E3: Kinda Funny Games 2019

Posted on 11 Jun 2019 by
Jay Shaw

Last night, Kinda Funny held an indie showcase event at E3. Amongst all the jokes they managed to cram an impressive amount of indie games into fifty minutes. Keep reading to find out more:

Bloodroots

Cel-shaded and bloody, Bloodroots is a top-down action game where perfection and speed is the name of the game. Also, you play a character that’s just as adept murdering with a giant carrot as he is with a giant scythe. Any game that lets you beat your opponents to death with a vegetable is a-ok in our book. The demo is available on the game’s official site.

Hamsterdam

Imagine Kung-Fu Panda, but with a tiny hamster and beating the snot out of giant evil looking rats and other anthropomorphised animals. Sadly there’s not much information but the game is expected to release between mid June and mid July.

Speed Brawl

This one’s actually been out since last year, but Kinda Funny showcased a new gameplay trailer for the speedy, momentum based platformer/brawler. A new update to the game apparently landed alongside the trailer, but we sadly couldn’t find any info.

Wave Break

Aiming to release in Q1 2020, Wave Break is a modern take on skating games like Tony Hawk’s but with boats piloted by cute animal mascot type characters. A modern retro style permeates the design with synthwave music and lots of neon pink in the UI.

Super Space Club

This top-down polygonal shooter is reminiscent of classic space shooter Asteroids but you’ll be taking on missions and other ships as you set out to become the top ranked defender of the galaxy. Expect the game later this year.

An/Round

Published on itch.io, this skill testing lo-fi indie looks like it’ll push your hand-eye coordination to the limits with levels reminiscent of an Atari 2600 game made up of chunky lines and blocks.

A Duel Hand Disaster: Trackher

Already in Steam Early Access, Trackher is a twin-stick shooter with a twist – you’re controlling two ships, one on each half of the screen. It looks like an absolute nightmare of attention splitting and its store page even features a huge disclaimer in bold capitals about its difficulty.

Looking For Heals

Another game already on Early Access. Looking For Heals asks “what if a healer took charge”, then gives them minions and enemies comprised of huge sprites to smash and lets you loose in that very scenario.

One Night Stand

One Night Stand is an animated visual novel about what follows a one night stand. Do you successfully navigate the intricacies of meeting a potential partner, or do you cock it up? The game’s been out on PC for 3 years, but is coming to Playstation 4, Nintendo Switch, and Xbox One this summer.

The Inner Friend

Another game that’s already out on PC but coming to consoles in summer. The Inner Friend launches you into an adventure of psychological horror where you must face your childhood fears.

Aground

Your ship has crashed, you and a few other victims are stranded on an island. What follows is a 2D survival/crafting game in the vein of Starbound. Colourful lo-fi graphics and a rideable dragon make this Early Access game stand out. Fancy Fish Games are aiming for a full release in 2020.

Refactor

Refactor is a twist on the Metroidvania style of game, you can change the map, literally moving parts to forge your own path to new areas. You also play a cube rolling around and doing whatever a cube does. Expect a release in 2020.

Pig Eat Ball

Released last year on PC, Pig Eat Ball is a top-down action game where you travel through space stations full of vicious creatures and puzzles eating (and barfing) to progress. Expect console releases Summer 2019.

Standby

Though a couple of years old now, Standby still stands out with its sharply contrasting visuals and crazy fast platforming. You’ll smash barriers, wall slide, air dash, and bounce your way through a super challenging series of 54 levels.

Demagnete

Moving on to VR territory we’ve got Demagnete a game where you manipulate magnetic blocks to solve numerous puzzles. The game will be launching on all VR platforms sometime this year.

Falcon Age

This VR game has you raising a falcon. The falcon can dab. That either sold you or made you cringe. Seriously though, this adventure will have you hunting and fighting alongside your adorable falcon buddy.

Battlewake

It’s not international talk like a pirate day for a few months yet but Battlewake will throw you into the boots of a salty sea dog with your own ship in a fantasy world of naval battles and you can do what every 10 year old has always wanted to: unleash the kraken! Battlewake will be releasing for PC and PSVR Summer 2019.

RAWMEN

Back in the good ol’ days of IRC slapping someone with a trout was a thing. Soon it will be again thanks to RAWMEN. This crazy cartoony food fight sees tasty dishes turned into deadly weapons for a slapstick battle. Expect RAWMEN to release in Summer 2019.

Afterparty

You’re dead, so is your best friend, and you’re both thrust into hell. But all is not lost – if you can drink Satan under the table you can get your ticket back to Earth and avoid an eternity of suffering. Time to go on a colourful drunken bender for the fate of your eternal soul.

Solace State

Social engineering is a form of hacking where you manipulate people to gain access to things you shouldn’t have. Solace State puts you in the role of a social hacker facing off against a surveillance state. Topical!

