Don’t you know all the world wants to laugh?
Believe it or not, we’re now two-thirds of the way through the year. So, first of all: congratulations on navigating the firestorm that is 2020, however you’re managing to do it. And secondly: how are you? We at Edge – thanks for asking – are pushing on, despite continued strain on the budget, a reduced pagination we’re still fighting to recover, and a coronavirus scare or two (we’re all fine). We don’t know about you, but we’re begging the universe for a crumb of serotonin these days.
Thank goodness, then, for videogames. This month on Edge has been a pleasure – largely, we suspect, due to the time of year. Summer often sees indie developers rush to release their games ahead of the ultra-competitive autumn season, this next-gen one being even more so (not that you’d know it, given neither Sony nor Microsoft seem to want to tell the world anything useful about their new consoles any time soon). And, as you’ll discover in Playing For Laughs, it’s the underdogs that tend to have the best sense of humour. We talk to some of the indie scene’s leading comedy lights about what happened to videogames’ funny bone, and how – as well as why – they’re growing it back. Afterwards, we catch up with the people behind hilarious slapstick battle royale Fall Guys to analyse why it’s taken the world by storm. In Knowledge, our hit of dopamine comes courtesy of the charitable intentions of Asobu, an incubator founded to give the struggling Japanese indie scene a place to find its feet. In a year when super-agile teams are rising to the top, perhaps more able to quickly adapt to disaster, ensuring the next generation of indie hits feels more crucial than ever.
Flip to the review section if you don’t believe us. Not one, but two standout indie titles this month had us agonising for days on end over whether to break out the big score – Supergiant’s Hades, and our cover star, Spelunky 2. Derek Yu’s Roguelike played a huge part in shaping videogames as we know them today. Its follow-up is a true refinement of that most magical of concepts: surprise and delight. So, yes, it’s not all bad lately. Here are a few more reasons to smile.