Indie Game News

CaptainD Interviews the Little Green Men!

2012-02-15T23:18:00.000Z

I interviewed Danijel Mihokovic, General Manager at indie game developer Little Green Men, the team behind space sim / RPG Starpint Gemini.

1/ Starpoint Gemini has been out for quite some time now - what sort of reaction has it had? Did it meet your expectations in terms of sales, reviews etc?

The overall reaction to Starpoint Gemini was quite diverse. Rating went from 4.0 to 9.5, but that was within expectations. We knew there would be players who'd almost hate the game, but that there would also be players who would love it.

Sales-wise, it was also as expected and we’re very happy about it. Since we’re a small indie team with no prior published titles, we’re extremely happy. A very important thing is how much we learned from both the good and the bad sides of how SPG was developed and we fully intend to use all that valuable experience in the sequel. We crossed a big stepping stone.

2/ I take it you guys are big sci-fi fans - any particular favourites? Star Wars / Star Trek / Stargate / Bablyon 5 / Quantum Leap ?

Absolutely; sci-fi is adored by everyone in the team. Don’t get me wrong, we like other genres and settings too, but sci-fi holds a special place. As far as particular influences and franchises, that’s on an individual basis. For me, Star Trek has that special something that got me hooked to every movie and TV series and even games (well, not all Star Trek games).

3/ Was there anything you were hoping to do with Starpoint Gemini that you felt you didn't manage to accomplish the way you'd wanted to?

I’d be lying if I said no. You always think there’s more you could do, and that’s mostly true, but harsh reality has its own rules and you have to play by them. I remember reading player comments on what features they’d like to see in SPG and I wanted those features too, we all did… but there comes a time when you just have to stop and say: “OK. Time to stop. If we continue like this we’ll never finish it…”. Thankfully, we have a much better starting point for SPG2 and that means more freedom. I hope we’ll get most of our ideas done in the sequel.

4/ On the other hand, what aspects of SG were you particularly proud of?

I’m very proud of the entire game. Almost everything turned out as we wanted and planned. Some might disagree with our design philosophy and we respect their opinion, but we’re proud of the outcome.

5/ Starpoint Gemini 2 has been been announced - anything you can tell us about what we can expect in that game?

Well you can expect a great deal of new things and some revised ideas and features from SPG. What I’m very proud of is the streaming technology that makes Gemini fully come to life as a single huge area and the second thing are direct controls in full 3D space. These two features will make the biggest difference by far.

We’ll announce the official website when we come to that of course. We should have quite a bit to show from the get-go.

6/ So what's it like being a famous indie developer nowadays?

Heh . I don’t think we’re famous. We’re still relatively new, but we’re getting our momentum. I can’t say fame is a part of our motivation. In Croatia for example, we’re barely known to almost anyone. We’re focused on making fun games that gamers will enjoy. The rest, for a lack of a better word, is ‘meh… who cares’.

7/ After SG2, will you be working on another similar type of game, or trying something different?

That’s a hard question. There are other projects we’re keen on making, but I don’t think SPG will stop with the sequel. It doesn’t necessarily have to be another installment of Starpoint Gemini, but we have some ideas on how to expand on the whole space-sim genre.

8/ Which indie developers do you really admire for pushing the boundaries of what we expect from computer / video games?

I’d have to say Minecraft devs. I admit I haven’t tried it out myself, but from what I’ve seen and read about it, two things make me admire it: 1)It gives players freedom to be creative and 2)It’s a slap in the face to all those multi-million $ projects that put all emphasis on graphics and leaves the concept and content a lot to be desired. You just gotta love that.

9/ Finally, the game that started off this whole genre was Elite - what was the highest rank you ever reached? I think I eventually became "Dangerous", but never got to Deadly or Elite - I just didn't have the dedication to play it for that long!

Elite was a tad before my time, but I did give it a go on my PC through DosBox. Not trying Elite would be a crime ;). If my memory serves me, I think I stopped while I was Competent.

Well, thanks Denijel for making me feel old with the answer to question 9... but other than that, many thanks for doing the interview and I look forward to seeing what Starpoint Gemini 2 has in store for us!

Starpoint Gemini Official Website

klutzGames Releases Bullet Babs for iPhone/iPad, Android and Windows Phone 7.

2012-02-15T18:48:00.000Z

Classic Shoot’Em Up Game Now Available in Apple’s App Store, Android Market and Microsoft Marketplace

BERLIN, GERMANY – February 10, 2012 – klutzGames today announced that their second cross platform game Bullet Babs is now available for iPhone, iPad, Android and Windows Phone 7. Bullet Babs is a classic Shoot’Em Up game with a tricky dual weapon mechanism and a little story.

Bullet Babs is a simple but fun Shoot'Em Up where the player has to carefully switch between two weapons as the wrong weapon can have negative impacts for the player. Shooting an enemy may then result in duplicating him or provoke a counter bullet attack. The weapons are automatically upgraded over time. The player has to destroy 50 waves of enemy attacks. In the later waves things get pretty fast and hectic. The game can be played in an arcade or story mode.

Bullet Babs is klutzGames’ second cross platform developed game. As a distinctive feature the games share the same source code among all platforms. This is possible by using Xamarin’s Mono libraries for iOS and Android and the open source library MonoGame. Mono is an open source implementation of Microsoft’s .Net platform and MonoGame implements Microsoft’s game framework XNA for Mono. klutzGames’ games Santa Melia and Bullet Babs are currently the only games available for all three platforms based on this technology.

