Newsbits: A sneak peek at a some indie games making their way to Xbox One this month

August is set to be a bumper month for Xbox One indie fans with the Summer Spotlight promotion bringing a whole heap of new games each week.

First up we have Grow Up on August 16 from Reflections, a small Ubisoft owned studio. The game is a follow up to the PS4 console exclusive Grow Home, and features a robot named BUD who must make his way through the open-world to recover pieces of his lost spacecraft. Along with a new flying companion named POD, BUD will have access to his Floradex 3000, a device that enables him to clone the game’s 24 distinct plant species that will ultimately help him bounce, shoot and catapult all the way to the moon.

Next up is METRICO+ from Digital Dreams on August 23. The game is probably the first platformer be set in a world of living infographics. Each bar chart, line diagram and pie chart reacts to what the player is doing and players will have to carefully analyze every move to see how it affects the world in offer to progress will get you further. The game introduces us to a new puzzle mechanic called “Input Morphing” forcing players to think about actions you normally don’t think about. The game includes six unique worlds to explore with distinct challenges, mechanics, looks, sounds, and original music by Palmbomen.

Also out on August 23 is Hue, a dimension shifting platformer from established indie publisher Curve Digital along with newcomers Fiddlesticks. The game features a unique but simple color-matching mechanic which allows main character Hue to transform the background color of the world to unlock new areas and interact with new aspects of the environment. Hue also contains a heartfelt story that touches on themes of love, loss, existence and remorse and a world full of lively characters to talk to, each with their own personality and story.

Blue Isle Studios, developers of the popular horror game Slender: The Arrival, are bringing their first-person action-exploration game, Valley, to Xbox One August 24. Players will pilot a L.E.A.F. exosuit, enhancing their physical abilities to new levels of strength while making it easy to quickly traverse through the massive world. As you explore, players will also collect orbs of life, dash through forests, leap between structures, and uncover clues while wielding control over the life and death of the living creatures and plant life around you.

The Turing Test arrives on Xbox One August 30. The game is a first person puzzler from the developers of Pneuma: Breath of Life that explores the phenomena of consciousness and challenges the meaning of human intuition. Players take control of Ava Turing, an engineer for the International Space Agency (ISA), and puzzle through a narrated story of introspection and morality whilst uncovering the hidden mysteries of Europa.

Finally we have Shiny, a non violent platformer featuring a robot with a heart, making its debut August 31. Left to fend for himself after mankind abandoned the doomed planet Aurora, Kramer 227 must find a way to harvest energy and rescue his robotic friends before they crash into the sun. Jump and explore every platform in every corner of the 20 extensive levels in the game from Garage227.