Indie

Dwarf Fortress hits version 40c

Posted Sep 2nd 2008 6:00PM by James Murff
Filed under: Indie, RTS, Sandbox, Simulation

Nothing like good ol' Dwarf Fortress, the indie game you can count on to be developed full-time. Thanks in part to Tarn Adams' development log, we can keep up with all the new additions and bugfixes to this incredible games. And since 39f, there's been quite a few. 40c's big addition over 39f is embark stocking profiles, enabling you to build a profile that you can use with each expedition, saving you the hassle of redoing your items and skills every time to restart. There's also a plethora of bugfixes, from fixing display errors to mood lockups. You can check out the full list of changes between versions on Tarn Adams' devlog, and can download the game on Bay 12.

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Independent Minds: A Friendly Competition

Posted Sep 2nd 2008 2:00PM by James Murff
Filed under: Culture, Indie

Independent Minds aims to take various aspects of indie gaming and present them to you each week. From game round-ups to design elements to interviews with prominent members of the scene, it's an exploration of what makes indie gaming great as well as what makes someone an indie.

It's a phenomenon normally only seen in amateur communities, among people that do not have the drudgery of a nine-to-five job in their field. The freelancers and visionaries, the next great creators of the future. From writing, to art, to movie-making, competitions are not so much the realm of professional-level creation but rather for those that can crank out a prototype, an early draft, or a short movie in a single weekend. For these competitions, none seems to be as interesting as those created by the independent game development company.

Continue reading Independent Minds: A Friendly Competition

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MacMonday: Larva Mortus

Posted Sep 1st 2008 11:00AM by Akela Talamasca
Filed under: Downloads, Demos, Features, Hands-on, Mac, Indie, Screenshots, Arcade

Larva Mortus is billed as a "retro horror action game" by developers Rake In Grass, and it more than lives up to its name. Calling it a cross between Smash TV and the X-Files would be too facile a comparison, but it's a decent starting point. Combining an intuitive interface with addictive gameplay, Larva Mortus will keep you saying "Just one more level" until the undead cows come home. Let's take a look after the jump!

Continue reading MacMonday: Larva Mortus

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Download: Tank Universal Demo

Posted Aug 29th 2008 11:30AM by Steven Wong
Filed under: Downloads, Demos, Action, Indie, Strategy

Perhaps one of the best indie games to come out this summer, Tank Universal puts you in the seat of a battle tank in a Tron-like world. There, you fight against computer controlled opponents for territory using a massive cannon and a wide array of special weapons. Check out the Big Download review for more information.

Download the Tank Universal Demo (87 MB)

Review: Tank Universal

Posted Aug 27th 2008 5:00PM by Steven Wong
Filed under: Features, Action, FPS, Indie, Opinion

Tank Universal captures the nostalgic feel of classic games like Battezone mixed with an art style similar to the movie TRON. Even the plot follows a TRON-like plot line. A person diagnosed with a terminal illness enters into a virtual reality, where he ends up in neon world primarily made up from simple polygons. There, he joins a rebellion group fighting against a murderous and oppressive dictatorship. In order to upset the seat of power, players must jump into a tank and start blasting away the opposition.

Continue reading Review: Tank Universal

Strong Bad trailer declares freedom

Posted Aug 27th 2008 10:30AM by Steven Wong
Filed under: Downloads, Adventure, Indie, Trailers, Video

The first Strong Bad game only released a few weeks ago, but the tireless developers at TellTale Games are right on schedule with the second monthly episode of this hilarious adventure game series. Is the world ready for the independent nation of Strong Badia the Free? We'll soon find out. For more humor, check out the first video for Behind-the-Bad and see how Strong Bad got into video games to start with.

Download the SBCG4AP Episode 102 HD Trailer (28 MB)
Download the Strong Bad Behind-the-Bad Part 1 Video (151 MB)

Multiwinia teaches heavy lifting

Posted Aug 26th 2008 7:00PM by Steven Wong
Filed under: Downloads, Indie, Multiplayer, Trailers, Video, Strategy

The latest Multiwinia Monday reveals the Capture the Statue mode. This variation on capture the flag requires many multiwinians to pick up a large, heavy, statue and move it back to their base. Obstacles like steep hills and aggressive opponents stand in the way of progress.

Download the Multiwinia "Capture the Statue" HD Video (39 MB)

TIGJam is ready to go!

