34 articles Articles posted in Indie games

The Chaser

May 31, 2009, 2 comments

The ChaserWhat exactly is The Chaser all about? Creator Conor Carpenter fashioned it from brain and fingers in just 12 hours, and claims it’s designed to “induce a state of mind and mood”. Here’s how it does it: by making you chase some poor dude through a forest, seemingly forever. It’s tougher than it looks — as the speed ramps up, one carelessly-strewn rock can send you spinning like a dog in tail-chase mode. And it’s weirder than it looks — why does the chasee occasionally grow to about ten times his normal size, and why do clouds suddenly start appearing on the ground? The Chaser is simple, compelling — and comes with music you’ll be humming in your grave. Play The Chaser (Windows download)

Update: oh, it’s one of those games.

A Shot In The Dark

May 28, 2009, 2 comments

A Shot In The DarkSo what if I told you that a game you have no control over — a game that is essentially entirely random and isn’t even a proper game dammit — is one of the funniest things you’ll play this week? A Shot In The Dark by Uncommon, part of Castle Paradox’s laudable Terrible Games Contest 2009*, is just brilliant. You press left Shift or right Shift to ‘choose’ the course of ten characters’ lives — but the game basically ignores you and throws out whichever ending it likes. This is what all videogames will be like when the sentient AI has enslaved us all. Thanks to the randomness — and the superb writing — this is one game you will genuinely WANT to play over and over again. Gogogo. Play A Shot In The Dark (Windows download)

* and you really should get over there and download these so-called ‘terrible’ games, because surprise surprise they ain’t that terrible at all if you take them in the correct spirit. Which is that they’re, er, terrible. OOOH PARADOX.

3 games from Andrew Brophy

May 27, 2009, 1 comment

Andrew Brophy has released three games in one go — which means to find time to play them all through in one day, I’ve had to give up sleep, naptime, mid-afternoon naptime and late evening snooze. You’ll understand if I’m a bit crabby.

3 games from Andrew Brodny 1 Back To The Laboratory. Dodge your pet monkey’s flailing fists — while protecting those very same fists from the evil army fighter jets. The anguish! Below-average shooter, but 10/10 for the monkey drawing. His spiralling eyeballs will haunt you in your sleep for decades to come.

2 Takishawa Is Dead! A visually appealing 3D platformer, ostensibly about the search for the eponymous Takishawa. Mainly notable for having to wait 30+ seconds for your hero to very slowly descend to the first level, which is right up there with the queue at the post office on my Fun-Time Things list. Other than that, Takishawa Is Dead! is strangely alluring stuff, despite its obvious simplicity and insistence that this time, buster, you’re gonna be the cameraman.

3 Sworrd Buster. Andrew, I like this one, I really do. But. You grab the sword, you wave the sword, you shoot astonishingly pretty laser death from the sword… what’s not to like? Answer: INVISIBLE BOUNDARIES THAT MAKE PLAYING IMPOSSIBLE. Tch. Perhaps you’re supposed to stay near to that ‘base’ at the bottom of the level? I’ll give it the benefit of the doubt: those rainbow lasers really have put my eyes in a very good mood.

Play Back To The Laboratory, Takishawa Is Dead! and Sworrd Buster (Windows download)

RepliCat

May 26, 2009, 0 comments

RepliCatRepliCat is a bit like that episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation where the Enterprise stumbles across a time-shifted doppelganger of itself. Yes, I know — wasn’t that EVERY episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation? Forget that for now: just focus on this very clever, very compulsive little game. All you have to do is fly from planet to planet, dodging the ghostly shadows of your own past — who have the really annoying tendency of doing exactly what you were doing, three seconds ago.

RepliCat is, curiously, both fast-paced and brain-frazzingly cerebral, and the mouse-only ship control really works. The music (Chaoz Fantasy by alextheDJ) is terrific, too. More of this kind of thing please. Play RepliCat (Flash)

MegaSuper:TIMEWARP

May 25, 2009, 0 comments

MegaSuper:TIMEWARPPut down that croissant and spend five minutes with MegaSuper:TIMEWARP, Sophie Houlden’s twist on the rhythm action game. Music goes bomf-bomf-bomf, you go tap-tap-tap — so far, so familiar. But wait! The better you are at matching the timing, the faster the music goes. It’s strangely gratifying, and Sophie’s done a bang-on job of matching the beats to the button-presses and luring you hypnotically inside the music. Gets hard and fast at the end, too. As a result, my keys have come off and I want to know who to sue.  Play MegaSuper: TIMEWARP (Unity, Windows, OSX)