UFO 50
Developer(s)	Mossmouth, LLC
Publisher(s)	Mossmouth, LLC
Designer(s)	Derek Yu Jon Perry Eirik Suhrke Paul Hubans Tyriq Plummer Ojiro Fumoto
Composer(s)	Eirik Suhrke
Engine	GameMaker Studio
Platform(s)	Windows
Release	September 18, 2024
Genre(s)	Various
Mode(s)	Single-player, multiplayer, co-op

UFO 50 is a video game collection developed and published by Mossmouth for Windows on September 18, 2024. It features 50 unique games of varying genres and length.^[1] The games are a collaborative effort by six developers over the course of several years, similar to a long-form game jam.

UFO 50 was critically acclaimed, and is the highest rated PC-exclusive of 2024 on Metacritic. Critics applauded the amount of variety, experimentation, and consistent quality that the collection provided, although some wished specific entries were expanded as their own separate releases. The game received several nominations for Best Independent Game at various award ceremonies.

UFO 50 is presented as a compilation of games similar to Action 52, developed by the fictional company UFO Soft for the LX-I, LX-II, and LX-III series of video game consoles between 1982 and 1989.^[2] Half of the games feature a two-player mode, either versus or co-op. The main 50 games are playable from the start,^[3][4][5] with the hidden 51st game, Miasma Tower, accessible via inputting commands in the ingame terminal.^[6] Miasma Tower itself is a game secretly developed by fictional developer Gregory Milk, which details the state of UFO Soft circa July 1989. In-universe, the UFO 50 collection is stated to be developed by Milk and never released officially, with the files found in an abandoned warehouse by the Mossmouth developers, as shown in the faux-cracktro of the game.

The order in which the games are presented is intended to show the history of UFO Soft's development slate, with some games having sequels, and others featuring cameos from previously released games.^[3][4][5][7] Each game also features short development notes informing their fictional creation.^[2]

The games belong to genres including shoot 'em up, platformer, and role-playing, each with a twist. The games vary in length and scope, with some being described as "shorter, arcade-style experiences", while others "have narratives and expansive worlds to explore", with one (Grimstone) estimated to take upwards of 60 hours to complete fully.^{[8][9][10][11]}

When a game is completed for the first time, its border on the game selection screen will change from blue to gold. A more challenging win condition is also revealed, which grants a cherry border upon completion. Each game additionally includes a unique gift that will appear on the garden screen when certain requirements are met.

