GRcade

These are tough times, and money otherwise squandered on games now needs to be carefully spent on rations, weapons, short haircuts and tight clothes to survive the upcoming zombie apocalypse.

But what to do in between the relentless attacks of the zombie hordes? Well, if your internet's still up there's a wealth of great games available to download for either nothing or next to nothing.

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Free indie games

Platformers
N - The game that spawned off N+ on XBLA. This one's free (though missing multiplayer and a few enemies and items), and offers a wealth of user generated content.
Knytt - Before Knytt Stories (below) there was Knytt. "Knytt is, quite possibly, the simplest, purest videogame ever made." review
Knytt Stories - A wonderfully serene and peaceful game setting. It's a simple platformer all about exploration. Also offers user generated content.
Maverick - Shoot your way through a dangerous maze...
Spelunky - Spelunky is like lode runner crossed with nethack.

Action Platformers
Cave Story - It took Cave Story's creator 5 years to make the game, and it shows. Reminiscent of old-school classic platformers, bosses to die for and a simple story well told.
Noitu Love - "This game is an action packed adventure of several long levels (with save feature) and you play as Noitu Love, a young and talented boy, who's purpose it is in life to stop Darnacus and live up to his intercom girl Lori's expectations."

Adventure Games
Gravity Bone - A spy adventure story in first person.
Photopia - Interactive fiction/text adventure (of sorts)

Role Playing Games
Diver Down - "Diver Down is an independently created role-playing game emulating the feel of the original classics. ... Rather than mimic the usual stock of storylines, Diver Down attempts to break new ground with a non-cliche plot that could support a movie."
NetHack - NetHack is a single player dungeon exploration game..

Shooters

Shmups
Tumiki Fighters -
Torus Trooper - A racer/shooter hybrid from the creator of Tumiki Fighters.
Gunroar - Another shooter from the creator of Tumiki Fighters.
rRootage - Yet another shooter from the creator of Tumiki Fighters.
Lotsa games! - A wealth of games from the creator of Tumiki Fighters!

Puzzle Games
Karoshi - A very unique puzzler with a very unique premise. Offers lots of clever puzzles.
Karoshi 2.0 - More of the same, except even more clever puzzles.
Psychosomnium - A simple puzzler, but it's a pretty neat idea.
Crayon Physics - Soon to be made even better with Crayon Physics Deluxe, Crayon Physics is a wonderful little physics game that asks you to draw boxes, circles and other shapes onto the screen to push and maneuver a ball to the exit.
Samorost 1 -
Samorost 2 -
Crimson Room - 'Escape the room' point and click game.
Viridian Room - 'Escape the room' point and click game.
White Chamber - 'Escape the room' point and click game.
Blue Chamber - 'Escape the room' point and click game.

Strategy Games

Misc.
I Fell in Love with the Majesty of Colors - "Last night I dreamed I was an immense beast, floating in darkness. I knew nothing of the surface world until I fell in love with the majesty of colors." Multiple endings, depending on how you choose to play.
Execution - (Direct download link to avoid giving out spoilers). I'm not saying anything about this one, just play it and find out.
Bloody Zombies - Mow your way through a relentless horde of harmless zombies, then ride the waves of blood!
Dwarf Fortress - Mind bogglingly ambitious but impenetrable ASCII based world simulator.
Reset - Fly through space to awesome music, but beware of danger.
Winterbells - Use your mouse pointer to guide the rabbit around. Jump on slowly descending bells and try to get as high as possible. Relaxing mood, great music.
Sunny Day Sky - Another great relaxing game. Soar through the sky on your umbrella and land on the roofs of cars going by. Go for the high-score!
Chalk - "Chalk is all about drawing your way to all the glory! Draw lines across shapes to destroy them, turn back bullets at enemies and thwart huge boss enemies by bouncing stuff back in their faces!"
Feed The Head - A toy more than a game. Experiment with a large head to reach various amusing results.


Not-so-free indie games (categories when this list contains more games)
World of Goo - Shame on you if you haven't played this yet. At least try the free demo.
Aquaria - Aquaria is a cross between ecco the dolphin and metroid. Free demo available.
Noitu Love 2 - There's a free demo, so at least try that before deciding you don't wanna spend $20 on this game.
Uplink -
Darwinia -
Multiwinia -
Crayon Physics Deluxe - Free demo. Draw shapes on screen to get the ball to the goal. Really, just watch this video.

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Indie developer blogs
http://www.auntiepixelante.com/
http://2dboy.com/
http://www.kloonigames.com/blog/

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Any games you want to mention? Throw up a link and a short description and I'll update the list.
See a game you've played without a description? Write one up and send it to me and I'll update the list.
And if you see a game in a category you think doesn't fit it, throw me a PM and I'll check it out.

Cave Story

It's hard to describe. Sort of a puzzle platformer, with elements of many 2D classic games such as Metroid, Zelda, Castlevania and R-Type.

