Indie Links today has freeware before commercial, personal instead of professional and hot Monaco on Monaco action.

Four perspectives on personal games (Gamasutra)
“The personal games movement is providing an important, exciting new avenue for expression and a new understanding of design, many believe. At the Different Games conference in New York this weekend, four panelists presented on the theme of personal game-making and why it matters to them.”

Review: Starseed Pilgrim – A Game of Discovery by Droqen (IndieGameReviewer)
“You could be forgiven for initially dismissing Starseed Pilgrim as little more than a curiosity. Droqen’s latest endeavor is a strange, abstract title that does little to endear itself to new players; spending ten minutes with the game might leave you with the vague impression that something is missing. Spend an hour with it and you may come to the conclusion that it was designed with the specific purpose to bewilder and confuse its audience. If you stay a little longer though, you’ll begin to see something compelling and altogether worthy of your time emerge from the blankness.”

Analog Investigations in Arkham (Gnome’s Lair)
“Deduction, despite what Sherlock Holmes would have you believe, is not a science. It’s a method. A method that could arguably make the life of all fictional investigators much easier and can definitely be applied to board-games as the classic Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective so effortlessly proved over 30 years ago. What’s more, deduction is what you’ll be using when playing the freshly released and rather excellent Arkham Investigator.”

Why Vlambeer won’t stop making freeware first, products second (Polygon)
“Earlier this week, Vlambeer — an independent developer who receives as much ink for their critically acclaimed titles as they do for unscrupulous developers’ tendency to copy them — got hit once again. SkyFar, an iOS game from Bangalore’s Rubiq Lab, was criticized for nearly duplicating Luftrausers, a browser-based Flash game Vlambeer released in 2011, which the studio later planned to turn into a full retail release.”

Live Free, Play Hard: The Week’s Finest Free Indie Games (RPS)
“Heterosexual narc. More than a few games about the demise of balls. CANDY ANT PRINCESS.”

Two Game Developers Travel The World, Playing Games And Helping People (Kotaku)
“Earlier this year, Battlefield producer Daniel Matros and former colleague Tim Kjell set up something called Charitystream. The idea was simple: stream games online, raise money for charity. It’s a noble goal, yeah, but it’s also something countless others are engaged in.”

Monaco made good on Indie Fund $100K before launch, what it means (Joystiq)
“Since 2010, Indie Fund has helped launch high-profile games such as Dear Esther, QUBE and Antichamber, each one recouping investment within days or even hours. The first game in which Indie Fund ever put its faith (and money), Monaco, launched last week and made back its $100,000 investment in negative time, before the game went live on April 24.”

Monaco: What’s Yours Is Mine offers the thrill of the heist (Shacknews)
“Andy Schatz’s IGF award-winning Monaco: What’s Yours Is Mine is all about staying in the shadows and avoiding detection. In fact, it’s succeeded almost too well, remaining out of the spotlight since it first took the Seumas McNally Grand Prize at IGF 2010. After years of tireless work and dedication, Monaco has finally been released and like a fine French wine, it was worth the wait.”

Source: The Indie Game Magazine – Indie Links Round-Up: New Heights

Residue is an intelligent, story-driven 2D platform adventure in which you control three different characters, exploring an abandoned excavation site in the remains of the Aral Sea in present-day Uzbekistan. Once the fourth largest lake in the world, the Aral Sea is now an arid wasteland, a victim of decades of Soviet cotton irrigation. To some, it is the prime example for humanity to stay out of nature’s business. To others, it’s a world waiting to be saved.

Today I revisit the Ludum Dare competition once more trying to cram in as many great games as possible. Today’s game is cGame from deeJayUA and this game is rather different.

In cGame you must look at the colour grid and remove the most common colour from the grid. Although this alone can be quite difficult you must also select the correct RGB colour code, this makes finding the specific colour on later levels quite the chore indeed.

