Today, the third expansion to exceptionally (and ever-increasingly) silly comedy roguelike/eyebrow simulator Dungeons Of Dredmor is released. While the first expansion added more depth to the dungeon (in the literal sense – it added another five floors of traps, Diggles and other strange critters), and the second one was focused on skill-sets, user customization and modding. Conquest of The Wizardlands seems to be focusing on extra-dimensional adventures and more tangential weirdness. Also, encrusting.

As with previous expansions, it’s a pretty cheap package – $3 – and should throw a whole mess of new stuff into the Random Number Generator that makes the game tick. A no-brainer purchase for fans who are still delving those dungeons, nuking monster zoos and brewing illicit moonshine when they should be slaying monsters. The feature-list is impressively beefy, too, offering a bunch of new skill tracks (including two new weapon types), a pocket dimension for mega-scale item hoarding and a variety of useful Crusts to encrust your weapons with.

The new skill sets, including Communism, Tourism and Lawyering.

All of this will be accompanied by a general update to the game, with some UI and usability improvements scattered around, as well as some refinement to core gameplay elements allowing for stealthier gameplay for those who like to sneak and stab rather than just run screaming down the corridors blatting everything they see. There are also terrifying rumours of a Diggle Hell, which is Totally A Real Place. A dark and forbidden realm, ruled over by the almighty Vlad Digula.

As with the base game and the first expansion, Conquest of The Wizardlands is available to purchase via Steam, Desura & Gamefly, although the second, modding-centric expansion remains tied to the Steam Workshop.

Source: The Indie Game Magazine – ‘Dungeons Of Dredmor’ Expands For The 3rd Time In ‘Conquest Of The Wizardlands’

Update: To celebrate the release of the new free DLC, Gaslamp Games want you to spend money. The original game and the first expansion – Realm of The Diggle Gods – are currently 70% off.

You can’t really fault Gaslamp Games for their work ethic. Well, except for this time – those lazy gits couldn’t even think up a title for their new (and completely free) addon for popular comedy roguelike Dungeons Of Dredmor. So they just called it ‘You Have To Name The Expansion Pack‘.

Out now on Steam, this DLC adds a bunch of new items, maps, enemies, rooms and generally all those things that the Random Number Generator throws at you in order to make you dead. It also adds full modding and Steam Workshop support, so you can pull down new content, playmodes and features direct from the internet, as produced by other like-minded eyebrow enthusiasts, all without ever leaving the familiar confines of your game browser/launcher software. Nifty, eh?

There’s even a few example mods already up on the Steam Workshop page for Dredmor, meaning that your expanded adventures in Lich-bothering and Diggle impersonation can continue well into the night forever more.

Gaslamp Games have announced the date upon which all of you Dungeons of Dredmor lovers can get hold of the upcoming free DLC which also adds Steam Workshop support.

What a difference a few days make, eh? Gaslamp got us all excited about just the other day about some free DLC which was apparently on the way soon for their stellar dungeon crawler, Dungeons of Dredmor. Now we return once again with a parchment in one hand and a bell in the other shouting “HEAR YE!” at the top of our lungs. The reason for such a commotion is that we now know just how soon that FREE DLC is arriving in indie town.

Well, it was via this humble blog post that the news was deliver – June 5th – that’s the date you should mark in those make believe calendars of yours as that is when the “You Have To Name The Expansion Pack” will be delivered. Though there is a lot of goodness to be had in this DLC, the best part is that Dungeons of Dredmor will be supported by the Steam Workshop which means, yes you guessed it, all mods will be integrated with Steam for ease. How exciting!

Let’s remind ourselves of those glorious and lovely features of said DLC, shall we? Quite:

• Steam Workshop; mod integration with Steam! We’re turning it on! It’s Steamy!
• Battle Geology, a wizard-like warrior skill with earth-shattering consequences by the terribly mysterious Null (how mysterious? terribly.)
• Clockwork Knight and Rogue Scientist, a pair of crafty steampunk skill lines by the too-clever-by-half Ruigi
• Warlockery, the wizard skill for wizards who would rather by warriors, by the utterly mad Essence — he wrote over 500 lines of xml for one spell.
• A mess of twisty little rooms, all different, created by the deranged architect our mortal speech renders “Bergstrom“; The geometry is all wrong.
• And to inhabit the renovated Dungeons of Dredmor we’ve summoned a pack of new monster variations dug up by one FaxCelestis, from the existentially troubling Poorly Cloned Hero to the lofty Diggle Rocketeer.
• Naturally there are some new items and other such nonsense happening which you’ll have to discover on your own.

More information on Dungeons of Dredmor can be found on the game’s official website.

It’s that time of year. Once again, as everybody gets prepared for the new year, we’ve been slaving away over a massive pile of indie games that got released in 2011 in order to bring you our very best. And what a year it was!

But make no mistake, like last year’s Best of 2010 article, this is no mere “top 10” post. There is simply no way that we, as indie game writers, could whittle down a list to a hard number. It would have been impossible, especially given that as editors of this fine site, each of us has a different opinion.

Instead, what you’ll find below is an amalgamation of picks from each of us. Myself, Dominic, Erik, Mazen, Rowan and Arsen each picked our top five to ten games of the year and we’ve thrown them into one big pile. So how does it work? Simple!

Each game that gets a single mention by one of us is given an “Honorable Mention” for the year. As games get chosen by more editor’s they move up the tier. The game that has the most picks is awarded “Indie Game of the Year.”

