GDC Report: Independent Games Festival 2007

Well, 'ole HolmesIV promised you some exclusive GDC content, but with every blogger actively trying to outdo someonestolemydomain.com, I decided that we should do something a little different than the usual live-blogging session of Mr. Miyamoto's keynote. For reals- if you've seen one Miyamoto presentation you've seen them all.

*Enter Miyamoto-san*
*Insert random gasps and applause*
*Nothing concrete or interesting is announced*
*Miyamoto makes funny*
*Exit Miyamoto-san*

A close friend of someonestolemydomain.com, Breakbot, was sent to survey the scene on behalf of her employer. As a result, we have her exclusive insights in to what indie games at the Independent Game Festival (IGF) caught her this year. I cornered Breakbot, deep in the bowels of crunchtime at the office (over IM) and stole some cycles just so that I could share her observations with you, my humble readers.

Let me tell you folks, Breakbot knows a thing or two about good games- and if she likes it, I know I ought to give it try. An artist by day and hardcore gamer just about the rest of the time, she is just the person to give us the low-down on the very best of the indie scene. In fact, or the ninth year, IGF has awarded and recognized the very best in indie games, from a long list of nominees known for deep innovation and inspired art direction only possible with next-to-no corporate influence. I wholeheartedly trust Breakbot's critical acclaim in this area.

Special thanks to Breakbot for taking a few moments in order to brain dump a list of her favorites. I'm going to do my best to report to you a little bit about each of them, and link my readers so that they may check things out on their own. Readers might be surprised to see that straight-up innovation took a back seat to quality and complexity at IGF this year. What you will notice is that most of these games are on-par if not better than the majority of AAA titles available today. Perhaps, one day, the indie developer will rule again much like the impending independent musical revolution. Read on for our featured IGF 2007 games!

For a list of category finalists and winners: look no further

Best of Show:

Band of Bugs

by Ninja Bee

Band of Bugs seems to owe a lot to great tactical games of the past such as Military Madness, Advance Wars, Super-Robot War, Ogre Battle and Final Fantasy Tactics. This fact however, doesn't diminish the concept of the game. The world needs more tactical combat games, as Nintendo doesn't pump out the Advance Wars sequels nearly fast enough for me.

Available for Xbox Live, Band of Bugs allows you to play with your friends as you battle your way through a variety of isometric terrains. What makes this game special is it is deep enough to satisfy the hunger of your everyday hardcore battle strategist and armchair generals, but it is among the few that can be considered accessible to the casual gamer. This is worth its weight in gold in 800 Live point impulse buys.

Castle Crashers

by The Behemoth

When I first stumbled upon newgrounds.com, a couple of things became obvious to me. For one, it was the first time I began to take Flash and Shockwave seriously as a commercial game development toolkit. More importantly I realized the cult like status of newgrounds creator Tom Fulp (eclipsed on the web only by that of Gabe and Tycho of Penny Arcade fame) would predestine him to become an indie game development pioneer and icon. He had struck gold with the formula of community via social multimedia delivery, tastefully dry humour and groundbreaking graphic design (hence "new-grounds"?).

For the most part, the excitement generated by his first commercial game with The Behemoth (now on Xbox Live): Alien Hominid was a game full of newgrounds personality and is a worthy addition to anyone's 2D game library. The game didn't spare what little innovation was left in the 2d action shooter genre, either, but basically lifted the game of Metal Slug. This, (and its unique charm) worked to its advantage- reaching out to a long ignored genre of gaming. The buzz surrounding the game reached the point of total insanity, and soon I was seeing mention of Alien Hominid in my local newspaper.

Now on to Castle Crashers. Loaded with personality and maintaining the social aspect of Tom Fulp's previous projects, this game is to be available for Xbox Live Arcade, and Nintendo DS as a four person co-operative game. For the most part imagine the sensibilities of Alien Hominid making sweet, sweet love to the Capcom classics, Knights of the Round and Magic Sword. Stunning backrounds and 3D effects are all over this mindless button masher.

I can't see this game being anything but a riot with three other friends. Give me online co-op (via XBLA and potentially the DS) and I am in sweet heaven. Just look at this beauty...

Samorost 2

by Jakub Dvorsky

Speaking of beautiful games, few projects ever realize the caliber of art design featured in Samorost 2 and its prequel. The game is simply drop-dead gorgeous, but the level of detail required by the overall gameplay and the consistent quality and theme of the artwork put this achievement in art direction over the top. Breakbot and I can only describe this game as "surreal".

Samorost 2 is a game for the patient and curious gamer. You must be willing to completely let go and feel your way through and around each screen. The object is to solve each screen through a series of context sensitive events. The right series of events played at the correct intervals will allow your character to proceed to the next screen. Different actions in order produce varying results and there are usually only a few ways to solve the puzzle, yet it seems every eventuality leads somewhere. Under/Over designed (read: most) games lead to situations where feedback is not consistent with the game experience or errors occur, suspending the belief of gamers. I never got a sense of that playing Samorost 2, which leads me to believe that the overall scenario is a work of gaming art. Warning! This game is not for twitch gamers, who will become immediately bored.

