Rxcovery is an RPG about a hospital patient with only 30 minutes left on life support. Players explore a hospital full of monsters in order to raise enough money to save their character's life. It's a tense combination of turn-based combat and maze-like level design.

"Welcome player. It's a fucking video game. Get your stats ready," Absolutely: A True Crime Story begins. Then it asks you to boost one of your starting character's stats like strength, dexterity, or something called J3V. None of these stats matter: the browser game is just a random, nihilistic parody.

But it's funny, mostly because your character is named Keanu Reeves.

In the past, I've thought a little about making a game, but never got around to learning actual coding. Recently, I've started to develop that abstract "what if" idea into a passion project of my own. I'm learning how to create maps, program quests, and write cutscenes with the help of a program that can build RPGs. Through this process, I've encountered a variety of challenges that have helped me appreciate games so much more now.

Some of the people who make Pokemon fan games are scared, if not a bit angry. They have been crafting amazing Pokemon games that rival the official releases for a decade, dodging lawsuits and relying on increasingly dated tools. It's never been easy, but it's also never been as stressful as it is today.

Mega Man fans aren't just hardcore. They're dedicated. Case in point: this awesome fan game that two people have been working on since 2008.

Pokémon Insurgence might not be an official Pokémon game, but that doesn't make Insurgence any less exciting. The reason? Features. Glorious, glorious features.

Today a reader sent me an email about this new contest for RPG Maker games, and I wish I had time to play them all. I mean, sure, RPG Maker games aren't always... polished, but there are some good ones out there, like Exit Fate and Barkley's Shut Up And Jam: Gaiden. They're almost always free, and if you do enough digging, you can find some really cool indie RPGs out there.