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

Last year at PAX East, Capybara’s Super T.I.M.E. Force was the game that had me wetting myself with anticipation.  I was lucky enough to play the newest build this year at PAX and was taken aback by the new time control and strategy elements.  The game hasn’t changed.  You still play as a member of the elite time travelers force known as the Temporal Inevitability Manipulation Experts – or T.I.M.E., the big changes in this game are the balance and new features.  Last year, when your character died you were automatically returned to the start of the level.  It kept the game hectic and fun as you plowed through enemies with the gatling gun, sniper or shield character.  Now that the game is closer to release on XBLA, it is clear that our temporal experts have a lot more control of time than we were lead to believe.  When you die, you now have full control of rewinding time and spawning a new character in whatever location that you like.  Deaths are clearly marked with red skulls on the timeline so that you can focus on saving past instances of yourself.

The ability to control your spawn point in the timeline adds a ton of strategy and that’s needed with the new time constraint to each level.  Each level now features a time limit along with a certain number of lives.  This limit can luckily be extended by picking up time bonuses throughout the level.  The new version also featured a brand new super funky fresh Lizard with sunglasses character.  This newest member of the force is all about melee combat and can even scratch and reflect bullets.  The game also boasts a brand new co-op mode so that this intense and fun shooter can be shared with a friend.

Super T.I.M.E. Force is shaping up to be a huge hit for Xbox Live.  It’s instantly fun and over the past year the team has added more depth, challenge and multiplayer features.  Super T.I.M.E. Force is expected to be released for XBLA Spring 2013.  You can stay up to date on the game by checking out Capy’s official blog.

Source: The Indie Game Magazine – PAX East: Capy’s Super T.I.M.E. Force – Strategy Upgrade

Dark times come in today’s Indie Links, with games set in shadowy worlds, a game where the lights actually go out, and a game that portrays the nightmares of a toddler…

Top 10 Free Platformer Games of 2012 (IndieGames)
“The indie universe continued to offer up in 2012 platformers of all types: auto-running, puzzle, exploratory, narrative-driven, and subversive. And even in this age where developers can easily charge money for their creations, some choose to release them for free.”

Behind The Sounds: Hotline Miami And FTL (Rock, Paper, Shotgun)
“Music man David Valjalo follows-up his exploration of the big-budget orchestral soundtracks in the mainstream games industry with a look at the other end of the scale – the super-low-budget, ultra-catchy, sometimes kitschy scores of indie darlings. He rounds up the men behind Hotline Miami, Sweden-based Dennis Wedin and Jonatan Soderstrom, two of the soundtrack artists they hand-picked, US artists M.O.O.N. and Scattle, and FTL composer Ben Prunty, to get the scoop on making music for small games and, quite often, small change.”

The Horror Game Where You Play As A Toddler Still Looks Eerie Despite Some Public Outcry (Kotaku)
“Remember Among The Sleep? It’s that game by Krillbrite studio where you play as a two year old who has yet to ‘develop a full sense of reality, making you weak and susceptible to the horrifying creatures inhabiting your nightmares.’ If you’ve forgotten, this is your reminder that This Cool Game Still Exists.”

New Xbox Live Indie Games For Week Ending January 18, 2013 (indiePub)
“Best bets this week include: Little Acorns Deluxe, a pixel platformer game where you take on the role of Mr. Nibbles; Dynasty of Dusk, a role-playing game where you must stand up to an emperor trying to gain immortality; Grid Space Shooter, a shooter game where you try to survives massive swarms of enemy ships; and finally Ultimate Dodgeball where you create a Dodgeball team and perform amazing acrobatic tricks while attacking the other team.”

The Joystiq Indie Pitch: A Walk In The Dark (Joystiq)
“Indie developers are the starving artists of the video-game world, often brilliant and innovative, but also misunderstood, underfunded and more prone to writing free-form poetry on their LiveJournals. We believe they deserve a wider audience with the Joystiq Indie Pitch: This week, the Flying Turtle team in Portugal talks barebones marketing and Steam Greenlight with its stylistic indie platformer, A Walk in the Dark.”

