But I didn’t know that Italian video games were so cool!

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When we think of video games and their development, we rarely think of Italy: partly out of prejudice, partly because in our country we actually don’t have many notable precedents in the video game industry.

For this reason, I gladly accepted the invitation from Video Games Party which, in collaboration with Intellast Friday he organized the annual event Join the Indieentirely focused on Italian video games and their development.

It is the second time that I have participated: last year I returned home bringing with me the story of two small pearls, one of which (Vesper) turned out to be one of the most interesting Italian video games of recent years.

But I can’t deny that this year I was pleasantly blown away by the large number of quality video games that were presented. Most of these are titles that will be released very soon, so keep an eye on them because I am not kidding when I wrote that I had no idea that Italian video games were so cool.

Below is a review of the games that were presented during Join The Indie, in the order of appearance.

Tennis League VR

Another Reality is a company specialized in the development of augmented reality, virtual reality and mixed reality titles: it has created corporate projects and games for important multinationals (Eni, Enel, IBM, Trenitalia, Nokia …), but is now about to complete the development of its first title: Tennis League VR.

It is a virtual reality tennis video game and the racket is obviously controlled by the movement of the arms. But if from this point of view we can imagine all the immediacy of immersive motion-based games (did anyone say Wii Sports?), Tennis League VR goes much further than that.

For the development of the game, Another Reality has involved professional tennis masters and doctors, to create a title that would allow not only to let off steam with a virtual racket in hand, but also to learn the real movements of tennis.

In the School mode, in fact, the game allows amateurs and professionals to study all the correct movements of the sport, also acting as a guide.

Among the functions of the game, in addition to the School, there will also be a career mode and, of course, multiplayer.

Tennis League VR is currently available as a demo on Sidequest AppLab: will be published on Oculus Quest inautumn 2022.

Vesper

Vesper is one of the titles that I had the opportunity to see last year: it has been available for almost a year now Steam And GOGand has already enjoyed some critical and public success.

Inspired by the great platformers of the 90sVesper is a brightly colored title that blends incredible natural landscapes and ultra-technological robots.

As the android Seven, we will be able to use the Drive Gun, a weapon that allows you to absorb light and control minds of enemies.

We will have to use these skills to escape from hostile robots, unlock the portals and avoid the Zero Light, a sort of digital black hole that haunts the protagonist.

Vesper was developed by the team of Cordens Interactiveindie studio born from the collaboration between Matteo Marzorati and Tommaso Loiacono and after a debut on PC is now also available on Nintendo Switch.

Project Galileo

In creating their most ambitious title, the highly anticipated Project Galileo, the Jyamma Games team wanted to show Italy, but without falling into the usual stereotypes of pizza and mandolin.

We don’t know a lot about Project Galileo yet and we haven’t had the opportunity to see the gameplay, but there are all the conditions for a very good AA game that tells about our country without making it into an empty fetish. In the past few months, the Jyamma Games team has also involved the famous streamer Sabaku as a gameplay consultant.

Project Galileo will be a soulslike Mediterraneanset in a world that exudes Italianness (in a positive sense): the development team has maniacally studied the most famous cities and architectures, but also the flora and fauna of our country.

The result is a soulslike that promises to be difficult – as any soulslike should be – but with less gloomy settings than we’re used to with Dark Souls and the like. A world that explicitly mentions Italian landscapes and folklore, but with a splash of fantasy.

Project Galileo was recently unveiled at the Tokyo Game Show 2021, with a teaser voiced by Luca Ward. There is no release date yet: to follow the development, we refer you to the official website project-galileo.com.

Temperia

Those who have played Final Fantasy VIII cannot fail to remember the Triple Triad, the collectible card minigame played by Squall and company.

Temperia: Soul of Majestic it is openly inspired by this little pearl: we are talking about a card game played with face up cards, in which each card is placed in a 3×3 grid and “collides” with the neighboring cards.

The game is strategic and competitive, but also (and above all?) Fast: every game it lasts no more than 10 minutessince it consists of 9 shifts of 1 minute each.

Temperia will also have an important lore: the founder of the development house, Moonwolf, is currently writing books that will tell the narrative universe of the game.

Temperia will arrive on PC by the end of June and, subsequently, will also be released as a mobile game.

RiMS Racing

RiMS Racing (which we had already talked about) is a motorcycle racing game developed by RaceWard Studio, part of Nacon: to be clear, let’s talk about the development studio of that Nacon, the famous French company specializing in gaming accessories.

RiMS Racing is already available and two-wheelers should definitely try it out. It is not just about racing on the track: we are talking about a title that winks at fans, allowing the player to disassemble the motorcyclesby modifying and combining 46 types of different pieces.

