The Fabulous Indie Game Roundup

[gnat]

As with the advent of Steam and successes like Super Meat Boy, VVVVVV and Minecraft, it's difficult to deny the surge of independent titles being released lately. Being a game developer by trade, I do take time out to try the latest and greatest out of the deep pool of innovation found in the independent scene. I've gathered a number of our favorites here to share with you all. Enjoy!






First up we have COMMANDER. This retro themed, orbital defense adventure has you play as the leader of Earth's space forces. You can build automated defenses, hire mercenaries and form a resistance against the mysterious invading foes. The game pulls off a fantastically low resolution retro visual style reminiscent of the video games from every gamers childhood, and sports a beautiful soundtrack from classical musician Frédéric Chopin; easily one of my favorite classical composers, enhancing the already tense and epic atmosphere of the game.

Will you save the world, Commander? It is available for download on Windows and XBLA from garage developer Ephemere Games.






Next up we have Link Dead from Michal Marcinkowski, the famed developer of Soldat. Link Dead is a game in the similar vein of Soldat, providing fast gameplay and a unique ant-farm visual perspective which allows players to catch all of the action on the map at any one time. Link Dead is set in a dark future where mutants and nazi super soldiers fight for supremacy. As with the nature of such a game, the multiplayer close quarter battles get especially gritty and intense.

The development version of Link Dead is currently available as donation ware on Michal's website.






Welcome to Star Battle, a highly addictive custom map for Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty. Star Battle plays a lot like DOTA, except with fleets of capital ships duking it out in open space. For those 4X fans out there, it personally reminds me a lot of the space battle scenes found in Pax Imperia: Eminent Domain or Armada.

Even if you did not enjoy DOTA, I highly recommend giving this one a try, especially if you are a fan of massive space battles. First created for the European server, this map has recently found its way onto the North American server and has earned position as the most popular custom map as of this writing. I've easily dumped over 20 hours into this map already and highly recommend it.

You can find Star Battle on Blizzards Battle.net service in Starcraft 2 itself.