As strange a concept as it may seem, Metagolf presents an enjoyable and unique game of golf, despite being a 2D sidescroller.

When you load up Metagolf the first thing you’ll notice are the bright visuals. The art style can only be described as a childish cartoon, though it’s quite pleasing for the eyes. Right away you’ll be able to change the colour of your character and give them a name. Then, you can choose the level you wish to play and edit the options to your liking. That’s all there is to the menu, simple and functional.

The idea of a sidescrolling, 2D platforming golf game may sound odd, but it is far simpler in execution. Your character can run around freely and when you choose to actually hit the ball just aim with your mouse, hold down your mouse button and release when the power bar is at a desired level. This is the simple core of Metagolf‘s gameplay. Its simplistic physics and 4-player local multiplayer make the game something easy to pick up and play.

One annoyance I found was when you start a course not knowing where the ball is. It can be frustrating and get in the way of actually playing golf. Even when you finally find it, you then have to find the pin with no tips whatsoever. It gets easier the second and third time you play a course, but could certainly be fixed.

An easy fix to this would be for developer Michaël Lievens to create more smaller-sized levels, as they were among the easiest and most pleasurable to play on. The simple golf mechanics on the small levels make multiplayer competition much like real golf, strategic and fun.

There are certain puzzle elements that have you controlling your ball through buttons that move platforms or create gravity. It’s a fun way to show off the physics, and some of the best parts of Metagolf.

While it’s currently in beta and still 7 months from seeing official release, Metagolf is already fully playable. While there were a few graphical issues and player physics feel pretty loose during platforming, the game is in surprisingly good shape for a beta.

I personally found that the default settings should not allow players to push the ball using the character. It somewhat took away from the feeling of playing golf, as did the inclusion of ball addicted animals. This is simply a personal preference and I’m thankful that Metagolf includes easily adjustable options to cater the game to anyone’s needs.

Thus far the game has 14 playable levels, a tutorial to learn how to play, and a level editor for creating your own courses. The game lacks a lot of the extras found in many games today, including online play, but does seem to be easily moddable and an overall enjoyable multiplayer romp. Of course, everything I’m saying pertains to the beta, so many improvements and extras are bound to arrive before its release. For instance, a campaign mode for unlocking courses is already in the works.

You can find out more information on Metagolf over on the official website.

Well it’s Friday which means that GDC is basically over, well nearly. While the whole week has been a great experience and celebration for many people, it’s nice to be able to look back at jam-packed series of events, of ups and downs. Still, there’s always more for more celebrations so we wouldn’t dare think of taking away our usual Friday line up of free indie games away from you. This week is a rather interesting one, these games (as always) are very different from each other and a couple of them (not to knock the others) are just absolutely brilliant!

Sneak Thief by Grand Code Hive

Turning switches on and off, laser beams and stealing gems – that’s Sneak Thief. There’s 50 levels to sneak through and you can even make your own custom levels, so content isn’t exactly an issue!

“Sneak Thief is tile based puzzle game with a retro DOS feel.”

Dys4ia by Anna Anthropy

To be honest, dys4ia deserves to be written about all by itself, so we might just do that at some point. It’s a very creative game that requires you to use the arrow keys only. The game is actually a recount of the events and feelings of the always fantastic Anna Anthropy over the last 4 months – it’s quite touching, intriguing and generally brilliant.

“dys4ia is the story of the last six months of my life: when i made the decision to start hormone replacement therapy and began taking estrogen.”

Combat Extreme by Olsen-Bro Gaming

And the winner of Most Original Game Title goes to….Okay, messing around aside, Combat Extreme is a pretty well-made, online multiplayer, third person shooter that you can play right in your browser. The only catch is that you’ll have to login through Facebook first. Yeah we know.

“Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Objective, Capture the flag, fast level, lots of weapons, photon networking, clay-more mines, remote c4, riot shields and much much more. Let the games begin!”

Star Fleet X Bomber: The Game by Piers Bell

Based on the popular Japanese manga series from the 80s of the same name, Star Fleet X Bomber is an impressive, one man shmup tribute that is still in the making but is worth playing.

