The countdown continues, as we reveal some of the best freeware RPGs and roguelikes to be released in 2007.

Best Freeware RPGs, Roguelikes 2007

  1. The Crypts of Despair
  2. Dwarf Fortress
  3. Twilight Heroes
  4. Last Scenario
  5. Wilfred, the Hero
  6. Homeland
  7. Exit Fate
  8. The Desolate Room
  9. Generic Slash: Dismal Depths
10. Incursion

We've delved into some of the more obscure corners of the RPG and Roguelike universe here; if you'd like to check out additional mainstream indie RPGs, why not consult GameTunnel's GOTY Awards and Rampant Games' Best Indie CRPGs articles.

Barely one day after the release of Submachine 5, Mateusz Skutnik strikes again with a new collaborative effort called The Great Kitchen Escape. The game is extremely short, and can be completed in a couple of minutes with little difficulty if any at all. Expect to do a little pixel hunting in this one.

Name: The Great Kitchen Escape (Armor Games link)
Developer: Pastel Games
Category: Adventure
Type: Browser

N+, XBLA: Metanet had posted a comprehensive FAQ for N+ and future projects on their IGN developer journal. (web site, launch party)

Free Lunch Design: Icy Tower developer acquired by Muskedunder Interactive.

The Yore is a short, isometric adventure, in which you wake up in a haunted house and must try to get out (by solving puzzles). You have the choice of two characters - a guy or a gal. Use the arrow keys to move and the Enter key to interact with your environment (open doors, pick up stuff, etc). Graphically, the game is rather pretty and the sound does a half decent job for creating a creepy atmosphere.

Name: The Yore
Developer: Johan Hargne (Cobrasoft)
Category: Adventure
Type: Freeware
Size: 16.6MB

Protoganda 2 is a new 2D arcade shooter by cactus, developed in under two hours. Use the cursor keys for movement, and hold the Z key to shoot. The X key can be held down to activate your shields. Press the enter key to start a game from the main menu.

Colliding with debris or bullets will destroy the ship. Originally conceived as an unlockable game for Shotgun Ninja.

Name: Protoganda 2
Developer: cactus
Category: Shooter
Type: Freeware
Size: 2MB
Direct download link: Click here

Super Kreml Kart Super Rally is an action game in which players are required to build rails for a cart to travel on. The game is controlled entirely using the mouse. Building rails drain your points quickly, but can be replenished by collecting the hammer and sickle item.

Press the F4 function key to switch between windowed and full screen modes.

Name: Super Kreml Kart Super Rally
Developer: Perfect Run
Category: Action
Type: Freeware
Size: 2MB
Direct download link: Click here (right-click to save)

Shotgun Ninja is a new platformer by cactus, in which the developer limits himself to a C64 palette for background, object and sprite colors.

Use the cursor keys for movement, and press Z key to shoot. You can only fire when your assassin's feet is touching the ground. Tap the X key to lob a grenade. Hold the down arrow key to view the floor below you.

There are numerous ways to earn points in this game, from reaching the exit in the quickest time possible to eliminating all the enemies in each level. Proficiency with the wall jump technique is a prerequisite skill.

Name: Shotgun Ninja
Developer: cactus
Category: Platformer
Type: Freeware
Size: 1MB
Direct download link: Click here

Online high score table

"The fifth episode of the Submachine series. This time we go back to the very first submachine ever built - historically speaking. It was created by an unknown scientist in the early 20th century. This is the place where it all started."

Release date: Today (30th January 2008)

Play at ArcadeTown
Play at PastelGames
Walkthrough

Independent Games Festival

World of Goo: IGN previews 2D Boy's physics based puzzle game. (Wikipedia entry)

Audiosurf: There will be a third beta weekend for Invisible Handlebar's upcoming music game/crack. (Wikipedia entry)

World of Goo, Noitu Love 2: IGF entries mentioned in the latest Joystiq podcast edition.

Adventure

Adventure Game Studio 3.0: AGS 3.0 released; the editor is now .NET-based, and hardware acceleration is supported.