Bullet Babs is available as free download from Apple’s App Store, Google’s Android Market and Microsoft’s Marketplace, or by visiting:http://bulletbabs.klutzgames.com

Please visit http://bulletbabs.klutzgames.com for more Bullet Babs information, including a trailer and screenshots of the game.

klutzGames, an independent video game studio based in Berlin, Germany, was formed in 2011 by Timo Fleisch for the purpose of creating fun and cute cross platform mobile games.

Irresistible New Action-Puzzler released on iOS

2012-02-15T16:11:00.001Z

Gainesville, Florida - Independent software developer, Workhorse Bytes, has released their first app, Fuzzy Cubes 1.0. The game is best described as Tetris meets Rubix cube (with fuzzy creatures and grenades).

Set in an exciting and comical world, Fuzzy Cubes explodes with a new and innovative approach to the puzzle genre. Its core gameplay centers around the basic tasks of shape and color matching. Players begin with a single side of the cube, then strive to achieve a perfect clear (clearing all blocks on a face). In addition to clearing blocks, you must also defuse deadly bomb attacks. The 40 captivating levels are spread over 6 story-driven episodes, each with it's own unique challenges and jammin' theme music!

Fuzzy Cubes is the brainchild of real-life Kung Fu Master Des "the Whirlwind" Jackson and one of his Top Disciples, Simon "the Dragon" Chen! One day, while nursing a well earned concussion, Disciple Simon asked his teacher how others could share in the joy of his blissful predicament without risking a coma. Master Des stroked his beard and replied, "Hah-hah-hah-hah...Fuzzy Cubes." And the game was born. For the next year, the two toiled respectively in their own apartments, putting down their swords, in exchange for pencils and laptops. They toiled over 40,000 lines of code, countless renditions of concept art, music, and gameplay mechanics. The results were an addictive game that's the puzzle equivalent to the Five Finger Death Punch! Are you fuzzy?

Device Requirements:

* iPhone 3GS, iPod touch 3, iPhone 4, iPod touch 4, iPhone 4S

* Requires iOS 3.0 or later

* 150 MB

Pricing and Availability:

Fuzzy Cubes 1.0 is only $1.99 (US) and available worldwide exclusively through the App Store in Games/Puzzle category.

Located in the Sunshine State of Gainesville, Florida, Workhorse Bytes is an independent software developer, devoted to creating fun and innovative games for mobile devices. The founders/developers/Big Cahunas are Desmond Jackson and Simon Chen.

Award-winning puzzle game Spirits released on Mac App Store today

2012-02-15T16:07:00.002Z

Berlin, Germany - Independent game studio, Spaces of Play today is pleased to announce the release and immediate availability of Spirits 1.0.1, their award-winning puzzle game title for Mac OS X. Spirits is available on the Mac App Store at an introductory price of $7.99 (USD) for the first two weeks. The regular price will be $9.99.

Players guide leaf-like spirits through the game by reshaping its world. Spirits can be transformed to blow wind, build stairs, dig away ground, or block wind. Each level allows different skill combinations, challenging players with constantly unique puzzles. With its soothing wind physics, beautiful graphics and orchestral soundtrack, Spirits has a calm and poetic atmosphere to it.

Spirits is a first-class citizen on the Mac. Rather than simply porting it over pixel-for-pixel from iOS, all 42 levels have been completely redrawn by hand. The game supports any resolution natively up to 25601440 pixels, making it look stunning both on a 11" MacBook Air and a 27" iMac alike. The controls offer multi-touch trackpad support for zooming, scrolling and panning.

The Mac version also lets players take screenshots of their own creative solutions and share it on Twitter. As on iOS, there are online ranks for each individual level and a global game rank. Following feedback from player reviews, we added a new fast forward feature that allows to speed up the game and quickly try out new solutions. The fast forward is visualized by a dazzling glow effect.

Praise and Awards for iOS Version:

"Art so beautiful it could have been lifted from a Miyazaki movie." - Kyle VanHemert, Wired

"When the wind physics start to do their thing, the experience is pretty magical." - Mike Schramm, TUAW

"There are a number of titles out there that really ooze that special 'indie magic', and Spirits is one of them." - Blake Patterson, Touch Arcade

"Winner of the IndieCade Best Aesthetics Award" Culver City, California, USA - 2010

"IGF Best Mobile Game - Honorable Mention" San Francisco, USA - 2011

"Indie Game Challenge Finalist" Las Vegas, USA - 2011

"Sense of Wonder Night Selection" Tokyo, Japan - 2010

System Requirements:

* Mac OS X 10.6 or later

* 64-bit processor

* 83.3 MB

Pricing and Availability:

For the first two weeks, Spirits 1.0.1 is offered at the introductory price of only $7.99 USD (or equivalent amount in other currencies) and available worldwide through the Mac App Store in the Games category.

Spaces of Play is an independent game studio based in Berlin, Germany. The company creates games for Mac, iPhone, iPod touch and iPad with a strong focus on original ideas, gameplay and polish.

