Vertex Dispenser

A deceptively simple and graphically minimal game with chill electronic music, Vertex Dispenser is both fun and challenging - offering one part problem solving and one part competitive strategy. We greatly enjoyed the multiplayer vs. A.I. more than anything, though. The main shortcoming is the extreme minimalism. The game could do with a bit of polish in its UI and graphics. Simple doesn't have to mean sloppy. Nevertheless, one of my favorites in the genre since the first Hexxagon.

It occurs to me that Steam is full of games like Vertex Dispenser. I mean, nothing's really like Vertex Dispenser, with its uniquely strange mechanics, ridiculously high skill ceiling, and its combination of fast action and deliberate spatial puzzle solving. But Steam is full of games that should have made an impact, should have caused enough of a splash for a community to form around them and keep the game alive for years after release, but didn't. It wears me out. Vertex Dispenser is a game I only played because Michael Brough went on to make a name for himself in the years since its release, with 868-HACK, Imbroglio and Cinco Paus, and it's nothing like any of those. And it's weird to think about, but if it had made more of a splash, is this the type of game we would now be calling a Broughlike? Would we have game jams where people make Real-Time Strategy games that are underpinned by some kind of geometric or spatial puzzle? Listen I don't really know where I'm going with this, but I do recommend you check Vertex Dispenser out, if only for that one moment in the Campaign where the tutorial explains to you what's ACTUALLY happening, and it blows your mind. And also because it's fun and well made and unique.