Each level the RGB codes become more complex creating more variables and therefore more verity greatly increasing the difficulty. It really is quite the ingenious game as it forces you to match the correct colours to your grid.

cGame is a very simplistic and minimalistic game however it does offer a great deal of fun from the get go offering fun challenging puzzles that gradually increase in difficulty as you progress.

Average play time – 10 minutes

If you’re a fan of brainteasers cGame should be right up your ally as it offers many substantial fun challenges. cGame offers a unique experience that should keep any puzzle fiend happy for a substantial amount of time.

Be sure to play cGame online now. If you enjoy the game consider voting for it on the Ludum Dare 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 – ‘cGame’ It’s All About Perception

Today’s Indie Links include a Boston Festival of Indie Games Kickstarter, a Javier Cabrera interview and what indie means to Thomas Was Alone dev Mike Bithell.

Tha Javier Cabrera Interview (IndieGames.com)
“Javier Cabrera, 50% of the Cabrera Borthers and one of the staunchest supporters of indie gaming I have ever met speaks about the indie community, developing games, The Free Bundle, Cypher and much more. Oh, and he does also mention some interesting plans on the future while never forgetting the past. So, set aside 30 minutes, make yourself a nice cup of tea and read on.”

Boston Festival of Indie Games seeks Kickstarter funds for expanded 2013 event (Polygon)
“Organizers of the 2013 Boston Festival of Indie Games have taken to Kickstarter to raise funds to cover the costs of the expanding celebration of independent studios in the Boston area, according to the event’s Kickstarter page.”

Today I Played: Monaco (Polygon)
“There’s no honor among bumbling fools. Here’s the thing about Monaco: If you’re not an expert, you’re going to have a lot of trouble understanding what the hell is going on in the above video. The stylistic, minimalist HUD and graphics are not exactly friendly to newcomers. That’s a bit of an issue when you’re playing the game, and even more of an issue when you’re watching four zany minutes of goofballs attempting to master its complexities.”

Thomas Was Alone Dev: Indie Means ‘I Get to Do Exactly What I Want’ (Kotaku)
“Mike Bithell’s had a crazy year. He went from being one of a few dozen developers at U.K.-based Bossa Studios to becoming a solo indie creator supporting a game on multiple platformers. What prompted the drastic lifestyle change? The steady climb of acclaim around his minimalist platformer Thomas Was Alone.”

Wot I Think: Don’t Starve (RPS)
“I starved. I feel as bad about disobeying the order as I do about losing my character. A negative imperative – ‘don’t starve’ – is so much more affecting than a positive one ‘orcs must die’. There’s a sense of threat in it, far more of an ‘or else’ than any form of Go Ahead And Do This. Don’t Starve really is about trying not to starve too: not eating is simply not an option. The cold fingers of personal famine are forever on one’s shoulder, and it’s crucial to remember that even as another kind of hunger, the familiar craving for better loot and gear, tries to seize control . When my own imperative was not ‘don’t starve’, and was instead ‘get stuff’, I last significantly less time. All I had to do was not starve: how could I lose sight of that?”

Kickstarter Katchup – April 28th 2013 (RPS)
“Jagged Alliance: Flashback arrives in the Katchup this week. I’ve expected (and hoped for) a Jagged Alliance crowdfunding attempt for some time now. As soon as it became obvious that Kickstarter was a place where old franchises could revive themselves, every week that the mercenaries didn’t appear was slightly more unsettling than the last.”

Magnetic By Nature (Indie Gamer Chick)
“Magnetic By Nature is the latest game from students attending the University of Utah. I know what you’re thinking. “Hey, wait a second. What do people from Utah know about having fun? Didn’t they ban their only form of that in the 40s?” Actually, inappropriate polygamy jokes aside, they know plenty about fun. Atari founder Nolan Bushnell discovered the medium of games as a student at the University of Utah. So in essence, we owe the gaming industry as it exists today to their beautiful, boring, Pac-10 devaluing institution. It makes me happy that the science of creating games is taught there to this day. It would be wrong otherwise, like if Harvard stopped teaching law, or Fresno State stopped teaching binge drinking.”

