left-4k-dead posts

Indie Showcase: Java 4k Competition 2009

by James Murff Mar 4th 2009 @ 3:00PM

Welcome to the Indie Showcase, a semi-regular column on Big Download that takes a look at games we haven't covered on the site that we really think you should play.

You may be wondering why Indie Showcase is on Wednesday instead of Tuesday this week. That's because there are so many excellent entries in the Java4k 2009 competition that we needed an extra day to cover them all! For those that are unfamiliar, the Java 4k competition tasks a developer with creating a game with Java whose code and assets total to 4kb or less. It's quite a challenge, but some excellent games have come from it, including previously featured Left 4k Dead. So let's take a look at four of these awesome games and see just how much great gameplay is contained in the 4k competition. Remember that you can check out all of the competitors (including my favorite game from the competitions, Fuzetsu) from the 2009 competition as well as previous competitions on the official organization web page. Also, as this is Java4k, you will need Java installed. Big surprise there!

Continue reading Indie Showcase: Java 4k Competition 2009

Filed under: Features, Indie

Left 4K Dead takes on zombies for free

by John Callaham Dec 24th 2008 @ 6:00PM

Let's get this out of the way right now. Even Left 4K Dead's own author, Markus Perrson, admits that his new free Java web browser game doesn't really have much resemblance to Valve's zombie co-op shooter Left 4 Dead. He states, "It's a game about zombies, with some elements taken from the AWESOME game Left 4 Dead, and the name is pretty darn punny if you ask me."

That said, this game, made for the 2009 Java 4K Competition, is still a lot of fun as your dot takes on a ton of zombie dots with just a flashlight and weapon. There's a random element to where the zombies are placed in the levels but aside from that this could be easily be a Resident Evil or House of the Dead Java based zombie game. Still, kudos to Perrson for making a bloody entertaining title with not a lot of programming.

Filed under: Action, Browser, Left 4 Dead