LIM is an interesting game about violence and deception developed by Merritt Kopas and is quite different to the norm. In LIM you take control of a box which must navigate through this maze of violent blocks that will stop at nothing to prevent your progression through the game.

Luckily your block has the ability to blend in to the surrounding blocks which neutralizes but starts to create turbulence in your own block. Its quite the abstract game (but this should be obvious when dealing with blocks) but the nature actually plays into the game very well and creates a fun and interesting game.

The graphics style is rather basic and follows a very simple colour scheme but this is not a bad thing, far from it as it adds to the game and helps create it what it is. Although on my play through I managed to get knocked out of the maze by some overly violent blocks which did spoil it a little these things happen and at least they are not too common here.

Average play time – 15 minutes

LIM is a very different stealth style game that will keep you entertained throughout its duration and does offer something just a little different. LIM can play played online on Merritt Kopas’ site.

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 – ‘LIM’ When Blocks Become Violent

Before Rare were known as Rare, they were called Ultimate: Play The Game, and they were one of the UK’s more prolific developers during the earliest eras of home computing. Along with their more famous releases such as Jetpac and Knight Lore was Atic Atac. While it was before my time (released in the year I was born, to be precise!), it was a favourite among gamers of the era. Yesterday, a Windows remake of the game was released. Naturally, it’s freeware.

A comparatively simple game by modern standards, Atic Atac is a maze-puzzle game with some shooter elements. Playing as one of three generic fantasy sorts, you’ve got to explore a ~200 room complex in search of the Golden Key Of A.C.G, which will open the exit and secure you a place on the high score board. By modern standards, it’s pretty baffling at first – any attempt to just jump in and figure stuff out is likely going to be met with death, confusion, and more death. Eurogamer have a retro review here that might help explain it, but it’s best seen in action, so check the authentic Speccy gameplay video below, colour-clash and all.

In short, it’s a game of inventory and resource management. The various items scattered around the rooms are required to access new areas, but you can only carry three items at any given time, meaning some careful planning on where to stash your gear and mentally mapping out exactly the safest route to backtrack. Enemies constantly spawn and bounce randomly around the rooms, and will chew away at your health (represented by a tasty roast chicken) for every moment they’re in contact with you. It’s tricky and old-school in a way that most gamers won’t even comprehend these days, but it’s well worth a look, especially if you want to get an idea of what videogames were like almost 30 years ago.

Thanks to Rob Fearon of Retro Remakes for pointing this one out.

Source: The Indie Game Magazine – ‘Atic Atac’ Remake Released

It’s always nice to see indie devs casting their net a little wider to reach a larger audience. Cute little maze-puzzle game Dédale has been doing quite respectably on Apple devices, by all accounts, and is now available for your towering overpowered desktop gaming systems. It’s available to buy now via Desura for a smattering of earth-coins, and comes in both Windows and Mac flavours. Here’s the rather relaxing launch trailer:

Well, I guess we now know that butterflies like mazes and/or pressing buttons. Learn something every day! Not often you hear typically French accordion music in a game trailer, either. Makes a pleasant change from dubstep, at the very least. As you can see, it’s a simple and straightforward game, but I can see it being the sort of thing where later levels cause me to endlessly second-guess myself, tie my brain in knots and leave me sitting in the corner, clutching my knees and babbling incoherently.

I am bad at puzzle games. You should see what happens when I play SpaceChem. It’s not pretty.

Anyway, you can read more about the game on the official site here, and grab it for your compu-boxes on Desura here.

Source: The Indie Game Magazine – iOS Maze Puzzle Game ‘Dédale’ Comes To PC Via Desura

One of the ten finalists at the first A MAZE. Indie Connect, Chasing Aurora was noted for its sumptuous artstyle and zen-like gameplay that attested to the dream of many: flight. It’s a 2D sidescrolling aerial action game in which you control a bird attempting to piece together the light beacon as the sun sets over the picturesque Alps for the last time. The setting of the game of course being a significant European landmark, possibly giving it a cultural significance which appealed to Indie Connect’s hope to see outstanding indie titles from around the globe, but in particular from Europe.

Chasing Aurora was available to play at Indie Connect but unfortunately this was a five month old build and contained a single multiplayer mode. In this, up to four players would battle it out to hold on to the light beacon which would dangle from their determined feather bodies. Apart from flying around attempting to get away from and dodge their opponents, who could snatch the beacon by mere contact, the player could fly the beacon into a flame which would cause it to catch fire and be used as a weapon too. Immediately upon playing Chasing Aurora you get the sense of just how simple it is. The only component of control the player need to occupy themselves with is which direction they are flying – no other buttons are needed to be pressed. Whether this will remain the same throughout the game’s single player is yet to be seen, but given that a playthrough shouldn’t last longer than five hours, you get the impression that the developers are keeping the game as simple as possible.

