Have you heard of this person that makes independent games and goes by the pseudonym “Increpare?” Well his human name is Stephen Lavelle and he makes shit loads of indie games and neat, free tools for other developers

For instance, the popular, simple, open-source puzzle game engine: PuzzleScript

And this awesome lo-fi sound effect generator: BFXR

Or for those a little more in the ‘know’, perhaps you’re familiar with the bare-bones point-and-click game engine: flickgame

And if you’re not acquainted with these nifty, e-z-p-z game-development tools, maybe you know some of the bizarre, chilling, provocative, and punishing games Mr. Lavelle has crafted throughout his many years as an indie dev.

He’s made games like:

English Country Tune

Holohoax

American Dream

He also a frequently collaborates with other developers, like Terry Cavanagh on games like:

Judith

VVVVVV

While I don’t claim to know what “increpare” means or what this person is all about or what I’m supposed to take away from >95% of the things he creates, I know each and every one of the hundreds of games hosted on increpare.com is worth taking a look at.

Playing any one of Stephen’s games will leave a peculiar taste in your mouth. It might not be sweet, or salty, or any of those classically pleasurable flavors, but it will be something you’ll learn to like. Or if not, at least you’ll be surprised.

All that about Stephen’s old shit aside, there is a new game in the makings, and it’s due to be released April 18, 2016!

Stephen’s Sausage Roll is a puzzle game, like most of Mr. Lavelle’s more ‘commercially viable’ games, and it’s got all the trappings of a game that is sure to incite exciting frustration and blissful confusion.

The first review is in and Destructoid gives it a motherfucking 10/10 which is goddam exciting.

Jonathan Blow, who you ought to know as the creator of Braid and more recently The Witness, has tweeted about the game, boasting its sheer difficulty, claiming that Lavelle’s past games pale in comparison in terms of just what it takes to figure these meaty puzzles out.

People who think The Witness is hard know nothing of the Sausage Roll. — Jonathan Blow (@Jonathan_Blow) February 6, 2016

But Increpare is quite a tight-fisted gent when it comes to marketing. He doesn’t like the idea of showing gameplay footage and only rarely tweets little nugglets of content and teaser-y material. So there’s unfortunately not much more to say, but here are some of his tweets about his sausage game. Get excited!!

Making trailers is hard! Aaah. pic.twitter.com/nbXkgNlHjF — Stephen Lavelle (@increpare) March 11, 2016

audio mastered? check. grumbled about unity? check. one smallish thing left to do and I can send out beta codes 😀 pic.twitter.com/ScR682lso4 — Stephen Lavelle (@increpare) February 1, 2016

After 1236 days, sausage game is content complete. Yay. pic.twitter.com/C7wPctqLXM — Stephen Lavelle (@increpare) January 20, 2016

$30!

Save the date!

April 18!

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