Have you played The Real Texas yet? Wait, what do you mean you haven’t even heard of it? Hang your head in shame young sir/lady, and rectify that immediately. Might I suggest a trip to the official site for the game, or even perusing our own full review? If you don’t, then you’re missing out. The Real Texas is one of the great indie surprises of this year – an incredibly offbeat, surreal action-RPG about a modern-day rancher on a vacation to England that turns into an interdimensional quest of remarkably small yet important-feeling proportions.

Back when we reviewed the game, it still had some issues, mostly due to the combat controls being a little finicky, and that it was a little too easy to get stun-locked and mauled to death by the great many enemies you’ll encounter. Several updates later, and the game is a far more polished thing. Still resolutely low-fi, but in a more consistent sorta way. There’s even a new quest that has been snuck in with the latest patch – version 1.3 – making a good, lengthy game even better and bigger. Feel free to mentally add a percentage point or two to the review score while you’re at it.

The Real Texas is for Windows, Mac & Linux PCs, and is available now direct from the developer for $15. Nicely, you can get another 30% off that by checking out the Greenlight page, where you can find a promo code to shave a hefty chunk off the price. Make sure you vote for the game while you’re at it – it’s excellent, and deserves a shot at a wider, more mainstream audience.

Source: The Indie Game Magazine – Oddball RPG ‘The Real Texas’ Expands, Improves, Still Seeking Greenlighting

Robots are amazing these days. They’re not only compact, but quiet as well. So quiet that, despite having followed the development of this promising platformer since the early days, the release of Joyride Laborotories Nikki And The Robots last week went completely unnoticed by me, and that’s just sad. Maybe it’s the chunky, colourful sprites. Maybe it’s the fantastically bouncy chiptune music (seriously, it’s goooooood) and maybe it’s the fact that secret agent Nikki is planning on saving the world wearing her most kitty-tastic catsuit, but the whole package is just strangely loveable. Here’s a gameplay trailer featuring all of those things, and more than a few robots:

This is one of those releases where everyone wins. The game will run on just about any hardware that you can put it on, and there are Windows, Linux & Mac versions available. The game itself can be downloaded for free, and if you don’t pay a penny then you still have access to both the level-sharing hub and the level editor. If you think the game is actually worth some money, though, you can pay whatever you want (anything over 1 euro will get you Desura/Steam keys as and when the game reaches those platforms) to gain access to an official level set. Right now it’s just one episode, but there’s more coming in the future.

The game is fully DRM-free, a small download, has a built-in updater and (as mentioned above) there’s an integrated level-sharing hub. It’s a remarkably fleshed out package, so give it a try. For those still on the fence against all reason (if nothing else, you can play a large chunk of the game for free!), we’ll be giving it the full review treatment once we’ve conquered the occasionally-fiendish first episode.

Source: The Indie Game Magazine – Adorable Puzzle-Platformer ‘Nikki And The Robots’ Released As Pay-What-You-Want

Anodyn is a topdown 2D adventure game where you will be able to explore dungeons and different environments in a dream world of a human named Young. The game was developed by Sean “Seagaia” Hogan and Jon Kittaka, and what they’ve created is a Zelda style game. Between exploring dungeons, finding keys to open gates, and fighting monsters with dusty brooms, you could definitely tell where the two developers got their inspiration from. In terms of aesthetics, they’ve also taken inspiration from Yume Nikki. They’ve released a demo of the game on their website. It’ll offer you around 15 to 30 minutes of extremely fun gameplay and leave you wanting more. Be sure to check out the trailer of this awesomeness below:

So far Anodyne has support for three platforms which are Windows, Mac and Linux. That said, whatever operating system you’re on you’ll be able to play the demo. On Windows you should be able to play the game fine, but to play on either Mac or Linux you’re going to need to download Adobe Air as Sean Hogan points out on his website.

Thankfully we won’t have to wait to long for the entire game, as Sean Hogan and Jon Kittaka are aiming for a late Fall release after originally starting the game back in March of 2012. Anodyne isn’t too far out, and as a result of that it has also been submitted to Steam Greenlight in hopes of getting put on the digital platform. If you’re interested in giving the demo a try, just head on over to the Anodyne website and grab the free download.

Source: The Indie Game Magazine – Zelda Inspired ‘Anodyne’ Headed For Late Fall Release

Currently in development by Impromptu Games, InFlux is a meditative exploration and puzzle solving game. InFlux features vast levels of natural and abstract environments to explore, and with the ability to recline in your chair and utilize an Xbox 360 controller while doing so, InFlux should be on your radar.

As a metalic ball which fell from the sky, InFlux has players rolling around a seemingly abandoned island, solving the puzzles found encased in mysterious cubes scattered across the island. With no story or driving force to speak of, this allows players to relax and take their time exploring the lush island, rolling and bouncing along, checking out every cave and mountaintop for another puzzle to solve.