Spark Plug Games announce new game for Android and iOS - coming soon

2012-02-15T16:02:00.000Z

Spark Plug Games have announced a new game that's due for release soon on the Android. It's a follow up to their popular game Witch's Workshop (available on iOS). What can you expect in the new game?

Witch’s Workshop’s: Open for Business Features:

Exercise your matching and time management skills
Satisfy customers, just like in the real and exciting world of retail!
Earn gold to buy faaaabulous upgrades
Add new quirky customers throughout the game
Unlock new pets! All virtual pets guaranteed to be hypoallergenic
Available initially on Android platforms in Q1 2012, iOS by Q2
Did we mention it’s free? Because, seriously, it’s free!

About Spark Plug Games

Spark Plug Games is an awesome independent games developer focused on creating interactive products for social, mobile, tablet and console markets. The team embraces the slogan “We ignite fun!” which expresses a desire to create high quality products with strong entertainment value and a passion for game development. Founded in 2008 and based out of Cary, North Carolina, the SPG team has already built over 30 products and continues to develop new brands while working with industry leading partners. For more information, please visit www.sparkpluggames.com

Party of Sin - New Video

2012-02-15T12:21:00.000Z

This platformer is being developed for PC and Xbox by Crankshaft Games. If you like the look of it, you might want to know that there are 16 days left for them to reach their funding target of $8,000 on Kickstarter - at the time of making this post they had reached pledges for $5,837, so a little over two grand to go.

An press preview version is in the works so I should be able to give you a bit more information on how the game plays in the near future.

For more information or to support the project, visit the Party of Sin Kickstarter Page.

IndieGala Adds New Bonus Content

2012-02-14T21:01:00.000Z

February 14 2012, IndieGala ( www.indiegala.com) makes its second pay-what-you-want charity indie game bundle even bigger, adding Hacker Evolution game, the first chapter of the series as Valentine's day Bonus for everyone had purchased the bundleand for all future buyers. For customers who buy at least a Bigsaver bundle there is also a special selection of music from the German musician Ulrich Schnauss.

The Original Hacker Evolution is unlocked for every bundle type!
Everyone who purchased a Carebear or Bigsaver or Epic gala bundle will automatically unlock the game key in his profile page!
Everyone who purchased the Bigsaver bundle or the Epic gala bundle, get also the bonus of Ulrich Schnauss's music!

The "Gala Selection" is a selection of Ulrich Schnauss best Tracks featuring:

"A millions miles away" from 2003's album A Strangely Isolated Place. This track was also part of GT4 soundtrack.
"On my own" from the same album
"Stars" from his album Goodbye
"Wherever You Are" From the album "Faraway Trains Passing By"

Following the path traced by the first sale, IndieGala extends this great concept to encompass not only indie games, but also indie music. Independent music albums are included in the bundle and you get more of them if you pay above the average.

“We believe that between music and games there is an unbreakable link. Both are two forms of art, which is why we offer a package that due importance to both" says indiegala organizators.

Included in the IndieGala 2 bundle are the following awesome indie games and Music:

The base bundle starts from $1.00 dollar and is called

the CAREBEAR BUNDLE:

Critical Mass by Manic Games Studios

Bunch of Heroes by NGD Studios

Fortix 2 by Nemesys games

Hacker Evolution by exosyphen studios.

Music: Jack Butler - Fit The Paradigm

Music: The Numbers - Beautiful EP

Music: Giraffage- Comfort

Beating the level 1 average ( starting at 5.65$ ) you will get also

the BIG SAVER BUNDLE ( all the content of CAREBEAR plus: )

Greed Corp, by Vanguard Games.

Roboblitz by Naked Sky Entertainment

Music: Robot Science - Square

Music: Casey Lalonde - The 2010 album of the film and videogame composer Casey Lalonde

Music: Casey Lalonde - The 2011 EP of Casey Lalonde.

Music: Ulrich Schnauss - The Gala Selection.

Beating the level 2 average ( starting at 9.89$ ) you will get also

the EPIC GALA BUNDLE ( all the content of BIGSAVER plus: )

inMomentum, by Digital Arrow.

Zombie Shooter 2, by Sigma Team.

Hacker Evolution: Duality, by exosyphen studios.

Hacker Evolution: Untold, by exosyphen studios.

Your Doodles Are Bugged!, by Spyn Doctor Games.

Zombie Shooter 1, by Sigma Team.

Music: Robot Science - Doodads: Robot Science 2010 complete album.

All tracks are available in mp3 and FLAC file formats.

Learn more at www.indiegala.com

About IndieGala:

IndieGala organizes bundle sales of amazing indie games and indie music, and is open to every independent artist and developer on every platform.

Unity Technologies Releases Unity 3.5

2012-02-14T20:52:00.000Z

San Francisco, CA – February 14, 2012 – Unity Technologies, provider of the Unity multi-platform engine and development tools, is proud to announce that Unity 3.5 is now available for download. This latest update is one of the biggest additions to Unity since its inception and includes major new features and a multitude of improvements, tweaks, and optimizations. Unity 3.5 is a free update for all developers using version 3.0 or higher of the Unity development platform.

“This is one of the most spectacular additions we’ve ever made to Unity,” said David Helgason, CEO, Unity Technologies. “Recognizing that Unity was being pushed harder and harder, we launched our initiative to upgrade Unity with high-end capabilities that larger studios are accustomed to and smaller studios usually don’t have access to. We want to make Unity the best choice for everyone and Unity 3.5 is a massive demonstration of our commitment to that goal.”

