MetaFilter posts tagged with videogames and indie

Step 1. Make an utterly fantastic game. Step 3. Profit!

straight — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 09:24:08 -0800

2D BOY made around $100,000 in a week. That’s $50,000 each for writing a blog post about a game they finished a year ago. By letting people pay whatever they wanted. 2D Boy stirred up a lot of discussion (previously) about game piracy when they used online scoreboard data to estimate an 82% piracy rate for their fantastic indie game World of Goo (previously). For World of Goo's first birthday, they decided to try the Radiohead model and let people buy the game for any price they choose. Now they've released extensive data about the results. Short version? "A huge success," even though the most commonly chosen price was only a penny. Don't miss the excellent analysis in the Rock Paper Shotgun article (that first link), including the comments where one reader has created a chart showing that the bottom 40% of the downloads account for 1.5% of the profit and the top 30% of the downloads account for 83% of the profit.

Artificial Intelligence?

flatluigi — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 16:24:47 -0800

Hell is Other People "Fight the ghosts of those that have come before by moving in two dimensions and shooting missiles. The fiercer you fight, the harder it shall be for those that come after. How much past can you cope with before you are overwhelmed?"

Damn you, shopkeeper!

sonic meat machine — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 11:21:00 -0800

Spelunky is a (Windows-only) game that blends roguelike elements with a platform game reminiscent of La Mulana or the original Spelunker. Add this to the pile of fantastic indie platformers, I guess. [via]

The current state of DRM and piracy in casual gaming

tybeet — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 06:50:24 -0800

You may have heard by now about World of Goo, an independent game which can best be described as a "physics/construction puzzle game" that touches on everything from beauty to consumerism to internet privacy. The developer, 2DBoy who had originally released the game under a "no-DRM, don't screw us" policy now estimates a piracy rate of 82%. The authors cite a related figure of 92% found for a game called Ricochet Infinity, which was, in contrast, released with DRM, and whose developer studied the effects of their continued efforts to patch up the keygens and exploits in its DRM along the way. From this article: "As we believe that we are decreasing the number of pirates downloading the game with our DRM fixes, combining the increased sales number together with the decreased downloads, we find 1 additional sale for every 1,000 less pirated downloads. Put another way, for every 1,000 pirated copies we eliminated, we created 1 additional sale."

TIGsource Demakes competition results

JHarris — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 03:19:02 -0800

Nearly a month ago jbickers made a post that mentioned the TIGsource Demakes competition. The competition is over, and the winners have been announced. All of these are playable. Most are for Windows, except for those that are Flash or something else:
1. Soundless Mountain II (Atari 2600 Silent Hill) (from previous post)
2. Gang Garrison II (Kyntt Stories-like Team Fortress 2, complete with multiplayer)
3. Aquarium (NES-ish Aquaria)
4. Little Girl in Underland (Soviet McGee's Alice)
5. House Globe (Homeworld)
6. S.T.A.C.K.E.R. (Nuclear Tetris)
7. Squish
(Crush is a PSP game where the player can switch the world between a 2D and 3D representation. Squish is a game in which the player switches between a 2D and a 1D representation. See for yourself.) 8. (tie) Fillauth and Advanced Set The Rope On Fire Cartridge (an Intellivision-like remake of this, previously mentioned)
9. Sexy Seaside Vollyball (NSFW, pixelated breasts) (Sinclair Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Vollyball)
10. Macarena of the Missing (A thematically-appropriate demake of Limbo of the Lost)

