Steam] On a day when it's too hot to play games, we've got three new games we recommend for August! Three new games recommended for August for quick and casual fun!

1、Move from shadow to shadow! The stylish graphics of the action-puzzle "SCHiM" are also attractive.

With the summer, the daylight hours are getting longer, and you may have more opportunities to see "shadows". These days, we often look for shade to escape from the severe heat, and "SCHiM - SCHiM" is a title in which such "shadows" are key.

This title is an action game with an oblique, downward-looking perspective. The first thing that catches the eye is the unique graphics drawn in simple colors. The stylish and impressive visuals, which look like paintings, are already stylish not only in the game but also from the menu screen.

The word "skim" in the title is a Dutch word meaning "something like a spirit" or "something that seems to flicker out of the corner of your eye. The main character of this work, a small spirit skim, is a mysterious being that exists in every shadow and moves from shadow to shadow, bouncing from shadow to shadow. Skims exist in every shadow, and everything in the world has one skim, which is never separated from the main body.
And while we can recognize their presence as children, they become invisible as we grow older. The fairytale-like world of the game matches the unique graphics and draws you into the game world with gusto.

One day, the main character in this work, Skim, is unexpectedly cut off from the shadow of the person who has been watching over him all his life. Will he be able to return safely to his original place before it is too late? ...... is the story of this work.

Basically, no text is displayed except for operation instructions, and there is no dialogue between characters, so the story is left to the imagination of the player.

The rule of this work is to move from shadow to shadow to reach the destination. Since skims can basically only stay in the shadows, they must make full use of jumping to move. Skims have limited jumping ability and cannot move very far away, so they must move from one shadow to the next.

Be careful, however, because if you stay in a shadowless area for a while, you will be returned to the shadow you were in just before. If you are too far away from your destination to find a suitable shadow, you can change the angle of view by shifting your perspective, or use the shadows of moving people or bicycles. This is a puzzle-like fun in which inspiration is the key.

Skim can interact with objects in the shadows. For example, if you enter the shadow of a traffic light and interact with it, you can change the red and blue colors, such as ....... This can be used to help you capture the scene, for example, by stopping your car and using the shadow of the car.

On the other hand, objects unrelated to the strategy can also be interacted with. You can also play tricks with objects that have nothing to do with the attack, such as ringing a bicycle bell or rattling a fence. Also, sometimes you may encounter skims other than yourself lurking in the shadows. The playful touches in this area are one of the charms of this title.

SCHiM - Skim" offers unique and stylish graphics, gameplay that combines jumping action and puzzles, and a story that is like a picture book with as little text as possible. Since there are no complicated controls, this title can be recommended even for those who do not usually play games.

• SCHiM - Skim" (Ewoud van der Werf, Nils Slijkerman)
• Genre: Action
• Release date: July 18, 2024
• Price: 2,750 yen (as of July 24, 2024)
• ©Ewoud van der Werf ©Nils Slijkerman All Rights Reserved Licensed to and published by Extra Nice B.V. And sub-licensed and published by Active Gaming Media Inc.

2，Dice and cards are used to build a city! Minna to Machi Koro" is a digital version of the classic Bodoge game that also allows you to enjoy online battles!

When you think of a "city-building game," you probably think of a simulation game like "SimCity. However, "Minna to Machi Koro" is a competitive town-building game in which players build a town with dice and cards.

Minna to Machi Koro" is a board game that anyone can easily play using dice and cards.
This title is a digital and online version of the internationally popular Japanese analog board game "Machi Koro," which was nominated for the "German Annual Game Award," sometimes called the "Academy Award of the board game world," and is well known for its fun.

Furthermore, this title is packaged with two board games, "Machi Koro" and its sister title "Machi Koro Dori (Two)," both of which support CPU, offline, and online play, making it a great value and a very generous package.

Real board games can be difficult to find people to play with or to time the timing to get together in one place, but this title's great advantage is that you can easily play the games against the CPU or online. There are three types of online matches: Friend Match, where you can play with your Steam friends, Guest Match, where you can play with other people who know your password, and Random Match, where you can play with anyone.

Let's start with the basic rules of Machi Koro.

The objective of Machi Koro is to build four "landmarks," the symbols of the city. In this game, landmarks and other facilities are all cards, and you can build your own facilities by paying coins corresponding to the numbers written on the bottom left of the cards. The game is played with the "dice".

Players roll one or two dice on their turn, and if the rolls match the facility they have, they receive the effect of that facility.

The effects are
If you roll a die on your turn, you get a coin.
You get coins on anyone's turn.
You can take coins from any other player who rolls that eye.
You get coins from everyone.
You can get coins from any player you choose.
Exchange your facility for another player's facility.

There are a variety of things you can do.
You can build only one facility per turn, so choose the one you want to build while considering your financial situation and the construction status of your town.

The first player to build four landmarks wins the game by repeatedly rolling the die, obtaining coins, paying the coins, and building the facility. Landmarks are priced higher than regular facilities, so you need to earn coins well, but on the other hand, you may lose coins by rolling dice depending on other players' facilities. The dice profit chart will be displayed each turn to tell you how much you will gain or lose in coins if you roll a certain number of dice, so check the chart and pray as you roll. This dice profit chart system is a kind feature unique to the digital version of this title.

Its sister title, "Machi Korodori," has the same basic rules of rolling dice, building facilities, and earning coins, but there are various differences that make the game even more exciting.

