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December's Best Indie Games

Posted by Hemos on from the go-out-and-play-em dept.

cyrus_zuo writes "As a last cry out to 2005, Game Tunnel has just published its monthly list of the top games of December. This feature articles takes a hard look at the Indie games released in (or around) the month of December with four different voices reviewing and rating each game, providing a variety of insights into what was and wasn't great in Indie gaming in December."

20 comments

  1. Not too bothered about December by Threni · · Score: 2, Interesting

    How about a round of of the year instead? I don't really keep up that often, but I'm sort of interested to hear if there's any truth to the rumours than indie games are more fun than the big commercial ones.

    1. Re:Not too bothered about December by Monkeys!!! · · Score: 1

      Saying Indie games are more fun then commercial games is like saying black chocolate is better then white chocolate, It all comes down to personal taste. For example I like Indie games when I need a quick fix of gaming that I can leave at any moment, something simple and fun. If I want something I want to get involved with at a deeper level I'll load up a commercial game. (that is not to say Indie games arn't deep and involving, I just don't come across them very much)

    2. Re:Not too bothered about December by smitke · · Score: 1

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

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

  2. Ar Tee Eff Ay by Headcase88 · · Score: 1

    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)...

    --
    "When the atomic bomb goes off there's devastation...but when the atomic bong goes off there's celebraaaaation!"
    1. Re:Ar Tee Eff Ay by Threni · · Score: 1

      > You mean the link that's near the top of every GameTunnel page

      Thanks for that.

      Uh...games certainly have come a long way since the Public Domain scene of the Amiga, haven't they...look out EA!

    2. Re:Ar Tee Eff Ay by AKAImBatman · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Uh...games certainly have come a long way since the Public Domain scene of the Amiga, haven't they...look out EA!

      Not really. Back in the Shareware days, games were of exceptionally high quality for such small studios. Plus you got a full game that was so good you wanted to buy more. Now all those Shareware companies have gone full commercial, and the Indies have replaced them. The Indies don't usually offer much more than a demo, and you often find that the full game isn't that much more interesting.

      Indies need to find their groove in the same way that the Shareware studios did. Until then, they'll always be bottom rung.

      --
      Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
    3. Re:Ar Tee Eff Ay by Threni · · Score: 1

      > Back in the Shareware days, games were of exceptionally high quality for such small studios.

      I was talking about Public Domain, not Shareware. Anyway, they were both - with very few exceptions - utter shit. Crap games knocked out by idiots in a few weeks with terrible graphics and buggy, limited gameplay.

      Also, they weren't produced by studios, but one or two people (per game). Computer magazines were crammed full of adverts for people competing with each other to sell as many programs for as little money as possible. Thankfully the Internet wiped all that nonsense out.

      There were, of course, literally hundreds of great games for the Amiga, and games were cheaper back then, so you never had to play PD (or Shareware) games unless you were a mashochist, or cheap.

      > Plus you got a full game that was so good you wanted to buy more. Now all those Shareware
      > companies have gone full commercial, and the Indies have replaced them.

      This didn't happen, to the best of my knowledge - certainly not in the Amiga scene anyway.

      > Indies need to find their groove in the same way that the Shareware studios did. Until then,
      > they'll always be bottom rung.

      They need to produce games which don't look ridiculous and are actually fun to play!

    4. Re:Ar Tee Eff Ay by AKAImBatman · · Score: 1

      I was talking about Public Domain, not Shareware. Anyway, they were both - with very few exceptions - utter shit. Crap games knocked out by idiots in a few weeks with terrible graphics and buggy, limited gameplay.

      Nonsense. Apogee, Id, Epic Megagames, Parallax Software, Arcanum Computing, Softdisk, Moraff (that guy was a machine!), Bungie Studios, and tons of other "little guys" produced some really great software. Sure, some of it was crap. But the crap didn't sell floppy disks, so it quickly got lost to the sands of time. Sure, much of the Public Domain stuff was either crud or was just a tech demo that was later used to make a shareware game, but a LOT of the shareware stuff was good.

      Also, they weren't produced by studios, but one or two people (per game).

      Um, yes. That was pretty much the extent of their studios. But they were still referred to as studios then, and I see no reason to change the definition now.

      [Shareware companies going full commercial] didn't happen, to the best of my knowledge - certainly not in the Amiga scene anyway.

      Perhaps not on the Amiga scene. But the PC, Mac, Commodore 64, and Atari scenes all were bursting with the gaming studios of the future. Amigas weren't really known for their games, but they were known for their multimedia capabilities. Many of the best shareware programs for the Amiga were in the form of MOD Tracker, Video Production, and Graphics Editing software packages.

      They need to produce games which don't look ridiculous and are actually fun to play!

      In a nutshell? Yes. :)

      --
      Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
    5. Re:Ar Tee Eff Ay by Threni · · Score: 1

      > Nonsense. Apogee, Id, Epic Megagames, Parallax Software, Arcanum Computing, Softdisk, Moraff
      > (that guy was a machine!), Bungie Studios, and tons of other "little guys" produced some
      > really great software.