Lots more after the jump! Various honorable mentions: Corner's Shiny (Mirror's Edge), Hold Me Closer, Giant Dancer (2D Shadow of the Colossus), Bootleg Bash (NES-like Smash Bros.), Buddy Base 2 (NES-alike Team Fortress 2), Katamaran Vs. Dalmation Giraffe (2D Gameboyish Katamari Damacy), Protobytes (2D Elebits), Smaze (NES-oid Haze), Super 3d Portals 6 (Mentioned in last post, Atari 2600 Portal, made to work on an actual Atari 2600), Thieving Raccoon (Flash, Game & Watch style Sly Cooper), Deity of Hostility (God of War text adventure, with fratboy narration), Healthy Wave (Gameboy AudioSurf), Trouble in Euclidia (Geometry Wars with faked ASCII graphics), Untitled Zelda-like for 1987 PC (CGA graphics, which work surprisingly well), Fake Pigs 2 (2D Virtua Cop), Offslaught '81 (ZX-81 Tower Defense), Heroes in Guitarland (NES-esque Guitar Hero), Super Maria Cosmos (2D Mario Galaxy), VipeUt Vectrex (Wipeout like as for the Vectrex), Fable of Griselda (ASCII Zelda), WolfSD (Wolfenstein 3D like as for the NES), Rocket Belt Rawr (2D grayscale recreation of Jetpack Brontosaurus), Hyper Solar-System Plumber (Another 2D Mario Galaxy), Lady Boy Love Collection (B&W Mega Man, vaguely NSFW), Shadow of the Bossus (2D, 16-bit Shadow of the Collossus), Nobody Shooter (Everyday Shooter, in a Gameboy-ine style), and Dysaster (_♥^♥_♥which is a roguelike^♥_♥^♥).

Indie Game: Muslim Massacre

pancreas — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 17:02:30 -0800

Muslim Massacre. Satire or just for shock value? You decide. Windows only.

Indie platformer extravaganza!

archagon — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 03:28:48 -0800

Do you enjoy classic 2D platformers? Then boy, are you in luck! The indie game community is thriving, and a good majority of its games are exactly that. I've spent many hours playing these unique, beautiful, and often exceptional projects, and there's quite a few - more than I can count on my fingers! - that could stand toe-to-toe with the finest contemporary games. Inside is a list of some of the greatest indie platformers, based on community recommendations and my own experience. Enjoy! Technical notes: most of these games are Windows-only. A lot of them are made using Game Maker, which sometimes requires a patch to work with Vista. If a game doesn't start when you run it but still shows up in task manager, use this patching tool. Here are some important contributors to the indie scene. Their games are renown for their quality:

Pixel: a reclusive Japanese software developer idolized for making the amazing Cave Story. (Note: Pixel's website is currently being remodeled. You'd normally find links to all his games there.)
- Cave Story [DL]: a metroidvania-style side-scroller with amazing music and art, great story, and smooth gameplay. If you don't speak Japanese, install this translation patch.
- Ikachan: similar to Cave Story, but set underwater and released earlier.
Nifflas: famous for making unique exploration platformers. Within a Deep Forest and the Knytt series are set in the same (beautiful!) universe, and emphasize ambience and exploration over action (although there's plenty of that too!).
- Within a Deep Forest: a metroidvania-esque side-scroller. You play a bouncing ball.
- Knytt: a side-scroller similar in feel to WaDF, though more exploratory. You play a tiny flea-like person who can scale almost any wall. (mentioned previously)
- Knytt Stories: similar to Knytt, with an emphasis on custom user content. There are many level packs available online. (mentioned previously)
Cactus: an extremely prolific developer who mostly makes abstract shooters.
- Cactus Arcade: a collection of Cactus's 17 greatest hits. (Includes the 3 games below.)
- Clean Asia!: an abstract shmup with a unique control scheme. Won the Autofire 2007 competition.
- Psychosomnium: a humorous and surreal side-scroller. Story-based.
- Shotgun Ninja: a quick-paced side-scroller that resembles a C64 game.
Ikiki: a quirky Japanese developer who's probably made as many games as Cactus. If you're getting errors, rename the EXEs to something English.
- Nikujin: a side-scrolling slice-em-up. Your ninja can perform several interesting stunts, including hanging onto the ceiling and running up walls.
- Tekkyuuman: a stage-based action platformer. You play a guy with a giant flail.
Matthew Thorson: specializes in difficult puzzle platformers.
- Jumper: Redux, Jumper 2 (for screenshots and download links, see Matthew Thorson link): stage-based puzzle platformer series. Very challenging level design, mainly focused on jumping.
- FLaiL (for screenshots and download link, see Matthew Thorson link): a stage-based puzzle platformer. Interesting elements include slow-down zones, gravity reversal powerups, and the ability to fly in one direction for a brief period of time. Excellent engine.
- An Untitled Story (for screenshots and download link, see Matthew Thorson link): a metroidvania-style side-scroller. Widely acclaimed. (mentioned previously)
Messhof: famous for sadistic, minimalistic, semi-arthouse platformers.
- Punishment: basic platformer. Watch out for the headache-inducing screen rotators and direction-switching powerups.
- Punishment: The Punishing: another platformer with a cruel twist.
- Flywrench: you're a bird-like creature. Flap through the levels and avoid touching areas that aren't the same color as you.
- You Found the Grappling Hook!: a side-scroller based around grappling hook gameplay.
Joakim Sandberg: makes side-scrolling beat-em-ups.
- Chalk: draw chalk lines to kill enemies, deflect bullets, and do other interesting stuff.
- Noitu Love 2 (commercial): mouse is used to attack and throw. Exceptional art. Full version costs $20.
Metanet Software
- N: the precursor to N+ on the XBLA. Stage-based action/puzzle platformer. Collect gold to add time and hit the main switch to open the exit. Excellent controls, but very difficult. Lots of user created levels available online. (mentioned previously)
Jason Rohrer: maker of arthouse games. Uses conventional gameplay mechanics to make an artistic point. Read the Creator's Statments after you've played the games!
- Passage: "my third game, shown at Kokoromi's curated GAMMA 256 event (at MIGS 2007)." (mentioned previously)
- Gravitation: "my fourth game, about mania, melancholia, and the creative process." (mentioned previously)

