Bah - highstreet games - tsk tsk (shakes head), get in the indie scene. The games are different/unique (usually), they actually all run on my PC (eek! - faints) and you aren't lining the pockets of faceless corporations. Sure there are plenty of dogs, just like high street games, hence lists like these are great.
Starscapehttp://www.moonpod.com/Starscape/
by http://www.moonpod.com/
This is a classic top down any direction scrolling shootermup, imagine asteroids but then go nuts with the artwork and add a giant space station that follows you around like a portable base, multiple fighters docked within it, research, construction and customisation plus a pretty cool anime rendered story adventure.
Spacetripperhttp://www.pompomgames.com/spacetripper.htm
by http://www.pompomgames.com/
Whilst PomPom's second game mutant storm definitely has a hardcore appeal that we like, we've found ourselves coming back to their first offering more and more. At it's core a tribute to Williams arcade classic Defender, it'll leave you wondering why they don't make games like this anymore.
Alien Shooter http://www.sigma-team.net/alienshooter/index.htm
by http://www.sigma-team.net/
A great control system (move with the cursor keys, and aim with the mouse) , and gorgeous graphics made this our favourite Robotron-A-like.
Alien Shooter likes to take gore to the max.
We were sold on it once we picked up the minigun and started to mow down hordes of aliens; literally, painting the rooms red with alien blood:D
Platypus http://www.squashysoftware.com/platypus.php
by http://www.squashysoftware.com/
Whilst it won't come anywhere close to being one of the top shoot-em-ups of all time, this is still solid.
We found especially that the graphical style kept us wanting to see more (the entire game - even the effects, are made using claymation techniques. The whole game is built from photographs of plasticine models!)
Outpost Kaloki http://www.ninjabee.com/outpostkaloki.html
by http://www.ninjabee.com/
Outpost Kaloki takes a well established genre and makes a very well polished pretty implementation that manages to avoid being too cliche by injecting just the right amount of humour. Each mission sees you create your very own space station purpose built to fullfill the story linked mission objectives. You can add modules for entertainment, research, food production, defence and many more.
Imagine a website that only contains good indie titles and is advertised and pushed so that people actually know about it. The power of google means anyone and everyone can crack open BlitzBasic and make a rubbish [insert popular game] clone and catch unwary net travellers (not that I'm slagging off BlitzBasic, it's a wonderful package, just makes things almost too easy). They then understandably form the opinion that indie games are low quality, buggy uninspired wastes of time and don't ever bother again.
I just hope he can avoid the temptation to pump hundreds of crap games onto his site when the money starts coming in. He could end up with a household name for the place to go inbetween big budget highstreet releases for cheap fun quality games downloads. This is definitely what the indie games world needs, a way for the real quality to be lifted out of the sea and shine.
My suggestions would be:
Starscape - the undisputed king of indie space shooter adventurey type games.
Darwina and Uplink - I have to admit, I could never get into either, but you have to be impressed with what they have done, and their fanbase is huge (so I probably didn't put the time in).
War World - possibly the best looking indie game out there. Currently thin on gameplay but still loads of fun, plus they are working on lots of improvements for it.
Chuzzle - crack like in it's addiction levels, and guaranteed to turn your girlfriend/wife into a furball popping addict (I am thinking of setting up a Chuzzle widows club to support all the neglected men since Chuzzle came out)
Altitudes - a favourite puzzler of mine, that I keep coming back to and hacking away at.
Here are some examples of hardware accelerated 2D games for you (just to prove this guy has a point).
Starscape by moonpod
Wik & the fable of souls by reflexive
alien hominid by thebehemoth
All these games are good (IMO), 2D and hardware accelerated. The first 2 have free demoes available and you can just buy online but the last one shows the problems that go with success. Alien Hominid was lucky enough to get a publishing deal and is available on PS2 and GC, but as a result they haven't made a PC version. So there is no free demo and if you buy it you have to wait for the snail mail CD to arrive.
All the games above could be implemented without hardware acceleration, but you would need an extremely powerful PC to run it. It isn't just the number of sprites being thrown around it is also the colour blending special effects being displayed. So maybe there are new markets for 2D even amongst graphics whores.
