The Hub of Reid Harris Cooper

My chosen type of game are point and click and action/adventure third person. SOPA borrows from both to also be its own thing. A living 3D animated cartoon come to life as well as a surrealistic painted dream the vibes and feels are truly charming.

While its a short game, it has some awesome characters, art design and music. There’s no voice acting in the game, but the writing is lovely and everyone, even the most minor of characters seems fleshed out.

It has some of the issues of a point and click as well though. There is a lot fetch questing, a lot of back and forth, a lot of getting unsure of the next step and the solution just noticing a “pixel” or realizing the inventory puzzle. None of it ever bad enough to not want to continue through the charm though.

This review is short, but like I said, so is the game, but I hope like the game you found the words sweet as well.

SOPA – Tale of the Stolen Potato is available on Steam, PS5, XBox and I believe even Switch, although the main website only links to Steam. The price should be $19.99 USD everywhere.

(also I seem to have only 21 of 31 achievements despite beating the game, so there is much more than meets the eye. Meaning, explore, explore, explore.

Explore a scribbly world full of charming characters, hidden paths, and tough-but-fair bosses to best, all handcrafted by jakefriend

Today indie narrative label Fellow Traveller and developer jakefriend, AKA Jake, have announced that the wonderfully witty adventure game Scrabdackle Act 1 will launch onto Steam December 2.

Scrabdackle begins when the wizard academy is attacked, flinging a novice wizard through a window and out into a wide, hand-drawn world. Players will navigate the vast unfamiliar lands as they try to make their way home, encountering curious creatures, quarrelsome characters, and tough-but-fair bosses.

Built by (essentially) one developer, Scrabdackle features between 12-15 hours of gameplay in Act 1 – with two more acts to follow. The base game price will increase with each new act, but players who pick up the game on December 2 will get the remaining acts as free updates.

In this scribbly open-world adventure, gameplay is distinctly non-linear, allowing players to uncover most regions, spells, and bosses in any order they choose. Exploration of Scrabdackle’s nooks and crannies will lead to hidden secrets, more spells to learn, new areas to find, and whimsical townsfolk with their own narrative threads to tug on.

Scrabdackle Act 1 has nine larger-than-life foes who won’t go down easy. Each boss is a rewarding encounter designed to test a player’s timing and persistence. Every fight is a unique challenge with its own patterns, personality, and surprises. Difficulty is adjustable in the challenge settings for players who prefer to focus on exploration and puzzles.

Players will keep track of their journey in an in-game notebook, where every curious creature, charming character, and strange new place they study is logged. Pages will fill with discoveries, lore, and sketches as they explore, and the book’s cover can even be personalised with 40 collectible stickers hidden throughout the world.

For more updates on the magical (mis)adventures of Scrabdackle, join the Scrabdackle Discord or follow Jake on Bluesky.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4076530/Daughter_of_Voodoo/

Direction description from the games developer:

About the Game
I made this single-player ghost investigation sim rooted in Voodoo. Step into the role of a clairvoyant priestess and perform sacred rituals, use vintage paranormal tools, and bridge the worlds of the living and the dead to uncover the haunting truths that echo beyond the grave.

Description
Daughter of Voodoo is a first-person, single-player ghost investigation game where ancestral Voodoo rituals collide with the unseen world of the dead. As Marie Laurette, a clairvoyant priestess, you walk a fine line between the living and the dead. Use authentic Voodoo practices to commune with spirits, guide them toward the afterlife, and uncover the truth behind their restless presence. Craft Voodoo ritual objects like mojo bags, perform ceremonies, and strengthen your connection to the realm of the dead as you unravel each supernatural mystery.
Your clairvoyant sight lets you pierce the veil and glimpse into the realm of the dead where you see spirits as they were in their final, fleeting moments. Within this realm lies vital clues no ordinary investigator could ever reach… but not every spirit welcomes your presence.
Supplement investigations with vintage paranormal investigation tools like tape recorders, microphones, and cameras. Each case draws you deeper into tense, unpredictable encounters, where every sound and shadow could be the clue you’ve been searching for… or the warning you were meant to fear. Every haunting is a story; every spirit hides a secret craving to be told.
Reveal their histories, face what binds them to this world and decide what must be done to set them free.

About the Developer
I’m a solo developer with a long-standing interest in real-world paranormal investigations. That passion led me to create my first two games, Conrad Stevenson’s Paranormal P.I. and Among the Whispers – Provocation. Both are grounded ghost hunting simulators focused on realism and investigative work. The games were well received and built up a loyal player base who appreciated its slower, more authentic approach to the paranormal.

Socials

Discord: https://discord.gg/gVYYxSMMKP
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/kipthedev.bsky.social
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conradstevensonsparanormalpi/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/DAStudiosLLC1

The latest SteamNext Fest winds down today October 20th. I did not play all the demos I planned as life got in the way (death, mainteance, other general life stuff), but after every demo I dropped unfiltered thoughts into a Notepad and now I share them with you.

