The issue:
There are TONS of indie games that are either free, or have demos that still dont get any attention. I think its a shame that most of these games get utterly ignored even on GAF, despite being openly available to everyone (side note: similar problem with free music, btw) I considered doing a second part to Salsas "Thread of overlooked PC indie games recommendation" thread, but felt like lists that long might be a bit too intimidating for many. In the end, most people will just cherry pick some from that huge list since they dont have time/money to check all of them anyway. Second problem, those lists are most of the time rather Steam centric, and while I love Steam, those games arent really the ones that need the attention the most. Games that made it to Steam basically are in the top league already compared to all the smaller self-published games or games on Desura for example.
My proposal:
I have a huge list of rather unknown games (from all genres) that could turn out to be great games and games that I KNOW are very good. So lets take our time to try these games. We could start out easily enough with me proposing one game to play each week (only games that are either free or have a demo, so that everyone can participate). People come here, grab the game, talk about it and if I am feeling like it, I'll add GAF quotes to the game posts, compiling a list of all games we played in the process with the thoughts/inputs from other Gaffers.
If the thread dies down, I'll just create another big "Thread of overlooked PC indie games recommendation" thread down the line. But this very thread could be a great replacement by getting us to take a look at individual games and actually play them to have some small discussion about interesting games that are likely to never get an OT. We might do more games per week if there is some interest.
I'll use a lot Desura games, so if you want to participate a lot, I hope you arent Desura-phobic.
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Current games to play (until 30th of August):
Treasure Adventure Game - 2011, Free, Pixelart Sidescrolling Metroidvania
Toma said:
Played for about 2 hours, finished about 14% of the game.
The game feels a bit like a 2D Zelda to me. Maybe its the sailing that reminds me of Windwaker or the aforementioned Metroidvania aspects that put you seemingly into an open world environment. The game definitely manages to give me that sense of "adventure". I was positively surprised to see it is THAT lengthy, considering I only finished about 14% so far and I did not really expect that from such a small title. It has cute conversations, lovely Pixelart, puzzles and challenging (though not sadistic) platforming and a great feel to it. Seems like D3RANG3D really posted a gem with this game.
What I dislike: Performance issues on a newer OS. You need to run this game in compatibility mode if you are on win7/8, maybe even with D3DOverrider/radeon pro and will work automatically with a non 360 gamepad, if you want to use the 360 pad use joy2key. There was one area that was almost unbearable laggy for me that made me want to throw this game in a corner.
Terraform - 2012, Free Demo, 2,99€, Logic Puzzle game
Toma said:
This is one of those games that did not get enough time from me yet. Tinkered around with it for a while. Havent bought it or played many of the more intricate levels yet, which make or break the game, but the beginning was promising.
Another puzzle game! This time the theme is terraforming. You see how your landscape is looking at the moment and to which tile you are supposed to change some of those. You then use your several tools at hand to create exactly that result within the amount of turns you are given. Those tools might differ in when their effect is being activated, how large the area of effect is and more. According to the screenshots these scenarios might get really intricate, which I am definitely looking forward to. I really liked the theme too, and though nothing special the soothing music fits the overall mood. I dont think people liking the direction/ game mechanics will go wrong with their 3 bucks investment on this one.
What I disliked: Some of the UI graphical elements arent really the most pleasing to look at. Due to the candy look you might miss a UI element. It took me a few minutes to find the "next" button next to speech bubbles for example. The actual game graphics are service, but since the UI takes up like 40% of the screen, it still might become a bit annoying.
Wazhack - 2012, Sidescrolling Roguelike
Toma said:
I played enough of it to assure you that it has quite a bit of content/loot/items.
Most roguelikes usually are in the top down variant, this one isnt. It still contains all the major elements we love about the genre (and more): huge amount of items (unidentified/cursed etc.), goblins, deaths, pets you can train, rats, spells, different classes, goblins on rats, etc. Other than that I don't have too much of an opinion because I havent played it that far yet. Seems rather promising though if you don't mind the art style. I'd love to hear some other opinions on it if someone tried it a bit longer.
What I disliked: I was SO close to not touch the game because of the graphics which are definitely not appealing to me. It looks a bit more endearing in motion, but I dont think I am a fan of these clay-like 3D render graphics. Additionally, its a bit confusing not to get at least "stats" for items. I might be overlooking something, but I couldnt see stats to check for the best weapon I have for example, which might be a game design decision to try all of them, but not sure.
Highscore Contest:
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List of games we played with descriptions and GAF impressions:
Feel free to suggest any overlooked free Indie Game/Indie Game with a demo for this thread. And of course, dont hesitate to ask for advice/help or discuss the merits/deficits of the games!