      Again, I was talking about the Public Domain Amiga scene, which might well have been largely a UK/European thing. As you've implied with your reply in general, and your "Amigas weren't really known for their games, but they were known for their multimedia capabilities" in particular, you're coming at it from an American point of view. There were relatively few US developed Amiga games, and they tended to be dreadful `lesuire suit larry` type games which came on 14 disks. In the UK and large parts of Europe the Amiga was *the* machine to own for games. (The consoles of the time were far less popular here, until the Megadrive(Genesis) and Snes(Super Famicom)) turned up anyway).

      There wasn't, to my knowledge, much in the way of a Shareware -> commercial studio transition here.

      > Many of the best shareware programs for the Amiga were in the form of MOD Tracker, Video
      > Production, and Graphics Editing software packages.

      Yeah, trackers tended to be used for either commercial games or the demo writing/game cracking scene rather than for music in it's own right, although some people produced rave/jungle using one or two Amigas running a tracker program.

      We never really got the `video toaster` software package in the UK, as far as I recall...I heard something about how it used cheap short-cuts that involved US 60hz refresh rates which didn't work over here (50hz). This could have just been bullshit, of course, and that it was a marketing decision.

  3. graphics looked decent by cwtrex · · Score: 3, Insightful

    seemed to me that the games needed more focus on gameplay and stability. I like how the one guy points out that Mastermind didn't even include an uninstall option. My, how many time have I run into THAT problem with "indie" games. What's so hard about cleaning up the install for the user when they're done with your game?

  4. graphics looked decent-Like family. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "What's so hard about cleaning up the install for the user when they're done with your game?"

    But that's it. Your game should be so good, that no one will ever uninstall it. Replayability should be off the scale...like Pong.

  5. I wonder... by mendaliv · · Score: 1

    You know, all these games are rated less than 8/10... and it looks like most of them kind of suck. Kinda wonder if they are just trying to make people give up on indie games and buy "good" games that were published by EA and the like.

    They do need to do a full year though- Darwinia was freaking aweswome.

  6. Considering the time investment to make a game by hattig · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Then a lot of these people have done a lot of work.

    There's only so far a person, or a bunch of friends, can get when programming [in their spare time most likely] a game of any level of complexity.

    Tools are better than they were years ago however. What took a month to program in 1985 in assembler can be done in a couple of evenings now, motivation allowing. As long as someone has some graphical talent you can get good looking games out without too much effort. Sadly they aren't going to have the same level of gameplay as some modern games - it's hard to compete against a multi-million dollar game!

    It's easy for an indie band to get good and be better than a mainstream band. It's not too hard to do decent films on a budget either, if the skills are available. But game writing seems to be pretty hard to get something even 10% as good as a commercial offering. Is it a problem with the tools - Java has some pretty simple game libraries now however, but you still need to know some complex stuff if you do a 3D game, for example. Is game-writing the educated-geeks choice of creativity, another pasttime like knitting, a band, amateur dramatics, etc?

    1. Re:Considering the time investment to make a game by HanClinto · · Score: 1
      Is game-writing the educated-geeks choice of creativity, another pasttime like knitting, a band, amateur dramatics, etc?

      It certainly is for me. I consider myself an artist, and code is my medium. It's relaxing for me to write code and design systems -- it's somewhat therapeutic. It's my way to be creative, and what I enjoy doing to get out some good energy (even though I may do it all day as a job).

    2. Re:Considering the time investment to make a game by hattig · · Score: 1

      I certainly used to write games when I was younger. Sadly I don't have the time anymore, and it can get depressing looking at the standards other people set ... then you realise that is around 50 man years of work against your X man-evenings...

      One day ...

  7. Most of this stuff isn't all that good. by MaWeiTao · · Score: 1

    The problem with the vast majority of indie games is that they just lack to polish necessary to make them serious contenders. I realize that in same cases these developers simply lack the resources to properly refine their games. Even when they have a strong concept however, they often seem to lack the necessary understanding of what makes for good gameplay.

    I cant count the times I've played a game with frustrating control schemes, or unrefined interfaces, or atrocious graphics. I think anyone capable of producing professional quality games ends up working in the gaming industry, either because they find a job with a developer or because they get acquired by someone.

    Creating even a simple game and making it work is difficult. Look at mobile phone gaming. There are plenty of unknown developers giving it a try and most are producing absolute crap. You'd think they would be able to produce some neat stuff on a relatively simple platform but they don't.

    I'm all for supporting indie developers, and there's some neat stuff out there, but most of it really isn't all that good.

  8. Motorama by Eightyford · · Score: 1

    Does anyone else remember playing Motorama years ago when it was called Elastomania, or earlier still, Across(Action Supercross)? It's a great game!

    --
    Religion for nerds. Stuff that really matters
    1. Re:Motorama by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Its really only slightly like Elastomania. Also Elastomania is a great game - this is not.

    2. Re:Motorama by Eightyford · · Score: 1

      Yeah, I just played it too. Elasto put gameplay before realism.

      --
      Religion for nerds. Stuff that really matters