Slashdot Mirror

- getting people to pay attention to you when you don't have a giant machine behind you! :) See GameTunnel's Indie Game of the Year awards, which slashdot didn't even bother printing this year: http://gametunnel.com/cat_goty.php

Have you ever found yourself lying awake at night, staring at the ceiling and wondering just how much better your life would be if someone decided to create a funky game fusion of Worms and Counter-strike, then pump it full of Red Bull and steroids?

Soldat is a real-time, multiplayer shoot 'em up combat game that has the soul of a vicious FPS packaged in the body of a system friendly side-scroller. Players move their soldiers around levels, strolling across hills and using their jet packs to navigate environments that bear no small similarity to ant farms, all the while trying their hardest to evade hurricanes of small arms fire.

The thing is, even AFTER E3 '06, analysts and industry leaders were still backing PS3 as #1 and Xbox as #2. The problem is, everyone in the industry was gauging the success of the new consoles on past history and no one gave even passing acknowledgement to the excitement in the Ninty fanbase.

They do. This article is not a review, though. If you check the actual review here, you can see for yourself.

http://www.gametunnel.com/articles.php?id=536#Defc on Defcon wasn't a big hit with the Game Tunnel panel. War on Folvos (also not on the list) got a much better response: http://www.gametunnel.com/articles.php?id=565#war% 20on%20folvos

http://www.gametunnel.com/articles.php?id=536#Defc on Defcon wasn't a big hit with the Game Tunnel panel. War on Folvos (also not on the list) got a much better response: http://www.gametunnel.com/articles.php?id=565#war% 20on%20folvos

it was reviewed at the site:
http://www.gametunnel.com/gamespace.php?id=342&tab =3
Defcon is one of those love it or hate it games. just luck of the draw.

There are so many freeware and shareware games that have been released online by independent developers and programming hobbyists.

The Independent Games Festival is a good start. And to make things easier, there are a many sites and blogs that review indie games and make recommendations: the2bears and Shoot the Core cover shoot-em ups/STGs; Jay is Games handles flash and casual games; and TIGSource (for which I'm an editor), Independent Gaming, and Game Tunnel cover all genres of games. You can expect to find some overlapping, but they each have plenty to search through.

This is exactly what independent developers have been wishing for, and as the editor says, it has been a long time coming. Personally, I've almost totally abandoned games by major developers, and gone with indie games instead. They tend to have more replayability, cost less and are all in all more enjoyable. I can't remember the last time I looked through the reviews section of a magazine and wanted to try or buy EVERY game listed in it. That's what this magazine did; it almost makes me want to re-read the Scratchware Manifesto again. No more scouring Google for new and exciting indie games. Hooray for Game Tunnel!
Direct link to the publication for the lazier among us.

Russell Carroll has been talking about and predicting on "Attack of the Show" that Indy Gaming would get a boost thanks to the Live Arcade. The idea that you can sit down at a console and snag a game for $5 is the largest part of it, regardless if it's an Indy release, or an Arcade Classic. Most everyday Joe's aren't dedicated enough to build a MAME cabnet, but drop a few bucks on some Midway classics and get the instant gratification of playing immediately instead of getting a game at a retail outlet is an easy choice for most.

Weird as it sounds, but you can find exactly these games - in the shareware sector.
Have a look at my favourite website in that regard: http://www.gametunnel.com/
(Yes, I swear I have nothing to do with them! :)

I bought quite a few games from there. You can try out demos, the games are of many different types, quality is darn high, and they're quite cheap.

I'm afraid that I don't have (or ever will have) a TV, and thus the consoles are all dead to me. However, PDAs have quite a few cute games (I use PalmOS only, thankyouverymuch).

> "solid, easy to get into, quick to play, fun games"

Well, everybody claims that their games is just that. But most aren't.

If you're looking for something short and sweet (perhaps to play during lunch-break, or while listen to some management fool babble on the phone)... that market already exists, it's just that many people don't seem to know about it.

