Jan 04 2012 06:53 PM | Toad64 in Indie
I don’t think many people pay attention to the “Minis” available on the Playstation Network, or even know of their existence. Sony doesn’t seem to do a very good job of informing people of them or showcasing them, even when something amazing comes out, as it has with Where is my Heart? For those that don’t know, Playstation Minis are kind of Sony’s answer to apps; they are small programs, and tend to sell for a few dollars. As such, most of them tend to be of the same quality of a phone app as well. Most of them also play on both the PS3 and PSP. Every now and again though, a Mini comes along that is worth taking notice of.

Where is my Heart? has a simple premise, you’re trying to get a character (and shortly thereafter three characters) from the starting point to the goal. However the screen is divided into various grids, and moving from one grid does not necessarily mean you’ll end up in the grid alongside it. Finding your way around can become surprisingly challenging. The visual style is used for a new gameplay feature when one of the characters gains the ability to rotate the various grids. The gameplay style has been described as being like The Lost Vikings, and while I partially agree, so far I’ve not come across any level that required all three monsters to work together, but rather each level has focused on the ability of one of them. But perhaps that will change later on.

At $6.99 it’s definitely on the higher end of the pricing scale for a Mini, but it’s a charming and enjoyable indie game with some absolutely fantastic pixel art. If you’re looking for something new to put on your PS3 and PSP, keep this one in mind.

Dec 13 2011 12:05 AM | Gandalf42 in Indie
Indie Royale has released its 'Xmas Bundle' which contains the following games:

• The Blackwell Trilogy: Remastered: When Rosa Blackwell’s only relative dies after twenty years in a coma, she thinks the worst is over. This all changes when Joey Mallone, a sardonic ghost from the 1930s, blows into her life and tells her that she is a medium. Whether they like it or not, it is up to them to cure the supernatural ills of New York in this critically-acclaimed series of point-and-click adventure games.
  
• Eets: Eets may have a cute outer-shell, but its Lemmings meets The Incredible Machine gameplay, crazy characters and increasingly tricky puzzles quickly sucks in even the most seasoned player. Play over a hundred unique puzzles that ship with the game, and come to our community to download over 200 fan-made levels and crazy solution replays!
  
• Dino D-Day: The year is 1942. Adolf Hitler has succeeded in resurrecting dinosaurs. The reptilian horde has trampled Europe and the Mediterranean. Can nothing stop the Nazi's dinosaur army? Dino D-Day is a frantic, action-packed multiplayer game that transports you to a World War II that should have been. Battle your friends online choosing to serve the cause of the Allied nations or the Nazis!
  
• The Oil Blue: The Oil Blue is an indie action sim set in the near future where you explore the world's oceans in search of oil, landing on abandoned refinery islands and reclaiming them under the watchful eyes of a major energy company. Once you land on an island, you have a set amount of days and oil production targets to hit during your stay. Fire up those old drilling machines and start making oil underwater, watch the oil barrel market and sell at the highest price, repair machines and do it all within the time you’re given…or your employer, the United Oil of Oceania corp., will boot you off the island for a better crew. Sell more barrels to achieve higher ranks and perks, upgrade your machines, and conquer the ocean! See why About.com calls it "...a rich and rewarding experience that’s really unlike any game out there." and JayisGames.com says, "The Oil Blue looks great, plays great, and will suck you in for hours at a time."

Dec 03 2011 04:30 PM | Gandalf42 in Indie
As I stated back on November 6th; Daniel Remar was targeting December 1st for the release of his new arena shooter "Hyper Princess Pitch'... and true to his word, it was released on time.

First off, this game was created with GameMaker which is something I'm normally not too fond of for various reasons.. those being stability, speed, and a sometimes bland or generic feel to the finished game... but I'm happy to state that this is definitely not my experience with this game.. Daniel is truly a GameMaker god in this respect.. the gameplay is fast and tight.. controls and game response are spot on.. He even distributes the game with versions created under GM 5 and 7 for maximum compatibility, but I had no problems with either version.

The game itself draws heavy inspiration from Beaucomm Interactive’s old DOS arena shooter Operation: Carnage.. and the story surrounds an insane princess doing battle with hoards of nefarious Christmas foes.