The Unity development platform, one of the most popular in the world with more than 800,000 registered developers globally, combines a powerful engine with an intuitive set of development tools in one complete package.

“We are incredibly proud of this release and I think it’s our strongest yet,” said Nicholas Francis, Chief Creative Officer, Unity Technologies. “A year ago, we took a deep dive and began working on developing features for more complex projects and larger teams. It took hard work to do this while preserving the intuitive and usable design that makes Unity so popular, but we are sure that developers using Unity will be as happy with the improvements as we are.”

Throughout its history, Unity Technologies has continued to rapidly enhance Unity and the 3.5 update provides a long list of additions and improvements:

Effects

New in Unity 3.5, the highly optimized Shuriken particle system provides artists and programmers with complete control over particle-based visual effects. Shuriken is a curve and gradient-based modular editor, with hierarchies and sequencing capabilities that allow for many particle systems to stay synchronized.

Pathfinding and Obstacle Avoidance

Improvements to AI provide accurate pathfinding along complex pathways and natural movement through crowds. Game developers can bake navigation data in the editor and let Unity's high-performance path-finding and crowd simulation take over at runtime.

Lighting and Rendering

Developers can create jaw-dropping visuals with linear space (gamma correct) lighting and HDR rendering, and render them faster than before with Unity 3.5's brand new multi-threaded renderer.

Also new to Unity 3.5, light probes add life and realism to lightmapped scenes without the high cost of typical dynamic lights. The addition of light probes to Unity’s lighting system allows for baked lighting on characters and other dynamic objects.

New Platforms

Unity 3.5 supports Native Client as a new deployment platform. Native Client allows for near native speeds within the Chrome browser, without the need for installing the Unity Web Player. Unity 3.5 also ships with the preview release of the Flash deployment add-on, which has already been used by 50,000 developers.

Performance Improvements

Unity 3.5 includes a completely re-written integration of Umbra’s occlusion culling system. The result is incredibly fast and works with terrains and dynamic obstacles such as doors. When combined with Unity’s new built-in level-of-detail support, it gives large-scale games the performance boost that they need.

Better Collaboration Tools

The Asset Server license, Unity’s add-on for teams and collaboration, has been enhanced with new features that add greater performance and flexibility. The addition of Unity’s cache server dramatically speeds up collaboration on projects of all sizes, and a new developer API for third-party version control solutions, such as Subversion and Perforce, allows larger teams to work more efficiently. To reflect these changes, the product has been renamed the “Team License,” and made available as an add-on for all Unity users.

Additional Improvements

The update includes other improvements such as a new GPU profiler, a fully pluggable Social API to implement social gaming, and low-level audio buffer access to create music games, and directional lightmaps support to name but a few. For a complete list of additions and improvements, please visit http://unity3d.com/unity/whats-new.

Pricing and Availability

This is a free update for all Unity 3 users. Pricing otherwise remains the same. The entry-level product, Unity, is free for commercial use. The premier product, Unity Pro, remains $1500 per developer seat. For a complete list of products and pricing, please visit http://unity3d.com/shop.

To download the free and feature-packed Unity for creating games and other interactive applications, visit http://unity3d.com/download.

About Unity Technologies

Unity Technologies is the creator of Unity, an intuitive and flexible development platform used to make wildly creative and intelligently interactive 3D and 2D content. The “author once, deploy everywhere” capability ensures developers can publish to all of the most popular platforms. Unity Technologies boasts a thriving community of 800,000 registered developers including large publishers, indie studios, students and hobbyists. Unity Technologies aggressively re-invests in its award-winning 3D development tools and democratization initiatives, such as the Asset Store digital content marketplace and Union game distribution service, in order to remain at the forefront of innovation. Unity Technologies is headquartered in San Francisco and has offices in Canada, Denmark, Lithuania, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Japan and Korea. For more information, visit: http://unity3d.com.

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/unity3d

Twitter: http://twitter.com/unity3d

Unity and all other product names are trademarks of Unity Technologies or its subsidiaries or affiliates. All other product names and trademarks belong to their respective holders.

Get Telepathic, man...

2012-02-14T16:05:00.000Z

Indie Middle-East steampunk sRPG / wRPG Telepath RPG: Servants of God is coming out today!

Official Website

Trailer:

Double Fine, Quadruple Fundraising!

2012-02-13T18:46:00.003Z

Tim Schafer and Ron Gilbert's new indie project has now garnered an astonishing $1.7m (more than 4 times the original target of $400,000) from nearly fifty thousand backers. So I guess I'd better post the video...

Undercover Game Development

2012-02-13T18:35:00.000Z

Leamington Spa, United Kingdom - There is a commonly held belief that old school game developers are too complacent and slow to be effective in social/mobile game development. A small team of six developers at a large development studio want to prove this wrong. This is a fast-moving, creative strike force. Making a game so quickly - the company bosses won't even know about it - and this is where things get really interesting.

