We may be too old to get free candy on Halloween, but luckily there are plenty of developers offering free Halloween content to keep us occupied. Today, Spicy Horse revealed its plans for Halloween content for two of their games, BigHead BASH and Crazy Fairies.

In BigHead BASH, players will find four new items awaiting them. The Cat and Monkey have been transformed into skeleton versions, and the content includes the addition of a new character, the Cheshire Pumpkin Head, which Spicy Horse fans may recognize from Alice.

In Crazy Fairies, all of the game’s bosses have been replaced with Halloween-themed versions. Also, Crazy Fairies players can partake in a new Halloween quest that allows them to decorate their homes with bats, a moon-witch, and more.

BigHead BASH is a multiplayer deathmatch game that has players fighting as bobbleheads. The game is currently available to play on Kongregate, Facebook, and SpicyWorld.

Crazy Fairies is also available to play on Kongregate, Facebook, and SpicyWorld. The game is a multiplayer, turn-based game, similar to Worms. Players choose from a set of famous fairy tale characters and fight villains, or other players, within colorful, 3D, maps.

One of the cool things about Crazy Fairies is that players playing on Facebook, Kongregate, and SpicyWorld all interact through the same games. Play on Kongregate against your friend playing from Facebook. Android and iOS versions of Crazy Fairies are currently under development, and will continue this cross-platform functionality.

Visit the official websites for BigHead BASH and Crazy Fairies to get started playing today, and get in on all this free Halloween content.

Source: The Indie Game Magazine – Spicy Horse Reveals Halloween Plans for ‘BigHead BASH’ and ‘Crazy Fairies’

We hear a lot about fundraising on Kickstarter, but today’s Developer Links include an article on how to take advantage of the alternative crowdsourcing site, Indiegogo.  Plus, crafting systems, prototyping, and the future of games on Windows 8.

Don’t Look Back Now Available For iOS And Android (Distractionware: Devlog)
“About a week ago, I took a day out from working on Super Hexagon stuff to do a fun side thing – I ported one of my old games, Don’t Look Back, to mobile. It’s available now on both iOS and Android. (It was a pretty simple port, thanks to Adobe AIR’s mobile exporter.)”

Indiegogo Interview – Tips For Crowdfunding Success (Independent Gaming)
“It always saddens me to see a crowd-funding campaign (an indie game or otherwise) go down the toilet so I contacted Danae Ringelmann, the Founder and Chief Operating Officer of Indiegogo, to give us some tips on how to have a successful campaign. NOTE: Information from this article applies to non-indie gaming projects as well.”

The Next Twenty Years: What Windows 8′s Closed Distribution Means For Developers (Gamasutra)
“For the first time in the history of the PC, Microsoft is rolling out a new Windows ecosystem for which they will be the sole software distributor. If you buy Windows 8, the only place you will be able to download software that integrates with its new user interface will be the official Windows Store. Microsoft will have complete control over what software will be allowed there.”

Lunar, Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne, Gravity Rush, and Radiant Historia! (Zeboyd Games)
“Time for some random thoughts on various games I’ve been playing!”

Building A Crafting System (Computer Games)
“Recently I’m working mostly on the visual novel Heileen 3 but in reality, I always work on 2-3 projects at once. I’ve been thinking about a crafting system, since 3 of my upcoming games (and maybe more!) could use it.”

Indie Tools: Quest (IndieGames)
“Having already covered my dear Inform 7 and the excellent Twine, Indie Tools now presents you with another, radically different tool for your text-adventure needs: Quest. Unlike Twine that can almost exclusively be used for choose-your-own-adventures and Inform 7 whose attempt at a natural language scripting environment can alienate, Quest uses a menu-driven system supported by a very simple scripting language. Truth be said, most basic stuff can be achieved via almost intuitive pointing-and-clicking, meaning you can have a simple first game ready in minutes.”

Rapid Prototyping: Tips For Running An Effective R&D Process (Gamasutra)
“So you realize that it’s important to prototype your ideas before launching into production — but how do you do it? Arkadium’s director of R&D, Tom Rassweiler, lifts the veil on his company’s process and explains why it shifted to central R&D for new game prototypes.”

