Free Indie Titles I have played recently

Chatchat

Flash Game.  I feel bad giving away anything about these games, sometimes.  But I'll tell you that Chatchat is an online multiplayer game, where you play as a cat.  If that appeals to you at all, I suggest you go play.

Here is a review of chatchat that I think encapsulates the play experience nicely.

Game Title

I originally found this game through an article at Indie Games Magazine.  This one you will have to download.  It is available for Mac and PC.  I guess that this is a Zelda-like.  It's pretty cool, and pretty darn lo-fi.  I don't play a lot of these low-fi games, so I'm having fun with it.  The teleporter item is awesome.  I like it when games drop you in and give you very little direction.  As long as they're not too hard to figure out.
It took me three plays and about an hour of play time to complete.  The second time through I got stuck, but I learned most of what I needed to know in the first to plays, and managed to finish on the third time.  One piece of advice I can give before embarking on this game is to conserve your bombs, you don't want to get stuck with no bombs when you really need one.

if you like this game, there is also sequel.

Lesbian spider queens of mars

A Free Flash Game.  This game plays like an 80's arcade game.  The only controls are up,down,left,right.  The pace increases frantically, and there are small details that change between levels, even though the overall level designs are similar.  Great cinema graphics too.

*beware of loud advertisements*

Verge

Verge is a free flash game I originally played on the Winnitron SJ at the cooperative gaming co-op, around this time last year.  It's a nice looking platformer, with very basic controls, and an interesting atmosphere.  There is a world on the reverse side of the normal world, where everything is upside down, and the way you get to it is you die.  Later there are also pools you can enter which are gates to the reverse world.  This mechanic and some switches and blocks build the puzzles.  There is also a really nice, haunting piano melody for the bgm.  Check it out if you like 2d platformers in a 16-bit style with an edgy atmosphere.  


-D


P.S. if you're going to play any of these sorts of free games using a gamepad, you will want to download Joy To Key.

Winnitron 1000: Impressions from Gaming Co-op #5

Alright folks, it's time for the overdue, final posting about the Cooperative Gaming Co-op Arcade Installation that I attended in October in San Jose.  Hosted by my friend John Bruneau and James Morgan, the Arcade was a free event, and a chance to play a bunch of different independently released games in Arcade cabinets built and curated by the hosts and a variety of guest curators.  I had a great time at this event, and if I were a bit closer to San Jose, I would have returned over and again to try the games I didn't have time for.  While many of the games are available to play, download and purchase online, the chance to play them in an Arcade cabinet was truly special, and not something I'll likely have a chance to repeat.   With the exception of the Winnitron 1000.

The Winnitron 1000 was designed specifically to be a sort of Franchise Arcade Cabinet.  The idea for the Winnitron, and the games are available through their website.  Winnitron 1000 was designed in Winnipeg, Canada, where-from it gets the name, and it has been duplicated at several different locations.  The one I played was designed for the Cooperative Gaming Co-op and is called the Winnitron SJ.  

There can be a Winnitron in your town,   all it takes is people with the gumption to contact the Winnitron people, then build a cabinet and put the Winnitron software in it.  And presto!  You can have your town's own Winnitron, which will live there to be enjoyed by all.  

Look at all these games available for the Winnitron!  I only got the chance to play four of them with the time I had.  I'd love a chance to play some of these again, and many for the first time.  

• Nidhogg by MESSHOF/Mark Essen

Nidhogg is simultaneously an ideal indie game and an ideal arcade game.  Just overall a fantastic game.  It's awesome and indie because of its relatively low production value but high overall effect.  And it's awesome as an arcade game because it is two player, and it is just instantly tons of fun.

Within seconds, like, under 60 seconds, my opponent and I were laughing with glee.  This game was that much fun.  I feel very privleged to have gotten to play it on an arcade machine.  That's the way it should be played.  It plays like the long lost cousin of a game like Joust.  A game that should have been a classic for 30 years, but instead wasn't invented until 2009. It plays like a game from that era has been allowed to age in a barrel and is now a fine vintage. 