The team are between projects at a large UK development studio and have been asked to research iOS game development and monetization. One way of approaching this would have been to read books and play games, which would have been a nice, relaxing way to spend a few weeks. However, this team has over 50 years game development experience between them, and only know how to do one thing - make great games. So instead of towing the company line, the team have set off to make a fun and compelling iPhone and iPad game in just six weeks - without the knowledge of the studio management. Not only do they need to take the game concept from inception to release in such a short time, but this needs to be done without raising suspicion.

"We are super excited about this project. It has been a lot of hard work to come up with such a compelling game concept, but there is a real sense of freedom too. This is pure back bedroom development, the way it used to be, and we love it."

Steve Lumo

But if this project is so secret, why talk about it? There a number for reasons for this:

* Keeping it secret from the bosses is dangerous, keeping it secret from the public is completely stupid - they want people to get excited!

* Not being able to talk about the game openly in the studio is tough. When you are so excited about something you need to tell someone

* Living under the shadow of discovery is really driving the team to make the game as good as they can, as quick as they can. It's an intense experience and they want to share everything they are learning with their fellow gamers and developers

* The 'indie spirit' is all about sharing development stories!

* Finally, if the game is successful, the studio management may be more receptive to the subterfuge

The game is looking good, which is just as well since the team are banking their careers on it. It just needs to stay undercover for three more weeks to make it to submission. Will they make it, and what will happen next?

Kumo Lumo: http://kumolumo.com

Team Lumo are based at one of the world's largest independent games studios, and have over 50 years game development experience across a diverse portfolio of platforms and genres. Their first title, Kumo Lumo, is scheduled for release on iOS in Q1 2012. Copyright (C) 2012 Team Lumo. All Rights Reserved. Apple, the Apple logo, iPhone, iPod and iPad are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries.

7 Year Old Designs Best Selling iPhone Game - Father and Release App

2012-02-13T17:19:00.000Z

Newcastle Upon Tyne, United Kingdom - A Father and Son team have developed a brand new mobile game for iPhones and the iPod touch. Tyler Mckellow, aged only 7 years old, worked with Dad, Philip for over a year to create the game, "Spud Gun Attack".

Like most young children, Tyler was a huge fan of computer games, but as explained by Dad, Tyler was to develop more of an interest in how games worked and how they were created. Philip explains, "Tyler from a very young age has always been into art and drawing in general, but when Tyler started to get interested in computer games, he started to come up with ideas for games that he would like to play and ideas for brand new games. So Tyler began to sketch down ideas and explained exactly how those drawings would work in a game environment".

With Tylers designs and ideas, the idea for the game was born. Philip began the process of programming the game, and developed Tylers ideas and integrated then into the app.

"Spud Gun Attack" was born. The concept of the game is simple. The main character, "Spud" must use his Spud Gun to point, aim and then fire at the targets, with a wide range of varying levels with increasing difficulty.

The Physics based puzzler requires the game-player to use their initiative and plan their shots with precise timing to be able to defeat the targets.

Pricing and Availability:

Spud Gun Attack 1.01 is only $0.99 USD (or equivalent amount in other currencies) and available worldwide exclusively through the App Store in the Games category.

TyneSoft was created to house the "Spud Gun Attack" game. The philosophy behind this game is simply to have fun. TyneSoft is a Father/Son team and any future games will be created by Philip and Tyler together.

Oozi: Earth Adventure Ep. 3 released on XBLIG

2012-02-13T16:16:00.000Z

Awesome Games Studio, an independent video game developer, is happy to announce that the third episode of Oozi: Earth Adventure is now available on Xbox Live Indie Games channel. A brand new Launch Trailer is revealed as well:

The third episode is set up in a top secret laboratory. Oozi will use all his skills to get past all dangerous obstacles he's going to encounter in this place. Robots, lasers, mutants - none will prevent him from getting his spaceship back! Oozi: Earth Adventure is an old school platformer with modern gameplay elements, HD visuals and beautiful, hand-drawn art. It focuses on three key special abilities - double jump, stomp and wall jump - that are used by player on his way through four unique worlds. The game includes high variety of enemies and gameplay mechanisms, and is aimed both at casual gamers and hardcore gamers. The third episode is priced at only 80 Microsoft Points.

The last episode is scheduled for release within two months and will be sold at the same price.

Early impressions of pre-release versions - Da New Guys and McGuffin's Curse

2012-02-11T11:20:00.000Z

Just a quick preview for you of 2 games not yet released - both well worth looking out for when they're released:

Da New Guys - to be released by Wadjet Eye Games on 29th February 2012 (for PC)

This adventure game features cartoony graphics, great music, a simple interface with (mostly) relatively easy puzzles. The writing is full of humour and the characters are memorable - thoroughly enjoying this one so far, have come to a bit I can't quite work out yet so I wouldn't say that it's too easy! Check out the trailer below, or download the demo. Adventure game fans are going to love this - if you like wrestling (I don't) then that's probably a bonus, but certainly not a requirement to enjoying the game.

Da New Guys Official Website

McGuffin's Curse - to be released by Brawsome on 19th April 2012 for PC, Mac, iPhone and iPad

This is an enjoyable puzzle game that, as you might expect from Brawsome due to their previous game catalogue, slightly blurs the line between the puzzle and adventure genres. You play Lucas, a thief who ends up stealing an amulet that he cannot take off, which can turn him into a werewolf when he's in the moonlight. The puzzles are based on single-screen locations, usually having to swap between human and werewolf forms to solve all the puzzles, but the overall storyline is much less linear when you get into it. Looking good so far, I'm almost over my disappointment that this isn't a point and click adventure game! (Not Brawsome's fault - it was my presumption.)

