2023 is here and as is the tradition at the start of a new year, we are looking ahead at what is coming to our PCs and Consoles in the coming months. As always this is based on what we know is coming, not unannounced titles that will surely get released during the year, and don’t hold it against us when some of these titles get delayed into 2024.
In a new category for this year, Paul is looking at the biggest indies that are likely to hit our systems. Australian-based game developers are punching so far above their weight division on such a continual basis and we want to highlight the best and brightest of the new crop.
The Most Anticipated Australian Developed Games of 2023
Way To The Woods
Way To The Woods has been this beautiful unicorn on the horizon for many, many years now, but in 2023 we finally get to experience the majesty of what developer Anthony Tan has been working on for all of this time. The story of a deer and a fawn as they journey through what remains of an abandoned world has us completely absorbed, and, of course anxious that something horrible might happen.
Tan’s work is shaping up in such a way that it’s going to tug on every emotional heartstring that we have, but is simultaneously a visual feast that will be impossible to take your eyes off. Way To The Woods is slated to launch in Q1 2023 and we’re all about it.
Moving Out 2
Not a lot is known about what Moving Out 2 is bringing to the table with its sequel, but given the incredible quality of the original, and the pedigree of the developer SMG Studio, we’re adamant that this title is one to watch in 2023. What we do know is that the F.A.R.Ts are on their way back to Packmore, and they’re bringing the much needed, and incredibly missed element of online play with them for Moving Out 2, a move that is surely going to add to the game enormously.
The crazy co-op of the original, that hails from the greats like Overcooked returns and that alone should have you excited for what is going to be a ripper in 2023.
The Plucky Squire
When Devolver Digital announces a new game, players stop and pay attention. The mega indie publisher is renowned for scoping out some of the very best independent games in the business, and when they take on an Aussie developed game there’s additional reason for us to tune in. The Plucky Squire has us fascinated by the ways with which it bounces between 2D and 3D gameplay as you move from inside to outside the pages of the book.
The Plucky Squire is doing a lot, from 2D platforming, top down action akin to a Zelda game, even squaring up with enemies Punch-Out style, before jumping outside of the confines of the page to explore a beautiful world full of the outside 3D realm. We don’t know when in 2023 its coming, but we’re there when it comes.
Broken Roads
Broken Roads is hitting on all of those classic CRPG troupes that make it so unbelievably appealing on a pure gameplay sense, but then you add in the post-apocalyptic Australian setting. The game has been on the scene for a few years now, but in 2023 Broken Roads appears to be become the cohesive whole we’re all dreaming that it can be.
With plenty to explore, and tight, engaging, strategic, turn-based combat, and deep systems for decision making, Broken Roads has a swathe of the Player2 team completely hooked, so bring on 2023, and the launch of of this wonderful looking title from the sensationally named Drop Bear Bytes.
Conscript
Conscript is blowing minds with its wonderful mix of World War One setting and the dark, gritty tone that comes with it, and the obvious reverence for PS1-era Resident Evil. Conscript blends the mechanics of those classic Resident Evil titles with the horrors of a world war in a way that had us gripped when we had a chance to play it last year in ways that very few games have ever done, letalone a title that is still pre-release.
The Resident Evil inspired puzzles and item-management are all here, the suspense is on point, and we’re here for all of it in 2023.
Hollow Knight: Silksong
There are very few games in 2023, letalone indie games, that are as anticipated as Hollow Knight Silksong. Obviously the external expectations of the game are enormous, and how could they not be considering what Team Cherry delivered with the original game in 2017. Silksong, albeit through limited exposure that has consisted of a very small number of trailers that how shown very little, and a 2019 publicly accessible PAX AUS demo, continues to wow us, but finally, we’re close to a release.
Through the Xbox Bethesda 2022 June Showcase we learned that Hollow Knight Silksong, like everything else at the showcase is slated to release before the end of the first half of 2023, and so despite us not yet having a date, our hype for the game is at fever pitch. Bring it on Team Cherry!
