On December 13, the St. Louis Game Dev Co-op hosted its annual holiday party at RKDE, a new arcade space on the second floor of the Performing Arts Center at 2720 Cherokee. Along with the classic arcade titles, several local developers previewed their own games, giving a look into what is coming from the St. Louis indie scene. Here’s what was available to play at RKDE:

Rain of Arrows – Business Dog Studios

A VR/HTC Vive title focused on bow-and-arrow combat, Rain of Arrows set up near the RKDE stage to show off progress since the demo at Pixelpop. New features included highlighted enemies (for easier aiming) and new bullet time (arrow time?) effects, slowing down the game with each kill.

For gameplay videos and updates on development, check out their site here: http://businessdogstudio.com/

Hive Jump – Graphite Lab

Hive Jump is a sci-fi action platformer inspired by Metroid, Spelunky, Gauntlet, and Starship Troopers. As an expendable space marine, explore a procedurally-generated alien hive and blast its inhabitants to pieces with your uniquely modifiable multi-gun. Four different biomes, a single-player campaign, online multiplayer, and daily challenges promise hours of insect-destroying fun.

Hive Jump is available in Steam Early Access here and will be out in full on January 18, 2017.

Echoes of the Fey: Episode 0 – Woodsy Studio

Episode 0 is a standalone prequel to Woodsy Studio’s Echoes of the Fey visual novel series. Months before the protagonist, Sofya Rykov, becomes a private investigator, she undergoes a life-changing experience as a prison guard in the last days of the Great War. Episode 0 introduces the two main characters of the series and will be free upon release.

Echoes of the Fey: Episode 0 is up on Steam Greenlight. Go vote for it here!

Skybot – Tim Conseevable

An overhead action game featuring some awesome slimes, Skybot ties movement and attack together in a way that forces players to consider every action.

No Holds Bard – Technihex Studios

No Holds Bard, nee Battle Bards, is a rhythm RPG that casts the player as the loyal musical support to a valiant knight on his noble quest. A mix between Guitar Hero and Valkyrie Profile, you will have to learn real-time combos to play on your lute to inspire the savior of the kingdom.

MvM – Ocular Obscura

It’s mech vs. mech in MvM, a competitive FPS in early development from Ocular Obscura. At RKDE, MvM showed off its unique split-screen observer functionality. While two players engaged in combat, an observer could watch on a separate screen which provided a 3rd person view of both mechs, divided by a shimmering plasma beam.

Keep up with the development of MVM and check out an alpha video here: http://ocularobscura.com/blog/

The Heartland Saga – Searchlight Games

The Heartland Saga is a 2d action RPG (in the vein of The Legend of Zelda) that incorporates a rune-drawing mechanic for spellcasting. You play as a clumsy sailor named Feory, stranded on an island with a magical (incomplete) spellbook. While he hopes for rescue, he’s far more likely to encounter adventure.

The Heartland Saga was recently Greenlit on Steam. Go check it out!

Interpretation Inclination – Team Stampede

They say that a picture is worth a thousand words…but what if you had to choose only one? Interpretation Inclination is a tabletop/card game that challenges players to merge art and language. Each round, the dealer displays one “art” card and multiple “word” cards, and it is up to the other players to guess or intuit which word the dealer has chosen to associate with the art.