Recommended Game: Electro Bobble (Independent Gaming)
“Unbeknownst to humans, the insides of thunderclouds harbor entire ecosystems. Small beings called bobbles live off the electricity and leap around as if the clouds were composed of a series of platforms. Sometimes, an invasive species, known as meanies, takes over and sets up house, forcing the native bobbles to find another thundercloud. But one day, one bobble decided that it wasn’t going to be thrown out. This is its story.”

Source: The Indie Game Magazine – Indie Links Round-Up: Cruel Summer

Phoenix Online Studios have recently announced the release date for the third episode of Cognition: An Erica Reed Thriller. For those who haven’t read our previous coverage on the games, Cognition is a point and click series about a psychic FBI agent named Erica Reed. We were very impressed with the first two episodes of Cognition, giving them solid scores of 86% and 93%.

Releasing May 16^th, we have been told Cognition: The Oracle will put the players in the shoes of the Oracle – the serial killer who has been paying an awful lot of attention to Erica in the past two games. The teaser for The Oracle (below) makes me feel a good part of the episode may be a ‘whodunnit’ style of story.

It’s been a while since I last talked about ZED Absolution (ZED). It turns out the guys over at Zombie Killers have been working tirelessly on ZED and there has been some big developments.

ZED is a top down gauntlet shooter that takes inspiration from such classics as Smash TV and Robotron 2048, updating this model and bringing it to us in an all new fast paced HD and 3D format, that’s right ZED will support the Oculus Rift.

It seems ZED is getting close to the beta stage, but before the game can reach its completion Zombie Killer will be looking for some additional funding to move ZED over the line. They hope to obtain a little extra funding through the games pre-orders that offer four different packages to suit your every need and range from $15 to $45. Alongside the game you can also buy a rather nice ZED poster to put up and show your support in the real world.

In addition to the pre-orders Zombie Killers are looking to start-up a Kickstarter campaign in the hopes of raising the required capital to finish the game, and maybe implement some of the teams more ambitious ideas. Like any Kickstarter expect to see some rather great physical rewards from soundtracks to models so stay tuned for the launch.

If you would like to find out more about ZED be sure to head over to the all new ZED homepage for additional information about the game. ZED is also looking for additional up-votes on Steam’s Greenlight service, so if you would like to see ZED on Steam be sure to up-vote.

Source: The Indie Game Magazine – ‘ZED Absolution’ Gears Up For Fund Raising And Beta

This week I look through some more great Ludum Dare games trying to bring some of my favorite games into the lime light getting them the love they deserve. This weeks selection is pretty awesome with some geometric struggles and some colourful capers.

As always clicking the title will take you to my original article whilst clicking the image will take you to the game, enjoy.

Monday:  ’Minimalism’ A Geometric Nightmare

Minimalism is a great little puzzle shooter in which you must morph your shape into that of the locks across the level to try to make it to the end. Of course it is not just about getting the correct shapes you must battle your way through this maze of unrelenting shapes to reach your goal.

Tuesday: ’My Mini Castle’ A Mini Slime Fighting Adventure

My Mini Castle is a rather cute little game that has you commanding this solitary penguin to throw his potatoes at incoming slimes. It’s a very simple idea but executed fantastically with these great graphics and fun mechanics.

Wednesday: ’ProductionVille’ It’s All About The Planning

For one reason or another I don’t get to feature many strategy games on here so I leapt at the option to feature Production Ville. In Production Ville you must setup a village that actually turns a profit. This is made all the more difficult by everything having an initial price along with an upkeep fee that can make you think twice before expanding to open a new mine.

Thursday: ’Mono’ Respect The Colors

Mono is a somewhat unique physics based puzzler that has you taking control of this rogue circle as you try to navigate the unforgiving levels in front of you. Although Mono only has six levels each adds some new mechanics creating an ever-changing experience that is just a great deal of fun.

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 That about does it for this weeks round-up.  I hope you have enjoyed playing some – if not all – of the games I have selected for you this week. Have a fantastic Sunday and see you tomorrow for an all new Indie Intermission.