Have a look at http://www.gametunnel.com/ for a nice overview. (No, I have no connection with them).
Want to play something like 'Civilization' in four minutes? Try 'Oasis'. Great fun, short and sweet, and cheap.
Like many other shareware games. Yes, shareware - looks like that market has grown up...

Put used games in a library?
Well, here in Germany we are already doing this. Sure, they're usually not the latest and greatest, but you can get them for free for a week or two. Enough to finish many of them, or decide if you want to buy them.
Looking for newer games? Try the video rentals - they have games, too. Get it for a day and decide if you like it enough to buy it. And, of course, buying it from eBay is a nice and cheap way.

Besides, not being allowed to sell second-hand whatevers is a ridiculous concept. Have a look at my living quarters as a student: second-hand bed, desks, chairs, bookshelves. Used clothing, used books, used hardware, used software, used cats...

Interestingly enough, companies are already trying to stop you from selling games second-hand. STEAM in Half Life 2 is a nice example. I liked HL2, but I never touched it again after finishing it - I prefere to play and edit off-line. While STEAM is being ogled by other companies (I ever heard of our old friend Duke Nukem looking at STEAM), I will certainly not touch another STEAM software - not even DNF.

And, hey, I found a new, very interesting source of games: shareware. That market has grown up, and you find many good games around these days. Plus you can test them to your hearts content before buying them. Not to mention that they're quite a bit cheaper, and usually more fun (better content).
Thus, just last week I bought "Oasis", "Weird Worlds: Return to Infinite Space" and "BreakQuest".
I'm fiddling with "Maxican Motor Mafia", bought "Darwinia" some months ago, and currently trying out "Outpost Kaloki".
Have a look at http://www.gametunnel.com/ (no, I have nothing to do with them).

Seems that the software people are trying to put more and more pressure on us from strange directions - helplessly, of course. This will simply put more and more of them out of business as people turn away from them.

There's a link to Game of the Year at the top:

http://www.gametunnel.com/articles.php?id=412

You mean the link that's near the top of every GameTunnel page? C'mon man, that page is two clicks away from this one (well only one click away now that this comment is posted)...

There's a big thread about Casual Game pricing on the Casual Games mailing list that's well worth a read:

http://seven.pairlist.net/pipermail/casual_games/2 005-December/000570.html

The whole $20 price point seems pretty fixed but I don't know how long for. As a gamer, I hope it becomes more dynamic. As a developer, I'm not so sure.

For anyone wanting to get into Casual Games, as a developer or as a gamer, there are worse places to start that then review of 2005 on GameTunnel:

http://www.gametunnel.com/

And, of course, to be a part of the Casual Games blogosphere you could do worse than help me out with CasualGameDev.com:

http://www.casualgamedev.com/

If you haven't seen, they also have their Strategy Game Of The Year completed. Noticed one of my favorites on there, Trash by Inhuman Games. If you are a Starcraft or old-school Warcraft fan, you have to give Trash a try. It's an unbelievable game for an indy release.

If you want to find underground or indie games, I'd recommend sites like

http://www.gametunnel.com/
http://www.madmonkey.net/
http://www.indiegamer.com/

Does anybody else here think the picture of Wik from the article looks like a cross between Gollum and those old trolls?

This isn't a bad idea, but it's already come up a lot amongst indie developers. The main problem is it takes a lot of work to make the site, maintain the site, and promote it. An indie review site like GameTunnel for example has had thousands of dollars poured into it in order to make it a moderately successful destination for game players. The head guy there, Russell Carroll, will set up a table at shows to promote the site, put out press releases like crazy, and basically work his butt off. To make a review/portal site get traffic, (not just exist and look pretty) you need to put a huge amount of sweat into it. The people sweating want something for their work, so money has got to flow or certain games need to get promoted over others as payoff.

