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Game dev has become so accessible over the past decade. With the advent of so many intuitive tools, code learning resources, and a community of passionate creators just like Zephyrix, who developed Ronny’s Climb and offered to let us give it a try, we as gamers are able to play so many games now as a result. Not every game promises to be as big as World of Warcraft or as high tech as Crysis 2 (throwback for the millennials!) but there’s nothing more pleasant and satisfying than a tightly crafted experience that oozes love and dedication to a vision, no matter how small. Ronny’s Climb is a perfect little example of this, as its platforming, writing, pixel graphics, and good, old fashioned 16-bit musical backing is a great experience all around.

Sometimes you just wanna be a panda dancing to the beat as you eagerly explore a lush island dotted with other friendly pandas, helping them solve little problems while you search for your Nana. That’s the experience of Dancing Pandas: Ranger’s Path as you take on the role of Mico, who has arrived at the island in search of his grandmother after a mysterious letter arrived for him. The game is a nice and cozy stroll (and soar) from start to finish, lasting about 4-5 hours if you’re trying to find most of the stuff on the island. If this style of casual exploration and chatting with quirky characters is your vibe, Dancing Pandas will aptly scratch that itch for a couple good gaming sessions at a nice price ($12.99 MSRP.)

The gameplay consists of walking around the panda-filled island, which is actually much bigger than expected at first glance, and completing tasks to gain “Courage Hearts” that will allow you to do more confident things, like attempting harder tasks or asking more personal questions to fellow pandas. As you explore, you’ll pick up collectibles and find more pandas to talk to, which will give you helpful tips, some intriguing dialogue backstory, or allow you to purchase new tools or costumes. These little moments added to the world feel, and were sometimes more deep than I expected on the surface. It felt like a nice, quirky, lived-in slice of life for these pandas, and I couldn’t have been more chill while enjoying the gameplay style the game employed. The stakes were never too high, and the ability to fast travel after uncovering a portion of the map (using gems I had collected to buy the section) was a welcome option. I did want to make a note that the game doesn’t seem to autosave enough, and you have to go in and manually save in the menu to ensure it does. When I completed the game, there was no way for me to go back and save or continue after finishing, which was unfortunate, because I wanted to finish off a few more achievements.

Other than the obviously cute, wiggly, and adorably designed panda folks that inhabit it, Dancing Pandas’ World is a colorful blast of foliage and flora, with the various areas of the island covering all types of scenery, including sandy beaches, autumnal mountainsides, green valleys, and tropical seascapes. Eventually, you befriend a lovely bird named Sofi, who will help you find any valuable collectibles you may have missed nearby. The game helps you as much as you want it to with completing quests and exploring the island, which is helpful, because some of the items to collect are pretty small and can be easy to miss if you don’t know you’re looking for them for a quest. I wish there was actually more to purchase with my gems other than map pieces and a few Ranger outfit pieces, but I’m not expecting a huge wardrobe from a game like this, admittedly. Also, your movement is based on the camera’s orientation, which was a problem a few times when my camera would whip around because it hit an overhanging structure that would cause it to reorientate. It never caused any huge trouble, but it was a minor annoyance. I also ran into a quest later in the game where I had to figure out where someone was based on context clues and a dialogue box, and the dialogue box didn’t seem to be based on where this person was in the world, once I finally found them. I spent about 30 minutes running around on a random cliff, heh. In the end, I could’ve found them quickly if I knew where to look, but I seemed to be being pulled in a different direction at first. Overall, the small issues I had were just that: small.

As you explore, you’ll be audibly whisked away by the soundtrack, which composer Tom Schipper did a beautiful job with. Luckily as well, the game doesn’t crowd the peaceful music with tons of unnecessary sound effects, and as such you’ll really get to be carried by its flowing, melodic pace as you complete your tasks. Sometimes this lack of sound effects can seem like something’s missing, like a practical beep or snap or the like when completing an action or task. Overall, the music made up for anything I felt was lacking in the sound department, and I appreciated the touches that were there.

Dancing Pandas: Ranger’s Path is what you want in a cozy game like this: a little, lively world to explore, a few tasks to complete at your own pace, and an achievable goal to pursue. All the while you get to talk with panda people and be one yourself! You don’t get to do that in every game, right? At a price of $12.99, it’s a perfectly pleasing piece of gaming goodness.

It's Steam Next Fest time, which means GF is here to bring you an exhaustive list of animal & furry games from the February 2025 version! We have compiled as many games as we could find with animals and/or anthropomorphic characters featured in them! Be sure to let us know of any others you find!

We have an actively updated Furry & Animal Games List over at @GamingFurever that you can follow and get constant updates for lots of indie titles with TONS of lovely furry characters! If you're a developer of any of these games, feel free to hit us up on email over on our Contact Us page! We'd love to talk to you about your development!

Here's your February 2025 Steam Next Fest list:

I had the opportunity to spend some time with a preview build of “Shuffle Tactics”, a new roguelite deckbuilding tactical RPG developed by Club Sandwich and published by The Arcade Crew, that features a sharply pixelated cast of anthropomorphic heroes and sidekicks. Starring in the demo is the anthro canine Doberknight, as well as Catalina, along with a few animal-based sidekicks to choose from in your runs. Other than the creative characters, Shuffle Tactics focuses on blending light environmental tactics with inventive deckbuilding options.

Welcome to "Fresh Fur!" Our weekly installment going over the newest game releases, and which ones you can expect to find anthros/furries in!

Check the list below for all the games we could find with animal/anthro influences and characters.