Freedom Finger

In this side scrolling shoot-em-up you play as a rocket powered middle finger taking on the enemies of freedom. You can shoot down waves of oncoming enemies, or give them the finger and steal their weapons for your own purposes. It also sports some impressive talent like Aesop Rock, Nolan North, and John DiMaggio.

Ribbiting Saga

Currently on Kickstarter, this top-down adventure game casts you as a cute frog solving puzzles and battling enemies in a Legend Of Zelda: Link To The Past style game. A demo is available already, which you can pick up from their Kickstarter page.

Wooden Nickel

This narrative adventure will see you playing as a stranger passing through a frontier town in the old-west. Stylish chunky graphics and a lovely washed out colour palette featuring all the shades of your grandma’s wallpaper give it a very distinct look.

Etherborn

This perception bending adventure platformer plonks you into an almost Escher-like world of floating platforms you’ll run along, up, and around from all angles. Expect a release for all platforms on 18 July 2019.

Skatebird

Imagine a painfully cute bird on a skateboard doing sweet kickflips and riding the pipes in a miniature skate park. Then imagine it hilariously wiping out. Congratulations, you’ve just pictured Skatebird. The game is releasing in 2020, but you can try an alpha demo here.

The Gardens Between

This surreal adventure has you manipulating the flow of time to solve puzzles in imaginative diorama-esque levels. The Gardens Between is already out on PC, but will be making its way to Switch soon.

Renaine

Renaine is a fast paced, difficult platformer with an old-school aesthetic reminiscent of the Master System and Commodore 64 simultaneously. You’ll take on the role of Aine, the Phoenix Knight, on her quest to get even with a dragon that did wrong by her. Expect the game to release sometime later this year.

Starstruck

This one is a bizarre mix of musical rythm action game (think Guitar Hero) and going on a rampage as a giant disembodied human hand. Yes, you read that right, a giant human hand.

Sneaky Ninja

Starfall Studios have smashed together Mario style platforming and Mark Of The Ninja style stealth and gadget play in this game where you take on the role of a blob-shaped ninja going up against the equally blob like samurai.

Undermine

Undermine is a rogue-lite action game where you delve into a mine and do typical rogue-like type things like gathering items, murdering loads of enemies, dying a bunch, and unlocking upgrades to make future runs more palatable.

Monster Prom 2: Holiday Season

A sequel to the witty Monster Prom will bring back some of the lovable monster waifus/husbandos of the original as well as adding in more lovely partners to the mix. Expect the game to release sometime in 2020.

Summer Catchers

You’ve got a wooden car and want to check out summer. Time for a road trip! Your travels will take you through lands comprised of beautiful art, mystical creatures, and being chased by a bear on a bulldozer. Summer Catchers is releasing in July 2019.

The Sinking City

Lovecraftian horror and detective adventure meet in a twisted version of 1920s USA. Keeping a hold of your sanity in dingy, flooded streets and in the face of unknowable cosmic horror sounds like an excellent adventure to us. The Sinking City launches on 27 June 2019.

Fling To The Finish

This kooky cooperative 3D platformer has two spherical animals tied together by a length of rope – it’s your task to share a controller with a friend and navigate the many perils of its colourful, lighthearted world. Fling To The Finish is on Kickstarter.

Gunsport

Cyberpunk volleyball with guns. I sincerely hope we don’t have to spell out just how incredibly batshit insane and awesome that is. There’s a guy with a huge pompadour and some great background art in a style that echoes the great adventure games of the Amiga. Release platforms aren’t announced yet, but expect it to arrive somewhere in mid 2020.

Bombfest

Bombfest was released on PC in January, but is making its way to consoles as well as receiving a new DLC this month. But what is the game? Sumo wrestling with explosives. You’ll play adorable little block people battling it out in tiny arenas in this party game.

Lonely Mountains: Downhill

Despite having a name that suggests a depressing jaunt through the mountains, Lonely Mountains: Downhill is actually a polygonal downhill biking game in the style of extreme BMXing. Expect a release later this year.

StarCrossed

Despite a brief segment where the narrator just reads the Steam store synopsis we’re here to tell you a bit more. StarCrossed is a cooperative action game where you and a partner pick magical girls and do battle with scores of enemies in space, destroying them with a star bouncing between the two of you. Imagine Pong with cute girls as the paddles and you’re close.

Police Stories

Step into the shoes of a police officer in this top-down action game where you’ll have to follow procedure. You’ll have to conserve ammo, not murder suspects, and try to survive while navigating random enemy and evidence spawns. Police Stories will be playable either solo or cooperatively and is releasing on 19 September 2019.

Brave Earth: Prologue

This Castlevania-esque platformer is created by Kayin, the evil genius behind I Wanna Be The Guy. It’s been in development for five years now and we’re still hungry for a release date.

Astalon: Tears of the Earth

Labs Works is bringing even more awesome pixel art in this action adventure platformer where you’ll play three characters each with their own stats and skills as they battle their way to the top of a mystical tower. Astalon is expected to release this year.

