Hatrack River Forum: The Neat Indie Game Thread

This is topic The Neat Indie Game Thread in forum Books, Films, Food and Culture at Hatrack River Forum.

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Posted by Raymond Arnold (Member # 11712) on :

Lately I've been realizing that, for someone who likes designing games, I really haven't played too many. For good reason - they can take up a lot of time if you're not careful. But I figure I should be expanding my horizons and over the past few days I've been trying out several demos and short independent games, following a link trail across the interwebs to games that are neat.

This seems like the sort of thing that could warrant an official thread. So here's a couple games I played over the past week that I thought were nifty and worth sharing. If people are interested I'll keep updating and if you think you've found a hidden gem, let me know.

This morning I played Today I Die. Once you figure out what the heck you're supposed to be doing, finishing the game takes about 3 minutes. If I hadn't heard from three different people that it was a really good game I would have gotten fed up and quit, but I finally figured out what you're suppose to do. It's a pretty clever idea that I think genuinely counts as "Art™." (After poking around for a while, if you're still lost, try experimenting with the jellyfish more). Unfortunately the designer was mored worried about being clever than accessible and fun, but I think the concept has potential.

Another good one (and much more "traditionally fun" as opposed to artsy for the sake of artsy) is Paper Moon, a game with "Pop Up Book" style art direction and mechanics. Supposedly it's actually stereoscopic (or at least is available somewhere in stereoscopic) but I don't have 3d glasses so I don't know for sure. The game is a 2d platformer, wherein you try to get as far as you can on a 5 minute timer.

Posted by Mucus (Member # 9735) on :

I don't know if it is remotely independent enough (probably not), but I am having fun messing around with the Freedom Force package on Steam for roughly $8.
http://store.steampowered.com/sub/1662/

There was also a tower defence game that was on half price a few weeks ago, but not so much now.
http://store.steampowered.com/app/18500/

Posted by Scott R (Member # 567) on :

Freedom Force was a fantastic game.

Posted by Raymond Arnold (Member # 11712) on :

I'm less worried about "Indie" and more worried about "good and fairly short and either cheap or has a demo."

Posted by Puffy Treat (Member # 7210) on :

I loved Freedom Force! I was so disappointed when I got a new computer and it didn't agree with the FF game. [Frown]

Posted by Mucus (Member # 9735) on :

It was good enough for me to buy the original twice now, just to have the convenience of having both on Steam [Wink]

RA: But no, its not a particularly short game. It does have a demo though.

Posted by Raymond Arnold (Member # 11712) on :

I'll be checking out the demo later when I'm on the windows side.

I just downloaded Unity, a game engine native to Macintosh which syncs up perfectly with Maya (I've spent the past two years studying Maya). So far it's pretty intuitive and I have some good ideas (at least, I think they're good) for a fairly simple game I can test it out with. I'm super excited (granted, that may have to do with the heavy dose of coffee I had two hours ago which is still making me jittery).

Posted by TL (Member # 8124) on :

Cave Story

Posted by Dr Strangelove (Member # 8331) on :

I really enjoyed Today I Die. Thanks a bunch.

Posted by MightyCow (Member # 9253) on :

Plants Vs. Zombies is a very fun game, pretty addictive, and cheap on Steam. There's a free demo, and I believe it's only $10 on Steam, or $19 on the Pop Cap website.

Posted by Raymond Arnold (Member # 11712) on :

I actually bought PvZ a few weeks ago, for $20. Which feels like a lot, but honestly I think the age of piracy and ad-sponsored-free content has taught us to undervalue the amount of work that goes into games like that. It occupied me for about two weeks. Compared to a $5 movie ticket I think that's not bad.

Posted by Sterling (Member # 8096) on :

Audiosurf is an amusing way to experience your music. I don't know if I'd exactly call it genius, but it's simple, easy to pick up, you can play for as long as any music file you have on hand and then put it away, and it's all of $10.