Where Do You All Come From? (Unknown Worlds)
“We spend 99% of our time working to make Natural Selection 2 awesome, so we do not often think about ‘corporate’ stuff. We do however have an Unknown Worlds motto: ‘Unite the world through play.’ Throughout the development of NS2, there has always been the sense that the game was a global phenomenon.”

Source: The Indie Game Magazine – Dev Links: Red Woods

Murderous plague doctors and twisted constables govern the dark shores of the godless cove in Anarchy Enterprises’ latest adventure game. This developer is known for games such as Zombie Apocalypse Survival Kit, REDRUM, Hide & Secret and Coffee Rush. Devil’s Cove, will be available for Mac, Windows, iOS, and Android.

Devil’s Cove is set in a cursed harbor town, that shares the same name, during a series of violent acts against the inhabitants. The sinister sociopath known only as the “Plague Doctor” has the town in his hands as he commits the heinous acts, and time is slowly running out. The local authorities are standing by and silencing anyone who tries to stop the illusive doctor, and it’s up to the player to discover the hidden underbelly of Devil’s Cove and stop the evil once and for all.

Kickstarter backers are able to gain access to the beta version of Devil’s Cove depending on the amount they contribute. Other rewards are available that allow the consumer to give direct input into the final product they want.

You can learn more about Anarchy Enterprises by visiting their official page or their Facebook page. In addition, you can take a look at all of the rewards they are offering and help make the game a reality on their Kickstarter page and also vote yes on the Devil’s Cove Steam Greenlight page.

Source: The Indie Game Magazine – ‘Devil’s Cove’ Classic Adventure By Anarchy Enterprises

Divine Space is a whole new take on sci-fi games introducing in a huge range of detailed RPG elements to the genre whilst giving it the flexibility to be played on your prefered device. That is right Dodo Games are planning to make Divine Space available on every platform known on this earth.

Dodo Games are a small indie studio from Russia who have only recently launched their Kickstarter project and have in the very short time already gained much traction. Raising over $10 000 in the first few days Dodo Games are still a fair way off their ambitious $100 000 funding goal however.

An ambitious goal maybe, however the scope of this game sounds quite phenomenal. With a fully customizable ship you really are able to play the game anyway you want. Fitting it with a whole host of weapons and items creating quite the individual experience.

The level of customization of the ships alone seems very detailed and really what you would expect from a Sci-Fi RPG. I really like the way Dodo Games are taking this project as they are going to develop a whole galaxy for you to explore.

You will be able to fight, explore and even mine giving you almost a new EVE like game. Holding a conventional story arch it will contain all manner of interesting twists and turns finding you exploring far flung areas of the galaxy and seeing innovative and new worlds.

Divine Space aims to really reach out into cyberspace and begin to redefine the playing field by creating this highly engaging and exciting new title. Divine Space is going to be a free to play multiplayer title working, eventually on all platforms.

If you like what you see about Divine Space I encourage you to head to Dodo Games’ Kickstarter page here and support this extremely ambitious but totally awesome title. The Kickstarter page also contains a great deal of extra information in case you really need more reasons to back it. Also be sure to check out the official site here.

Source: The Indie Game Magazine – It’s A Space Sim, But not As We know It, ‘Divine Space’ Redefines Action RPGs

Is the conventional wisdom about AI in games really so wise?  Today’s Developer Links ask this question, along with discussing multiplayer development and “glorious trainwrecks”.

glorious trainwrecks dot exe (Auntie Pixelante)
“glorious trainwrecks dot exe is exactly the kind of inventiveness i want to see more of. made by mike meyer, it automatically indexes glorioustrainwrecks.com and allows you to browse games by event – whether they were made for last month’s klik of the month or for the gdc pirate kart or whenever – read their descriptions and download and play them instantly. glorioustrainwrecks is an amazing site that empowers everyone to make games, and uses monthly two-hour game-making events to help authors understand that creativity is more important than polish and presentation.”