2013 Global Game Jam Expected To Break Previous Attendance Records (Polygon)
“Global Game Jam, a 48-hour game design event, is expected to break its participant record during the fifth annual event taking place this weekend, organizers announced. During the Global Game Jam, teams of professional and amateur developers gather to create games based on an announced theme. The event will take place in more than 300 worldwide locations in 60 countries. Game design professional Erin Robinson and Breat Victor will deliver this year’s keynote speech.”

Interview: Kentucky Route Zero’s Mountain of Meanings (Rock, Paper, Shotgun)
“Kentucky Route Zero is a joyously original, heartfelt thing. If you haven’t already played it, go do that. If you have, then step on down to the RPS porch, pull up a slightly weather-worn deck chair, and let some soulful bluegrass overwhelm your senses. Easy, easy. The interview will begin soon, but for now, there’s certainly no rush. Oh, fair warning: it’s pretty SPOILERY. Co-creator Jake Elliott and I discuss Kentucky Route Zero’s unique approaches to storytelling, theater’s heavy influence on the game, the negative general perception of the American South, talking to animals, ghost stories, economic hardship, and a number of specific in-game scenes. So then, stroll on inside RPS’ quaintly rustic hilltop abode whenever you’re ready. Or don’t. There’s always time.”

Audio Files: Aivi Tran And RPG Craymore (IndieGames)
“Two weeks ago I had the pleasure of rockin’ out with extremely talented pianist Aivi Tran at Magfest XI. Not only is she a beast at piano improvisation, she also composes music for indie games. Her recently released track “Climb, Lest I Fall” (above) was written for the upcoming RPG Cryamore, which looks to be reminiscent of Legend of Mana style gameplay. If my analysis of the gameplay is anywhere near the mark, Aivi’s music will do an excellent job at complementing Cryamore.”

Source: The Indie Game Magazine – Indie Links Round-Up: Purple Worm

Today’s Indie Links recipe calls for several cups of platformers, with a heaping tablespoon of fighting games and a soupçon of other genres.

Road to the IGF: Richard Hofmeier’s Cart Life (Gamasutra)
“Richard Hofmeier’s Cart Life was originally released in May 2011, and for a good while it drifted along without all that much attention. This was a huge shame, because the retail simulation title is as brilliant as it is deep. You play as an entrepreneur who is looking to start a business, while also making sure other areas of his or her life are kept in order.”

Platformer From Hell And Little Acorns Deluxe (Indie Gamer Chick)
“Platformer from Hell comes from Hoosier Games, a group of academics from Indiana.  I know, I know.  Academics?  In Indiana?  I went ‘Hah!’ too, but upon further research, they do have institutes of higher learning there.  I’m not sure what is considered higher learning in Indiana.  ‘Cow Tipping 101′ or ‘Why you can’t pork your sister’ I would imagine are on the agenda.  I’m kidding of course.  Actually, I’m quite friendly with project manager Derrick Fuchs (I hope that’s pronounced the way I think it is) and I ranked their previous effort, Warp Shooter, on the Indie Gamer Chick Leaderboard.  It was flawed but functional and fun.  I applauded their efforts and looked forward to their next game.  Which is here.  And it sucks.  A lot.”

Play Nifflas’ Nordic Game Jam 2013 Winner Spaceship With A Mace And More For Free (IndieGames)
“The Nordic Game Jam 2013 concluded with, as of this writing, approximately 80 games completed at the reported 470-person event. Nifflas’ multiplayer game Spaceship with a Mace was crowned the Grand Prize winner of the event. Stikbold, another multiplayer only game, was crowned ‘most fun game.’”

Damn It, Owlboy, Why Aren’t You Out Yet (Kotaku)
“It’s been a long time coming. A long, long time, and still no release date in sight. But indie adventure/platformer Owlboy looks worth the wait. This video, released over the weekend, showcases both the music of composer Jonathan Geer and the game’s charming art style, which for want of something more descriptive reminds me of a Genesis version of Wind Waker.”

