RPG gems on XBLIG, Monaco, Kentucky Route Zero and more – in today’s Indie Links.

Breathe In The Road: Cardboard Computer And Kentucky Route Zero (Polygon)
“With Act 2 of their five-act piece on the horizon, artists Jake Elliott and Tamas Kemenczy discuss their past and their process and speak to their critics.”

Indie platformer Cloudberry Kingdom will be published by Ubisoft, coming this summer (Polygon)
“Indie side-scrolling platformer Cloudberry Kingdom will be published and distributed by Ubisoft this summer, the company announced today. Developed by Pwnee Studios, and successfully crowdfunded via Kickstarter last summer, Cloudberry Kingdom will feature levels that randomly generate each time you enter, presenting players with new challenges for each playtime, and adjustable difficulty ranging from casual to hardcore. Levels will adapt to the player’s skill level and the abilities of the in-game characters. Players will also be able to create their own characters and challenges.”

Guacamelee review: Wrestlevania (Joystiq)
“Is there anything more paltry than the video game chicken? Guacamelee lets you kick the poor featherballs, lock them in your log-like luchador arms, and pile-drive them into the ground so hard they bounce around the room. In the presence of a protagonist, the only thing worse off than a chicken is a vase.”

Monaco review: A good day to spy hard (Joystiq)
“I’m a terrible thief. If ever there were an investigation into a string of high-profile burglaries in my neighborhood, all I’d have to do to clear my name is invite some police officers to sit down, get comfortable, and watch me play Monaco for five minutes. The officers would see my glowing, pixelated character get caught on the walls around doorways while running away from hordes of angry guards with guns; they would laugh as I rushed into rooms full of alarms and set off every single one; and they would leave soon after I forgot, again, that my character could dig through walls, hack locked doors or easily knock out unsuspecting enemies, and I’d be a free woman. Just like I’d planned all along.”

The State of XBLIG RPGs (Independent Gaming)
“RPGs are powerhouses of both the AAA and the indie game industries. That’s no different on the Xbox Live Indie Game Marketplace, where they’re some of the best games on the service. Like RPGs? Here are some XBLIG suggestions for you.”

The Prisoners May Be Innocent in One of 2013′s Most Interesting PC Games (Kotaku)
“I’m already on-record about how fascinating Prison Architect is. Seriously, it’s SimPrison—or ThemePrison, if you will—made by people who seem to be damn near fearless about making video games about uncomfortable topics.”

Indiemon: Earth Nation (Indie Gamer Chick)
“I have an idea for a children’s game. In it, you’ll play as a pre-pubescent lad who will wander the world making animals fight for sport and for fame. You’ll start with one enslaved creature (possibly an adorable mouse-lightning bolt thing, something that just oozes cuteness) and then randomly fight other adorable creatures along the countryside. During a fight, right at the moment before your huggable little animal buddy delivers a merciless death-blow to the creature it just beat into a pulp, you’ll capture the creature in a cage way too small for it to possibly live comfortably in. You’ll then force it to fight creatures that you wish to enslave, with your ultimate aim being to capture one of every creature like some deranged, asexual Noah.”

Getting a start in making games, from the man behind Thirty Flights of Loving (IndieGames.com)
“This week I [was] fortunate enough to be featured in The Humble Weekly Sale. My email inflow has skyrocketed, and amongst them I get a fair amount of messages like this: I’m a student in high school and I’m really interested in making games, but I have no clue where to start. I was wondering if you could offer me some insight into where to start? Everyone’s brain is wired differently. For me, my best suggestion boils down to: Make stuff. Then make more stuff. If you’re not into brevity, I’ll get more specific.”

Source: The Indie Game Magazine – Indie Links Round-Up: Brick By Brick

SoundSelf is an exploration game where players use their voice to explore a world of sound and visuals. Each tone will navigate players through tunnels of light, shapes, and into a meditative trance. The result is an elegant symmetry of image and sound that takes advantage of loopholes in the way players perceive the world around them.

