Insomnia 68 Gaming Festival: Reviews, Fun & Indie Games!
Last weekend, Insomnia Gaming Festival returned to NEC Birmingham for their 68th event… well, 66th actual event technically, as I66 and I67 were lost to the void of COVID! So I68 was their first triumphant return in over two years, and gamers everywhere were happy to see it back!
Overall Impressions
If you’ve not been to Insomnia before, the event is split into two main sections. There is the main floor, which has the usual things you would expect to find at a gaming festival – mainstream and indie games, lots of gaming merchandise, and stages with fun and talks. The other part is BYOC (Bring Your Own Computer). This is the UK’s biggest LAN Party, where gamers from around the country bring their set-up from home to compete in esports tournaments, fight off in multiplayer battles and more. Additionally, they offer a unique indoor camping option for those looking for a cheap way to stay over all four days of the event!
For my time at Insomnia 68, I focused on the main floor rather than BYOC. It would be fair to say that the main AAA games were rather unrepresented at this event, with no big stands for Playstation, Microsoft, or Nintendo. There were some smaller stands set up with newer games like Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga and Mario Party Superstars, but no unique individual stands from the big boys. Somewhat oddly, one of the largest stands was set up next to a bunch of computers running Call Of Duty, and was for the British Army (they even brought a tank along!)… However, pretty much everyone I talked to about this at the event expressed some… discomfort… at seeing such a huge stand essentially trying to recruit CoD players into the real-life armed services… It just seemed a little… odd…
The Indie Games
On to more positive things, and where I spend most of my time – The Indie Gaming section of the floor. This area was somewhat smaller than it had been in previous years, but was still packed full of some brilliant and innovative games. Here is a breakdown of the best I saw at the show.
Techblox – Freejam Games
Techblox is a really interesting take on a racing game, powered by user-created content. Players can use “blocks” to create, well, pretty much any sort of vehicle you can imagine, and then race them online in a variety of gaming modes. This range from straight-up races, to a Rocket League-esque football game, or out-and-out death matches! The game is currently in a very early stage, but even now, the vehicles you can build in the game are surprisingly complex. I had a play with a few different models, created by users, which ranged from a race car, which was fast, but easily destroyed; A massive 4×4, which was hard to drive, but pretty indestructible; And a hovercar, which was a nice balance of the two, despite the unconventional hovering dynamics. Someone had even built a Batmobile, which worked surprisingly well!
If you want to give Techblox a try, the game is free to download from their website at techblox.com.
Playhead – Lowtek Games
Playhead is a unique take on the platform puzzler, that takes the idea of setting the game inside an online media player like YouTube… You take control of Scrub, a bot that has been tasked with finding and fixing all the glitches in the videos on the site. You can then use the media player controls to essentially manipulate “time”, and move objects around, allowing Scrub to access areas of the level he otherwise couldn’t reach. It’s cute, and seems easy on the surface, but gets more and more complex as you move through the levels.
You can wishlist Playhead on Steam right now.
Aiyana – Laireon Games
On the surface, Aiyana appears to be a Minecraft clone, but it is actually so much more. Built from the ground up, it is an open-world voxel survival game, however, has a lot more focus on combat with direct player challenges and clear goals of progression. Things are relatively calm during the day, but at night, corruption takes a hold of the plants and animals, making them deadlier than ever. To combat this threat, by exploring the underground, you can unlock a series of spells, adding more complex fighting mechanics, along with crafting better weapons and armour. Once you are ready, the player can enter portals around the map to fight back those creatures and earn your place on the global leaderboards.
You can wishlist Aiyana on Steam right now.
D*Fuzed – Asobi.tech
D*Fuzed comes from our friends at Asobi.tech, and it’s fair to say, is pretty niche, due to it being a release for Nintendo Game Boy. However, what they have created is a wonderful little puzzle game, which feels very much like an original Game Boy release. D*Fuzed is a turn-based logic puzzle game, where just one wrong move might be your last. You play as Deef, a bomb disposal robot, who must rescue his friends while defusing bombs and avoiding hazards, as he progresses through each area towards a final explosive confrontation. You move Deef around the map as bombs drop from the sky, and you must reach them to defuse them. But with every step, the bombs tick down to detonation, and you really don’t want to be caught in the blast!
D*Fuzed is being released for Nintendo Game Boy and Nintendo Game Boy Color as an actual physical cartridge, but you can also get a ROM version to play on an emulator as well.
You can order your copy of D*Fuzed here.
Lucy Dreaming – Tall Story Games
Lucy Dreaming is, I think, my favourite indie game from the show. It is a lovingly created “point & click” adventure game, where you take control of Lucy, a young girl suffering from recurring nightmares. In the game, Lucy unlocks the secrets to controlling her dreams and journeys through a myriad of weird & wonderful locations in both the dream world and reality. On the way, she encounters a cast of extraordinary characters and creatures as she unearths the disturbing truth behind her nightmares.
Tall Story Games brought along a demo with the opening sequence which I completed in about 30mins, somewhat impressing Tom Hardwidge, the creator, who said it was the fastest anyone had done it so far… I blame a misspent youth playing hours of LucasArt’s games! You can tell Tom is a huge fan of those classic “point & click” adventure games, and has poured that love into his own development. Lucy Dreaming has all the same fun, quirk and charm of some of the best in the genre, and I’m really looking forward to the final product being released.
You can wishlist Lucy Dreaming on Steam right now, and also download the demo here.
The Insomnia 68 Stages
Insomnia 68 had two stages – the Main Stage, and a smaller Expo Stage, the latter of which had a familiar muppet face hosting, in the form of our very own Bex of TristaBytes. She also joined The Gadget Show’s legendary Jason Bradbury on the Main Stage on Saturday for a live version of their Twitch show, the “80s Electro Breakdance Party“. This involved a hilarious quiz, BMX stunts and a Sinclair C5 amongst other things! Over on the Expo Stage, there was even more dancing as Bex held ‘Let’s Dance’ competitions… You can find more of that over on her Twitter feed.
The other big event on the Main Stage was The Dark Room With John Robertson, who ran a “child-friendly” version during the day (although the “child-friendly” bit is somewhat debatable depending on your sensibilities!) and the full “adult” version of the show in the evening. For those of you unaware of this work of genius, it is described as a “live-action videogame” that mixes retro gaming and impro comedy into a rock and roll gameshow. Audience members are brought on stage and told that “You awake to find yourself in a dark room”. They are then presented with four text adventure-like options, such as “find the light switch”, or the traditional “go north”, and John will tell them what happens next, to hilarious effect… And often ending in death, as the audience screams “Ya Die!” at them. It’s the first time I’ve caught the show live, and it is utterly hilarious and wonderfully weird! You can find John and The Dark Room on Twitch here, and his upcoming live dates here.
Overall, if you are looking for a fun gaming event, Insomnia Gaming Festival is well worth a visit. If you missed I68, don’t worry! Insomnia 69 is just around the corner and returns to the NEC Birmingham from 26th – 28th August 2022. Find out more at insomniagamingfestival.com.
