I don't have a real description for this week's Link Dump Friday because I'm both having too much fun a) playing and b) saying The Yawhg aloud. It's like I'm Arnold Schwarzenegger! Yawhg! Yawhg? YAAAAWWWWWHG!

News and Previews

Any Relation to the Grue? The Yawhg is coming! What is it? You'll have to find out for yourself, but the village it's on its way to in six weeks' time is full of people living their lives, and the actions you take with up to four of them determines whether they live or die. Due out for PC on May 30th, this choose-your-own adventure style game features a randomly generated story every single time, with over fifty endings available depending on the choices you make in the weeks leading up to the Yawhg's arrival. The game, created by Damian Sommer, Emily Carroll, Ryan Roth and Halina Heron will be available for $10.00USD on release, but from now until then you can pre-order it for $5.00USD, so be sure to check this one out. It looks both stunning and unique, which is a rare combo.

Hold Me Closer If, like me, you have a Dance Dance Revolution pad in your living room and you'd really like to do a bit more with it than resignedly tap your way through a bunch of J-Pop mixes over and over, rejoice! Crypt of the Necrodancer is coming later this year, and it's about to change the way you play your roguelike dungeoncrawlers. Instead of just moving about as usual, you'll move to the beat, either with the game's soundtrack or your own .MP3s, on either a keyboard, a controller, or, yes, a DDR dance pad. Best of all? It's by Ryan Clark, formerly of Grubby Games, so you know it's got some serious talent backing it. Pack in some lovely pixel style, and this game could be your new obsession, so stay tuned and get behind me in line for your chance to throw money at it.

Go Into the Dark... I'm Sure It's Perfectly Safe Things keep getting better with Klei's amazing indie sim game/dark action adventure Don't Starve, and now there's even more to explore. The brand new Underground update adds a brand new biome, the caves, which brings with it a host of new items and creatures! If you don't already own Don't Starve, you're seriously missing out, and there's no time like the present to jump on board.

Hooray, We Get Ghosts! Proving once again that crowd funding can make dreams (nightmares?) come true, Digital Happiness' upcoming indie horror game DreadOut has been successfully funded on IndieGoGo! The game is a dark adventure set in Indonesia and draws from the mythology and legends there to craft a story about a school trip gone wrong when a young woman named Linda finds herself seperated from her group in a deserted town and quickly realises something is very, very wrong. It looks absolutely terrifying, and we can't wait to get our hands on it when it releases for PC, Mac, and Linux!

No, Not Backwards! Well, it might not be the latest installment of the celebrated Submachine series of point-and-click adventure games, but we'll take it... especially since it means supporting its creator! Submachine 6 is now available in HD for $2.00USD. Sure you can still play the free version online, but if you're a fan, it's a great way to show your appreciation for Mateusz Skutnik, who has been delivering top-notch content to us for free for over seven years now.

Kickstarter/IndieGoGo Projects

Dungeon, Meet... Tetris? Hmmm! Frogdice has an idea for a game, and you might want to bottle up any free time you can't do without right now, because it has the potential, if done right, to be seriously addictive. Dungeon of Elements wants to create a dungeon crawling RPG that combines multiple gameplay elements, appropriately enough, for a truly unique experience. The game will combine elements of classics like Tetris and Dr Mario to make its battles more fun and engaging, while still providing all the gear, crafting, and powers dungeon crawlers crave. Most promising, though, is that building up to the release the developers are looking to build a community from their backers to allow their input to help make the game the best it can be. Now that's development I can get behind!

Horror. Horror Always Changes How do you keep horror fresh? By having it never be the same twice. Machines in Motion wants to make procedurally generated survival horror adventures that make your skin crawl in The Kingsport Cases for PC, Mac, and Linux. Set in the 19th century, you're called into a tiny town to take over after its previous detective dies trafically, only to discover the Lovecraftian mysteries that make up the town means the job will be anything but ordinary... or safe. Sporting procedurally generated maps and NPCs and storylines, it sounds like this one has the potential for infinite replay value... but can procedural generation make a story and characters anywhere near as compelling as a more linear plot fully fleshed out? We're going to find out.

Miscellaneous

Rock Out With Your... Uh... Wait... So, you can't have a female character in games, huh? We'll see about that! Inspired by Gamasutra's quote, which was referring to the publishing problems upcoming game Remember Me encountered for its female protagonist, iamagamer is getting ready to host their very first game jam in July... all centered around female characters! It's always nice to see people creating more diversity in games, and I personally am especially interested to see what sorts of ways people choose to represent a "strong female", since obviously that means something different to a lot of people and can be showcased in a variety of different ways. Stay tuned!

"Indie? What's that?" Earlier this week, Microsoft had their big reveal of their next generation console, the XBox One. There are a lot of problems people have with it, such as the unclear "fee" for used games, the required and never really "off" Kinect integration and more, but perhaps for some of us the worst news is that XBox One won't allow indies to self-publish. This is a fairly big blow, since it means any indie developer unable to get a publisher willing to take a chance on them is out of luck, even if they themselves were willing and able to pay. While there are still plenty of opportunities elsewhere for indie developers to get their work out there, it's still a little disappointing to see one effectively close itself off to many of them.

Do you know an upcoming indie project or some community gaming related news you think deserves some attention? Send me an e-mail with LINK DUMP FRIDAY in the subject line at dora AT jayisgames DOT com with the info, and we'll judge it with the all-seeing glare of our own self-importance for inclusion in a future Link Dump Friday article!