Indie games are fucking rad and everybody should be playing them.

“But Nick!” you exclaim, “They’re all for PC and I’m firmly entrenched in Jobsland! Nobody makes games for Mac!”

Well, I am here to educate you. After this post, you will have no excuse to not be playing awesome free indie games all the freaking time. Check this out!

Cave Story is, quite possibly, one of the main catalysts of the modern indie game scene. It’s a metroidvania style game with gorgeous pixel graphics and an amazing chiptune soundtrack. If you dig platformers, especially with a heavy dose of exploration, definitely play this one. The above link takes you to a page with instructions on how to download a mac version and apply the english translation patch.

ABA Games aka Kenta Cho is a brilliant man. He makes old school shmups with beautifully simple graphics. Calling them “retro” doesn’t quite give them enough credit though; he definetly has a style all his own. There’s mac ports of some of his best games here and here. I recommend rRootage, and my personal favorite of his, Tumiki Fighters (the second of which is currently being remade as a Wii game.) His website is also charmingly full of engrish. If you can play these games with a joystick or gamepad, they get exponentially better, but are still more than playable with a keyboard.

Dwarf Fortress is quite possibly the most hardcore game you will ever play. Actually, no, it is the most hardcore game you will ever play. It’s so hardcore, it requires reading the games own wiki before you can even stratch the surface. It’s an oddly simple premise though: you have a bunch of Dwarves and you help them built a fortress. The level of simulation in this game, however, would make Will Wright blush. Everything is simulated here, from the moods, relationships, and interests of each individual Dwarf, to a full ecosystem and weather, to rival Dwarven clans and enemy goblin camps, and even potentially friendly human settlers. All of this in real time, and in multiple levels above and below ground. It even generates the entire world on the fly when you start a new game, including thousands of years of pre-history (most of which you can actually find evidence of as you explore the world). The level of freedom in this game is also pretty unparalleled. Why is this game not the only game anybody ever plays? Well, as stated before, it’s hardcore with a capital HARDCORE. Partially due to the difficulty of the game itself, but mostly due to the graphics and interface. The graphics are entirely ASCII and the interface is almost completely keyboard driven. What little mouse control there is at all is barely worth mentioning. There are some graphical patches you can download, which I highly recommend if you aren’t squeamish about moving around files and editing config scripts. If you can get yourself into this game, then prepare for some sleepless nights as you obsess over your smiley little Dwarves and their virtual Dwarven lives.

N is a hardcore platform game about a ninja collecting gold while dodging killer robots. What more do you need, really? You may recall that there was recently an enhance version of this game released under the title N+ on X-Box Live Arcade. The original is still free, and still pretty damned good. Hard to play with the keyboard though…

Battle for Wesnoth is not only Indie, it’s also completely open source! This is easily one of the most polished games out there distributed under the GPL. If you like the Fire Emblem games, or any turn-based strategy games or board games, you will dig Wesnoth.

All these games are free and available for your operating system. There’s really no excuse why you shouldn’t be playing them right now. So yeah, go do it already!

Posted by nick on 26 Apr 2008 at 02:54 am

No Comments »

Read it all HERE!

Posted by ryan on 24 Apr 2008 at 02:17 pm

1 Comment »

Jesse whipped up some killer desktop wallpapers featuring Kindercore art old and new. Check ‘em out in the FORUM.

Posted by ryan on 06 Mar 2008 at 03:26 pm

No Comments »

Yeah, yeah, I know… long timey no typey. Well if you must pry, I have been failing miserably at passing a kidney stone and succeeding victoriously at finishing up our online store (should be up by the end of the week?) and putting together XMas 3: The War on Christmas (more on that soon).

ANYWAY…

Now on to the reason I brought you all here today… A while back I heard rumblings of a laptop being developed that could be hand cranked for power and be sold to developing countries for under $200 a piece to get them in the hands of poor kids. What do poor kids need with laptops you say? Well sure, food and clothes are good but the only way to truly help impoverished nations is to help educate the children so that they can create a better future for the entire country (and in turn, the world). The laptops can be loaded with a thousand or so books and when they are in proximity to one another they create an automatic network - meaning that if each kid in a village had a different collection of books on their laptop it would be a virtual library for a place that may otherwise have never gotten books other than the Bible (shudder).

When the project was announed it was said that they would never be available in the States because they didnt want to have all of the stock going to people who could afford a standard computer. However this morning as I was eating my Vanilla & Almond Special K (or my lady cereal as I call it) I caught a story on CNN about a special promo where for the next two weeks you can buy two of them for $399 and one will be sent to a third world child in need and the other will be sent to you. Not only do you get to help kids AND get a kickass looking little computer that can be powered up in a blackout or whatnot (mmm… apocalypse laptop) but $200 of the cost is also tax deductable as a charitable donation (if any of you are into that paying taxes thing - I kid, I kid).

If you are interested click HERE to check out more info on the computer, the Give One Get One program and purchasing.

Look at how pumped those kids are? Seriously, don’t you want to make kids that pumped? I thought so…

Posted by ryan on 14 Nov 2007 at 01:01 pm

2 Comments »

The FCC is only taking public comments on Net Neutrality for another 5 days. Click the link below and find out how you can add your name and story to the growing list of people fighting to keep little guys (like us) on the same online footing as the big guys (the usual suspects).

Posted by ryan on 09 Jul 2007 at 12:20 pm

No Comments »

I like blogging. Really I do. I even just started another blog so I can have a place to only write about music. (Hey Ryan, I’m gonna advertise that here: www.24hourpartypooper.com).

The one thing that bugs the hell out of me though is my constant push/pull with the ins/outs of blogging. I don’t always feel like linking to every single thing to which I make a reference. I mean, if I’m talking about a news story or something then, sure, I’ll link to it but if I’m talking about, say, Sonic Youth or someone then I’m pretty sure  you can find them on your own and don’t need my help.

The secret that drives all this, though, is that people who run websites L-O-V-E that the embedded link is the standard. They drive traffic, traffic drives up ad revenue, ad revenue helps people drive new cars.
Readers like embedded links because it make the Interweb FUN and EXCITING and, most of all, EASY.

(Voice of reason: Gordon, only you would bother arguing that the Interweb is a conspiracy to keep people lazy and drive advertising revenue.) (Counter Argument: no, I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one, but I hear ya.)

Oh, yeah, and MySpace wasn’t invented by Tom. So there.

Posted by admin on 08 Jul 2007 at 03:30 pm

1 Comment »