The bundles, they just keep coming! Hard to complain in this case, though – Indie Royale’s latest entry, the Getaway Bundle, is an unusually eclectic bunch of games. This one includes zero-G arena FPS Shattered Horizon, sci-fi/mystery visual novel with a strong feminist angle Analogue: A Hate Story, wrestling-themed point-and-click adventure Da New Guys, neon-hued twin-stick shooter Waves and ultra-minimialist monochrome roguelike Miniflake. Oh, and yet another XBLIG refugee – the completely bonkers Super Amazing Wagon Adventure. Here’s the official video:

Well, there’s a mismatched bundle if I ever saw one, but it’s hard to complain about the quality of the games included. Having played and enjoyed all but Da New Guys (although I have heard reasonably positive things about it), it’s an easy recommendation price-wise. It’s also worth noting that an expansion has just been announced for Analogue: A Hate Story, which should help fill in some of the blanks in the plot, particularly the events leading up to the downfall of civilization on the colony-ship you’re investigating.

The only possible real low-point of this bundle is Shattered Horizon. Not for any quality concerns – it’s an excellent and sadly underrated game – but it was never able to really retain an online player-base. Fortunately they added bots in a later update to the game, but you’re largely limited to playing against them, unless this bundle helps kickstart the public server population once more.

There’s a base price, and a bonus higher price-tier with assorted goodies as always for Indie Royale, and no higher charity motive. This is just about promoting and supporting lesser-known indie developers. All the games are for Windows only, with the sole exception of Analogue, which is for Mac & Linux as well. Steam keys are available where possible, and everything else activates on Desura, as well as offering DRM-free downloads.

Source: The Indie Game Magazine – Indie Royale’s ‘Getaway Bundle’ Offers Space War, Feminism & Wagons

Futuremark Game Studio emailed me this morning to let me know two really great things about their FPS, Shattered Horizon, winner, by the way, of our 2010 indie games tournament.

The first piece of good news is that you can now own the game for $4.99. That’s about how much you would pay for a few tacos at Taco Bell and, really, you’ll feel better after playing Shattered Horizon.

A quick note before I jump back into Comic-Con write-ups: Shattered Horizon; a gravity-manipulating FPS and an old DIYGamer favorite, is 75% off today as Steam’s latest Daily Deal. That would be just $5 for some very enjoyable orbital multiplayer action.

The discount also applies to the  bargain quad-pack, which means four copies can be had for just $15, or $3.75 each. Sale ends Tuesday morning (likely around 10 AM Pacific Time), so get on after it before yet another good PC game deal flies by.

Here’s SH’s zero gravity trailer as a refresher:

Just a quick note to those with Steam accounts and an interest in playing games they may not own: shooter’s Shattered Horizon and Lead and Gold: Gangs of the Wild West are free for all to play until tomorrow (Sunday, November 7) at 1 PM PT. Daylight savings dictates we fall back tonight too. Woah…BONUS HOUR*.

If you find that fascinating, you’re likely to have your socks knocked off by the news that both games are 50% off and you can save even more by purchasing them together in the Frontiers Pack (referring to the “Old” and the “Final” ones I presume.)

The two-pack goes for just $12.50, or you can purchase the games individually: Shattered for $10 and Lead for $7.50. Sales end Monday, November 8.

* For participating time zones of course.

Starting this Thursday, Futuremark Game Studios is sending Shattered Horizon down the road to another free weekend on Steam. You can also nab the zero-gravity shooter for $9.99 again for the duration of the free weekend.

The sale is also in conjunction with Fatshark’s Lead & Gold. Which is also free and on sale from November 4 – 7.

Here are the Steam links for Shattered Horzion and Lead & Gold. Remember the free weekend and sale doesn’t kick in until Thursday.

A couple of small but potentially significant (to some) updates have been released for Futuremark Games Studio’s FPS-in-space Shattered Horizon, now available for download on Steam.

The patches prep the game for the launch of the game’s localized German edition, arriving sometime today. The first patch also carries an interesting addition, the addition of Cooler Master branded containers; this being part of an upcoming sponsorship deal with the computer case manufacturer.

Owners of the game can grab the updates automatically by starting up the game. From the patch notes:

Shattered Horizon

1.2.2.33

• Prepares the game for the launch of the localized German edition on August 26
• Adds Cooler Master branded containers as part of an upcoming sponsorship deal

1.2.2.34

• This patch enables the game to be played with German language menus and text. To change language between English and German select the Language option under Settings from the main menu.

Congratulations to the great developers over at Futuremark Game Studio for winning the DIYGamer.com First Annual Independent Game Award! While we may not be able to supply any sort of cash prize we certainly hope that our awesome rocket trophy finds a nice home on some bookshelf or mantel in the Futuremark offices.

