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DIY Game's Indie GOTY Awards
Veryzon writes "DIY Games has posted their 2003 Game of the Year Awards in which they name the best independent games of 2003. In addition to the standard categories such as action GOTY, adventure GOTY, and so on they also have a few fairly unique awards going to leaders in such areas as 'Copyright Infringement,' 'Most Controversial,' and 'Most Overrated.' In the end they hand out 17 awards in various categories. Here's a quote on the most controversial category winner: '...Dada Stagnation In Blue. Technically, Dada is a brief freeware adventure game that will be over almost as soon as you finish it, but those 30 minutes in between are sure to stay with you for some time. True to its Dadaist theme, Dada can be very unsettling for those who might be unprepared to see suicide, domestic violence, and dead fetuses addressed in a game. And if that doesn't mess with your mind then the bizarre environments and disturbing Anne Sexton prose are sure to keep you up a little later at night.'"
IMHO the difference is that today many more games are produced than in the 8bit era. Back then, only a few games from every publisher came out each month (maybe with the exception of the C64 and huge companies like EA), so each game had to be "good" and "outstanding". If it wasn't, it simply wouldn't sell. And you couldn't really rip off ideas, because it would hurt the image of the company or the programmer. Plus, from the business perspective, licensing an engine never happened AFAIK.
Today, this is no longer an issue. Many companies license a 3D engine for example - thus producing "yet another 3D shooter" (hopefully with a different flavour).
The market has also grown, and the PC is reaching new customers which would have never used a 8bit machine, much less played games on it. As a result, games appealing to the casual gamer are created, which are "mediocre" in the eye of the typical gamer.
My cats ate my karma. They also wrote this comment.
It's free.
Download it here: (~2mb) http://homepage.powerup.com.au/~hooks/Dada.zip
(href not posted to save the host's diyserver)
Where are the small games? the puzzle games and simple shooters? Here they are.
Popcap
Wild Tangent
The browser has become the defacto platform for 'small' games. Wild Tangent's web driver in particular is available for license as well. It's helping bring accessibility for designers back to where a couple guys in a garage could churn out something fun in less than 3 years.
not a plug, just informational cuz everyone's asking.
// "Can't clowns and pirates just -try- to get along?"
wildtangent's software is also detected as spyware.
"why don't you just slip into something more comfortable...like a coma!"
Their Adventure Game of the Year is The Adventures of Fatman. Unfortunately, the link to the developer they provide doesn't tell you where to get it, only that it's been released as abandonware.
Naturally, HOTU has it, unfortunately minus the voices.
If someone managed to get the full (with voices) version, I'm sure HOTU would be grateful for a rip...
|>
Here be Dragons
The old version automatically checked for updates without notifying the user, and some OEMs have been shipping it without notifying their customers (hence its being labelled as spyware).
It's less intrusive than Steam, and the latest version does have the capability to have the phone-home software turned off.
forget it, the game is a mess... it's just plain awful.
it's just overhyped by the person who posted the article. it's not really controversial, and it's not a decent adventure game by any standard. it's not even an interesting experience. the author of the game should have at least made SOME effort in selecting better images to steal.
the game would have made a much better text adventure. even then, it'd still just be a really cheesy game done by some goth wannabe.
maybe next year if they group together another bunch of bad games, and have a category named "most controversial"... maybe a pokemon game will win for being the most violent
this game sucks, don't download it, don't touch it... it's not worth your "30 minutes"