good indie games

[Shoonay]

Don't forget about the SCP – Containment Breach games

[jmmijo]

Originally Posted by gimbal

http://www.parsecproductions.net/slender/

Slender - a free horror game which I find quite original in its unusual simplicity. The concept: you're dumped into a dark forest with nothing more than a flashlight and its your task to find 8 pages of text that are scattered around. Only you're not alone in the forest... something is hunting you and its very good at staying there where you don't see it so easily...

I repeat - its free!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0O6-1sp6yvM

Nice, thanks for the link and might I point out that it's free

[gimbal]

yeah but I actually can't really play the game - my god it gave me a serious heart failure, I can't enjoy it! The graphics may not be all that spectacular, the audio is freaking awesome - and hair raising. Brrrrrr.

I don't care how many people try to act tough calling this game not scary - I shit my pants.

[Dastardly]

Not sure if it's already been mentioned, but if not, you should check out FTL (faster than light), a space-rogue-like-boardgame-crew-management em up. Great stuff.

http://www.ftlgame.com/

[gimbal]

Retro City Rampage!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNMFiwoOT-c

Now that game looks like fun!

[frikilokooo]

Two great games:

http://vimeo.com/45137929#
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuRZIss4ajI

and Maldita Castilla before the end of this year:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKNEfXG8G0s

[laffer]

I just played through a pretty good indie game, called "You Have to Win the Game"... it's a game made in the spirit of those old platform/exploration type games of the 80s, and it uses a CGA color palette (or EGA color palette, if you download a mod by the creator of the game, from his homepage).
The game has a really nice CRT effect going on, I wish I could use it in other games!

The game is free, and can be downloaded here -
You Have to Win the Game, free download
"EGA mod"

Here is a screenshot (I'm using the "EGA mod" here) -

[frikilokooo]

Originally Posted by frikilokooo

Two great games:

http://vimeo.com/45137929#
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuRZIss4ajI

and Maldita Castilla before the end of this year:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKNEfXG8G0s

Maldita Castilla is out,enjoy:

http://www.locomalito.com/maldita_castilla.php

[jmmijo]

The latest one I got was Zombie Driver HD while it was on sale at Steam.

http://www.zombiedriver.com/news.php5

[gimbal]

Originally Posted by jmmijo

The latest one I got was Zombie Driver HD while it was on sale at Steam.

http://www.zombiedriver.com/news.php5

Is it any good? I've been tempted to buy the game, but I just can't push myself to actually go do it because I fear I lose interest again after 2 hours of playing it.

[gimbal]

been playing cave story. Its a really, really nice story driven 2d platform/shooter, as old school as you can make it completely down to the 8-bit sound and lack-of-holding-hands. The game has some really epic tunes.

[jmmijo]

Originally Posted by gimbal

been playing cave story. Its a really, really nice story driven 2d platform/shooter, as old school as you can make it completely down to the 8-bit sound and lack-of-holding-hands. The game has some really epic tunes.

Yeah I picked this one up too, have only installed it and not played yet.

The reason I picked up Zombie Driver HD was I have the original non HD one, just wanted to complete the collection is all

[laffer]

Originally Posted by gimbal

been playing cave story. Its a really, really nice story driven 2d platform/shooter, as old school as you can make it completely down to the 8-bit sound and lack-of-holding-hands. The game has some really epic tunes.

Cave Story is awesome, though the way to get the 'real' ending is a bit cryptic, I had to read up on how to do that.
But really awesome game!

[gimbal]

Awesome, although at times it frustrates the hell out of me. Games with a save function are okay, but the game also contains plenty of insta-kill moments and when that happens after you haven't saved for a while...

Grrrrrr.

[Retro-Nerd]

Originally Posted by frikilokooo

Maldita Castilla is out,enjoy:

http://www.locomalito.com/maldita_castilla.php

Great Ghost'n'Goblins style game. Not as hard as the Capcom originals.

[gimbal]

Ha ha, I was playing Cave Story today and it had turned into a Christmas setting I love games that change with the holidays, gives a nice surprise.

[laffer]

Hah, that's cool, I had no idea
I think Raptor by Apogee had some events like that, too (not an indie game, though).