Resonance: Screenshots from xii games' upcoming shareware adventure game posted. (source: Gnomes' Lair)

Sydney Treads the Catwalk: Ivan Dixon's freeware adventure game is set for a release early next month.

Role-playing Games

Exit Fate: Two more screenshots from SCF's (Last Scenario) upcoming RPG game can be found in the SA forums.

The Spirit Engine 2: Trailer for Mark Pay's upcoming shareware RPG posted. (source: Total Klik)

Updates

The Endless Forest: Tales of Tales' online multiplayer game updated to version 3.2.

Cottage of Doom: Alex May's zombie survival game updated with support for Vista.

Reviews

Immortal Defense: "Portal’s story... was NOT the best story of 2007. It was NOT the best writing of the year, surprisingly." (original soundtrack)

Knytt Stories: "Since discovering Nifflas' work, my PS3 has sat idle."

Miscellaneous

Mod of the Year 2007: Results for ModDB's annual event posted.

10 Indie, Student Game Competitions: I wrote about this a while back, but was asked for the list again recently so here it is.

Armor Games Interview: CEO Daniel McNeely questioned.

Valentine's Day releases: World of Goo (delayed), Dylan Fitterer's Audiosurf, Erin Robinson's Nanobots, Lexaloffle Games' Jasper's Journeys.

Review by Arjen Voogt

What would you do if you wake up on a ship and the only sign of life are a few plants and a guy that's controlling the electronic devices throughout the ship? The smart types will probably not put their full trust into this guy. The main character in Experience 112 (named the Experiment in the US, 600 MB demo direct download link) isn't as smart and does.

The game starts with a woman waking up on a deserted ship. A nice variety of plantlife has infested the ship and there's a green fog. The woman finds a letter near the bed and doesn't seem to remember a thing. At first she thinks she's alone, but soon notices you are watching her through a camera. And this is where the innovative part of the game shows up. She asks you to log on into the system – the system you are using. You aren't controlling anything else but a computer, which gives you new features when you progress in the game. At first you can only move cameras around, but after a while you can turn on electronic devices, open doors and even read mails that were sent to various staff members. It's nice not to be in control of the main character for once.

The Almighty Paintbrush is a level editor for Insignificant Studio's notorious adventure platformer The Underside.

Included in the zip file are two example mods (Buddy's Nightmare, by Mr. Podunkian, and The Story, by Tommy361, a 12 year old!), as well as all the tools required to make your own The Underside mod.

Also included is a slighty updated version of the first preview of The Underside that was released awhile ago.

Name: The Almighty Paintbrush
Developer: Insignificant Studios
Category: Adventure Platformer
Type: Freeware
Size: 6MB

The fourth of the 2007 Best Of Features here on the IndieGames.com.blog, we're proud to present twenty of the best freeware platformers released in 2007.

Best Freeware Platformers 2007

  1. Knytt Stories
  2. The Underside
  3. Plasma Warrior
  4. Paroxysm
  5. Valdis Story
  6. Hurrican
  7. Kaipuu
  8. Deo Dorant
  9. Muon
10. Streambolt Desero
11. GoldenEye 2D
12. Once in Space
13. A Mini Falafel Adventure
14. Alex Adventure
15. Polarity
16. Punishment: The Punishing
17. Ninjah
18. Joe Gunn
19. Polychromatic Funk Monkey
20. Lost in the Static

A recording of the lecture Jonathan Blow gave at the Game Focus Germany conference (24 - 25th January 2008), titled "Programming is Easy; Production is Harder; Design is Hardest."

download the lecture in mp3 format

Ethereal Dreams is a short RPG game with original artwork, sprites, backgrounds and an air of professionalism unseen in most amateur RMXP creations. Turn-based battles, spells, quests, a multitude of equipments and items can all be found in this effort.

Random battles are determined by an indicator called the encounter orb. This round object shown at the bottom left of the screen turns from green to red at a quicker rate when you're traveling on certain terrains which are likely to cause noise. An example of this is when your party is walking on puddles of water. A journal is used to record notes and details, with comprehensive bestiary information written by the characters themselves.

