In Moves of the Diamond Hand, I've lied about knowing the mayor, commanded a train's computer to enter an "intense self-maintenance mode", and, upon leaving the carriage, avoided taking damage from slipping on bubble tea on the platform by rolling against my wisdom to simply "accept the situation" and move on.
If my cooking skill was higher, I could also overcome the odds here by trying to taste the bubbles. This is only ten minutes into the game's opening in the Steam Next Fest demo.
Those familiar with developer Cosmo D Studios, who have already made waves in the indie space with the likes of The Norwood Suite and Betrayal at Club Low, may expect this offbeat edge, but Moves of the Diamond Hand makes it nevertheless joyous to take in.
Exploring this world in first-person, and interacting primarily via dice rolls, this is an adventure that's easy to get into but has plenty of depth beneath he surface.
Aesthetically speaking, this leans into lo-fi elements in a captivating way. A mash-up of visual styles, very human face textures sit atop lower-quality models, the train station architecture warps into giant stone animal heads, and a pigeon-person struts around.