Attendees to the 2016 Game Developer Conference (GDC) in San Francisco were privy to tests and sneak previews of several upcoming games. Microsoft happened to have a nice large section set up for its Xbox One, where players could try out a variety of games coming in the next few months.

All the games I tried were made by third parties, many new and upcoming designers, and will be available on the Xbox One and other systems or consoles later in the year. They’re being brought to us through ID@Xbox, described as a way to “enable qualified game developers to unleash their creativity by self-publishing digital games on Xbox One and Windows 10 with Xbox Live.”

Tumblestone

At first glance, Tumblestone appears to be a simple game, like one would find at an arcade and play for a quarter. A series of multi-colored blocks created several columns, and the player would have to shoot them down by matching three in a row, shooting at the blocks at the very bottom.

In practice, however, it’s an impressively more cerebral game, requiring quick thinking, planning ahead, space management, and strategy. It’s a race against other players, so you have to move fast, but at the same time, a single misstep will cause you to start all over. It’s unforgiving in that way, but having to start over several times before winning makes it all the sweeter.

Additionally, new challenges and modes were added. A particularly perplexing one was a mode where the first block you shot down would add a new one of the same color to the top of the column stacks; one can’t just haphazardly shoot at the first match they see, but must plan in advance to set the ones on top to be proper matches later down the line.

And in spite of its puzzle-style gameplay, there’s still a story element to the game. Ty Taylor, the designed, likened it to a quote about how if Tetris were released today, it would need a story mode.

The games are quick, satisfying, and often challenging fun. I give it a strong recommendation for light gaming when it comes out in June.

Stikbold: A Dodgeball Adventure

Imagine what would happen if you took the graphics of Minecraft, the idea behind “Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story” and put it on the Xbox. That’s close to what you’ll get with Stikbold, but describing it as just that doesn’t do it quite enough justice.

It’s a dodgeball game, with teams of two or more players competing to grab the balls and knock out the other team first; last team with any players left wins. But the stages vary, with differing numbers of players, balls, and obstacles, so it keeps things fresh from round to round.

The graphics are intentionally blocky, but the character designs are unique enough to tell the individual ones apart while playing. The controls are easy to learn; one shoulder button to dodge or catch, the other to throw; left joystick controls movement, right controls aim.

It’s a cute and entertaining game, with a good learning curve and simple but effective gameplay.

Rivals of Aether

“Rivals of Aether” is a fighting game with clear inspiration from the “Super Smash Bros” series, at least as far as combat goes. The characters, however, are all original: partially anthropomorphic animals with their own combat styles, designed in a 64-bit style, but with impressive looks regardless.

The combat is familiar: the characters appear on a stage with various platforms and environmental effect, where they fight in team or solo matches of two to four players. Taking a hit stacks up damage, and makes it easier to knock them off the stage.

Each character has a unique design and moveset, based on an existing animal but enhanced through magic or technology. For example, there’s Zetterburn, a lion with a flaming mane, Kragg, a massive brawler of a Hercules beetle, or Orcane, an arcane orca.

In addition to the free matches, there does seem to be a story move, although I didn’t have the chance to try it out in the time I had at the demo.

Rocket Fist

The name might say all you need to know about this game. You have a rocket for a fist, and you launch it at other players to make them explode.

The characters are all little circular robots, although there’s a variety of colors and miniature outfits that can be used to customize them, such as a pirate outfit, Santa suit, or a fez. Each little bot has a single rocket fist, but they can pick up and re-equip either their own fists or those their foes have launched.

There are a variety of arenas for them to fight in, with environment challenges such as moving floors or rising gates. But it’s the arenas that can make or break the game, as the rockets ricochet and bounce off the walls to blast opponents from around the corner (or, in one very satisfying instance, bounce off the wall to blast one foe, then continue on and bounce of the wall behind him to ricochet into another for a double kill).

The matches are rather short, but the players who lose early on can continue to contribute as tanks that shoot stun bolts at the remaining players; a player doing too well may soon become the target of ghostly tanks out to even the score.

Rocket Fist is another game with a basic idea, but great mechanics to make it work well. It’s definitely one to keep an eye out for when it comes out later in the year.

Photo by SiliconANGLE