By the way, that game I mentioned a little while ago, "You Have to Win the Game", had a C64 port released just a couple of days ago... and it's pretty much a perfect port! Very cool!
You can see what it looks like here (played on a real C64, not emulation) -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdS7jHLBJPY


EDIT -

Originally Posted by frikilokooo

Maldita Castilla is out,enjoy:

http://www.locomalito.com/maldita_castilla.php

Just downloaded this, looks very nice and plays well, too... seems like a great game so far!
The only issue I had is you can't change settings within the game itself, and I had to guess which joystick buttons are what (they're only listed as numbers) and then watch the intro before I could test and see if I had picked the correct ones (got it on the third try )

[gimbal]

Originally Posted by laffer

I think Raptor by Apogee had some events like that, too (not an indie game, though).

Yep, it does quite a few things. Holidays, birthdays of the developers... Its an attention to detail that I really like. Croteam also does it, I was playing Serious Sam 3 and all of a sudden I find a snowy Christmas tree in sandy and dusty Egypt

[laffer]

Been playing most of Maldita Castilla by now.... currently struggling a bit with the final boss... anyway, I'm happy to report that the the game is great all the way through, my only quibble would be that one of the tears you need to access the final area (and get the real ending) is quite hard to find!

[Muzkat]

Rise of the Triad does the surprise Christmas ditty as well, as does Crusader: No Regret.

[gimbal]

Only Regret? No Remorse doesn't do anything special?

[laffer]

Got really hooked on Maldita Castilla, finished it today without using continues... thought that would give me the best ending, but nooo... the game gave me a checklist of things at the end, and I had missed several of them (various secrets and such, I guess).

Anyway, I recorded a video (unlisted on Youtube, sorry about the fraps counter thingie, seems FRAPS had some issues with this game, should have disabled the frame counter) -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ab-BPz-ptr8

[gimbal]

Woohoo another Laffer video Now you've done it, the moar zombies are awakened.

moooooooar.

[laffer]

Hehe, maybe I'll start recording indie games for a while, I'm having so much fun with them these days.

I started playing The Binding of Isaac yesterday, and I'm hooked on that game now... beat the mom two times (two 'momkills') and unlocked some characters and items... it's a really addictive game as everything is randomized, so it's great fun playing over and over.
Not to mention the hundreds of items, meaning it plays quite differently every time.

Love the style of the game as well!

[gimbal]

you're better than me, I always get my ass handed to me before I can even reach mom. Really good game though. Don't miss out on Retro City Rampage!

[Muzkat]

Originally Posted by gimbal

Only Regret? No Remorse doesn't do anything special?

Unfortunately, I never got around to playing No Remorse.

[gimbal]

Too bad because the game is a whole lot more fun than Regret, IMO

[laffer]

Regret has a really cool intro movie, though

I seem to remember enjoying both pretty much equally, but it's been so many years now... I still have my old copies of both (Regret has a really cool, big box), I should play them again.

[Smiley]

Little Inferno is fun but not worth the asking price. Main game is around 4hrs but longer if you want to get all the unlocks.

[laffer]

The guy behind VVVVVV, Terry Cavanagh, has put out a new game - Super Hexagon.

I haven't played it that much yet, but it seems quite addictive... it's very simple, but *difficult*!
I worry my reactions might simply be too slow to play this game properly, I've never had very fast reactions... so this game might not be for me after all, but I still think it's a pretty cool game.

Trailer -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2sz0mI_6tLQ

[gimbal]

the classic "easy to learn, nearly impossible to master" principle. That is one of the more important facets that defines a good game IMO.

... this game looks psychedelic however, it makes me a little ill just watching it to be honest :s Probably not for me, I'll likely throw my computer out the window.

[laffer]

Played through a really nice indie game recently, "Treasure Adventure Game" (not a very imaginative title, I guess ).

It's a freeware game mainly by one guy, other than the music... it's another of those "metroidvania" style games, where you get upgrades that allow you access to new areas etc.
It's a lot of fun, and *huge*! You sail between several islands and look for items and treasures (you also find treasure maps, giving coordinates for where to look).
It even has a big city island, you can enter most of the buildings and talk to tons of people... there's even a band playing in the streets at night, and a nightclub

Some people might complain that the game is actually a big too big, but I had a lot of fun with it... none of the secrets are too hard to find, so it's quite possible to get 100% and the best ending.

There's an informative review of the game here.

You can download it (for free) here.


Right now I'm playing Retro City Rampage, which is not freeware but well worth the 15 bucks, in my opinion... it's sort of a 8 bit pixel art looking GTA game, with TONS of references to 80s stuff and things like that... I really love the pixel art in this one and it's fun spotting references everywhere.
It has so much content, I've played it for a few days and feel like I've barely started, really cool game.
My main problem is I have such a lousy sense of direction that it's extremely hard for me to memorize cities like this... luckily it has a good in-game map, but I don't like having to rely on that so much.

