Indies to Watch Out For

Indie games to watch out for, in no particular order:
Chasm Released July 31 2018
Ultima Ratio Regum
Oblitus Released February 27 2015
Path to the Sky
Night in the Woods Released February 21 2017
Last Life
Doko Roko Released September 9 2022
Tikotep Adventure
Witchmarsh
Love You to Bits Released on iOS February 25 2016 | Released on Android October 19 2017 | Desktop release TBA
Irkalla
Han Solo Adventures
Final Element
Hyper Light Drifter Released March 31 2016
Crossing Souls Released February 13 2018
Blubber Busters
Proven Lands
Waldir's Inferno
Skytorn
Ashen Released December 7th 2018
Death's Gambit Released August 14 2018
Fat Dungeon
Return of the Obra Dinn Released October 18 2018
Noct
Slain Released March 24 2016
The Last Night
Robocop Prime
Sandstorm
Wormhunter
Children of Morta Released September 3rd 2019
Dead Knight
Secret Legend Released March 16 2022
Eitr
In the Shadows Released October 20 2017
Sea of Solitude Released July 5 2019
Bunker Punks Released May 28 2018
Seasons After Fall Released August 25 2017
Firewatch Released February 9 2016
Megasphere
Wanderer
Voxel Quest
Between the City and the Needle
This Is No Time For Games
The Darkside Detective Released July 27 2017
There Was a Caveman Released October 8 2015
The Aquatic Adventure of the Last Human Released January 19 2016
Overland
Duskers Released May 18 2016
Eco
Chickensword
DominaReleased April 3 2017
Drive! Drive! Drive! Released December 13 2016

Smart People Are Smart

While reading about the early history of Walt Disney, I learned the name of Lee de Forest in relation to Disney's seminal Steamboat Willie. Going down that rabbit hole, I came across the following paragraph in Donald Crafton's 1999 book about early American sound cinema, The Talkies:

"Whether disc-based or photographically based, all successful motion-picture recording and reproduction systems used electrical amplification. But photographic systems -- that is, sound-on-film -- additionally required thermionic photoelectric cells. Recording sound on film depends on a highly controllable light source. Photoemissive cells, among many experimental uses, were gradually adapted for recording this kind of sound track. These gas-filled vacuum tubes transform the electric current produced by microphones into a pulsating light source which exposes photographic film stock in proportion to the intensity of the original sound. General Electric scientists working between 1911 and 1913 discovered that filling these tubes with heavy gases such as argon caused them to give off light when charged. Lee de Forest, probably influenced by this research, made a light cell he called the Photion, using a gas-filled tube. De Forest tried to adapt the instrument for recording sound on a photographic negative. The glowing light exposed the moving film, but the results were not very good. He then learned of an improved light emitter developed by Theodore Case and his collaborator Earl I. Sponable in which a quartz tube containing an oxide-coated wire, a metal plate, and helium gas glowed proportionately to the voltage supplied. Case had named his invention Aeo, the acronym for alkaline earth oxide. Unlike the filament of an ordinary light bulb or the Photion, the Aeo light’s short glow decay made possible more accurate recordings of higher sound frequencies. These tubes could be installed inside a camera to record picture and sound simultaneously (single system) or inside a separate “sound camera” which could be synchronized with the picture camera (double system). When the moving film stock was exposed by the pulsating intensity of the light, the result was a “variable density” photographic sound track. On 23 July 1926, after Case had broken with de Forest, he teamed up with the movie magnate William Fox to exploit the Aeo light in what would be called the Fox-Case Movietone system. The tube was replaced in 1929 by the Western Electric light valve (a nonthermionic device discussed later)."

I had sometimes wondered how sound was recorded onto film and played back. The genius and ingenuity of these pioneers is phenomenal.