It's a short romp at only four levels.. but it's still quite a bit of holiday fun for shooter fans.

You can download this game here.

Nov 19 2011 12:45 AM | Gandalf42 in Indie
Zetanoid is a new physics based Breakout game created by Denis Grachev using Blitz3D and released by Retrosouls. The game is comprised of twenty-five unique levels of block busting action.

All blocks drop and bounce using an accurate physics system... and while it's not overly important to the gameplay, it does actually add a fair bit of charm to the somewhat tired Bat-and-Ball genre. Of course, you'll also get the standard assortment of game modifiers such as: Shrink Paddle, Enlarge Paddle, Gun and Multi-ball modes.

The game is quite fun to play.. plus it's entertaining to see how the block-physics play out.

Download the game now in our file section.

Nov 13 2011 03:24 PM | Toad64 in Indie

Many gamers may be familiar with the indie project that started the ideas for Portal, a small development team of 8 students at DigiPen made a game called Narbacular Drop that threw the player into the role of a witch that could summon a blue and an orange portal that were linked, allowing her to walk into one and come out the other. The game’s basic concepts intrigued those at Valve, who hired the team to flesh out their idea into what would become Portal.

Portal 2 has a similar origin story that once again starts with a small group of students at DigiPen. This game, Tag: The Power of Paint, like Narbacular Drop offers a single gameplay mechanic that leads to endless possibilities. In Tag, you’re given a SuperSoaker-looking gun that can be loaded with different colors of paint. If you paint something green, you can jump high off its surface, if you paint something red, you will run really fast over the red paint, and if you paint something blue, you can walk along the blue surface, regardless if it’s on the side of a building or on the ceiling. This of course would later be further developed by Steam in the Portal 2 game; while you can’t shoot the paint directly, you’ll find gels that you can redirect onto surfaces to help you along. The green paint to jump is now blue gel, and the red paint to run fast is now orange gel. The blue paint to walk along surfaces has been mentioned in numerous interviews as having been in the game at some point, but every play tester apparently became motion sick and they couldn’t figure out a way to prevent it, so it was pulled. Instead we have the white gel, which turns any surface into a portal-able surface.

While Portal is a solid, polished experience, Narbacular Drop was more of a diamond in the rough. Tag: The Power of Paint certainly feels more polished, with a smooth frame rate and an interesting visual design (the world is completely black and white except for the three paint colors). It is, however, very short, with only 8 levels and no save feature it’s meant to be beaten in a single playthrough. For anyone that’s a fan of Portal 2 and wants to see where these ideas originated, I highly recommend checking out Tag: The Power of Paint, it’s fun, it’s fast and it’s free!

Nov 11 2011 11:25 PM | Gandalf42 in Indie
Indie Royale has released its 'Difficult 2nd Bundle' which contains the following games:

• NightSky (Windows, Desura, Steam)
  Nominated as a IGF Seamus McNally Finalist, NightSky is an ambient action-puzzle game that offers a gameplay experience unlike any other, as cerebral challenges fill uniquely designed picturesque worlds. The player must maneuver a sphere by using realistic physics to advance; each of these worlds is broken into different areas. The original soundtrack by experimental jazz musician Chris Schlarb will further heighten the surreal experience. IndieGames.com says: "NightSky does things with balls that you never thought possible, and is stunning in motion."
  
• Fate of the World (Windows, Mac, Desura, Steam includes all Steam DLC and soundtrack!)
  Fate of the World is a strategy game that simulates the real social and environmental impact of global climate change over the next 200 years. The science, the politics, the destruction - it’s all real, and it’s scary. Your mission: Solve the crisis. But, like life, it won’t be easy. You’ll have to work through natural disasters, foreign diplomacy, clandestine operations, technological breakthroughs, and somehow satisfy the food and energy needs of a growing world population. Will you help the planet or become an agent of destruction? IndieGames.com says: "A superbly addictive management game about the future of the Earth, in which no-one is ever damn happy."
  
• Scoregasm (Windows, Mac, Linux, Desura, Steam)
  Scoregasm is an incredible, variety rich shooter with a non-linear, branching paths style galaxy to explore. It's pretty, accessible, fun and really rather good! Blast your way through the galaxy's many varied levels! Use your skills to change your route, find new levels, new enemies, unlock bonus challenge stages and fight the bosses to discover multiple endings! Linux users: Scoregasm is a 32bit app, so you'll need the appropriate 32bit libraries installed to run the game on a 64bit system. IndieGames.com says: "Scoregasmic! One of the best space shooters of 2011 by a good light year or two."
  
