battle-of-tiles posts

We here at Big Download love indie games. From telling you about them, playing them, or offering downloads for them, we are all about helping lesser-known developers get their name out into the world. Each week on Saturday, we'll give you the Indie Wrap-up, a collection of all the indie news stories and features during the previous week.

There were no major independent releases this week, with most of the week's news concerning more freeware than independent. There have been an explosion of new releases, however, thanks to the Procedural Generation Competition being held over on TIGSource. Stay tuned for more news concerning the excellent output from the competition!

Features and Downloads

	Freeware Friday: Torus Trooper Our resident indie fan James Murff takes a look at one of freeware's best shoot-'em-ups, even if he gets disoriented by all the twisting.
	Armageddon Empires demo available for download The incomparable Armageddon Empires now has a demo available for download through the Big Download service!
	MODvelous Monday: 6/2/2008 David Craddock takes his weekly look at mods to the excellent single-player Half-life mod They Hunger.

Strategy RPGs, the turn-based spinoffs of the Japanese RPG, have almost always been console-exclusive. Disgaea, Final Fantasy Tactics, and other landmarks of the genre are all only available on console. For the PC gamer, though, there is a rich tradition of turn-based American RPGs based around D&D. With Battle of Tiles, the two are mixed into something resembling chess mixed with D&D.

Taking place on a chess-like board, the player controls little tiles that, like most RPGs, have attributes that determine health, damage, resistance, and other such things. Moving around the board, they engage in skirmishes with the normal fantasy creatures. The twist is, if you have enough money, you can essentially bribe an enemy unit into your army, bolstering your ranks by stealing enemy troops. It's an entertaining, if simplistic execution. For any strategy fan, you can try out the demo from the official website, and the full game is $5.