Exclusive: Rock Band Unplugged Track List

cactus posts

Air Pirates trailer shows cactus' new game


For those keeping track of cactus, you're in for a rare treat. The accomplished concept game developer is working on a flash game for e4.com dubbed Air Pirates, and has released a trailer through Youtube for people to check out before the game is actually released. The best part? The game will be in Flash, which means that it is one of cactus' only browser-based games. Nothing like surrealism on the go!

The gameplay in the video shows some horizontal shoot-'em-up segments (a genre familiar to cactus) as well as some pllatformer action sequences when you board enemy planes. The art style is distinctly his, with blocky graphics animated extremely smoothly and fast-paced explosions and special effects.

[Via IndieGames]

Independent Minds: Concept or Complete?


Independent Minds aims to take various aspects of indie gaming and present them to you each week. From game round-ups to design elements to interviews with prominent members of the scene, it's an exploration of what makes indie gaming great as well as what makes someone an indie.

There's a division in the indie community. No, I'm not talking about who likes top hats and who likes bowlers, but rather whether an indie game that is merely a concept of a potential full game should be given the same treatment as a game somebody spent the last few years working on to perfect. Frankly, it's way too complicated to even bother with discussing how to classify them. Instead, this article is about which one you should choose, given your personal preferences. Each has benefits that the other does not, and fits a specific kind of person.

Independents Minds: Marketing Your Game


Independent Minds aims to take various aspects of indie gaming and present them to you each week. From game round-ups to design elements to interviews with prominent members of the scene, it's an exploration of what makes indie gaming great as well as what makes someone an indie.

Much as in the indie subgenre as well as the mainstream, marketing is everything. Getting yourself known is the hardest part of being an indie. It's not so much a concern for those making freeware games, like cactus, but for those aiming to make a pretty penny off of their hard work, getting good press is essential to the well-being of their business. But how does one go about doing this?


Independent Minds: Of Critics and Developers


Welcome to a new weekly column here on Big Download! Independent Minds aims to take various aspects of indie gaming and present them to you each week. From game round-ups to design elements to interviews with prominent members of the scene, it's an exploration of what makes indie gaming great as well as what makes someone an indie. The very first topic of conversation is something that, given the failure of Eternity's Child and the success of Braid, has been on a lot of minds: criticism. How do you respond to people tearing apart your most beloved works?

cactus releases Stench Mechanics


Sometimes a game is just plain weird. There's no escaping that sometimes you just want to play a game that confuses you to no end. Look at how popular the Metal Gear Solid series is, after all! Stench Mechanics, a new adventure game by cactus, definitely falls into this category. Featuring cactus' minimalist pixel art, surreal and confusing plot, and multiple endings, it's definitely an interesting entry into the freeware adventure game scene. Much like most of cactus' games, it's little more than a concept, but that's not a bad thing. It's very well done for a game made during a casual get together of Scandinavian developers.

[Via IndieGames]

Destroy these 50 states in Stallions in America


Sometimes there's nothing like a little good-natured "destroy everything" to cheer yourself up. In the Third 3 Hour competition at poppenkast, cactus has taken this theme to heart and crafted Stallions in America, a game about completely annihilating the Unites States with your buff manliness. Don't mistake this for political commentary, though. Eggs drop from the sky, releasing strange bird things to attack you. Enemies explode violently, but with no gore. The only potentially mature thing about this game is the language. No matter, though, as sometimes you just have to go on a total rampage to blow off all that steam.

Retro 4, another arena shooter from cactus


You could write a blog just covering cactus' releases alone, it seems. Alone with Life Is A Race, cactus also released a simple arena shooter called Retro 4. The controls are simple, comprised of just WASD for movement and the mouse for attacks. Enemies are simple geometric shapes that are different colors. You can hold down the left mouse button to fire, tap it to rapid-fire, and press right mouse button to unleash a special. Simple. There's an online leaderboard for those who want to compete with others as well. In other words, it's another simple, addictive, quick game from the mind of everyone's favorite freeware developer.

[Via IndieGames]

Life is a Race! Press one button to reach the end


If only real life were this simple. A very quick game, Life is a Race! is one of cactus' new releases. It's extremely simple, featuring a little pixel man trying to reach the end of a plain screen. You tap the mouse button to have him run forward. That's it. The game is 1mb and completable in a little under 3 seconds, if you so wish. There are also online leaderboards as well. If you play it more than once, thanks to the simplicity of the game, you can also play it meta, such as using different tools to speed up your time, or see what the lowest time you can possibly get is. In other words, it is a cactus release.

[Via IndieGames]

Indie Wrap-Up: June 14th - June 20th


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.

It was a slow week on both the news and features fronts for the indie scene. No in-depths, no interviews, and no MODvelous Monday graced us this week, and the TIGSource Procedural Generation Competition has wrapped up. Here's looking at next week for more interesting indie news and features!

Features


Freeware Friday: Battleships Forever
James Murff takes a look at yet another freeware game. This time, it's the IGF finalist Battleships Forever!

cactus brings us BlockOn!


cactus has brought us yet another of his famous quickly made games. This time it's a puzzler platformer by the name of BlockOn! where you control a little man trying to make his way to the exit of each stage. That's not all, though. You must place blocks to help lead your character to the exit as well as trap any enemies to keep them from attacking you. It's a relatively short and simple game, but as it was made in just 3 hours, it's to be expected. cactus explains the full game on his forums, so take a look and see if it's your thing.
Advertisement