The main development team consists of female artists and programmers. This is an early build, and players will be notified when they've reached the end of the demo.

Name: Ethereal Dreams
Developer: Dragonfly Studios
Category: RPG
Type: Freeware
Size: 50MB
Direct download link: Click here

An informal chat with Mark Sheinkman, the developer of Areas.

Let's begin with a little introduction of yourself, where you're from, what you do, and what games you have released.

Well, my name is Mark, I live in Israel, and currently I don't really do anything for a living. Just waiting for my recruitment date. Other then Areas I haven't released anything, yet. Recruitment date, enlistment date... I dont hear a lot of english army-talk, so I'm not sure how to call it.

Do you mean mandatory army service, like in South Korea and Singapore?

Yea. I'm not too thrilled about it.

How long is that?

3 years, in most cases. Could be more, if one chooses to.

Hell is a short horizontal shooter made in under four days, featuring five playable levels and an equal number of difficulty settings to choose from. Your ship is on autofire from start to end, and pressing the Z key allows you to switch weapons. Dodging bullets might possibly be a little easier when the X key is held.

Name: Hell
Developer: JaJ
Category: Shooter
Type: Freeware
Size: 2MB
Direct download link: Click here

Basho Kioku is a simple memory game in which players have to click on all squares in thirty-six moves. Clicking on the same tile twice counts as a mistake, and you're only allowed a maximum of three errors for each session. A rather lacklustre effort, only because the developer did not take into account the minor cheat which can be used to solve this puzzler with ease.

In Planet Cruncher, players have to draw shapes around planets to earn points. Hold the left mouse button to begin drawing, and collect gems by touching them with the mouse pointer. Mismatching planets will cause a black hole to appear, but can be erased by drawing a circle around it.

Crimson Star is a 2D side-scrolling WIP platformer, which is heavily influenced by Metroid Prime 1 and other games in the Metroid series. Hopefully it's nearly done. It does look rather spiffy, doesn't it?

"This is a test of a webcam being reflected in the Goo in real time. Just requires any sort of webcam and it'll work in the Gish and Mercury Skins." - Tommy Refenes

The updated webcam version can be downloaded from http://goo.pillowfortgames.com/.

2007 Random Indie Game Challenge
"For completely arbitrary and torporous reasons I have decided to randomly select 10 independent games from recently released 'top of 2007' game lists from numerous indie game reporting blogs. I tried to limit it to games which I've either spent very little time with, or games that I've never touched. I will be ranking them in order of 1 to 10 based on initial impressions of 30 minutes or less with the games. This exercise should not be taken seriously by any stretch of the imagination, don't let the title fool you." - Matthew Williamson (shapermc)

GamePro interviews David Jaffe
"One of the most emotional video games I've ever played is a Flash game called Passage. You move a tiny 8-bit sprite character from left to right; every four to five seconds, your character ages. It's a simple, abstract, interactive expression of a life lived. It's great! It's possible to make emotional games, but it's not in my DNA at this point." - David Jaffe (God of War)

Aquaria at ACMI and Macworld
Photos from Derek's recent trip to Australia can be found over at the Bit Blot web site. Low budget video of the event in the extended.

Line Golfer works exactly like Line Rider, except that you have to play golf on the course that you design instead of riding a sled. A level editor is included, and user created levels can be shared.

Name: Line Golfer
Developer: Candystand
Category: Sports
Type: Flash

World of Goo: 2D Boy's debut commercial release will be out for the PC and Nintendo Wii on the same day. Unfortunately the game is set to miss its original February 14th release date.

Adventure

ScummVM: This useful virtual machine program for classic adventure games was recently updated to include support for Lure of the Temptress (freeware), Elvira series, and Harlan Ellison's critically-acclaimed I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream.

Nearly Departed: John Green's upcoming freeware adventure game gets a new trailer.

Competitions

3Punge: Screenshots and information for entries in latest Three Minute Game Competition (17th edition) are up.

YoYo Games Competition: According to a very reliable source, the next contest will begin sometime this week or the next.

