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Eh, some of these URLs might not be right since they're from memory, but my recommendations would be:

First, I second Starscape, Gish, and Fate, they're all good.

And some new ones:

Alien Shooter http://www.sigma-team.net/ - The most incredible isometric shooter ever made.
Star Monkey http://www.smallrockets.com/ - A great (though very short) vertical scrolling shooter. Ultra Assualt, from the same company, is also very good, and longer. I just prefer Star Monkey for some reason.
Zombie Smashers X2 http://zsx2.totallyscrewed.net/ - The most incredible side-scrolling beat-em-up ever made.
Lux http://www.sillysoft.com/ - An excellent online or offline Risk game, which allows the Risk ruleset to be applied to user created maps, and also allows for large scale scenarios which would be extremely difficult using a traditional board. Has a good following, and some excellent map makers.
Demonstar: Secret Missions 1 http://www.mking.com/ - The best of the 3 Demonstar games (SM2 is also good). A good vertical scrolling shooter blatantly inspired by the Raiden arcade series. I've been hoping for a modernized sequel (either higher-res sprites or polygonned), but I think Mountain King has sort of stopped making games.

And, the best for last:

Jets n' Guns http://www.rakeingrass.com/ - The greatest shooter of any kind since Tyrian, and arguably better than Tyrian.

If you're interested in some of these, I'd recommend Jets n' Guns first, then Starscape, then Zombie Smashers X2, then Alien Shooter, and definitely Lux if you like Risk.

Sure, why not? http://www.smallrockets.com/pc/mad/

Where are the small games? the puzzle games and simple shooters? Here they are.

Small Rockets is also a great mini-publisher:
http://www.smallrockets.com/index_main.htm

Star Monkey and Ultra Assault, while unfortunately named, are awesome old-school scrolling shooters.

Small Rockets Poker is available for Linux, but I don't fancy your chances of getting it to work - it was compiled some time ago for RedHat 6 and doesn't appear to work with later versions. You could try mailing them to ask for a recompile, but don't hold your breath - there's only one guy working there now and he wasn't anything to do with that game or the Linux port of it. However, it's worth a try.

They think they're being controversial or something, but they're actually just being really stupid and immature. This game reeks of 13-year-old humor. This game has no artistic, comical, or technical value whatsoever. I like to support Linux games on general principle, but I just can't do that for this game.

If you're into 2D shooters then you might want to have a look at Star Monkey or Ultra Assault by the UK-based developer Small Rockets.

Both games have demo versions available, although the demo of Ultra Assault plays for a very short period of time (a minute?) and has a counter ticking down in the middle of the screen, so it's very difficult to experience what the game is like because you simply can't play enough of it. Star Monkey doesn't suffer from this problem.

Both of these games use 3D graphics but are presented as top-down 2D shooters.

(Obvious disclaimer: I'm not associated with Small Rockets in any way.)

If you're into 2D shooters then you might want to have a look at Star Monkey or Ultra Assault by the UK-based developer Small Rockets.

Both games have demo versions available, although the demo of Ultra Assault plays for a very short period of time (a minute?) and has a counter ticking down in the middle of the screen, so it's very difficult to experience what the game is like because you simply can't play enough of it. Star Monkey doesn't suffer from this problem.

Both of these games use 3D graphics but are presented as top-down 2D shooters.

(Obvious disclaimer: I'm not associated with Small Rockets in any way.)

If you're into 2D shooters then you might want to have a look at Star Monkey or Ultra Assault by the UK-based developer Small Rockets.

Both games have demo versions available, although the demo of Ultra Assault plays for a very short period of time (a minute?) and has a counter ticking down in the middle of the screen, so it's very difficult to experience what the game is like because you simply can't play enough of it. Star Monkey doesn't suffer from this problem.

Both of these games use 3D graphics but are presented as top-down 2D shooters.

(Obvious disclaimer: I'm not associated with Small Rockets in any way.)

This is what our studio is attempting to do, and though it's too early to tell how successful we'll be, we believe it's the best route to a self-sufficient indie studio. Successes like Popcap and GameHouse are inspiring, and give one roadmap to being self-sufficient. Another good example is Small Rockets.

In our case we are working very closely with GarageGames as our primary publisher/distributor. Between their help teaching us how to handle PR and marketing, their willingness to give advice on how to be successful, and our own attempts at networking, we think we will be a successful indie in the not-too-distant future. A good example of such cooperation was last week's MacWorld in San Francisco, where we helped run an arcade station for GG showing their title Marble Blast and our title Orbz (small, shameless plug). By joining them in SF for a few days, we were rewarded by making several contacts for future game development work and possible OEM deals.

This is how indies can "compete" with the big publishers.

Dave Myers

21-6 Productions, Inc.

It'll take you ages. Especially if you want to do it on a PS2 (even if you had access to professional tools). Especially if you've got no previous games programming experience.

If you're going to do a game...

a) Write it on a PC - much easier to debug etc..
b) Use as much middleware as you can - if possible, use someone else's engine.

I wrote a game last year called Hunt for the Red Baron in 9 months. I was the only progammer and I had an Artist and a part-time games designer working with me. We used Renderware and a load of our own libraries, and without them I'd never have had time to do it, and I'd already got several years of games programming experience behind me. Believe me, all that boring stuff to load in bitmaps, handle input, etc etc takes ages. Go for a existing engine if you can.

The other option is just to write an engine for your project and forget the game side of things, and just end up with a demo.

cheers,

Tim

If an omnidirectional multi-fire shootem-up is your bag I do hope you own the wonder that is Bangai-O for the Dreamcast. Treasure are keeping the insane shooter alive almost single-handedly these days.

If its PC-based scrolly shooting you need, get after Star Monkey from Small Rockets. Fancy 3d lighting effects from your graphics card, but its still a vertical scroller.