Best Indie Games So Far This Year 30
cyrus_zuo writes "Game Tunnel has just finished and published its
yearly mid-year article
2005 Independent Game Mid-Term Grades. This article, the mid-year equivalent
of Game Tunnel's year-end Game of the Year awards, captures the best indie games
so far in 2005 while also grading each game genre. The article is set-up just like a school report card, grading genres,
such as action, adventure and strategy, with a letter grade from 'A' to 'D' while
also spotlighting two of the best games that have been released so far this year
in each of the genres and listing what game GT is looking forward to most in the genre."
Journey to Rooted Hold... (Score:3, Interesting)
Warped experiences? (Score:3, Interesting)
And don't get me wrong - there are some wonderful independant games out there. As a recent convert to Mac, I'm almost forced to hunt such games down, because there either aren't a lot of choices of modern games (say, Rome Total War) for the Mac, they won't run well on the Mac or I simply dont' want to buy them all over again just to play them on my mac instead of the PC. Fortunately, lots of neat little independant games are made for (or ported to) the Mac.
It's just that having spent so much time in the last decade on the games I mentioned in the first paragraph, playing anything else feels a lot like playing Mine-Sweeper. Or more - it feels like going without an internet connection for a long time. Disconnected. Seperated. A backup alternative for when you can't play the other games.
Maybe this sounds insane and nobody knows what I'm talking about. It's just been so long since I've played at an arcade and I dont' play console games, so my main experience has been very much as described previously.
I think it also speaks to the lack of unique popular and mainstream publisher games out there, that some of us have become so molded to a single type of gameplay.
Re:Warped experiences? (Score:3, Interesting)
Trying to decifer your opinion though...Are you complaining that indy games tend to have more bugs? If so, it's pretty obvious why. Game testers cost money, and most of these people dont' have much. There are even independent testing companies now that many of the big guys will outsource to, but I doubt any of these small/indy studios can afford it. Still, for the difference in budget these guys usually do a damn good job if you look at how much money went into it.
Or maybe you're just complaining about a lack of online multiplayer in indy games? Well, that's probably because the net code is one of the hardest parts to write for a game. And unfortunately there aren't many good free/open-source toolkits to work with for it either. Network code is the one major thing SDL is missing that DirectX has...but once again, when you're working on a shoestring budget, how are you supposed to afford that?
Re:Warped experiences? (Score:2, Interesting)
I think a lot of us have just become so used to multi-player, online, FPS/RTS/SIMULATION everything that' switching out of that is like watching an old silent black and white movie with the little breakaway "reader-board" dialogue every few seconds. It's still a movie. It's still entertainment. And perhaps it's even good entertainment. But it still doesn't feel like the color movie with audio and a film score and dialogue that you're familiar with.
I don't play a lot of games anymore, but there's some neat stuff out in the smaller scene now that (even though it feels weird to someone like myself who has been involved in multiplayer/online everything for so long) are enjoyable. Especially in the office when you're stuck with a lot of down time. Things like GooBall, Maelstrom... OH! BZFLAG! I forgot about BZFLAG. There you go - Multiplayer. Online. Networked. Simple graphics. BIG player base. Insanely fun. Free.
Of course, that's unique. I can't think of another game in the same boat.
I really am hoping that as more people switch to Apple, the indie scene will blow up even more. Mac users are hungry for good games and smaller developers don't have to compete against as many big players. If you have a good $30 little game for the Mac with some serious quality and gameplay, you will reach people. But a lot of developers just don't see a reason to port (or develop from the beginning) for 5% of the market. Especially when that 5% of the market probably just uses consoles if they even play games at all.
Re:Warped experiences? (Score:3, Interesting)
What you're really pointing out is that games are a social construct. Without an opponent, games are closer to a puzzle. It's only after the advent of the computer and video game that the idea of a single player game really took off. PC games that reintroduce this concept quite often last a long time. There's still plenty of people playing Starcraft, and
But a lot of the games on the list are shorter games. Five minute solo games. I tried out Oasis, and it's okay. It's definately not the spend all night building a starship to Alpha Centauri kind of game, but it does have a certain appeal. Those Kenta Cho abstract shooters are fun for a few minutes at a time as well, but don't hold up well over a few spare hours (lets just say I've got a boring and simple job that underwhelms me).
Bontago (Score:2, Interesting)
The game is physics-based: you drop blocks on the field, and the higher your pile, the larger its control area. You can only drop blocks in your control area. Your goal is to have a majority of flags in your control area. Thus you have to balance making a high, but fragile, tower, or make lots of small stacks.
To make it a little more complicated, you can find special blocks on the field with some special effects, like the rocket that whizzes around and knocks down stacks, or the dreaded earthquake.
The rules are simple, and that's what makes it so addictive. It's a great balance of strategy and a touch of luck.
You can play alone against computer players, and of course network multiplayer (though I haven't tried it out yet)
And for you eye-candyers out there (but then, who truly isn't), it has nice 3d graphics! Check out the screenshots on their website, and you'll see what I mean.
The game is free (as in beer). It was developped by students at Digipen, a gamedev school near seattle. It's a breath of fresh, clean, mountain air (with that whiff of summer flowers) to see that people can still produce an original and goddamn fun game, and instead of an impressive but yet another FPS [smu.edu]
Bontago! [bontago.com]
PS: the download was hell slow. Maybe someone could put up a mirror? Otherwise, take the light version, the full just has unnecessary extra fluff.
Doukutsu Monogatari (Score:3, Interesting)