“It is based on the 80s Japanese manga sci-fi show Star Fleet and features lots of hectic arcade action, weapons and explosions.”

Timestill by Zack

Freezing time in games is not new, nor is it even new in puzzle games; but Timestill is a fun game to play nonetheless so go and do so!

“Freeze time in its tracks while jumping, dodging, warping, and altering the world around you in 24 levels of intense platforming fun. Features some sort of a message.”

As always, if you need more free indie games in your life then you can check out last week’s picks too!

Finally there’s a game that encourages players to engage in sin rather than warning of the damning consequences. Party of Sin puts players in control of the seven deadly sins. In case you need a reminder, they are wrath, greed, sloth, pride, lust, envy, and gluttony. The sins are on a quest to escape the depths of hell, but they are now without Lucifer’s protection. Players must take control and guide them through the various landscapes to reach the ultimate goal of Heaven.

Party of Sin is a hack-and-slash adventure crossed with puzzle segments and elements. Along the way, players have access to all sins and their unique capabilities and traits. Switching between the various characters is a necessity; each sin is useful in combat and puzzles, but has its own strengths and unique special attacks. In puzzles, each sin has a speciality. Players are tested to work out the order in which sins are to be used and the ways in which their special abilities come into play. It’s an interesting dynamic that requires players to master each individual to help the collective.

The fear could be that Party of Sin is trying to be a jack-of-all-trades, but it has blended the action and puzzle sides together well and both work individually. While Party of Sin is a hack-and-slash title, there are moments when combat can be approached with some thought. There are times when it is better to sit back and bide your time, as some enemies do not see eye to eye with others. As the saying goes, “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.” Players can take advantage of this as those enemies will fight among themselves allowing players to sneak up and attack at the right moment or simply pick off the victors who are worse for wear.

Certain sins’ special abilities may come in more useful than others at times, but all can handle themselves in a fight. Envy can shoot down flying enemies with her lasers, Lust can stun enemies making them easier to wipe out and Sloth can slow them down in their tracks. On the other hand, you can simply charge into battle as your sin of choice and dispatch enemies up close and personally. The fighting is often chaotic as the player occasionally gets besieged by enemies with melee weapons, firearms, fireballs or grenades.

One of the more pleasing elements of Party of Sin is the character design. Each sin looks suitably different with a unique look that ties into the particular deadly sin that they represent. Lust is portrayed by a blonde scantily clad vixen, Pride takes on the look of a stereotypical Prince Charming, Greed is laden down with enough bling to make 50 Cent jealous, and Gluttony waddles around looking eternally bloated. They are distinct enough that players will never get confused as to who is on screen at any given moment.

Two brains are often better than one when it comes to solving puzzles, but do you know what’s even better than two? Four brains; Party of Sin allows for up to four players to play co-operatively. If you do have a favourite character, this is where it comes into play as other players will not be able to switch to any that are in use. This makes certain puzzles easier as the timing becomes less strict. Players can position themselves strategically rather than busting a gut trying to get from one switch, onto a platform and then across a gap in the space of seconds. Some characters’ unique characteristics also come to the fore in multiplayer as they can be used to reward or punish other characters. Has one player been a weak link in a particular segment? Why not bump them off into the lava before they get a chance to become the group’s undoing once again.

Party of Sin is looking like it’s going to be good fun, but challenging at the same time. Local co-operative play is a great addition and will take some of the pressure off the individual player in certain circumstances. When faced with an onslaught of enemies, sometimes you need a little help from your friends. The company is extra beneficial when it comes to figuring out the order of a solution or what the solution actually is. If ever there was a time to over-indulge in one of life’s deadly, yet tempting sins, Party of Sin could be the perfect excuse.

Party of Sin recently acquired full funding via Kickstarter. More information about the game is available from the official Party of Sin website. The full title will be released early in 2012, although a precise release date has not yet been announced.

I just got back from the IGF awards and Game Developers Choice Awards.  One of the highlights of the awards ceremony were the videos by Mega64. Check them out when you get a chance.  Below are the nominees and winners in bold.

