E for All 2008: Indiecade: Stupid Name, Cool Games

I had a chance to check out the Indiecade exhibit today at E for All. Maybe you’re hip to the indie scene: you’ve mastered Mr. Robot and been through the bullet hell of Jets ‘n’ Guns. If you’re like most gamers, though, you’re only passingly familiar with independent gaming. Well, it’s alive and well, and if you are looking for more experimental gameplay experiences or just need something to pass the time before “First-Person Space Shooter #644: Now with More Bullets and Also You Turn Into a Werewolf for No Raisin,” I’ve got some recommendations from the show floor.

• Machinarium


By far the most visually striking game on the floor, Machinarium is a browser-based point-and-click adventure game. As someone who lost countless years of his childhood to anything with the word “Quest” in the title (see: King’s Quest, Space Quest, Quest for Glory, Police Quest, et al), this is joyous news indeed. The creators, Amanita Design, know their way around the medium, having made 2007 Webby and IGF award winner Samorost 2. The main character is an adorable expanding robot, but the game sports a post-cyberpocalyptic grittiness to suggest darker undertones. The game is a pleasure to behold, although it comes with the typical reservations for the genre; be prepared to have to “think like the designer” to solve some of the puzzles, or risk some frustration.

• Meanwhile


I hate that guy!

Meanwhile, brainchild of experimental filmmaker and game designer Peter Brinson, is not the visual masterpiece that Machinarium is. In fact, you could charitably describe the graphics as “programmer art” — art created by programmers who aren’t lucky enough to have artist friends. If you can get past the stick figures, though, you’ll find a surprisingly entertaining platformer. The game’s most novel feature is a community-driven main character. Essentially, you’re constantly competing against other players for the fastest time on each level. Your character has three stats: run speed, jump strength, and spell recharge, as well as a special ability. If you set the speed record, you get to choose which stat gets boosted. However, whichever stats you don’t choose start to decay, so the community will have to work together to maintain a balanced character. The core gameplay mechanic is straight out of Gravity Man’s playbook (or Super Mario Galaxy, for the crowd too young to understand why Mega Man is the greatest series ever created and I will fight anyone who disagrees). When you hit a switch, the world goes topsy turvy: you jump down, fall up, and hamburgers eat people. The jumping in this one felt a little off during the demo, but try it out, and if you set a level time record, please increase the character’s running speed for me!

• DarkGame


I sit down in a chair, facing a 37″ LCD TV, but it won’t do me any good. A strange octopodal device is placed on my head, and a pulsing sensation reverberates inside my skull and back to its point of entry, my forehead. I am given a controller and a headset with a cryptic directive: follow the pulse, and find the red robot. The game seems like any other top-down shooter at first, except for the foreign object enveloping my skull. The pulse shifts. I follow, but it’s too late. My opponent found the red robot, and now has a weapon. I flee, helpless, but suddenly the pulse starts again. I’m dodging bullets, but following the pulse, until I find the red robot. I go to take his weapon, happy to be able to fight back, when my screen goes black. The TV won’t do me any good now. I close my eyes and enter a state of pure zen, guided only by the pulse.

This is the world of DarkGame. Created by conceptual artist Eddo Stern (who worked with Peter Brinson on 2004’s Waco Resurrection, DarkGame is all about the pulse. You wear an 8-pronged device on your head that vibrates to indicate your primary target. The object of the game, like most, is to destroy your opponent. However, you start without a weapon, so you need to track down the red robot, whose location is conveyed via vibrations on your head sensor. Once you have a weapon, your screen turns black, and the pulse indicates the location of your opponent. A new red robot appears, which your opponent must track down before you kill him. When he finds it, roles reverse, and the hunter, as they say, becomes the hunted.



Old Man Murray Crate Review Score of -7

Although indie games are usually shorter and more raw than their commercial counterparts, they play an important role in the gaming ecosystem. Often, indie games provide gameplay ideas to their bigger brothers. Portal, for example, was loosely based on a DigiPen senior project called Narbacular Drop, and recent critical darling (and Soulja Boy favorite) Braid wears its indie roots proudly. Check out Indiecade, IndieGames.com, or Play This Thing for comprehensive coverage of indie games, or check back here tomorrow for a wrap up of the rest of the Indiecade show floor. If you want to see continuing coverage of indie games in the future, let us know in the comments and we’ll bring you developer interviews and suggestions from within the independent game community.