Kickstarter
Facebook

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Created by Wouter Swusten

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Source: The Indie Game Magazine – IGM Under Construction – ‘SoundSelf’ Prototype

This week I am largely going to be looking over more games that were submitted to the Ludum Dare 26, with today’s game being Minimalism by StabAlarash.

In Minimalism you are tasked to guide this shape out of this maze of killer shapes using your laser and your ability to morph into different shapes. It turns out to be a rather neat idea with many frustrating moment, as you try to find the correct shape for the door you are trying to access whilst trying to battle this never getting wave of geometrical shapes.

Even though Minimalism is a rather short game everything about it has been well thought out from the visuals to the gameplay giving Minimalism a very complete and well made feel.

Considering this game was made and developed over a weekend the level of quality here is just great showing want is capable of being done in such a short time.

Average play time – 10 minutes

Minimalism is a must have for anyone who enjoys light puzzles, mazes and lots of shooting. Minimalism really is a testament to hard work and dedication really showing what is possible over just one weekend of development.

Find out more and download Minimalism via 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 – ‘Minimalism’ A Geometric Nightmare

From this point onward, Steam Greenlight will release “greenlit” games in smaller batches, according to a new post on the official Greenlight blog.

“We have decided to Greenlight a smaller batch this time, so we can move more quickly,” the post reads. “There are lots of titles getting attention, so we are likely to continue Greenlighting titles in this quicker, but smaller batch fashion.”

The post goes onto explain that the four titles (three games, one program) were selected using the same criteria, despite the smaller amount of time in between Greenlight release announcements, as has regularly been used to select the chosen titles.

Edge of Space, Papers, Please, and Venetica were the three games released with this batch.

Steam users can continue to browse through the massive catalog of games attempting to become verified on Steam through Greenlight, on the official Greenlight website. All games which are “greenlit” will become available on Steam when completed, or through Steam’s new Early Access program, for development build releases.

Source: The Indie Game Magazine – Greenlight To Announce Games In Smaller Batches, Quietly Approves Three New Games

RADical ROACH is a fast paced shoot-em-up, set minutes after a nuclear hell falls from the sky engulfing all but a few tough little bugs. Play as a super radiated roach with new-found powers, and get to safety before the army of fleas get you.

GamersGate
Steam Greenlight

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Created by Wouter Swusten

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Source: The Indie Game Magazine – IGM Let’s Try – ‘RADical Roach’

Are games art? Are gamers artists? What do you suck at? Is it launching your game? So many questions (and luckily plenty of answers) in today’s Dev Links.

Are Game(r)s Art(ists)? (Gamasutra)
“”Interactivity’s a very interesting word, because it implies that this is something we didn’t do in art before, which is complete nonsense, because the only interesting art experiences are the ones that engage you in that way; in which you are invited to become part of the authorship of something in some way or another. And usually in some more meaningful way than choosing whether to open this door or that door.” - Brian Eno”

What do you suck at? (Develop Online)
“Mike Bithell on why it is important to be aware of the gaps in your game development skills.”

Launch Day 2.0 (AltDevBlogADay)
“I didn’t sleep well the night before our Sunday launch of Vex Blocks. Despite the weeks we’ve had the game in the hands of testers, a new bug had come to light late Saturday evening. While not game breaking it still needed to be addressed. I stayed up working on the problem until solved. Chat messages, frantic on my part, went back and forth between myself and my partner until between the two of us we were able smooth things out. I then prepped the build for the next morning’s launch and finally after a long day allowed myself to push back away from my desk just after 1am. I tried and failed to sleep after that.”

BattleBlock Theater (Beta): User Created Levels (The Behemoth)
“Ah, yes… the BattleBlock Community Theater. Even after 3 years of playwriting levels, how those Beta builders still managed to surprise me! And kill me. And then surprise me again! Whether I was flung through explosions into rooms made out of teleporters or flung through teleporters into rooms made out of explosions, the experience was quite the rollercoastery deathtrap of emotion.”

A tree killed his Granny! Jack is STEAMing (Owlchemy Labs)
“Mobile’s most poplar game is now available on Steam! Stack beards, chug syrup, and rock flannel as you axe your way through the forest on your PC/Mac/Linux machine and make your Granny proud.”