MacGuffin's Curse Official Website

Unity of Command Now Available on Mac

2012-02-10T21:15:00.000Z

Critically acclaimed strategy game "Unity of Command" is now available on the Mac platform, developers 2x2 Games have announced.

Zagreb, Croatia -- February 10th, 2012 -- Developers 2x2 Games have announced that Unity of Command is now available to Mac users worldwide. Launched in late 2011 on the PC, Unity of Command has enjoyed stellar reception with players and critics alike. 2x2 Games is now bringing it to the Mac platform starting with a brief BETA test period during which the Mac version will be available at a discounted price of $14.99.

Unity of Command has been hailed as a huge success and an ideal entry-level wargame by the cult strategy games podcast Three Moves Ahead. Both fans and professional reviewers agreed, with the #224 issue of PC Gamer awarding it a review score of 84 and players heaping praise for the game in the forums.

About Unity of Command:

Unity of Command is a critically acclaimed, innovative operational-level wargame that covers the entire 1942/43 Stalingrad Campaign on the Eastern Front. Playable from both the Axis and Soviet perspective, it strives to recreate the strategy, the forces involved and the general tension of that crucial period in World War II.

Experience the highly fluid, enormously large battles of maneuver in a turn-based strategy setting. Take command in this mobile, back-and-forth sort of war where logistics and poor weather are often the decider, and defeat and victory are sometimes just a mile, or a day, apart.

About 2x2 Games:

2x2 Games is a 4-strong indie dev team that is not afraid of treading new ground. On a mission to find that perfect balance between fun and historical accuracy in wargames, they just might be onto something.

http://unityofcommand.net/macbeta/

Tomes of Mephistopheles - Website Launched

2012-02-10T21:03:00.001Z

http://tom.kot-in-action.com/

BulletProof Arcade Releases Brutal Action RPG ~ Dungeon King : Dreadstorm Keep

2012-02-10T19:20:00.000Z

Fight your way deep into Dreadstorm Keep on a quest to defeat the evil dungeon lord Vulkhan ...

AUCKLAND, New Zealand — February 10th , 2012 — BulletProof Arcade, small 3-man independent game studio and developers of online Premium Action Games, today released a new Brutal Action RPG for your web browser ~ Dungeon King : Dreadstorm Keep.

Dungeon King : Dreadstorm Keep Features:

Twelve huge levels with dynamic dungeon and creature layout.

24 monster types plus 7 rare monsters.

Hundreds of magical axes and items.

Browser based instant play.

Amazing fantasy art rendered in incredible detail.

The latest update ~ v1.1 SILVER ~ features enhanced enemy AI and combat control. Online Synced Save Games are currently in development.

About BulletProof Arcade
BulletProof Arcade Ltd. was established in 2009 by Rod Smith and Andy Wiltshire with Aaron Neugebauer. We are an independent game development studio located on Waiheke Island, in Auckland, New Zealand.

Website: http://bulletproofarcade.com

Release Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3u8mXQGja5M

Play Link: http://bulletproofarcade.com/games/DungeonKing

Dungeon King: Dreadstorm Keep Trailer:

Dungeon King: Dreadstorm Keep Screenshots:

Toki Tori 2 to be released on the Wii U

2012-02-10T19:15:00.000Z

Two Tribes have announced that their next game, Toki Tori 2, will be released on the Wii U. More details here.

Telepath release date set

2012-02-10T17:00:00.000Z

Indie developers Sinister Design have announced that their Middle East steampunk wRPG / sRPG hybrid Telepath RPG: Servants of God is going to be released next week--on February 14.

Spark Plug Games Announces New Game via Kickstarter

2012-02-09T22:15:00.000Z

RESEARCH TRIANGLE, NC (February 7th, 2012) – Hey! Listen! We, the people of Spark Plug Games (a super fun indie game developer in NC), have recently announced our first crowd-funded project. We’d love to tell you about our brand new endeavor: Steampunk Bullet Train!

The premise of the game is simple: get in touch with your inner anti-monopolistic maverick to save the day. Take to the rails as a would-be smuggler and transporter attempting to circumvent the over-priced iron grip of the air shipping guard. Fight your way through their territory on the old rail systems, taking down their supply shuttles and fending off squadrons. Reach the end of the Line and deliver the goods!

Steampunk Bullet Train is a labor of love that is already staffed by a portion of the Spark Plug Games team, and with successful funding we will be able to move the additional required team members on the development effort to ensure a managed and high quality game. We would love it if you could support us by checking out our Kickstarter page and donating to our cause! In return for your love and generosity, we offer very pretty, shiny items. Well, the t-shirts aren’t really shiny. But other rewards are, we promise.

“The synergistically energized conglomeration of high profile steam and punk makes for a great long tail offering,” said a very long-winded John O’Neill, President of Spark Plug Games. “We’re all about igniting fun, electrifying the masses, and gamificationalizing as many components as we can get our hands on -- trains, planes, automobiles, even cats. This game is going to rock and spark something intense.”