Development Journals

Metanet's N+: Raigan and Mare will be posting a series of articles for IGN in the coming weeks, leading up to the release of N+ for the XBLA. A preview with new screenshots from the PSP version can be found at PSP Fanboy.

Lila Dreams: The developer journal for Creatrix Games' Kongregate-funded MMO game is up. [GameSetWatch article]

Previews

Ore no Ryomi 3: Vertigo Games will release new information and screenshots from their latest game next week.

Varia: Screenshots from Kairos' upcoming project posted at 64Digits.

Miscellaneous

DAN-BALL: ha55ii's Irritation Stickman and Powder Game were both recently updated.

Reversi: Thomas Weibel has released a Javascript/DHTML remake of this popular strategy game.

IndieFAQs: Distractionware's new site aims to serve the needs of gamers looking for hints or walkthroughs for their favorite indie games.

Let's Play Forums: A new hangout for indie game speed runs.

Faith Fighter is a fighting game with seven characters, all of them major religious figures: Jesus, God, Mohammad, Ganesha, Buddha, and the Laughing Buddha, and one secret character. I like a lot of the details the game has (like the Flying Spaghetti Monster appearing occasionally in the background and so on).

(As an aside, one of my friends and I once had an idea for a slightly similar game -- maybe we'll make it one day.)

Name: Faith Fighter
Developer: Molleindustria
Category: Fighting
Type: Flash

Take control of Rean, treasure hunter of dark and lonely places, as she gets in and gets back out in record time. Find the key to open the treasure, get the treasure itself, and then get back out of the maze in as little time as possible. You can't see very far, so be sure to keep track of the layout of the maze as you go.

Name: Rean: Conqueror of the Labyrinth
Developer: Yurabo
Category: Quick Play
Type: Flash

An interview with Russell Carroll, the authoritative figure when it comes to indie games. Also runs GameTunnel, a Marketing Director at Reflexive, and a full-time family man. Recently published another edition of the brilliant compendium which is the GameTunnel's Game of the Year Awards, showcasing the best indie games released every year.

Hi Russ, let's begin with an introduction of yourself, your work, and your involvement in the indie games scene.

I'm Russ Carroll. I started 'in the industry' by working on what we called indie games with my brother about 7 years ago I think. I wasn't very good at helping him, but during that time I played a lot of downloadable games and thought they were desperately needing a place to review them. So I started scheming up a website to review indie games and in December of 2002 GameTunnel was born.

After running GameTunnel for awhile I was offered a job to work with Reflexive and was very excited to take it. That was in February of 2005. I've been at Reflexive ever since, though I continue to run GT as I have time.

Caution: strong language.

Barkley Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden is the full version of the earlier Chapter 1 release seen last year, which tells the tale of the outcast basketball player named Charles Barkley and his quest to clear his name of a crime he did not commit.

The game is standard RPG fare but features an outlandish apocalyptic setting with the basketball sport and matches outlawed, while the players either condemned, executed or sentenced to a life of anonymity.

It will probably take around five hours to complete the entire adventure.

Name: Barkley Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden
Developer: Tales of Game's Studios (bort, Chef Boyardee, Drule, GZ)
Category: RPG
Type: Freeware
Size: 60MB
Direct download link: Click here

Screenshots in the extended.

The third of the 2007 Best Of Features here on the IndieGames.com.blog, we're proud to present twenty of the best freeware adventure games released in 2007.

The adventure game genre certainly isn't dead, and IndieGames proves this by picking the top freeware adventure independent titles released last year, from Rorschach through the awesomely named Nelly Cootalot: Spoonbeaks Ahoy.

Best Freeware Adventure Games 2007

  1. Fedora Spade
  2. Covert Front
  3. Anika's Odyssey
  4. Rorschach
  5. The Infinity String
  6. Fate by Numbers
  7. Masq
  8. Dr. Lutz and the Time Travel Machine
  9. A Tale of Two Kingdoms
10. Ben Jordan Case 6
11. Nelly Cootalot: Spoonbeaks Ahoy
12. Passage
13. Soup ver 0.9
14. Ruckblende (Flashback)
15. The Adventures of Cagney
16. What Makes You Tick
17. Stranded 2
18. Menulis and Miestas
19. Thule Trail
20. Fighting Fantasy Project

Monster Cats Nekonikoban is a Three Minute Game Competition entry by Fumuyume, in which players have to collect as many items as they possibly could within the time limit for high scores.