So, without further ado, here are our top picks starting with the Honorable Mentions:

HONORABLE MENTIONS (One Mention)

Atom Zombie Smasher

It may not get the love it deserves having released so early in the year, but there’s not a doubt in my mind Atom Zombie Smasher is one of the best games to come out in 2011. What I can only describe as a top-down extract/bombard ‘em up, AZS has a new piece of brilliance and hilarity lying around every corner of both plot and gameplay. Leave it to Blendo Games to come up with another bizarre, unique, and addicting as hell effort–Brendon Chung had become a master at all that it seems.
-Erik Johnson

Battleheart

Mika Mobile’s Battleheart is, without a doubt, the best iOS game I played all year. I spent countless hours on it, attempting to perfect my strategies and level up my characters in order to traverse its challenging stages. It was a mix of tower defense and adventure/RPG, and holy hell did it eat up my iPhone’s battery life. I recommend Battleheart to every single gamer on iOS, and I’ll be damn surprised if anyone hates or even doesn’t like it.
-Arsen Nazaryan

Brutal Doom

In terms of sheer time invested, Brutal Doom wins out by far as my mod of the year. Recently given the Gameplay Mod of The Year award by the Doom community, it’s easy to see why – it makes one of the best games ever made better. It’s loud, messy and utterly dumb… except that it isn’t. Dumb, that is. While this mod does shamelessly add rivers of gore, Mortal Kombat-esque fatalities and a button dedicated purely to extending your middle finger at your enemies, the weapons have all been redesigned and rebalanced to be more flexible and satisfying to use, and the enemies are faster, more aggressive and more capable than ever before. It’s compatible with almost every classic Doom level pack in existence, too. If you’ve ever enjoyed Doom, or any classic FPS for that matter, this is an absolute must-play.
-Dominic Tarason

Cursed Loot

The funnest game I played this year. I could not stop playing it, honestly. Cursed Loot was formerly Epic Dungeon, but it is both epic and cursed. Cursed because you can’t fucking stop playing it. Epic because that’s just how it is. I wish an overarching story was also present but I’ll take what I can get: a game I paid a dollar for and often play in favor of Skyrim when I just feel like hitting a dungeon without the bells and whistles.
-Arsen Nazaryan

Dungeons of Dredmor

A fantastically deep roguelike, with some dungeon crawling fun that immediately brought me back to my time with Torchlight (and Diablo prior to that.) Gaslamp Games has really put some options and variety into this game, it’s replay value is through the roof. Some may argue it’s because you die all the time (which is part of the soul-crushing fun anyway), but even if you swept through the game undying, you’d still want to play again with so many different play-styles to choose from.
-Erik Johnson

Gundemonium Collection

Perhaps this is cheating a little – I first played these games years ago – but the English-language Steam relaunch of this trio of little-known Japanese indie shmups is the first experience that most folks have had with them. Amateurish art and goofy subject matter might put some folks off, but in terms of raw gameplay, these three are bullet heaven for the bullet hell fans. Two horizontally scrolling and one vertical, there’s a ton of unlockables, extra characters, difficulty modes and alternative playmodes in this package. The localization brought in a ton of Steamworks-related features and a fantastic remixed soundtrack, too.
-Dominic Tarason

Nightsky

Nifflas’ games have always been soothing wonderful affairs but I think Nightsky is my favorite so far. It was so quiet, calm and minimal in its graphical style. It simply captivated me, there’s no other way to describe it. Of course, the gameplay was genuinely fun as well, and I loved navigating the ball through puzzles which were challenging but never frustrating.
-Mazen Abdallah

Pix’n Love Rush

Honestly, what’s not to love in Pix’n Love Rush? It’s in the name! Pix’n Love Rush was fun for me because of its simple yet addictive gameplay, its colorful retro aesthetic and its addictive soundtrack. I just picked it up and instantly had a blast. Collect the +, avoid the – and shoot the baddies while protecting the goodies. Simple, stylish and well executed.
-Mazen Abdallah

Project Stormos

I got into Project Stormos after reading about its Kickstarter, and I was intrigued when I first saw it. A platformer…with no platforms? It looked so liberating and fun to fly around the levels and when I finally got my copy I found it to be just that. I especially loved dashing through long sequences of orbs and falling, only to strike some generously placed orbs that would give me a boost and save me from impending doom.
-Mazen Abdallah

Really Big Sky

Really Big Sky was one of the shmups I found myself really remembering this year, and that’s saying something considering how many of them I go through. I got it in the Indie Royale ‘Really Big’ Bundle’ and started playing when I was blown away by the graphical style. I also loved the system of holding fire to charge up and unleash massive streams, as well as drilling through asteroids. I had quite a bit of fun with its procedurally generated levels. Overall though, I have to emphasize how great it looks.
-Mazen Abdallah

SpaceChem

This year opened with a bang: The sound of my head violently exploding after trying the demo of this amazing freeform techno-alchemical spatial programming puzzle. It wasn’t until a few months later that I finally drummed up the courage to buy the full game and proceed further, and each and every puzzle presented made me feel like a helpless moron. Perseverance pays off in this game, though, and idiocy turns to genius as you figure out your own brilliant solution again and again. The game has only gotten better since launch, with expanded tutorials, a built-in level editor and a developer-recommended shortlist of the best fan-made puzzles every week. The game looks to have a bright future, too, with it now being available for free to schools on request.
-Dominic Tarason

Starfarer

Technically Starfarer is still in alpha, with $10 getting you a preorder and access to the current playable build, which is far more fleshed out and stable than you’d expect of anything this early in development. While the game plans to expand later into a freeform space exploration, combat and strategy game of fleet management and mercenary warfare, the current alpha is just a game about space combat, and a damn fine one at that. While directly in control of your fleet’s flagship in 2D shooter-style, you are only partially in command of your fleet, and for once, that’s okay! You’re an admiral, not a nanny – you tell your captains what points need to be captured and what ships need to be sunk, and they’ll do it with surprising levels of intelligence, coordination and a visible sense of self-preservation. The game already boasts a small but talented mod scene, adding new missions to the scenarios included, as well as a range of new ship types to play around with.
-Dominic Tarason

