.

I tried Baldur’s Gate 3, based solely on the enthusiastic response to its narrative and rich characters, but the combat was a brick wall I couldn’t surmount. It’s always humbling when the loading screen stops saying “You can change the difficulty at any time” and starts saying “Why don’t you have a nice lie down instead?”

Enter Clair Obscur: Expedition 33—the first (I repeat: first!) game from French developer Sandfall Interactive, and the latest critical darling trying to woo me back to a genre that routinely makes a fool of me.

Gulikit Elves 2 Pro Controller Review By Britt 🎮 @GuliKitDesign

There are a lot of controllers out there in the world, and sometimes something comes along that scratches a specific itch that you may not even know that you had. I believe that this is the first Gulikit product that we have covered here at GF, and it’s a heck of a product to kick off with!

Available in two versions – black or retro - the Elves 2 Pro Controller gives very strong Sega Saturn controller vibes in the feel and style, with the ‘black’ being reminiscent of the EU/US Saturn pad and the ‘Retro’ nailing that much-loved Japanese Saturn controller vibe.

I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream Xbox Series X Review 9.5/10 “I think therefore I AM” 👄 @NightdiveStudio #RetroGaming #IndieGame #GameDev

I don’t think any other title of a game has ever conjured up things in me that I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream has. When I was a 14-15 year old kid and watched my brother play this game the title alone deeply affected me, it conjures up an awful image, it’s a title that's creepy before you even play the game or read the short story. It is a powerful title, but when you learn what it relates to in the story - its power is magnified tenfold.

I’ve experienced the game three times, once as previously stated, then again in my 20s, and now in my 30s, and each time my love for it grows, it is such an interesting and engaging story, based on Harlan Ellison's short story of the same name, it takes everything that's great about that story and adds to it. 

🦖 Rich Plays Dinopunk: The Cacops Adventure [PC Gameplay] 🐊 @DojoSystem @javi_TheDude #IndieGame #GameDev

Rich gets on to the PC to play Dinopunk: The Cacops Adventure which is a delightful 2D retro platformer that is set in a dystopian world ruled by dinosaurs.

Rich plays as Cacops, a small amphibious dinosaur with the ability to control water. Watch as Rich tries to recover the stolen egg from a group of evil ninjas while navigating a world filled with obstacles, and enemies.

Croc had been working out

Rich's PS2 £20 Facebook Market Place Pick Up and Clean Up Video [+ Disc Tray Not Opening Fix] 🎮📺 #PS2 #RetroGaming

I've been yearning for a PS2 for some time now and I have been looking on Facebook Marketplace for a while to see if I could pick up a bargain. Very recently I spotted a £20 PlayStation 2 that was being cleared from a garage with no controller, no leads and a memory card. I felt lucky so I ventured into the murky world of FB Market Place and headed out in my car to snare myself a catch. For posterity I decided to capture my process of cleaning her up and getting her working. 

The long term plan is to play more PS2 games and hoover up some discs from the local car boot sale, the short term plan is to buy a controller.

Take a look at my video as I bring my PS2 home and get her settled in:

We’d like to introduce you to Sovietborgs, a top-down 16-bit run ’n' gun shooter on the SEGA Mega Drive/Genesis 🎮 #Retrogaming

We’d like to introduce you to Sovietborgs, a top-down 16-bit run’n' gun shooter set in an alternate timeline where the Soviet Empire rules supreme, created by Retro Sumus, the studio behind Xenocider for the Dreamcast.

In this brutal retro-futuristic world, you control a squad of cybernetic warriors—the Sovietborgs—on a mission to crush monsters and rebel scum, one explosion at a time. 

The game will support classic platforms such as Mega Drive/Genesis, Dreamcast, NeoGeo, and MS-DOS.Sovietborgs will launch a campaign on IndieGoGo in June 25. 
In Sovietborgs, you’ll dive into:🎮

• Old-school top-down gameplay inspired by The Chaos Engine and Gauntlet
• Pre-rendered visuals crafted with techniques used in Donkey Kong Country
• A killer soundtrack with vibes from Red Alert and Urban Strike
• Shmup-style bonus stages and massive, grotesque boss fight

🔗Sovietborgs: Sega Genesis/MegaDrive, NeoGeo & more | Indiegogo 🔗

Rich Plays "Into The Restless Ruins" on PC 🏰🕯️🗺️ @AntWorkshop #GameDev #IndieGame

Rich plays Into the Restless Ruins which is a roguelike deck builder dungeon-crawler that blends strategy with adventure. Developed by Ant Workshop and published by Wales Interactive, the game challenges Rich to build his own dungeon using a deck of cards—placing rooms, corridors, and traps—before navigating through his own creation.

Set in a world inspired by Scottish folklore, Rich must battle monsters, uncover secrets, and earn the favour of the Harvest Maiden to unlock new abilities and dungeon segments. The game features procedurally generated ruins, ensuring each run is unique, and introduces a torch mechanic, where Rich must escape before his light extinguishes. 🕯️

Trident’s Tale Xbox Series X Review 7.5/10 "Pirate fun for all the family!" 🏴‍☠️⛵@3DClouds #IndieGame #GameDev

The chandler never mentioned the glow in the dark sails at the showroom

My four-year old son has a penchant for open world games in which you are free to do as you please, with LEGO City Undercover, little Kitty Big City, and Goat Simulator 3 being firm favourites that will seemingly never be uninstalled from my consoles. When I caught wind of Trident’s Tale, I snapped up the chance to cover it, as the cartoonish darkness and spookiness appealed to me, and pirate games are always worth a blast of the cannons!

