Developer Spotlight #1: Curdle Games

One of the main aims here at TNT is to shine a light on developers and their hard work, and sometimes it’s just not enough to write about just one of their development projects. Some developers are so prolific, or have been developing for so long, that their back catalogue acts as a scrapbook of their progress. 

Curdle Games is one of those developers whose main chunk of work can be found on his Itch.io page, the results of many Game Jam entries. Recently, he released his first-ever Steam game, ACUVAC: A Suck and Blow Adventure, but his back-list of Game Jam creations and other endeavors acts as a timeline as to how he got there. 

Here are seven games by Curdle that everyone should play at least once, and even better, all of them are in-browser games, so there’s not a download in sight (unless you want to).

Carl’s Candy Crusade (2020)

In Carl’s Candy Crusade, you drive a bus and have to collect dropped Halloween candy with the aid of a bunch of school children, which isn’t strange at all. Regardless, you drive the bus around and use it as a weapon, running over zombies that wander around the map and attack the children. 

I have to be honest, whenever I play this, the school children do tend to die because I am a terrible driver even in video games. Still, I never fail to have a good time. Everything is a little floppy (in a good way), and the zombies explode into cartoonish bones and inner bits. 

Not Chess (2021)

Not Chess is a game that’s played on a chessboard, but… Isn’t chess, although I’m sure you gathered that from the title of the game itself. You play as the very wobbly chess pieces, battling through rounds against checkers pieces. You essentially move your pieces within their range of movement, and then use their ‘heads’ to attack and destroy the checkers pieces, preventing them from crossing the board. 

Every round adds more checkers pieces to defeat, so things can get a little hectic as you progress, but there’s something really charming about the wobbling eyes of the chess pieces that makes Not Chess bizarrely hypnotizing.

WHACK-IT (2022)

There’s very little I can say about WHACK-IT, except that it’s Whack-A-Mole with a really wobbly hammer that jiggles like jello on a bus going down a country lane every time you move it. By this point, Curdle seems to have developed a fondness for adding wobble to the things in his games, and it’s something that remains present to this day in ACUVAC. 

There’s something really satisfying about bashing things on the head as they pop out of holes, and WHACK-IT has a nice, easy slope into complete and utter chaos as you progress and gain a high enough score. Eventually, if you’re not quick enough and the little moles are left unwhacked, they explode, and you lose hearts. 

My high score is 84. 

Catch ‘Em Corp (2022)

Curdle has already begun development on his next endeavor, Catch ‘Em Company, and I can’t help but think it may be inspired by this game, created as part of Curdle Jam #28. In Catch ‘Em Corp, you drive a van that has a ball-throwing turret attached to the top, driving around a variety of areas to try and capture little creatures. 

You can buy upgrades if you catch enough of the creatures, unlocking a more powerful turret or the boost ability, and there’s something really addictive about this creature capture game. There are only 16 creatures to collect (including one that’s gained through one of the most bizarre boss fights I’ve ever encountered), so you can get them all pretty quickly if you put your mind to it.

Duck Step (2022)

Going into Duck Step for the first time, I wholly expected a rhythm game, and I was totally down for that. Then the rhythm portion began, I realized I was terrible at it, and the entire game shifted gears into a fun type of bullet hell that I never expected. You face off against three bosses, avoiding arrows that they shoot at you, while firing back to deal damage.

Each boss is harder than the one before, and the final one is actually infuriatingly difficult to defeat. You have to dodge and weave to avoid those arrows while still managing to aim your own shots, allowing for reloading times… It’s chaos, but in the best possible way. 

Nug Dealer (2025)

Of all Curdle’s games, I have to admit that Nug Dealer is possibly my favorite (with the exception of ACUVAC), simply because it’s so bizarre, and the concept is hilarious. You’re a chicken who deals Nugs obtained from mining in the sewers and defeating chickens down there. Once you leave the sewers, you have to dish out the Nugs to various NPCs, while being chased by the cops.

You have to avoid their gunfire while dealing, which is easier said than done once you start an epic police chase with 10 cops running along behind you. Any money you earn through dealing can then be spent on healing, upgrades, or eventually completing the game by buying a house. Simple, yet effective, and incredibly fun to play. 

Fat Bear (2025)

Of all Curdle’s games, Fat Bear might be the one that’s most different from the others. It’s pixel-based, rather than adorably cartoonish, and there’s a designated path to follow with no option to move outside of it. However, none of that makes it less worth playing, and it’s still one of my favorites thanks to the humor involved. 

You are a bear, and your goal is to get really fat. On the way to chunkiness, you go on a journey, and each step offers up a question and multiple answers. Stats are allocated depending on the answer you choose at each step, and your weight is dictated by the decisions you make. In one playthrough, I kissed a fish, ate some hikers, and ran away from a raccoon. 10/10, would thoroughly recommend. 

Curdle is an absolute gem of an indie developer and worth following over on socials if you want to keep up to date with what he’s up to. You can also join the Curdle Games Discord server for a lot of fun and some very bizarre stickers. If all of these in-browser games have got you interested in seeing more from Curdle, you can head over to Steam and get ACUVAC: A Suck and Blow Adventure right now.