New Releases for the week of February 3-7, 2025:

• Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 (PS5, PC, XSX/S) - February 4
• Rift of the NecroDancer (PC) - February 5
• Starlight Legacy (PC) - February 5
• While Waiting (PC, Switch) - February 5
• Stray Path (PC) - February 6
• Ambulance Life: A Paramedic Simulator (PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC) - February 6
• Ailuri (PC) - February 6
• Big Helmet Heroes (PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Switch, PC) - February 6
• Keep Driving (PC) - February 6
• A Game About Digging A Hole (PC) - February 7
• Wild Rumble (PC) - February 7

*Bolded games have furry/animal influences/characters

Furry & Animal Steam Game Finds:

These games were found in the New Releases section of Steam this week and will be updated as more come out throughout the week!

When looking for new adventure narrative games to play through, I want to know that what I’m starting is gonna be compelling enough to finish. It’s like opening a new book after reading the teaser on the back cover. What’s going to make me want to start that first chapter? Threefold Recital, the first release by developer Everscape Games, grabs your attention with a threefold story that revolves around a wolf-turned monk, a fox-turned-priest, and a snake-turned-artist. Its beautiful art is the backdrop for weaving a story within an oriental fantasy world that mixes magic, technologies old and new, and the tensions between humans, dragons, and the beastlings (like the ones we get to play as within the intertwining stories.) Though it takes a bit for the plot to really get going, once it does it becomes like a book that you don’t want to put down until you reach the end. With charming storytelling, a diverse cast of furry characters throughout, and enough inventive puzzle-solving minigames to keep things gamified enough, Threefold Recital had me hooked.

What’s better than sitting on a couch with friends, playing through a cooperative experience together, joyously enjoying each other’s company and a shared love of gaming? Well, riding them like a mounted cavalry into battle as you both combine powerful magical attacks sounds better, doesn’t it? That’s what Coridden promises will separate itself from the pack of action RPGs out there. In Coridden, you and up to 3 friends explore the world of Heera cooperatively, completing quests and fighting mobs of creatures and bandits to try and find your way into the legendary and locked away city of Aasha. To accomplish this, you’ll have to level up and choose to go down a plethora of possible specialization paths to equip yourself with new attack spells, defensive buffs, and, even more excitingly, beastly abilities. For a small dev team, Aftnareld has given gaming friend groups a nicely packaged adventure that is 100% worth playing.

Every now and then, a game will be released that reminds you why you love playing big, well-produced games in the first place. Ones that go beyond simple concepts or entertainment, and really deliver on the satisfaction of feeling like you’re playing something that could only be polished and produced at the time of gaming that we’re living in. Eternal Strands is one of those experiences. You play as Brynn, a Weaver of magic that leads an eclectic group of determined fellow Weavers on a mission of discovery and salvation. Throughout your time in the “Enclave” and beyond, you’ll face element-enhanced minions, towering & thunderous constructs, and scaly & feathered beasts in abundance, as you piece together what happened while the denizens outside of your home city were locked beyond “The Veil” that none can cross because of the “tangles” that are fatal to try and pass through. At your disposal will be a bevy of magical abilities and attacks, including ones based on fire, ice, and kinetic energies, along with weapons. All of these, along with the ability to pick up and throw just about anything (including enemies), are combined for some of the coolest and most hectic combat situations I’ve played in a while. Eternal Strands combines an engaging storyline with an impeccably chosen cast of characters and voice actors and an inventive magic casting combat system to pull you into a world you won’t want to escape from.

Last month, Belgian developer Mortis Ghost and publisher Fangamer announced the unexpected return of the influential RPG OFF in 2025. Now, they've announced that legendary indiegame creator and composer Toby Fox (UNDERTALE, DELTARUNE) will be a featured music composer for the new soundtrack that was developed for the game's newest release. Toby Fox first discovered OFF's English fan translation on the Starmen.net forums, an EarthBound fan website whose staff eventually created Fangamer.

Toby cited OFF multiple times in his UNDERTALE Art Book as an inspiration for his designs, especially the character designs. ​ Papyrus’s appearance initially inspired by the first boss, Dedan. Next, Sans was inspired by Zacharie and the judge: A reliable, friendly, humorous character who shows up throughout the adventure, and you never quite know what his deal is.

Toby Fox ended up handling a lot of boss tracks and was also assigned the normal battle theme. Pepper Steak, the most famous song from the original OST, is well-loved by fans with millions of listens across various platforms.

"I'm gonna be honest, just feels like I got assigned to take a bullet in the back for everybody else. I looked up almost every jazz song from the 1920s, I commissioned Carlos to make an entire fake jazz song for me so I could cut it up into samples, I tried making like 6 entirely different songs, but nothing I could come up with on my own felt quite right.
​​
​In the end, I summoned Camellia to help me out by re-remixing my ​
​first track into multiple versions, and ultimately I think it will ​
​feel pretty cool as you go through the game." ​
​- Toby Fox

White Meat, the new battle theme for OFF by Toby Fox & Camellia:

Publisher Playtonic Friends and developer MegaWobble have announced a new expansion to Lil Gator Game! Lil Gator Game: In the Dark is currently in development for PlayStation 4 & 5, Xbox One & Series S/X and Nintendo Switch with a release date TBA.

"Lil Gator is back in an adorable new adventure, and this time it's bigger than ever! The In the Dark expansion will double the size (and the fun!) of the full Lil Gator Game experience and will also introduce a host of new characters! In this charming expansion, new adventures and friends are just beneath the surface - literally! Get ready to ‘cave in’ to the fun and find that you’re ‘stalag’- right where you belong! There’s a new buddy in every cave and crevasse to help you on your journey in this exciting new, BIG, underground adventure!"

New to Lil Gator? PlayTonic Friends will also be releasing a special Gator of the Year Edition which combines the Lil Gator Game base game and the In the Dark expansion in one fun-filled package! Check out the announcement trailer below!