Alien Caseno is a walking simulator filled with potentially factually correct visual representations of aliens*.
This game has popped up a few times whilst I've been exploring itch. The title succeeded in peeking my interest (how could you not want to participate in some alien caseno games?) along with the game thumbnail containing a stalk-eyed alien in between two very welcoming posters thus making it very hard to turn down.
On the surface, it looks like a game that has been designed by a child. But stop. I mean that in a good way. All of the aliens look fun and it is actually quite amusing walking around admiring all the different aliens that have been created. All of the models are low poly and the colours are very flat but bright . This adds to atmosphere the game wants to create: simple and colourful imagery but also an easy to explore caseno.
Moving around is simple; arrow keys for movement, mouse for looking and space bar for jumping. Despite knowing these were the only controls, I hastily clicked on multiple things expecting for an interaction but in return was filled with sadness as there is nothing for you to do but walk.
The caseno (yes, I'm going to call it that all the way through) has multiple rooms inside. Within each room, is a bunch of aliens (well durr), background music and a big wall of text. The big wall of text is written as from the perspective of the owners of the caseno, explaining their motive behind the current room. I'm telling you now, all of the writing will make you chuckle. It is written in a very similar style as to Job Simulator; a game where robots have archived traditional jobs but from the perspective of not knowing why we do such things.
My favourite room is the restaurant. It is full with dining aliens but also, pizza. Pizza is in the oven, pizza poster on the wall and in the background is a soft piano version of That's Amore by Dean Martin.
... well it's not wrong.
Along with the game, you also are given access to a PDF beautifully titled "ALIEN GUIDE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" This contains a list of all the aliens in the game with their names. They range from traditional names such as Barney, Randy and Sebastian but also some of the names are representative as to their role in the caseno or what they're doing. You have Bonapetit, one of the chefs in the restaurant, Swimboi, an alien boy who is swimming, and Security. The caseno's security.
I'm pretty convinced there are some secrets that I have missed especially when there is a security guard blocking one route and in the game's itch page, it lists lots of sneaky secrets. So if you need me, I'll be at the caseno.
Itch link: https://fisho.itch.io/alien
* We have yet to see any real aliens.