Streets Of Rage Remake

Simultaneously one of the greatest triumphs and tragedies in the history of fan-projects, the amazing Streets of Rage Remake is far bigger than the title suggests. Rather than being a straight remake, it’s an updated, remixed combination of the entire classic Genesis/Megadrive trilogy with another full game’s worth of face-punching thrown in, just for fun. The end result is greater than the sum of its parts, and one of the best scrolling brawlers ever created. Despite the project originally having Sega’s blessing, this agreement was revoked by the corporation just days after release, supposedly in order to protect the release of a (frankly underwhelming) iPhone port of the original Streets of Rage. Fortunately, the game is still out there in the wild, and easy to find – even on some rather major sites.
-Dominic Tarason

Thundergut

Thundergut is one of those really straightforward action games you find yourself really enjoying. I read about Thundergut somewhere and started playing and pretty soon I was slamming into enemies over and over again. It’s such a basic concept to allow you to launch yourself into an enemy and then launch again in mid-air, but it made the game really enjoyable and I had plenty of fun with it.
-Mazen Abdallah

To the Moon

Very few games manage as much of an emotional impact as Freebird Games’ wonderful mind traveler, To the Moon. My favourite game of the year by quite a margin, it excelled in the poignancy of its storytelling without ever becoming too cutesy. It had fun with its gaming roots, laughed at its own subject matter and ultimately engaged the player in a way that was both original and exciting. In addition to all this – and despite providing little in terms of challenge or traditional gameplay – it’s the only game in recent memory whose questions lingered in my mind for days after the final cutscene faded.
-Rowan Davies

Trauma

I knew Trauma was a hit when I first played it at the 2010 IndieCade festival. The whole game may be a short experience, but it is so poignantly executed that I dare any open-minded gamer not to appreciate its methodology. It took a long, long time to come out, but the wait was worth it. Indeed, Trauma is a rather unconventional game not likely to be enjoyed by everyone, but it made the list for me the second I clicked on my last photograph.
-Arsen Nazaryan

Trine 2

Frozenbyte wowed us with the original Trine and there was very little doubt in my mind that the sequel would live up to the standards set by that first game. Besides being the most attractive title I’ve encountered all year – and it is beautiful – the gameplay here is as charming and inventive as ever. The physics puzzles are still the main foe, but encourage the player to fabricate their own solutions, using magic, grappling hooks or brute force to progress. On top of this the coop capabilities create a whole other dimension of fun.
-Rowan Davies

THE BRONZE MEDAL (Two Mentions)

Bastion

Bastion was a superbly enjoyable title. Its Morgan Freeman-like narration may have become a joke of sorts, but how its delicate narrative made me feel — alone and empty — is something I’ve yet to feel recreated in the same way by a game with as much beautiful color.
-Arsen Nazaryan

They might be called Supergiant, but Bastion was a game that was exactly the size it had to be. A tightly woven, story-driven and continually narrated isometric hack n’ slash adventure, this one is practically drowning in charm. Absolutely beautiful art, one of the best soundtracks I’ve heard in years. It’s the narrator that absolutely steals the show, though – his vocal presence extending far beyond the game itself and making it really feel like you’re being told a story that just happens to synch up perfectly with the action as you make it unfold. It seems almost certain that many games are going to try to copy this particular trick in the coming months, but it’ll take a great degree of skill to pull it off.
-Dominic Tarason

DLC Quest

Probably one of the funnest XBLIG indies I have ever played. It oozes fun at every turn and its parody of overused cliches provides a good laugh every now and again. DLC Quest was one of the most surprising games of the year for me.
-Arsen Nazaryan

Honestly, when I played this game a few months ago I didn’t think that it would be a “Top Pick” fopr me, nor did I believe that I would enjoy it so much. Despite its relative shortness, DLC Quest made me, literally, laugh out loud at times. Combine that with its tongue in cheek humor and constant berating of the DLC industry, DLC Quest easily became one of my favorites of 2011.
-Geoff Gibson

Minecraft

Since it officially released this year, it would be stupid not to include Minecraft as a contender. Minecraft changed a lot of things for the indie gaming scene, and it brought massive amounts of attention to struggling developers worldwide, a resurgence into an indie uprising. Notch’s story is one to look up to, he is now the equivalent of a rock star in our world and rightly so. But even without its explosive popularity, Minecraft is simply one of the best indie games of all time. It enables us to be creative and think outside the block.
-Arsen Nazaryan

While the game hit its popularity last year and was playable throughout much of it, it was only recently that Minecraft was given a 1.0 release. As such, given how much it has affected my own gaming habits and its affect on the indie game industry at large I would say it’s only fair that it be included. More so than that, though, Minecraft is, quite simply, a great game that pushes you to expand your creative side and that’s something I think all of us can get something out of.
-Geoff Gibson

Nitronic Rush

It seems that every year, the Digipen student showcase has something spectacular for us. This year, it’s Nitronic Rush, a game that I’d be telling you all to rush out and buy if it weren’t already free. A time-attack stunt driving game with a Tron-esque aesthetic, Nitronic Rush is unbelievably pretty, ridiculously fast and offers an amazing amount of control over your vehicle both on-road or airborne, thanks to a series of maneuvering thrusters bolted to the chassis and a pair of retractable wings for those really big jumps. An Xbox 360 controller is highly recommended if you want the full, intended analogue control over the car, but not really required unless you’re digging into the (extremely complex) challenge stages – there’s plenty of meat on these neon bones if you’re willing to play beyond the short-but-sweet story mode.
-Dominic Tarason

When I first saw Nitronic Rush, I couldn’t believe that it was a free title by a student group. When I downloaded it, I expected to play some buggy, half-finished clunker. Instead I got a racing game that reminded me why I used to love driving in car games. Driving in the game was smooth and satisfying, and the added jumping, boosting and even flying made for a wild ride.
-Mazen Abdallah

Superbrothers: Swords & Sworcery EP

Superbrothers is a fantastic art game. I say “art” game because that’s how I see it… even though it has made huge waves and brought about debates as to what constitutes an art game and whether Superbrothers is pretentious or truly special. However, given its look, its thematic concept, its music, and its gameplay, the game is a strong contender for iOS title of the year, so I will go with “truly special”.
-Arsen Nazaryan

The prettiest, most quality sounding game on the iPhone. Need I say more? Well if I must, it also brings a sense of gaming nostalgia with it that has thoughts bubbling up of the Zelda series. It’s adventure gaming on iOS perfected, with wondeful artwork and some of the best music/sound effects I’ve encountered on any platform. It really goes above and beyond as a game in a mobile department.
-Erik Johnson

Where is My Heart?