We are all about having fun. We want to have fun making this game and we want you to have fun this game and many more that we make! You should care because, y’know, it’s fun to cheer for the underdog. And you know what else? Our project is already a Staff Pick on Kickstarter! There are no words for how cool that is, if you ask us.

For more resources:

Kickstarter: http ://www .kickstarter .com /projects /sparkpluggames /steampunk -bullet -train

Twitter: http ://www .twitter .com /sparkpluggames

Facebook: http ://www .facebook .com /sparkpluggames

About Spark Plug Games

Growing pains for XBLIG now only 80 points

2012-02-09T22:06:00.000Z

Smudged Cat have now dropped the price of Growing Pains on the XBox 360 Indie games channel down to 80 MS points.

“Growing Pains focuses on pure platforming and features some awe inspiring levels that are simple to play but will take you weeks to master. Each level sees you negotiate your way through tricky jumps whilst avoiding mines, dodging lasers and trying not to get yourself wedged in a tight spot as you continually grow while playing. There’s no clock to watch, just your ever-expanding waistline as gaps seem to get smaller and smaller, forcing you to make your moves and escape each area before you get trapped.”

"Cell: emergence" Launching Today

2012-02-09T12:11:00.000Z

Action surgery game 'Cell: emergence' (http://www.newlifeinteractive.com/games/cell) is launching today on Xbox LIVE Indie Games, Green Man Gaming, GamersGate, GameStop PC Downloads, and Gamefly.com. Desura plans to release the title Friday, and Playism will release the title at a later date.

A free demo is available at the following mirrors:

Atomic Gamer: (http://www.atomicgamer.com/files/95608/cell-emergence-free-demo).

Desura: http://www.desura.com/downloads/cell-emergence-free-demo

File Planet: http://www.fileplanet.com/224628/220000/fileinfo/Cell:-Emergence-Demo-v1.0

In the game players fight a nanoscale war against disease inside the body of a sick child. The fast, deep simulation of tissues, antibodies, germs, nanomachinery, and other elements is achieved with a "dynamic voxel" gameworld, within which every visual detail has meaning, reacts to the player, and interacts with its neighbors.

Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6aJKNBxris

Tutorial and Developer Diary on "Massively Reactive" Gameplay: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOu9QhWGla0

Inspired by tense '80s arcade games like Defender, Centipede, and Missile Command, Cell offers 17 punishing levels that require players to decipher a level's "cellular automata" simulation and then battle living processes with speed and dexterity.

The game's story, written by Deus Ex writer Sheldon Pacotti, is a first glimpse at a near-future fictional world where war is fought in code and chemistry and the inner workings of Nature.

ABOUT THE CELL ENGINE

Instead of visual detail, the Cell engine focuses on dynamic behavior. The engine is "update bound" rather than "render bound," meaning that its accomplishment is in efficiently calculating numerous interactions. With nearly a million cells, over 10 cellular automata rules, and at least 6 neighbors for each cell, the engine runs a simulation at arcade speed that, unoptimized, would require 60,000,000 operations per timestep.

ABOUT THE FREE DEMO

The demo presents a short cut-scene plus a level that takes place in the lungs. Players defend a microscopic pathway against a "seedpod" that tears apart the surrounding membranes with tendrils of Growth.

This segment of the game shows how the player's main weapon can be used both to shoot immediate threats and to construct defenses over time. The battle to save the membrane unfolds as a combination of sudden sprite-based events and microscopic cell-cell interactions.

'CELL: EMERGENCE' RELEASE INFORMATION

The Xbox version of the game, selling for 400 MS Points ($5), offers a world of almost half a million cells, and the "Cell HD" version on PC, selling for $8.95 USD, offers a world of nearly a million. The HD version on the PC also provides higher fidelity sound and more frenetic gameplay tuned exclusively to the mouse/trackball/trackpad.

The Xbox version will be available in English and in English subtitled for Japanese, German, and Spanish. The PC version will be available in the preceding languages plus Italian, French, Russian, Simplified Chinese, and Korean.

http://www.newlifeinteractive.com/games/cell

ABOUT NEW LIFE INTERACTIVE, LLC

New Life Interactive, LLC is an independent game studio based in Austin, TX specializing in massively reactive gameplay.

http://www.newlifeinteractive.com

Even Tim Schafer is going Indie!!

2012-02-09T12:03:00.000Z

"The world of video game design is a mysterious one. What really happens behind the closed doors of a development studio is often unknown, unappreciated, or misunderstood. And the bigger the studio, the more tightly shut its door tends to be. With this project, we're taking that door off its hinges and inviting you into the world of Double Fine Productions, the first major studio to fully finance their next game with a Kickstarter campaign and develop it in the public eye."

"To finance the production, promotion, and distribution of these massive undertakings, companies like Double Fine have to rely on external sources like publishers, investment firms, or loans. And while they fulfill an important role in the process, their involvement also comes with significant strings attached that can pull the game in the wrong directions or even cancel its production altogether. "

"Crowd-sourced fundraising sites like Kickstarter have been an incredible boon to the independent development community. They democratize the process by allowing consumers to support the games they want to see developed and give the developers the freedom to experiment, take risks, and design without anyone else compromising their vision. It's the kind of creative luxury that most major, established studios simply can't afford. At least, not until now."