• Ben There, Dan That! and Time Gentlemen, Please! (Windows, Desura, Steam)
  Ben There, Dan That! and Time Gentlemen, Please! are a couple of rip-roaring point-and-click adventure games . With tongue firmly in cheek, sit back, relax, and put your mind to work solving puzzles, and reading some very funny dialogue. It's like a book, only good! From an horrific and untimely death in deep, dark Peru, via preposterous-and-suspect alien invasions, to whipping back-and-forth in time to stop Hitler and his army of robot Nazi dinosaur clones, this is one set of adventures you're unlikely to forget. IndieGames.com says: "Nazi dinosaurs. Need we say more?"

You've got a little over three days left to pick it up.

Nov 08 2011 12:25 AM | Gandalf42 in Indie
Phreakindee takes a look at Jason Knights relatively new DOS based Pac-Man clone: Paku Paku.

What makes this variation so noteworthy is:

• It's a brand new creation for a discontinued OS.. granted, not too odd in this day and age.
  
• It was designed to use the undocumented 16 color CGA mode (160x100).. which very few games utilized.
  
• It runs all of this on an IBM PC 5150 with 128k of RAM (67,584 bytes free in DOS) and a measly CGA card.

To say this is impressive is a major understatement.

Check out the LGR video review here.. and when you're done download the game here.

Nov 06 2011 10:15 PM | Gandalf42 in Indie
If there's one thing I truly love, it's a good arena shooter.. and Hyper Princess Pitch, by Remar Games, sure looks like it's shaping up to be a nice addition to the genre. The game is set to be released for free on December 1st, 2011.. and to be honest, I can't wait to try it out.

Hopefully this game will have proper dual-stick controls... but we'll just have to wait and see.

From the site:
The good Mecha Santa plans to spread happiness and cheer all over the world. Princess Pitch, previously just a sidekick in Garden Gnome Carnage, sets out to put an end to those silly plans.

Hyper Princess Pitch is a total remake of DOS Operation: Carnage, keeping the fast-paced arcade action, short completion time, high replay value and cheesy self-narrating characters. Whether you tire of games with moral choices, or you've ever wanted to be made of equal halves explosions and piledrivers, this is the game for you.

Check out the game trailer in our media section.

Nov 06 2011 03:20 PM | Gandalf42 in Indie
The Legend of Grimrock is an indie dungeon crawler which fuses old-school style with modern day design. It's easily my most anticipated indie game of the year, and I was extremely happy to learn that it recently went into alpha development. This means the game has officially been played through from front to back... Areas have been flagged that where either too hard or too easy... Item distribution and monster placements are being tweaked... This is certainly one to keep an eye on.

Read all about the latest developments here.

Nov 04 2011 12:35 AM | Gandalf42 in Indie
Curve Studios have finally released their PSN exclusive platformer Explodemon for the PC. The game claims to pay homage to 16-bit era SNES platformers... and it certainly conveys that visual esthetic.

You'll play the part of a mon.. er, man that suffers from combustion related issues..and you'll use your characters "explosive" super-powers in order to solve physics based puzzles, take out enemies and fly around the screen.

The game is being released for $10 [USD] through Impulse, Gamersgate or directly from the publishers website. So you have your choice of distribution outlets..though content creators normally receive better compensation when going through them directly.

Features:

• Explore 12 gigantic levels of intense platforming action set across three diverse worlds!
  
• Adapt to a constantly changing gameplay experience with new skills and hazards aplenty!
  
• Evolve Explodemon into your own personal destruction machine with upgradable skills and parameters!
  
• Solve huge range of puzzles that'll see you using Explodemon's abilities and his enemies' characteristics to their full effect!
  
• Uncover countless collectables that'll require a keen eye and fast reflexes to uncover!
  
• Enjoy a comic story told with suitable aplomb and panache!

There's currently no demo available, which is an oversight that I hope is quickly address. However, you can watch the video below to get a good grasp of what the gameplay is like.