Brian Hertgeschlinger
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powerartthou.bsky.social
Brian Hertgeschlinger
@powerartthou.bsky.social
11 followers 15 following 53 posts
Artist and musician from Leipzig, Saxony. The work continues forever
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powerartthou.bsky.social
Commander Quest
1/5, demo
store.steampowered.com/app/2697930/...

Check alt text for extended demo notes.
I played the demo of Commander Quest for an hour, for some reason. It's Slay the Spire in every possible way, down to copying the language on the cards, and the various potions and relics. The only difference is that the combat is Mushroom Wars for some reason. I guess that's kind of interesting.
January 25, 2026 at 6:41 AM
powerartthou.bsky.social
Forbidden Solitaire
4/5, demo
store.steampowered.com/app/3414580/...

Check the alt text for extended demo notes.
A solitaire game from a solitaire developer, which is much like many other solitaire games on Steam that I have played before (more than you might guess! there are a lot), which distinguishes itself from the pack with a haunted videogame creepypasta aesthetic. You are, in the game, playing someone who has just picked up a used CD of an old game they always wanted to play, but were never allowed to, at a thrift store. You'll be playing Forbidden Solitaire, the sole release of a possibly-cursed mid 90s studio, while chatting with your sister as she investigates the development background and associated deaths. The in-game game has a really cool crungly aesthetic, with lofi semi-lores (it's not really that lores) art vaguely reminiscent of, like, Star Control 3, Mystery of the Druids, the talking heads in Fallout 1 and 2, and other weird CD games when everyone decided that pictures of clay puppets were easier and better-looking than just normal pixel arts. Very nifty, I'll keep an eye on this one.
January 25, 2026 at 6:40 AM
powerartthou.bsky.social
Underboard
4/5, demo
store.steampowered.com/app/2376610/...

Check alt text for extended demo notes.
A tactical autochess game, with a freaky aesthetic that reminds me pleasantly of Bogleech or Psychonauts — a bit gruesome, a bit whimsical, a bit stupid. Your units are football players, nerds, sexy nurses throwing syringes, hippies with poisonous mushrooms, obese fire-breathing babies. Your enemies are assorted wicked-looking scabs, pokemon, haunted dolls and genuinely unpleasant creepypasta monsters. Your goons autonomously fight thru each combat on each level, aided by your magic spells and the equipment you give them, until they've fought enough and can challenge the level's boss. Beat three levels and you've completed the zone and (presumably) have unlocked the next (though the demo only has the one). I could see myself playing Underboard, even though I'm usually not a big fan of autochess. The vibe is stylish enough to carry it, at least a little ways.
January 25, 2026 at 6:39 AM
powerartthou.bsky.social
Scarlet Hollow
2/5, demo
store.steampowered.com/app/1609230/...
A visual novel from the creators of Slay the Princess. Too slow of a start for me. You really need to get something on the plate before the half hour mark, in my opinion. From the content warnings (cannibalism? Child amputation? Audible gore?) it must get crazy, but there was nothing going on at the start and I'm a busy gamer.
December 23, 2025 at 9:54 PM
powerartthou.bsky.social
Blind Descent
3/5, demo
store.steampowered.com/app/1209970/...

Check alt text for extended demo notes.
"Immerse yourself in a new Martian underground adventure with Blind Descent, an open-world survival craft game that unveils the mysteries of the Martian depths. Play solo or with friends as you search for the missing team. Adapt and mutate to survive in this bizarre alien world." Made it about 15 seconds into the start of the demo, up to the point where the player character steps out of the cave they woke up in and sees the whole wonderful vista of the open world spreading beneath them. I turned it off immediately. I don't need to play this demo to know what the game is like.
December 23, 2025 at 9:53 PM
powerartthou.bsky.social
Wild Tower
2/5, demo
store.steampowered.com/app/3697230/...

