The Screenshot Saturday Showcase - April 8

World of Horror, The Mind Sword and Arclands fill out this week's Screenshot Saturday Showcase!

Every week, game developers worldwide share their works in progress with Twitter via #screenshotsaturday. At the start of each week, we take a look back at the cracking submissions from the weekend to bring you three interesting games in development. This week we dive into the realm of madness before soothing our souls with some snappy sword fighting and cutesy townsmanship.

The Screenshot Saturday Showcase - April 8

World of Horror

World of Horror is a retro-styled RPG set in a seaside village of Japan. As the name might imply, things are less than idyllic. The town’s inhabitants are slowly losing their sanity, and unseemly creatures have begun to creep into the world. World of Horror’s black and white reality is described as a “love letter to the works of Junji Ito and H.P. Lovecraft”, and aims to deeply unsettle players instead of relying on jump scares.

Playing out in a roguelite format with turn-based combat, World of horror also promises branching storylines and multiple playable characters. You’ll be faced with uncomfortable choices, and offered the chance to solve puzzles or learn more by casting spells, all at the price of your own sanity.

World of Horror plans to release on Nintendo Switch, PS4 and PC (Steam) this year, but there’s a demo available to try right now on the game’s website if you have the stomach for it.

The Mind Sword

The work of two brothers from France, The Mind Sword is a 2D fighting game full of lightning-fast movement. The blade-based action takes place on a grid, with wonderfully crafted paper-pixel characters snapping between positions as they strike and retreat.  

Built for local multiplayer, The Mind Sword promises cooperative play for its story mode, which sees samurai animals out to discover what’s driving the forests’ wildlife into crazed animals. There’s also competitive multiplayer, which looks every bit as mad as you might expect. Occurring in real-time it’s real blink-and-you’ll-miss-it stuff, with fighters flickering across the screen as they attempt to outwit one another. Successful strikes are rewarded with a freezeframe highlight that adds a sense of weight and drama.

The Mind Sword is due to release this year, though there’s no release date confirmed as of yet. You can take a look at developers Pixel-boy and AAA’s previous game jam work over on their itch.io page.

Arclands

There’s a simple satisfaction to watching a city grow under your rule, and we’re hoping Arclands’ city builder and action RPG hybrid will nail that element while offering plenty to progress towards as you expand and explore. As the head wizard of an exiled people, your job is to guide your village as it grows, helping your people find resources, produce food and explore further.

Evolving your town will attract more people to join you, but that size also presents a threat. Dangerous creatures live on the Arclands, and are drawn to the magical power of your encampment. Expand too fast and you’ll quickly be overrun.

To defend the burgeoning town, it’s up to you to head out into the world to hunt down resources and rare artifacts. At first you’ll make this journey alone, but as the village develops your people will take on specialist roles including soldiers who can join you when venturing forth. Developer Jon Keller hasn’t announced a target release window just yet, but you can keep track of his progress over on the itch.io page for the game.

That’s all from this week’s Screenshot Saturday Showcase, but you can view all the previous roundups by clicking right here!

Associate Editor

Henry Stenhouse serves an eternal punishment as the Associate Editor of AllGamers. He spent his younger life studying the laws of physics, even going so far as to complete a PhD in the subject before video games stole his soul. Confess your love of Super Smash Bros. via email at henry@moonrock.biz, or catch him on Twitter.

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