Indie

Welcome to Freeware Friday, a weekly column showcasing excellent games that you can play free of charge!

Way back in May there was a little game that scared my pants off with some truly disturbing imagery and sound. That game was All Of Our Friends Are Dead, and it is still one of the scariest games I have ever played. It doesn't stop with just that game, however, as the developer made a thematic sequel with the confusingly titled Au Sable. Where All Of Our Friends Are Dead was spooky, Au Sable cranks it up even further. There are few games that I have to stop playing for reasons pertaining to creepiness or terror, and none that force me to do it as much as Au Sable did. This is an improvement on All Of Our Friends Are Dead in every way, and that includes the scaring your pants off.

If we were to judge a competition by simple the number of entries received, then the 2010 edition of the Independent Games Festival is already a huge hit. The 12th annual indie games competition had 306 entries for its Main Competition, which is its highest number in its history.

You can check out all of the entries at the IGF's official web site.All the games submitted will be reviewed by over 150 judges. The finalists will be named in several categories in January and the winners will be named in a ceremony to be held at the Game Developers Conference in March 2010 in San Fransisco.

Welcome to Freeware Friday, a weekly column showcasing excellent games that you can play free of charge!

War games and procedurally generated games are favorites here at Big Download. We Want YOU fits both of those models, and does it in a way that is funny, fun, and subversive all at the same time. It pulls from inspirations such as Spelunky to make a game that is part platformer, part shooter, and all excellent. It has finally been released from beta status into standard, release candidate status, which means it's about time that people seriously give it a try. After all, with a list of changes from build to build that only serves to impress, you'll be hard pressed to find a game quite as engaging as We Want YOU that is also as well-designed and funny.

We've followed the game Dyson all the way from its origins as an entry in the TIGsource procedural generation competition. It stole our hearts, and later went on to make itself into a freeware game with some added features. Finally, a year later, it has been released under the new title Eufloria. While the title has changed and the gameplay has been tweaked, this is still the Dyson we know and love from so long ago. It's just received a facelift and the trappings of commercial, retail release. While it may appear to be a strategy game on the surface, it's actually something much different, and sets itself apart through its liberal use of procedural generation and an incredibly unique atmosphere.

Welcome to Freeware Friday, a weekly column showcasing excellent games that you can play free of charge!

Most rogue-likes tend to be of the role-playing variety rather than the action variety. Instead of whipping out guns, you hack apart goblins, gain levels, and traverse through dungeons. But what if it was much more simple, action-oriented, and just plain fun for your average joe? That's where DoomRL comes in. A rogue-like of id's classic shooter, it manages to be both a great remake into an interesting gameplay system as well as a compelling game on its own. It could easily be adapted to different settings or expanded to include even more goodies, which is the real beauty of it.

This is the playable demo for Eufloria (aka Dyson). System requirements are shown after the jump.

"Eufloria is an ambient game of space exploration and conquest that employs surprising themes of plant growth and bio mechanical evolution.

The game allows the player to explore a beautifully realized universe rendered in a style that is both unique and compelling. Gameplay revolves around conquering asteroids in space and using their resources to literally grow and nurture new semi-organic plants and creatures to do the player's bidding."

Download Eufloria Demo (22 MB)

LucasArts has been lagging behind in original content over the past few years. Once known for their incredibly engaging and original games, they have instead focused on expanding their established franchises of Star Wars and Indiana Jones. As a part of the revitalization of old and original LucasArts properties, the Secret of Monkey Island game was remade in high-definition. One the team was done with Monkey Island, they decided to make something else. Something original. Lucidity was the result of this. A mixture of puzzle, adventure, and platformer genres, it's nostalgic both through its simple gameplay and in the notion that LucasArts genuinely wants to create new, valuable properties for their portfolio. It may not be mind-blowing, but it's not half bad either.

Sometimes you just need to sit down, slide a floppy into your A: drive, and enjoy gaming retro style. We know this all too well! That's why we have a list of the best and brightest from days long gone. These are some of our favorite games of all time, and we're sure that you'll love them as much as we do, if not more. Welcome to Boot Disk, and enjoy the retro ride!

