Friday Follow-UP #10 2025

Newsletter #10 of 2025 Featuring: Wishlists for Sub-Verge, Absolum, and Oscuro. Kickstarter for Elusive, Soundtrack and Merch for Donut County, and the latest Good Game Lobby Demo Reviews!

Mar 07, 2025

Welcome to this weeks Friday Follow-UP covering games to wishlist, crowdfunding game, soundtracks, merch, and the latest Good Game Lobby Reviews. Subscribe to get the weekly newsletter and reviews straight to your inbox.

Wishlist XP | Sub-Verge, Absolum, Oscuro Blossom’s Glow

Sub-Verge is an atmospheric puzzle narrative being published by Pantaloon, a newsletter-turned-publisher. It hit my inbox yesterday, and I had to share it due to its visual style and design. You can also check out the first dev log for the game here.

Conversation is a dangerous game. Manipulate a fractured band of renegade divers to reach the depths of this short narrative puzzle. Uncover alliances and expose betrayals — before something horrific from the dark abyss silences you all. Don’t let the conversation get too deep.

🎮Sub-Verge | Steam
🗓️Release Date | May 1st, 2025

I haven’t played any beat ‘em ups in years and only briefly tried out the recent TMNT release, but the visual design of Absolum has me very interested in checking it out. The character designs and darker tones make for a visually appealing experience.

Fight as the outcast heroes of Talamh in a fierce battle to retake magic from Sun King Azra’s grasp in Absolum, an original roguelite beat ‘em up by Dotemu.

🎮Absolum | Steam
🗓️Release Date | 2025

What a beautiful game! the controlling of light from flowers makes this Oscuro Blossom’s Glow truly blossom into a gorgeous visual delight of a platforming game.

Join Selene in a charming platforming and puzzle adventure, where her ability to absorb and emit light from various flowers is key to activating mechanisms, overcoming obstacles, and navigating through environments that adjust depending on how you wield the light.

🎮Oscuro: Blossum’s Glow | Steam
🗓️Release Date | 2025 | Demo Live Now!

Crowdfunding Checkpoint | Elusive

Elusive has all the vibes of Miyazaki’s The Secret World of Arrietty, but imagine it taking place in a video game–styled platforming world. It is live right now on Kickstarter and already over 200% funded as of this writing. Clearly, the charm of the game is working!

Elusive is about a young raider, Zoe, following her father's explorer footsteps, encouraged to discover the treasures of the giants' world, despite the dangers she may encounter.

🎮Elusive | Steam | Kickstarter
🗓️Release Date | May 2027 | Kickstarter Live Now!

Quest Vibes | Daniel Koestner | Bonuts

Daniel Koestner is a Norway-based composer who created the original soundtrack for Donut County. The game’s soundtrack was released in 2018, and I wanted to share this instrumental bonus album he released in 2019. Donut + B-Sides = Bonuts.

It's some cool, poppy electronic madness I've been listening to a lot lately. The next section of the newsletter is about the Donut County vinyl, so I figured—why not share something that was only available digitally too? Let me know what you think!

🎶Daniel Koestner| Bandcamp

Quest Loot | Donut County | 2xLP Reissue

Donut County was released back in 2018, though I played it on Game Pass many years later. I loved the design, quirky gameplay mechanics, and hilarious writing. It’s a short experience, but one I highly recommend. iam8bit has reissued the soundtrack on a beautiful neon green and pink vinyl with a great fold-out design.

🎮Donut County | Steam
🏪iam8bit | Donut County Vinyl 2xLP
🎶Daniel Koestner | Bandcamp

Good Game Lobby Review | Steam Next Fest Demos

If you missed Mondays post about my Steam Next Fest demo reviews then no worries here is the post collecting 10 of the best demos I had a chance to play.