"Masocore", a term popularized by Auntie Pixelante, is a genre of games that trifles with the player's complacency about game mechanics. As such, they are often fiendishly difficult but occasionally fun to play (and definitely fun to watch!).

I Wanna Be That Guy!: extremely difficult platformer that attempts to make the player lose at every turn. (mentioned previously)
Syobon Action (download link is second link): much easier than IWBTG. Parody of Mario. Emphasis seems to be on humorous traps rather than difficulty. There's also a Java version.

Gamma256 was a game design event that required all featured games to use a very low resolution. Although these aren't platformers per se, I thought they might be worth mentioning due to their sheer experimental excellence.

Dive: see how far down you can dive. Exploration based.
StdBits: very abstract action-adventure game. Exploration based.

Some of my other favorites:

Mighty Jill Off: a short BDSM-themed jumping platformer with great pixel art. Made by Auntie Pixelante, a fairly famous indie game journalist and critic. (mentioned previously)
Alex Adventure: a game design experiment by a new developer. Rough around the edges, but interesting nonetheless. Quite surrealistic. (mentioned previously)
EverEternal WinterWorld: a Cave Story-like game designed for The Daily Click's Christmas Competition.
Love (semi-commercial): a simple minimalistic platformer. The environments are spectacular and never repeat. Costs $1 for the full version.
Aquaria (commercial): recently released metroidvania-style game. Uses high-resolution artwork. Similar to Nifflas's games in that it's also very much about exploration and ambience. Full version costs $30.
Seiklus: an early exploration-based platformer. Inspired Nifflas and many other indie developers.
Warning Forever: a series of Raiden-like boss battles, except the bosses change according to your playing style after every victory.
La Mulana: an extremely difficult metroidvania-style platformer. Made to look like a MSX game. You'll probably need the translation patch. (mentioned previously)

There are many more indie platformers out there. Browse TIGSource (who also have an excellent, albeit incomplete, indie game database) and the IndieGames blog if you're interested.

Indie Video Games, Where Art Thou?

JPowers — Fri, 26 May 2006 21:20:05 -0800

Why aren't there any indie video games: "Indie rock fans may prefer somewhat muddy sound over some lushly orchestrated, producer-massaged score; indie film fans may prefer quirky, low-budget titles over big-budget special FX extravaganzas; but in gaming, we have no indie aesthetic, no group of people (of any size at least) who prize independent vision and creativity over production values."

The end of Big Developers

zabuni — Sat, 22 Apr 2006 08:47:27 -0800

The next next gen of video games. With the rise of digital distribution models for video games, and the rapid increase in development costs, Raph Koster has predicted an end to the big publishers, with a new system of online content aggregators. Others in the industry agree, but will this really be the end of large epic games?