Director credits explicitly stated when directly sourced.^{[note 1]}

#	Name	Genre (as listed in-game)	Versus	Co-op	Fictional year of release	Developed by
1	Barbuta	Adventure, Platform	—	—	1982	Eirik Suhrke
2	Bug Hunter	Puzzle, Strategy		—	1983	Jon Perry
3	Ninpek	Arcade, Platform	—		1983	Eirik Suhrke
4	Paint Chase	Arcade		—	1983	Jon Perry
5	Magic Garden	Arcade	—	—	1984	Derek Yu, Jon Perry, Tyriq Plummer[13]
6	Mortol	Platform, Puzzle	—		1984	Director: Jon Perry[14] Additional: Paul Hubans
7	Velgress	Arcade, Platform	—	—	1984	Derek Yu
8	Planet Zoldath	Adventure	—	—	1984	Jon Perry
9	Attactics	Arcade, Strategy		—	1984	Directors: Derek Yu,[12] Jon Perry[12]
10	Devilition[note 2]	Puzzle, Strategy	—	—	1984	Directors: Derek Yu,[15] Jon Perry[15]
11	Kick Club	Arcade, Platform	—		1984	Derek Yu
12	Avianos	Strategy		—	1985	Director: Jon Perry[16]
13	Mooncat[note 3]	Platform	—		1985	Director: Eirik Suhrke[18] Additional: Ojiro Fumoto[18]
14	Bushido Ball	Sport			1985	Derek Yu, Tyriq Plummer,[13] Jon Perry, Paul Hubans
15	Block Koala	Puzzle	—	—	1985	Derek Yu, Paul Hubans
16	Camouflage	Puzzle	—	—	1985	Jon Perry
17	Campanella	Arcade	—	—	1985	Director: Eirik Suhrke[18] Additional: Ojiro Fumoto[18]
18	Golfaria	Adventure	—	—	1985	Directors: Derek Yu,[19] Tyriq Plummer[19] Additional: Paul Hubans
19	The Big Bell Race	Sport	—		1985	Director: Eirik Suhrke[13]
20	Warptank	Adventure, Puzzle	—	—	1985	Director: Eirik Suhrke[13]
21	Waldorf's Journey	Arcade, Platform		—	1986	Jon Perry
22	Porgy	Adventure, Shooter	—	—	1986	Derek Yu, Tyriq Plummer[13]
23	Onion Delivery	Arcade	—	—	1986	Director: Eirik Suhrke[19] Additional: Paul Hubans,[19] Tyriq Plummer[13]
24	Caramel Caramel	Arcade, Shooter	—		1986	Eirik Suhrke
25	Party House	Strategy		—	1986	Director: Jon Perry[14]
26	Hot Foot	Sport			1986	Jon Perry
27	Divers	RPG	—	—	1986	Eirik Suhrke, Tyriq Plummer[13]
28	Rail Heist	Platform, Strategy		—	1987	Director: Jon Perry[14] Additional: Paul Hubans
29	Vainger	Adventure, Platform	—	—	1987	Derek Yu, Tyriq Plummer[13]
30	Rock On! Island	Strategy	—	—	1987	Derek Yu, Paul Hubans
31	Pingolf	Sport		—	1987	Eirik Suhrke
32	Mortol II	Adventure, Platform	—		1987	Director: Derek Yu[20]
33	Fist Hell	Arcade	—		1987	Director: Derek Yu[13]
34	Overbold	Arcade, Shooter		—	1987	Jon Perry
35	Campanella 2	Adventure	—	—	1987	Director: Eirik Suhrke[13]
36	Hyper Contender	Platform, Sport		—	1988	Jon Perry
37	Valbrace	Adventure, RPG	—	—	1988	Directors: Tyriq Plummer,[13][21] Derek Yu[13] Additional: Paul Hubans
38	Rakshasa	Platform	—	—	1988	Director: Eirik Suhrke[22]
39	Star Waspir	Arcade, Shooter	—	—	1988	Derek Yu
40	Grimstone	RPG	—	—	1988	Director: Derek Yu[13] Additional: Paul Hubans
41	Lords of Diskonia	Strategy		—	1988	Jon Perry
42	Night Manor	Adventure, Puzzle	—	—	1988	Director: Paul Hubans[21] Additional: Derek Yu
43	Elfazar's Hat	Arcade, Shooter	—		1988	Eirik Suhrke
44	Pilot Quest	Adventure	—	—	1988	Directors: Derek Yu,[20] Jon Perry[20]
45	Mini & Max	Adventure, Platform	—	—	1989	Director: Jon Perry[16] Additional: Paul Hubans
46	Combatants	Strategy		—	1989	Derek Yu
47	Quibble Race[note 4]	Strategy, Simulation		—	1989	Derek Yu,[15] Jon Perry
48	Seaside Drive	Arcade, Shooter	—		1989	Director: Ojiro Fumoto[18]
49	Campanella 3	Arcade, Shooter	—	—	1989	Director: Eirik Suhrke[13]
50	Cyber Owls	Platform, Shooter, Strategy	—	—	1989	Derek Yu, Paul Hubans, Tyriq Plummer[13]
51	Miasma Tower[note 5]	—	—	—	1989	?

Derek Yu and Jon Perry had previously made a number of freeware games together using Klik & Play under the name Blackeye Software, with notable titles being Trigger Happy, Diabolika (remade in UFO 50 as Devilition) and Eternal Daughter, their final game in 2002. In 2016, the two decided to work together again on a project, and warmed up by making small prototypes for ideas.^[21] These prototypes eventually spiralled into the concept for UFO 50: a large collection of small games. The idea to create a collection came from Yu's belief that these concepts for games, if expanded, would not do well as standalone releases in the current marketplace.^[2]

The first game in the collection to start development was Attactics, which was fully developed by Yu and Perry alone as a re-introduction into working together.^[12] Soon after, Eirik Suhrke was invited to join as both composer and designer, and the three started to brainstorm games on a private forum, with a majority of these concepts making their way into the final game. The number of games advertised in the collection (50) was chosen by Yu because "it was the first number I could think of that was completely undeniable... that would advertise itself with its own existence."^[23] Three additional developers joined at various parts of development: Ojiro Fumoto, known for Downwell, who spent a half-year on the team and directed Seaside Drive; Paul Hubans, known for Madhouse, who was the lead director for Night Manor; and Tyriq Plummer, known for Catacomb Kids, who ended up co-directing several of the collection's largest games, an example being Valbrace.^[24] Every member of the team contributed design, writing, artwork, and programming to UFO 50, and worked on anothers' games, sometimes extensively.^[21]