Playing the part of Ocean, a young pirate who yearns to explore the seas, she soon finds herself mourning the loss of her guardian as skeletal pirates hunt her down, seemingly due to her discovering a small trinket that has a lot of otherworldly folks very interested in it!

The Precinct Xbox Series X Review 8/10 "Pick up that candy wrapper, punk – go ahead, make my day" 👮🏻‍♀️🚔👮🏻 @fallentreegames @Microids_off @kwalee #IndieGame #GameDev

Basketball Hoop looked on longingly from the side of the court

A top-down, action-packed police procedural with simulation elements, The Precinct is the latest title from Fallen Tree Games, the developers who previously gave us a game that I have always had a soft spot for - American Fugitive. Whilst this is a worthy follow-up to American Fugitive – and definitely improves on the frame rate issues that plagued that title (on Switch, at least) – I couldn’t shake the feeling that there are a couple of little, missed opportunities along the way.

Rich Plays - Captain Blood on the PC "The Most Fun You Can Have In 2005 in 2025" 🏴‍☠️⚔️🩸 @captbloodgame #IndieGame #GameDev

Rich swash buckles his way into the long awaited Captain Blood which is a pirate-themed action-adventure game developed by SeaWolf Studio and published by SNEG. The game's development journey has been notoriously turbulent. Originally announced in 2003, it was meant to be developed by Akella, known for Sea Dogs and Pirates of the Caribbean. 

However, the project faced multiple restarts, legal disputes, and bankruptcies, leading to years of development hell. It was showcased at E3 2004, but by 2010, the game was effectively cancelled due to financial and legal complications. 

In 2024, publisher SNEG Ltd. acquired the rights and revived the project, leading to its official release on May 6, 2025, across PC, macOS, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch. The game features hack-and-slash combat, ship battles, and a mission-based structure, allowing players to fight enemies on both land and sea.

Dreamless "Every 25 years, horrifying events occur in a lost town" 😱

Dreamless

Developer – Setone Games

Platforms – PS5, Xbox X/S, PC

“When we are sure that everything develops according to our plans, we should wonder whether there is an invisible thread of the puppeteer stretched over our heads.”

Every 25 years, horrifying events occur in a lost town in the south. For one week, August 1-7, referred to as “death week,” teenagers mysteriously disappear. City officials have long ago given up on the mystery and are simply closing missing persons cases, advising residents to stock up on essential supplies and not to leave their homes. But even such measures don't save the day, and more people go missing every year. Is a serial killer, who has passed his craft from generation to generation, to blame for these terrible disappearances, or ... or ... Is it a curse?

The protagonist is John, a diligent senior year student with a passion for video blogging. On August 1, 2017, exactly one month before his coming of age, a new “week of death” arrives. The townspeople are busy going about their business and seem to have already forgotten about the curse, but John receives a tempting offer from his friend Will: to explore the long-abandoned house of a deceased old lady who once instilled terror in all the residents.

Features:

- Photo-realistic graphics

- Realistic gameplay

- High-quality audio accompaniment, creating an atmosphere of maximum fear

- Unpredictable gameplay: the abandoned house will change as the game progresses, creating new obstacles and puzzles for the player

- Learn the ancient history of a provincial town and solve the mystery of mystical disappearances of children

- Immerse yourself in this fascinating world and find out what lies behind the eerie events of the “death week”.

Hurt Me Plenty: The Ultimate Guide to First Person Shooters 2003-2010 [Rich's REVIEW + Unboxing Video] 📖💥 @bitmap_books #Retrogaming

Hurt Me Plenty: The Ultimate Guide to First-Person Shooters 2003–2010 is the mahoosive 464-page hardcover book follow up to I'm Too Young To Die that explores the evolution of first-person shooters from the years 2003 to 2010. 

I’m Too Young To Die covered FPS games from 1992 to 2002 so it's cool how the new book just picks up the baton from where ITYTD left off. The book features almost 220 FPS games including Call of Duty, DOOM 3, Half-Life 2, BioShock, Crysis, Borderlands, Fallout 3, Left 4 Dead, and Halo 2, alongside some lesser-known titles and experimental shooters.

The book also includes some cool interview chapters with FPS industry legends like Ken Levine (BioShock), Minh Le (Counter-Strike), Tim Willits (DOOM 3), and Jeep Barnett (Portal, Left 4 Dead, Team Fortress 2). The book also explores and discusses FPS trends, such as the rise of multiplayer-only shooters, the impact of digital game distribution, and the shift from WWII settings to modern warfare.

Once again as with all Bitmap Books the book is designed with highest quality printing at the forefront along with the use of special Pantone ink, and an illustrated cover by Ian Pestridge that is Spot varnished and accompanied by a dust jacket highlighting key FPS genre elements against a stunning matte background. As always the book is a must-have for retro gamers and FPS fans.