What happens if a cat and buttered toast are stuck together?
Plus this week's news and my review of Spilled!
I’ve decided to keep things simple this week. It’s a great way to get things done.
But I completed my goal, so please, look forward to a long-awaited edition of Indie in Review further down in this week’s newsletter. But for now, here’s a new edition of the What I’ve Been Playing section of the newsletter, promoted to the top story:
What I’ve Been Playing
I have been playing more of Blue Prince and Haste lately, but you can read more about those games in last week’s newsletter.
This week, I tried something new. If I weren’t working in games media, I would never recommend starting another game while in the middle of two others, especially with a huge backlog constantly looming over my shoulder. But hey, you can’t control what you feel like playing in the moment.
The game is called Cato: Buttered Cat. I have had it on my backlog for a while. It is a highly regarded indie game from last year.
The core concept is simple. Every time you drop buttered toast, it lands butter side down. Every time a cat falls, it lands on its feet. So what happens if a cat has buttered toast on its back and starts to fall? A classic paradox.
The developer, Team Woll, explores this concept with a clever puzzle platformer. You control the toast and the cat simultaneously. The cat moves back and forth, climbs walls, and slinks through tubes. The toast can only jump and stick to the walls. But when they combine, they can spin and fly through the air as both cat and butter try to follow their competing laws of physics.
I’m about an hour into the game, but having a great time. It’s a silly concept, executed with just the right style and humor. From what I hear, it’s a relatively short game and not too expensive, so if you’re looking for something to have fun with for a while, I highly recommend it. You can check it out on Steam, but it’s also available on PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch.
Further Reading
As always, it has been a busy week of video game news. Here’s some of my other writing to catch you up:
I am very proud of an interview I had this week with solo developer Kyle Thompson, who made Crypt Custodian, one of my favorite games of 2024. It’s a great read if you’re interested in how indie games are made!
Last Friday, the third installment of one of video games’ most influential series, Half-Life 3, was rumored to be near completion. For reference, Half-Life 2 came out in 2004. But fans have been burned too many times to fall for it again.
Overwatch 2 finally weighed in on the 100 men vs 1 gorilla debate, deciding to host a live stream of 100 Soldier: 76s vs 1 Winston. The stream happened after I wrote this article, but I’d be shocked if the singular Winston won.
Xbox announced that the long-time iconic exclusive series Gears of War will finally be available on the rival console this summer with Gears of War: Reloaded.
The director of the Final Fantasy VII remake series, which has been nominated for Game of the Year both last year and in 2020, hints that the entire trilogy could arrive on the Nintendo Switch 2.
Rumors this week hinted at the potential for an Elden Ring movie adaptation. But even if the rumors are true, it would probably be a few years away. However, there is a rumor that A24 (the studio behind movies like Everything Everywhere All At Once and Moonlight) could be involved.
PlayStation announced a new studio, teamLFG, a group focused on multiplayer games that has spun out from Bungie (Halo, Destiny). The “LFG” probably doesn’t stand for what you think it does.
A Reddit user shared a story about their tragic experience in a permadeath run of No Man’s Sky. They accidentally landed on a dangerous planet without fuel to leave, so they simply stared at the horizon as lightning flashed and slowly waited for their oxygen to run out.
After Microsoft was approved to acquire Activision Blizzard (Call of Duty, World of Warcraft) for a mind-numbing $69 billion in 2023, the Federal Trade Commission appealed the court’s decision. This week, that appeal was rejected, all but sealing the validity of the massive acquisition.
Legendary video game director Hideo Kojima shared in an interview that he does not plan to lead production on the as-yet-unannounced Death Stranding 3, and will likely pass the project on to someone else.
The CEO of Remedy Entertainment, the studio behind hits like Control and Alan Wake, shared that their next single-player project, Control 2, will actually have a smaller budget than 2023’s Alan Wake 2.
Pocketpair, the developer behind last year’s smash hit Palworld, has shared details about what changes they have had to make to their game to avoid further issues in the ongoing patent infringement lawsuit brought against them by Nintendo and The Pokemon Company.
Indie in Review
This review is one I have been sitting on for a while. I wish I could say that meant I’ve been writing it for this whole time, but no. I’m just always playing catch-up with this newsletter. Still, though, I made a concerted effort to start working on this ahead of a few hours before sending it out, and I managed to do that this week. Only one day ahead, but still: progress!
Spilled! is a wonderfully relaxing game about controlling a small boat tasked with cleaning waterways polluted with oil and garbage. It was created by a solo developer, Lente, who actually lived on a boat during the two years it took to make the game! It’s not a challenging experience; it’s a game about taking your time and getting the job done. I appreciate the theme of doing what you can to protect a fragile environment, and showing that it’s not something that always needs to be puzzled out. Sometimes it just needs consistent effort.
The game only takes about one hour to play, with eight total levels. The core gameplay loop involves using your ship’s tools to gather oil, fill your tank, and return to a floating base to offload the sludge. Collecting oil and garbage rewards you with coins you can exchange for better equipment: a larger oil scooper, a speed boost, or a bigger tank that allows you to collect more oil at a time.
Spilled! is the perfect game to take a break with. Last month, when I had time between other work, I booted up Spilled! and completed it before I knew what was happening. Part of me wishes I had spread it out over a few days to give myself more of that joy over time, but I think I needed the experience. Plus, the waterways needed cleaning!
Despite the minimal challenge, Spilled! was still incredibly satisfying to play. The more you clean, the brighter and more full of life the water beneath you becomes. Each new area introduces new ways to clean. Oil on a hillside needs to be sprayed with a hose so you can gather it, or a leaking oil barrel needs to be pulled up from the depths with a magnet. I won’t spoil the final level because it’s worth finding for yourself.
In some ways, Spilled! reminded me of one of my favorite games from 2023, Terra Nil. Both games have some “solar-punk” aesthetics and revolve around themes of returning the environment to a healthy state. Terra Nil plays like a strategy game or city builder, while Spilled! focuses more on exploration. If you liked either of these games, it’s worth trying the other one out. Terra Nil is free on mobile if you have a Netflix account!
Over the last month, despite how quick and simple Spilled! is to play, I still think about playing again. There’s no pressure about jumping back into a multi-hour experience, even if I play through the whole game again, it will only take me an hour.
There are plenty of great things about Spilled! I am leaving out. The environments outside the water have great detail, and various animals are stuck in oil that serve as savable collectibles. But ultimately, considering this will only take you an hour and only cost you $5.99 on Steam, I think it’s worth discovering the rest for yourself.
Spilled! is available now on Steam, and there’s a free demo if you want to try it out first.
What’s Next
Next week, I might look at my backlog and try to pick out a few that keep calling to me like the Green Goblin mask. It’s a long list of games, so we’ll see. And who knows what else might come up? The one sure thing is that I will do my best to get this newsletter out every week. So see you then!