I really want to play it again;  I feel about this game the way I do about Crossed Swords.   Highly recommend.  

• Shoot Bastard by Matt Thorston, Chevy Ray Johnson, Beau Blyth

Shoot Bastard is ridiculous and silly.  And fun.  It plays like the original game idea went horribly wrong - or did it go horribly right?  You have to play to be able to tell.  It's a vs battle game with missile launchers and great hand-drawn graphics.  Good for a lark.

• Super Crate Box Versus by Vlambeer

Have you played Super Crate Box?  Well, Versus is an adaptation of that game that crams a second player into the mix, and creates a competition to see who can get the most boxes.  It never lasts long though, because the crazy mad-capped action is even crazier and more mad-capped.  Fun, but frustratingly hard.  Play the original.  It's harder than that.   

• Verge By Kyle Pulmer

Verge is a cool puzzle-platformer.  The graphics are nice, cartoony and soft.  The puzzles involve traveling back and forth between an underworld in order to move forward. Visually, it reminds me of Cave Story+.  Game play-wise it reminds me of several games:  Braid, Cave Story, Limbo, Eversion.  I recommend checking any and all of them out when you get a chance.  Two of which were featured in a previous post.



Winnitron 1000 may very well be the way of the future, or so I'd like to think.  The arcade is a great forum for gaming, and perhaps also for independent gaming.  Now that PC gaming competes heavily with console gaming, and with applications like Steam, it isn't necessary to have a physical product.  Perhaps arcade cabinets can re-enter vogue, like vinyl records.  

The Winnitron is something you can have in your town, and I advocate for them getting one.


-D

Previous Gaming Co-op postings:
First
Second
Third
Fourth

Cooperative Gaming Coop

Saturday I hopped a train to San Jose and swung by my pal John's Art installation.  This installation is a combination of an arcade and a game swap.  There were lots of cool games there, and some finely decorated cabinets.  I'll see if I can get a list of the featured games, so that we can look up an play the ones that are available.

Alright, that being covered, go ahead and check out the website for the gaming coop.   John also has his own website called ArtFail.  And a Tumblr. He's always doing video games as art events and stuff. 

There weren't many people, so I didn't get the full effect.  However, for the same reason, I got a lot of one on one time with the curator (John) so I got the scoop on a lot of games.  There's a crazy game that is sort of like real-time chess.  Another that was commissioned by occupy oakland, 2-players where you fly through a maze and hit switches to mark your distance.  Great flying controls.  Another game where you rescue beagle puppies, really fun.  Oh man, there was another called like Super Puzzle Platformer, I think.  That game is solid gold.  Then there was a really sweet fighting game that sort of played like smash bros but had an atari look.  Yeah, too many good games to count.  All totally free and independently made with heart and elbow grease.  

I'll fill in more on this event as I get better information.  I do know that they had one of these: A Winnitron, which they called Winnitron SJ. Winnitron is the product of an indie gaming collective in Winnipeg, Canada, and they license out the Winnitron design to others to make their own arcade cabinets full of indie games.  Click the links above if you want more info.

I want to play some of those games again.  Like the platformer where you just walk and jump, but when you die you go to a parallel world where the ceiling is the floor, and then later you kind of jump between the screens and it's a puzzle platformer and the graphics are nice, remind me of cavestory +.   Oh, and the MIT game where you slow down the speed of light and thus increase the range of the visible spectrum, but it controls like complete shit, which stunts the whole experience.  Neat idea though.

Okay, again, trying to end this post.   I would like to organize it into a series of previews, when I can get some titles for yah.   TTFN.


***Edit:  I just remembered one of the games:  Nidhogg!  This game is stupid amounts of fun.  It's two players, so you absolutely must have a second player to have all the great fun available.  I highly recommend playing it in an arcade cabinet if you can get to one.   

***10/16/2012: another edit:  I got the games list.  You can find it here:  List of games featured at Cooperative Gaming Co-op.  I will be reviewing the games I played and looking for links to play them online.