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A "Three Kingdoms-themed" top-down soulslike roguelite. Go into a barren, empty mega structure vaguely resembling Hyrule Castle's basement in Link to the Past and repeatedly fight identical guys and die and get coins to buy access to a blacksmith and a shop and so forth. Not great. Could be remade to a three out of five, if every area was shrunk by 75%.
December 23, 2025 at 9:51 PM
powerartthou.bsky.social
CORINNE
4/5, demo
store.steampowered.com/app/3812700/...

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An RPGmaker horror game where you play as a small kuma kuma bear who appears to be extremely autistic, and lives in a hoarder apartment, and makes art out of garbage. Someone gets murdered in her evil-ass haunted-ass apartment complex, and things spiral out of control with occult weirdoes and serial killers and other dark things. I played this demo for two and a half hours so it must have been good — if it wasn't good, then I wasted two and a half hours of my life. There doesn't appear to be anything in the way of combat, and there wasn't an inventory for inventory puzzles; I feel this is one of those "walking around and looking at things" sort of games. There were no heterosexual men in the cast. There was one woman who was at least bisexual, but that's as far as I can say. Anyway, I don't think this demo was so great that I am going to rush to buy the game when it releases, but I'll definitely put it on my wishlist, and I definitely know a couple of people who I will point in this direction.
December 23, 2025 at 9:50 PM
powerartthou.bsky.social
Queen's Domain
5/5, demo
store.steampowered.com/app/1799840/...

Check alt text for extended demo notes.
A Kingsfield-like (made pretty obvious by the name) with an incredible amount of sizzle. You wake on the shore of an island, your ship having been wrecked by a storm, and must fight your way through a jungle filled with nasty little beasts hopping around and biting your ass. The incandescent greens and grungy greys, the wheezing skeletons, the nasty eyeballs that shoot lasers, all lend Queen's Domain an impeccable atmosphere that makes me 100% convinced that I will buy this game and enjoy it. When the demo ended I shouted in despair; I can't wait for this game to release.
December 23, 2025 at 9:49 PM
powerartthou.bsky.social
Christmas gift idea
powerartthou.bsky.social Brian Hertgeschlinger @powerartthou.bsky.social · Dec 23
mug that says IM THE BOSS AND MY SEXIEST EMPLOYEE BOUGHT ME THIS COFFEE MUG 🙂
December 23, 2025 at 9:47 PM
powerartthou.bsky.social
mug that says IM THE BOSS AND MY SEXIEST EMPLOYEE BOUGHT ME THIS COFFEE MUG 🙂
December 23, 2025 at 9:46 PM
Reposted by Brian Hertgeschlinger
paratimetim.bsky.social
Interior painting from 2nd edition Player's Handbook (1989) by Larry Elmore
#D&D #Dungeons&Dragons #TSR #LarryElmore #AD&D #AdvancedDungeons&Dragons
Interior painting from 2nd edition Player's Handbook (1989) by Larry Elmore
November 9, 2025 at 2:26 AM
powerartthou.bsky.social
LOVE ETERNAL
4/5, demo
store.steampowered.com/app/3010610/...

Check alt text for extended demo notes.
A puzzle-platformer with a psychological twist. You play as Maya, a little girl with a fucked up evil family or something. I dunno, there wasn't a lot of information on the story, but the vibes were impeccable. Very eerie, lots of reverb, lots of dark colors and strange out-of-focus crumbling hellscapes. The VVVVVV-style inertia-based gravity puzzle platforming is pretty fun. Probably worth checking out
October 31, 2025 at 7:44 AM
powerartthou.bsky.social
Sepulchron
3/5, demo
store.steampowered.com/app/3156910/...

Check alt text for extended demo notes.
A first-person "immersive sim" which feels more like a point-and-click adventure. Fair amount of puzzles, it looks like, though the whole game is on a time limit and those make me queasy. The ghosts are not particularly scary, and the atmosphere isn't really there. It could be interesting but I have a lot of things to keep track of...
October 31, 2025 at 7:43 AM
powerartthou.bsky.social
Super Beast World
3/5, demo
store.steampowered.com/app/3405090/...