That said, I'm all for more indie game sites and fan reviews are cool too. The closest existing thing I see to that is Home of the Underdogs, which you might want to check out. I just don't think anyone should undertake such a site with the wrong expectations. Like if the person or group's main aim was to make a cool site about games, then they might get someplace. But if they had a business-minded goal to make a place where indie games get a lot of exposure, then that is a long, hard road people have been toiling at in obscurity for years.

theres tons more than that, firstly you missed out the rather excellent
game tunnel and then there is the daily updates on tigsource and more small developers sites than you can shake a stick at, including mine:
Positech Games
The problem is that sites like this just dont get the traffic that gamespy and gamspot do, because none of us have the multimillion dollar advertising budgets. A clique of big name companies have decided that independent games == casual color matching games for soccer moms, and thats definitely not true. My most succesfull game was targeted at people who like complex political strategy games (nationstates / republic / civilisation), you try and persuade the likes of Real or Yahoo to publish that game?
There are plenty of original and interesting titles out there, you just need to google for them a bit, instead of just walking into CompUSA.

That's kind of like saying you wouldn't want to produce movies today, since most of Hollywood doesn't make 'em like they used to. Are you aware of independant films? Perhaps you should look more into indie games. http://www.gametunnel.com/html/index.php

With indy games like Gish getting rave reviews, proof that the indy scene is more than tetris, breakout, and R-type clones.

The indy scene really is about the people who are ok plunking down $20 for a game that they can just pick up and play for 20 minutes, isn't overly involving, and can be put back down. People ranging from your Mom playing Zuma, to your kids playing Chuzzle, to Dad playing Jets 'n Guns

I like Indy games, especially for my young daughter, that I know are fun and entertaining, innexpensive, and have replay value - and the $20 price tag on most makes them worth while to me.

• Torque2D - GarageGame's upcoming 2D tiling engine SDK. This looks promising, but is in its early-adopter release. Not yet ready for primetime, according to GarageGames.
• Pygame - Python-based 2D engine. My feeling is that Python is a great language to start game development in.
• Orbforms Designer - Why limit yourself to the PC? PDA games can give you a greater return on your time than Windows games do. (Per man-hour, our PDA titles bring us more revenue than our PC titles do.)
• Game Editor - For those who want to go even higher-level than an SDK.

• 3D Gamestudio - The engine of choice for our latest games. I love it, and hope they'll extend to the Xbox 360 platform when it comes out.
• Torque - Maybe the single most popular 3D engine among indies and hobbyists. Focuses, in part, on cross-platform compatibility (Windows/Linux/Mac).
• OGRE - An open-source package. Frequently updated. Some nice projects using the engine.
• DarkBASIC - A popular package among new developers and independents.

• Game Tunnel - Previews, articles, and reviews of indie games.
• DIY Games - Covering the latest independent/shareware titles.

Well, first thing you could do is check out the annual Independent Games Festival, then there are a few game sites devoted to just indy games, like Game Tunnel, or for a good example games you could try something like Gish or Saga of Ryzom. And, if people started taking more notice and buying more, we'd see a lot more indy developers giving it a shot.

Three recent trends lend credibility to the image of those modest studios (indies) developing games: 1) the fact that many such developers are are coming from industry proper; 2) the actual nomenclature "Indie" being a positive term; and 3) small studios' newfound ability to create games that are visually appealing.

First: An interesting but not-well-known fact is that many members of the indie gaming community come from a background of well-known companies. Take, for example, the Moonpod team, which had experience at Gremlin and Infogrames before starting out on their own. Monkeystone is headed by none other than id's John Romero. I would argue that games industry experience is not a prerequisite for the development of a good game; but the recent movement of folks from big gaming companies to their own studios makes independents more credible. Put simply: if folks who have worked on shipped, big-budget games are now part of the indie community, there must be something to the indie community.