Gratuitous Controllable Battles (Yes, Really) (Cliffski.com)
“I’ve been working on an expansion pack for Gratuitous Tank Battles, but hit a bit of an admin snag in releasing it right now, which gave me time to do something else. As I’ve had this GSB update pending for ages, I thought I’d get around to finally releasing it for everyone. This isn’t just a minor tweak and bug fix, it adds some good stuff. You might want to update your copy, and try this one…”

Level Lobby ft. The Level Editor [The Sequel] (The Behemoth Development Blog)
“Here’s a follow up post to the previous Level Lobby announcement and with all the fun facts that the first post didn’t have! Questions will be answered, such as: ‘What else is in the level lobby?’ ‘How do I use this thingamabob?’ ‘What do you think about sequels?’”

Q-001: Where Do You Feel Like You Are Being Held Back By The Status Quo In #Gamedev? (AltDevBlogADay)
“This was the question that started my twitter #gamedev Q&A series. As of right now we’re just shy of having discussed 100 questions on twitter. Feel free to join in!”

Cook, Serve, Delicious! Status Update (Vertigo Gaming)
“CSD has been undergoing private beta testing, and so far the results have been excellent. Squashed a lot of bugs, polished the game up quite a bit, and aside from a few bonus galleries the game is essentially complete. I’m definitely going to release it by the end of the month, however there are two things I’m waiting for before going forward with a release date:…”

Guerilla Multiplayer Development (Gamasutra)
“What’s the best way to get a networked game up and running on a smartphone? For his space battle game ErnCon, Ernest Woo investigated existing network techniques and integrated them together, coming up with a solution useful to iOS and Android developers, which he shares within.”

“Flip The Question Around” – Interview With Andy Schatz (Made by Pixelate)
“Andy Schatz has been highly influential and inspiring to the independent game development community for a long time, so I’m delighted to have had the chance to talk to him about Monaco and the Venture Games, the growth of indie games and the most important skill to run an indie studio.”

Over 3 Million Castle Crashers (The Behemoth Development Blog)
“While we were in Seattle for PAX Prime 2012 the XBLA Castle Crashers leaderboards reached 3 million! This means that over three million humans have hacked and slashed their way into a castle in hopes of gaining animated glory! We are tremendously grateful that in four years, we’ve had the continuing opportunity to share this game with the world.”

Source: The Indie Game Magazine – Dev Links: Floorplan

For better or for worse, Valve Software really do seem to be maneuvering themselves into position as a cornerstone of the indie gaming business, and now they’re getting right in on the ground floor. It’s been known for some time that Steam was going to be expanding to support commercial software soon, and now it does – the very first app on the pile? YoYo Games’ incredibly popular GameMaker Studio.

It makes sense – GameMaker has been the development software of choice for a lot of indie classics over the years, including the original version of Spelunky, Immortal Defense, freeware hits such as Iji and Hero Core and even the Cactus’ upcoming hyper-violent 80s action game Hotline Miami (coincidentally Steam-bound soon) were all developed using the package. Just about the only thing it can’t do consistently well is 3D graphics – Unity, UDK and Cryengine fill that niche, though.

What makes the Steam launch of Game Maker so important? Steam Workshop integration. Previously, games were showcased, launched and often completely lost on YoYo Games’ own showcase site. Now, games developed with Game Maker can be directly uploaded to the Steam Workshop where players can find, download, play and rate them. It effectively turns Steam into an almost Newgrounds-esque freeware hub filled, if you know where to look.

As with the regular site-bound version of GameMaker, the Steam edition comes in Free, Standard and Professional editions, and with optional upgrades to export titles as iOS, Android & HTML5 packages. Right now, there’s a 10% launch discount on all the software, and there’s even some strange Steam-specific perks, such as achievements… Yes, achievements. An amusing lot, including ones for racking up a certain number of compiler errors. Guess you’ll be able to see which of your friends suck as programming.

Source: The Indie Game Magazine – ‘GameMaker: Studio’ Debuts on Steam’s New App Store

Last week had a somewhat heavy Ludum Dare focus (arguable like most weeks), so this week I will aim to avoid Ludum Dare, simply for a bit of verity. Today’s entry comes from the two man team at Toge Productions from Australia and is a very interesting zombie infection game.