I wonder how they assessed the entries, I mean Savage is hardly what ANYONE would call independant with a $1.5million budget. Why are they in the competition? Surely not to win the prize money (which is miniscule in comparison to their budget).
Some of the others seem a bit poor quality too, especially compared to this years stars such as Starscape and AlienShooter.
Highly dubious - give the money to the developers that a)actually need it and b)show the potential to make something worthwhile.
Slashdot Mirror
Bah - highstreet games - tsk tsk (shakes head), get in the indie scene. The games are different/unique (usually), they actually all run on my PC (eek! - faints) and you aren't lining the pockets of faceless corporations. Sure there are plenty of dogs, just like high street games, hence lists like these are great.
:D
Starscape http://www.moonpod.com/Starscape/
by http://www.moonpod.com/
This is a classic top down any direction scrolling shootermup, imagine asteroids but then go nuts with the artwork and add a giant space station that follows you around like a portable base, multiple fighters docked within it, research, construction and customisation plus a pretty cool anime rendered story adventure.
Spacetripper http://www.pompomgames.com/spacetripper.htm
by http://www.pompomgames.com/
Whilst PomPom's second game mutant storm definitely has a hardcore appeal that we like, we've found ourselves coming back to their first offering more and more. At it's core a tribute to Williams arcade classic Defender, it'll leave you wondering why they don't make games like this anymore.
Alien Shooter
http://www.sigma-team.net/alienshooter/index.htm
by http://www.sigma-team.net/
A great control system (move with the cursor keys, and aim with the mouse) , and gorgeous graphics made this our favourite Robotron-A-like. Alien Shooter likes to take gore to the max. We were sold on it once we picked up the minigun and started to mow down hordes of aliens; literally, painting the rooms red with alien blood
Platypus
http://www.squashysoftware.com/platypus.php
by http://www.squashysoftware.com/
Whilst it won't come anywhere close to being one of the top shoot-em-ups of all time, this is still solid. We found especially that the graphical style kept us wanting to see more (the entire game - even the effects, are made using claymation techniques. The whole game is built from photographs of plasticine models!)
Outpost Kaloki
http://www.ninjabee.com/outpostkaloki.html
by http://www.ninjabee.com/
Outpost Kaloki takes a well established genre and makes a very well polished pretty implementation that manages to avoid being too cliche by injecting just the right amount of humour. Each mission sees you create your very own space station purpose built to fullfill the story linked mission objectives. You can add modules for entertainment, research, food production, defence and many more.
I just hope he can avoid the temptation to pump hundreds of crap games onto his site when the money starts coming in. He could end up with a household name for the place to go inbetween big budget highstreet releases for cheap fun quality games downloads. This is definitely what the indie games world needs, a way for the real quality to be lifted out of the sea and shine.
My suggestions would be:
Some more casual suggestions, but they're still good!
Another few candidates were mentioned here: indie games list thread with pics
Here are some examples of hardware accelerated 2D games for you (just to prove this guy has a point).
Starscape by moonpod
Wik & the fable of souls by reflexive
alien hominid by thebehemoth All these games are good (IMO), 2D and hardware accelerated. The first 2 have free demoes available and you can just buy online but the last one shows the problems that go with success. Alien Hominid was lucky enough to get a publishing deal and is available on PS2 and GC, but as a result they haven't made a PC version. So there is no free demo and if you buy it you have to wait for the snail mail CD to arrive. All the games above could be implemented without hardware acceleration, but you would need an extremely powerful PC to run it. It isn't just the number of sprites being thrown around it is also the colour blending special effects being displayed. So maybe there are new markets for 2D even amongst graphics whores.
I wonder how they assessed the entries, I mean Savage is hardly what ANYONE would call independant with a $1.5million budget. Why are they in the competition? Surely not to win the prize money (which is miniscule in comparison to their budget).
Some of the others seem a bit poor quality too, especially compared to this years stars such as Starscape and AlienShooter.
Highly dubious - give the money to the developers that a)actually need it and b)show the potential to make something worthwhile.