Itchmas in July #4 (July 2025)

It's back! Let's celebrate the summer with some free and short games from Itch.io. Nominate up to two games and we'll do a poll and play the six games (or more if there are voting ties) that got the most votes, reveiling one new game per day. The rule is that the game has to be available for free on Itch.io

Please nominate your games here as I will create a seperate thread from the regular GotM event.

Hornets by Kitty Horrorshow
Desierto by Josyan

Here's my two:

The Dark Queen of Mortholme
https://qwertyprophecy.itch.io/mortholme

Divorce Chatroom
https://meiri.itch.io/divorce-chatroom

nullFor those unsure of previous Itchmas winners with their nominations, you can find R2D2's list here: https://howlongtobeat.com/user/R2D21999/lists/131/Itchmas-Winners

My own nominations:

one night, hot springs:

https://npckc.itch.io/one-night-hot-springs
(Alternate Free Steam Version: https://store.steampowered.com/app/917680/one_night_hot_springs/)

GAR-TYPE:

https://lumpytouch.itch.io/gar-type

I nominate:

purrgatory
SPÅRVAGN

Hell yeah, my favorite HLTB event!

My nominations are:

Formless Star - A colorful RPG from a developer who showed up in a previous Itchmas. Playtime 1-2hrs.
Sewer Tales - A top-down view action game where you amass a horde of rats to protect the rat king. 💪🐭

- Matt

I'll randomise my backlog and choose two they are:

Lizard Lady vs the Cats - Itch.io
The Fall of Lazarus - Itch.io

always down for itchmas !! here are my long-titled noms :

Individualism In The Dead Internet Age: An Anti Big Tech Asset Flip - Itch
Packing Up the Rest of Your Stuff on the Last Day at Your Old Apartment - Itch

I don't usually play many Itch.io games but I will nominate these two fan games.

My first nomination is Undertale Yellow, which isn't on itch.io, but is instead on GameJolt. It is still free, so you can choose to allow that if you want. In case you weren't aware, Undertale Yellow is a fan made prequel to Undertale.

My second nomination will be a regular Itch game. Ace Attorney: Ultimate Justice - A fan crossover between trial based game franchises Ace Attorney and Danganronpa.

I need more of you filthy animals to put in an itch to scratch. 😤

- Matt

Last call for nominations. I'll try to make the polls later tonight (in about 5 hours)

I'll nominate Super Jacked Up Tomato Face Johnson if it's not too late
https://gumpyfunction.itch.io/super-jacked-up-tomato-face-johnson

The poll is up !

https://strawpoll.com/XmZRQv1zxgd

As well as a collection of all the nominations on Itch :

https://itch.io/c/5963627/itchmas-in-july-4-july-2025

I just did my voting.
Looking at all the nominations now, actually a lot of interesting picks. Plenty of which I'd wanna check our whether or not they win.

- Matt

24 hours left until the poll ends.

The first game will be Sewer Tales

https://matthieu-riboulot.itch.io/sewer-tales

Game #2 is The Fall of Lazarus : https://no-wand-studios.itch.io/the-fall-of-lazarus

Game #3 is Desierto : https://josyan.itch.io/desierto

Game #4 is Divorce Chatroom - https://meiri.itch.io/divorce-chatroom

The 5th game is SPÅRVAGN : https://dustyroom.itch.io/sparvagn

Game #6 : Packing Up the Rest of Your Stuff on the Last Day at Your Old Apartment - https://turnfollow.itch.io/packingup

I started playing the games today, planning to play all 6 in a row. But that Fall of Lazarus was so much longer than I expected. lmao
I spent over 3 hours in that thing, so I had to cut my marathon short.
Here are my thoughts so far.

Sewer Tales
I love the art style and concept of Sewer Tales. Would pay good money for a polished version with an actual ending. Hell, even if there was just one big boss fight, I'd already be happy.
Managed to get 117 rats, which is a bit funny since the counter in the corner is out of 100.

The Fall of Lazarus
I read others say that this game crashed or didn't run at all for them, but I was able to play without any problems.
I played the brief prologue and then the full campaign. It's very obvious there was a lot of ambition and passion put into this. Cool visuals, and a big emphasis on world-building and lore. Very much inspired by other games at the time like Dead Space and Alien Isolation while going in a very different, quieter direction.
I couldn't really get into the story too much since a lot of it was spread through different in-game objects and documents. Lots of text. But I give it big props for having lots of voice acting for the two sole characters.
The puzzle were very hit or miss for me though. And at one point I got stuck in a room because a door animation pushed me into a corner I couldn't get out of. That was annoying.
All in all though, a respectable effort for a team of three people, working on it for a bit over a year. Apparently this was crowdfunded and originally sold for 13 bucks. It's pretty high quality stuff for being out for free nowadays.

Desierto
Out of all the narrative-focused interactive art pieces we've had in past Itchmases, this one is one of my favorites. Not that the story is that grand, but I actually really like the presentation with many of its subtleties in design.

Divorce Chatroom
I'm not big on visual novels, but I do like stories about the end of a relationship that don't just portray it as an awful tragedy. The writing was a bit clunky at pointrs and I feel like there is lots of repetition with characters reheating the same conclusions multiple times. But I like that I was able to steer the story towards a healthy, understanding parting of two people.

- Matt

so played Sewer Tales simple little RTS. It has no real goal which is holding it backl and you aimlessly wander. Good little tech demo to be fair. I've played more complicated RTS's though (even though I don't really play them) and there could be more but it has a solid base which could be expanded on

Well that's a shame just tried The Fall of Lazurus and it basically just crahses as soon as I get to the first room. Would be interesting to try but I can't progress so I guess I have to retire

So Desierto is one of those poem games we always seem to get with itchmas. It prob the best of them as things pop out of the desert while you move. But ultimately not real much to it you move and thats it. The ending while expected should of least indicated that it had ended instead of just leaving you on that screen

Finished Divorce Chatroom and got an Amicable divorce. That was a really well written little story and very good at reaching a conclusion. You're able to see why the characters have reached this point in there life and both there failures but also able to show case there strengths as well if you allow it. Doesn't go too long and think thats for the best but I did enjoy it for what it's worth

Right Sparvagn very simple game where you must stop trams to prevent them from colliding. Starts simple but slowly ramps up (the final level took me a few attempts). You can only stop one tram per each track and need both lines to receive all of it's passengers. Extremely well made and I can easily see this game being expanded on (the puzzles only ever had two lines could easily include a third or more). So far I say the best of this itchmas

Game #7 is Formless Star : https://splendidland.itch.io/formless-star

Game #8 is One Night, Hot Springs : https://npckc.itch.io/one-night-hot-springs