State of XBLIG Fighting Games (Independent Gaming)
“Fighting games have always been a staple of video games to some extent, whether big or small, but they’ve seemed to disappear in the last decade or so. Seemed to. They’ve started to experience a resurgence in the AAA market; probably with a bit of help from the indie market. Xbox Live indie games have a handful of good fighting games so, without further ado, here are some interesting/fun XBL indie games of the fighting genre, in no particular order.”

Review: Marvin’s Mittens – Rekindle The Joy Of Exploring A Winter Wonderland (Indie Game Reviewer)
“Though aesthetically, Marvin’s Mittens from Canadian developers Breakfall Games may appear to be geared towards a younger audience, there’s something on offer here that could be compelling for any audience, particularly those who fondly remember snow days from their childhood.”

The Soaring Successes, Surprise Endings And Abject Failures Of Crowd-Funded Video Games (Polygon)
“Kickstarter is no longer untested water for game financing. Since the website’s inauguration in April 2009, 3,843 projects have launched in its games category. But what happens to these projects after they leave Kickstarter, either through funding success or funding failure?”

Source: The Indie Game Magazine – Indie Links Round-Up: Dental Hygiene

Today’s Indie Links include six top ten lists, and nine top five lists. So… I guess you can pick your top five or ten top ten/five lists, if you really want to.

The Joystiq Indie Pitch: Ravaged (Joystiq)
“Indie developers are the starving artists of the video-game world, often brilliant and innovative, but also misunderstood, underfunded and more prone to writing free-form poetry on their LiveJournals. We believe they deserve a wider audience with the Joystiq Indie Pitch: This week, 2 Dawn Games’ Carsten Boserup talks crowdfunding and indie publishing with his Steam game (now on sale!), Ravaged.”

Little Inferno (Indie Gamer Chick)
“Tis the season of gifts.  Or, if you want to be a killjoy, the season to burn toys in a fireplace.  That’s the idea behind Little Inferno, an independent game for the Wii U.  It’s by the guys behind World of Goo, which was probably the best digital-download game on the original Wii.  But World of Goo got by on being a quirky, addictive physics-puzzler.  Little Inferno, on the other hand, feels like the type of time-sink you would find on the iPhone market.  In fact, there are lots mechanical issues with Little Inferno that make me think it started life as a micro transaction-oriented mobile game, like Doodle God for arsonists.  Only such games typically cost $1 or less and make their money by nickle-and-diming you to speed up the gameplay.  Little Inferno charges you $15 upfront, and keeps the action nice-and-slow.”

Top 10 Best Indie Games of 2012, Honorable Mentions and IGR’s Most Anticipated Games of 2013 (Indie Game Reviewer)
“At IndieGameReviewer.com, we began compiling our Top Ten indie Games 2012 edition sometime around June. This is because we wanted to remember the impact of the games that came out in the first half of the year, and from that point forward, we looked at every game that crossed our path with the same consideration, regardless of its size…”

Music of the Spheres – Mathematical Beauty in Action (Independent Gaming)
“What kind of person are you, that you hunt angels?! Er, sorry. Music of the Spheres is certainly a simple concept at first glance, and is always interesting. But it gets more complicated. The theme certainly isn’t angel genocide, but something much more beautiful.”

Live Free, Play Hard: The Week’s Finest Free Indie Games (Rock, Paper, Shotgun)
“First off, lists are bullshit. But these are indie games, not some Triple A Shooter that everyone knows about already, so we threw together our top 5 in the following categories to entice you to take a second look at some of the best games of the year.”

Top 10 Indie Horror Games of 2012 (IndieGames)
“Horror, just like humor, is an ancient, fickle and hard to tame beast. Going beyond mere jump-scares and evoking the feeling of proper fear can be particularly tough, but more than a few indie developers seem ready to tackle such tasks. This particular roundup hopes to cover the best and, well, most scary horror releases of 2012 and is featuring both freeware and commercial titles for a variety of platforms.”

