Playing the independent games

By Scott | August 13, 2006

Over the weekend I went to theAustralian centre for the Moving Image and was treated to an exhibition in the Games Lab of the best of the Independent Games Festival 2006.

The independent gaming community sure is inspired and so damn vibrant. I left the exhibition thinking about independent games and wondering why all of the stuff on show was for PC gamers only. Where is this stuff on consoles?
The only indie game that springs to mind is Alien Hominid (I’m sure there are more out there) and I was wondering why there isn’t a ‘greatest hits’ of independent games for the console market.

I had a look at almost every game on display, and the following stood out to me:

I loved the use of primitives and the concept behind Rumble Box. It’s so elegantly designed and fun to play, and an interesting response to hyper-real rezzed-up games. On top of this, it’s freeware for you PC users out there!

I’m a fan of the puzzle/platformer combo, and had some fun with Professor Fizzwizzle. The character and level designs are simple and effective. Have a look at the demo on their site.

Cloud. I’d read a bit on the web about Cloud, and, being a Mac user, was chuffed to get a go on it. It’s a bit Katamari-esque, but I loved the simplicity and calming vibe the game provided. And it’s free for PC users too! Yay for free-ness!

The Tron-like tones of Darwinia are worthy of giving this game a good look-in however, I did find the controls a little tricky but loved the idea of drawing patterns to execute a command. There’s a demo on the site mentioned.

I can’t remember playing a game which only uses one key for input, but this is the control-scheme for Strange Attractors. The game is a puzzle-based gravity game and works well, also having some of the funniest sound design I’ve heard for a while. There’s mp3s of the soundtrack on their site!

Check em out!