Slashdot Mirror
Best Indie Games So Far This Year
cyrus_zuo writes "Game Tunnel has just finished and published its
yearly mid-year article
2005 Independent Game Mid-Term Grades. This article, the mid-year equivalent
of Game Tunnel's year-end Game of the Year awards, captures the best indie games
so far in 2005 while also grading each game genre. The article is set-up just like a school report card, grading genres,
such as action, adventure and strategy, with a letter grade from 'A' to 'D' while
also spotlighting two of the best games that have been released so far this year
in each of the genres and listing what game GT is looking forward to most in the genre."
Your really missing something if you haven't played this one; i'm glad its been recognized by this contest. http://caravelgames.com/ . They didn't forget the linux users, either.
Anyone care to link to some quality free games? My current favorites:
Warning forever: http://www18.big.or.jp/~hikoza/Prod/index_e.html
Truck Dismount: http://jet.ro/dismount/
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
Am I the only one who finds independant games often difficult to get "comfortable" with? I mean, I've been so warped by non-stop playing of games like Quake and Counterstrike or Civilization and Baldur's Gate that anything that doesn't involve running around in a multi-player environment blowing people up, running missions in an MMORPG with other players, building terran forces to avoid another player's zerg attack or building up my party in a single player RPG feels... akward.
And don't get me wrong - there are some wonderful independant games out there. As a recent convert to Mac, I'm almost forced to hunt such games down, because there either aren't a lot of choices of modern games (say, Rome Total War) for the Mac, they won't run well on the Mac or I simply dont' want to buy them all over again just to play them on my mac instead of the PC. Fortunately, lots of neat little independant games are made for (or ported to) the Mac.
It's just that having spent so much time in the last decade on the games I mentioned in the first paragraph, playing anything else feels a lot like playing Mine-Sweeper. Or more - it feels like going without an internet connection for a long time. Disconnected. Seperated. A backup alternative for when you can't play the other games.
Maybe this sounds insane and nobody knows what I'm talking about. It's just been so long since I've played at an arcade and I dont' play console games, so my main experience has been very much as described previously.
I think it also speaks to the lack of unique popular and mainstream publisher games out there, that some of us have become so molded to a single type of gameplay.
I was pleased to see Darwinia in the list - it's easily the best game I've played this year. And I'm not usually that keyed in to the world of independent games, so I'm definitely looking through the list for other things I might like...
Tedious Bloggy Stuff - hooray?
Looks like no one gives a shit!
Through a penny-arcade post, I discovered Bontago. I'm a complete gamer, and I haven't been this hooked on a new game in a long while.
The game is physics-based: you drop blocks on the field, and the higher your pile, the larger its control area. You can only drop blocks in your control area. Your goal is to have a majority of flags in your control area. Thus you have to balance making a high, but fragile, tower, or make lots of small stacks.
To make it a little more complicated, you can find special blocks on the field with some special effects, like the rocket that whizzes around and knocks down stacks, or the dreaded earthquake.
The rules are simple, and that's what makes it so addictive. It's a great balance of strategy and a touch of luck.
You can play alone against computer players, and of course network multiplayer (though I haven't tried it out yet)
And for you eye-candyers out there (but then, who truly isn't), it has nice 3d graphics! Check out the screenshots on their website, and you'll see what I mean.
The game is free (as in beer). It was developped by students at Digipen, a gamedev school near seattle. It's a breath of fresh, clean, mountain air (with that whiff of summer flowers) to see that people can still produce an original and goddamn fun game, and instead of an impressive but yet another FPS
Bontago!
PS: the download was hell slow. Maybe someone could put up a mirror? Otherwise, take the light version, the full just has unnecessary extra fluff.
Misleading titles? Inflammatory blurbs? Keep in mind that Slashdot is a tabloid.
So basically what you tell me is that you can't enjoy anything that isn't multiplayer. Almost everything you mention there revolves around having a human opponent. You explicitly state that going to other games is like basically losing your internet connection.
Which, of course, is as good a criterion as any, and a very valid market segment. It's not just you, and you're not alone. There are lots of people who indeed are multiplayer-only.
You have to realize, though, that it's just one segment. Arguably, not even the dominant one. Most of the world's gaming seems to happen in single-player and off-line.
Anyway, there are a lot of us who really _don't_ feel a need to compete with other players. Even in MMORPGs, i.e., something by definition multi-player, there are people who prefer to solo, turning it into SP.
So I'm guessing there is a market for these games too. You're obviously not in that market. But I'd guess others might be.
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
The best three indy games so far (just look on google for URLs, I haven't them on me at the moment):
Zombie Smashers X2
Jets n' Guns
Mount & Blade
How can any list of the best independant games of the year not include Doukutsu Monogatari? It's not only one of the well-written and emotional games I've ever played, it's also one of the best side-scrollers, period.