Where is My Heart? was one of the best PSN indies of the year. It was cute and quirky, but most importantly: it offered a different perspective… in more ways than one, really. Where is My Heart? calmed and soothed the soul, and it rarely ever wanted to frustrate you (although, realistically, it sometimes did).
-Arsen Nazaryan

Where is my Heart amazed me the first time I saw it. It was love at first screenshot! When I got the game, I was simply entranced by it. Interestingly, it had no soundtrack, only the quiet noises of the forest. That made it so much more serene for me. The characters were adorable and the settings were vivid, and I became immersed in the world. Although the level mixing made me dizzy, I still found the gameplay concept to be innovative, and I found myself questioning every step.
-Mazen Abdallah

THE SILVER MEDAL (Three Mentions)

Orcs Must Die!

Tower defense is a genre I’m mostly burnt out on. There’s been some impressive hybrid offerings this year, such as the number-crunching Sanctum and the precariously stacked titan that is Dungeon Defenders, but it’s Orcs Must Die that really clicked for me. It says a lot when a game can hold my attention for seven hours start to finish, only for me to jump straight back in on the next difficulty setting up. It seems wrong to even call the game ‘Tower Defense’. For starters, there’s no towers (of the buildable variety). The gameplay has far more in common with The Horde (1994) and Tecmo’s Deception (1996) than anything, giving a far more hands-on, arcadey physics-driven feel to the proceedings. Mazing and number-inflation out, mass cruelty to bouncing, grumbling cartoon orcs in.
-Dominic Tarason

I’ll start this by saying I’m not a huge tower defense fan. Honestly most of them bore me. Orcs Must Die!, however, was quite different and, at no time, did I really feel the game was a tower defense game. Perhaps it had to do with the third person action perspective but I had a lot of fun running around the very intelligently designed maps and layng down all of my various traps and towers.
-Geoff Gibson

I’m not a huge fan of tower defence, but if a game is handled well enough I believe it can appeal to everyone, regardless of genre. Orcs Must Die! is that game. It hooks you in with its promise of physics-based cartoon killing and doesn’t let up until you’re orchestrating grand symphonies of death and destruction without a second thought. OMD! perfectly handles the balance between challenge and reward. Often you’ll feel massively overwhelmed, but that time-out is just around the corner and, following that, those Orcs are really going to get what’s coming to them.
-Rowan Davies

Terraria

While Minecraft may have started the recent block-building trend, I found Terraria’s 2D formula an incredibly worthy and different take on the genre. Terraria is just so charming and well done, it really deserves a spot on this year’s list. The adventures it offers are compelling and light-hearted, and it is difficult to imagine any Minecraft lover dissing the game.
-Arsen Nazaryan

This was the big surprise of the year for me. A tiny two-man studio come out of nowhere with a game to challenge the indie titan that is Mojang. The game is currently almost as popular as Modern Warfare 3 on Steam, and has sold well in excess of a million copies. Combining the familiar block-harvesting and building elements of the 3D giant, but giving just as much focus to the adventuring and combat. Terraria feels like a hybrid of Minecraft and the more recent Castlevania games, with loot, level and money playing as much a role as your ability to efficiently extract resources from the earth, Terraria really caught the attention of many who thought that Minecraft was possibly a little too ‘sandbox’ in nature. Better still, the game recently got an enormous free expansion update, literally doubling the length of the game from start to defeating the largest, toughest boss, and providing a stern challenge to all but the most dedicated and hardcore of players.
-Dominic Tarason

As with Minecraft, Terraria deserves a special mention just for it’s ability to tap into that creative part of us. More than that, however, it was the first game I would classify as a “Minecraft-like” that didn’t immediately attempt to be a carbon copy of Minecraft. The side scrolling, platforming feel with a greater emphasis on building and finding unique weapons is something that, even to this day, Minecraft does not offer.
-Geoff Gibson

RUNNER-UP

Frozen Synapse

If SpaceChem has the near-mystical ability to transmute blank-faced idocy into gleeful genius, then Frozen Synapse works the other way. Each and every turn of this incredibly tightly designed tactical combat game has you planning out your moves over and over again, meticulously refining your assault, and always settling for what seems like a foolproof, unstoppable maneuver that nobody could counter. And then you click the ‘submit’ button, and it matches your plan up with the other guy. No plan survives its first encounter with the enemy. Your sniper will be distracted by a fast-moving shotgunner. Your grenadier will fire into entirely the wrong building. Your rifleman will look ten degrees too far to the left and get flanked. And it never stops being hideously compelling, either against the AI or less predictable human opposition.
-Dominic Tarason

This year’s definition of a unique indie experience, Frozen Synapse came on with a roar as it exited a strong community-supported beta into an amazing launch. The core multiplayer goodness had me trading plays back and forth simultaneously with several opponents for days on end. The single-player campaign was hard as hell, but had a really compelling story that made you want to push through and discover more of the intrigue.
-Erik Johnson

A turn-based strategy game? I approached this with trepidation when I got the Humble Frozen Bundle (admittedly I had purchased it for the Frozenbyte games), as turn-based combat isn’t my thing. But what I found with Frozen Synapse was a very accessible, frantic game that was amazing for hours of fun that you could have while doing other things in the background. Add to that its neon effects and its smooth soundtrack and I was hooked.
-Mazen Abdallah