All the usable components are truly existing pieces: Nacon has collaborated with over 50 companies that work with motorcycles, to the point that – as told by the stage -, during development, it seemed to be in a workshop rather than a development studio.

Besides RiMS Racing, Nacon Studio Milano is currently working on a survival horror, of which, however, he has not revealed anything. We only know that it is one famous IPwhich will be taken up by the Italian studio.

Soulstice

Soulstice is definitely one of the most anticipated Italian games: we are talking about a hack ‘n slash / action in which the player controls two complementary characters, namely the two sisters, Briar and Lute.

Transformed into a Chimera by a curse, the two sisters fight in unison: Briar is a warrior with superhuman strength and endurance specializing in melee combat, while Lute is a Spirit with otherworldly powers. To defeat enemies and survive in the city of Ilden, the two sisters will have to combine their skills to the best of their ability.

Among the sources of inspiration for Soulstice, the creators cite the manga Berserk and Claymore, but also the whole folk tradition of the European dark fantasy.

Soulstice will be available from September 20 for PS5, Xbox Series S / Series X.

Batora: Lost Haven

Batora: Lost Haven it is certainly another Italian title on which all eyes are on. Let’s talk about a action RPG that gives great importance to historywith choices to be made that affect the unfolding of the plot and multiple endings.

Many elements of the game are based on dualistic choiceswhich also have a great impact on gameplay: we can choose to focus on physical or mental combat, with game mechanics that move more towards hack & slash or the twin-stick shooter. This allows you to create and customize your own builds, but it is important to remember that in order to face enemies (divided into physical, mental and hybrid) it will be important to master both fighting styles.

Furthermore, the choices we will make will also allow us to tackle the game in different ways: for example, depending on the decisions made, some missions may alternatively end with a fight or an environmental puzzle.

The story of Batora: Lost Haven will take the player to 4 different elemental planets, each with different creatures and cultures, inspired by the folklore of real populations (for example, the planet of fire is inspired by Asian folklore).

The game has already received an avalanche of international awardswhich pump expectations: it will be available in the fall for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X / S and Nintendo Switch.

Race setup 2

In an interlude with Marco Massarutto of Kunos Simulationsinvited as a guest and not to present a project, there was a lot of talk about Race trimthe Italian excellence of driving simulators.

Marco told some background of Assetto Corsa, including personal anecdotes that intertwine his two passions of engines and video games and stories related to the development team, such as when the studio was located inside the Vallelunga circuit.

But beyond the memories there was also a way to mention Assetto Corsa 2: the new chapter is still under development and will be released “in a few years”, with a renewed gameplay that could go beyond simple racing on the track.

For the new chapter, Kunos Simulations has set aside the Unreal Engine to work on a proprietary graphics engine developing new technologies that will be outsourced to automotive companies (as is already the case for Assetto Corsa, of which some technologies are also used by Ferrari and Porsche).

The Darkest Tales

The Darkest Tale is the new game from Trinity Team, the development team that became famous with Bud Spencer and Terence Hill – Slaps and beans, the official game of the two, based on punches and beans.

But for the new title, now close to publication, Trinity Team is very different from the previous one: The Darkest Tales is a horror revisitation of fairy tales and games for children.

The protagonist of the adventure is Teddy, a now forgotten teddy bear, who will have to save his owner, Alicia, trapped in a kingdom of distorted fantasies.

The game is a action platform with great attention also to combat systemand stands out for areally neat aesthetics which mixes soft strokes and colors, typical of childhood tales, with a good amount of splatter and dark tones.

It will be available from the beginning of July on PC, PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo Switch.

Redout 2

Redout 2is a highly anticipated sequel by fans of the genre: we are talking about a title of futuristic racingwhich takes inspiration from the cornerstones of the genre such as Wipeout and F-Zero.

As told by Filippo of 34BitThings, it is a genre that few companies are betting on, but that maintains a passionate and demanding fanbase: for this, the team has taken more time than expected to complete the development, perfecting the driving system. and not only.

We are talking about a complex title, where the player is asked to manage not only acceleration and braking, but also boost, super boost, heat control and other parameters. In this regard, there is a fully configurable AI that allows even the less experienced to launch on the track, but allows the most experienced players to have full control over the spaceships.

In this new Redout we find a longer campaign than the previous one, the multiplayer mode and a great attention to the soundtrack, with pieces of electronic music made especially for the game, one track of which was composed by the Italian excellence of electronic music, Giorgio Moroder.

Redout II will be released on June 16 on PC and consoles.