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 Sunday Round Up: R.E.S.P.E.C.T

Ridiculous cloning, surgical simulation, and another chapter in the indie support debate between Sony and Microsoft – in today’s Indie Links.

Cloned at Birth: The Story of Ridiculous Fishing (Polygon)
“The interview is over. The story, told in pieces at least a hundred times in bars, at hamburger joints, on stages and in private circles of up-and-coming game developers, has now been told for the first time in its entirety. It is a story about the little guy getting bullied and making a stand. And winning. It is the story of Ridiculous Fishing, and how two men from the Netherlands rallied the worldwide community of independent game developers to take on the practice of game cloning and reclaim their invention to launch what will become (for a time) the best-reviewed iOS game of 2013.”

Microsoft hasn’t lost touch with indies, insists XBLA dev (Eurogamer)
“Microsoft’s relationship with indie studios remains strong, the developers of forthcoming XBLA title Max: The Curse of Brotherhood have insisted – and while it might seem that the platform holder is losing its grip on indie gaming as Sony attracts more and more developers to PlayStation, there’s plenty going on behind the scenes to ensure that won’t be the case come the next generation.”

Review: Spyleaks (Independent Gaming)
“*wipes sweat off face* Gee, that game can be tough at times. What game am I talking about? Spyleaks, an old-school stealth-puzzle game by HeartBit Interactive using the XNA engine (it is available on XBLIG and on the PC).”

Super Brain Eat 3 (Indie Gamer Chick)
“PlayStation Mobile is to the Vita what Xbox Live Indie Games is to the Xbox 360. Whether that’s a good thing or not is in the eye of the beholder, I suppose. I wasn’t around for the early stages of XBLIG, but based on what I hear from my buddies Ryan, George, and Justin, the early days were nowhere near the desolate wasteland that PSM is turning into. Looking at the slate of recent releases, nothing really has caught my fancy for it. But then again, nothing really caught my eye on iPhone either. My Vita has been getting a bit dusty though. Nothing like my Wii U, which currently wears the same amount of dust as your average mummy.”

The Amusing Messages to Gamers Tucked in Monaco’s Credits (Kotaku)
“Are you planning to steal the wonderful new co-op heist game Monaco? Please consider the above message. It appears in the $15 game’s credits. “

I’m Mexican. Am I Supposed To Be Offended By Guacamelee? (Kotaku)
“I remember being told I was a bad Mexican. To some of the white friends I hung out with, I was one of them. Once someone told me that because I played video games, read science fiction, and spoke with no accent, that I was whiter than they were. Now that was weird. Maybe I should have worn a sombrero or poncho around campus. Maybe then I would have been a Mexicano auténtico. To my extended family, my choppy spanish and awkward adolescence was a sign of my absolute assimilation into a destructive other.”

Wot I Think: Surgeon Simulator 2013 (RPS)
“As a games blogger, the question I am most often asked is: “When are you going to go back to school so that you can get a real job, like an accountant or a doctor?” To which I reply: “Look, Mum, Dad, writing about videogames is a real job now. I’ve paid my rent unaided for at least several years.” Then I show them games like Surgeon Simulator 2013 and ask why I would want to be a real anything, when I can be a simulated everything?”

Live Free, Play Hard: The Week’s Finest Free Indie Games (RPS)
“THIS WEEK: Fridge magnet story engine. 2012 so .exe, 2013 so .ppt. Dinosaur dating sim. “The ONLY LGBT-friendly anglerfish dating sim!””

Source: The Indie Game Magazine – Indie Links Round-Up: Among Foes

Today’s game comes from the brilliant pool of games that have been developed for the Ludum Dare 26 competition. My Mini Castle has been developed by TijmenTio and is a great, cute little game.

In My Mini Castle you must fend off wave after wave of slimes with only a limited supply of potatoes. The whole aim of the game is to fire your potatoes correctly to hit the slimes as they come to try to take down your castle.