Almost a spiritual successor to turn-based squad shooter Laser Squad Nemesis, Frozen Synapse allows us once more to vanquish randoms on the internet in back-and-forth bloody combat. The interface is clean, the graphics are electroshock awesome and nailing a guy at fifty feet before he can knock out another on your team is something to be cherished. Each turn comes down to precision management of time and resources and every failure is compounded by lack of foresight. In short, it’s brilliant and we need to do all we can to keep its servers busy.
-Rowan Davies

INDIE GAME OF THE YEAR

The Binding of Isaac

Perhaps the eeriest of the bunch for me, The Binding of Isaac was the most surprising. I had no idea what to expect, and what I received… I’m still not too certain about it. It is a challenging and haunting experience but it delivers an all-around package that games ten times its price point fail to deliver all too often. Also, even more superb music by Danny B.
-Arsen Nazaryan

Who knew the follow-up to last year’s Indie of the Year would be even more fun? (At least for my tastes.) Edmund McMillan has again put together a game that’s extremely addicting, frustrating as hell, and full of WTF moments. Only this time instead of a tough-as-nails platformer it’s a dungeon-diving, permadeath-dealing roguelike that pits a sad, doomed little boy against his possessed mother and all the other horrors lying between his basement and Hell itself. There’s no saving (love), and each session guarantees to be different than the last. The sheer amount of breadth the title offers is also astounding. Everything including, items, boss monsters, standard enemies, endings, pills, rocks, and so forth. If it exists in the game there seems to be multiple variations of it–a lot of which are only discovered after being unlocked and subsequently encountered. On top of all that, it single handedly wrecked my Thanksgiving. So it gets my IOTY vote for 2011.
-Erik Johnson

How do you describe the Binding of Isaac in a single paragraph? I honestly don’t know. However, the Zelda-like game was, if nothing else, incredibly memorable. From its interesting demon monsters/bosses to the main character and story line, there hasn’t been a single game released this year that I would say brings about stronger visual memories. Wrap all that in a package of great, solid gameplay and you’ve easily got a game of the year contestant.
-Geoff Gibson

I’m a huge fan of Edmund McMillen and Binding of Isaac was wonderful because it bore his trademark artistic style, in possibly one of its most grisly incarnations. The characters horrified and delighted me. The game was so dark and yet so comical in its bizarreness (at least to me). And Isaac was a worthy McMillen protagonist. As with Meat Boy, I began to feel protective of the little guy and pity his plight while admiring his bravery. Of course, Edmund’s design and the Zelda-esque gameplay were half the equation, while Danny Baranowsky’s formidable soundtrack was the other half.
-Mazen Abdallah

This is something which I’m sure will make most people’s ‘best of’ lists for 2011, whether exclusively indie or not. The Binding of Isaac is the go-to game for a quick blast of action: always new, always unexpected, always fittingly grotesque. Edward McMillen and Florian Himsl have created something almost infinitely replayable here, with its extraordinary variety matched only by its excessive difficulty. Without McMillen’s trademark humour it may have suffered, but instead it still manages to remain funny and fresh fifty plays in.
-Rowan Davies

I missed it over Christmas day, but apparently IndieDB released the results of their 2011 indie game competition after revealing their top 100 games earlier this month. And just to be clear, these are the top 10 released games, I’ve also included a bit below the top 5 unreleased games, each of which look very tasty, although a little surprising as well…

Anyway, here’s the top ten games of 2011 from first to last:

• Terraria (Indie of the Year)
• Frozen Synapse
• Trine 2
• Bastion
• Sanctum
• SpaceChem
• Dungeons of Dredmor
• Ace of Spades
• Atom Zombie Smasher
• Unepic

No big surprises here. Terraria, of course, took the top spot which I think was reasonable expected given how well the game has sold.

I’m also thrilled to see that Unepic, Sactum and SpaceChem all made it. I was worried each were going to get overlooked, but apparently each game has a rather large fanbase which makes me happy because those three are easily some of my favorites of the year.

Moving on the top 5 unreleased games of 2011 are:

• Overgrowth
• Renegade X
• Chivalry: Medieval Warfare
• Dear Esther
• Project Zomboid

Again not a huge surprise with Overgrowth taking the top spot. I think we’ve all been anxiously awaiting that game for a while now. Dear Esther and Project Zomboid are also two games we’ve taken an interest in here on DIYGamer so we’ll be looking forward to those releases as well.

But what do you think? Any games you’d like to see on a “Best of 2011” list that didn’t make it? Our own list is coming in the next few days (we always wait until the very end) so stay tuned for that… you might even be able to influence us! Sound off in the comments below!

[IndieDB]

Video

A few days ago we wrote here about the official name of Gaslamp Games’ Dungeons of Dredmor expansion pack: Realm of the Diggle Gods. It has a nice ring to it don’t you think?

In any case, the name unveiling was great but it came with no other media like, oh say a trailer! Well those sly devils seem to be very good at marketing indeed because in just a couple days they were able to supply a trailer.

Also worth noting is that the official Gaslamp Games Twitter feed dropped this a few minutes ago:

1.0.8 + Diggle Gods DLC has been sent to Steam. ETA: sometime tomorrow, provided we didn’t mess up the expansion packaging.

I’ve reached out to Gaslamp for clarification but I think this is as good a confirmation as any that the Realm of the Diggle Gods is coming very, very soon.

[Gaslamp Games]

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DIYGamer Holiday Give Away! For each and every article we post we’re giving away an indie game.

This article’s game is Dungeons of Dredmor (topical!) for the PC (code redeemable on Steam) by Gaslamp Games.

Leave a meaningful comment below to enter into the drawing.

A few weeks ago we revealed that everybody’s favorite roguelike, Dungeons of Dredmor, was due for an expansion at some point. In fact, we annoucned it! Now, hot off their recent Humble Indie Bundle adventures, the guys over at Gaslamp Games have released the name of their newest expansion: Realm of the Diggle Gods.