The game plays out like a Pac-Man variation, in which talismans can be acquired and used for temporary invincibility against all the other ghosts. Picking up the small blue object changes the other half of the screen, usually populating it with more of the same items but with different maze patterns.

A control configuration program is included.

Name: Monster Cats Nekonikoban
Developer: fumuyume
Category: Action
Type: Freeware
Size: 2MB
Direct download link: Click here

3Punge Competition package

Petit Strikers is a Three Minute Game Development entry which plays out in a small window, and features two short stages. The mouse is used to control your ship. Hold the left mouse button to shoot.

Name: Petit Strikers
Developer: 12
Category: Shooter
Type: Freeware
Size: 1MB
Download: Click here

3Punge Competition package

Mazer Mayhem is an XNA-only arena shooter by Kenta Cho, in which the player is given control of a tank as they attempt to destroy as many orange balls as possible while collecting green objects. The action takes place in a large enclosed area, and some traveling is required to search for more enemies.

The W, A, S and D keys can be used to move your ship. Cursor keys have a similar effect. Press the X key to simultaneously execute the dash move, launch a grenade and shoot. Hold the Z or C key to turn your craft around. This build also provides support for the Xbox360 controller.

Players can store a maximum of a hundred green items at any time, with a counter shown at the bottom right of the screen. When entering hyper mode by pressing both buttons, this count will deplete at a very quick rate. Replenish it by finding and destroying more balls.

To play Mazer Mayhem, simply install Visual C# 2005 Express Edition, its update, and XNA Game Studio 2.0. The click on Mm-Windows-0-1.ccgame twice to unpack the game.

Name: Mazer Mayhem
Developer: Kenta Cho
Category: Shooter
Type: Freeware
Size: 10MB

Requires the installation of XNA Game Studio 2.0.

Review by Anthony Pecorella

Areas, a new Flash game by Ridiculous, is an abstract arena shmup with no color, no text, no sound effects, no keyboard, and no clicking. What's left? A sublimely addictive game that generates a sense of claustrophobia and paranoia. This feeling of fear and desperation is compounded by a haunting musical piece composed by e-d.

The game features a very creative collection of power-ups and special weapons with some impressive firepower. Even more interesting, these power-ups have additive features, encouraging a lot of creativity from the player as they try to survive. With a non-trivial learning curve and 74 levels, Areas will challenge even the most seasoned gamer for hours.

Name: Areas
Developer: Ridiculous
Category: Shooter
Type: Browser

Here is the download link for the new official beta version of Audiosurf, posted by Dylan just a couple of hours ago:

http://media.audio-surf.com/SetupAudiosurf_BetaWeekend2_1.19.08.exe

Caverns of Underkeep is a short roguelike game which will run on any internet browser with Java runtime applet installed. Developed by Joshua Smyth, this release features seven levels, the usual array of character classes and a comprehensive list of equipments to acquire or purchase from the nearby town.

The latest version still has some balance issues to be sorted out, but nothing too serious that a few code fixes can't solve.

Name: Caverns of Underkeep
Developer: Joshua Smyth
Category: Roguelike RPG
Type: Browser

A teaser trailer for Off-Road Velociraptor Safari, the physic-based velociraptor hunting game from Fun-Motion. [source: indiegamer.com]

D.K. has ported Good Luck Natsuki to the GP2X. Almost all of the levels are completely new, and there is a hidden character to be found by clearing all fifty stages and then pressing 'x' 16 times on the title screen.

Name: Good Luck Natsuki
Developer: Alpha Secret Base
Category: Puzzle/Platform
Type: Freeware
Size: 21MB
Platform: GP2X Only
Direct Download: Here