Anyway, here's a trailer.


EDIT - I forgot to mention another game that I actually bought yesterday, but finished the same day... that's really the main issue with this one, it's much too short.
Anyway, it's "Potatoman Seeks the Troof", by the same people that did the Dino Run game.
It's a nice, little platformer game, with a lot of charm... largely due to its Atari 2600 inspired visual style.
I quite enjoyed it while it lasted, but as I said... it's sadly much too short.
That said, it's quite cheap (3 USD), so I think it was well worth the price.

Oh one more thing I didn't like so much was that the ending sequence is a bit too drawn out for my taste... but that's a really minor complaint.

Here's a look at the game by JimPlaysGames (awesome Youtube channel!)... that's where I found out about the game to begin with.

[gimbal]

I got bored with retro city rampage too quick. I hate how the game grinds to a screeching halt on dialogue, and boy is there a lot of dialogue. The driving is done really well, but somehow it lacks the fun of the top-down gta games. Still, ill give it another go soon. It wouldnt be the first game i didnt like because i simply played it in the wrong moment.

Bit quiet on the indie front lately, there are none that really jump at me. And i really actively participate in the steam greenlight voting.

[laffer]

Really, you were bored with it? Goes to show how tastes can differ, but I have seen some reviews giving it mediocre scores so it seems the game doesn't appeal to everyone.
Maybe in my case it helps that I never actually played the original GTA games, so if they play better, I never experienced that..?

I don't really mind the text personally, you can fast forward past most of that stuff, and it's not important to read in most cases... it's mostly just silly references and such hehe
However, I haven't really played many story missions at all yet, so I haven't encountered that much text... I've mostly explored the city and tried out various optional stuff.

By the way, did you visit the arcade? The games in there are actually pretty decent, especially the Bit.Trip.Runner one

EDIT - have you played "Celestial Mechanica"?
It's another freeware 'metroidvania' style game that plays very well, and looks and sounds great... it's quite short but a lot of fun while it lasts, here is a trailer.

[gimbal]

I luuuuurve metroidvania games, adoring both metroid and castlevania (2d only of course). Ill check it out for sure.

Perhaps bored was a poor choice of words. I wasn't persuaded to keep playing it because i had a big pile of games i enjoyed a lot more. There, that is more truthful

[gimbal]

Alright a title I'm pretty excited about is "Bleed", which is currently in the Steam Greenlight program. It looks like a colorful version of the old classic Abuse by Crack Dot Com, a game I hold in high regard due to its action epicness. Its one to look out for IMO!

[laffer]

Played through VVVVVV again a few days ago, even got the difficult "Veni Vidi Vici" coin even though I'd decided never to do that again after the first time
However, it seems I developed quite the muscle memory of how to do that properly the first time, dying so many times... it was a lot easier this time.

Anyway, I know this has been mentioned before in the thread, but if anyone missed this game... I very highly recommend it, it's so much fun... and with such a great soundtrack, too!

[gimbal]

I shall give it a go! Until now I've only been curious due to its odd name.

Might also be worth mentioning that Minecraft 1.5 was released not too long ago. But like in the past the dudes tried to do too much in one go and it is quite a buggy release again, so better wait until 1.5.1 is out before upgrading. And yes, I still play from time to time I don't get into the whole alchemy stuff though, I just stick to the core mechanics. I'm loving the 1.4 feature "single player cheats", namely the one where you don't lose your inventory when you die. That takes away a loooooooot of frustration.

[laffer]

Cool, will be interesting to read what you think of it... it's definitely one of my favourite indie games.

About Minecraft... I pretty much ended up building a generic castle and then quitting
I do think it's a really cool game, but I seem to prefer more linear games where I always, or at least usually, know what I'm aiming for.
In very open ended games like Minecraft, I tend to end up just wandering aimlessly for a while and never really getting into it.

That's not to say I haven't had a lot of fun with it, but that's been from watching videos of other people playing
I used to watch quite a bit of that, and I love the series JimPlaysGames and PacBilly (and other occasional guests) do.

[jmmijo]

Anybody look at Aaaarrrgh yet ?

I think I got both this one and the sequel they made, a fun kind of platform+gravity type game.

But now back to Skyrim, haha