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Games Entertainment

Game Tunnel's Indie Games of the Year 2006 64

Posted by Zonk from the what-else-is-there-to-do-this-weekend? dept.
cyrus_zuo writes "Creating off-beat, original, and carefully crafted games is the heritage of Independent Game developers, and the Top 10 Independent Games of 2006 does its ancestry proud. Each of the 10 games selected this year is a winner in its own right, an undiscovered gem just waiting to be found. So dim the lights and warm up your modem, as Game Tunnel presents The Top 10 Independent Games of 2006." The annual Independent Games Festival will also be giving a nod to indie games from 2006, and via features you can have a look behind the scenes at some of Game Tunnel's winners. Check out the entries on Kudos , Gumboy Crazy Adventures , and Virtual Villagers .
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Game Tunnel's Indie Games of the Year 2006 More

Game Tunnel's Indie Games of the Year 2006

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  • The way things are going I hope there are still independent games that don't suck in 2010. Is id considered independent?

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by omeomi ( 675045 )
      Is id considered independent?

      I'd say so...I mean, they're very small, and not under the thumb of any major publisher...they pretty much do whatever they want. They just happen to be an incredibly successful indie company...

      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        by Osty ( 16825 )

        I'd say so...I mean, they're very small, and not under the thumb of any major publisher...they pretty much do whatever they want. They just happen to be an incredibly successful indie company...

        I'd disagree. Indie games are published either directly by the developer or by other smaller publishing houses. Id games are published by Activision, which is definitely "mainstream". If id went back to the Apogee days, I'd consider them indie. As it is, they're just another third-party developer building gam

  • Gumboy has gum where? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Salvance ( 1014001 ) * on Sunday December 31, 2006 @12:00AM (#17414156) Homepage Journal
    When I read "Gumboy Crazy Adventures" by "Cinemax", my first thought was that it was some type of cartoony play on late night skin flicks. Now that would be quirky! Happy New Year everyone

  • My favorite game of 2006 (Score:3, Funny)

    by dangitman ( 862676 ) on Sunday December 31, 2006 @12:02AM (#17414162)
    It's that one where you snort cocaine from a hooker's breast. Very addictive gameplay, and great graphics. I don't play it that often though, because the ongoing fees and medical expenses are a real bitch.
  • Dawnspire looks like a very good game. I have yet to try it, but judging by what I have so far seen, I am amazed that it was ranked so poorly (relative to the other ones, at #6), considering, especially, that Gumboy got #1.
  • Oh... I guess I'm too naive.

  • indie or just small scale (Score:3, Interesting)

    by angrymilkman ( 957626 ) on Sunday December 31, 2006 @12:46AM (#17414332) Homepage
    Hmmmmm those games all look pretty professional, at least concerning graphics. What is defined as indie currently because these games are certainly not the work of a few individuals working in their basement on a game in my opinion. For me indie development are games like geometry wars or armadillorun. E.g. one person developed games with less than 10 months development time. Are small scale game developers just branding themselves as "indie" just to take advantage of the current indie hype?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Doytch ( 950946 )
      Geometry Wars is indie by your definition? You are aware that Geometry Wars was developed by Bizarre, the guys who've done the Project Gotham Racing series right?
      • I know it was just developed to test out/ setup the controller but my point is, it was only developed by one guy in a short time ;-)

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      The game "Kudos" was developed by one guy over a mere eight months. The graphics are mostly static, save small touches like snow and rain - I don't think you can get more indie than that, by your above definition.

    • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Well, in this case it's because one has to distribute one's game through a Game Tunnel sales affiliate to have a good chance of being reviewed on their site. So take everything about "indie" games you read at Game Tunnel with a huge grain of salt.

      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        by ghowland ( 906186 )
        Do you sell indie games? Because this doesnt sound like the voice of experience.

