gimbal

Lets have a thread for the new breed of games worthy to play: indy games. Any platform will do (most of these games are multiplatform anyway). I'm always surprised how many excellent games exist that are not distributed by the EAs and Activisions of today; these games tend to go for 3-10 euros which makes them even more worth owning, especially since most of them have old school gameplay.

Here are a few I have on my wishlist / playlist right now. Note that means I haven't actually played all of them yet, so if you have I value your opinion on them.


Zombie Driver
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzWYxZLZWOE

Nothing fancy; you are in a car and you have to splatter endless hordes of zombies. Who needs a story anyway when you have total carnage?


Shatter
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5OXNhliT_s

I've always enjoyed Arkanoid and there have been many versions of it, some more radical than others. This seems like a nice over the top one in that "geometry wars" color festive way, complete with boss fights.


A.R.E.S. extinction agenda
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODN_Y0OCUNU

I think the movie says it all. This looks like a Turrican/Mega Man/Abuse crossover and it looks awesome.


Trine
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OTJFsI6xyo

Not exactly 100% indy, but still a very nice 2D action platformer. Made by Frozenbyte who also delivered the excellent Shadowgrounds. Note that I suggest you watch this movie to the end before forming an opinion on it; this game is very rich in gameplay indeed. Also the first 2D game that I have seen that actually uses physics to enrich that gameplay in a subtle way in stead of creating the entire game around it.


If you know some more, new or old, please share!

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Nostalgeek

Thanks for the links! Shatter looks amazing and I'm downloading it as speaking

7.99 euros on Steam, how easy is that?

By the way just read that news:

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...ownload-market

That's actually huge, I knew Steam was doing good but not THAT good!


For Elite lovers and space enthusiasts that never heard of it, there is also one game to keep bookmarked:


Infinity
http://infinity-universe.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7eREddMjt4

Not a game yet, will even maybe never be released, but at the moment it's a procedural generation based engine of a universe, with seamless transitions from space to planets surface as seen in the linked tech video. For me it's a kid's dream coming true this was made by a single guy, working on it since 2004. He now teamed up with a guy from Epic Games, in the goal of making a company and hire a full team to actually finish the game.

Best of luck to them, and even if no game is released, please give me the tech demo - that's enough for me for endless hours of amazement


Off to play some Shatter now

pubzombie

Final Rift
xbox 360
80 M$ost points
its Elite

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lilalurl

Maybe I will sound a bit grumpy, but given the thread title, I would expect suggestions for games that the poster actually played (or related to a title previously played, such as a sequel or a title using the same engine or whatever).

A thread dedicated to games in development to follow would not be a bad idea, especially if they are in beta phases and are looking for beta testers (so that some EAB members can volunteer if they are interested).

As for games which look good on a video... well........................ yes, let's say the movie says it all..................



Back on topic, regarding ARES, there is a demo available for the PC version:
http://ares.x10studio.com/requirement

One level is playable. From what I played, I would rather describe it as a mix of Abuse and Gunstar Heroes (it is quite fast IMO and perhaps too fast to be considered as reflexe-based and seems to be rather level-learning-based).

It felt a bit like a GameMaker game (perhaps it is the same with all XNA games? don't think I have played others), in other words, sprites did not feel well integrated with the backgrounds, with high quality graphics and sounds of course.

Not sure if it is a limitation of the demo (probably) but I could not remap keys, neither to other keyboard keys or a joypad, but that should not be too much of an hindrance to try the demo.

There is also a zoom system. When in a small room you get zoomed in and zoomed out when in a large room. Why not, but I don't really see the need. Titles like Metroid play fine without such a system.

So, based on the demo, I would not consider it good (-> thread title).
But anyone a bit interested should try the demo. It takes about 10 minutes (so it is like spending 10 times the time to watch the video ) and, even if I don't like it in the end, it did not feel like wasted time.

TCD

Osmos

Hope most of you know it by now, if not, watch the trailer and download the demo.

@lilalurl
You missed the 'seems' for Shatter

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gimbal

But it is not. It is a thread about getting to know some good indy games which are rarely in the spotlight. I find your suggestions far less interesting than my idea to be honest.

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pubzombie

just getting Zombie Driver on Steam - thank you Gimbal.
Just looking through the Indie games on XboxLive - There really is some quality looking stuff on there. A glut of Zombie based games
just playing the demo of this zombie game - its good fun
http://www.next-gen.biz/features/ato...smasher-review

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antonvaltaz

Probably people are aware of this already, but if you're after indie game recommendations then you should definitely check out http://db.tigsource.com/

I only stumbled across it a few days ago, but it looks really useful.

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Dreedo

Miner dig deep on the Xbox 360 is quite good, only about 60p to buy it.

Apple Jack is an alright Platformer also for the Xbox 360, i believe its the same price, if not its £1.60.

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pubzombie

no didnt know about this site - thanx

@Dreedo - I grabbed miner dig deeper demo too great retro type feel to it, but actualy much better design feel to it than a lot of the older games.

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jmmijo

Don't forget to check out our other friends over at gog.com either

I actually got a game from there due to having some DLC that is not longer available for download for the original game...

Steam however still seems to have the largest selection of INDY developers around

gimbal

Been a little quiet in the indie (new spelling; we're not talking about Lucas Arts games here) department after I started this thread. But now Steam notified me of two that tickle my fancy.

Cloning Clyde:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFvT2lhv6vo

Seems like a fun and frantic 2D platformer; I especially love the interactivity with the world.

And Revenge of the Titans:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLkYLhATQJs
http://www.puppygames.net/revenge-of-the-titans/

This one is instantly going on my wishlist; seems like a fun little game for those "need to fill some time" hours for some frantic action. 15 euros seems a bit much for such a game though, I'll probably wait for a special offer that drops it to 10 euros or below. And its made by a fellow Java dev that I've had interactions with on a forum or two, so I don't mind advertising this


I've been giving Trine some gameplay time and I must say I'm enjoying it a lot. Its a nicely narrated platformer that in some way reminds me of Lost Vikings in the way you have to use different characters to progress; although not at the same time unfortunately. The wizard physics are in some cases a little awkward but overall it plays like a gem. Quite a challenge also.

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alkis21

Good indy games, you say?

I don't want to nag but this is the only gaming forum I write in where I (well, my game) go so unnoticed.

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pubzombie

I am guilty of not knowing about your game sorry
downloading the demo now
the reviews you have are impressive - i am always on the lookout for good story based games and i think the point and click genre of adventure games is a great way of doing good narrative based games.

great indy deal on steam today -
http://store.steampowered.com/sub/7586/
its the potato sack compilation of indie games.
potato sack !!!!
http://www.urbandictionary.com/defin...=potato%20sack

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gimbal

yeah I saw that one. Looks like a great compilation. Wish Minecraft wouldn't suck up so much of my gaming time

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DDNI

Trine, Shadow Grounds and others. Pay what you want!

http://www.humblebundle.com/

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gimbal

Trine + the two shadowgrounds games are absolutely great. I enjoy the Shadowgrounds games more than I do the new Alien Breed games for some reason.

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Retroplay

Oh wait...

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gimbal

A friend of mine notified me of this game:

http://www.spelunkyworld.com/original.html

Its free!

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skateblind

Wow, what a great game. It is almost a platformer version of Nethack, more immediate fun than it too.

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