Intrigued? Check out the link!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/66710809/double-fine-adventure

LATEST TRAILER AND NEW GAMES ON LITTLE INDIE

2012-02-09T11:56:00.000Z

Since its launch in fall 2011, Little Indie has released six new games. To bring even more games to the portal, the client has been extended to support full DRM free titles. These don’t require a connected client or even the client running at all. To celebrate this new exciting feature and the latest releases, a new trailer has been produced and published.

New games have been added to the collection: Our original launch titles have been joined by the roguelike Pitman and the Windows port of the X-Box original Spring Up Harmony. High Tech Racing, a high-octane slot car simulator, and Baby Jones, an innovative puzzle game with its ubercute protagonist are now available exclusively on Little Indie. Other additions are the retro-styled Drag Rally 2 and Planet of the Eights.

With several exclusive titles which are tailor-made for the platform, Little Indie and Jade:DS prepare to become an important distribution technology for indepentent games with needs outside the standard.

Trailer on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtLQUP2z0x8

Pitman on Little Indie: http://www.littleindie.net/jade.php?showpage=pitman

Spring Up Harmony on Little Indie: http://www.littleindie.net/jade.php?showpage=springup

High Tech Racing on Little Indie: http://www.littleindie.net/jade.php?showpage=htracing

Baby Jones on Little Indie: http://www.littleindie.net/jade.php?showpage=babyjones

Drag Rally 2 on Little Indie: http://www.littleindie.net/jade.php?showpage=dragrally2

Planet of the Eights on Little Indie: http://www.littleindie.net/jade.php?showpage=planet8

ABOUT LITTLE INDIE/JADE:DS

Jade:DS is a versatile system for online distribution of software with the main focus on games. It features a platform client for Windows operating systems and a comprehensive server backend, available over the internet. Build as a Jade:DS service, Little Indie has been created to distribute independent games from a central portal site. It aims to provide a carefully picked selection of quality games which have a very good production value or an original idea. At the time of this press release, Jade:DS hosts a dozen games, with several more in preparation. Jade:DS and Little Indie are brands of Mediaguild UG (haftungsbeschränkt), a company founded in 2009 by industry veteran Andreas Podgurski. Beside the ongoing development of an own yet unannounced title, Jade:DS is the primary focus of the comany.

PC Indie Game Review - Sweet Lily Dreams

2012-02-08T23:36:00.000Z

Sweet Lily Dreams by Rose Portal Games is a fairly traditional RPG but sports a slightly unusual plot and a few extra elements that make it stand out from the crowd. The game takes place inside a dream world, and the story arc challenges perceptions of good and evil, but the mechanics are pretty standard – your intrepid party of perpetual losers set out to save the world (in this case the Dream World) from a terrible power. It’s got a pretty good interface, unusually for an RPG Maker XP game it’s completely mouse-driven (if you want - configurable keyboard controls are available too) – it works really well apart from very occasional path-finding difficulties and an inability to use the mouse wheel to scroll through options. There are a menu bar and inventory that can be on or off at any time – every so often you’ll need to turn them off as the mouse click at the edge of the screen fails to register, but otherwise it’s okay.

The graphics are nicely done, lots of animations and different things going on, and good variety between the different locations. The music is very good too; unfortunately there is no voice pack. The plot (despite using the archetypal “bunch of misfits have to save the world” storyline) and characters are interesting, drawing inspiration from popular literature but having it’s own unique style, and the dialogue is well written with (rarely) odd word choices (ie “lost cost” instead of “lost count”, presumably because English is not the first language of the developers. Overall though the story and writing is easily good enough to keep you interested, and the game is nicely balanced. There are 3 difficulty levels, which you can change at any time; Normal gives you a good challenge without being frustrating, and I’d suggest trying that first; if it’s too easy or difficult, you can always change it to Hard or Easy later.

The game features all the standard movement and battle mechanics you would expect, and you can also craft spells, potions and objects, which gives the game a nice extra dimension. You also have your own house which you can put furniture in – not purely for decor, but you can buy or make furniture that gives you elemental bonuses. The game has no auto-mapping function (although your current location is stated at the bottom of the screen, which is quite helpful) and you don’t seem to be able to change your group order, but other than that I can’t think of any features I felt were missing as such.

The game world is absolutely huge, with tons of side-quests, treasures to collect, monsters to defeat (including a boss on each major level of the game). There is a fair amount of level grinding to do unless you’re playing it in easy mode, but not so much as to become annoying. The game has some nice touches of humour in it, with lots of references to Harry Potter and other famous figures from literature and the movies thrown in. There is also a strong puzzle element to the game, with a good variety of well designed puzzles to pit your wits against. These puzzles are integral to the game and, sometimes, to the plot itself.

Some sections of the game required a bit too much retreading old ground and grinding your way through the levels / having to battle past beasties that have re-spawned for the umpteenth time. The graphics one lower detail settings were a little buggy, though even a very basic GPU will cope easily with the graphical requirements of the game, so it shouldn't be much of a problem for anyone.

Overall Sweet Lily Dreams is a very solid traditional RPG which offers a lot of gameplay and a few novel features. Not everything about it is perfect but most things about the game are either good or very good. If you've ever played an RPG Maker game and enjoyed it, chances are you're going to enjoy this one too – it's a fine example of what can be achieved with RPG Maker XP. An official strategy guide is also available.

Official Website