        When youre selling indie, you distribute (really market, you may only have 1 place that handles the CC transactions which is the true distribution point, but they promote affiliation generally) through EVERYONE you can, even places that take 30% of your sales usually, because even if only 5 people buy your game from that site you still made 5*70% of what you're asking that you likely would not have made selling it only on your
        • Just to set the record straight - GameTunnel does not sell games. They only link to them. GameTunnel makes no money off of sales of games that originate from their website. That's why there's no GameTunnel store.
          • That's not entirely true. GT does affiliate wherever possible. Affiliates are set-up after the reviews are done, so they don't affect what is reviewed, but it probably ought to be disclosed anyway. Most indie games provide affiliate programs, some don't. GT reviews some freeware, an occasional web game and every decent indie game that is submitted to them. It does get a percentage of affiliate sales though, even if it doesn't have a store of its own (like say Manifesto games). Bulking up on advertisin

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by pjt33 ( 739471 )
      Indie certainly doesn't mean amateur, and it doesn't mean that the same person has to write the code and music and create the graphics.
    • one person developed games with less than 10 months development time. You are obviously not a game developer.

  • minions of mirth (Score:4, Interesting)

    by cathector ( 972646 ) on Sunday December 31, 2006 @01:06AM (#17414402)
    another notable is Minions of Mirth [prairiegames.com]. It's a respectable MMORPG written by one programmer in one year. While it's not open-source, you can host your own servers, develop mods, and he's done a nice job of publishing details about the back-end.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by dircha ( 893383 )
      "another notable is Minions of Mirth [prairiegames.com]. It's a respectable MMORPG written by one programmer in one year. While it's not open-source, you can host your own servers, develop mods, and he's done a nice job of publishing details about the back-end."

      Wow. It actually looks no worse than EQ did at launch.

      Have you (or anyone else reading) played it much? How does it rate compared to, say, old school EQ or WoW?

      • i bought a membership to MoM (hah, get it?) but unfortunately haven't really played it at all. these days, the only game i play other than to just Check It Out is nethack.

      • Re:minions of mirth (Score:4, Interesting)

        by Da3vid ( 926771 ) on Sunday December 31, 2006 @12:36PM (#17416740)
        I have played MoM extensively. The entire "staff" of the game consists of 2 people. Their accomplishments are... amazing. I'll go ahead and admit my bias upfront: I'm also a community volunteer for the game. I'm a guardian, moderator and developer. It is definitely better than old school EQ in my opinion (I played from just past launch til mid-Kunark era), but is much more community and player driven than WoW. A lot of player input is taken and adapted into the game... a lot of mods that people have made for their own uses have been incorporated into the main servers. There's all kinds of cool little things in there... lets see... its officially supported on both OSX and Windows, but I know we have some Linux players too. Hm... no monthly fees! One time payment. You can play a single player version off-line as well as the MMO aspect online. Through quests, you can unlock monster templates you can play (ie, you can be a bear character, or even as high as a dragon!) And you can multiclass into as many as 3 classes... and you can even play a fair amount of the game for free. It is MORE than enough to decide if its worth buying or not
        hmm, guess thats the basics of what I think are some of the most interesting bullet points :) Then again, I admit my bias ;) But maybe my bias says something too. I started as a player, bought the game quickly, played and played... was enlisted to help with moderation, and then volunteering for game development as well. I wouldn't commit, devote myself to and support something that was shy of greatness.
  • I read about a game a few months back ( I think on /.) and I've been trying to remember the name or find it on the internet, but no luck so far. It's an indie free game developed for Linux (I think). It's a networked 2 player co-op game where the 2 players have to escape from a maze together while co-operating to solve the puzzles.
    It's a 3d third person adventure and a lot of the puzzles revolved around communicating while not necessarily being able to see the other persons screen.

    Any ideas?
  • In addition to the top-ten list, Game Tunnel has genre and technology lists. The following are the highest-ranked Mac games in their respective categories:
    • #1 action and #4 graphics - Titan Attacks
    • #2 casual - TubeTwist
    • #3 rpg and technical excellence - Minions of Mirth
    • #3 multiplayer - Rage of Magic 2
    • #4 sim and #2 innovation - Toribash
    • Arkanoid/kid's - Fizzball

    Of all the games, I've only tried the demo of the Torque-based TubeTwist, which I liked enough to give as a birthday gift, although I have ye

  • I see the author hasn't played Defcon.
  • Where's Defcon? [everybody-dies.com]
    If there's a game that deserves to be on that list, it's definitely Defcon.
    Or perhaps they are not indie enough? If that is the case, I really wonder what those Game Tunnel guys are thinking about.
  • Free shooter:

    http://www18.big.or.jp/~hikoza/Prod/ [big.or.jp]

    Warning Forever is also amazingly good.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by slim ( 1652 )
      Oh yes, Warning Forever is great.

