Itchmas in July #4 (July 2025)

Game #9 is "individualism in the dead-internet age: an anti-big tech asset flip shovelware r̶a̶n̶t̶ manifesto"

https://alienmelon.itch.io/shovelware

The 10th and final game of the event is The Dark Queen of Mortholme - https://qwertyprophecy.itch.io/mortholme

Okay so now done Packing up The Rest of Your Stuff on the Last Day at Your Old Apartment. Yeah nice cosy game. Basically about packing the last items in your apartment. Got most the items just one I donated. It was a bit fiddly getting all the items in the packages it tells you that your package is full though the item could fit in if you rotate it and it doesn't allow you to rotate out of the boxes. But still a nice little cosy game

Right just beat Formless Star and yeah that was a rather cutsy little exploration. I was able to find all of the creatures Glad they gave the flying one after you had found half of the creatures it could of done with some more puzzle like creatures (maybe cutting down areas causes it to appear) and maybe it would've been more interesting if you had limit resources each trek you took but still that was well made and the each animal had it's own unique animation (some went on too long).

Okay did One Night, Hot Springs rather interesting look into the life of a trans person and the struggles of day to day life. Rather sweet and liked the ending I got.

so did individualism in the dead-internet age: an anti-big tech asset flip shovelware r̶a̶n̶t̶ manifesto basically boils down into things were better back in my day. Yeah wasn't that interested in listening to someone's manifesto and failures of the current era of the internet even at certain point he does have a point (especially AI use)

and now the final game The Dark Queen of Mortholme. Really liked this one. Playing as the boss as the hero repetabled comes back and gets stronger each time. You have really powerful attacks but are slow and by the end the hero is easily dodging all your attacks. Ultimately though it's the talk and the inability of the queen to move forward that is interesting about this (Hero once talked about a bow and the queen didn't know about the guardroom of her own castle). Throughly enjoyed this one.

With that all of the itch.io games are now done I'll do a rank of them later. I may try and get The Fall of Lazurus working considering it was my own nominati

okay time to do the ranking:

Retired - The Fall of Lazurus
Game constantly crashed after 5 minutes in the first area

9th - individualism in the dead-internet age: an anti-big techj asset flip shovelware rant manifesto
Completion July 12th, 2025
Main+Extras 21m 6s
Review:
A rant about how the internet was better back in m y day. It does have points but it isn’t athat much of a game and all that interesting. I guess a unique to showcase your manifesto but not what I’m looking when I play a gameplay
5 /10

8th - Sewer Tales
Completion July 5th, 2025
Main Story 9m 57s
Notes Killed by a cat
Review
A decently made RTS game. Simple in scope and lacks any goal worthy of playing the game. Requires more but the base is strong enough
6/10

7th - Desierto
Completion July 5th, 2025
Main Story 8m 54s
Review
A poem style game. It doesn’t do much and fails to mention when the game has ended but the things it’s trying to does pop up quite nicely and is one of the better poem style games I’ve played
6/10

6th - Formless Star
Completion July 12th, 2025
Completionist 1h 6m 46s
Notes All creatures
Review
A rather cutesy exploration game that has a great variety of biomes and creatures to find. It could of done with some more puzzles and perhaps resource management but still decent enough game top play
7/10

5th - Divorce Chatroom
Completion July 6th, 2025
Main Story 20m
Notes Amicable divorce
Review
A well written story about a romance coming to it’s end. Short but it does require to be longer and does you make you sympathise with both characters while also showing there flaws and why they are no longer compatible. Very well written but is mainly just text based and there aren’t many images involved in the game
8/10

4th - One Night, Hot Springs
Completion July 12th, 2025
Main+Extras 37m 24s
Notes Ending 2
Review
Cute little story about handling hot springs as a trans person. Does really good job of explaining the conundrum trans people may have to deal with.
8/10

3rd - Packing up The Rest of Your Stuff on the Last Day at Your Old Apartment
Completion July 7th, 2025
Main Story 20m 30s
Notes 1 donation
Review
Fun little packing game where you need to pack a set amount of items into different boxes. Really well made but fiddly especially it doesn’t allow for rotation outside of the boxes which is makes it difficult to place things in the boxes when they are nearly filled. Never the less it is very enjoyable game.
8/10

2nd - The Dark Queen of Mortholme
Completion July 12th, 2025
Main+Extras 20m 47s
Review
A unique take on the final boss. Playing as the final boss as the hero slowly improves while you stay the same. Has some great dialogue about changing and moving forward of which the hero does while the queen constantly stays the same. You have some big powerful sweeping moves which later the hero starts easily starts dodging and it’s nice being the one who can use these moves.
9/10

1st - SPÅRVAGN
Completion July 6th, 2025
Main+Extras 7m 2s
Review
A game about preventing trams from colliding. Extremely well done just using a simple ability to stop trams (one at a time on each tram) and quickly ramps up the difficulty. It is short with only 4 levles but could be easily expanded upon. A very strong and good tech demo.
9/10