The Sequel To The Best Reverse-Tower-Defense Game Is Superb, If Barely A Sequel (Kotaku)
“Anomaly Korea is actually very, very much like 2011′s Anomaly: Warzone Earth, the reverse tower-defense game. You still command a slow-rolling column of tanks and transports through a maze of evil enemy towers. You can still map out your route through the city streets using your fingers. You can still tap special power-ups into existence to briefly buff your vehicles or baffle your foes. You can still kill towers, collect money and upgrade your vehicles. You still need to get to a goal point with some vehicles. The game still checkpoints, makes you think, plan and re-plan, getting tough nice and quickly.”

Skulls of the Shogun Devs Interested in Cross-Platform Purchase Promotion, But Microsoft Can’t Yet Do It (Polygon)
“Buy one version of Skulls of the Shogun, get another for free? Developer 17-Bit would like to make that happen, but CEO Jake Kazdal told Polygon that the indie studio is hamstrung by Microsoft — the company doesn’t have anything like Sony’s PlayStation 3/PlayStation Vita Cross Buy promotion set up across Windows 8, Windows Phone, Windows RT or Xbox Live Arcade titles.”

Source: The Indie Game Magazine – Indie Links Round-Up: Spin The Wheel

Last September, Expeditions: Conquistador was successfully funded on Kickstarter, raising $77,247…seven-thousand dollars over the goal. Danish development studio, Logic Artists, have been at work finishing development and polishing the game, getting it ready for its February 28th release. I managed to get my hands on a preview-build of Expeditions: Conquistador, and as one normally averse to tactical strategy games, I was pleasantly surprised with what Logic Artists did with Expeditions.

Expeditions: Conquistador puts players in the position of a prominent Spanish conquistador, setting off to the New World. The game starts off by letting you define your character name, his traits, and who you want on your crew. I chose the historically accurate name “Olympus Mufasa” for my conquistador, and I decided, with a name like that he isn’t too keen on diplomacy, but would be above average at survival and leadership. I left the other three traits (tactics, healing, and scouting) alone. From there, Expeditions allows the player to choose their crew: ten slots are available, and there are five classes to choose from. My crew ended up being composed of two doctors, one scholar, two hunters, three soldiers, and two scouts. I just wish I could have named them too, perhaps as a nod to the days of Oregon Trail.

The tutorial begins as soon as your ship docks in a port, in what I think was Santo Domingo. One of my initial fears going into Expeditions: Conquistador was that I would spend more time learning the game than I would actually playing it. I like to spend about an hour with a preview-build before I start forming opinions; I didn’t want to spend forty-five of those sixty minutes reading about attrition or supply-lines. Luckily, the tutorials in Expeditions are incredibly noob-friendly, and I had no problem keeping track of what was what and where it all was.

One thing that I particularly liked about Expeditions that I normally dislike in any sort of game, was the text-based dialog. As much as I like to read, I don’t like to in video games, and normally I skip through texty chat windows. But, the dialog in Expeditions was so engaging: you are given options of what to say that are not clearly paragon/renegade, and what you say affects how some members of your crew regard you, and can go on to affect their moral for better or worse. This system helps you to grow familiar with your crew, so when they all die at the hands of your less-than-skilled strategic moves, you feel a bit bummed about it. Not that I’m speaking from experience, or anything like that.

Once the tutorials are over with, I progressed out into the jungle, and got my first feel at how the rest of the game would play out. Basically, I could move Senor Mufasa (has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?) a certain distance every “day” before I would have to set up camp. Setting up camp involves choosing which crew members take over what responsibilities for that night. Based on where your campsite is (road, jungle, beach, mountain, etc.) there are a number of options available. The tasks include posting guards to keep out the thieving natives; sending out patrols which can result in nice bonus discoveries from time to time; having hunters go out and gather extra rations; and having crew members tend to preserving the meat or putting together medicine from the collected resources (both animals and plants). If a crew member has sustained a wound in combat, assigning a medically-proficient crew member to care for them at night will help improve their condition.