The most difficult thing about My Mini Castle is the aiming of the potatoes, as there is a slight delay from when you throw it and when it hits meaning you must learn to aim. Although the aiming starts out a little tricky you should quickly be able to pick it up and hit your mark.

My Mini Castle has a fantastic art style, a lot of humorous lines, and some great music all combining together to make one great little game.

Average play time – 7 minutes

My Mini Castle really is quite the stand out game due to its great artwork and interesting gameplay mechanics. The concept is simple but it has been executed fantastically really making the game a whole load of fun.

My Mini Castle can be downloaded from the official Ludum Dare site. If you like the game be sure to vote for it on the Ludum Dare 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 – ‘My Mini Castle’ A Mini Slime Fighting Adventure

Today’s Developer Links pass on more good PS4 vibes from indies, along with updates from games including The Witness, Clockwork Empires, and Democracy 3.

PS4 will support indies, agree optimistic devs (Develop Online)
“A number of developers have stepped forward to state their optimism about the PlayStation 4′s support for indies. Speaking to Develop individuals from companies as diverse as Gearbox and nDreams have expressed hope and positivity that, in contrast to previous sony consoles, the PS4 will be accessible and affordable for indies. Their views appear to reflect comments made to Develop by Sony Worldwide Studios SVP Michael Denny, who insisted indies are set to be core to the PS4.”

A Little Something For The Pipe Fanciers Out There (Gaslamp Games)
“From just about the beginning we’ve been into the idea that Clockwork Empires should involve running giant assemblies of pipes and cog-laden axles across settlements to transmit energy and water and completely harmless high-pressure superheated steam between various machines and factories. The basis for this came early: if we’re to embrace the aesthetic we desire we need to fully embrace the visuals of mechanization, of machines and factories and the wonders of technology of this Age of Progress & so forth. If we hide the machines inside the factories then you won’t be able to see any of the Fun gears and pipes. So, the breakthrough: put the machines, the pipes, the gears on the outside of the factory.”

Low-Light Combat Art Asset Overview (Wolfire Games)
“We recently made a charity jam game called Low-Light Combat. In this jam, I wanted to try cutting out the most time-consuming steps of the traditional art asset workflow, to see if it would make any real difference in the final product.”

iPad video update #1 (The Witness)
“Andy’s got the iPad port far enough along that you can sort of play the game now. Here’s a short video…”

More Democracy 3 simulation fun and games (Positech Games)
“The core mechanic of Democracy 3 is going to take a lot of careful explaining in tutorials and tooltips and help windows. Essentially, it’s pretty simple, in that you implement policies, and you can adjust the intensity of a policy using a slider. So with a policy like income tax, the slider adjust the rate of tax from low to high. A series of bars show you the effect this policy has on everything, such as voter happiness, GDP, and so on. Sounds simple so far right? This is where it gets complex because there are three additional factors, which are implementation times, effectiveness and inertia. I’ll explain each one…”

Even Ugly Babies Need Hugs (Dejobaan Games)
“Our good friends at Zapdot and Hybrid Mind have been working hard on Ugly Baby. Ichiro continues to rest as evidenced by this picture from yesterday. This is most excellent news because a rested Ichiro is worth at least 3 times as many points as a tired Ichiro! This week we look at visualizers and also the in-game HUD that tells you when your stunts are X-Games worthy.”

Managing Risk in Video Game Development (Gamasutra)
“How do you best manage risk when creating a game? Using this article and the attached spreadsheet, you can better identify the problem areas in your game and get a sense of whether any decisions you are making actually make business sense.”

The Language of Monetization Design (Gamasutra)
“Automobiles and computers were so simplistic in their first 10 years that today we have a hard time looking back and appreciating just what a leap in technology they were at the time. Like all technology, they benefited from the iterative process, slowly adapting to changes in allied technologies, consumer demands, and infrastructure. Today both cars and computers have components in them that did not even have names 10 or 20 years ago. Before they could be added to these products, they had to be thought about and given names so that they then could be optimized and adapted to various uses.”

Source: The Indie Game Magazine – Dev Links: Pipe Dreams