Cult of Blood: Cut scenes with no moving mouths, bad voice acting and then… TANK controls. Probably great for someone, not me.

Midnight Saturn: A really good teaser for the pixel science fiction mystery point and click.

Devil Jam: Amazing art, but I had zero clue what I was doing and I tried twice.

Light Odyssey: Promising but the demo throws you into boss battle with a very short tutorial. It’s a minimalistic Shadow of the Colossus which can be fun, but you also must have patience and really good hand/eye coordination for.

The Dark Rites of Arkham: Pixel art alternate history supernatural point and click. the short puzzles, writing and premise presented in the demo have me curious, but the demo is also very short and ends basically before you get to do much.

Marvel Cosmic Invasion: We only get Arcade mode, but we do get two boss fights and learn how multiple characters play and they’re all different enough to make this old school brawler also feel new school.

Big Hops: Adorable art but horrible platform design, very easy to get lost. I somehow brought myself back to the start of a section instead of moving forward. The demo broke twice. I want to love this and can’t.

Kambulin: Great pixel art, but in 2025 I have no patience for a NEW game that can only work with keyboard and has you read long text

The Last Case of John Morley: A very strong demo that gives you the graphics, gameplay, story, music, sound and voice acting which are all wonderful to what seems mostly an interactive first person mystery Victorian story with puzzles based on observation and thought (although one could strongarm the one in the demo, solving it by actually reading the clues was very satisfying).

Baptise: Great graphics, excellent jump scare but way too short to compel me. Also having to go back to the Main Menu and sit through credits again just to close out? Intrigued, but not sold.

Super Chillers-The Chat Room: Excellent pixel art and good voice acting. The puzzles while easy to solve feel weird as there is no internal story logic to why you would some of the stuff. There’s nothing telling you to check a certain area story wise giving it this random feel. The ending also was so abrupt it’s impossible to know where the game is going, which I guess is okay but again lack of internal logic to why you would do b to solve a without c hinting that is the path other than the only options available feels like this needs polish before being released. Interested though.

My Little Puppy: An extremely long and satisfying demo. This upcoming puzzle platformer has charming art, plenty of dogs, and a feel of simple yet also complicated, zen but with a bit of difficulty. Definitely one I want to keep playing. (Be aware that the developers did not get a certain process signed/paid the extra $$$ for actual access to so Microsoft may block the exe at first)

Marcella Moon-The Phantom of Harvest Grove: I turned this off right away. Between the dialog of someone falling off a horse and breaking their leg and the response being “anyone hurt?”, followed by the worst walk cycle I’ve seen in forever and the absolutely “that is not a real person, even if they were a cartoon” of Elliot, I was like, “nope”. Your Mileage May Vary, give it a go, see if you stick around to find out if the game gets better.

Scholar Adventure-Mystery of Silence: Traditional low res pixel horror mystery. Well written, good puzzles, actually logical and linear, a great tease to the full game when available.

A.I.L.A: I’ve been intrigued by this since first hearing about it. Now with the demo behind this tense, confusing, puzzle filled horror? game I’m even more so. I need to know where this is going.

Powerwash Simulator 2: More of the same with more stuff that isn’t the same. Still zen, still good.

A Better World: The concept and gameplay is great, but it also relies heavy on accepting the writing and the choices the writer and/or writers decided your decisions cause. I wasn’t feeling it myself, but you might.

Call of the Golden Valley: Not a fan of the controls or the walk speed, and the demo was really too short to get a full feel, but the voice acting was good and it could be a cool mystery.

MEAL: What? I… what do I do? How? Loading? Loading again? What? Huh?

The Tragedy of Deer Creek: Black and white pixel art, well thought through story telling, game play and puzzles, a real mystery. I did not want to stop playing.

EARTH MUST DIE: Fully animated, infectiously funny, amazing voice cast, from the studio that brought us one of my favorite games Lair of the Clockwork God. This demo was the perfect tease, I want this now. I want a Collector’s Edition.

FAIL.safe: The controls are meh (having controller but it doesn’t work well so you must keyboard/mouse), there’s no skipping dialogue, the graphics aren’t bad, just nothing special, but there’s definitely something here. The control scheme especially for the mechanic and gameplay is actually really not enjoyable but there’s still something here and I hope the final version is much better.

SpongeBob SquarePants – Titans of Ride: The action-platform SpongeBob games have all been that rare really well made game even though it’s for a franchise. Especially in the action platform genre. This new one is just as good if not better from the demo.

This Is Fine! Maximum Cope: I love that KC Green helped on this, but I am just not good at actually hard 2D platformer with combat. I enjoy them but also don’t enjoy how mean they can be.