Then there is the combat. Say you don’t post enough guards one night and some pesky natives sneak in and attempt to make off with rations or valuables; Expeditions switches into its combat mode, which will look familiar to anyone who has played a turn-based strategy game before. Of the combat scenarios I played in, I was only able to select up to six of my chosen ten crew members, to take into battle. I had no trouble gradually decimating my crew over a few combat scenarios, but that’s more to do with my ability than the difficulty of the game.

The combat gameplay is very straightforward, and I wasn’t overwhelmed with minute details about combat maneuvers and avatar placement. There are only a few “tricks” to learn, like using a ranged character to attack a melee-based character in a neighboring tile allows the melee opponent to immediately counter-attack (I’m assuming to simulate the reload time that was an issue with arquebuses). All together, the part of the game I was most hesitant about, was not a bad experience at all.

Expeditions: Conquistador has a planned release date of February 28th, and while the Logic Artists website is currently under construction, which could be disastrous for their sales if they don’t get that back online, I suggest that you all give their Facebook page a look for where to find Expeditions, upon its release. Even if turn-based strategy isn’t something you normally go for, I fit in that demographic and I still had fun with Expeditions: Conquistador.

Source: The Indie Game Magazine – Editor’s Notebook: ‘Expeditions: Conquistador’ Hands-On Preview

Today’s Indie Links include a hundred indie game picks from the Independent Game Festival submissions, ten notable indie strategy games from 2012, and nine games that weren’t finalists in the IGF awards (but at least one judge thinks should have been).

100 Indie Game Picks for IGF 2013 (PixelProspector)
“Well…I’ve browsed through the 800+ Entrants (~580 Main Entrants and ~300 Student Entrants) and picked 80 100 games. All those games can be found on 100 Indie Game Picks for IGF 2013 (with links to: homepage, igf entry page and trailer)
The shown games are either picked because I have tested them personally (for example: Awesomenauts, Syder Arcade, Gas Guzzlers, Iconoclasts, Super House of Dead Ninjas…) or because they look promising.”

Top 10 Indie Strategy Games of 2012 (IndieGames)
“Strategy gaming, despite being one of the most demanding genres for players and developers alike, is also one of the areas indie devs seem to excel at and gamers seem to love. What’s more, 2012 was an excellent year for the tactically thinking masses indeed, what with its impressive selection of strategy offerings appearing on most platforms. What follows are our picks of the very best strategy games of 2012 and, as you will soon discover, it’s a list covering everything from RTS and turn-based games to tower-defense and rogue-like variants. It even sports some excellent freebies!”

Indie Studio Takes Stand Against Over-Priced Games In Australia (GamePolitics)
“Melbourne Australia-based indie game developer Endgame Studios is tired of the high prices that gamers in the region have to pay for video games (compared to Europe and other regions) and has decided to voice their opinion about how much they think it sucks. In a post entitled ‘A stand against exorbitant Aussie game prices!,’ the studio says that Australian gamers are asked to pay 50 – 100 percent more than American consumers due to – according to publishers and distributors – currency exchange rates. Endgame Studios says that now because of digital distribution of many titles (there is no physical product to haul) and because the Australian dollar is stronger than the U.S. dollar the old justification for higher game prices no longer works.”

3DS Game Review – Fluidity: Spin Cycle (Curve) (IndieGames)
“Curve has shown its platformer breadth and expertise once again, having previously mixed physics and blasts in Explodemon and stealth and speed in Stealth Bastard. The dev’s latest, Fluidity: Spin Cycle (or Hydroventure: Spin Cycle in the EU), is so slick with its water-based physics and puzzle platforming that it easily becomes one of the best games on the 3DS, retail or digital.”

Hit List Q&A: Supergiant Games Studio Director Amir Rao (Joystiq)
“Amir Rao is the Studio Director for Supergiant Games, the team behind the AIAS award-winning downloadable game Bastion, which was released on Xbox Live Arcade, Steam, Mac, Linux, Chrome and iOS. Prior to Supergiant Games, Amir worked at Electronic Arts Los Angeles as a designer on Command & Conquer 3 and Red Alert 3.”