Second: The actual term used for smaller studios (Independents or Indies) is an important one. You could call many of the products in this category "Shareware Games," but there's a horribly negative connotation to that term. "Indie Games" evokes the notion of a small, dedicated team of professionals crafting out something new and interesting. By contrast, the term "Shareware Games" evokes the notion of some dude in his basement churning out a buggy arcade clone that looks like it was written for the Intellivision. To parahrase someone, (I want to say Chris Barrie): A rose by any other name might smell as sweet, but may be less appealing if it were called "sewage-weed." The adoption of the "Indie" label has helped legitimize games made by smaller studios.

Fifth (20 years from now, we'll be those old farts still making Python references to people born in twenty-oh-one): Independents can make games that look good. It may be because indies now have access to tools that would have made Pixar cry during its formative years. (Maya, for example, can be had for about $2k, and is even free for personal use.) It may also be because there's great talent now available. Either way, I think indie titles, taken as a whole, have become visually appealing. During the '90s, shareware titles had a bad reputation for being ugly, because they lagged so far behind the cutting-edge. These days, titles like Starscape, Dark Horizons: Lore, and Wik & The Fable of Souls are (IMO) looking pretty good. And, while indie titles may not be as spectacular as those developed by a major studio, (our own Inago Rage focuses on bright colors, but doesn't quite outdo Tron 2.0, for example), decent sales suggest that gamers like what Independents are doing.

However, given the dearth of posts in this thread, I still believe we have a long way to go. :) So, if you haven't already, check out the DIY and Game Tunnel coverage of the 81 IGF entrants. You may find that precious diamond in the rough.
_____________________

Am I a frickin retard or do both of the links go to the exact same page? How on earth did these people earn the title of "editors"?

Here's the game tunnel link: http://www.gametunnel.com/html/section-10.html

I generally follow the shareware games industry, because in the past I've found some incredible games. This year has not been too exciting though. The above mentioned Wik looks ok though (Bit like Bionic Commandos?)

I think Gametunnel's Game Of The Year article has a more interesting round up though (and you can avoid sections you aren't interested in like 'puzzle' and 'arkanoid'!!)

Be warned though, it has awful layout - to find the winners, you have to scroll to the bottom, and you have to look thought ten pages of runners up for the overall game of the year! -Awful!!
Here's the winner links:

Action Game of the Year(Alien Shooter)
Adventure Game of the Year(Starscape)
Arkanoid Game of the Year(Break Ball 2: Gold)
Puzzle Game of the Year(Dungeon Scroll)
Strategy, Sports, RPG, SIM Game of the Year(Samurai)
Best Graphics of the Year(3D Airstrike: Operation W.A.T.)
Best Sound of the Year(Dr. Blob's Organism)
Most Original Conspet of the Year(Train Tracking)
Best Non-Networked Muliplayer Game of the Year(Mage Bros.)
Best Networked Muliplayer Game of the Year(Orbz)
Independent Game of the Year(Starscape)

I generally follow the shareware games industry, because in the past I've found some incredible games. This year has not been too exciting though. The above mentioned Wik looks ok though (Bit like Bionic Commandos?)

I think Gametunnel's Game Of The Year article has a more interesting round up though (and you can avoid sections you aren't interested in like 'puzzle' and 'arkanoid'!!)

Be warned though, it has awful layout - to find the winners, you have to scroll to the bottom, and you have to look thought ten pages of runners up for the overall game of the year! -Awful!!
Here's the winner links:

Action Game of the Year(Alien Shooter)
Adventure Game of the Year(Starscape)
Arkanoid Game of the Year(Break Ball 2: Gold)
Puzzle Game of the Year(Dungeon Scroll)
Strategy, Sports, RPG, SIM Game of the Year(Samurai)
Best Graphics of the Year(3D Airstrike: Operation W.A.T.)
Best Sound of the Year(Dr. Blob's Organism)
Most Original Conspet of the Year(Train Tracking)
Best Non-Networked Muliplayer Game of the Year(Mage Bros.)
Best Networked Muliplayer Game of the Year(Orbz)
Independent Game of the Year(Starscape)

I generally follow the shareware games industry, because in the past I've found some incredible games. This year has not been too exciting though. The above mentioned Wik looks ok though (Bit like Bionic Commandos?)

