The YouTuber Max “HandOfBlood” Knabe is known for giving even small games a big stage in his videos and streams. A new indie gem on Steam particularly excites Hänno.
What game excites the creator? Oaken Tower is an asynchronous auto-battler with a PvP focus and roguelike elements. Your task during a run is to equip a tower with items that match your randomly assigned bonus. With these, you then create synergies and combinations that ideally destroy the enemy tower before your fortress has to face defeat.
The battles between the towers take place in a simple side view that, as is usual with auto-battlers, damn you to watch. With “Relaxed” and “Leaderboard”, the early access version of the game that launched in April currently offers 2 modes. The final release is scheduled for late 2026.
Behind the indie gem that currently has 92 percent positive reviews on Steam is the Danish solo developer of Bocary Studios (CROPS!, Monsters and Weapons). Interested parties can currently purchase Oaken Tower for just under 8 euros.
“This will get absurd eventually”
Why is HandOfBlood so excited? The creator explains this for almost 2 hours in his current video on YouTube. Hänno explains at the beginning:
Hello everyone, I discovered an insane new game, namely Oaken Tower. This is an auto-battler asynchronous PvP game like, for example, Backpack Battles. But here’s the thing: You have a tower and equip it, and there are so many crazy combination possibilities. […] This will get absurd eventually.
And indeed, you can tell from the YouTuber how much he enjoys constantly experimenting and fine-tuning his tower builds every second. In the comments under the video, maifalke1083 also enthusiastically notes: “It’s so much fun watching you play these kinds of games! You can really see how you light up and put in the effort to create cool synergies.”
The fast-paced battles also already showcase a wide range of possible playstyles. Some players focus on healing, others on poison, gold generation (between battles, you can buy new items for the run in the shop), or specific elemental effects like frost. You can also check out HandOfBlood’s entire run below:
In the end, Hänno finishes the run with 6 wins and a few losses. It’s enough for a small ranking boost in ranked mode. Enthusiastically, he concludes his video:
“But great game, right? Dude, I’m ultra hooked. […] It’s insane what’s going on there. It’s so awesome when you discover games like this and don’t have that min-max mindset yet. You know what I mean? This experimenting. This discovering when something works and clicks together. That’s so awesome.”
The German creator also expresses his enthusiasm for great indie gems with his own indie label, Sidekick Publishing. In our FYNG show in April, HandOfBlood presented 3 current projects: HandOfBlood challenges Maurice Weber, then showcases 3 indie games you should keep an eye on
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