Treachery In Beatdown City

Coming Summer 2019, a mash-up of belt-scrolling beat-em-up a la Double Dragon, RPG, and turn-based battle systems in Treachery In Beatdown City. No, we can’t picture how that’ll play either but it looks like it’ll be a good laugh.

Tamarin

This 3D platformer puts you in the fluffy body of a tamarin to bounce and romp about splatting bugs and doing general acrobatic tamarin stuff. Expect a release on PC and Playstation 4 in Summer 2019.

Stoneshard

Stoneshard has you in the boots of a medieval mercenary exploring a procedurally generated world while managing your caravan, dealing with wounds, and trying not to lose your mind. Stoneshard will be coming to Steam Early Access in 2019.

Stronghold: Warlords

The latest entry in the Stronghold series takes on an asian flavour but retains that classic castle and fort sieging gameplay the series is known for. Stronghold: Warlords will be releasing sometime in 2020.

Lucifer Within Us

Take on the role of a digital exorcist in Lucifer Within Us. In this game you’ll have to solve mysteries with your own wits, examine the evidence and timeline for clues to who’s possessed and then purge the demon from them.

#Funtime

Colourful, particle spewing graphics reminiscent of Geometry Wars give this colour changing, top-down arcade style twin-stick shooter a unique look. #Funtime is expected to launch later this year.

Half Past Fate

If your only experience with romantic comedy is Adam Sandler movies, you may want to give Half Past Fate a look to restore your faith in the genre. This narrative focused adventure game explores three different relationships that form over different spans of time.

Superliminal

This mind bending first-person perspective puzzler will see you manipulating the world and objects via your own perception of them. This is a tough one to describe, so we suggest skipping ahead to 36:06 in the embed above to take a look.

Undying

In Undying you’ll play a mother protecting her son in the zombie apocalypse. You’ll shoot, explode, and slash the undead to pieces to keep your offspring intact. Not that he’s totally helpless, we saw him taking shots at a zombie right alongside his mom in the trailer. Now that’s quality family bonding. Undying is aiming to release early 2020.

Castle Storm 2

The sequel to the excellent Castle Storm will be a mix of hex-grid turn based strategy and real-time 2D battles where you’ll take command of your forces and a powerful ballistae to lay waste to the enemy castle. Castle Storm 2 will be exclusive to the Epic Games Store when it releases on PC sometime in 2019.

Trials Of Fire

This adventure strategy game looks like a fancy board game, playing out on book pages with actions dictated by cards and characters in battle represented by chunky poker-chip style tokens. Trials Of Fire is already available in Steam Early Access.

Mare

Mare is a VR adventure for Oculus headsets where you direct a girl and her mechanical bird, and influence the world with where you look. With a graphical style that echoes Team ICO’s haunting landscapes, and that’s because Rui Guerreiro (The Last Guardian) is working on it.

Deliver Us The Moon

In Deliver Us The Moon you’ll take on the weighty task of investigating a Lunar energy plant that’s gone silent years earlier as Earth’s last astronaut. Humanity’s fate rests on your space shoulders. Deliver Us The Moon is landing on 28 September 2019.

Recompile

In Recompile you take on the role of a semi-sapient program aiming to escape deletion. To achieve your goal and survive you’ll have to deal with battling enemies, hacking the environment, and platforming challenges. Expect Recompile to launch sometime in 2020.

Foregone

This 2D action platformer drops you into a post-war world as an Arbiter, a powerful combatant that must use her acrobatics and weapons to overcome deadly corrupted creatures. Foregone is set to launch in Winter 2019.

Relic Hunters Legend

Relic Hunters Legend will be a looter-shooter style three-quarters perspective action RPG. It’ll also be free to play when it launches sometime in Q1 2020.

Warborn

This game will put you incommand of an army of mecha for turn-based battles on a hex grid map where units clash in an Advance Wars style. There’ll be four playable unique commanders, and a load of cool anime inspired mecha when the game launches in 2020.

Lost Ember

Wolves, fish, hummingbirds, wombats, and tropical birds all seem to be playable, but the mysterious trailer gives little away beyond the beautiful wildlife and a glowing orb seemingly leading the way for our furry/feathered pals.

Adams Ascending

Lastly we have Adams Ascending: The trailer opens with a child escaping an exploding space station amidst what looks like an alien invasion. You’ll take on the role of Adam as he grows older and goes searching for his missing father in this third person adventure.

Renaine stole the show for me with fantastic artwork I can only describe as a mash up of Master System and Commodore 64, and incredibly slick gameplay. Summer Catchers background art was on a level all its own but the gameplay looked like it might be lacking. Brave Earth and Astalon both hit the Castlevania 3 vibe incredibly strongly and provided a much needed mid-show morale boost. Cramming 60 games into 48 minutes with jokes between segments felt like a disservice to some of the games, like those mentioned here, that could’ve done with more time in the spotlight. That said, Kinda Funny managed to put together a fantastic but frantic show that managed to show off some well deserved indies that might otherwise have been relegated to obscurity.

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