The first is the initial construction of facilities at the start of the game.
In "Machi Korotsu," each player starts with 5 coins and builds one facility per turn for 3 turns, without rolling any dice. Incidentally, in "Machi Korodori," facilities are replenished from the deck when there is an opening in the supply (field).

The major difference between "Machi Korodori" and "Machi Korodori" is that the clear condition is three landmarks. In "Machi Coro," there were only four fixed types of landmarks, but in "Machi Coro Dori," there are many types of landmarks. All of them have powerful effects, so choosing which one to build is the key to victory. There are also several facilities other than landmarks that appear only in "Machi Korodori," such as "Sushi Restaurant" and "Brand Mall," which allow players to enjoy battles with more intense coin exchanges than in "Machi Korodori.

In addition, while the "Machi Koro" system allows players to roll two dice by building a landmark "station," in "Machi Koro Dori," players can now choose to roll two dice from the beginning. This allows for a wider range of strategies in "Machi Korodori".

The most attractive feature of "Minna to Machi Koro" is that you can play both "Machi Koro" and "Machi Koro Dori" in a single game. In addition, there are many convenient systems unique to the digital version, such as a tutorial to carefully learn the rules, a stamp function that can be easily used in a game, and a game speed acceleration function that makes playing more comfortable. There is also a skin that can be changed for dice and other items, which can be unlocked as you play more and raise your Machi Koro rank, making the game even more challenging. It can be said that the content is truly comprehensive.

Minna to Machi Koro" allows users to play the world popular board games "Machi Koro" and "Machi Koro Dori" easily and comfortably digitally. The appeal of Minna to Machi Koro is its easy-to-understand rules that anyone can play by rolling dice, building buildings, and earning coins.
An update to fix bugs and improve usability is scheduled to be released in the near future.
This title is recommended not only for board game lovers but also for those who are looking for a party game that can be played casually, so please check it out if you are interested.

• Minna to Machi Koro (Grounding Inc.)
• Genre: Board game
• Release date: July 5, 2024
• Price: 3,000 yen (as of July 24, 2024)
• (C) 2024 Grounding Inc.

Clear the game by drawing 3, 1/2 hits 13 times in a row! The strongest(?) "luck game" in Steam history! The strongest(?) "luck game" in the history of Steam, "1/8192"!

Do you have confidence in your luck?
In our daily lives, we have opportunities to be aware of our luck by playing fortunes, lotteries, or by playing smartphone games, but "1/8192" is a title that allows you to test your luck.

1/8192" is a first-person perspective game with 3D graphics. The setting is a Buddhist mandala space. In this mysterious and unique space, the player embarks on a "journey to challenge the Zen question of luck. The field is filled with stone lanterns, torii gates, Buddhist statues, and many other monuments, creating a mysterious space.

The player's objective in this work is to reach the final goal while clearing the stages. To reach the goal, the player must keep entering the winning blue and green gates that appear in each stage. The winning and losing gates are set randomly each time, and the result cannot be determined by appearance, etc. You do not know the result until you enter the gate. If you win, you will advance to the next stage; if you fail, you will be returned to the first stage. In short, the rule is that if you win a lottery ticket that has a 1/2 chance of winning, you are OK.

At first glance, it may seem quite easy to get a win in a lottery with a 50/50 chance of winning or failing, but the condition for reaching the goal is to win 13 times in a row!　The probability is 1/8192, which is 1 to the 13th power of 2. In other words, you need a lot of luck to clear the puzzle. As mentioned above, once you enter the wrong gate, you are returned to the first stage and have to start all over again, so players have to keep selecting and passing through gates as if they were ascetic monks.

As you can imagine from the number 8192, it is quite a difficult path to reach the goal. The controls are basically just movement, and there are no enemies or bosses, so there are no difficult elements in the game, but the simple fact that it is extremely difficult to hit 13 consecutive hits makes it a completely new type of "high difficulty game. It can be called a "high difficulty game" of a completely new type. If you hit the wrong answer even once, you have to start over, so you will surely feel a tremendous sense of tension when you have to make a choice to clear the stage with only one or two stages left to go.

During the stage, there is a sign that allows you to check your past history to see whether you got the blue or green answer correct. You can analyze the most recent trends, such as "I've been biased toward blue recently (......)," or "I've seen a lot of alternating blue and green hits," but whether you are a winner or a loser is just random. This is just a level that you might want to refer to when you are really confused about which gate to proceed to.

In addition, each stage is equipped with a money-offering box and a fortune. At the donation box, you can freely insert your own money and hit the Kashiwade, and at the Omikuji, you will receive a stick painted either blue or green. Both of these are decorative elements that do not affect the odds of winning the gate, but the interesting thing is that when you really have a hard time deciding which one to choose, you will want to rely on them. The fact that this kind of "divine reliance" element is incorporated into the game is one of the unique points of this title.

With its very simple rules, which require players to keep drawing 1/2 the jackpot for 13 consecutive games to clear the game, and easy controls that anyone can play with, "1/8192" allows players to enjoy the ultimate test of luck. The reasonable price of less than one coin is also attractive, so if you are confident of your luck, please give it a try.

• 1/8192" (Yongame)
• Genre: Casual
• Release date: June 22, 2024
• Price: 350 yen (scheduled)

(C) 2024 Yongame

Did you find any new recommended Steam titles that you liked?

So, we have introduced our recommended new Steam titles.

This time, we chose three titles that can be enjoyed in a quick and casual way. If you find one that interests you, please check it out and play it with your friends this summer!