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Independent Games Festival Free Play

Posted by Zonk on from the games-for-free dept.

Sune Nielsen writes "The Independent Games Festival main competition has a lot of great games from independent developers, who will all be presenting their games in the IGF booth at the Game Developers Conference in San Jose. The IGF has an Audience Award, and has just opened voting. Demos are available for most of the contestants. You need a Gamespot login (free) to vote, but not to try the demos. The award ceremony will take place on March 22nd at the GDC." Free demos, folks, of some of the most out-there games you're likely to play this year. I'm rooting for Darwinia and Dad n' Me.

25 comments

  1. Re:Wow by xusr · · Score: 2, Funny
    Congratulations! Your application for the popular Karma-To-Burn(TM) program for aspiring netizens* has been accepted. Please stay tuned for further updates! They will likely come in the form of slashdot headlines.

    Thank you.

    *is this word even used anymore? I can't remember the last time I actually saw it employed...

  2. Re:Wow by AoT · · Score: 1

    I think all of the netizens became digirati.

    And he is definitely a trolliratus.

    Or maybe we are all SlashBotirati.

    --
    A blog about stuff.
  3. Re:Wow by Luke+Marzilli · · Score: 0

    I hate jargon.

  4. Hmmm by shoma-san · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Nothing for you to see here, please move along

  5. My vote goes to... by Zitchas · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Darwinia. From everything I've read about it, it looks to be one of the more intresting (read: different, unique, and quite possibly fun) games to hit the market recently. Not much chance of getting to try any of them out in the near future, though. On a related note, has anyone bult that time transporter yet? Or any way to add a couple hours to my own personall time frame without changing the rest of the world's time? (so I can get in a couple hours extra on everyone else)

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    Z
    1. Re:My vote goes to... by Locke03 · · Score: 1

      I've played Darwinia and it is one of the best new(ish) games. Sadly though, I can't see it ever making it mainstream, especially with the simple graphics. To the average game player, realistic graphics are important.

      --
      I don't care what youre doing so much as the idiotic way you're doing it.
    2. Re:My vote goes to... by Kamineko · · Score: 1

      And I've just put a requisition order in for a Cannon Fodder box art image macro, friend.

    3. Re:My vote goes to... by nakedsushi · · Score: 1

      How can you vote for something you haven't played before?

  6. Missing something.. by Ceirren · · Score: 1

    A lot of the games are pretty fun (i personally like Rumble Box). The one i really want to play, however, is Braid. But they have no website or demo. How the hell do i vote on that?

    1. Re:Missing something.. by Spy+Hunter · · Score: 1

      Darwinia is *way* cooler than Rumble Box. When you play Darwinia you can tell it has been crafted by people who care about games. The interface just feels right in a way that no real-time strategy game ever has before. In other RTS games I feel crippled, peering through a tiny little porthole, scrolling madly, spending 80% of my time simply managing which units I have selected. Darwinia fixes all of that. You have complete 3D control of the camera at all times, and yet somehow camera management is second nature, not a chore. I hope never again to have to play a strategy game with a traditional "static overhead view" interface. Warcraft IV with Darwinia's interface would rock.

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      main(c,r){for(r=32;r;) printf(++c>31?c=!r--,"\n":c<r?" ":~c&r?" `":" #");}
    2. Re:Missing something.. by Elad+Alon · · Score: 1

      Where can I find that game?

      --
      News for merdes. Shit that matters.
      Ask me about my sig.
  7. Re:Asking all nerds? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    1: That's not true. We just enjoy it (I'm smiling right now). It provides the opportunity for maximum humiliation of your conversational opponent.
    2: Don't perpetuate the Asperger's thing, it's a crutch some of us use to hide our natural social ineptness.
    3a: Again with the disabilities...
    3b: Yes it is, because English is boring.
    4: Who quotes text nowadays? Nerds use hyperlinks. And quoting some text would have made your ideas more plausible... mine too but I doubt you'd click.

    Summary: wrong.

  8. Free 'demos'? by Ghandalfar · · Score: 1

    I thought a whole point of demo was to enable me to test before I buy? Why such emphasis on status of something that is by definition free?

  9. Re:Wow by AoT · · Score: 2, Funny

    Well, fine.

    Make him your foe.

    --
    A blog about stuff.
  10. Re:Wow by catdriver · · Score: 1

    I think by "Karma-to-Burn" he was making a joke. The moderation system here lets people rate comments higher or lower based on how much they add to the conversation. Your "first post" comment probably got moderated down for that reason.

    Overall, the more negative moderation you get, the lower your Slashdot karma and the less likely you are to get picked to moderate in the future. On the other hand, comments that add a lot can bump you up into a higher Slash-karmic plane.

    I wouldn't worry about it too much. But don't expect people to react well to "first post" type submissions.

    Welcome!

  11. offtopic!? by xusr · · Score: 2, Insightful

    whatever happened to a sense of humor on slashdot?

  12. Darwinia+Dad 'n' Me by Premo_Maggot · · Score: 3, Informative

    The Darwinia demo is available to all steam users for free and Dad 'n' Me (the full version) can be played on newgrounds http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/254456

    --
    Good karma sticks to me like velcro on a piece of plexiglass.
    Move along, citizen.
  13. Re:Asking all nerds? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ah so you're the high-school jock equivalent of slashdot... classy :)

  14. Darwinia by Brothernone · · Score: 1

    Darwinia was an amazing game. I unfortunatly have steam installed..(as i play alot of DOD and CSS) so i was there for the actuall release. Darwinia is a great game. havn't tried any of the others, i'll give them a try. If you havn't at least played a demo you should, Darwinia is a pretty fun and interesting little game that came from nowhere.

    --
    He whom you called four-eyes yesterday, you call Sir tomorrow.
  15. Quite easily... by Zitchas · · Score: 1
    By knowing something of it.

    1)I know the company that's putting it out, and they have a pretty good reputation. Everything of AmbrosiaSW's I've played, I liked.

    2)I've read all the official releases, and descriptions, and many of the reviews, and possibly more importantly, I've also read a fair bit of commentary from people who have played it, listened to their descriptions of how it works, and their own views of it's strengths and weaknesses.

    3)I've looked at all the screenshots I could find, and watched all the screen-captured movies of gameplay that AmbrosiaSW released.

    Knowing all of that, along with my own intrests and desires for a new game, add in the novelty and unique gameplay and concept characteristics, and the result is a game that I wuold very much like to play. Which is the point, largely. If I had to pick a single game to add to my comp, I'd take this one over any of the multitude of FPS or RTS games out there. Although I admire the quality and graphical beauty of some of the newer versions of both, a new FPS is still just another FPS. I have yet to hear of radically new elements of gameplay added to most of the game categories in recent years. (graphical improvement doesn't count. I'm talking actual new gameplay). That beign said, if someone out there developes a radically new game, I want to try it out, play it through as best I can. Those bold enough to actually create new games and not just re-issue a current standard type should be encouraged and supported.

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    Z