I think Gametunnel's Game Of The Year article has a more interesting round up though (and you can avoid sections you aren't interested in like 'puzzle' and 'arkanoid'!!)

Be warned though, it has awful layout - to find the winners, you have to scroll to the bottom, and you have to look thought ten pages of runners up for the overall game of the year! -Awful!!
Here's the winner links:

Action Game of the Year(Alien Shooter)
Adventure Game of the Year(Starscape)
Arkanoid Game of the Year(Break Ball 2: Gold)
Puzzle Game of the Year(Dungeon Scroll)
Strategy, Sports, RPG, SIM Game of the Year(Samurai)
Best Graphics of the Year(3D Airstrike: Operation W.A.T.)
Best Sound of the Year(Dr. Blob's Organism)
Most Original Conspet of the Year(Train Tracking)
Best Non-Networked Muliplayer Game of the Year(Mage Bros.)
Best Networked Muliplayer Game of the Year(Orbz)
Independent Game of the Year(Starscape)

I generally follow the shareware games industry, because in the past I've found some incredible games. This year has not been too exciting though. The above mentioned Wik looks ok though (Bit like Bionic Commandos?)

I think Gametunnel's Game Of The Year article has a more interesting round up though (and you can avoid sections you aren't interested in like 'puzzle' and 'arkanoid'!!)

Be warned though, it has awful layout - to find the winners, you have to scroll to the bottom, and you have to look thought ten pages of runners up for the overall game of the year! -Awful!!
Here's the winner links:

Action Game of the Year(Alien Shooter)
Adventure Game of the Year(Starscape)
Arkanoid Game of the Year(Break Ball 2: Gold)
Puzzle Game of the Year(Dungeon Scroll)
Strategy, Sports, RPG, SIM Game of the Year(Samurai)
Best Graphics of the Year(3D Airstrike: Operation W.A.T.)
Best Sound of the Year(Dr. Blob's Organism)
Most Original Conspet of the Year(Train Tracking)
Best Non-Networked Muliplayer Game of the Year(Mage Bros.)
Best Networked Muliplayer Game of the Year(Orbz)
Independent Game of the Year(Starscape)

I generally follow the shareware games industry, because in the past I've found some incredible games. This year has not been too exciting though. The above mentioned Wik looks ok though (Bit like Bionic Commandos?)

I think Gametunnel's Game Of The Year article has a more interesting round up though (and you can avoid sections you aren't interested in like 'puzzle' and 'arkanoid'!!)

Be warned though, it has awful layout - to find the winners, you have to scroll to the bottom, and you have to look thought ten pages of runners up for the overall game of the year! -Awful!!
Here's the winner links:

Action Game of the Year(Alien Shooter)
Adventure Game of the Year(Starscape)
Arkanoid Game of the Year(Break Ball 2: Gold)
Puzzle Game of the Year(Dungeon Scroll)
Strategy, Sports, RPG, SIM Game of the Year(Samurai)
Best Graphics of the Year(3D Airstrike: Operation W.A.T.)
Best Sound of the Year(Dr. Blob's Organism)
Most Original Conspet of the Year(Train Tracking)
Best Non-Networked Muliplayer Game of the Year(Mage Bros.)
Best Networked Muliplayer Game of the Year(Orbz)
Independent Game of the Year(Starscape)

I generally follow the shareware games industry, because in the past I've found some incredible games. This year has not been too exciting though. The above mentioned Wik looks ok though (Bit like Bionic Commandos?)

I think Gametunnel's Game Of The Year article has a more interesting round up though (and you can avoid sections you aren't interested in like 'puzzle' and 'arkanoid'!!)