As you can see by the results, Shattered Horizon took the prize by a healthy margin, with over 500 votes cast. While Dwarf Fortress is everybody’s favorite Roguelike, in the end, it just wasn’t a robust enough effort by the community to top the venerable independent shooter that’s made headlines around the world for it’s unique graphics/physics engine and gameplay.

But don’t worry Dwarf Fortress fans — or fans of every other indie game out there — there’s always next year. This year’s inaugural tournament was so much fun for us and was so popular amongst our core community that we are planning on bringing it back again and again for the foreseeable future.

Here are the results:

P.S. Sorry for the delay in announcing this. My internet went down the day prior to announcing the winner and then I went on vacation the day after the tournament and have not had internet until today. And I’m still on vacation, so I can’t actually mail out the trophy until next week.

Yesterday we launched our first semi-final between Shattered Horizon and Torchlight, two very popular games of which amassed several hundred votes already. Pretty impressive, if I say so myself. There’s also been a bit of controversy around the two games seeing as how neither are true “indie” games.

We’ve already explained, numerous times, why Torchlight is still in this tournament (in so many words, the company announced they were bought AFTER the tournament had already begun). If you’re curious about Shattered Horizon, however, please read our own take on the difference between indie and independent games and why we cover both. Also remember, we did not choose these games for the tournament, they were nominated by you.

Anyway, now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, let’s continue on with today’s semi-finalist match up between two very indie games: Spelunky and Dwarf Fortress.

Up first we have Spelunky, the adorable Indiana Jones-esque platforming cave romp. This is an incredibly difficult game that features randomly generated levels to ensure that each game is thoroughly unique from the last time you played. Spelunky happens to also be one of those games that is both uniquely addictive and incredibly charming at the same time. Not too many games can make that claim.

Dwarf Fortress, on the other hand, is a game that is almost impossible to describe. One part roguelike, one part city simulator, all parts fun, Dwarf Fortress manages to do all this under the overly simplistic ACSII graphics system, something that, while may look crude to most, has a certain sort of charm to old school gamers from the past.

Only one will make it to the finals. Cast your vote now!

Check out the Semi-Finals bracket!

The other semi-final:

Here it is, the first of two semi-final match ups, with the second one coming tomorrow. While some of you may be thinking this is an easy win for Torchlight, I’ll merely mention that prior to the N vs. Torchlight battle, Shattered Horizon consistently got the most votes out of any match up. So don’t take it lightly.

Anyway, let’s get on with the usual stuff.

Up first we have Shattered Horizon, the independent multiplayer FPS that features stuff you’ve never experienced in any FPS prior, zero-G space combat. This is a game that is literally about space marines. There’s no up, no down, and the maps are more open than any other online FPS. Shattered Horizon is, without a doubt, one of the best shooter experiences out there.

Not to be counted out, however, is the ever venerable Torchlight, created by Runic Games of which was started by the creators of the original Diablo games. To say that Torchlight is the best action RPG since Diablo 2 is doing it little justice. This is a game that is so pure to its roots that it’s almost like going back in time to when the original Diablo was released, albeit with better graphics.

Only one can make it to the final. Cast your vote now!

Check out the semi-finals bracket!

The other semi-final:

Whew! We’ve got lots going on today. Aside from the fact that E3 will officially kick off this afternoon, of which we have four reporters on the ground scouring for the latest indie news — not an easy feat at E3, mind you –, we’ve also been drooling over the latest Nintendo press conference (because we’re geeks too!) and will continue said drooling at Sony’s latest today. Finally, as a footie fan, I’ve also been trying my very bestest to work in some World Cup games this morning (super bummed Ivory Coast tied this morning). So I do apologize if news is a bit more sporadic today than usual, I’m doing the best I can in a very busy time.

Anyway, come hell or high water this tournament will not stop. As I mentioned yesterday we’ve reached the quarter finals for which today is the first match up between Shattered Horizon and Love.

First up is Shattered Horizon. If I’ve mentioned this game once I’ve mentioned it a hundred times on this site. Shattered Horizon simply set the benchmarks for not only indie FPS games, but also the genre as a whole. There’s a reason why this game has reached the quarter finals.

Not to be pushed aside, however, is Love the wonderous indie MMO. I’m not sure how many of you have any background knowledge of creating MMOs, but it’s absolutely one of the hardest game development projects to undertake. The fact that Love is an indie game is extremely impressive in its own right.

Only one can make it to the semi-finals. Which will it be? Shattered Horizon vs. Love!

Check out the quarter final bracket!