Posted Aug 25th 2008 6:00PM by James Murff
Filed under: Culture, Indie

For those folks looking for an excuse to make games with the best of them, here's your chance! TIGSource and Flashbang Studios (the guys behind the incredibly fun Raptor Safari) have teamed up for a fusion of indie development and community down in Phoenix, Arizona. Dubbed the TIGJam, it's a game jam for you to work on your latest game in development, either alone or with someone else. With food, drink, and one of the best communities around, it's going to be a huge blast for all involved! Sleep is entirely optional.

New Cave Story mod available

Posted Aug 22nd 2008 8:00PM by James Murff
Filed under: Action, Indie

We here at Big Download obviously love Cave Story. A lot. It is then, with great pleasure, that we found out about a Cave Story hack being offered called Hack9. It's in Japanese, but you can figure out the game itself pretty easily. The only downside is unless you are fluent in Japanese, you'll have no clue about the story. It plays almost exactly like Cave Story but with a significantly darker tone. You are killing soldiers and destroying tanks and helicopters, lending it a much more military flair. All in all, if you're looking for a fun platformer, it's definitely worth a try, even if you can't understand it.

[Via IndieGames]

Fight in the Epic War

Posted Aug 22nd 2008 5:00PM by James Murff
Filed under: Browser, Indie, Strategy

For those that must get their high fantasy strategy fix, there's Battle for Middle-earth. For those that can't play that, either because of system requirements, setting, or they just plain don't like it, there's another option. Epic War is a new browser strategy game. It's more of an arcade strategy game, not a traditional one, and that's fine by us. Send out your units, upgrade them, use spells, and wield a gigantic crossbow try and take down the Dark Lord's tower. Simple but fun strategy stuff. Winning is very much dependent on using all of these in conjunction.

Don't get lost in The Vacuum

Posted Aug 21st 2008 6:00PM by James Murff
Filed under: Adventure, Indie

There's two sorts of adventure games. There's the kind popularized by King's Quest and the like, which are the hard, unforgiving games with great stories. The kind where puzzles twist your mind into impossible knots. Then there's the kind popularized by the LucasArts games of yore, with strange puzzles, but great humor and far more forgiving gameplay. The Vacuum falls into the second category. A retro-styled adventure game, you play the husband of a couple traveling across space in a cargo ship. There are several endings depending on your actions during the game.

[Via IndieGames]

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Multiwinia makes you king of the hill

Posted Aug 19th 2008 7:30PM by Steven Wong
Filed under: Downloads, Indie, Video, Strategy

The latest video to come out of Multiwinia Monday introduces the King of the Hill mode. All players have to do is amass an army of Darwinians to take and hold as many control points as possible, for as long as possible. Sounds simple until your opponents make a carpet out of your soldiers.

Download the Multiwinia "King of the Hill" HD Trailer (67 MB)

Welcome to the Border of Life

Posted Aug 18th 2008 8:00PM by James Murff
Filed under: Action, Indie, Arcade

For the indie and amateur developer, a shmup is a great way to learn the ropes of the industry. The engine is easy to build, you must make it interesting and unique, balance it to provide a good challenge, and the concepts are very simple to understand. A student team at KobeDenshi have followed this philosophy and created Border of Life, a grapple-mechanic horizontal shooter. The graphics are effective, but the gameplay could use some more refinement. It's hard, mostly because the controls are difficult to get used to.

[Via Lithium Leaf]

Oh no! Ghosts of Aliens!

Posted Aug 18th 2008 7:00PM by James Murff
Filed under: Indie, RPG

Barkley, Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden: Chapter 1 of the HoopZ Barkley Saga is one of the strangest, goofiest, and altogether fun freeware RPGs you can play. A bizarre sense of humor, decent gameplay, and well-made sprites and environments made it an instant classic in the indie scene. Following in the footsteps of this incredibly strange endeavor, Ghosts of Aliens takes this sort of surreal humor and applies it to traditional RPG tropes. You are the ghost of an alien, given a second-chance at life as long as you kill 5 Doom Beasts. The gameplay is traditional JRPG stuff. Choose option, hit enemy. Altogether, not a bad game.

[Via IndieGames]

Freeware Friday: Battle for Wesnoth

Posted Aug 15th 2008 1:00PM by James Murff
Filed under: Indie, RPG, Strategy

Welcome to Freeware Friday, a weekly column showcasing excellent games that you can play free of charge!

Sometimes you just have to sit down, get some drinks, and plug away at an addicting strategy game. Exercise your mind, either against computer or human opponents. I know this need very well, and as I haven't featured many strategy games on Freeware Friday, I present to you Battle for Wesnoth. It's an open-source strategy game that is one of the best freeware releases you can find, strategy or not. However, unlike Freeciv, it can be played in nice, bite-sized increments.

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