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So a while back, indie game creator Anna Antrhopy wrote a book called Rise of the Videogame Zinesters: How Freaks, Normals, Amateurs, Artists, Dreamers, Drop-outs, Queers, Housewives, and People Like You Are Taking Back an Art Form. I love this book! It's about the increased accessibility of game-making tools, and the resulting wave of tiny little expressive games made by individuals. Since they oftentimes don't stand a chance on Steam Greenlight, I think we should have a thread dedicated to celebrating and discussing these games! God knows there's so many more of them worth playing than I can track down on my own. "Idiosyncratic" is probably the first word I'd choose to describe games like these. There's little to unify them - sometimes they're challenging pixel platformers, sometimes they're first-person games with nothing to do but explore. Sometimes they're mostly narrative, sometimes they're based on tight and renewable gameplay. Sometimes they're polished, but more often, they're messy - and in the best of times, that mess is part of the charm. Here are some of my personal favorites! All of these can be played for free on Windows or Mac. Triad  Triad is a very small game, consisting of just one puzzle. It was made by Anna Anthropy, who I mentioned above, and in my opinion it perfectly encapsulates her philosophy: this game is expressive. It's about three people in a polyamorous relationship struggling to find a comfortable way to share a single bed. Cleverly delivers a cute point about bodies and relationships through the use of game mechanics. Corrypt  (Also available on iOS!) Michael Brough has earned a bit of a reputation for being some kind of mastermind, a reputation he's largely earned for his meticulous iOS roguelike 868-HACK. Corrypt is somewhat less assuming but no less ingenious - what starts as a very clever sokoban-style puzzle game, with distinctive visuals and procedural music, gives way to the best twist in a puzzle game since Portal. I won't spoil it. Absolutely worth a look even if you usually hate block sliding. The Terrible Whiteness Of Appalachian Nights  Steven Lavelle, AKA Increpare, makes a lot of weird little sketches. He specializes in puzzles which seem impossible, but I've already linked to two puzzle games so this one's one of his mostly-narrative games. Featuring a seriously creepy atmosphere, this game lets you experience a modern housewife's mental breakdown! Ramble Planet  This game's a recent discovery of mine, and a good example of the kind of gem you can find by digging around - fuckin' no one is playing this thing. It seems to be by a guy who calls himself Willy Elektrix. It's kind of a big scavenger hunt. It might take some serious dedication to actually finish, but it's super colorful, is really pleasing to look at, and has groovy music and witty + surreal writing. You can play it on your OUYA if you want to dust that thing off!? Experiment 12  Spearheaded by Terry Cavanagh of VVVVVV and Super Hexagon fame, Experiment 12 is an "exquisite corpse" - essentially 12 different game segments by 12 different game makers, each featuring their own gameplay, graphics, and sound, unified by a fraying thread of a plot and nightmare logic. More than the sum of its parts. All these people have more games you should check out! Let's talk about that, let's talk about these, let's talk about other game creators, let's talk about game jams and gamejolt and Twine and how cool all this stuff is. Space Hamlet fucked around with this message at 12:14 on Jun 14, 2014 |
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Jun 14, 2014 12:10
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Space Hamlet posted:The Terrible Whiteness Of Appalachian Nights Yeti Hunter is an odd little atmospheric game that does a lot with a minimal design. You'll probably figure out the gimmick and get tired of it pretty quick, but it's an entertaining and sometimes tense 10 minutes or so. 
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Jun 15, 2014 01:55
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Experiment 12 is really cool. At the least, you should try out the first two games to get a feel for the atmosphere (skip the 3D ones though). Michael Brough of Corrypt did the fifth or sixth one, and boy, it sure is Corrypt with a mediocre twist.  The man's got reskinning and gimmicking up his one game down to a science, I'll give him that.
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Jun 15, 2014 02:09
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I will check out Yeti Hunter, thanks! Vlambeer tend to be solid, Gun Godz crashes on me though. I don't really agree that all of Michael Brough's games are that similar. By the nature of Experiment 12 everything in it is kind of a quick sketch, not really fair to hold one guy's contribution to the same standards as a full release. Anyway, the Steam Sale started today, and you know what that means: ignore it and head over to itch.io to find some new things to play! Here's some stuff I found today: Mibibli's Quest  This is a pretty tough action platformer with a neat punky twist on the Megaman "Nintendo hard" style. Sweet music! Crazy mechanical mixups! Pay what you want! Ilamentia  Atmospheric first-person-puzzler set in some kind of celestial plane. Are you some kind of angel or some kind of demon? Very mysterious! Lots of different kinds of puzzles! hosed-up mouse controls! Not free, but there's a generous free demo. Space Hamlet fucked around with this message at 02:28 on Jun 20, 2014 |
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Jun 19, 2014 22:54
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Have some trailers, friends: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVDiHgiP3ww https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T67HmBbIPRs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrZ_POiKJO4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bK7gmHjGVoE
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Jul 4, 2014 20:16
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