Honourable Mentions:

Toribash

by Manifesto Games

One of the highest-rated indie games ever, Toribash blends a uniquely geometric 3D graphical style (which I can only classify as vectorman meets line-fighter) with cutting edge gameplay unlike anything I've ever seen before. Toribash is not your traditional Street Fighter 2 nooner. Toribash is a slowly-paced (e.g. "bullet time") compared to other fighers, consisting of tactical fighting simulation where the player fights by moving their joints in real-time creating movements based on ragdoll physics.

The goal is to make contact with the 'tori' that make up each character model. Each 'tori' registers collision independently and based the force of the contact, may react
to the trauma. Each cycle of the game your opponent also moves, and the contacts which result can lead anywhere from dismemberment of key limbs to total annihilation.

Annihilation is a key element to any successful fighting game, but Toribash manages to reach an intellectually juicy level that most fighters do not. Not only is it a great physics, modeling, collision-detection, and I/O technology demo but its actually a fun game if your computer has the balls to run it. Oh and it takes some balls to play this game too. It's just not for noobs.

Aquaria

by Bit Blot

Honourable mention (or as she wrote, "stand-out")!? Breakbot, has got to be kidding me! This game is an absolute masterpiece. I can say that already, without having played the game yet. I've read up on this game, I've seen videos and I can tell you it is definitely inspired by games that a vast majority of gamers are addicted to: Metroid and Castlevania. However, this game has the luxury of appearing on the "hungry-for-this-type-of-game" PC platform. You can bet, this is gonna show up on consoles real soon, once it drops. I suggest you watch the video.

This game screams incremental design innovation. The gameplay is virtually seamless with barely an HUD in sight. Many of its contemporaries could stand to learn a thing or two from the seamless gameplay and gorgeous level design. The story is told using in-game cut scenes and features a free-form maze of puzzles and sea caverns to explore. The landscape appears to be made of up varied underwater locales, each area with its own distinct tone and puzzles.

The developer promises free-form gameplay and the ability to perform a wide range of spells (read: weapons) free of menus and other storytelling impediments. Huge bosses and areas littered with a variety of sea-borne enemies are very reminiscent of the old 2D side scrolling dungeon classics and appear to provide plenty of action to move the game along. I am dying to play this game once I complete Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin. It's time someone made a 2D game worthy of today's computing powerhouses. It all hits town ominously in "Spring 2007" for "about $20".

Gamma Bros.

by PixelJam

A delightful 2D retro shooter, made by Pixel Jam Games- a company with the crazy idea that aliasing rules and and should be celebrated! Detailed, yet ambiguously retro sprites with simple animations make you feel like you're playing a classic game of yesteryear, but still provides the quality and experience of a modern day games. It's obvious that Pixel Jam simply does it for the love of making "neo-retro" games (as they call 'em).

Gamma Bros. is a straight-up co-operative shooter with 4-way directional fire, and a small variety of power-ups. The game is simple in premise, and high in charm- it kept me playing for a good 30 minutes solid. As mentioned the production values are amazing considering the goal is simple blocky "lego-constructed" sprites, but Pixel Jam finds a way to make it work and appear unique.

Spawns of Deflebub

by Dr. Luderkraft

I haven't played this game yet, as it is a mod for UT2004 and I am on a strict Quake3 and MGO diet for the time being. But this is no ordinary shooter. What the developer describes as:

Spawns of Deflebub is a multiplayer mod for UT2004 that mixes elements from dodgeball, pinball, billiards and breakout - among others. For an individual player, the challenge lies in reading the correct angles (at break-neck speeds), positioning yourself tactically, knowing when to attack and when to retreat, and timing the powerups and ammo.

In addition, synchronizing your actions with the other team-members is an essential key to success (who goes to pick up the ammo, shooting in a coordinated manner, etc.).

I am extremely intrigued. Guess I'll have to go get me UT2004 after all.

The Blob

by Hogeschool van de Kunsten, Utrecht (Hilversum, Utrecht, Netherlands)

Keeping with the theme of tasteful emulation of previously groundbreaking games, the student developed game The Blob borrows from the basic concept of Katamari Damacy. I'm sure the games creator however would loathe that comparison, as The Blob is about colouring the world around you. As "The Blob" you go around the city, and pick up the colours of certain objects around you. Once you take on that colour, it's your mission to rid the world of boring old greys.

I don't know how long this will interest me, but with the shackles now lifted from the hands of paint by number enthusiasts everywherez, forever more, I'm sure someone will find simply nifty. It's just a number and for pete's sake, paint outside of the lines people!