Although posted way back on June 15th 2010, I only discovered this yesterday. So for those who haven’t seen it, Pixel Prospector has a video featuring 253 free indie games, in 10 minutes, and I want to play almost all of them. I apologise I’m not able to recreate their video here, and that only one game is shown above...
Their page with the video is HERE. They also list every game featured, along with links to further information and how to get it. I warn you though, it’s pretty intense, and you may miss something if you watch it one go - better to watch it in 2-3 minute increments, then pause to make notes and reflect on what you like.
When I see that there are this many good indie games out there, I have to ask, why the hell are multiformat print magazines not covering these? EDGE and GamesTM have microscopic coverage at best, while the newly relaunched EGM and GameFAN don’t seem to have any coverage at all (based on the first issues of both - I've not seen the second). For shame!
Oh, and don’t forget JoyToKey!
The bigger question is: With the whole 'wiiware/xboxarcade' indie scene thing, why are these games (or at least the best of them anyway) not making appearences?
ReplyDeleteNot saying all should appear but the best of the best (or just a collection package of lesser ones) should get 'enhanced' ports (ala cave story). Can't tell you have many freewar games I've played and wondered what they'd be like if they were released on wiiware.
Cave story's port was ok but kinda hoping for more gameplay to what I had played on pc (for free).
The reason this stuff isn't covered is because the indie games market is too big to cover throughly. We see things like Fez or World of Goo that win awards and eventually get published on more well-known platforms. When you have to search the whole of the Internet, the iPhone app store, or XBLA, it's much harder and more expensive to separate the wheat from the chaffe.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, thank you for mentioning this video. I'll definitely be looking into some of the games shown in it.
I can personally vouch for Action! Fist. It's like a run 'n' gun mixed with Silhouette Mirage and a 2D platformer. Except the Silhouette Mirage elements are downplayed a lot. It also has wall jumping. :)
ReplyDeleteI will definetely have to try a lot of these games in the future. I'm suprised that I've heard of a fair amount of them. I am sad that Barkley Shut Up And Jam! Gaiden wasn't on the video though. Sure, it's not the most visually engaging game (not to say that it looks bad, just less lively), but it's one of the best Indie games ever. And one of the few comparitively popular indie RPGs (I can't think of another popular one off the top of my head).
The first of those titles I'll have to check out would probably be the Castlevania IV clone. That looks awesome.
Retro Gamer covers indie and homebrew stuff, but I've not read about this video yet. Presumably the games featured in the video are available to download somewhere?
ReplyDelete