Free games of the week

When you're a bartender in space, there's not much to do other than hear gossip and pour drinks. I am not a bad person, just one of opportunity. So if you offer me the chance to sell space weed, after knowing me for one day, and give me a plant… I might just snitch on you and start running the business for myself. I also might meddle in people’s relationships after learning recipes to drinks, influencing who ends up together and who breaks up. Who knew so much power came with serving drinks?

You can have this power too, and it's up to you how to use it. If you don’t want to sell weed or meddle, you can just stick to serving drinks and building relationships. Or, if bartending isn’t your thing, why not save people from the dangers of molasses, explore a whimsical world full of comic books, or become an adorable blacksmith with a hammer? Simply read on! Video games are full of worlds just waiting for you to explore.

Looking for more free games? Check out our round up of the best free PC games that you can download and play right now.

Starship Publican by Dogs in Tanks

Serving drinks, interacting with the space station, and figuring out your place on the space station - all while memorising who likes what in terms of alcohol. Starship Publican is a bartending simulator that gives you tons of influence over the characters around you. As a trusty and newly employed bartender, you will get to not only influence the drinks served to your customers, but also their lives. People will come to you for advice, to sell drugs, and just to check in and see what you know. You have all the control over what you want to do - focus on your job, your relationships, or on gaining as much cash as possible.

There are a variety of different drinks that can be created, and this is your main job in the game. Make the drinks that are ordered and keep the hard working space station happy. Your captain will have other questions and guide you, but primarily, you must do your job. During the day, events happen - especially if you interact with people before and after your shift. See what sort of trouble or guidance you can cause!

Molasses! by Alligator

Molasses was the biggest threat to hit Boston in 1919. No, really, there was a flood. The sticky stuff leaked all over the place, consuming people. You have been promoted in the military to save the people of Boston by building walls around them. These walls are built with Tetris style blocks: you are given different shaped walls and you must place them down, making sure that nothing is in the way of your placement. This is done from a top down perspective, with a time limit on every round before the molasses advances further. Molasses, buildings, and people cannot be built upon.

Once you have surrounded an area with blocks, the ground will change to indicate it is a safe room. Workers trapped inside the room will repair damaged walls around them, helping to keep out the sticky goo. It's easy for the walls to be destroyed by this tar-like substance, but if enough workers are inside, they can stave off the destruction for quite some time. As soon as a worker comes into contact with molasses though, they will die, so think fast. Who knew Boston would need to be saved from giant vats of molasses?

Danger Cats: Night One by BradCollins

Cider on the floor of the ‘ginger gnomes’ home, giant apples in a field, and creatures with strange names talking about their lives. All of these and much more are present in this narrative-driven adventure. This game takes place at night, when things are much different. Creatures of the night are the most interesting in the town - as are the various items you can find around. Explore this pixelated world and see what you bump into. Everything will speak to you (if they speak your language that is).

You can find comic books, musical instruments, and overhear conversations. You can drink cider and enjoy the company of people who created their own names. This world is full of mystery and little details for you to look at. There is no real goal - just have fun, explore, and figure out what the town is like. Learn about gangs, visiting the Twittercocker, and attempt to find meaning in the night. The Danger Cats: Night One is the first in a series of these types of graphical narrative adventures. There are a variety of whimsical discoveries to make and stories related to your character to discover.

Piko Piko by MarquetGames

You’re a super adorable, sometimes fiery, blacksmith with a humongous hammer (that even has a heart on it), looking to figure out what is going on in this action platformer filled with visual novel elements. Everything in this world was peaceful, until the earthquakes began. Now people are getting trapped by falling rocks, mechanical doors are breaking down, and people are generally being grumpy now that rocks are falling constantly. You are able to help out as much as you can, using your amazing hammer. You must smash rocks away, fix broken doors, and defeat evil creatures who could bring harm to your friends.

This hammer allows you to smash downwards on breakable objects and buttons, stun enemies, and do direct damage to them either in the air or by striking them in quick succession. Small creatures that do a good amount of damage do lurk along the land - but the serious threats are different boss battles where you must take on an opponent and utterly destroy them. Stunning enemies before attacking them will allow you to do significantly more damage. You are just as strong as you are cute! Piko Piko does have some interesting controls - arrow keys to move, S to jump, and D to attack. These controls can be remapped in the options menu.

Kepo-Kepo Detective Club by Toge Productions

Not returning library books on time is a serious crime in school! One that you have been entrusted with solving in this short top-down adventure game. Your school mate claims he returned the book on time, and that’s why it was found on the shelf of the library. The school’s librarian though doesn’t remember if she checked in the book or not, but the principal is going to fire her if she is responsible for this mistake. If not, then the student’s parents must pay a fine.
You need to figure out who’s done it by going around the school and collecting clues. Everyone you speak to and every clue you find will be documented in your notebook. Once you have enough clues to solve this mystery, you are able to select the three things you want to use for evidence, then accuse the criminal. If you have gotten your clues and guess correctly, the principal will be incredibly grateful to you. Kepo-Kepo is a very cute detective game - and if you provide feedback and like the game, the developer is thinking about expanding it to have even more cases for your detective club to solve!