Favorite "Indie" Games

[hEad]

Originally Posted by Sombre

So does it have to be for the PC?

Sorry, missed this, Yes - I haven't got the thumb for consoles.

[sansanjuan]

Originally Posted by hEad

Seeing the recent fav game thread and the Rogue one that was floating around awhile ago, I would like to hear about some of your favourite indi games.

In my later game playing years I have struggled to find a good game to play down at the local EB games shop, hell, it’s even getting to the point where the PC section is a small segment tucked up the back, flanked by the acreage of console offerings.

Digital download or ordering online is now my only means of buying a game. I've played a fair bit of Armageddon Empires and crazy amounts of Dom3 in the last 12 months but am now ready to have a look at some else.

Something in the strategy / sim genre, any topic - space, historic, fantasy, but I would prefer titles that are secret gems, you know, those games you stumble across and wonder how they escaped you for so long.

Don't let the name throw you.... "Bookworm Adventures" by Popcap games. Free trial for an hour. It's Scrabble with hammers.

http://www.popcap.com/games/bookworm...0_5_A_07_01_08

-ssj

[the Vanishag]

Here are a few of my "hidden gems," expanded from my post to the "favorite games" thread.

1. Laser Squad Nemesis - from the Gollup brothers, who created X-Com. Free demo, cheap to try, continuing requires a subscription but it's $40 for a year, not $30/month.

2. Battle for Wesnoth - open source (therefore, free!) Fantasy TBS: not like Dom 3, it's played in skirmishes or campaigns on hex maps and no "world map" or research.

3. Endgame: Singularity - also open source. It's like X-Com without the squad combat - you play as a spontaneous AI, trying to self-realize before paranoid humans wipe you off the net. A much smaller and shorter game than LSN and Wesnoth, but all the more a must-play for that.

I mostly find out about new indie games from Play This Thing! and I;m not just plugging it because my review of Dom 3 will be going up sometime soon (I offered to review Dom 3 for them because it was the only really cool "new" computer game I've found in the past two years that they haven't reviewed).

For retro/abandonware, I've given up on Home of the Underdogs and have found http://www.abandonia.com/">Abandonia to be great. I'll play Nobunga's Ambition someday, I really will.

Ok, that's enough from me. I need to go to sleep.

[RegnorVex]

Originally Posted by the Vanishag

1. Laser Squad Nemesis - from the Gollup brothers, who created X-Com. Free demo, cheap to try, continuing requires a subscription but it's $40 for a year, not $30/month.

Omg, I'd forgotten all about LSN. GREAT game. In fact, I'm going to go fire it up now and see how it's changed since I last played it (they were just introducing the 3rd "race"). Thanks for the inspiration.

[DakaSha]

wow a thread where dominions players say there fav games. i actually respect this list automatically ^^

[tgbob]

Adding Iji and Cave Story to the list for most excellent side scrolling shooting fun time. Both are free and include a bit of exploration, though they're both extremely linear.

[meister_miagi]

Cortex Command is a great indie action game. It's a 2D sidescroller but it has a really cool physics systems and a lot of crazy stuff can happen. You can download a timed emo. The full version isn't finished yet, but it's already alot of fun, especially splitscreen with a friend.

[SlipperyJim]

As stated on the other thread, one of my favorite indy games (other than Illwinter's fine work) is PeaceMaker.

PeaceMaker is a simulation of the Israel/Palestine conflict. You can play as either the Israeli Prime Minister or the President of the Palestinian Authority. In both cases, your "victory condition" is the same: a two-state solution. There are good arguments about whether or not the two-state solution is the best choice for the real world, but a game needs to have a goal, and this one works well.

Gameplay is fascinating and fairly deep. You have a walk a fine line between appeasing your own people and making nice with the neighbors. You have to build up your credibility as a leader, but you also have to accept certain limitations on what you can do. Basically, the whole game is a series of balancing acts. As I have played, I have found that one of the keys to success is to ignore the extremist elements within your own nation as much as possible. Like in the real world, if you can keep the majority of people happy, then the extremists can rant & rave all they want ... but you don't have to care about them.

Final tip: Remember that the name of the game is PeaceMaker. Any option that involves violence is usually a bad choice. No matter how tempting it might be, don't start whacking militant leaders with Apache strikes, or the game will be over before you can blink....

[hEad]

Man, loads of suggestions! Legends!

Starchamber has caught my interest. Card mechanics in a game work really well - I often muse about a Dominions CCG, I think it could be a winner.

Baalz, you mention a couple of the Dom characters play, any one in particular? I checked it out but couldn't really find out much info on price and what sort of investment you have to make. All the same, I'm tempted.

I would love to be able to get in to Dwarf Fortress, the premise sounds great and enough people rave about it, but I just glaze over when I stare at the screen. It seems like a series of impenetrable menus and I don't know where to start.

I have Peoples General WW2; it’s a great bit of free work. I quite liked the Panzer General series and thought PG2 and Peoples General were nice tidy games.

Westnoth is another of those generous contributions. The Dev's must put a crap load of elbow grease and love in to this game - sure they a writing the game they always wanted to play, but its fantastic to be invited along for the ride!

I used to regularly pillage the underdogs site even way back before its last site redesign. (Remember in the early days of the net explosion, the classic web site designs, clunky presentation and lots of blue screens and flashing borders?) It was an Amiga game I used to love called the Chaos Engine, that led me to the underdogs originally but finding 4D Boxing, Balance of Power and CIV Net, kept me checking in regularly. Ah nostalgia.

Has any one played Armageddon Empires? I really enjoy this one. Took me a bit to get into it, but once I did it hooked me good for a couple of months. Looking forward to the new one, Solium Infernum.

http://www.crypticcomet.com/games/SI..._Infernum.html

There are a lot of suggestions here. VGA Planets 4 (attack of the pods from outer space… nice!) looks dangerous – looks like every bit the egg game that Dominions is. These games take over your life; how is it possible to have more than one of them in your head at a time? Dominions distracts me enough!

Urban dead looks cool as well – Zombies! why do we love them so much?

Now scrabble with hammers! Wouldn’t mind a couple of hammers on hand when I play a game of scrabble against my wife and her various scrabbly friends. Not a great fan of the game, but with hammers…

[the Vanishag]

Originally Posted by hEad

Has any one played Armageddon Empires? I really enjoy this one. Took me a bit to get into it, but once I did it hooked me good for a couple of months. Looking forward to the new one, Solium Infernum.

Here's one "aye" for Armageddon Empires, as well as for Peacemaker (I just wish it was a bit more micromanagey: one "initiative" per turn feels so limiting) and Iji. These are all great games, even though few of them approach the the scale or scope of Dom 3.

I should totally get VGA planets, but if I did so now, I'd never finish my dissertation.

Here's to indie gaming.