NimbleBit is an indie success story; the team is comprised of two brothers who have developed 11 apps, according to the company’s main website. NimbleBit’s twitter account announced this afternoon that all of its iPad and iPhone apps are free. When asked about how long the sale would last, the tweeted response was “for an indeterminate amount of time.” That translates to gamers needing to hurry and grab them on any iOS device before the free deal is over.

What better way to experience all of its great games than for FREE! NimbleBit seems to have turned quite a few heads with its apps. Pocket Frogs has well over 100,000 reviews, averaging around 4.5/5 stars. For those with an insatiable imaginary appetite, NimbleBit has a game called Sky Burger that also appears very popular! And for the computer geeks who learned about the Towers of Hanoi when writing recursive algorithms, here is NimbleBit’s Hanoi.

While DIY has not reviewed any of NimbleBit’s iDevice Apps, Erik Johnson reviewed Zero Gear last year, a fun combat kart PC game with Steam support. Those who prefer to play games with a controller will be happy to know that DIY reported on Zero Gear’s update to include XBox360 controller support.

Source: @Nimblebit

Alright, I’ve already spent over $80 on Steam games today. I’ve maxed out my limit, seriously. That said, however, I still have yet to even scratch the surface of the Steam Holiday sale. As such, I figured it would be fun to put together my top 10 indie games you should check out for this year’s holiday indie sale.

Keep in mind, these are of my personal opinion. I’m not basing these top 10 games off of score, pricing, or anything of that nature. Also this list is in no particular order.

Super Meat Boy – $3.75

This game released, literally, a few weeks ago. It is quite possibly a game the year contender for both myself and DIYGamer and, really, should be an instant purchase for anybody who doesn’t yet own the game. Seriously, it’s amazing.

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Metal Drift – $4.99

Released back in 2009, I”ve recently fallen back in love with this game’s unique multiplayer ‘splodey action. It’s a fast and furious gravity tank game that allows for a progressive leveling to assemble bigger and more bad ass weapons.

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The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom – $0.49

Some people didn’t care for this game, I loved it. It’s whimsical and very charming in that early 1900s sort of way. Plus at less than what a candy bar costs at the local super market? Easy choice.

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Zero Gear – $4.99

Zero Gear, in my opinion, was a better game than the newest Mario Kart. They have some fundamental differences, granted, but on a pure kart-game basis, I’d choose Zero Gear any day. It’s just plain ol’ fun.

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AI War: Fleet Command + expansions – $9.99+

Probably the most expensive game on my list but oh so worth it. Seriously, this game offers an incredible amount of depth for a fraction opf what it would cost elsewhere. And now it costs even a fraction of that! Solid choice for strategy fans.

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Delve Deeper – $2.49

Charming, hot seat action involving Dwarves mining for gold, fighting monsters/dragons and competing with other teams of Dwarves. Seriously, does it get any better than this? Not by much. A great strategy hot-seat game.

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Amnesia: The Dark Descent – $9.99

Does the phrase “scary as shit” mean anything to you? Pardon my language, but that’s literally the best way to describe this very, very frightening game. People willing to subject themselves to horrors such as this should definitely enjoy the sale.

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VVVVVV – $2.49

Another great action platformer in the same vein as Super Meat Boy, only this time your taking control of Captain Veridian as he attempts to save his ship mates from impending doom. It’s a challenging, but very satisfying game.

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Plain Sight – $4.99

Another fantastic multiplayer game that features none other than robot ninjas. Combined with some amazing 3D action and a few unique game modes Plain Sight is a great catch for anybody who’s looking for a new multiplayer game.

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AaAaAA!!! A Reckless Disregard for Gravity – $4.99

Last, but certainly not least, who can certainly not enjoy a game about base jumping and flippng people off? While the game is getting a little older, this is certainly one of the best first person indie experiences available today.

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Solid list if I do say so myself. Of course, don’t let this stop you from trying other indie games. There are a lot of really, really good games for sale this holiday season and chances are, even if none of these sound appealing to you, there’s something on Steam that you’ll really enjoy.

Happy holidays.

UPDATE: It looks like Steam has updated their sale in a more official capacity. Many more indie games have been added. Most notable is that there are now a wide variety of “Indie Game Packs” that are on sale offering a slew of indie games for just $4.99. This is absolutely insane.

This is too much. Seriously, I don’t even know where to begin. Steam, apparently kicking off it’s holiday promotion a little early has put on a incredibly huge sale of 100 games, each one being at least 75% off. Incredible.

Of course, there are MANY notable indie games on this list, things you absolutely will not want to pass up. Here are the indie games for sale on Steam right now:

• The Misadventures of PB Winterbottom – $0.49
• Caster – $0.99
• Blueberry Garden – $0.99
• Eets – $2.49
• Super Meat Boy – $3.75
• Serious Sam HD: Gold Edition – $9.99
• Serious Sam HD: Double Pack – $7.49
• Ziro – $1.74
• Serious Sam HD: The Second Encounter – $4.99
• Gridrunner Revolution – $2.50
• Zero Gear – $4.99
• Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter – $3.74

Impressive, right? I’ve bolded my personal picks for games you should check out, but don’t let that stop you from checking out other games as well.

Also, as you can expect there are numerous AAA mainstream games available as well for a fraction of the price. All I can say is… Happy Holidays everybody.

[Steam]

Most if not all of my kart combat experience involves firing red turtles and speeding around corners with Toad in the Mario Kart series. The genre made sense on consoles as what made the experience long lasting was the addicting multiplayer both racing and battling it out with your friends.

Nimblebit has gone out on a limb to bring these concepts and more to the PC through the use of online multiplayer in its kart racer Zero Gear. Does the effort achieve its goal or does it fall short?

