Go ahead, take a little taste. It's FREE.
January 19, 2007 5:36 AM   Subscribe

 
Toribash. Rumble Box.
posted by anotherpanacea at 5:41 AM on January 19, 2007


From the makers of Darwinia, Defcon. (previously)
posted by mkb at 6:19 AM on January 19, 2007


Darwinia is a first-class game. It's short, but packs more creativity-per-time-unit than probably anything else done in the last five years. It's completely unlike anything else, but reminds me strongly of the 1980s-era video games. It's a full modern 3D engine, but many of the entity designs are deliberately retro-looking. It also shares that feeling of crazy wholesale invention that the 1980s games had. It's just.... very, very odd and different from anything else, yet highly playable.

Defcon is also excellent, but it's rather depressing and hard to play after the first week or two. The graphics are spare but functional. The sound effects, though, are absolutely brilliant.... and entirely chilling. After the first nukes start to hit, and women are ever-so-quietly weeping in your headphones, it's hard not to get a bit depressed. It's a horrid subject, and they somehow managed to both make it into a good game AND treat the idea with respect.

Both these games are about $20, and I strongly recommend both.

On that list, Master of Defense is also pretty good... I ended up paying for it. I haven't seen the others yet. Off to check them out. :)
posted by Malor at 8:31 AM on January 19, 2007


Oh, another fun indie game done last year: Steam Brigade, from Pedestrian Entertainment. You're controlling a steampunk-ish hot air balloon, and directing soldiers and tanks to try to overwhelm an enemy doing the exact same thing. 2D sidescroller. Good art, solid gameplay. Demo available. Worth checking out.
posted by Malor at 8:35 AM on January 19, 2007


Cool. I would have loved it if you noted which platforms they run on but it's no biggie. Thanks for this post, anotherpanacea.
posted by sveskemus at 8:53 AM on January 19, 2007 [1 favorite]


Just at a glance, Master of Defense looks much like Flash Element TD which I've been playing heavily the last couple days.
posted by Foosnark at 9:50 AM on January 19, 2007


My favorite indie game on sheer original look and feel is SketchFighter. When I was 12 I made drawings like this, and now they come to life!
posted by dylanjames at 10:31 AM on January 19, 2007


I definitely have to check these out...
posted by ObscureReferenceMan at 12:19 PM on January 19, 2007


A few indie games I've been playing lately:

Armadillo Run is a terribly addictive 3-d physics-based puzzle game where you can construct strange structures and simple machines to get the ball from point a to b. Some people have compared it favorably to The Incredible Machine or Bridge Builder, though I haven't played either of those so can't comment on that. This one is Windows only, though there are vague promises of a Mac (and Linux, I think) versions soon.

Lugaru is a 3-d rag-doll physics fighting game featuring giant anthromorphic bunnies and wolves with a fighting-jumping style that reminds me of the slowdown-then-speedup of HK action flicks. Very graceful with a great enemy AI, especially when playing with a stealthy strategy, and very intuitive controls. Runs on Windows, Mac, and Linux.

If physics-based games are your thing, I found a great blog, Fun-Motion Physics, which covers this genre in depth.

Narbacular Drop is a student project FPS (without shooting) which introduced the idea of portals: the ability to instantly create doors on almost any surface. Not really a new game but was new to me. My only problem with the game is how it makes me a bit disoriented, which surprised me as normal FPS's don't bother me at all. But it is the first true innovation in the genre for a while, and the makers of the game were hired by Valve for a new project (Youtube).
posted by pandaharma at 12:44 PM on January 19, 2007


Great post, thanks!
posted by Drexen at 2:42 PM on January 19, 2007


« Older Fiddling While Rome Burns?   |   lessthanthree Ricky! Newer »


This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments