cave-story posts

While technical aspects and game design are all well and good, there does need to be a bit of enjoyment to be had with the eyes. That's why there's the visual excellence category, and this year happens to be the most varied we've ever seen in the IGF. Pixel art, paintings, demoscene color-splosions, and claymation are all represented this year in the category, making it a tough call. After all, everyone expects pixel art to win, but the truth is that indie games are less about the pixels and more about the expressive. And each of these five games is expressive like none other in this competition.

Welcome to Freeware Friday, a weekly column showcasing excellent games that you can play free of charge! It's our one year anniversary! Here's to many more years of talking about the best freeware games out there!

It's been one full year since Freeware Friday debuted on BigDownload. There has been many freeware games featured, and there are many that are waiting to be found. In memoriam of the past year, we'd like to present to you my personal favorites of all the games we took a look at over that past year. These are the games that were enjoyable and memorable above all else. The games that really define the independent and freeware communities as being truly classic and entertaining.

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.

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.

If you ask any respectable indie developer about making your own game, the very first thing they are likely to tell you is to be original. However, for the budding developer, being truly original is quite hard. Abstracts of design haven't yet fallen into place in that designer's brain, and the influence of the games one plays will likely be seen heavily duplicated in the end result of the game they are working on. It's easy to copy those that have done it before, and it's relatively safe. However, to forge new ground and be original, risks must be taken. People don't really like risks all the much.

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 indie crowd in any group of artists is usually very fickle. Oftentimes they operate on a whole different level, making constant inside jokes, speaking in meme references, and speaking in an overly critical way regarding outsiders entering their dark, sunless realm. This makes entering into such a social group daunting. This is as true of indie gaming as it is of indie art or indie music. Thankfully, though, the people in any social clique are just that: people. And they are willing to explain things to you to gain another comrade in arms. However, there are a few great ways to begin to network with indies, both of the gamer and developer variety, beyond just walking up to them and saying hi.

We here at Big Download obviously love Cave Story. A lot. It is then, with great pleasure, that we found out about a Cave Story hack being offered called Hack9. It's in Japanese, but you can figure out the game itself pretty easily. The only downside is unless you are fluent in Japanese, you'll have no clue about the story. It plays almost exactly like Cave Story but with a significantly darker tone. You are killing soldiers and destroying tanks and helicopters, lending it a much more military flair. All in all, if you're looking for a fun platformer, it's definitely worth a try, even if you can't understand it.

[Via IndieGames]

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

No self-respecting freeware gamer can talk about freeware games without mentioning one of the masterpieces. It's a simple and yet absurdly good platformer/shooter, developed by one Japanese man over the course of 5 years. It's quite possibly the best freeware game of all time. I am, of course, talking about Cave Story (Or Doukutsu Monogatari for those who want the Japanese name) by Pixel.