Indie Games (or games of lesser fame)
Has anyone found any great online games, or lesser known games that you believe are worth sharing? Post 'em here.
Gretel and Hansel - a darker take on the Brothers Grimm fairytale. A flash-based game, it is composed entirely of scanned-in watercolour pictures. Simplistic, but nothing to sneeze at. There is also some very black humor in this game, so if you're the squeamish type, and don't like watching children fall into some very... bleak situations, this may not be for you. You play as Gretel in this first installment, as she gathers the pebbles necessary to leave a trail back home. (Hansel is pretty much useless. No, really. He's retarded.)
Gretel and Hansel - Part 2 - The much bigger and better next installment to the series. More point and clicky puzzles to do, more ways for Gretel to die, and more achievements to unlock. The atmosphere is made absolutely gorgeous by a new soundtrack by a new composer - and you're further immersed in the supernatural world that this story takes place in - cleverly so. In this installment, you play Gretel (And briefly, Hansel!), as you navigate your way through an enchanted forest, in an attempt to finally get home.
Don't eat the mushrooms.
Yume Nikki - a game which... really kind of messes with you, quite a bit. Literally "Dream Diary," you play a female recluse, who wanders her dreams each night. Each one is strange, and almost nonsensical, until you look at the context the fans have come up with. And then it's really deep, at times horrifying. Recommended if you want a good "what the hell was that?!" moment, but ultimately, your mileage may vary. Freeware-made. You can find the download link here.
Tower of Heaven - A very simple, straightforward game. You are a nameless protagonist, ascending a tower that leads to a God. As you ascend, however, this God begins to lay down laws to make your goal more and more impossible - example, 'Thou shalt not touch the sides of the blocks,' or 'Thou shalt not walk left,' etc. This game is surprisingly replayable, if not just for the gameplay itself, but for the wonderful music as well. And there's definitely an underlying sense of depth, despite the gameboy-esque graphics - they used their medium beautifully.
Machinarium - a lovely, short point-and-click puzzle game (warning, it's incredibly difficult) featuring a coming-of-age story of a little robot off to save his girl from unknown circumstances. Actually, it's a steampunk-esque adventure, with lighthearted overtones. You play a little tin robot named Jozef, who's been kicked out of his home city by a gang of black-capped jerkwad robots. You need to make your way back, figure out the story as you're going along, rescue your adorable girlfriend, and save the city from the Black Cap Brotherhood. A 2D game, it has incredibly charming artwork, a wonderful atmosphere, and probably one of the best game composers I've personally heard. It can be downloaded via Steam, or through the links found here.
Gretel and Hansel - a darker take on the Brothers Grimm fairytale. A flash-based game, it is composed entirely of scanned-in watercolour pictures. Simplistic, but nothing to sneeze at. There is also some very black humor in this game, so if you're the squeamish type, and don't like watching children fall into some very... bleak situations, this may not be for you. You play as Gretel in this first installment, as she gathers the pebbles necessary to leave a trail back home. (Hansel is pretty much useless. No, really. He's retarded.)
Gretel and Hansel - Part 2 - The much bigger and better next installment to the series. More point and clicky puzzles to do, more ways for Gretel to die, and more achievements to unlock. The atmosphere is made absolutely gorgeous by a new soundtrack by a new composer - and you're further immersed in the supernatural world that this story takes place in - cleverly so. In this installment, you play Gretel (And briefly, Hansel!), as you navigate your way through an enchanted forest, in an attempt to finally get home.
Don't eat the mushrooms.
Yume Nikki - a game which... really kind of messes with you, quite a bit. Literally "Dream Diary," you play a female recluse, who wanders her dreams each night. Each one is strange, and almost nonsensical, until you look at the context the fans have come up with. And then it's really deep, at times horrifying. Recommended if you want a good "what the hell was that?!" moment, but ultimately, your mileage may vary. Freeware-made. You can find the download link here.
Tower of Heaven - A very simple, straightforward game. You are a nameless protagonist, ascending a tower that leads to a God. As you ascend, however, this God begins to lay down laws to make your goal more and more impossible - example, 'Thou shalt not touch the sides of the blocks,' or 'Thou shalt not walk left,' etc. This game is surprisingly replayable, if not just for the gameplay itself, but for the wonderful music as well. And there's definitely an underlying sense of depth, despite the gameboy-esque graphics - they used their medium beautifully.