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A fast-paced 2d platformer in the style of Pizza Tower or perhaps Sonic the Hedgehog. Loud, flashy, aggressively animated. Maybe a little too much for me, but unfortunately I'm going to be seeing this a LOT in youtube videos of "indie games you've never heard of!"
October 31, 2025 at 7:41 AM
powerartthou.bsky.social
GOSDOOMA
1/5, demo
store.steampowered.com/app/2885060/...

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Cruelty Squad was fun. 99p Egg Wife was fun. This is not fun, this is an ugly chore of an FPS.
October 30, 2025 at 7:21 AM
powerartthou.bsky.social
Key Fairy
5/5, demo
store.steampowered.com/app/2878580/...

Check alt text for extended demo notes.
A "pacifistic" bullet hell, where you defeat your enemies by dodging them with a grappling hook and an airdash. In between battles you encounter strange little creatures of the forest, some mad, some kind, some wise, who will attempt to hold a conversation and maybe even aid you on your long and perilous journey. I was charmed by the hand-drawn art and the ridiculous characters, and the combat was pretty intriguing; I can see all the ways it would develop in the full game, as enemies are introduced. There was even a little bit of a Zelda-style upgrade system, where a combat ability (the dash) doubled as an exploration mechanic (dashing over a river so you can cross without being swept away, accessing new areas). Definitely wishlisting this one, and have informed a few other people about it.
October 30, 2025 at 7:15 AM
powerartthou.bsky.social
Alruna: End of History
3.5/5, demo
store.steampowered.com/app/3440260/...

Check alt text for extended demo notes.
This is a retro-style NES Castlevania puzzle platformer sort of a game where you play as a cute little dryad flower woman on a quest to defeat the NECRO-INDUSTRIALISTS. You'll do some simple red/blue block flipper puzzles, find some keys, jump around, you know. I liked the aesthetic a lot, and I was amused more than irritated by how many My Chemical Romance and Linkin Park quotes made up the dialog of the characters. I've docked a half point off the score of four out of five (not something I'll immediately buy on release, but something I'll go out of my way to tell people about if it seems up their alley) because of a couple of technical issues related to respawn points and general music or sound effects breaking on death. I'll probably tell some people about this one anyhow.
October 30, 2025 at 7:12 AM
powerartthou.bsky.social
Hell Maiden
4.5/5, demo
store.steampowered.com/app/3372060/...

Check alt text for extended demo notes.
This is a survivors-like where your weapons are, themselves, decks of cards you have to build in a roguelike fashion. Despite this, Hell Maiden, from the developers of Little Goody Two Shoes, offers a shockingly good demo. The plot (a survivors-like with a plot!) is immediately intriguing; Dante (of The Divine Comedy), two days after leaving Virgil behind as he ascends to Paradiso, has mysteriously appeared, back in Limbo again, dead, and bereft of all memories, even of his her (all the characters are now cute anime girls) beloved Beatrice. Virgil is still here, and she's willing to help, so long as you can help her in return: all of the poets of Limbo have mysteriously disappeared, and the only way to get them back is to annihilate hundreds or thousands or tens of thousands of little bastards in neverending waves. The card mechanic, while stupid and idiot and overdone, is inoffensively functional. Honestly, this is the best possible survivors roguedeck likebuilder possible; I don't believe any such game could offer a 5/5 demo. It's wishlisted, and I'll keep an eye out.
October 30, 2025 at 7:10 AM
powerartthou.bsky.social
Cursemark
3/5, demo
store.steampowered.com/app/3219180/...

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Cursemark is an Action-Exploration Roguelite, wherein you play the Dark Souls guy as he wanders around a top-down Dark Souls world. You'll pick up random upgrades and shit, which you lose when you die. I'm not sure why it has roguelike elements; they don't seem to have much impact on the gameplay, and I was never excited to find them or sad to lose them. The soulslike elements themselves are okay? I wouldn't mind wandering around and exploring for loot; the pixel art isn't terrible, the bosses are essentially okay. The silly thing is, this is a roguelite where death doesn't matter at all. Once you know where you're going you can just... go there. Exploring more rooms to get upgrades increases the difficulty of all subsequent rooms; therefore it's smartest to just dart directly to the place you're going. The optimal method, at least in this first area, is to spend 1 run exploring the area before a boss, then die, then go straight to the boss at minimum difficulty (because the difficulty modifier is way more impactful than the upgrades you get exploring rooms). Just odd in many ways....
October 30, 2025 at 7:09 AM
powerartthou.bsky.social
Crisol: Theater of Idols
2/5, demo
store.steampowered.com/app/1790930/...

