Once again, Indie Links brings us tremendous content and coverage from across the web. We get some indie pitches, interviews, reviews, opinions and of course a little bit of controversy.
The Indie Supper-Singing Spectacular (Alec Meer/Rock, Paper, Shotgun)
“So many wonderful indie games, so little unwonderful time. How is RPS to cover them all? Well, making their devs do the hard work for us is a start. A few days ago, we put out a call on the Twit-witter-wotter: tell us, indie developer man/woman-person, in around 100 words, why we should turn our sentinel gaze upon you. So some did. Here’re the funnest entries received, or at least those that came closest to fulfilling the mandate of “incredigood words.””
Sense of Wonder: Indie-fying Japan (Jeriaska/Gamasutra)
“The Tokyo Game Show’s annual Sense of Wonder Night brings together a selection of independent and experimental games from around the world. In October of 2008, PlayStation Network title PixelJunk Eden by independent developer Q-Games was chosen as a showcase finalist.”
Microsoft: new 360 dash helps indies (Fred Dutton/Eurogamer)
“Microsoft has answered concerns that the recent Xbox 360 dashboard update marginalises Xbox Live Indie Games, insisting the new set-up will work better for independent developers.”
Indie Review: A House in California by Cardboard Computer (Jeff Mattas/Shacknews)
“A House in California is a surreal trip through childhood memories that have been filtered through the opaque lenses of time and nostalgia.”
Opinion: Design Diversions – The Games as Art Debate is Dead, Long Live the Games as Art Debate (Andrew Vanden Bossche/GameSetWatch)
“‘Design Diversions’ is a biweekly new GameSetWatch-exclusive column by Andrew Vanden Bossche. It looks at the unexpected moments when games take us behind the scenes, and the details of how game design engages us.”
Redefining a Genre: Skulls of the Shogun Aims to Add Accessibility; Keep Depth (John Laster/XBLA Fans)
“The following article is based around an email interview conducted by our team with Jake Kazdal, CEO of Haunted Temple Studios. For the uninitiated, Haunted Temple Studios is currently developing Skulls of the Shogun for Xbox Live Arcade for Spring 2011 release.”
Preview: Bitejacker (Mike Rose/IndieGames)
“If you listened to this week’s IndieGames podcast, you’ll have heard us talking about an IGF entry called Bitejacker – a zombie survival shooter based on the indie gaming show Bytejacker. There were barely any details available, and we wanted answers!”
Review: Nimbus (James Murff/Big Download)
“There’s a fine line developers walk when making games with clear, focused objectives. On one side of the line is boredom, where the game is too simple and too repetitive to offer any sort of meaningful gameplay to the player. On the other in confusion, where the simplistic and entertaining core mechanic is lost amidst feature creep as the developer tries to make the game more varied and interesting. Right in the middle is the sweet spot, where a game is fun, easy to learn, and offers a great amount of variety despite its adherence to a singular mechanic. Nimbus is one of these games.”