Machinarium - a lovely, short point-and-click puzzle game (warning, it's incredibly difficult) featuring a coming-of-age story of a little robot off to save his girl from unknown circumstances. Actually, it's a steampunk-esque adventure, with lighthearted overtones. You play a little tin robot named Jozef, who's been kicked out of his home city by a gang of black-capped jerkwad robots. You need to make your way back, figure out the story as you're going along, rescue your adorable girlfriend, and save the city from the Black Cap Brotherhood. A 2D game, it has incredibly charming artwork, a wonderful atmosphere, and probably one of the best game composers I've personally heard. It can be downloaded via Steam, or through the links found here.
Sign in to comment in this discussion.
Comments
I've seen so many cosplays of that series, it's not funny. :P
What's the series actually about? I've read up on the wiki, and I still can't follow it. XD;
Like, there's not much you need to understand. It's a hell bullet shooter game where you take control of this shrine keeper or this witch and fend off the evil spirits and fairies off the face of the Earth, sort off.
The really special thing about it is that there's barely any generic 'I can't pick that up' dialogue - almost everything you do has its own response. Talking to trails of blood! Using Dan on a castle! Trying to cut wires with glue! I don't even want to think about how much time the writers must have spent thinking of witty responses for talking to inanimate objects, but somehow they not only did it, but managed to make it consistently funny.
And the second game is about killing Jetpack Hitler and his army of Nazi tyrannosauruses in order to un-invent the coathanger. If that hasn't sold you, nothing will.
I absolutely LOVE the IGF. For one week, the guesswork out of indie games shopping is thrown out of the picture. Every year, I dig through the finalists and I have always found at least two games that I will always love to death, because they are hallmarks of excellence or provide an experience so unique and beautiful that it would simply be impossible for the industry machine to spit them out. I beg of you to click the link above, go through the finalists, and see the benchmarks of what the indie video game scene is capable of producing.
Why no category for best writing? >=(
Yes. But it's extremely popular.
I think that playing some of the top games beeing presented on the IGF is beside of very very few full price games or games which are too successful for this kind of promotion like Torchlight or even more independent the only way to enjoy video games today. Without indie games i would probably have stopped playing video games already as i can't justify throwing out my time/money for the crap the major publishers dare to release these days.
This. I love my AAA releases just fine, but they've been stagnating for quite awhile now. Every time a big game tries something new, people shun it (until enough people say "hey, this is actually good" ~6 months later), and we get showered with more copypasta sequels. Or in the rare case the game takes off right away, everybody tries to clone it.
This has always been the case, but less and less effort is going into the clones and sequels.
Looking at my hard drive right now, three quarters of my installed games are indies, classics, or the rare big name innovation. The rest are the usual dime-a-dozen shooters, racers, and RPGs, and I haven't finished a single one of them yet. It's not that I don't enjoy them, just that I can't bring myself to choose them over the brilliance that's been coming out of small studios and one-man teams recently.
My god, I'm a game hipster. Kill me now.
(and I swear, if Gearbox announces a delay, Pitchford shall meet Pitchfork)
Hiiiipsterrrr!
Why has no one mentioned Zeno Clash yet? Awesome game. I love the art style, kind of Dark Crystal meets Mercer Mayer with a little Planescape: Torment mixed in. The gameplay is pretty good too, and the story is wonderfully bizarre.
Trine is awesome. If you like platformers you should play this. The graphical style is like a glowing fantasy pop-up book, simply gorgeous. The puzzles are fun to solve, the voice acting is fantastic and the story is surprisingly well told. I'm eagerly awaiting the sequel.
Blueberry Garden is a fun little art piece. I haven't finished it yet, but it's quirky fun. I might help that I only paid $0.99 for it, but playing it brings a smile to my face.
People have already mentioned World of Goo and Braid... wait, Braid hasn't been mentioned? The "story" is pretentious, but the gameplay is awesome.
EDIT: Machinarium is on my list to play (having gotten it in the Humble Indie Bundle #2). I played Samorost 2 (bought it off steam before the HIB#1) and loved it, so I'm looking forward to another game from the same developers. Right now I'm in the middle of playing Aquaria, and I'm not sure how I feel yet. It's good, but flawed.
Hopefully they're working on Portal 2. I don't know if they're doing anything else right now though.
Onto indie games - I've been playing Aquaria. I haven't really figured out what I'm meant to be doing yet, but I'm compelled to keep playing as the music is really nice.
I had a long post typed up with tips, and with my criticisms and praise for the game... but the forum eated it. :mad:
In short, the game really doesn't do a good job of telling you about the keyboard shortcuts for moves and skills.
- Try using WASD for movement, it can really make combat more fluid.
- Make good use of R to spin and pull in items, it's a lot easier than looping the cursor around yourself rapidly.