The video above showcases the island portions of InFlux, where players will roll around and look for new puzzles. The second video (below) shows off what exactly are in those cubes scattered over the island. The impressive visuals are product of the Unreal Development Kit.

InFlux is Impromptu Games’ second title, and a departure from their tongue-in-cheek Vroom! which Impromptu developed and released last year. Currently in development for PC , Mac, and iOS devices, InFlux is due out around the end of the year.

Help bring InFlux to Steam by voting for it in Steam Greenlight, here. The feedback has been largely positive but they still need your vote.

Follow the developer on Twitter: @joewintergreen and check back to IGM for updates, as they become available.

Source: The Indie Game Magazine – ‘InFlux’ Looks Like A Puzzle-Solving Ball of Fun

A fairly new project, currently called Woodle Tree (the name may change at a later time) is an upcoming 3D platformer created solely by Fabio Ferrara, an upcoming independent developer based in Milano, Italy.  It may not look like much at first glance, but Woodle Tree has an adorable graphical style (reminiscent of Mario 64) and fun platformer gameplay that is enchanting (and nostalgic for anyone who played good 3D platforming games in the 90′s).

The story of Woodle Tree is fairly simple, you are a sprout given life by a larger tree and tasked to bring water back to your “thirsty land”.  You do this by making your way through an extremely cute, 3D platforming world, using a variety of interesting gameplay mechanics in your search for water.

Most impressive is that Fabio Ferrara has based the entire game off of Unity 3D, making it possible for it to easily be ported to every major gaming platform (with Ferrara looking to release it first for Windows, Mac, and Linux, and if the demand is high enough, mobile devices at a later time).  Ferrara is looking to release Woodle Tree for no cost on Windows, Mac, and Linux upon its completion.

Ferrara hopes to work closely with the indie community on his game, adjusting features and fixing bugs to make it as enjoyable of a game as possible.  If you would like to check out the demo of Woodle Tree, it can be downloaded here.  If you want to keep up with the game’s development, then make sure to follow their official Twitter account.

Source: The Indie Game Magazine – Codename ‘Woodle Tree’ – An Adorable 3D Platformer

For those of you who haven’t heard of Escape Goat, it is a widely acclaimed puzzle platformer that has you playing as a goat trying to escape from a magical prison by making your way through a variety of intense puzzles.  Created by the indie game developer MagicalTimeBean (EscapeGoat is mostly the creation of Ian Stocker), Escape Goat provides fun (but sometimes extremely frustrating) physics based gameplay that is not only innovative, but beautiful (in a 16-bit graphics kind of way, but that might just be a “me” thing).  Up until now, it has only been available on Xbox Live Indie Arcade and PC’s, but now its come to your web browsers.  This new web browser version (besides being the first look at the game for Mac and Linux gamers), comes with a variety of new upgrades, including: a built in level editor that allows you to create and share custom maps by giving a friend a simple url, two user created worlds that feature over 40 new rooms, and a localization of the game into French.

As a special promotion for the release of this browser port, the full Escape Goat game will be available for free online until Sunday, September 9 (a demo version will still be available afterwards, as well as the ability to share any custom levels you may have made).

Escape Goat is currently available on Xbox Live Indie Arcade, Windows, and now for any system that can load an internet browser at the official Escape Goat website.

Source: The Indie Game Magazine – ‘Escape Goat’ Comes to Browsers

Kornel Kisielewicz is a man with a mission: To make ALL the roguelikes. Not satisfied with converting Doom into a turn-based, randomly-generated dungeon crawl, he’s also tried his hand at adapting ultra-dark fantasy manga Berserk into one as well, and even the Aliens movies. He’s even taken a shot at returning Diablo to its most fundamental of genre roots. For the past year or so, his focus has been entirely on updating and refining DoomRL, but now he’s looking to update his back catalogue somewhat. AliensRL is here again, and heavily updated.

AliensRL is even more straightforward and refined than his turn-based take on Doom. More than anything, this is a tactical combat game set in a randomly generated tower complex. While currently keyboard-only, there’s only a few controls to remember, and very limited inventory management. Rather than lugging around a huge arsenal of gear, you have Light, Standard and Heavy weapons slots, and can only carry one weapon in each, and equipment such as health packs is automatically assigned to hotkeys. If this weren’t turn-based, it’d be an action game.

While limited to ASCII graphics, the game does use sound quite effectively. There’s a few droning ambient music tracks to help maintain the mood, and the sounds of the weapons and the aliens themselves are lifted straight from the movies. The piercing screams of the enemies are particularly loud and jarring, but I suppose that’s how it’s supposed to be. The ultimate goal of the game is, of course, to slay the alien queen. After several attempts, I’ve not even come close, but I’ve had fun trying.

AliensRL v0.8.2 is free, available now, and supports Windows, Mac & Linux PCs.

