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Mischief Maker's Indie Roundup: The Reboot by Mischief Maker 10/01/2009, 7:08pm PDT
Hold onto your ties, squares, because while you've all been banging on the playground fence screaming silently about the coming Cablepocalypse like Linda Hamilton in Terminator 2, I've been surfing the wave of indie game releases that have been exploding onto the scene these last few weeks:

Alien Assault (freeware)

This game has gone through a hell of a development journey.

Space Hulk was a board game from Games Workshop made to cash in on the movie "Aliens" set in the Warhammer 40K universe. That board game went out of print and these indie developers, Teardown, created a buggy but decent freeware singleplayer port to the PC about a year and a half ago.

Shortly thereafter, they got a cease and desist letter from Games Workshop's legal department. For some reason Teardown got the naive idea that if they really polished and improved the game, that GW's legal department would happily let them use their IP. So for a year and a half they stomped bugs, improved the AI, added all sorts of mod-friendly features, and got polite petitions signed.

GW was impressed by the popular support and ended up releasing a 3rd edition Space Hulk boardgame (for $100, yikes!) guaranteeing that Teardown would never get the okay.

So Teardown hastily changed the maps and graphics into a generic Halo-esque space marines plot and have released their polished Space-Hulk-in-everything-but-name to the public before quitting in disgust.

It's fun.

Gratuitous Space Battles (Beta) v.1.12 ($20)

This game is gorgeous and it runs like a dream on old systems. That said, my enthusiasm for the game has soured over the course of this Beta, and there are going to have to be some major changes to make the final version a great game. The premise is, you custom design spaceships, then lay them out as a fleet, giving vague orders, then you sit back and watch the battle results unfold. It's a lot like the battles in Dominions 3, with many of the same flaws. You set up a small block of fast heavy hitters with minimal armor at the edge of your fleet with the idea of flanking the enemy and taking out their artillery, only to start the battle and watch your flankers make a beeline for the meatgrinder in the center of the screen.

But the main problem with the game is twofold: multiplayer battles are more like posting puzzles than facing off against opponents. You set up a fleet you think is badass, then other people play against it as many times as they want. You can't watch the battles that unfold, you can only see the abstract numbers of attempts verses victories. This comes to the next big problem: there is a counter to any fleet, but a fleet that spams one type of weapon/ship will murder a balanced fleet that is not designed to counter it. Judging by the author's blog, he's kind of flailing about to balance this thing and I'm not sure he's gonna be able to pull it off.

Osmos ($10)

You know how the perfect Oscar-bait movie would be one that stars a retard with AIDS in Auschwitz? I've just figured out the perfect IGF-bait. One where you play an amorphous blob wiggling your way through the game's physics engine. (See also Gish, World of Goo, etc.) That is the only explanation I can come up with for all the praise this dull-as-dirt katamari-esque puzzle game is getting.

Immortal Defense ($3)

Yes, I've mentioned this one before, but it's on sale until Oct. 4th for 3 bucks if you enter the discount code BMCN000H7 at checkout. If you like tower defense games, you owe it to yourself to get this game. Games like Harvest, Grid Defense, and Plants vs Zombies have popped up in this game's wake, but Immortal Defense is still the best.

Runman: Race Around the World (freeware)

YAAAAAAAAAAAAY!

Just came out tonight. It's a platformer with windows paint graphics and old-timey jazz and bluegrass music that lies somewhere between SMB and Sonic in terms of gameplay. The emphasis is on speed runs. It'll put a smile on your face.
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Mischief Maker's Indie Roundup: The Reboot by Mischief Maker 10/01/2009, 7:08pm PDT NEW
    Re: Mischief Maker's Indie Roundup: The Reboot by FABIO 10/01/2009, 9:48pm PDT NEW
        Bummer. by Mischief Maker 10/02/2009, 9:54am PDT NEW
            huh by FABIO 10/02/2009, 6:01pm PDT NEW
    frontpage plz NT by Zsenitan 10/02/2009, 9:55am PDT NEW
    Grat Space Battles by FABIO 10/06/2009, 10:56pm PDT NEW
        Tenative thumbs down (unless I'm missing something?) by FABIO 10/08/2009, 11:39pm PDT NEW
            Unfortunately you're not by Mischief Maker 10/09/2009, 8:06am PDT NEW
                Ender's Game spoilers in MM's post!!!! And mine. by Arbit 10/09/2009, 9:38am PDT NEW
                    Well ... that's just sci-fi, right? by Worm 10/09/2009, 10:53am PDT NEW
                        Re: Well ... that's just sci-fi, right? by Zsenitan 10/10/2009, 4:52am PDT NEW
                            ACTUALLY LET'S HAVE AN EXCERPT by Zsenitan 10/10/2009, 7:01am PDT NEW
                    Re: Ender's Game spoilers in MM's post!!!! And mine. by Ice Cream Jonsey 10/09/2009, 12:01pm PDT NEW
                    on sentient humans by Fullofkittens 10/09/2009, 12:18pm PDT NEW
                        Re: on sentient humans by Arbit 10/09/2009, 1:48pm PDT NEW
                            I don't fuckin' know man, I'm telling you what it says in the book. NT by Fullofkittens 10/09/2009, 5:04pm PDT NEW
                    Ender forward by FABIO 10/09/2009, 1:18pm PDT NEW
                    Re: Ender's Game spoilers in MM's post!!!! And mine. by Zsenitan 10/10/2009, 4:38am PDT NEW
                The only thing worse than Ender's Game by FABIO 10/09/2009, 1:12pm PDT NEW
                    Ender's Game fans also tend to love Atlas Shrugged by FABIO 10/09/2009, 1:14pm PDT NEW
                    Also... by Chairman Mao 10/09/2009, 1:39pm PDT NEW
                        Speaker For The Dead was totally awesome compared to Xenocide. by Fullofkittens 10/09/2009, 1:42pm PDT NEW
                            Children of the Mind was actually my favorite by Chairman Mao 10/09/2009, 1:48pm PDT NEW
                                Oh yeah, and... by Chairman Mao 10/09/2009, 1:50pm PDT NEW
                                    Don't whiz on the electric fence NT by Entropy Stew 10/09/2009, 2:15pm PDT NEW
                                Card's women are always horrible creatures by FABIO 10/09/2009, 3:36pm PDT NEW
                    Re: The only thing worse than Ender's Game by Arbit 10/09/2009, 2:15pm PDT NEW
                        Re: The only thing worse than Ender's Game by FABIO 10/09/2009, 2:26pm PDT NEW
                    Oh my god, a good Fabio post. Hard on the heels of the adorable Korean Pizza eve NT by Zsenitan 10/09/2009, 3:45pm PDT NEW
                        Will your friends vote me into top 3 caltrops posters now? NT by FABIO 10/09/2009, 3:52pm PDT NEW
                            I will ask ^___________________________________________________________________^ NT by Zsenitan 10/09/2009, 3:55pm PDT NEW
                    ender's game won a hugo and nebula award for great science fiction, HAVE YOU? NT by Weyoun Voidbringer 10/17/2009, 3:57pm PDT NEW
                    I remember why I hated Speaker of the Dead so much by fabio 05/12/2015, 9:54am PDT NEW
            the enemies actually shoot back? that's not a tower defense game then NT by Weyoun Voidbringer 10/09/2009, 2:19pm PDT NEW
    Re: Mischief Maker's Indie Roundup: The Reboot by Bananadine 10/21/2009, 2:25pm PDT NEW
 
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