Seumas McNally Grand Prize:

• Dear Esther
• Fez
• Frozen Synapse
• Johann Sebastian Joust
• Spelunky

Excellence In Visual Art

• Botanicula
• Dear Esther
• Lume
• Mirage
• Wonderputt

Technical Excellence

• Antichamber
• Fez
• Prom Week
• Realm of the Mad God
• Spelunky

Excellence In Design:

• Atom Zombie Smasher
• English Country Tune
• Frozen Synapse
• Gunpoint
• Spelunky

Excellence in Audio:

• Botanicula
• Dear Esther
• Pugs Luv Beats
• To the Moon
• Waking Mars

Best Mobile Game:

• ASYNC Corp.
• Beat Sneak Bandit
• Faraway
• Ridiculous Fishing
• Waking Mars

Nuovo Award Finalists:

• At a Distance
• Dear Esther
• Fingle
• GIRP
• Johann Sebastian Joust
• Proteus
• Storyteller
• WAY

Student Showcase Finalists:

• The Bridge
• Dust
• The Floor Is Jelly
• Nous
• One and One Story
• Pixi
• The Snowfield
• WAY

We had a chance to speak to one man Android developer, Ernest Woo, about what he thinks of Android development before moving on to the specifics of his own games. So far, Woo Games has released two titles – the first was FRG, a pretty successful arcade shooter. The second has only literally come out on the Android Marketplace but has been looking fantastic for a while, ErnCon is a multiplayer-enabled shmup in which you attempt to take over the galaxy.

Who are you and what do you do in the games industry?

My name is Ernest Woo and I’m the founder of Woo Games, a small indie studio based in Boston, MA. Our goal is to create great real-time mobile multiplayer games that appeal to hardcore and casual players alike.

What is your background in game development, any other previous projects?

I’ve been working on games since I was 8 – when I got my hands on a Commodore 64, actually J  Almost all of my game development experience is driven by independent projects including an old shareware game I wrote called Orb Rush, FRG for Android, and now ErnCon.

I’ve also been involved with other players in the industry – I wrote the Java Applet version of TipTop (published by PopCap) and I’m part of the 1^st party mobile browser games team at MocoSpace.

Why Android instead of iOS? Any thoughts on Windows Phone 7?

The jump to Android was very easy given the Java connection; after all, my career has been dominated by Java for web applications and enterprise development.  Android’s decision to use the Java language convinced me to develop Android games right off the bat.

Interestingly, my first Android game (FRG) was a Pascal project originally intended for the desktop. When Android Developer Challenge 2 was announced, I thought “Hey I got three months to port this to Android.”

Windows Phone 7 will probably continue to be a 3^rd or 4^th tier platform for a long time coming.  WP7 doesn’t have enough market penetration for an indie developer like Woo Games to even consider diverting resources.  It’s already hard enough to make money on Android and iOS!

Do you like where the Android platform is going with Ice Cream Sandwich?

I’m ambivalent on ICS right now. I’ve been happy with what Android has provided for game development since Android 1.5 and the only OS-level feature I’ve really cared about was JIT (just-in-time compiling), introduced in Android 2.2.

Mobile browser gaming is a segment I want to dig a little deeper.  It turns out Facebook’s Android app links only to browser-based apps and games, making such games an untapped segment.  The ICS Browser has regressed in CSS and Canvas performance (compared to Gingerbread); I’m unsure how feasible Android browser game development will be in the short-term.

How do you like being a one man studio? Do you prefer it?

I love being a one-man studio!  I get to win almost all of the technical and game design arguments

I do hire contractors to complement my abilities (I can’t draw or compose music — I don’t know anything about PR/marketing either) but I still get to set the pace of development to something that suits me best.  When I’m ready to take Woo Games to the next level I’ll find a partner to work with. For now, Woo Games is a one-man operation and I’m having way too much fun to think about hiring a Number 2.

Where did the idea for ErnCon come from? Any other influences?

ErnCon has existed in some form or other since 1995 when I learned Pascal in high-school. After finishing my first summer programming course, my computer teacher started me on a game project to keep me engaged (not that I really needed the help). Star Control was still fresh in my mind at the time so my teacher and I thought up of a one-on-one space combat game. The DOS executable for Star Control was “starcon” so he suggested “ErnCon” as the name of this project.