Clemens Scott, the lead artist at Broken Rules, affirmed the direction that they are taking the game, saying that they have been letting the game develop organically as time progresses but always ensuring that the feeling of flight is achieved. So to match this, Chasing Aurora looks to be a simple but highly pleasurable experience which should relax the player by the aesthetic choice alone, but also by its gentle gameplay. Most outstanding of the game’s features are its visual merits so we took the time to ask Clemens how he developed this stunning display, what we didn’t expect was such an elaborate story.

After a while of trying several different artstyles for Chasing Aurora, Clemens said that inspiration came to him one day when he let some anger out by kicking an old closet his grandmother owned. Once he had prevented the closet from collapsing, Clemens had to restore its contents back to their appropriate places, which led him to discover a bunch of old wooden boards. These boards had some form of pattern on them upon which Clemens began to draw and it was then that he stumbled across the visual style that Chasing Aurora was to take. After taking the boards into the office and showing the rest of the development team, they were just as pleased with what he came up with so he kept working on it until it reached the state you can see it in now.

If anything, Chasing Aurora‘s artstyle is a 2D origami look with bold colors, giving it a soft, papery kind of feel. Obviously, Broken Rules have a thing for papery visuals as their first game, And Yet It Moves, was etched out like a scrap book assortment. Focusing on Chasing Aurora‘s visuals though, they are quite remarkable in still images but really brighten your eyes when you see them in action (look to the trailer above), especially when combined with the game’s aural accompaniment. Inspiration for the music in the game came from the developers Austrian roots as they use a variety of traditional xylophones played with the fingers and string instruments played with sticks, as well as the usual plucks and strums.

Understandably, when questioned about the gameplay, Clemens informed us that the team is still working on it as they try to balance a slight challenge without losing the game’s sense of flow and chilled out feeling. As said previously, the game involves collecting the fragmented pieces of the light beacon. This sends the feathered protagonists across the many faces of the Alps and past its animal inhabitants, occasionally solving simple puzzles as well as being encouraged to explore to find hidden pieces. Some replayability could be found through finding all of the pieces but the hope is that the player will want to live that feeling of elegant flight over and over again.

The single player portion of Chasing Aurora has us lusting after it but the multiplayer doesn’t feel too necessary, nor that impressive. However, Clemens did point out that much more has been added to the old multiplayer build that we played at Indie Connect, so this section of the game may yet change our minds. Whatever the case, we still can’t wait to play Chasing Aurora sometime later in 2012. Thanks to the game’s bespoke engine we can look forward to it appearing on Windows, Mac and Linux, ports to mobile and consoles will be just as easy to pursue as well, so we’re told.

More information on Chasing Aurora can be found on the game’s official website.

The A MAZE. Indie Connect festival is fast approaching and so the entries have to be whittled down to the 10 finalists. Talking of which, they have just been announced so it’s time to give them a look!

After receiving many entries for the prestigious The Most Amazing Game award which will be presented at the Indie Connect festival in Berlin, April 26-27th, the judges have played the games and gone through the difficult process of narrowing down to just 10 finalists. The winner of the award will received €5000, the chance to attend European Indie Game Days and to distribute the game on Little Indie.

But who are the 10 finalists of which we speak? Scroll down dear and you will see:

• ASDFPLANE

“Each player has a keyboard, and the keyboard is mapped to the screen. To fly, hit letters that point towards your intended direction. If you get shot you have a chance to survive by typing REPAIR. To get a highscore you have to keep your plane on screen while shooting down other players.”

• Beatbuddy

“Beatbuddy is the first music action-adventure. Being in control of the music creature Beatbuddy you work your way through a song and bring back the music. Since all the multi tracks of each song are translated in interactive game mechanics you’re able to experience music in
a different way.”

• Botanicula

“Botanicula is point’n’click exploration game created by Amanita Design and Czech band DVA. It’s about a bunch of five friends – little tree creatures who set out for a journey to save the last seed from their home tree which is infested by evil parasites.”

• Chasing Aurora

“Chasing Aurora is an explorative 2D aerial action game about the dream of flight. Drop from the cliff and ride the wind from peak to peak. Fight for the beacon of light with up to three friends in the hostile environment of the Alps.”

• Flight Of The Fireflies

“Flight of the Fireflies is an experimental video game where you guide a swarm of musical fireflies on an atmospheric journey through places and emotions. Unlike most video games, the focus is not on the challenge – but on the experience.”

• ibb and obb

“ibb and obb is a cooperative game for two. Work together in this non-newtonian world. In the bottom half of the world gravity is reversed, enabling ibb and obb to walk on both sides of the horizon. Find your way surfing on gravity, soulhopping enemies and collecting diamonds.”