Each level on Infectonator 2 you are given a scenario in one of the places around the world. In each of these scenarios you are given a variety of different goals for that scenario to complete. The goals range from the easy to the much more taxing and can take a significant time investment to complete them all, this is why the save feature does come in handy.

The infection mechanic is great and works well overall. There are upgrades that tie into the mechanics of the game which work well in adding additional levels of variety and customization.

The overall graphics styling has been very well put together in a great cartoon manner that adds a bit more of a light hearted take on this zombie epidemic. All the scenes have been lovingly created with a nice amount of variety, yet they all feel consistent within the theme the game portrays.

The audio has been put together well with a few interesting musical choices which vary enough to keep the music continually interesting. Although it has clearly been put a little bit on the back burner it ties into the game well and is something that cannot be complained about overall.

Average play time – less than an hour

Infectonator 2 is a fun little time waster which does feel repetitive after a short time, but it works perfectly as a minor distraction. It is well worth your time and has very well constructed gameplay mechanics that works well for its duration.

Infectonator 2 can be played on Newground here. Toge Productions site can be found here.

If you are a developer with A fun indie game that can be played over a coffee break, we want to hear from you! Private message us on twitter @IndieGameMag or shoot us an email at editors@indiegamemag.com with the subject “Indie Intermission” and you could be our indie intermission pick of the day!

Source: The Indie Game Magazine – Indie Intermission Day 28 – ‘Infectonator 2′

Vitrum is a newly released game created by developer 9heads Games. You play as an android that has been created to have capabilities in converting energy from crystals into various powers. The android is able to absorb energy in either of his hands, which will allow him or you to take that energy and combine into different unique powers that you wouldn’t otherwise see on their own. In Vitrum, supposedly one of the most awesome powers you can use is the ability to invert gravity. This is because the player or “android” will be able to choose when and where to invert gravity along with the fact that the game is made in 3D. It makes for some really interesting gameplay and puzzles to solve.

Vitrum takes place in a desert laboratory full of different colored crystals that possess certain abilities. This way, some crystals are actually harmful to the android. In this laboratory, there are 45 different challenges. Some challenges are easy in the beginning, but as you go on it gets tougher and tougher until you think it’s completely impossible to beat. I’ll let the gameplay trailer explain it for me.

If you’re interested in trying out this madness and solving these insanely difficult stages in Vitrum, you can head on over the 9heads Games‘ official website for a free demo and a link to purchase the game. Vitrum has also been put on Steam Greenlight, and looks like it’s doing well so far. Hopefully we’ll officially see it on Steam soon here. For updates on Vitrum and all your other indie gaming needs, stay here with Indiegamemag.com.

Source: The Indie Game Magazine – Developer 9heads Games Releases ‘Vitrum’ With Mind-Boggling Puzzles

Earlier this year Bill Borman founded a brand new indie game studio known as Moment Studio, and as a result, has just released his first game, Skylight. This particular game is a platformer where you will jump on randomly generated platforms in a desperate attempt to get back to where you belong, which happens to be in space. The cool thing about Skylight is that you will never experience anything repetitive in levels. It’s all randomly generated, so every time you start a new game, you can expect to have a new challenge to face.

The music in Skylight is a major part of the game. Borman has created his very own sounds and music for Skylight as opposed to the average developer who would hire someone else to did it for them. With that said, due to the unique and creative music alone, it’s definitely at least worth checking out the demo of this new title. All of that aside, after many long hours of hard labor, Borman has finally released his game for only $2.50 on his company’s website for both Windows and Mac. He’s really created something unique for a very low price, and I for one, will be checking out the game.

It’s an interesting concept, actually. You jump from platform to platform, until you — of course — fall off and die. Think of it as Doodle Jump, which you may have played on iOS or Android, except in 3D format. Reaching high scores is always fun too, which along with the music, may also be a driving element of the game.

Any thoughts on this specific title?

Source: The Indie Game Magazine – Developer Moment Studios Releases ‘Skylight’, A Casual 3D Jumping Game

Where can you see SimCity mixed with steampunk, rabbits with revenge quests, match games with endless runners?  In indie games, of course, like those discussed in today’s Indie Links.

