Official Indie and Free Games Thread!

[Bobinator]

So, let's all post awesome indie and freeware games. Put up a link to the site to download the game or its demo, and if it's an indy game, the price. Possibly a Youtube video, if you can find one.

Runman: Race Around The World, Free!

Made by Tom Sennet and Matt Thorton (the guy behind Jumper and Untitled Story, other awesome platformers), this game's like a cross between the old Sonic games, only with more of a focus on beating your best scores and times. Also has a great soundtrack full of folk, blues, and jazz.



Get it here! whatareyouwait.info/download.php

Noitu Love 2, $10

If you have any interest in Treasure's games, you'll love this. It's made by just one guy, one of the spriters of Contra 4, and it's an incredibly polished game. There's 7 levels with a ton of boss fights, and 2 unlockable characters and difficulties. It's pretty short, but it's pretty much perfect the whole way through.



Get the demo, and his other free games here!
www.konjak.org/index.php

The White Chamber, Free.

This is a really creepy adventure game made with something called the Wintermute Engine. You wake up in this coffin on an abandoned spaceship, and you have no idea how you've gotten there. It's got multiple endings and full voice acting, too.

Get it here! www.studiotrophis.com/site/projects/thewhitechamber

[muteKi]

Noitu Love 2 is an awesome game and I have been meaning to get it for a while.

I should warn people that RunMan has been having some issues on some people's machines, mine included. They say some form of a patch/update is coming in the very near future, though. Game looks freaking amazing.

[Smithee]

I'm gonna have to recommend Within a Deep Forest, Knytt, and Knytt Stories.

Absolutely, play these games.

They're all really atmospheric platformers, but they're also quite different. In WaDF you play as a bouncing ball who can gain other substances to be made out of. It actually has a pretty cool plot, although that is mostly in the background. The foreground is amazing atmospheric music, awesome puzzles to bounce through, and beautiful environments. Play it.

Knytt is a quick little "tech demo" of sorts, to attempt a new type of gameplay. No dialogue you just need to get your space-ship parts, through a pretty large world. Cool story definitely!

Knytt Stories is basically like Knytt only it has dialogue and is open source to make your own "Stories" on and download others. I actually haven't played too much of this one to be honest, but I played a couple of the more important Stories.

[kitten]

Wowie, the White Chamber looks really neat. I think I might try it out.

As for my freeware recommendations?

Uhh...

Eversion - If you're a fan of 2D platformers and Lovecraft, you must play this.

Syobon Action - Ever play "I Wanna Be The Guy" and wish you could get the humor and charm without the game being such a tedious chore? Try this one out. I wouldn't say it's "easier" as much I would say it's more "fair."

There are probably a lot more.

I had a shitload of indie recommendations for Xbox's XNA service, but that thread died.

[Jave]

I'm just gonna go ahead and direct everyone to Kenta Cho's webpage, ABA Games

for those of you who don't know yet, he's a Japanese indie developer, mostly known for making shooters. His games make really cool use of simple polygons in creative ways, often re-creating the look old vector graphics. Best of all, his games are all free and open source.

[muteKi]

portal.wecreatestuff.com/ (2D) flash version of portal. Actually this is pretty damn fun, if a little buggy at times.

aja-games.com/products_koumajo/index.htm Perfect for those who are looking to play Castlevania: ReBirth but can't wait, it's a classic linear Castlevania game with danmaku, unlimited flying, and projectile attacks as subweapons. It's a little on the repetitive side but fun. However, there's no save feature so you can't resume after exiting (you do seem to have infinite continues on a single playthrough though -- then again this could just be the result of running applocale to get it to run). And yes, it requires applocale to run.
There's also an awesome soundalike of Opposing Bloodlines in the third stage. Pity I've not been able to really rip the music files.

And if you just wanna blow time there's nothing like dan-ball.jp/en/javagame/dust/
or lab.andre-michelle.com/tonematrix Neither is really a "game" as such but they're both damn engrossing. Computer...toys, perhaps, like Lego?

[Feynman]

Iji, an extremely awesome sidescrolling action game with RPG elements.

Everything Spiderweb Software has ever made.

Diadra Empty (no link, sorry), one of the best shmups I have ever played.