ErnCon went through some variations over my high-school years – at one point it was an RTS because I was playing lots of Command & Conquer. The last Pascal incarnation of ErnCon allowed 8-person multiplayer over an IPX LAN influenced by playing lots of multiplayer Doom and Descent. I made a lot of my high-school peers happy by circumventing the “no commercial games” rule for the computer lab!

What have you learned from releasing FRG that you have used in designing and programming ErnCon?

ErnCon is actually using an improved version of the FRG graphics and networking engines.  The FRG engine was designed to run on 1^st generation Android phones like the G1 so I was quite confident it could keep up with the design demands of ErnCon when running on modern Android devices.  Using an engine I am intimately familiar with has resulted in me being able to concentrate on actually creating a fun game as opposed to getting caught up in technical minutiae.

There are a number of things I learned from releasing FRG that no longer apply to today’s users and phone technology.  For example, a 5MB game was considered huge for a G1 and FRG received negative reviews because of that! FRG was also lovingly tuned to minimize object allocations and garbage collection pauses as a result.  Given improvements in Android’s garbage collector and phone processing power, I haven’t had to worry as much about errant garbage collections that would lead ErnCon to pause.

How do you design one app for a phone and tablet?  That seems like quite a challenge.

While developing FRG, I forced myself to learn Android’s way of doing user-interfaces with nine-patches, layouts, device-independent-pixels, and handling orientation-switches.  Using Android’s built-in UI framework rather than rolling your own UI in an OpenGL surface allows you to easily handle the screen-size fragmentation issue.  If you have the proper resolution graphics, porting your UI to the tablet becomes a couple nights worth of work.

ErnCon is now is beta, how do you plan on monetizing the game?  Do you have a post launch plan yet?

ErnCon will always be free-to-play.  For players who feel ErnCon is worth spending money on, I’ve designed a Premium Currency to be used for special weapons and custom colored robots and fighters.  This Premium Currency can be purchased with real-world dollars through Android Market In-App-Purchases or Swarm Connect’s Paypal API.

The post-launch plan involves designing new robots, fighters, and weapons at all price points (including free DLC) to keep players engaged.  ErnCon will also slowly roll out to other countries outside of North America and Europe as demand increases.  If commercial acceptance of ErnCon goes well, I will start working on the iOS version of the game.

How has the beta gone? I can imagine there is a huge influx of feedback, what are the biggest things you are seeing?

The beta has gone great so far! With over 3,500 players, I’ve received lots of feedback and awesome bug reports.  One thing I love about the beta is when I see games with 4 or 5 players.  Epic space battles are happening as we speak, which makes me incredibly happy.

Anything else you want the Indie Game Mag readers to know about Woo Games or your upcoming ErnCon release?

If anyone has an interesting story to share about their time with ErnCon, please drop me a line!  I love hearing from users that they enjoy playing one of my games. I’m always open to feedback and bug reports as well – so keep me up to date on your ErnCon experience.

You can find out more information on Woo Games over on the official website.

Let me start off by saying that I am writing this review after getting up at 3:30am this morning and have been up for 22 hours straight.

At its core, Indie Game the movie is a story about Phil Fish’s struggle to finish FEZ and Team Meat’s development process and ultimate success with Super Meat Boy.

The film opens with a series of interviews with industry professionals and indie developers. Full disclosure here, I donated to IGTM’s kickstarter campaign and have been privy to their video updates over the past few years so I wasn’t surprised at the film’s opening. It was what I expected, a sort of communal look at the indie community. What did surprise me was the film’s focus on Edmund McMillen, Tommy Refenes, Phil Fish, and to a lesser extent, Jonathan Blow.

From a movie standpoint, the focus on these narratives works excellently. Phil’s story of early critical success, followed by immense personal and corporate strife is one of the most stressful stories I have ever seen captured on film. Team Meat’s passion for indie games is palpable throughout the movie, and incredibly inspiring. Their narrative follows the development cycle of Super Meat Boy up till it’s release (and ultimate success). Jonathan Blow adds wisdom to the film as the veteran game developer and indie game pioneer, but the film is ultimately about the very personal journeys of these select indie game developers.