It's the sum of its parts. Took 5 years of tweaking to perfection. It has many things crammed into it.

Don't forget to download the English translation, also available from this link.

http://www.cavestory.org/downloads_1.php

Crayon Physics Deluxe?

http://www.crayonphysics.com/

Echarin wrote:Knytt Stories - A wonderfully serene and peaceful game setting. It's a simple platformer all about exploration. Also offers user generated content.

Can't recommend this little beauty enough. I wrote a review for Press Start for its predecessor, which is here, and also contains a link to the game for download.

hideous_enigma wrote:Crayon Physics Deluxe?

http://www.crayonphysics.com/

When it's released I'll add it to the list.

Echarin wrote:

hideous_enigma wrote:Crayon Physics Deluxe?

http://www.crayonphysics.com/

When it's released I'll add it to the list.

You can get the original here:

http://crayon-physics.en.softonic.com/

Tumiki Fighters (the precursor to Blastworks): http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~cs8k-cyu/windows/tf_e.html

Samorost 1 and 2 (and soon Machinarium): http://amanita-design.net/samorost-1/


Photopia. Ok, a text adventure of sorts but awesome storytelling: http://adamcadre.ac/if.html

Dwarf Fortress. Mind bogglingly ambitious but impenetrable ASCII based world simulator: http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/features.html

January 7th release for Crayon Pyhsics Deluxe

http://www.kloonigames.com/blog/general ... lored-news

Cannot wait been waiting to play this for over a year maybe from when I saw the potential of the demo.

What, me forget? No, that can not be.

But good to see this thread hasn't been completely forgotten. And hey, I've just played a great little game you need to play (it'll only take 15-20 minutes, if that). It's called Gravity Bone and can be found at either of the following locations:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=BBQ55SP5
http://www.fileplanet.com/subscribe/log ... l.aspx?f=0 (only if you have a FilePlanet account or don't mind the registration process)

Ah yes, pc gaming.

Here are two for you, Aquaria, and Spelunky

Aquaria is a cross between ecco the dolphin and metroid.

http://www.bit-blot.com/aquaria/

Spelunky is like lode runner crossed with nethack.

http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=4017.0

Oh yeah speaking of nethack:

http://nethack.org

http://konjak.org/ has some great stuff. I've only gotten round to playing Chalk and Noitu Love but both are excellent, unique (Chalk in particular) and very polished. Noitu Love 2 a lot of folks go on about but it does cost $20. It has a free demo, but bear that in mind.

Winterbells.

http://www.ferryhalim.com/orisinal/g3/bells.htm

In fact all of http://www.ferryhalim.com/orisinal/ has amazing games, including Sunny Day Sky as well (link). Lovely that, great music too.

Echarin wrote:What, me forget? No, that can not be.

But good to see this thread hasn't been completely forgotten. And hey, I've just played a great little game you need to play (it'll only take 15-20 minutes, if that). It's called Gravity Bone and can be found at either of the following locations:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=BBQ55SP5
http://www.fileplanet.com/subscribe/log ... l.aspx?f=0 (only if you have a FilePlanet account or don't mind the registration process)

This was awesome.

Raze wrote:

Echarin wrote:What, me forget? No, that can not be.

But good to see this thread hasn't been completely forgotten. And hey, I've just played a great little game you need to play (it'll only take 15-20 minutes, if that). It's called Gravity Bone and can be found at either of the following locations:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=BBQ55SP5
http://www.fileplanet.com/subscribe/log ... l.aspx?f=0 (only if you have a FilePlanet account or don't mind the registration process)

This was awesome.

Download it from the original website, http://www.blendogames.com/files/gravitybone.zip

Echarin wrote:Execution - (Direct download link to avoid giving out spoilers). I'm not saying anything about this one, just play it and find out.

Will do. You make it sound so mysterious.

Alpha eX wrote:

Raze wrote:

Echarin wrote:What, me forget? No, that can not be.

But good to see this thread hasn't been completely forgotten. And hey, I've just played a great little game you need to play (it'll only take 15-20 minutes, if that). It's called Gravity Bone and can be found at either of the following locations:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=BBQ55SP5
http://www.fileplanet.com/subscribe/log ... l.aspx?f=0 (only if you have a FilePlanet account or don't mind the registration process)

This was awesome.

Download it from the original website, http://www.blendogames.com/files/gravitybone.zip

Is there a benefit to doing this when I've already downloaded/played it?

Tragic Magic wrote:

Echarin wrote:Execution - (Direct download link to avoid giving out spoilers). I'm not saying anything about this one, just play it and find out.

Will do. You make it sound so mysterious.

I lost.

I think Introversion surely deserve a mention, and I do enjoy reading their developer blog here.

Really enjoyed Multiwinia, the Darwinia demo and I think Uplink is another demo I tried (one where you upgrade your computer and try to retrieve information).