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September Indie Game Round-Up
cyrus_zuo brings us the latest set of reviews for recent independently-produced games. A panel of reviewers takes a look at 10 games, including The Spirit Engine 2, an action RPG which receives high marks, the humorous Strong Bad game, and Eternity's Child, which has earned quite a big of negative press recently. "Despite what some may have said, EC certainly isn't the disaster it is made out to be, not by a long shot. However, it feels like it is brushing up against greatness only to have its wings burned and that makes the short-comings feel all the more painful."
There's a name I haven't heard in a while. I was surprised at how fun the original game was. Not sure I'd pay USD$18 for it though...
I'm glad to see it scored highly. The original seemed to have a more involving storyline than other, 'professional' games at times.
Ezekiel 23:20
I'm surprised that such an innovative indie game didn't make the cut. Then again, I guess it obviously would have gotten a 10, so there was no need to review it ;)
Dizzy and the Other Side claims to come with the source (bottom of the page) but all I can see are the data files. Perhaps if the source is available someone can port it (for learning purposes).
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Given enough personal experience, all stereotypes are shallow.
I for one will welcome our Japanese emo-enabled warrior child-men with open arms and a good swift kick in the pants ...
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Don't forget Multiwinia - it's a September Indie release too.
http://www.introversion.co.uk/multiwinia/
The review of Eternity's Child I saw described it as horrible. Unresponsive controls, really annoying battles and graphics that fell apart the moment they started moving. IIRC you were required to jump to platforms you couldn't see at times (i.e. guess if there's something offscreen you can land on or just bottomless pits).
Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
Too bad.
You want to see an unlocked console?
Yes.
Then a laudable goal, but not a likely one. Even if someone makes an unlocked console, the publishers LIKE DRM. So you won't see anyone producing games for it.
The best you can hope for is something like the GP2X, which had a handful of mediocre commercial releases and a metric fuckton of emulators (before you ask: figuring out how to rip roms is your responsibility). Linux is the easiest OS to work with on that kind of system, but again, the GP2X shows how well that works. So you'd need a windows-based OS, and it would have to run on x86 hardware, in order to at least play PC games.
Except at that point, you've essentially got a special-purpose PC, a la the original Xbox, but without the power of MS behind it to subsidize the cost, good luck selling any. And most potential newcomers know this. Unless Squeenix decides to make their own console, a la Sega, and make it unlocked, chances are slim.
If you want it that bad, pretty much your only options are
1) Build it yourself
2) Go grey market and mod/flash/exploit whatever console.
If you want it that bad, pretty much your only options are
1) Build it yourself
I've considered that, in a way. If an indie developer wants to refer its customers to a web page describing how to connect a PC to a TV, which page do you think customers would most easily understand?
Hell, said indie developer (I'm assuming you) could do up a page in a half-hour to explain it.
The trick is getting them over that
"Step 1: Buy a new video card with TV-out" hurdle. I think a lot of them will balk there.
Hell, said indie developer (I'm assuming you) could do up a page in a half-hour to explain it.
I started one a couple days ago. But at this point, I'd almost replace "buy a new video card" with "buy an HDTV" or "buy a $100 scan converter". As I see it, the median home user is more likely to splurge on a new TV than to open a PC's case, especially with the United States' analog broadcast switchoff less than half a year away.