Tasty Static, a sort of obstacle course game. A remake of an old game called Skyroads, very fun, and extremely challenging in later levels.

Spelunky. What happens when you combine roguelike randomization with platforming? Awesome, that's what you get.

We Love Mind Control Rocket is a fun, quirky turn-based strategy/management game about taking over the world from your floating fortress.

[muteKi]

Oct 23, 2009 16:31:14 GMT -5 Feynman said:

Tasty Static, a sort of obstacle course game. A remake of an old game called Skyroads, very fun, and extremely challenging in later levels.

I highly approve of anything Skyroads-related. Also, have the original:
www.bluemoon.ee/history/skyroads/

I played this once as a kid and spent ages searching for it because I didn't know the name. When I found it again I was overjoyed and proceeded to destroy every level minus the last three -- I still need to beat them.

It requires DOSBox or a similar DOS emulator to run on modern systems, though.

[HMD]

The Dirty Split- point and click adventure game with an awesome art style and fantastic voice acting.



Also recommending Cactus' works.

[jorpho]

There are too many good freeware games out there. I can no longer play them all.

Here's some that have come up in the queue:
Opera Omnia
Auditorium
Grounded

[muteKi]

Auditorium is amazing. It's freeware though? Didn't think it was.

EDIT: No, but I have played the demo a couple times and greatly enjoyed it.

[cj iwakura]

Iji.

www.remar.se/daniel/iji.php




Free Metroidvania with guns and stat allocation.

It's also got branching paths based on how you play. Amazing game.

[Bobinator]

More games!

First up, anything from AGDI Interactive. They've put Kings Quest 1 into VGA, with hand-drawn backgrounds and full voice acting (They even got the guy from 5 to voice Graham.) Then they redid KQ2, which is pretty much a brand new (and much better) game. It hasn't been that long since they did QFG2, but that's more of a straight remake with a few extra things.

Also, they've made a commercial game called Al Emmo and the Dutchman's Mine, but I haven't played it, so I don't know if it's any good. For $30, it better be, though.

Also, if you haven't played Streets of Rage Remake yet, you should. It's not really finished yet, but they have monthly updates on their blog, and from what I can see, it's going on pretty well, and the game's great as it is.

XOP and XOP Black.[/b] Two free bullet-hell shooters that are pretty fun, if you're into that kind of thing. They're short, but they have several difficulties to choose from, and a score attack and boss rush mode.

Sonic Robo Blast 2. I've already mentioned this game in another thread, but it bears repeating. It plays just like the Genesis Sonic game, only in 3D. (Well, 3D as the Doom engine is, anyway.) It's not quite finished yet, but it's perfectly playable anyway. It also has online multiplayer and mod support! Video.

Also, question for you guys, should I include Flash and online game in this thread? Technically, they're free, and indie, but I'd rather not do it if you think it'd clutter up the thread.

BTW, mods, can I have a sticky on this, so we don't have to make another one of these?

[mfgreth]

the wiki i devote way too much of my time to has a freeware page. things in this thread are already on there, but there's a few not suggested yet.

vsrecommendedgames.wikia.com/wiki/Freeware_Games

[Gendo Ikari]

Oh, good! For a long time I was thinking to resurrect and old thread on free games I started last year, which then died after a few months, but we can star over here. Instead of reposting the old recommendations (some were lenghty), I'd rather link to that thread


As for something new, Remedy Entertainment not only released Death Rally, the arcade racing game they developed for Apogee in 1996, it was also ported to run on current systems! In fact, the option "Exit to DOS" dropped a D

www.remedygames.com/games/death_rally.html




A Tale of Two Kingdoms is a very ambitious AGS (Adventure Game Studio) project that took some years to make. If released in the first half of the '90s, it could have easily been a Sierra adventure of the era. Heavily inspired by King's Quest and Quest for Glory, AToTK not only offers a great number of puzzles, but many are not mandatory and several situations contemplate more than one solution - it's very open, and reaching 100% in both scores (Wisdom and Honour) is extremely difficult. It also shares some problems of its inspirators, like dozens of ways to die (with hilarious gravestones too), and Guide Dang It moments. Sometimes you get the impression of the team putting too much stuff in a single game. Still, it's very long and engaging, with great graphics and sound to boot.

www.crystalshard.net/atotk.php