2005 Independent Game of the Year Awards

cyrus_zuo writes "For anyone looking for something different Game Tunnel presents the 2005 Independent Game of the Year awards. Game Tunnel's list of the Top 10 Independent Games of the Year covers gaming from a different angle, looking at the Independent and the Innovative. The awards also include the best of each genre as well as technical categories. Last year's results are still available."

Comments

Google Caches

[Anonymous Coward]

Since the server is already getting crushed:

2005 Awards

2004 Awards

Didn't take long to die

[MasterDirk]

cache available at (no pics, it seems) http://www.gametunnel.com.nyud.net:8090/articles.p hp?id=412

Re:Didn't take long to die

[klack]

The pics appeared after several minutes for me.

Mirrors

[Anonymous Coward]

• 2004 page
• 2005 page

Your comment has too few characters per line (currently 2.0).

Where are the physics based games?

[vitalyb]

That's the kind I enjoy the most. Such as "Pontifex" (Bridge Builder) and to a lesser extend "Gish" (same from the same company by the way.

In fact, the latest "game" I enjoyed most is the Falling Sand game.

Games from last year available on Xbox 360

[Osty]

If you're lucky enough to have a 360, you can play both Outpost Kaloki (original, 360) and Wik: Fable of Souls (original, 360. Mutant Storm (original on Windows, Mac, and Linux, 360, original Xbox Live Arcade), the winner from 2002, is also available on 360 and was available on Live Arcade on the original Xbox as well. On the 360, these games go for $5-$10 (400-800 Points, where 80 points ~= $1), and Mutant Storm is $9.99 on Xbox. Compare that to $20 for the PC versions of Mutant Storm and Outpost Kaloki.

Re:Games from last year available on Xbox 360

[Osty]

Um, yeah, I can see how paying $450 for a machine that plays Wik and heats my living room is a great buy.

It's only $400 (premium system, or a core + hard drive) + $6.25 (Wik is 400 points, but the minimum amount of points you can buy is 500 for $6.25). I'm also assuming you already have or want a 360 for other reasons (like Geometry Wars). If that's not the case, then of course it's not a good deal.

Besides, my comment was intended to point out how Microsoft's Live Arcade is opening up new venues to independent developers. That's cool, and I don't really see how you can spin it to be a bad thing (I'm sure you can, I just don't see how).

Re:Games from last year available on Xbox 360

[Sparr0]

And it will, because no other independent game developer has any clue how those 3 got their hands on dev kits.

Re:Enemy Territory

[Osty]

Aside from being released almost three years ago (hey, it's 2006!), ET doesn't exactly qualify as an "independent" game. It was published by Activision, and would've been commercial if all the factors had lined up properly.

Just for clarification, "independent" != "free". The games on the list may have demos available, but most (if not all) of them will cost you $10-$20 for the full version. That's still better than $50-$60 you'll pay for a commercial game, but it's definitely not free.

Quick list:

[B5_geek]

10) New Star Soccer 3
System Requirements: Windows 95/98/ME/2000/XP
http://www.newstargames.com/

9) DROD: Journey to Rooted Hold
System Requirements: Windows 98/Me/2000/XP, Linux, Mac OS X
http://www.caravelgames.com/Articles/Games_2/JtRH. html

8) Professor Fizzwizzle
System Requirements: Windows or Linux, Mac OS X
http://grubbygames.com/

7) Darwinia
Windows 98/XP/2000, Linux, Mac
http://www.darwinia.co.uk/

6) Democracy
Windows 95/98/ME/2000/XP
http://www.democracygame.com/

5) Mexican Motor Mafia
Windows 98/Me/2000/XP
http://www.scienceoftomorrow.com/mmm_main.htm

4) Tribal Trouble
MacOS X / Linux /Windows NT/2000/XP
http://tribaltrouble.com/

3) Zombie Smashers X2
DirectX 8+
http://www.totallyscrewed.net/newsite/home.htm

2) Weird Worlds: Return to Infinite Space
Windows 98/ME/2000/XP
http://www.shrapnelgames.com/digital_eel/weird_wor lds/1.htm

1) Oasis
Windows 98/Me/2000/XP
http://www.oasisgame.com/

Whats the deal with the weird worlds thingy?

[imsabbel]

DOwnloaded the demo, and after 20 tries, a game is always: run around until you meet the first enemy who will kill you dead in 10seconds.

I managed ONCE to get a chance encounter that actually didnt kill me...

Am i something missing or is this really like elite 1 20 years ago, only 20times more retarted and with worse graphics?

Only proprietary and commercial games?

