Indie Games!

During the Week there was the 11th annual Independent Games Festival (IGF). This is a whole side to indie that most people completely forget. This is where the battle between the bank-rolled games from the likes of EA and Activision come up against a small group who have "a great idea for a game". Lately the main games companies have fallen into the same trap as main stream films. Just rehashing the the old ideas and using newer technology. While sometimes that does produce results the games (and films) are often watered down in order to appeal to all pallets.

There are a load of indie games represented and here are a few of the nomenees:

Cletus Clay



This game reminds of the time in my youth when if asked what i was doing on the computer i would answer "Using time travelling toilets (ChronoJohns) to help stop an evil tentacle from taking over the world". Something the main stream industry does very well is take itself WAY to seriously. If i had to kill a horde of virtual aliens I'd rather have Cletus on my Side than Master Chief. This game was nominated for Excellence in Visual Art with it's combinations of stop-motion characters and computer graphics.

Blueberry Garden


Blueberry Garden (sneak peak trailer) from Erik Svedäng on Vimeo.

This game by a Swedish developer by the name of Erick Svedang looks great and seems to give the player a immersion into the world that EA's big release Spore never did. It came away with the Grand Price, the Seumas McNally award as well as Excellence in Audio.

Cortex Command


Cortex Command - Zombie Cave Gameplay from Data Realms on Vimeo.

This looks brilliant. If games are divided into casual or formal this appears to be some kind of hybrid. while it was nominated for Technical Excellence any game is also visually impressive for a side scroller. Also I've liked every game in which the player in a brain in a bunker controlling cyborgs. here's more info on the game.

the rest of the games can be found here. support indie games take a look at what some guy decided where the best ones around.