Boot Disk covers a lot of genres, from shooters to strategy games to RPGs. However, the one under-represented genre is easily sidescrollers. Since Interplay has been releasing their old catalog out into the world once again, PC users have access to one of the best sidescrollers ever made. Earthworm Jim is one of those games that is not only good, it is ridiculously good, and it leaves nothing but fond memories for those that have decided to play it. With the creative dream team of Shiny and Doug TenNapel, it came out of nowhere to show us just what surreal fun can be like.

From time to time, game journalists get accused of not understanding how games are made by developers. Usually this happened when a critic slams a game title and then the developer defends it. But could journalists get a better critical viewpoint of games if they tried to make one themselves?

That's the opinion of Dan Marshall of indie game developer Zombie Cow. In a new chat at Gamasutra, Marshall states, "I think all games journos should be forced to make a game somehow, see how they get on. It gives you a more rounded perspective." While we think journalists shouldn't be "forced" to do anything they don't want to do (First Amendment and all that) there are certainly lots of relatively easy ways to make a simple game out there for anyone to make. And ultimately that's the best thing about making PC games; total freedom to make any game you want without having to worry about console companies' approval or license fees or even getting approval from an app store. And if game developers have that freedom then game critics and journalists should have the same freedom to write about games.

We've written about how cool World of Goo is previously and if you haven't tried out this innovative and more importantly fun game from developer 2D Boy, you are really missing out. This week marks the game's first anniversary and to celebrate the dev team have a unique promotional offer.

From now until October 19, you can download and purchase the PC, Mac and Linux versions of the game from their site for any price you want. Yep, that's correct. You can pay as little as one cent or as much as $1 million; it's all up to you. We suspect that 2D Boy would like to have people pay as close to its normal $20 price tag as possible but hey, whatever floats your boat. It's all up to you.
Download World of Goo Demo (32 MB)
Download World of Goo Mac Demo (32 MB)

Welcome to Freeware Friday, a weekly column showcasing excellent games that you can play free of charge!

Anybody who has ever played a Sega Genesis knows about Sega's old mascot Sonic the Hedgehog. An incredibly fast hedgehog, his games were all about finishing levels as fast as possible and with the highest score. In a way, RunMan: Race Around the World is the spiritual successor to that formula, but does away with all of the trappings the blue hedgehog has become associated with and focuses on the sheer fun, which is something that Sonic lost sight of a long time ago. It's a stellar donationware title that was four years in the making, and those with a love for classic platforming should not miss it.

A military shooter, the latest Star Wars game and three downloadable titles are the highlights in new PC games for the next week:

Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising: Codemasters developed this military shooter sequel on their own (the first game was made by Bohemia Interactive). The game is set in the near future where US and Chinese forces fight over a fictional island. Look for 70 weapons in the full game, support for realistic ballistics and multiplayer for co-op and deathmatch modes.

A game that made its first appearance as part of the Xbox Live Indie Games program is being revamped as a commercial game for the PC. Clover, from developer Binary Tweed, will be published for the PC under the new title Clover: A Curious Tale by Blitz Arcade.

As you can see from the above screenshot, this adventure puzzle game has a hand drawn 2D water color art style. The PC version will be getting a number of improvements compared to the original game. That includes new puzzles, ambient effects, a new musical score and voice acting. There's no word yet on when the game will be released.

Welcome to Freeware Friday, a weekly column showcasing excellent games that you can play free of charge!

Sometimes, the length of a game can hurt it severely. In other cases, it can make it even better. Games with short play sessions are well-suited for gaming on the go and at work, and it is with this in mind that Strange Adventures in Infinite Space was developed. It may be short, but it has a surprising amount of depth and replayability for a game in which you can finish an entire session in less than 10 minutes. Length does not necessary denote depth, and Strange Adventures in Infinite Space is the proof behind this.

A few days ago, the one man creator of the upcoming MMO Love released a test client of the game to check to see if the game would run on PCs. Now the creator has released a new client that now allows players to actually sign onto servers to check out the indie game for themselves.

There is a catch, however. While most alpha and beta tests of games are free to play, playing in the Love alpha will in fact require a fee of 3 Euros. In this case its someone understandable (one person, Eskil Steenberg, is making the game all by himself). However if you don't feel like paying some money to play an admittedly unfinished game then you might want to hold off.