‘News’

Happy First Birthday, Pixel Pacas!

pixelpacaslogo-shade4

It doesn’t seem like much time has passed since the purchase and setting up of PixelPacas.com but apparently a whole year has passed! Exactly one year ago we posted an introductory message but were relatively unsure about what direction the site would go. Honestly, there was no guarantee that we would even remain interested in it for very long!

Yet, here the site stands a year later with a surprisingly huge library of reviews. There’s also a handful of interviews and giveaways which were never anticipated at launch. It’s both surprising and exciting to see that the site has grown and that a few cool people actually browse here from time to time.

To anyone who is or has browsed our site over the past year: Thank you! PixelPacas loves sharing a wide variety of games with others via reviews. Hopefully there will be even more awesome developments in our second year!

Pixel Pacas to Become Pixel Goaties!

On April 29th, 2013 the domain name PixelPacas.com was purchased. We immediately secured a host and began working behind the scenes to create our ideal gaming site. As we approach the first anniversary, we’ve been thinking long and hard about alpacas.

Alpacas are no doubt great, but do they really represent our site? It took a lot of consideration but it has been decided that, no, they don’t! Now that we’ve entered the month of April we are finally ready to announce the new name for our site. Are you ready?

Come the first anniversary, we will be re-branded as Pixel Goaties! 2014 is most definitely the year of the goat in games. Thanks to the likes of Escape Goat 2 and Goat Simulator we were finally able to realize our deep adoration for this animal.

Look forward to another year of great content at Pixel Goaties, the site formerly known as Pixel Pacas!

Pixel Goat Logo

The Pirate Bay Bundle Looks Awesome

Video game bundles are all over the place these days but they usually cost money. There are exceptions to this such as The Free Bundle but not too much else. Twitter user Moshboy created their own indie game bundle this week and launched it via The Pirate Bay. The bundle in question is none other than The Pirate Bay Bundle.

With 101 games included, this is definitely the most expansive bundle of any type out there. It also doesn’t cost a dime. Also please note that these are all games that were free to begin with and obtained legally. Many of the developers have even provided comments about the bundle in an included text file!

If you’re interested in nabbing the bundle for yourself it can be downloaded from The Pirate Bay (as a torrent file) or Mega (a direct download site). I have only played one game from the collection so far but am definitely looking forward to the others! Perhaps posts about some of the included games will be coming to Pixel Pacas in the near future…

February is Dating Sim Month!

Jurassic Heart Screenshot

Over at Chic Pixel, a buddy of mine has started hosting themed game-alongs each month. The first was based on Falcom games in January, and now that February has rolled around a new theme has been chosen. Anne has christened February as Dating Sim Month! As I adore dating sims/visual novels/etc, this was something I simply had to share with the readers of Pixel Pacas.

Basically, these game-alongs serve as a good way to get you to play more games but they also foster community discussion on the theme. If you want to participate, all you have to do is choose a game that in some way could be considered romantic and get playing! This could include visual novels with romantic leads to pursue such as Sweet Fuse: At Your Side, games with stat building like the Tokimeki Memorial series (or Nicole, a Western dating sim), and stuff that just includes dating like Rune Factory 4 or practically any Harvest Moon! The goal is for lots of people to participate and have fun – not to shut someone out if they don’t own a “true” dating sim.

Participants are free to play and share their experiences via Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, blog, or any other easily-accessible method. The hashtag for this event is #DatingSiMonth. Yes, there’s only one “M” in there so don’t get confused (like I initially did!). All this information is available in more detailed form on Chic Pixel so head on over!

Awesome Games Done Quick 2014 is Live!

Awesome Games Done Quick 2014

In case you’ve never heard of it before, Awesome Games Done Quick is an annual stream brought to online viewers everywhere thanks to Speed Demos Archive (SDA). The SDA site is home to some of the best speedrunners out there and is quite the community!

Their marathon stream, which started today, brings a great deal of well-known speedrunners together and lets them showcase their abilities live on Twitch. The Awesome Games Done Quick 2014 marathon began at 9 AM today, and will continue all the way until January 11th. Yup, it’s practically a whole week of continuous speedrunning!

I encourage any game fan to watch, not just the speedrun-obsessed. It’s tremendously fun to see people play your favorite games and “break” them or make them seem far easier than they are. If you have ability, it would also be worth supporting the Prevent Cancer Foundation, which SDA have selected as their donation charity.

Here’s the stream schedule if you’d like to tune in for a specific game or challenge.

Tale of Tales 10th Anniversary Bundle

Tale of Tales 10th Anniversary

Tale of Tales is one of my favorite developers out there. They’re best known for projects such as The Graveyard, The Path, and Bientôt l’été. I shared my own glowing review of Luxuria Superbia a little while ago and absolutely loved it. Even when I don’t adore one of their projects, I still respect what they’re doing.

To celebrate their tenth anniversary, Tale of Tales has a bundle up with many of their past experiments and prototypes. I won’t list everything here as the bundle page does so in wonderful fashion. Some of the items I’m most interested in include 8 – their first unfinished game project (that may actually be coming back in the future!). There are also tests and prototypes for The Endless Forest, Fatale, and more.

Basically, this collection is something that no Tale of Tales fan should miss out on! It is running from now until December 25th. Because you must pay a $5 minimum, this bundle might not be accessible by everyone, unfortunately. If you do have an iOS device though you can grab Luxuria Superbia for free today!

Romance the Printer of Your Dreams in a New Dating Sim

Brother Printer Dating Sim

Why stop at dating women-turned-alpacas, grasshoppers, or high school-aged pigeons? Now you can try your hand at dating a printer!

A new web-based advergame was released by Brother International that lets you do just that. Love! Brother-kun is the game and is available in Japanese. However, if your browser is capable of translating on the fly, you can play the game “in English”!

In any case, the dating sim is set in a high school with you being one of the students. Suddenly, you see him – Brother-kun. You can fall in love with this non-human transfer student (apparently male?) and even watch him play sports. Yes, it’s as weird as it sounds.

Check it out and take a guess at what weirdness dating sims will come up with next.

You Can Date Grasshoppers in a New Dating Sim!

Fall In Love With Creatures! Kokonoe Kokoro

There are a host of pretty wild dating sims out there these days. From dating alpacas to birds, it seems like every humorous concept is being tackled. But what about insects? At least one developer decided to tackle this topic for the Nico Nico Jisaku Game Festival 2.

Developer Nostalgia created a game which translates to Fall in Love with Creatures! Kokonoe Kokoro. In this indie dating sim the player can apparently romance a grasshopper. Your younger sister is a bat and your friend appears to be some sort of demonic horror. As for the main character… I’m unclear as to if they are human or something else.

In any case, the game is only available in Japanese right now. Those who can read Japanese are in luck though as the title is completely free. Of course, if a translation ever comes about I’ll be sure to play it!