Be warned though, it has awful layout - to find the winners, you have to scroll to the bottom, and you have to look thought ten pages of runners up for the overall game of the year! -Awful!!
Here's the winner links:

Action Game of the Year(Alien Shooter)
Adventure Game of the Year(Starscape)
Arkanoid Game of the Year(Break Ball 2: Gold)
Puzzle Game of the Year(Dungeon Scroll)
Strategy, Sports, RPG, SIM Game of the Year(Samurai)
Best Graphics of the Year(3D Airstrike: Operation W.A.T.)
Best Sound of the Year(Dr. Blob's Organism)
Most Original Conspet of the Year(Train Tracking)
Best Non-Networked Muliplayer Game of the Year(Mage Bros.)
Best Networked Muliplayer Game of the Year(Orbz)
Independent Game of the Year(Starscape)

I generally follow the shareware games industry, because in the past I've found some incredible games. This year has not been too exciting though. The above mentioned Wik looks ok though (Bit like Bionic Commandos?)

I think Gametunnel's Game Of The Year article has a more interesting round up though (and you can avoid sections you aren't interested in like 'puzzle' and 'arkanoid'!!)

Be warned though, it has awful layout - to find the winners, you have to scroll to the bottom, and you have to look thought ten pages of runners up for the overall game of the year! -Awful!!
Here's the winner links:

Action Game of the Year(Alien Shooter)
Adventure Game of the Year(Starscape)
Arkanoid Game of the Year(Break Ball 2: Gold)
Puzzle Game of the Year(Dungeon Scroll)
Strategy, Sports, RPG, SIM Game of the Year(Samurai)
Best Graphics of the Year(3D Airstrike: Operation W.A.T.)
Best Sound of the Year(Dr. Blob's Organism)
Most Original Conspet of the Year(Train Tracking)
Best Non-Networked Muliplayer Game of the Year(Mage Bros.)
Best Networked Muliplayer Game of the Year(Orbz)
Independent Game of the Year(Starscape)

I generally follow the shareware games industry, because in the past I've found some incredible games. This year has not been too exciting though. The above mentioned Wik looks ok though (Bit like Bionic Commandos?)

I think Gametunnel's Game Of The Year article has a more interesting round up though (and you can avoid sections you aren't interested in like 'puzzle' and 'arkanoid'!!)

Be warned though, it has awful layout - to find the winners, you have to scroll to the bottom, and you have to look thought ten pages of runners up for the overall game of the year! -Awful!!
Here's the winner links:

Action Game of the Year(Alien Shooter)
Adventure Game of the Year(Starscape)
Arkanoid Game of the Year(Break Ball 2: Gold)
Puzzle Game of the Year(Dungeon Scroll)
Strategy, Sports, RPG, SIM Game of the Year(Samurai)
Best Graphics of the Year(3D Airstrike: Operation W.A.T.)
Best Sound of the Year(Dr. Blob's Organism)
Most Original Conspet of the Year(Train Tracking)
Best Non-Networked Muliplayer Game of the Year(Mage Bros.)
Best Networked Muliplayer Game of the Year(Orbz)
Independent Game of the Year(Starscape)

I generally follow the shareware games industry, because in the past I've found some incredible games. This year has not been too exciting though. The above mentioned Wik looks ok though (Bit like Bionic Commandos?)

I think Gametunnel's Game Of The Year article has a more interesting round up though (and you can avoid sections you aren't interested in like 'puzzle' and 'arkanoid'!!)

Be warned though, it has awful layout - to find the winners, you have to scroll to the bottom, and you have to look thought ten pages of runners up for the overall game of the year! -Awful!!
Here's the winner links:

Action Game of the Year(Alien Shooter)
Adventure Game of the Year(Starscape)
Arkanoid Game of the Year(Break Ball 2: Gold)
Puzzle Game of the Year(Dungeon Scroll)
Strategy, Sports, RPG, SIM Game of the Year(Samurai)
Best Graphics of the Year(3D Airstrike: Operation W.A.T.)
Best Sound of the Year(Dr. Blob's Organism)
Most Original Conspet of the Year(Train Tracking)
Best Non-Networked Muliplayer Game of the Year(Mage Bros.)
Best Networked Muliplayer Game of the Year(Orbz)
Independent Game of the Year(Starscape)

I generally follow the shareware games industry, because in the past I've found some incredible games. This year has not been too exciting though. The above mentioned Wik looks ok though (Bit like Bionic Commandos?)

