We previously gave this some time in the spotlight as our freeware game pick of the day, but it bears mentioning that Robit Studio’s excellent Metroid-esque and nautically themed Treasure Adventure Game is now officially complete and released, free of the shackles of public beta. It’s still free, it’s even better now, and you should probably play it post-haste. Delightfully charming trailer after the break.

Today, for your delectation, DIYGamer presents Hatoful Boyfriend, the heartwarming tale of a young human girl looking for love in all the wrong places. To be specific, St. PigeoNation’s institute for talented birds. No, you’re not in the middle of a fever dream. This is real. You might have heard of this completely barmy dating sim/visual novel elsewhere, but today is especially special. The English translation patch has just been released. Y’know. In case you wanted to date a handsome pigeon or two. I mean, how can you resist such graceful head-bobbing?

This is a freeware game that I’ve been meaning to mention for a while. It’s not very polished or professional, nor does it have anywhere near universal appeal, but after stumbling upon it during a random trawl of GameJolt I found myself enjoying it the whole way through in a B-movie sorta way. RTD: Evil is a horror-themed platform shooter inspired very heavily by Abuse, with standard FPS controls letting you run, jump and shoot freely on a 2D plane. It’s also based on a particularly terribly drawn furry splatter-horror webcomic. If you haven’t run screaming for the hills, hit the break for the trailer, accompanied by some of the shockingly cool soundtrack.

Relaxed with Scribble? Need some more paranoia in your life? Now might be a good time to take a stab at Traal, a short little stealth-puzzle-horror game by Jonathan Whiting and Alan Hazelden. Recent horror games like Amnesia have taught us that what we can’t see is scarier than what we can – the protagonist of this little game would beg to differ, as he’s completely fine so long as he can’t see any monsters. The moment he looks directly at one, he briefly runs in the oppsosite direction, heedless of any other monsters or deathtraps in that direction.

Here’s one to put a dopey smile on your face on an overcast Friday afternoon. Originally released in 2006, but apparently forgotten by everybody, Scribble is an adorable platformer by Japanese indie outfit Sketch-Board. Heavily inspired by HAL’s classic Kirby series, you play as Pen, a cartoon dog on a quest to restore color to the world, and a firm believer that a picture is worth a thousand words. Rather than devour your foes like Kirby, you gain new abilities through far more peaceful means – by getting out your sketchbook and drawing the likeness of your foes. Easier said than done, as they’re trying to kill you as you draw.

Updated with initial thoughts on the game!

Un-Christmas just came early, at least by a couple of hours. Clearly forgetting what day it is, indie freeware uber-coder Daniel Remar (creator of Iji, Hero Core, Garden Gnome Carnage and more) just released his latest game - Hyper Princess Pitch - into the wild. Heavily inspired by classic DOS shareware shooter Operation Carnage, this eschews a modern twin-stick format in favour or slightly more limited controls, but more varied arenas and progression. After the break, a trailer that’ll explain just why you’d want to see a little girl pelt Santa with bricks.

Fresh from delightfully subverting expectations with firefighting action game Station 37 (go play it if you haven’t already), FrankieSmileShow and Chef Boyardee are back with another quirky little freeware gem. This time, ALTCODE, an ASCII shmup with a persistent element. The number of enemies in the game is constantly growing (even when you’re not playing) in synch with your computers internal clock, and only by playing it can you reduce this number. Help it reach zero, and you get to fight the final boss and potentially unlock a fourth and final playable ship.

Ever wished you could play an 80′s-style RPG like Dragon Quest, but with friends? No? Well, someone else did, and then they made this game. NEStalgia is a primarily-free (more on that later) small-scale online RPG in the style of Nintendo JRPGs of old, built on the BYOND platform. It’s simple, it’s accessible and available for PC, Mac and Linux. Boasting turn-based combat, simple party mechanics, some modern MMO refinements and a whole lot of 8-bit content all controlled via an interface that could fit on a NES gamepad. After the break, a trailer and some initial thoughts on this cute neo-oldschool romp.

It’s been 25 years since Nintendo launched their second grand flagship franchise; a free-roaming action adventure about an elf in a floppy green hat and his quest to collect a triangle and stab a pig. The Legend of Zelda series has earned countless fans through the past quarter-century. While many are celebrating this grand anniversary with the latest Wii entry in the franchise, us Windows/Mac/Linux folks can look back and remember how it all began, and wonder what might have been if they’d expanded directly on the original NES release.

Back in May of this year, one of our writers took a look at The Wager, by Surprised Man. The game is a sort of exploration adventure game with you playing against a computer controlled character by the name of Sir Lester Marwood. Your goal is to explore more and find more treasure within one year than him by exploring the New World.