Not much else was released aside from that shiny picture up above, but here is what Nicholas Vining had to say about it via their blog:

Last but not least, there is an expansion. It is spoken of in the words of the great prophecy, wherein dwarves with giant beards do toil over the finest of new levels and features. Soon! Soon a sign shall come to the Youtubes, in the form of a great Trailer, and the chosen of Krong shalt follow the hyperlink to the trailer wherein all his mysteries shalt be revealed, including a release date which is much, MUCH closer than you think.

How much closer? Well I think it’s due to be released tomorrow! Take that Gaslamp and give me my expansion!

Anyway, that’s pretty much it. Realm of the Diggle Gods… I like it.

[Gaslamp Games]

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DIYGamer Holiday Give Away! For each and every article we post we’re giving away an indie game.

This article’s game is Dungeons of Dredmor for the PC/Steam.

Leave a meaningful comment below to enter into the drawing.

I’m getting sick of writing the word “bundle” at this point. With Indie Royale, Indie Gala, Humble Bundle and now whatever Eurogamer is doing it’s starting to wear on me. In any case, my favoritest bundle company ever has just concluded their latest which brought in a lighter, yet still very impressive haul.

The exactly breakdown is this:

So while almost reaching $800,000 isn’t setting any records for the site, it’s still damned impressive and both the Humble Bundle and Introversion guys should be pretty proud of what they’ve accomplished.

That said, I do wonder if competitors like Indie Royale are beginning to dampen the original king of bundles, or perhaps it’s just that this bundle came so soon after the Humble Voxatron Bundle. In any case, it will be interesting to see if there’s any reaction on their part to boost sales the next go around.

The Humble Indie Bundle 4 is supposedly coming soon so, with that said, we’ll let you guys speculate away!

[Humble Bundle]

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DIYGamer Holiday Give Away! For each and every article we post we’re giving away an indie game.

This article’s game is OIO: The Game for the PC.

Leave a meaningful comment below to enter into the drawing.

More bundle news! I suppose we shouldn’t ever be caught off guard with the Humble Bundle these days as there is always a mid-week addition, but it’s still a nice surprise! As of right now, the Humble Introversion Bundle just got a bit better with a new addition in Dungeons of Dredmor, everybody’s favorite roguelike, and the source code to a number of Introversion’s titles.

Here are the exact inclusions:

• An excellent new beat-the-average game: the comic, dungeon-crawling roguelike Dungeons of Dredmor, and;
• The source code to the games Darwinia, Multiwinia, DEFCON, and Uplink, including access to developer-only forums, wiki, and version control repositories!

Pretty nifty! I’ve included the “trailer” for the new additions below. If you watch closely enough you’ll find an Easter egg that relates to Introversion’s upcoming game Prison Architect. I won’t give you any more hints…

Not much more to say. If you haven’t already picked up the Humble Introversion Bundle then now would probably be a great time to check it out!

[Humble Introversion Bundle]

Trailer

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DIYGamer Holiday Give Away! For each and every article we post we’re giving away an indie game.

This article’s game is Star Corsairs Starter Pack (which includes many extra niceties!) for PC, by Machine 22.

Leave a meaningful comment below to enter into the drawing.

Earlier this week I sat down with the guys from Gaslamp Games to discuss Dungeons of Dredmor. Well, preliminarily that’s what I had planned. Little did I know at that point that Nicholas, David and Daniel had so much more planned.

I won’t bother to get into the dirty details here, but I will tell you that everything mentioned in the title is factual accurate and not meant to be merely a humorous gesture. I mean, it’s funny and all, but it’s real life funny.

Anyway, you’ve got a lot of reading to do so I’ll just kindly step out of the way…

DIYGamer: Before we begin the actual interview, what with the spiel and all that, can each of you tell us who you are and what you do at the Gaslamp Offices?

Nicholas Vining: I’m Nicholas Vining; I’m Gaslamp’s lead programmer and technology director. I do… probably about 80% (?) of the programming work that gets done.

Dan: [I’m] Daniel Jacobsen, I wrote a lot of the gameplay code, and did some of the skill design.  At this point I’m code, design, and most of the company business.  I think most of the Norwegian influences of the game are my fault.

D Baumgart: I’m David Baumgart, I act as the principal artist and/or art director. And more random things: design, writing, content creation & scripting. Handling a bit of marketing and related stuff.

Nicholas Vining: It’s all basically anarchy.

Dan: David did most of the design and writing.

D Baumgart: I’ll say, Nicholas does most of our marketing copy. That’s why it’s like it is.

Nicholas Vining: Yes, that’s right. Blame me for everything.

DIYGamer: And how did you guys come together to form Gaslamp Games?

Nicholas Vining: Oh geez. Who wants to tell the story?

Dan: Nicholas, go for it

Nicholas Vining: Daniel has put on classic Norwegian battle music, I think it’s important that folks know that.

Anyhow.So we started Gaslamp Games back in 200… 8? Yes. Basically, I had some cash in the bank from a contracting job, and decided in a fit of… inspiration or creativity, or something… that it would be a good idea to start a game company. I somehow managed to talk Daniel into it, because we needed somebody who could Do The Things That Need To Be Done.

We also had two other artists, and we started work on a game, and… well, it wasn’t good.

Dan: I had no idea what was going on.

Nicholas Vining: One artist flamed out in what is probably best described as a “blaze of glory” and the other had to go back to Japan. So we cast around for a new artist, found David – again, we sweet-talked him with promises of sugar plums and Money Hats – and decided to see what we could salvage from our game.

As it turns out, nothing was salvageable. So then we tried to figure out what we should do instead.

Dan: We didn’t even have aluminum swans.

Nicholas Vining: We still don’t have aluminum swans. But who’s telling this story here?

Dan:

D Baumgart: As I recall, I was found through an online friend of a friend, and met these guys in some coffee shop. They promised me money. The previous artist left root vegetables in the company washroom. But yes.

Nicholas Vining: Not just root vegetables. Well, mainly root vegetables. I think there were also a couple of cans of soup and an avocado.

Dan: (Oh god.)

D Baumgart: (Here it comes.)