Receiver’s Greenlight Journey (Wolfire Games)
“Receiver was finally released on Steam today — check it out here! There is a one-week launch sale bringing the price down to $3.99. If you already have Receiver or Overgrowth, then you can claim your Steam key on your Humble Store download page (linked from your purchase email). Whenever a game is greenlit, there are always two questions that come up over and over: “How did it take THIS LONG for this game to get greenlit?”, and “How did THIS game get greenlit?” In this post I will try to answer both questions about Receiver!”

New HUD Layout (Krooked Gaming)
“So after a lot of adjustments, I think I’m finally happy with the new HUD. While I have a few concerns about how complicated it may look to new users, it does contain a lot of useful information.”

Indie Tools: PolyVox (IndieGames.com)
“PolyVox is (according to its developers admittedly) “a fast, lightweight C++ library for the storage and processing of volumetric (voxel-based) environments” that can be used for anything from games to scientific applications.””

Source: The Indie Game Magazine – Dev Links: The Next Plateau

Cry of Fear is a psychological single-player and co-op horror game set in a deserted town filled with horrific creatures and nightmarish delusions.

Cry of Fear originally started out as a Half-Life modification, set in the same vein as the classic survival horror games of old. Four years in the making and picking up several modding awards on the way, it is now a free standalone game for anyone to enjoy.

Cry of Fear
Steam

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Created by Zephyr Moore

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Source: The Indie Game Magazine – IGM Let’s Try- ‘Cry of Fear’

As the Indie Game Magazine’s resident point-and-click adventure fan, I feel compelled to point out the Kickstarter for AR-K, an upcoming episodic series of adventure games. The title may sound familiar from the 2011 release of first episode of Gata Salvaje Studios’ comedy sci-fi game series, Sex, Lies and Classwork. The first episode told the story of Alicia – a journalism student living in a utopian society who tries to solve the mystery of the life changing golden sphere, while dealing with day-to-day problems.

Gata Salvaje Studios has asked for funding to help finishing developing three more episodes of AR-K. These new episodes promise better writing than the first, with the help of comic book writer Greg Rucka. The Kickstarter page brags that Rucka is known as a writer of strong women characters, so I am sure he will be a welcome addition after the first episode’s somewhat poor English translation.  Also added to the team is Ash Sroka, voice actress of fan-loved Tali Zorah from the incredibly popular Mass Effect trilogy.

The most impressive aspect of the campaign is their goal to use funding for adapting the game for the visually impaired. Spending limited funds and development time on a feature a lot of developers consider optional or as a ‘eh, maybe one day’ feature like this is applause worthy. We’ll see how detailed the feature is when episode two releases, but until then Gata Salvajae has asked for your funding. If you aren’t sure, why not download the free first episode of AR-K?

Source: The Indie Game Magazine – ‘AR-K’ Devs Ask for Funding for Remaining Episodes

Dan Fitzgerald and Lisa Bromiel are the latest indie developers to try their hand at crowdfunding, having launched their Kickstarter campaign for Dog Sled Saga a few days ago. We covered the game previously, and took a great deal of interest in the game’s approach to the under-represented sport of dog-sledding. Evidently, this interest has been echoed by the wider public too; at the time of writing Dog Sled Saga stands at $4,149, with 25 days to go. If the positive trend continues, this should be more than ample time for the campaign to hit its $6,000 goal. As well as this, Dan and Lisa’s campaign has been featured on the Kickstarter “Staff Picks” list, which gives a great deal of exposure and is a boon to anyone hoping for Kickstarter success.  A very impressive start for the pair.

Cubemen 2 is a fast paced, action packed, original 3D Strategy game where you use your little Cubemen units to defend and attack enemies in a range of awesome game modes including CTF, Skirmish, Territory and more.

Cubemen 2
Steam

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About the Video:
Created by Zephyr Moore

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Source: The Indie Game Magazine – IGM Let’s Try- ‘Cubemen 2′