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A first-person horror shooter. Looks like a Bioshock, ugly horror setting with haunted puppets and a Blasphemous type pseudo-Catholicism. Your guns drink your blood and the monsters are crazy and the environment is all fucked up and collapsed. It runs on Unreal Engine, it took like two minutes and thirty seconds for the gun in my hand to load in (my empty hand in gun-holding shape loaded in after only ninety seconds or so), and then eventually it crashed as Unreal Engine often does. One day someone will make a good game.
October 30, 2025 at 7:06 AM
powerartthou.bsky.social
Devil Meat
1/5, demo
store.steampowered.com/app/3595730/...

Check alt text on first image for extended demo notes.
A... an... some kind of a... visual novel about a crazy woman who wants to eat all the monsters to please The One True G_d, which you can help her with by playing a bad arena fight, pseudo survivors type, dogshit bad Flash game sort of a thing. It's a little like Amorphous+ with an anime girl. Also you have to feed her the right things or she gets sick and dies, so maybe it's a little like Princess Maker. Not good, does not respect your time, looks bad.
October 30, 2025 at 7:04 AM
powerartthou.bsky.social
PETRACAL
💀/5, demo
store.steampowered.com/app/3261440/...

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Too scary! Frightening! There are things down there!
October 30, 2025 at 7:03 AM
powerartthou.bsky.social
Arrowman
3/5, demo
store.steampowered.com/app/3170690/...

Check alt text for extended demo notes.
This is a puzzle-platformer in the style of Flash games of old. You play as a little guy who shoots arrows, and the arrows stick in walls to make platforms. I would have played Arrowman ten years ago and thought it was alright, maybe, and I'd be charmed to see that it got a Steam release. As a game actually releasing on Steam for real it's alright I guess. I can't think of why someone would play this over any other puzzle platformer available.
October 30, 2025 at 7:01 AM
powerartthou.bsky.social
Recurrence
2/5, demo
store.steampowered.com/app/3354130/...

Check alt text for extended demo notes.
This wants to be Signalis but it's fucking nothing and has nothing and never will be anything. It lacks the sauce, some people just have less sauce in their bodies, and that's okay, but it's not okay to make it my problem. Recurrence has a fixed camera but no tank controls, so when the camera switches (which is often, in this fixed-camera horror game) your character begins to run in a random direction. The menus are broken so you can select things that aren't on the menu and get lost in the invisible meta-menu. I have nothing positive to add. Won't be buying this one.
October 30, 2025 at 6:59 AM
powerartthou.bsky.social
The Secret of Weepstone
3/5, demo
store.steampowered.com/app/3702100/...

Check alt text for extended notes on demo.
A first-person dungeon crawler with hand-drawn art and an OSR aesthetic. While in theory this should be exactly what I want, TSoW was a little too slow for me, and the demo was essentially 3 fights in 6 rooms, with two """puzzles""". There were no traps, there was no one to talk to, there was nothing weird to mess around with... The artstyle on the characters is gross and AI-ish in that overly detailed way, though the page assures otherwise. I don't know. This one got off to a strong start with the first room and its black-and-white aesthetic, and then it just sort of kept going and there wasn't a lot happening. No food to track, no light to worry about, the characters were all level 0 with no spells or abilities or things they could do besides huck rocks... I dunno. Kind of ass. Legend of Grimrock (to name a dungeon crawler I enjoy a whole lot) had a first level FULL of tricks, traps and evil beasts. The Goldbox-style room descriptions are a nice touch, but I'm going to need an awful lot of nice touches before I would start recommending Weepstone to anybody.
October 30, 2025 at 6:56 AM