Clockwork Empires: A Preview Of Gaslamp Games’ Lovecraft-Laden Steampunk City-Builder (PC Gamer)
“Take SimCity and stuff it with steampunk. Take Dwarf Fortress and make it modern. Take Anno and dump H.P. Lovecraft into its oceans. Consider yourself mildly acquainted with Clockwork Empires, the next project of Gaslamp Games. The indies behind of Dungeons of Dredmor are creating a 3D, sandboxy city-builder teeming with 19th century imperialism. It’ll be populated by street urchins, aristocrats, volcanoes, sea serpents, war zeppelins, mad scientists, and at least one foodstuff that doubles as a building material. It’ll be irreverent, and PC-exclusive. It’ll have multiplayer. It’ll be moddable. Most of all, I think it has a chance to set a new standard for player-driven story generation in the genre.”

How A Bedroom Developer’s ‘Ugly Little Game’ Became An App Store Hit (Wired.co.uk)
“Dungeon-based puzzle app 10000000 (said “ten million”) is an unlikely autobiographical game. So unlikely, in fact, the developer doesn’t even realise how autobiographical it is.”

Mark of the Ninja: The Kotaku Review (Kotaku)
“So before starting Mark of the Ninja up, I assumed my brash nature would be at odds with what the 2D game required of me. I was right—at first. The game starts with the assumption that you are already a smooth killing machine, and the pith lies in the tension between a player’s clumsiness and the eventual embodiment of the refined ninja. The ultimate revelation comes in the transformation, in the metaphorical gain of the black belt. The game teaches you to feel at home in the shadows, to become quick on your feet, to bear the mark of the ninja proudly, with honor. And honor is one of the most important things in the game, but more on that in a second.”

Interview With ‘Dusty Revenge’ Developers, PD Design Studio (Epic Brew)
“‘Hey, thanks for having us. PD Design Studio started out 6 years ago doing various jobs, web, print, video, anything we can lay our hands on. But our very first project was actually a Flash game project. Over the years we started to focus on Flash educational-games. We must have done more than 20 of those. We found it thoroughly enjoyable to work on games but working on client-based games means we’ll never get to fulfill our inner fantasies. The studio actually has done a couple of game prototypes, but we left it at that. We had this game idea of a 2D platformer with supporting character mechanics. After talking through between ourselves, we thought let’s just do it.’”

Super Hexagon: The Joys Of Waiting (Hookshot, Inc.)
“Long story short, Super Hexagon, a game I knew about for ages, but which took its own sweet time to appear on iTunes – and then got yanked away again and is now finally back. I’m not going to tell you about it, because it’s well worth 69p, and if you’re an Androider, here’s Hexagon on Flash.”

The Killing Floor Of PAX: Welcome To Eighteen-Player Johann Sebastian Joust, Complete With Traitors (The Penny Arcade Report)
“Johann Sebastian Joust, played at the higher levels, can turn everyone into a dancer. Every man who picks up a Move controller and understands the mechanic of appropriate speed, while trying to knock out his opponents, begins to move with more grace. Every woman who learns to evade while keeping the door open for attacks becomes a ballerina. The game is not available for sale to the public, but creator Douglas Wilson is hoping to change at some point in the near future. “I really need to release this,” he told me while packing up the controllers and laptops at the end of the night. You’ll hear no argument from anyone who has been lucky enough to play the game.”

A Streamlined Experience: Dungeon Dashers (TruePCGaming)
“Andrew Sum, developer of the online multiplayer dungeon crawler, Dungeon Dashers, spoke to TPG about all things PC gaming.  You will read how Dungeon Dashers was created, his early failures and achievements, thoughts about DRM, piracy and more.”

Thirty Flights Of Loving Isn’t A Game, It’s A Manifesto (Scripted Sequence)
“Well, obviously it is a game, but that’s not what I’m talking about. Brendon Chung’sThirty Flights of Loving, for those who don’t know, is a ten minute long, Quake 2-powered, short story. It’s about a heist gone wrong. That’s probably all you need to know.”

Source: The Indie Game Magazine – Indie Links Round-Up: Birds’-Eye View