- The number keys get assigned to songs. Use them for quick access to abilities. I'll avoid specifics because of spoilers, but 9 is shield (a song you start off knowing) and 0 is a skill used very often (now that I know this, I think I'll remap it somewhere more utilitarian)
Which wiki are you talking about? Wikipedia, Touhou Wiki, or the Tropes entry?
If you want to figure out the plot, I'd go for the Touhou Wiki page: http://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/Touhou_Wiki
You can skip any details involving the first 5 games since they're basically retconned out of existance.
http://www.cavestory.org/
I would pay money for this, but it's free. You may purchase it on the Wii if you like, but this is one of those retro games that would have been the legendary equal to metroid if it came out ten years prior.
I agree with every word, Ben and Dan is really funny games, I was laughing out loud in many occasions. Their material is thought out in every detail, so the try everything with everything is funny no matter what you do.
I am still waiting for their newest game with the crazy adventuring friends "Revenge of the Baloon-Headed Mexican", which I hope they are still doing.
Desperately want to play all these games, now, but am currently overseas on a computer that I lack authority over. Hence, downloading's not an option.
I'll definitely take a look - thanks.
Looking at those winners for the awards, has anybody here played Amnesia: The Dark Descent? I haven't, but I've been hearing rave reviews all round (even from Yahtzee, and he's a tough nut to crack).
*
*
*
*
*
*
<
(B&D and H&G were already mentioned but I didn't want to exclude them)
* Anna; Linus Bruckman (by Vince Twelve)
* Majesty of Colors;… (by Gregory Weir)
* Submachine; Daymare Town;... (by Pastel Games)
* Terminal House
* The Lost Pig (by Admiral Jota)
* Today I Die;… (by Daniel Benmergui)
* Winter Rose (by Alex van der Wijst)
* Besieged (by Alex van der Wijst & yarooze)
* Mental Repairs Inc. (by Renzo Thönen)
* Murder in a Wheel (by Renzo Thönen)
* Nelly Cootalot (by Alasdair Beckett)
* Ben There, Dan That (by Dan & Ben)
* Samorost (by Amanita Design)
* A Second Face (by Jospin Le Woltaire)
* Nick Bounty Mysteries (by Mark Darin)
* A Small Favor & its sequel
* What makes you tick? (by Matt Kempke)
* Gretel and Hansel Parts 1 & 2 (by makopudding)
* Technobabylon (by Technocrat)
* [url="http://www.thecurfewgame.com/play-now.htm">The Curfew[/url] (by Kieron Gillen and Littleloud Studios)
* Galatea (by Emily Short)
* Ben Jordan series (by Francisco Gonzalez)
Thank you! Knowing this will help. Especially that the number keys are songs.
This is one time that I wholeheartedly agree with Rather Dashing.
Amnesia is to the horror genre what Mario 3 was to the platformer. That may sound like overpraise, but I can honestly not think of a single misstep in that entire game. It balances both scripted and unscripted scares so well that it's hard to tell which is which sometimes.
Let me share an unscripted experience I had with Amnesia (no spoilers). If this doesn't sell you on it, nothing will.
I was wandering around a small prison in the castle, looking for oil to keep my lantern going. I started to hear feet shuffling in one of the cells, but the echo made it hard for me to tell where it was coming from. I ran into the nearest cell and started barricading the door so that I could safely pinpoint the sound.
After I made sure the door was safe, I turned around to see if there were any items.
The creature that had been making the noises was standing less than a foot in front of my face.
Needless to say, I leaped a mile out of my seat, and because the door was barricaded, I was dead in an instant. Took me two hours to calm down enough to continue.
This isn't a rare thing in that game, either. A lot of games can boast one brilliant scare, but Amnesia is MADE OF brilliant scares.
I wish I was in a writing gig right now, because Amnesia deserves a GOTY nod, if not the whole damn award.
Headix - Free Flash game. It's interesting, somewhat challenging and since it does not have any help it takes a while to figure out what to do. I like games that make me explore stuff.
These games are not browser games, but are online a way that you can post a hiscore and it's always available on the "hall of fame" page, if you managed to get into it.
Invader Attack - Very good top view shooter with cool music, nice challenging levels, bosses and various enhancements.
Galaxide - Another shooter, but different style and features. Although the graphics are worse than in the previous game, I like this shooter the most.
Bloxidy - This one is very colorful logic action game. I played a lot of similar games, but this one is very original take and can't be compared to anything I ever saw. The multiplayer part of the game, the battle mode is amazing, very fast-paced and quite hard.
Anyway, I hope you like my "reviews" of these games and hopefully you never heard of them before, because I never did. I'm sorry if you did