Gameplay

Once you get onto the courses there’s plenty of options, but before you even roll out, you can hit the garage which offers an impressive amount of customization for your driver and kart.

In race mode, as expected, the goal is to finish your laps first. A smattering of creative power-ups including tornadoes and love-seeking L.U.V. Bots are scattered across the course and can be used against opposing players to gain the upper-hand. Getting a feel for how to drive, slide, in some cases flip-around and just gaining full control of my handling took a bit, but once I figured it out I found it was all smiles from there. Especially as I found the variety of modes included.

Nimblebit made a smart move to go away from what we’ve already experienced with kart combat, instead looking to integrate sports games and other activities into the gameplay. Thus fun and addicting modes like Goal and Tag were created, I particularly enjoyed the soccer level which had players fighting for control over an over-sized ball in order to “kick” it into the opposing player/team’s goal, I can only describe it as frenzied fun. You’ll have to rely on several tactics, including ignoring bigger goals to take care of smaller ones that demand your more immediate attention, such as taking out the ass-hat who keeps bumping you.

Being that the game is on PC, it’s simply impractical for a local co-op feature. Which is too bad as the game is made for it, hopefully it makes it to consoles at some point and includes the feature. It fits into the ‘game-o-screws’ type that’s so successful in that setting.

Style

The levels are vibrant and colorful and the courses just has an overall nice, smooth look to them. The customization I mentioned earlier deserves to be brought up again for the style section, It’s a nice touch to be able to have a highly customized rider for the multiplayer-heavy title, since the game naturally lacks local co-op, players will only know you by two things: your tag and your look.

Story

As with most racing combat titles, Zero Gear’s story takes a backseat, if it exists at all, to its style and gameplay.

Everything Else

Nimblebit has provided the game with excellent post-launch support, adding a new race map, sumo mode and Xbox 360 controller support to date.

The title runs $20 on Steam with a four-pack deal running just $40, cutting the cost in half if you have a trio of friends/gift receivers.

Nimblebit has released a new update for its kart combat and racing game Zero Gear, adding the new Sumo game mode along with some other fixes, adjustments and improvements.

In Sumo, players try to be the last survivor as they try to bump one another off a shrinking platform. The free mode joins Tag, Soccer and the other various modes for the game.

The update is available for download now via Steam, owners of the game can get it simply by restarting the client. From the change log:

Zero Gear

• New game mode added: Sumo – Be the last survivor on the shrinking platform by punching everyone else off!
• Adjusted race nodes in AquaRace to prevent some respawn trickery
• Maps now dynamically scanned in, makes it easier to play custom maps
• Fixed the bug where a player could get a weapon at the start of a race by sitting inside a weapon box volume
• Lemming achievement now triggers properly

Nimblebit has released a new update for its kart racer/combat game Zero Gear, now available for download. The patch brings the new map ‘Aqua Race’ to the game along with a handful of bug fixes and other tweaks including a couple of improvements to dedicated servers.

The new map along with the rest of the update is available now via Steam, for owners of the game simply restart the Steam client to apply.

From the change log:

Zero Gear

• New race map added: Aqua Race
• Stat based achievements will now trigger properly (Drive 500 Miles, Flight of the Falcon, etc)
• Dedicated server no longer uses NAT punch through (if you were having problems with lag on servers, try connecting to a dedicated server now)
• A LAN server will only be listed once now if there it is also an internet server
• Invites to dedicated servers are fixed
• Plugins now supported, see pluginScripts.txt in the server directory and Assets\Scripts\Plugins for more info
• AdminRemoteControl.lua plugin added from community member Chris M

Nimblebit has released yet another update for its kart racer/combat title Zero Gear which, among other additions, adds support for the Xbox 360 controller.

The patch also brings analog stick controller support, along with a handful of bug fixes for a variety of areas in the game. The download can be applied by owners of the game with a reboot of the Steam client.

Zero Gear is available now for $20, with a four-pack offer available for only $40. From the change log:

Zero Gear

• Analog Controls Support Added – You can now make use of the full range of control an analog stick provides
• Added support for both keyboard and controller when controller is plugged in
• Added default bindings for the 360 controller (others will work too but may require some extra configuration in settings)
• Bindings added to bind a controller axis to control the camera (defaults to right stick on the 360 controller)
• Fixed error caused by attempting to join a server colored gray
• Fixed kart camera controls being reversed in some cases
• Fixed a bug that prevented players from joining the server if they had a space as the first character in their name
• Mouse visibility removed from roster menu as it was causing the game to lose focus in some cases

Nimblebit has released a new update for its kart combat/racer Zero Gear, now available for download on Steam.  I had a good time giving the game a spin during its free offering launch this last weekend, but more on that in a later, more detailed writing.

The patch brings improvements to the server browser application along with a few bug fixes. Change log follows–anyone else get a chance to check out the game during its free release period?

Nimblebit’s kart racer Zero Gear has just been released via Steam, and in once of the coolest acts of celebration I’ve seen to date, the dev has made the game free to play for the rest of the launch week. All you need in a Steam account and you can play for the next 5 days.

While the game will run $20 standard, it’s currently 25% off until the end of the free offer, so if you like it, buy it before the trial period ends to save yourself $5.

I’ll check out the multiplayer madness and post a review of the game later this week, along with a half-dozen or so others I’ve been meaning to catch up on…Oh! and ZG got a launch-day update too, notes follow.

Though the game doesn’t release until next Tuesday, Nimblebit’s indie kart racer Zero Gear has released an update that can be downloaded by those who pre-ordered and have access to the beta.

If you’re unaware, those who buy the game before its release on January 12 get a 25% discount off the total price along with early access to the vehicle combat racing game. If you do have the beta set-up on Steam the update will begin when you restart the client. Full change log after the break.