Tactical turn-based battle RPG Bonfire is available to alpha-buy now

Bonfire is what you get when you take the battles out of a turn-based RPG, and give them their own starring role. There's not much plot, no walking around, and no shopkeepers to fleece you out of your hard-earned gold - just fights, more fights, and then some more fights for pudding. It's a good thing the fights are pretty good, then. They're streamlined - Bonfire manages to do without battle menus - but tactical with it, your three-person crew needing to collaborate strategically in order to make it through each area alive. More features will be added until the game is 'officially' out, but there's a demo to try in the meantime.

Buying into the alpha of the Cinders devs' latest game will set you back $7.95, down from the $15.95 Bonfire will launch at when it's been fully kindled (fire joke). As it currently stands, the game consists of a number of 'journeys' and 'challenges' (basically, dungeons), which throw wave after wave of randomised enemy formations at you, culminating in a boss fight. Gold earned can be spent between adventures to upgrade your heroes. It's not clear what additional features are being planned, but there is talk of a "random infinite dungeon" over on the TIGSource forums , and I think that's a cracking idea.

I leave you with a video of an exploding dragon, because I don't think I've ever seen one before.

Tom loves exploring in games, whether it’s going the wrong way in a platformer or burgling an apartment in Deus Ex. His favourite game worlds—Stalker, Dark Souls, Thief—have an atmosphere you could wallop with a blackjack. He enjoys horror, adventure, puzzle games and RPGs, and played the Japanese version of Final Fantasy VIII with a translated script he printed off from the internet. Tom has been writing about free games for PC Gamer since 2012. If he were packing for a desert island, he’d take his giant Columbo boxset and a laptop stuffed with PuzzleScript games.