Since this blog will be covering Sunday through Saturday each week it may be confusing for some, but that’s how I’m gonna do it, so hang on ’cause here we go!
DIYGamer briefly poked a few hot topics with their indie predictions for 2012, including a strong belief that an indie game bigger than Minecraft could be coming next year and how indie bundles are here to stay. Well.. here’s my predictions on their predictions:
Many have claimed that Minecraft will be dethroned as the king of indie games, but so far no developer has stepped up to the plate. Terraria (which just got the massive 1.1 update), is the one game that can be compared to Minecraft in popularity, as long as we’re staying in the same genre, and is by many considered better. I wouldn’t go as far as to call it a better game. I agree that it’s a great title with many features similar to Minecraft, but there are many ways in which it’s different too. Terraria is 2D with greater emphasis on adventuring/upgrading your equipment, whereas Minecraft is first-person with more focus on building and shaping the world in your image with blocks – even if recent updates mixed things up quite a bit. However, something tells me DIYGamer meant indie games in general, and not simply within that category. But one still has to wonder.. what could take the spotlight away from Minecraft?
If the numbers Humble Bundle and IndieRoyale display are anything to go by, their prediction’s right – just like rock ‘n’ roll, bundles are here to stay, and is that such a bad thing? I’m a big fan of said bundles, and I don’t see how they’re really hurting anyone.. quite the opposite; though it grinds my gears when people “take advantage” of the pay-what-you-want model and put down $0.1… guess that’s its one flaw – it is pay-what-you-want after all!
Not only did they give out predictions like fortune tellers, but DIYGamer also managed to get an interview with Dejobaan – developer of the two AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA… games. Here the main topics were the upcoming iOS port and how they got started. An interesting read, especially for fans of those games.
I may not own a Mac, but that doesn’t mean Super Meat Boy fans shouldn’t be able to enjoy the game without bugs, and Team Meat has posted “Things every Mac user should know…” to help those experiencing problems with this wonderful (and brutally difficult) indie hit.
Now for something Windows-related instead: The free indie title Mack Vs. Windows – The Game, began the week with a patch, which fixed the sound bug I was experiencing; and since the dev has labelled this version “final”, now’s the perfect time to grab it. But before you do that.. don’t forget to read my post about it đŸ™‚
If you’ve ever played the classic RPG, Eye of the Beholder, chances are you’ll recognize Legend of Grimrock which just went into beta complete with a trailer. This is definitely something to keep an eye out for, even though it seems we won’t see the final product until sometime in 2012, but the reason for that is to tweak various aspects of the game and get rid of bugs; plus the usual big decision: How to distribute it. I’m glad that they are taking their time to fix everything up prior to launch, even if it means waiting a bit longer for the game.
Wow, we’re all over the place this week… predictions for the coming year, an interview with the developer of two base jumping games, tech support for Mac users, a free game getting updated to “final” status and an upcoming dungeon crawler entering the beta stage.
Let’s take a look at another game still being developed before we wrap this week up. This one is called Gunpoint, and it too looks like a very promising indie, though sadly currently without a firm release date. That doesn’t mean I can’t tell every single last one of my readers about the latest update on the dev blog though, and it even comes with an 8½-minute long trailer in which he shows a lot of gameplay while talking about the on-screen action. Just like Legends of Grimrock, this one should be on most people’s radar for sure.
That leaves just one more thing on the to-do list – releases and reviews:
Ninja Vs. Samurai (free)
Clone Wolf: Protector (demo available)
Hyper Princess Pitch (free and a trailer)
Magicka: The Stars Are Left (Magicka DLC)
Fractal: Make Blooms Not War (no demo)
Venus Hostage (no demo)
Miskatonic (demo available)
To The Moon (reviewed on Adventure Gamers)
Hard Reset (reviewed on Green Man Gaming)
Pudding Panic (reviewed on The Indie Game Magazine)
Serious Sam: The Random Encounter (reviewed on Armless Octopus)
Waves (reviewed on Steam Addicts)
AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA: For The Awesome (reviewed on True PC Gaming)
Eye of the Kraken (reviewed on A Hardy Developer’s Journal)