Indie Games

by Red Sat May 14, 2011 1:57 pm

The Indie games thread.
The one that I thought I'd made but didn't.

This thread will deal with quick reviews and opinions on your favourite Indie games. Them Little Flash Games will be dedicated to browser games from now on. Even though most broswer games are independently developed, they belong to a class of their own IMO and hence the separation from the downloadable games that come in tiny zip or large instal packages.(... I do this using whatever little authority I have here : P)

by Red Sat May 14, 2011 2:48 pm

This little game created by Nicklas "Nifflas" Nygren, is a real gem. I'd even call this an Indie classic.
The game centers around a little creature called Knytt who is abducted by an alien. The UFO in which they're in collides with an asteroid and crash-lands on an unknown planet. Luckily the two are saved but the ship is damaged and they are stranded in a strange planet.
Knytt decides to help the alien rebuild his ship by retrieving the missing parts of the ship that were scattered across this planet while the ship was entering its atmosphere.
The game takes you (Knytt) over marshes, underground passages, a cloud city, ruins of ancient civilizations, an underwater kingdom and lots of pleasantly detailed, yet minimalist environments.
Most of the planet's creatures you encouter in your journey are harmless. But there are ways certain things can kill you, but with infinite lives, it doesn't really matter.
One of the great things about this game is the music and ambience that it creates. Music is rarely heard but when it plays, it totally immerses you into the new unexplored world. This is almost kinda like the effect I got from the music in Shadow of the Colossus.
Beautifuly simple and simply beautiful, this game will make you smile at the ending.
Rating: 10/10
Here's some screenshots I shamelessly ripped from MobyGames

Spoiler:

Get the game from here.

I didn't like the sequel as much. But it's good too with its custom level design feature and all... : )

by **Arr0wHeaD** Sat May 14, 2011 6:50 pm

Nice thread, Red. I've been meaning to make this thread too, cause I've been doing some indie gaming myself.

Note, When I say indie, I mean not published by a retailer. That is, these games are usually free to download and play.

I start with TAG: The power of Paint.

It'a a fairly simple concept. A puzzle based First Person Platformer, much like Portal (If you haven't played portal, go do it now. I cannot stress this enough).

You basically have a paint sprayer gun, with an unlimited amount of paint in 3 colors, and a grey environment full of buildings and roads that you can paint with the spray gun. The colors have special effects when you walk onto an area that they're sprayed on.

Green-makes you bounce when you step on it.
Red-Makes you increase speed as you run on it (Makes the surface low friction, basically)
Blue-Allows you to stick to that surface.

you use these tools to your advantage as you navigate.

Indie Games 3_Tag_Screenshot_4

Indie Games Foreman_11002853_tag_screenshot_2_540x394

It's made by students from the DigiPen Institute. In fact, several games from that above site count as fun to play indie games, though some of them may be less fun than initially advertised (Rydenstyke, from the above site, made by a different group of students is pretty dull, and I was expecting better)

Anyway, these guys who made TAG- They're now working on a little game called Portal 2, and they're making new game mechanics for it. Good for them Very Happy