[Anonymous Coward]

Apparently non-profit FLOSS games such as Battle for Wesnoth (released their 1.0 last year) aren't independent enough...

Re:Only proprietary and commercial games?

[CowboyBob500]

Who gives a flying whatever about how Free it is? These awards are about the quality of the game, nothing else. Look, I'm an avid Linux user, but this kind of zealotry annoys the hell out of me (it's no wonder us Linux users get branded as nerds with posts like this). Wesnoth is an OK game, but it hardly breaks any boundaries does it?

Bob

Re:Only proprietary and commercial games?

[grumbel]

FOSS games seldomly fall into a single year and almost never get a final release, so its hard to judge them together with commerical games which do have a final release.

Shout out to Spiderweb Software

[hellfire]

I can't tell if any of these games were on last years list, but the Avernum and Geneforge game lines by Spiderweb Software deserve honorable mentions. I live for these games! The game play is excellent, the development of characters is fun, and the plot and background of the games are the most original I've ever seen in fantasy RPGs. Jeff Vogel spent time creating whole new worlds. Hats off to Jeff! I salute you with Demonslayer raised high!

HUGE increase in Mac/Linux representation

[Burz]

I just compared the 2004 list with the one from 2005:

For 2004, only ONE title (Gish) was listed as supporting Mac and Linux. In 2005, there are no less than FOUR.

I wonder if this means that more titles overall are being released for these platforms.

Re:HUGE increase in Mac/Linux representation

[AKAImBatman]

Note that little item in #4's list of requirements: Java

That's right people, Tribal Trouble was created by a long-time Java programmer. Don't be surprised if more and more Indies are done in Java. Cross-Platform support comes free, and development tends to be easier and faster. Tribal Trouble wasn't the first Indie game done in Java (*cough*heresafew*cough*), and it won't be the last. :-)

Another nice one...

[fcrick]

I've started playing Trash, an indie RTS game that came out a few months ago. I think its targetted at Starcraft fans, but has some nice, elegant game mechanics I haven't seen elsewhere that are very cool.

Check it out here: http://www.inhumangames.com/

Here's some stuff off the site:

Dec 27. Trash earns Game Tunnel's 2005 Multiplayer Game of the Year Award!

Dec 6. Indie gaming news site Game Tunnel gives Trash a 9 out of 10!

Nov 12. German language site rebell.net gives Trash's multiplayer 80/100.

Oct 29. Trash gets 4 out of 5 in review at upallnightgaming.com. "Trash puts the fun in RTS"

Re:why do people bother with nyud.net?

[iamdrscience]

Usually when the original site is dead, nyud.net is just as dead. Why do people bother with Coral?

This is a valid point, but it's only true if the Coral link is linked to afterwards. If Slashdot or any other high traffic site with a link to breaking news puts up a Coral cache link instead of a direct link, then it'll be cached.

But yeah, that is a big practical limitation of Coral because you don't know which sites are going to go down and so you don't know which ones should be linked through Coral!

Re:exciting?

[ClamIAm]

early games.

Oh, you mean when games were fun?

Darwinia

[CowboyBob500]

Only number 7? I've enjoyed this more than any other game I've bought in 3 or 4 years including the real biggies such as HL2, Doom 3 etc etc. Yeah it could be longer - but there are mods and rumours of a multiplayer coming soon.

This game is sadly overlooked, and although independent it blows away the competition in terms of gameplay. And yes, I have the boxed version, even though Valve took pity on the devs and released it over Steam to give it a US audience.

Bob

Re:Darwinia

[Dachannien]

Darwinia really is a fun game, if a bit short. The Tron-esque retro look is cool (and nostalgic, for those of us old enough to remember when Wolfenstein 3D was bleeding edge), plus it meant that they didn't have to hire legions of 3d artists to make a good game. In addition, the plot is really captivating. It introduces the player to artificial intelligence concepts like genetic algorithms (GAs) without being boring and pedagogical. And this is coming from someone whose life's work really does focus on GAs - their take on the topic was quite honestly fascinating.

But us Yanks didn't actually have to go through Steam to play it until it was released on Steam. I ordered the game the old fashioned way before its Steam release, and was able to download it from Introversion's servers as well as receive a hard copy on CD shipped from the UK.

Why they changed their distribution method, I don't know, unless it was somehow actually cheaper to use Valve as their US vendor rather than doing it the other way. Or maybe Valve is giving them promotional opportunities (i.e., advertising) that they couldn't get before.

Re:Darwinia

[HD Webdev]

Why they changed their distribution method, I don't know, unless it was somehow actually cheaper to use Valve as their US vendor rather than doing it the other way. Or maybe Valve is giving them promotional opportunities (i.e., advertising) that they couldn't get before.

They changed because they couldn't afford the money to get shelf space. This way, they can't lose money if the game doesn't sell.

With Steam, they save bucketloads of money and get a virtual box in the shelf-space on every of the millions of computers that have Steam installed. Every user sees that advertisement every time they go to pick a Steam game to play unless they've changed that option in the Steam settings. They can play the demo in just a few minutes on any computer that they want to since a Steam account can be used on as many computers that the person want to play those games on.

I run LAN servers and notice that very few people shut off the advertisements because the target audience is the correct one, the ads don't take any extra time to load, they can be disabled, and the ads aren't obnoxious. Instead, people are more likely to talk about the new games that show up in the advertisements or news.

Re: Darwinia

[Black Parrot]

> Only number 7?

It would have done better, if not for the high-profile competition from Intelligentdesignia.

I wonder...

[RoadkillBunny]

...if my favourite game made the list: "Let's Slashdot this server". Seems like it did!

I really liked

[rsilvergun]

Thomas and the Magic Words. It's one of those game ideas that's so simple and cool I wish I'd throught of it :).

Apologies on the server...

[cyrus_zuo]

We actually spent MANY hours trying to be ready for this type of traffic, but apparently fell short :(. There is a pseudo mirror of the article and website here: http://gt.independentscore.com/articles.php?id=412

Re:why do people bother with nyud.net?

[irc.goatse.cx troll]

Or if they would just hit the coral cache once then post the original link, the cache should be up for when the site dies. Could be a silent policy change if they are still afraid of the legality of it, this way all that would happen is they would be assuring the coral cache has a copy, not specificly refering people to it or endorsing it.

Smoking kippers

[eyepeepackets]

"Smoke me a kipper, I'll be back..."

Okay, I tried smoking a kipper but it just wouldn't light. Is there a howto for this?

I was thinking that inhaling a burning fish sounds pretty odd, but then inhaling burning plant is rather odd too when one thinks about it. So I started thinking about other things one could smoke but decided to stick with plants after the flashing image of myself with a burning gerbil between my lips. And spare me the Tom jokes, please.

Happy New Year from Boise, Idaho

For those who buy a new car every year

[tepples]

FOSS games seldomly fall into a single year and almost never get a final release

Neither does Madden NFL, which gets annual updates just like any automobile does.

Derek Smart!!!!!

[Call Me Black Cloud]

Why isn't he on this list??? His indie Battlecruiser series, now renamed Ultimate Fighting Championship, are the greatest ever, with secret AI goodness! Hell, the man has a PhD! These games by high school dropouts are nothing compared to the masterpieces that have been in development for years! His flamewar was the greatest online game for years - it's time his software was recognized too! Aaaaaahhhhhh!

How many of these games run on Linux ?

[ravee]

The big question is how many of these games run on Linux ? And I am not talking of running them using emulation like Wine. But natively. Me being a linux user, will start buying them when they start supporting linux .

Re:Bogus list?

[eyepeepackets]

Well, I played it this year as usual and so I suppose, umm, yes!

I have a high quality jones for this Rogue-type game.

Re:My favorite of the bunch...

[Avogadro65]

I agree.

I played the demo of Darwinia sometime a while back when it was shown on TechTV, and enjoyed it then. When I saw it pop up on Steam recently, I downloaded it again and was pleased to see that the controls were much improved (you used to have to draw mouse gestures to run programs, and you used to have to aim both sides of a dish to cross open water). I haven't purchased the full version yet, but at $20, I may just have to.

Re:exciting?

[ergo98]

Oh, you mean when games were fun?

Zzzzzzzz...

Everyone crystalizes a certain era of their life (usually early/mid teens) as being the most fun period of time in the history of the universe, to all people, over all time. Of course this is complete B.S. - Like you I had this foolish notion that earlier games were much more original and enjoyable.

Then I booted up MAME, and several other emulators. Boy did I have my rose-coloured memories shattered. The Pitfall of my memory turned out to actually be some trivial, ridiculous repeating set of boring stages infinitely cycling, for instance.

How about top ten open source games?

[Yartrebo]

These games are all or mostly non-gratis and non-free games. I'd be far more interested in the top 10 list of free-software games. Even if they're not stellar games, at least I can play them for free and without having to deal with the ever tempermental WINE. Having source code adds much more potential fun too once I start getting bored with the game (loads of cheating and modding opportunities).