Indie game developer Young Horse has released four of its games for free, each of which is available on Steam right now.
Young Horses are perhaps best known for Bugsnax, a game that tasks players with finding and capturing the half-bug-half-snack creatures of the same name on a mysterious island, and Octodad, which lets players control an octopus. Looks like a human playing a role. A normal, human family man (something that is easier said than done!).
You can expect more of the eclectic nature of the teams in this latest offering of games new and old. Young Horses has released Independent, Antbassador, Snakedate and Octodad: Student Edition as part of their “Free Range Initiative”. While the developers refer to these releases as “little side projects,” each one of them sounds like a lot of fun for a while.
I’ll start with Entabsador, given that the game caught my eye so much that I included it in the title. In Antbassador, players are the only Antbassador. Which is to say, they are a human finger with a top hat, and have to help the citizens of Antopia (a colony of ants) without an international incident.
I played a little with Entabsador and, I won’t lie, I wasn’t very good. Just like when I played Octodad, there was a lot of mismanagement going around, as I tried my best to free food from crates and open gates for Antopia residents. However, it was a very entertaining way to spend my time and I will be back again after work.
Before I get down to the next game, I ask you – is one of you asp-Want to charm people like a snake? If you answered yes to that question, then SnakeDate might be just the right game for you.
Here, players are tasked with finding dates at a club, and, yes, you play as a snake. In the words of Young Horses, “Walk around the club and wrap around your dates to show your affection!” There’s also a dating app called Charmer (of course).
Now back to the world of ants. In Independent, players will need to explore a living room as an ant, which the developers describe as a “cute and casual collection.” As you might have guessed, you’ll be collecting food from around the room, to help feed your colony. You can also talk to other ants and see what they have to say about yourself.
Independent actually started as a tech demo for Young Horses. It was created to help the studio move from their proprietary engine to Unreal 5.
Last, but by no means least, we have Octodad: Student Edition. This is the original version of Octodad, “the one that started it all”, created by the Young Horse team as students.
“You are Octodad, a dapper octopus masquerading as a human as he goes about a day of his life. His existence is a constant struggle as he must master mundane tasks with his unmatched tentacles.” must, as well as keep his cephalopodan nature a secret. His human family!”
It honestly sounds bananas, and if you haven’t tried it for yourself yet, I would definitely recommend it. As was the case with my forays with Antabasador earlier, I’m completely clueless at this game, but that’s all part of its charm.
Little fact here for you, did you know that Octodad was actually inspired by Jurassic Park Trespasser?
All of the above games are available for free on Steam right now. I’ve linked to each of their store pages in the text above.