The Inaugural Horace Awards For Forgotten IGF Entrants (Rock, Paper, Shotgun)
“The IGF 2013 finalists were announced yesterday, with many worthy nominees up for the trophies. But as a judge in the first round of voting, I spotted a bunch of games I’m disappointed to not see get further. Disappointed, and with my own website. So to fix this, I’ve pulled together the inaugural Horace Award For Forgotten IGF Entrants. The winners are below.”

Game The News Project Developer Interview (Independent Gaming)
“While surfing the web I came across an interesting concept. A group was putting together (indie) games to help people better understand the news and the world around them. I was so curious as to what the developers had to say that I contacted them and landed an interview with the creative director, Tomas.”

Playgrounds: Gaijin Games’ Jason Cirillo (Polygon)
“This is our very first installment of Playgrounds from outside of the Polygon staff and it’s with great pleasure that we introduce Mr. Jason Cirillo, a designer at California-based Gaijin Games (makers of the BIT.TRIP series), and host of retro gaming web series Bit Museum. If you’re a collector, developer or super fan with a collection worth sharing on Playgrounds, let us know at playgrounds@polygon.com! Take it away, Jason!”

Source: The Indie Game Magazine – Indie Links Round-Up: Developer’s Lair

UnReal World is a roguelike RPG in which you take the role of an adventurer during the late Iron Age in a randomly generated world inspired by ancient Finland. In a world rich with northern folklore, the player becomes a member of one of nine different cultures and creates their own story of discovery and survival.

UnReal World by Enormous Elk was originally released in 1992, but the team behind it still saw tremendous potential with the system already in place. The game was completely re-written in 1994 as UnReal World version 2.00b. Since then, the game has been continually receiving updates for the last 19 years.

This month, February of 2013, UnReal World will be switching from its current model of pricing to a donation based one. In the past they have given the option to purchase just the current version or buy a subscription to all of the versions. Instead, all of the versions will be free and fans will be able to support the developers with donations.

The new update will also be adding features such as a completely new item selection dialog which will allow the selecting multiple items, item filtering and listing of  non-player items in groups. Commands for filling containers, eating, drinking and other tasks are more smoothly integrated and hunger is being implemented into the animals so that they react out of their own need for survival.

Based on the way so many indies gain their community through their game’s beta phase, it would make sense for us to see more games adopt UnReal World‘s model of constantly receiving updates as long as developers are able to support themselves with it. You can purchase a copy now or keep up with the updates on UnReal World‘s official website.

Source: The Indie Game Magazine – ‘UnReal World’ RPG Is Going Free-To-Play Later This Month

Today we try out the second episode in the Cognition series, The Wise Monkey, from Phoenix Online Studios.

Following The Hangman, The Wise Monkey is the second of four episodes starring psychic detective Erica Reed. The game features a fully voice narrative, with The Scarlet Furies‘ singer, Raleigh Holmes, voicing Erica Reed. Jane Jensen, creator of the Gabriel Knight adventure games, served as the creative consultant to Cognition’s choice-based storyline, and the hand-drawn art direction was lead by Romano Molenaar, who has had his hand in Batman and The Darkness comics, among others.

A demo is available on the main website, and both episodes can be purchased from the Phoenix Online Studios store.

]]> http://www.diygamer.com/2013/02/igm-lets-try-cognition-an-erica-reed-thriller-episode-2-the-wise-monkey/feed/ 0 http://www.diygamer.com/2013/01/igm-news-recap-0109/ http://www.diygamer.com/2013/01/igm-news-recap-0109/#comments Thu, 10 Jan 2013 10:58:07 +0000 Chris Newton http://www.diygamer.com/2013/01/igm-news-recap-0109/

Chris Newton (12 posts)

Chris is the Content Manager for IGM. His job is to continually improve the reader experience and assist the writing and editing teams become the most well oiled machine that they can be. You can follow Chris on Twitter @cnewton_igm.