• Loop Raccord

“Loop Raccord is a video editing game about synchronizing a chain of video clips in order to create an illusion of continuous movement between them.”

• Proteus

“Proteus is a game about the joy of immersion and self-directed exploration, set on a surreal procedurally-generated island. Ruins and strange creatures draw the player into the four seasons of the world and everything around you adds a voice to the dynamically-mixed soundtrack to your wanderings.”

• Tiny And Big: Up That Mountain

“You are Tiny, a technophile guy with a ray cutter, a gripping device and a fine attitude towards the world. But now your nemesis Big stole the only heritage your grandpa left you: A nice pair of fine rib underpants! And he‘s surely up to no good, why else would he take them up that haunted mountain…”

• Where is my Heart?

“Where is my Heart? is loosely based on Bernhard Schulenburg’s experience of a sunday hike, which he went on with his mom and his dad. They got lost in a forest and confronted with this problem they came to face each other’s negative personality traits.”

More information on the A MAZE. Indie Connect festival can be found on the event’s official website.

Naphelia Games make shooters in the old sense of the term and are currently working on their next one called Xenoid Maze – you can try out the beta now and offer some feedback if you’re a giving person.

So here’s a simple concept and one that a good majority of people will recognise: you’re a lone space marine, aliens are after you so you better try to escape. Oh, you have guns…and a flamethrower. That is Xenoid Maze in a tin can so you can probably judge for yourself just from that if you want to give it a go. Of course, the game isn’t actually ready yet – it’s still in beta. That does mean that you can help the developer out by giving it a bash and informing them of any improvements they could make, couldn’t you?

Well, if you do want to give Xenoid Maze a go then you have two choices – either you can download the executable or you can play it in your browser. Make your choice and march head first into the alien scum. Gun in hand, of course.

More information on Xenoid Maze can be found over on the developer’s website.

The many entries for the A MAZE. Indie Games Award 2012 have been revealed for your pleasure, with the winner being announced during the Indie Connect Festival in Berlin later in April.

If you’re a game developer you may have entered your game to be in the running for the A MAZE. Indie Games Award 2012 which will be presented across April 26-27th in Berlin during the Indie Connect Festival. If so, then you should be going frantic right now because the entries for the award have been revealed over on the official website.

If your game is up there then you stand a chance of being chosen as a finalist and then exhibited at the Indie Connect Festival where it will be judged by the prestigious panel, where Chris Adkins of IGM will be sitting of course. If your game is selected as the festival’s Most Amazing Game then you’ll be rewarded with €5000 and all the publicity that comes with it!

For those who aren’t a hopeful developer then it’s definitely worth checking out the line up over on the official website as there are some rather promising games in there and of course all of them deserve all of the attention they get.

If you’re attending the A MAZE. Indie Connect festival then be sure to look out for IGM, hop over and have a chat – we’ll love it! More information on the festival can be found on the official website.

The doors are now open for hopeful developers to submit their game to the A MAZE. Indie Games Award 2012 in hope of being internationally recognised and receiving that nifty cash prize.Taking place as part of the Deutsche Gamestage 2012 in Berlin from April 26th to the 27th, the A MAZE. Indie Games Award 2012 will be given to the “Most Amazing Indie Game” as picked by the event’s high profile international jury.

Original Source: A. MAZE Indie Games Award 2012 Now Open For Submissions

This Article was originally posted on our sister site, The Indie Game Magazine written by Chris Priestman.

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.

As with many other smaller releases lately, this was prototyped during a 48-hour development competition and expanded on later. It’s a really very simple game, controlled just with the arrow keys. Your goal (I admittedly haven’t completed the game yet – my brain is too squishy on a Saturday morning) is to collect a series of mysterious scrolls from around these monster-infested tunnels, and it’s just a matter of picking them up while not looking at anything scary. Not so simple once you start getting into situations where enemies can be moved by looking at them, or certain walls can only be broken by deliberately scaring yourself into crashing through them.

Essentially, the entire game is about very carefully managing your facing. Sometimes it’s better to rotate your character away and ‘around’ from threats to change heading, and 180 degree flips are to be avoided if at all possible. Despite the very simple graphics, the ambient sound/music and the occasional audio stabs accompanying seeing/being seen can be more than a little frightening if you’ve gone any length of time without making a mistake. A good alternative to coffee, if (like me) you forgot to buy any and have to survive on weak tea to wake up in the morning. Give it a spin. It’s probably better for you than caffeine.

[Traal]

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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 Arachnophobia for the PC (code is redeemable on Little Indie), by Chemical Games!

Leave a meaningful comment below to enter into the drawing.