Source: The Indie Game Magazine – Check Those ASCII Corners – ‘AliensRL’ Returns

Amp, Watts, and Circuits is now available on Indievania as a Pay What You Want release, with the minimum price paid at $1, for PC and Mac. Amp, Watts, and Circuits, which released back in February is a first time commercial puzzle release from one-man Indie Developer Jamo Games. Amp, Watts, and Circuits is a grid-based puzzle offering which allows the player to lead 3 unfulfilled robots from their workplace.

To escape from their place of work, an industrial factory, the three disgruntled employees, smartly named Amp, Watts and Circuit, must use their talents to help each other reach daylight. To do so the robots move around factory tiles to activate switches or disable traps. In doing so the three robots use the contraptions to exit areas of the factory on their way to freedom.

Other features include a level designer, which allows players to craft their own puzzles for others to try, and an original electronic soundtrack. Amp, Watts, and Circuits spans the length of 50 challenging puzzles over 4 zones and the addition of the level editor allows for a high amount of replayability.  Using the level editor, players can set traps and obstacles, making their ultimate robot defeating puzzle.

If you would like to support Jamo Games on their upcoming title, hate to see robots doing monotonous factory work, or are an avid puzzle game then you should definitely check out Amp, Watts, and Circuits over at Indievania. Likewise, you should check out Jamo Games at their dev site and on Facebook, and Amp, Watts, and Circuits at its website.

Source: The Indie Game Magazine – ‘Amps, Watts, And Circuits’- Robot Puzzler Now Available As Pay What You Want

I have been trying out some Ludum Dare games for the past couple weeks as I love the concept of programmers obsessing over their game for three straight days. Giving me a visual idea of what these obsessed developers look like or, more accurately what I hope they look. The room is dark, Coffee is abundant, Eyes are bloodshot from little to no sleep. It humors me and amazes me each and every time I imagine those awesome programmers. One of the games I had the pleasure of experiencing was Beast Feast an arcade-styled, frenzy-inducing effort from developer Underground Pixel.

In Beast Feast the player controls a little monster, which needs to evolve to his/her ultimate form. The only way for the little… thing to grow is by throwing egg bombs at enemies and then eating food they drop. The player needs to reach 50 pieces  to win, but each time one of the enemies hits our heroic monster five pieces of food will be dropped. The goal is to reach 50 as quickly as possible with your time being your high score, it is that simple.

Beast Feast could also not be that simple. Contradicting myself aside Underground Pixel is attempting to turn Beast Feast into a full-featured affair by improving graphics and music adding upgrades, stat boosts, new modes, guest characters, and locations; thus creating Beast Feast Deluxe! This would take Beast Feast from a simple arcade offering to a full-fledged commercial release.

To gain support for Beast Feast Deluxe, Underground Pixel has entered it into the Steam Greenlight sale. Along with Beast Feast Deluxe, Underground Pixel has also entered Pastry Panic, a popular iOS game being ported to the PC, and Invader Eliminator, a brand new arcade game which will be released sometime in early 2013 for iOS, Mac, and PC, which IGM previewed a month ago. Below is alpha footage of Invader Eliminator.

If you would like to try out the early Ludum Dare version of Beast Feast (from which all the pictures above were taken) you can check it out here or at kongregate. You should also view Underground Pixel’s official website, and the Greenlight pages of Beast Feast Deluxe, Invader Eliminator, and Pastry Panic. For more info on Beast Feast Deluxe and all things indie gaming, stick with Indiegamemag.com.

Source: The Indie Game Magazine – Ludum Dare Entry ‘Beast Feast’ to be Made Into Full-Feature Game

It’s one of the great tragedies of gaming that a decent Battlestar Galactica (20xx edition) game was never released. There were a couple of small shovelware releases and a forgettable free-to-play outing, but nothing that captured the spirit of the spiralling, incredibly lethal deep-space dogfighting the TV series was so famous for. Until now. After four years of hard graft at the code-mines, the fan-made, freeware BSG game Diaspora: Shattered Armistice has finally been released. Here’s the rather authentic-looking launch trailer:

So, what you get here for your $0 is a full-blown BSG space combat sim, realistic physics and all. No energy shields or drag here. Bullets punch holes in armor, and if you cut engines, you’re just going to float freely through space. The launch release has a full single-player, voice-acted campaign, and you get to fly three different kinds of (human) fighters. No Cylon side in the campaign, although it does come bundled with a mission editor, so you can play on the other side if you want.

Disapora is based on a heavily re-tooled version of the FSOpen engine (the same engine that powered the excellent Wing Commander Saga), and the launch version supports Windows, Mac & Linux PCs. It’s entirely freeware and produced as a pure labor of love – for too long have gamers watched those strangely balletic dogfights and wished we could join in. Thanks to the Diaspora team, we now can.

The game weighs in at a rather beefy 1.26 gigabyte download. You can grab it from a list of mirrors currently going up on the Disapora site here, and this forum thread as well. We’ll be posting a full freeware review once we’ve been able to properly dig into the campaign.

Source: The Indie Game Magazine – Battlestar Galactica Fan-Game ‘Disapora: Shattered Armistice’ Released