''Mindwave'' (stylized in

all caps In typography, text or font in all caps (short for "all capitals") contains capital letters without any lowercase letters. For example: All-caps text can be seen in legal documents, advertisements, newspaper headlines, and the titles on book co ...

as ''MINDWAVE'') is an upcoming

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developed by

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game developer HoloHammer. It is a fast-paced

minigame A minigame (also spelled mini game and mini-game, sometimes called a subgame or microgame) is a short game often contained within another video game. A minigame contains different gameplay elements and is often smaller or more simplistic than th ...

collection inspired by

Nintendo is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto. It develops, publishes, and releases both video games and video game consoles. The history of Nintendo began when craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi ...

's ''

WarioWare is a video game series, a spin-off of the ''Mario'' franchise. It comprises various video games created by Nintendo, starring the character Wario. The series began with '' Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3'', the first game to feature Wario as a p ...

'' series, set in the Mindscape Tower, in which the

protagonist A protagonist () is the main character of a story. The protagonist makes key decisions that affect the plot, primarily influencing the story and propelling it forward, and is often the character who faces the most significant obstacles. If a ...

Pandora aims to win a contest involving entering other people's minds and playing

microgame The MicroGame line by Metagaming Concepts consisted of tabletop microgames published from 1977 to 1982. History In 1977, Metagaming Concepts designer Howard Thompson came up with a new type of small, inexpensive, and fast wargame with a limited ...

s. A demo of the game was released on

Steam Steam is water vapor, often mixed with air or an aerosol of liquid water droplets. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization. Saturated or superheated steam is inv ...

in January 2025 alongside a crowdfunding campaign on

Kickstarter Kickstarter, PBC is an American Benefit corporation, public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York City, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative project ...

, receiving positive reception. A full release is estimated for September 2027.

Gameplay

In ''Mindwave'', the player plays as Pandora, a young girl who enters the Mindscape Tower after winning a Platinum Ticket to enter the titular "cognitive reality"

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alongside numerous other contestants. The game's aim is to continuously win against other contestants, advancing in the tower until reaching the top floor and receiving a cash prize. The core gameplay of ''Mindwave'' is inspired by the ''

'' games; the player plays several short but fast-paced

s known as "microgames", each with short commands that the player must fulfill. The speed of the microgames gradually increases as the player progresses, with alternate variations of prior microgames being introduced. Since ''Mindwave'' is a

PC game A personal computer game, or abbreviated PC game, also known as a computer game, is a video game played on a personal computer (PC). The term ''PC game'' has been popularly used since the 1990s referring specifically to games on "Wintel" (Micr ...

, all of the microgames use either

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, or

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inputs. Between rounds, the player can talk to other contestants to engage in branching conversations and learn about their backstories.

Development and release

In January 2025, HoloHammer released a demo of the game, alongside a campaign on Kickstarter to raise funds for the full game, as part of the

Steam Next Fest Steam is water vapor, often mixed with air or an aerosol of liquid water droplets. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization. Saturated or superheated steam is inv ...

. The campaign lasted from January 14 to February 14, 2025, and ultimately raised , surpassing its goal of . With many of the Kickstarter campaign's stretch goals being met, there are plans for multiple additional features including

gamepad A gamepad is a type of video game controller held in two hands, where the fingers (especially thumbs) are used to provide input. They are typically the main input device for video game consoles. Features Some common additions to the standar ...

support, an additional microgame collection accessible after completing the main story,

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support,

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, and an online versus mode, the latter of which is to be added post-launch. HoloHammer has estimated that ''Mindwave'' may release in September 2027, but added that this is subject to change.

Reception

''Mindwave'' demo has received positive reception from critics and

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s. Nic Reuben, from ''

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'', described the game as "the sort of thing you play for five minutes before realising, not unpleasantly, that you are most definitely inside of it now. It has wrapped you all up, and it's going to be quite difficult to escape." Dwayne Jenkins, from ''

Vice A vice is a practice, behaviour, Habit (psychology), habit or item generally considered morally wrong in the associated society. In more minor usage, vice can refer to a fault, a negative character trait, a defect, an infirmity, or a bad or unhe ...

'', compared the game to ''

Psychonauts ''Psychonauts'' is a 2005 platformer, platform game developed by Double Fine Productions and published by Majesco Entertainment for Microsoft Windows, Xbox (console), Xbox and PlayStation 2. Set in a Retrofuturism, retro-futuristic version of t ...

'' (2005)—which he described as "weird, creative, and stylistically different from anything I'd ever seen at the time"—stating that ''Mindwave'' "made imfeel today what efelt when eplayed ''Psychonauts'' all those years ago," realizing that "something had perfectly understood imas a human being." Oli Welsh from ''

Polygon In geometry, a polygon () is a plane figure made up of line segments connected to form a closed polygonal chain. The segments of a closed polygonal chain are called its '' edges'' or ''sides''. The points where two edges meet are the polygon ...

'' wrote, "''Mindwave'' is neither as obsessively minimalist nor as random as ''WarioWare'', but that's OK. HoloHammer is doing something else instead, something pretty exciting; it's taking ''WarioWare'' splintered vision of gaming and building it back up into something whole."

References

{{reflist Action games Indie games Kickstarter-funded video games Minigame compilations Single-player video games Upcoming video games Video games developed in the United States Video games featuring female protagonists Windows games Windows-only games