Joojee’s Journey

I want to try to promote indie games as much as I can, and a lot of them look really intriguing to me. I’m hoping to take a look at as many as I can. For now, here are the games I personally am looking forward to.

• Release Date: Today, November 11, 2021
• Developer: Quantum Peaks
• Publisher: DigiPen Game Studios
• Price: $8.99 USD

This actually released today, but it looks adorable and I think it deserves to be mentioned. A cute little bunny named Joojee, who is famous in Thailand according to the Digital Innovative Design & Technology Center’s provided press kit, wakes up one day and discovers she doesn’t remember a thing! Our amnesiac bunny friend only has a magical brush that allows her to go into people’s minds to help her out!

Because Joojee is a nice gal, she helps others while trying to restore her memories. Hop around in this platformer with puzzles – with an option for assist mode – and (re)make some friends!

I don’t see many games from Thailand, and I haven’t played Joojee’s Journey yet, but this looks like a lot of fun to me. The press kit indicates that the development team, Quantum Peaks, is made up of teachers from Thammasat University. These teachers are considered to be experts in game development, and with their students, created this game over two years. I love that this game not only has such graphic appeal, but also represents something I did not know was popular in Thai culture, and is a collaborative effort between teachers and students. I hope to review this soon! 🐰 🌸

Epic Chef

• Release Date: Today, November 11, 2021
• Developer: Infinigon
• Publisher: Team17
• Price: $24.99 (currently on sale for $22.49 through November 18, 2021)

I’ve heard about this before, and I do enjoy playing games with farming, crafting, and cooking. This looks right up my alley. In Epic Chef, you grow crops to use in your culinary creations, raise livestock including cows and unicorns, explore, customize your mansion, and battle against other chefs. Whose cuisine reigns supreme? I’m not addicted to cooking shows, what are you talking about?

I love Master Chef, Hell’s Kitchen, Iron Chef, Chopped, Food Wars (yes, the Anime 😂), and many other cooking shows. I grew up playing Harvest Moon, and Rune Factory, and eventually Stardew Valley. The game is published by Team17, so I think it should be pretty good coming from an established publisher. The main character’s name is Zest, and I do love puns. The world in Epic Chef is called Ambrosia. Puns + farming + cooking make me a happy gamer. Check it out! “Allez cuisine!”

Hashihime of the Old Book Town append

• Release Date: December 16, 2021
• Developer/Publisher: dramatic create (HuneX)
• Price: $61.64 (currently on sale for $55.47 until December 16, 2021 on release day)

This might be a rather niche game, as Hashihime of the Old Book Town append is a Taisho era boy’s love mystery visual novel. Personally, I enjoy every aspect I just mentioned being in this game. In Hashihime, a man named Tamamori arrives in Tokyo in 1922 with aspirations of attending the Imperial University. He unfortunately does not pass the entrance exam, and ends up kicked out of his boarding house. Tamamori finds work in a used bookstore and spends time taking advantage of friends from his hometown. One day, those friends begin dying under mysterious circumstances, and Tamamori comes to realize that he’s repeating the same three days over and over again. He’ll have to figure something out to stop his friends from being murdered, and to get out of the time loop at the same time.