Nicholas Vining: Do I tell them about the … okay, fine, I will.

So we cleaned out the artist’s computer after she… exploded in a blaze of glory. There were a lot of pictures of Sonic the Hedgehog’s penis. I don’t really know what else to say about that.

Dan: …maybe we should strike that from the record

Nicholas Vining: Possibly. I think we mentioned it in another interview. I’m not sure.

D Baumgart: Possibly in a more roundabout manner. Moving on!

Nicholas Vining: Can we just say “a lot of pornography”?

DIYGamer: It’s too funny to remove at this point!

D Baumgart: The man has a point.

Nicholas Vining: Seriously. You guys didn’t have to deal with it.

Somebody had to go through and make sure we had all the art. And that meant an image search.

D Baumgart: … So the first game wasn’t working out …

Nicholas Vining: Umm. Yes. Moving on. First game wasn’t working out. It was an…  idea? But it had its issues, mainly limited by our ability to achieve what we wanted to achieve on the budget we had, which was none, as we’d blown all our money to date.

So we went back to the drawing board. Years before getting involved with Gaslamp, I had started work on a game called Dungeons of Dredmor with another startup, started by entirely different people, and it was in an… impoverished, half-finished state. However, it was a framework we could hack on to push it out the door – a process that we originally thought would only take a few months. Hah. Hah hah, hah. Hah.

Dan: It worked out in the end

DIYGamer: So when did development on this version of Dredmor begin?

Nicholas Vining: September, 2008?

D Baumgart: So ship the game in a couple months was the plan. A few long years later … well, when did we get onto Dredmor — September, October of 2008?

Nicholas Vining: Yeah. And we finally shipped in 2011. It turns out that game development is hard work!

DIYGamer: So just about a 3 year development cycle that was originally planned to be a few months?

Dan: Yeah, that’s about right

Nicholas Vining: And that’s not including the work that was done on Dredmor before 2008.

I’ve been working on it for about seven years now. My fingers are bloody, bandaged stumps. My eyes have seen things that man was not meant to see. But we discussed that. Every day, we pray to our dark gods for the sweet release of death.

… so, yeah, typical indie development experience.

Dan: He’s talking about making coffee

Nicholas Vining: Oh, that too.

DIYGamer: So speaking of the lengthy development process, as we all know some features get cut. Was there anything that was supposed to get in Dredmor but ultimately had to be left out?

Dan: Oh god, so much

Nicholas Vining: Oh, yes. All sorts of things.

D Baumgart: Scrolls, for starters. We’ll have to put those back in at some point.

Dan: Good thing, we may have been sued.

Nicholas Vining: Our scrolls are more elderly than your scrolls. Although, apparently, Mojang got an indictment, so now they can sue us!

Dan: The dungeon was [also] actually initially slated to be 20 levels

Nicholas Vining: And there were branches. And cannon-traps.

Dan: We realized through testing that it was… just too long.

D Baumgart: There was talk of factions. Not sure how serious that talk was.

Dan: We were stretching our content too far.

Nicholas Vining: Yeah, pretty much.

D Baumgart: A few skills got the cut — Veganism, Demonologist, Animal Hunter.

Nicholas Vining: Potions were done, and re-done again, and then re-done one more time. We’ve had a few different systems for some things.

D Baumgart: We actually cut all 6 original magic schools and replaced them with the current 8 in the month or two before beta.

Nicholas Vining: Because, you know, we’re crazy.

Dan: There was also a whole mess of iteration on the UI.

D Baumgart: Oh god, the UI.

Dan: The original interface was actually a Sierra style with an eyeball cursor.

Nicholas Vining: Well, it was an evolution.

D Baumgart: The player portrait in the bottom was in, then out, then back in.

Nicholas Vining: So when Gaslamp got ahold of Dredmor, it looked like this:

Nicholas Vining: Note the programmer-drawn Mushroom. And whatever the heck is going on there on the bottom. Actually, I drew the potion too.

D Baumgart: When I came on, I basically redid all the art aside from the hero and monster sprites.

Nicholas Vining: And here is a shot of the Sierra-Style Interfce that David is talking about:

DIYGamer: Prior to release you guys were struck with a large amount of media coverage. Was this planned or was it simply a matter of right time, right place?

Nicholas Vining: We were? We wanted more. We felt that we weren’t getting the game coverage out enough, in fact.

Dan: A lot of it was the fruition of a lot of blogging, for a long time.

D Baumgart: We just blogged away until people started paying attention, really.

Nicholas Vining: We finally broke through at TIGSource after we started our semi-open beta. I think things got better at this point; we got a preview from Indiegames.com and then that was about the point when we could start working the press.

The next game will be easier, but when all you have is something that is basically … coming out of left-field, like Dredmor is, it’s hard to get press traction.

D Baumgart: [We] got picked up by some roguelike sites, some linux sites (who didn’t get love for far too long), some indie rpg sites. Getting in on Something Awful was a huge boost.

Nicholas Vining: We were actually talking about this over lunch. There seems to be some sort of an art to this, that isn’t clear, perhaps. Some developers seem to be very good at this – Phil Fish, for instance, has gotten Fez written about everywhere. It’s received more preview coverage than Dredmor has received in review coverage, despite not being out yet. Maybe it’s some sort of genetic thing.

DIYGamer: So how have things gone post-release? Can you share any sales data?

Nicholas Vining: Ten million moneys.

Dan: Unfortunately we can’t.  we hope to be in a position to soon.

D Baumgart: We’ve done well though.

Dan: We can say that we are working full-time on Gaslamp now.

Nicholas Vining: We were before, we just weren’t getting paid for it.

D Baumgart: Hah, yeah.

DIYGamer: Has the critical, and/or commercial success been better than you expected?

Nicholas Vining: Ohhhh, yes.

Dan: My hope with Dredmor was to make enough in revenue to buy a good bottle of scotch. So yes, much better.