These developers’ sacrifices are incredible. The movie expertly displays the personal touch that is at the core of every great independent game. Developers make indie games because it’s how they express themselves. For them, it’s incredibly personal. Indie games are not about making money, critical success, or prestige. These games are simply meant to be played and enjoyed.

The stories, personalities, and families will compel you throughout the film’s 96 minutes. While I believe this focus on only a few development teams makes the film more approachable and embodies it with a stronger story, I can’t help but be critical of this decision. Indie Game the Movie chooses to feature the developers of the top two highest rated XBLA games of all time (Braid and Super Meat Boy) and one of the most anticipated indie games of the past few years (FEZ). The former critical successes have already gone on to be huge financial successes (as the film portrays) and I can’t help but feel that the film is lacking some of the community perspective that would have been present with more indie perspectives. Maybe, I’m splitting hairs but the selection of games/developers seems a little Xbox Live Arcade heavy.

While I feel the need to point out this fact, in the end it comes from a yearning for more rather than a critique of the film as-is. The reality is that despite my incredible fatigue, I was riveted by Indie Game: The Movie. It turned out as good as I had hoped and I can’t wait to get my copy.

Explaining what sort of genre Crow falls into isn’t the easiest thing and I would have to say the best way to explain it is through a combination of a few different genres. When players begin the game they will see an overhead view of a level with the crow soaring through the sky. Tapping the screen in different spots will set a waypoint that the crow will fly to. While flying around you can also pinch the screen in our out to enter a finder mode as well as a birds eye view mode that allow you to discover hidden items and get a better view of the entire level. The goal of these early levels is to introduce a simple step-in to the gameplay; allowing the story to unfold before you take your first steps into the more action-oriented levels that are found between the hidden object boards. /> [This Content is Exclusive for Insider]

By Chris Stutzman

You can find more information on Crow over on the official website.

[This is a guest post from one of IGM's many friends, Alexander Poysky, who, in the last few months, has proven to be a great excavator of fantastic indie games. He has worked himself to the bone to be both a soldier and a PR rep for a number of indie games.His excitement and enthusiasm for indie games and their developers is second to none - seriously, we're not just saying that, this guy is nuts! He wanted to write this and share it with the community that has given him so much, one that he is always aiming to serve, so that he could incite inspiration where it is lacking. He set out to cover a little something on aspirations, fighting your demons and even squeezed in a love story too!]I’m no super hero, even though I have been called one on occasion, I’m not even that well known.

This Article was originally posted on our sister site, The Indie Game Magazine written by Chris Priestman.

Attending to survival gameplay in a very unique way, Under The Garden became a notorious freeware gem when it was released back in 2010. Chopping down trees, shooting bears and making shelter kept this player occupied in a delightfully delivered effort from Paul Greasley. If you never got around to playing Under The Garden, then make sure you do – you can download Under The Garden for free from this link.There were plenty of bugs to flatten out and a few other slights that Paul had to sort out upon the release of Under The Garden and so he learned many things during the process. He’s now in development of the sequel to Under The Garden which takes on a completely new location which comes with new challenges. Under The Ocean also marks a shift into 3D for Paul, no doubt bringing a whole load of other issues as well as making the game look very crisp.We spoke with Paul about Under The Ocean now that it is available to pre-order to find out why you should be interested in this brilliant looking title.IGM: What are the lessons you learned from developing Under The Garden which you will be taking over to Under The Ocean?PG: Honestly I try to think more in terms of where the game feels like it needs to go as a whole, rather than trying to dissect what worked and what didn’t.

This Article was originally posted on our sister site, The Indie Game Magazine written by Chris Priestman.

Huh, what? Oh it’s Friday again. Well thanks for telling me everybody – now I’ve got to find you free games as you forgot to remind me. Oh wait, I did remember, what a good boy I am. So this week we have a rather excellent collection if I do say so myself

This Article was originally posted on our sister site, The Indie Game Magazine written by Chris Priestman.