UFO 50 was developed in GameMaker. It was first announced in 2017, with an expected launch date of 2018. However, the team severely underestimated how long it would take to finish 50 games.^[25] This meant that development times became inflated, and it became a requirement for the team to recode older parts of the game, with Yu describing some of the code as "prehistoric".^[24] The simultaneous development of Spelunky 2 also slowed development of the game to a crawl during 2020, with Suhrke and Yu stepping away from the UFO 50 project entirely until Spelunky 2 was released.^[21][25] Furthermore, at least two games were scrapped entirely during development.^{[note 6]} Because of these reasons, development took six more years, with the game's final release date being September 18, 2024.^[26] UFO 50's eight-year development time coincidentally ended up matching the time frame spanning the games' fictional release dates (1982–1989).^[27]

All games in the collection impose restrictions which could be found in games released during the era, such as using only 32 colors across each game. Slowdown and sprite flickering were not included, as Yu believed that it would hinder the experience.^[5] Some games across the collection reuse sound, assets and code, the most notable example of this being the Campanella series which all make use of the same engine.^[13] Suhrke intentionally did not use NES-inspired sounds as typically seen in other indie games, instead choosing to use wavetable synthesis more similar to the TurboGrafx-16 for his soundtrack and sound design. Suhrke is the sole composer of all 51 games and their sound design/effects.^[28]

UFO 50 was revealed in 2017 on the Mossmouth YouTube channel, and was slated to be released the following year.^[25] An early version of UFO 50 was showcased during 2017's Pax West game convention,^[29] as well as the following year's Pax West.^[30] It was one of the games featured at Summer Game Fest's Day of the Devs livestream, where its final release date was announced to be September 18, 2024.^[31]

UFO 50 received "universal acclaim" according to the review aggregator website Metacritic, with an average score of 91^[32] making it the highest-rated PC exclusive of 2024.^[43] 100% of critics recommended the game according to OpenCritic.^[33] Many reviewers either chose not to give traditional scores to the game, or are still in the process of reviewing it due to its nature of being a collection of 50 individual games.^{[34][41][44][45][46]} DigitalTrends alternatively chose to score all 50 individually in their review.^[35]

Most reviewers lauded UFO 50's variety, value, and experimentation. Eurogamer's Christian Donlan extensively praised the experimentation and variation of games in the collection, calling it a "dazzling piece of creative audacity".^[37] Simon Parkin of The Guardian described the collection as "a preposterously ambitious undertaking".^[38] Edge wrote that when one game "holds your undivided attention for an extended span, it must be something special indeed, and of those, UFO 50 has more than its fair share".^[36] The New York Times compared UFO 50 to "an ingeniously retro advent calendar"^[47] while Metro's GameCentral specifically praised that the games advertised were "not WarioWare or anything like it", being "50 fully formed games".^[48] Polygon's Grayson Morley lauded the metafiction linking the games of the collection chronologically, highlighting the evolution of "brutal" mechanics found in Barbuta to the life-based mechanics found later in Mortol and Mortol II, in addition to the "UFO Soft" narrative.^[41]

In contrast, PC Gamer's Kerry Brunskill remarked that they would have rather seen some games in the collection "stand on their own merits" as standalone releases, with others being "a little too retro for their own good".^[40] Digital Trends' Giovanni Colantonio praised the game for its experimentation, but admitted there were "a handful of duds in the batch".^[35] The A. V. Club's William Hughes recommended the collection, remarking that "there are extremely good games in here, some worth more than the asking price" but "many games in the collection feel torn between their desire to stay retro-hard and being genuinely fun".^[34]

Games in UFO 50 that were singled out by multiple reviewers as being exceptional include Mortol,^{[34][35][39][45]} Party House,^{[35][37][38][39]} Rail Heist,^[37][38][46] Night Manor,^{[37][38][40][48][49]} and Mini & Max.^[35][40][48]

• Official website