D Baumgart: I tried not to think too much about it for a long time, honestly. I did expect a decent success, but maybe that was hope.

Nicholas Vining: We honestly sort of expected to release, and fade into the mists, only to slowly pick up some sort of mild following. The fact that we were #1 on Steam when we launched… was mind-blowing. I think I spent most of our launch window alternating between giggling madly, and then grinding my teeth.

Dan: One of the issues was that we were creating a rogue-like commercially, and roguelikes aren’t really sold, and they don’t have that big of an audience. So the fact that we could gain traction with our idea was really great and also quite surprising.

Nicholas Vining: There were also about two weeks of hell afterwards trying to support our ridiculously large user base. That was exciting. I don’t actually think I slept.

D Baumgart: I bought some new pants just the other day! Success is amazing.

Dan: September was odd, or was that August.

Nicholas Vining: It was August.

DIYGamer: Obviously Steam is the big fish in the sea, but you guys just very recently launched on Desura as well. How has that gone so far and what advantages do they bring to Gaslamp?

Dan: So Desura allows us to do something really great: we have been promising the Linux community a native build of Dredmor since before it was released and we are glad to be supporting a community with some great people in it.

Desura is smaller than Steam, as any analytics will tell you, but it gives us a place to connect to that audience very easily, which is something that we’re really interested in doing.

Nicholas Vining: The actual Linux sales situation itself… well, it’s interesting. Because we include our Linux binaries in our Steam install, so that people can extract them with WINE and run a native version of the game, it’s hard to get exact numbers. The distribution situation is so fragmented on Linux, though, that no one sales portal holds all of the cards.

DIYGamer: So looking ahead to the future, what’s next for Dungeons of Dredmor in terms of updates?

D Baumgart: Well, we’re doing some big content updates — a female hero character was shown just the other day. And yes, we’re doing an expansion.

Nicholas Vining: The female character will be coming out some time in November, with the same patch as our long-delayed mod support, and the expansion will be adding all sorts of new stuff for both the main game and the additional update. Not sure when it’ll land yet, though.

D Baumgart: We haven’t actually officially announced the expansion anywhere, really, just alluded to it a bit. So there ya go.

Nicholas Vining: There is an expansion.

Dan: Huzzah!

Nicholas Vining: My three title choices are “The Realms of Masochism”, “The Hole of Festering”, and… what was the other one? Needless to say, these have all been boycotted.

Dan: Something not horrible i hope.

Nicholas Vining: “Somebody Stabbing You with Broken Glass”

DIYGamer: Will the expansion be a free content pack or traditional DLC?

Dan: The expansion will be along the traditional “game expansion” lines.

Nicholas Vining: It will be less than the cost of Dredmor. It will redefine “value.” Positively, or negatively, we don’t know yet.

I guess… about half of it is free, actually. So half of it is free, half of it will be DLC?

D Baumgart: I don’t like what DLC implies, like you pay $5 for horse armour — there’s no value there, just a money grab. We’re going to be giving a lot away, all the code upgrades will go into the core game and a good pile of content.

Nicholas Vining: Basically, the mod support will give you the tools to make everything that is in the expansion yourself, if you wanted to. So you could easily have created the same thing yourself. We’re just doing it for you. Maybe not “easily.”

Dan: Well hopefully the tools will be easy to use. But… we’re adding some good stuff

Nicholas Vining: … have you seen our tools, Daniel? They’re basically shards of glass covered in rusty nails and tetanus.

D Baumgart: You can finally wear pants, for instance.

Dan: Hey I’m writing [the] documentation!

Nicholas Vining: … also, what is up with David and pants today? I mean, it’s a good thing.

Dan: It’s Pants Day!

Nicholas Vining: He just used to wear that … loin-cloth thing.

Dan: Toga.

Nicholas Vining: It was getting pretty grotty.

D Baumgart: I’m just really enthusiastic about the possibilities!

Dan: Zippers! Buttons!

DIYGamer: Finally, are you guys pre-planning, scoping out, or just generally tinkering with any other games or game ideas?

Nicholas Vining: We’re working on a new game, but it’s in the very early stages of pre-production.

Dan: We are definitely working on something.

Nicholas Vining: We have some technology, and some design notes, and some stuff. We work on it every Wednesday.

Dan: The project is codenamed Odin so we’re calling it Wodensday.

DIYGamer: Any specific details? Genre, platform, mobile, console?

Nicholas Vining: It’ll be PC-centric, again. We’re a PC developer. I think it is fair to say that it will also provide an experience that you couldn’t get on a console.

Actually, it’s a fully articulated horse-breeding simulator.

D Baumgart: Why would that even need to be articulated?

Nicholas Vining: Fully. Articulated.

David, if you have to ask…

Dan: Probably nothing useful at this point to say specifically.  Really we are going to develop some technology, use that to prototype the game, and see if it all “works” before we start talking about it.

D Baumgart: So that’s why you asked for all those … drawings.

Nicholas Vining: … Yes.

Dan: Articulated…what?

Nicholas Vining: Man, this is why they are never going to make us IGF judges.

Dan: Joints where joints shouldn’t be?

D Baumgart: (We couldn’t find any PR people willing to act as filter, so you get this.)

Nicholas Vining: They’ll get seven games, and they’ll all be about stirrup pants and farm life.

DIYGamer: Well that’s all I have! You guys answered all my questions and then some. I’d like to thank you guys for sitting down with me today and sharing your thoughts… even some of the more colorful ones.

Dan: We answered some questions you never wanted to ask.

Nicholas Vining: That’s just how we roll.

D Baumgart: What we mean to say is, “It’s been a pleasure.”

Nicholas Vining: Sure it has.

Dan: Thanks for taking the time to chat with us!

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So I hope this gives you not only a better idea of Gaslamp Games, but also some insight into what indie developers often go through as they develop their games. While I’m not saying you’ll find instances of Sonic porn everywhere you go in game development, I have no doubt that small indie studios experience hilarious and devastating stories on a consistent basis.