I think Gametunnel's Game Of The Year article has a more interesting round up though (and you can avoid sections you aren't interested in like 'puzzle' and 'arkanoid'!!)

Be warned though, it has awful layout - to find the winners, you have to scroll to the bottom, and you have to look thought ten pages of runners up for the overall game of the year! -Awful!!
Here's the winner links:

Action Game of the Year(Alien Shooter)
Adventure Game of the Year(Starscape)
Arkanoid Game of the Year(Break Ball 2: Gold)
Puzzle Game of the Year(Dungeon Scroll)
Strategy, Sports, RPG, SIM Game of the Year(Samurai)
Best Graphics of the Year(3D Airstrike: Operation W.A.T.)
Best Sound of the Year(Dr. Blob's Organism)
Most Original Conspet of the Year(Train Tracking)
Best Non-Networked Muliplayer Game of the Year(Mage Bros.)
Best Networked Muliplayer Game of the Year(Orbz)
Independent Game of the Year(Starscape)

I generally follow the shareware games industry, because in the past I've found some incredible games. This year has not been too exciting though. The above mentioned Wik looks ok though (Bit like Bionic Commandos?)

I think Gametunnel's Game Of The Year article has a more interesting round up though (and you can avoid sections you aren't interested in like 'puzzle' and 'arkanoid'!!)

Be warned though, it has awful layout - to find the winners, you have to scroll to the bottom, and you have to look thought ten pages of runners up for the overall game of the year! -Awful!!
Here's the winner links:

Action Game of the Year(Alien Shooter)
Adventure Game of the Year(Starscape)
Arkanoid Game of the Year(Break Ball 2: Gold)
Puzzle Game of the Year(Dungeon Scroll)
Strategy, Sports, RPG, SIM Game of the Year(Samurai)
Best Graphics of the Year(3D Airstrike: Operation W.A.T.)
Best Sound of the Year(Dr. Blob's Organism)
Most Original Conspet of the Year(Train Tracking)
Best Non-Networked Muliplayer Game of the Year(Mage Bros.)
Best Networked Muliplayer Game of the Year(Orbz)
Independent Game of the Year(Starscape)

I generally follow the shareware games industry, because in the past I've found some incredible games. This year has not been too exciting though. The above mentioned Wik looks ok though (Bit like Bionic Commandos?)

I think Gametunnel's Game Of The Year article has a more interesting round up though (and you can avoid sections you aren't interested in like 'puzzle' and 'arkanoid'!!)

Be warned though, it has awful layout - to find the winners, you have to scroll to the bottom, and you have to look thought ten pages of runners up for the overall game of the year! -Awful!!
Here's the winner links:

Action Game of the Year(Alien Shooter)
Adventure Game of the Year(Starscape)
Arkanoid Game of the Year(Break Ball 2: Gold)
Puzzle Game of the Year(Dungeon Scroll)
Strategy, Sports, RPG, SIM Game of the Year(Samurai)
Best Graphics of the Year(3D Airstrike: Operation W.A.T.)
Best Sound of the Year(Dr. Blob's Organism)
Most Original Conspet of the Year(Train Tracking)
Best Non-Networked Muliplayer Game of the Year(Mage Bros.)
Best Networked Muliplayer Game of the Year(Orbz)
Independent Game of the Year(Starscape)

"Even though the video game industry makes profits in the billions."

Well, that statement ignores the number of companies that don't make a profit.

"Yes. Standardize the tools. No more graphics engines for 10 years. Period. Half of all development budgets should be spent on games that haven't EVER been developed yet (no sequels, no clones, no remakes, no licensed characters). One fourth of development budgets should be used to hire independent developers. One tenth of all development budgets should fund games written by one developer."