      Ray Hound will be great too, when it's finished. When it has sound, and a high score table...
  • Jardinains 2 was released in 2006. It's a breakout/arkanoid game, sort of. Loosely speaking.

    It is immensely fun, and works on Mac, PC, and Linux systems.

    Hard to imagine a list of indie games not listing it; it is a wonderful game.

  • Fizzball (Score:2, Informative)

    by aaronwormus ( 716976 )
    I bought fizzball a couple of months ago for my 5-year-old and both of us have enjoyed it a lot. It's a clever game, which appeals to both adults and kids.

    Good graphics and sound-track.
  • I can't play any of them on my Linux desktop, some of them seem interesting.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by slim ( 1652 )

      I can't play any of them on my Linux desktop, some of them seem interesting.
      Except number 9 and number 3. 20% - not to be sniffed at. And that's without WINE.
  • http://www.starportgame.com/ [starportgame.com] Starport Galactic empires is a strategic space MMO akin to Tradewars. Its free to play and has been up and running for 2 years now. Its been constantly improved and developed on and they just got a really cool soundtrack.
  • best mounted combat game ever for PC and I had never heard of it before I saw a posting on a forum.

    I was suprised this game exists.

    this is the main website.

    http://www.taleworlds.com/ [taleworlds.com]
  • Master of Defense looks like it follows in the footsteps of 'Tower Defense' maps for starcraft and warcraft, if not rehashing the fomrula completely. There is nothing wrong with that as far as the game is concerned, but I am disappointed that the author in TFA apparently did not know this. Given that there are thousands of Tower Defense maps it is especially important to know how Master of Defense compares to its look alikes.

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by Perky_Goth ( 594327 ) *
      They do. This article is not a review, though. If you check the actual review here [gametunnel.com], you can see for yourself.
  • People are always saying that PC gamming is going the way of the doto. But when I look at this list of independent games they are all PC games. Independent games or games that most studios wouldn't pick up sometimes are great and can drive a new genre. Now I believe that the main reason why you will see more of these games on PC is that you don't a developers kit and most people have the machine already. Costs are then lower and so its nothing to a good programmer to go and develop for the PC. So I ask

  • No linux games? (Score:1, Interesting)

    by Chemisor ( 97276 ) *
    Not a single one of those games runs on Linux. Curious, isn't it?

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      According to TFA, two of them run on Linux.

    • Re: (Score:1, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Apparently you didn't read the article.

      2 of the have native linux clients.. in addition I was able to get another 2 to run pretty nicely with WINE

  • Kudos (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Lord_Dweomer ( 648696 ) on Sunday December 31, 2006 @03:21PM (#17417734) Homepage
    I DL the demo of Kudos and played it and I have to say it was certainly an intriguing concept and seemed to have a lot of depth....however there is absolutely no excuse for the mouse being as slow and stuttery as it was. I felt like I was playing Far Cry on a Pentium 2. However there is a fix involving tweaking one of the data files to display 16 bit color depth as opposed to the default of 32. My other gripe with it was you start out in a crappy job in a crappy life. That would be fine and all if the demo actually lasted long enough for you to actually accomplish something to make the game fun. The other thing that would be nice is if you could change your initial settings to setup your own initial starting point in life, perhaps to make it more similar to your own life.

    I'm still trying out virtual villagers, that one seems entertaining....but the graphics are horrible and I don't think I have the patience the game requires as it runs even while your computer is off.

    There's another one on that site called Tasty Planet which is kind of a down and dirty 2D version of Katamari Damacy, right down to catchy music. Its fun for a bit and amusing, and well put together, however there is little diversity between the levels, at least initially, and you end up having to hunt around for tiny insects and things that respawn frequently to get your size up instead of there being enough static objects to engulf.

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