This unique tile-matching, tower defence, and roguelike indie game is by solo indie dev AP Thomson in New York. Titanium Court is available on PC, mobile, Nintendo Switch 1/2, and PS5 and launched in late October.
It’s winning big on the indie game award front, nominated four times across the Independent Games Festival and, really, it must be marked out for its many unique qualities. What the hell is it!? Let us find out.
Match 3 Your Roguelike Point-and-Click in Titanium Court
Thomson has previously worked on various unique indie game projects, such as the unique 2025 mental health game Consume Me with Jenny Jiao Hsia.
This is his first solo project and it’s stuff like this that confirm why we love indie games. Really inventive, really weird, and guaranteed to appeal to a very specific type of gamer (us). Indie titles often merge multiple genres together for unique results, but Titanium Court goes a step further. Look at this lot:
- Match 3 (tile matching)
- Tower defence
- Roguelike
- RPG
- Point-and-click
- Roguelite
- Resource management
- Deckbuilder
- Visual novel
The game is so surreal it’s been classed as Lynchian, in line with the director David Lynch’s innovative career. But what do you do in Titanium Court? Redesign the landscape on the blocks to benefit your. Behold!
Right! Once the more traditional puzzle element begins (which is merged with a resource management type deal), you have to manoeuvre the land to suit your needs. Two core gameplay modes are High Tide and Low Tide, which relate to matching tiles or deploying resources.
The oddball story wrapped around that, sparse use of music (composed by AP Thomson), and pixel art style certainly leave a lasting impression on you.
Titanium Court is, in part, about engaging in nonsensical battles. Lynchian, yes, but you can stuff it into the realm of the absurd, too, on a Camus front. But players will certainly be surprised what this one hurls at you, as it’s such a strange combination of things. Perhaps above all else, it’s a marvel of narrative game design.
Consider that Grand Theft Auto VI is launching in a few weeks. The biggest game release in history, with a budget of $1.5 billion, and a release set to dominate the gaming world for the next six months.
Yet in titles like Titanium Court, with its curious little universe and 6-30 hours of gameplay, this is where we find our creative kicks. It’s like playing Candy Crush, but you’re drunk and hungover, plus gagging for sushi.
In 100 years, it’ll be studied by wizards with big beards.