So, basically you want people to create innovative titles that no one has ever heard of, but using existing engines? Innovation is a great word, but in game development, if people aren't buying new, you give them what they want. People complain about the lack of innovation, but then everyone is excited about Doom 3, UT2004, Half-Life 2, Warcraft 3, etc. You want innovation, pay for it.

"The adventure genre should be re-invented from the ground up. Interactive fiction should be marketed again. Prices for games should be cut by 30% across the board. Electronic distribution should be standard for all games, including consoles."

Why should it? The adventure genre is a niche market now. Google for it, and you will find it.

Prices for games are supposedly justified. Whether they are or not is still up for debate, but charging a portion of the price to make up for "piracy" is shady in my eyes.

Electronic distribution of 3-7MB games is possible for dial-up users, and there is a large number of them still existing. 50MB is bad for them, and 650MB+ games are just not worth it. Why should electronic distribution be standard? It just doesn't make sense for some games, especially those with multiple CDs.

I don't quite get your arguments, since you want innovative titles, but you want standard art, engine, and other tools to be available to everyone. Won't that just flood the market with similar looking titles? Yeah, maybe they will differ by story or something, but I'm having trouble seeing how these goals you want to achieve will be achieved with your suggestions.

As for the theory and design documentation, I agree that would rock. Of course, I have books on the subject already. And tutorials are available online here among other places.

The thing is, the game industry is in it for profit. People buy certain kinds of games, so publishers publish them. People don't buy others, so publishers don't publish them. For certain games, they are in niche markets. You want to play them, you have to find them.

Want to find out what indie developers are making? Check out Game Tunnel and other review sites. Of course, last time it was on Slashdot people complained about the lack of innovation there too. I guess we can't win either way.

Lately I've pretty much felt the same way, but not just with games. Every year we've pretty much been seeing the same things coming out of both Hollywood, the music industry and the games industry.

I have a slightly older friend who has always gone to see the latest subtitled film, listened to Belgian house, and was into retro gaming before the concept had even been invented. I always used to take the P*** out of him!

The past year I've been buying a lot of oriental films in a big way, in particular I'm getting heavily into Korean cinema and when I haven't been trying to get Mame games working on a shuttle mini pc that's sat under my tv, I've been really into the indie games scene. Gametunnel and games from moonpod, pompom and sigma team have kept my gaming urges alive this year. They might not offer anything new, but at least they are games offering gameplay, rather than chasing the need of the masses to immerse themselves in a movie. I suppose once you've seen so much media of any time, you begine to crave somehting new.

It's not old age, just boredom. Thankfully, I haven't felt the need to get into Belgian trance music yet...

There are whole programing languages that come with their own game engines like Dark Basic.

When you put game programing into the reach of every kid who wants to make another "cool" game you end up with such a huge plathora of junk that it is hard to find anything half decent.

What ends up happening is you get people like me who actually put the huge amount of effort required into the game they are selling then have to put equally as much into looking totally profesional and spending a whole bunch of money on marketing to get your game to stick out of the see of lesser half baked clones.

I think the idea of having any DIY awards and showcases/reviews is excellent.

IMO one of the best new sites to have come to the Indy scene lately would have to be game tunnel -

www.gametunnel.com

an excellent game review site for us small time developers.

Please Note - my game isn't actually on that site yet but I am planning to get it reviewed shortly.

That list is missing some corkers, what happened to Starscape for goodness sake. Still, GameTunnel gave it "best adventure of the year", so there is some justice in the world .

Don't forget Alien Shooter either, that was a classic, I'd say it has a lot more depth than Crimsonland too (don't flame me though, I know both are good).

GarageGames seems to be having a bad time of it.

If you want to have a look at what the shareware gameing world is up to you could try some of the others doing great games.

Dexterity
Mountain King Games
Retro64
Phelios

In fact, too many to list. All of those sites have links to others. You could spend days following them all.

Or you could try some of the new emerging quality shareware game news/review sites.

Diygames
Bytten
Shareware Gaming Magazine
GameTunnel