Mubbly Tower is basically a tower defense game built around the concept of making your structure as tall as you possibly can to please the king's increasing demands. The game ends when the tower does not reach the line for a certain amount of time, as indicated by the king's happiness gauge shown at the top left of the screen. To compound to your troubles, Wobbly creatures will attempt to topple the tower with all manners of attacks and projectiles in their arsenal.

Money gained from defeating Wobbly creatures can be used to hire mubblies to defend your tower. Mubbly Tower also comes with an online high score table, four unlockable modes and a bonus platformer game.

Name: Mubbly Tower
Developer: Jesse Venbrux, Ferry Spaans
Category: Strategy
Type: Freeware
Size: 10MB

Online high score table

Bowja the Ninja (on Factory Island) is a point and click adventure game in the style of The Visitor and Hapland. Your objective is to infiltrate the enemy's island and destroy their secret weapon, achieved by solving one or two simple puzzles in each screen to progress.

Some knowledge of Roman numerals is required to complete the game.

Name:Bowja the Ninja
Developer: Pencilkids
Category: Puzzle
Type: Browser

Echochrome out
Pixeljunk Monsters expansion pack

"The game (Brain-Damaged Toon Underworld) will be available in HD resolution, and has therefore gotten a new resolution and aspect ratio."

download trailer (high quality version)
Cactus Software

Fantastic Blood Boy is a 2D action game created by Gustav Kilman for TIGSource's VGNG competition, in which players have to protect red clot crystals from an entire army of sockpuppets. Blood Boy is practically invincible in the game, and touching a clot crystal will move it to a random position on screen. A new crystal is generated when you've collected enough blood from the sockpuppets you've destroyed. You may have up to three clot crystals at any time, but the game ends when you've lost all of them to exploding sockpuppets.

Deactivate a sockpuppet's destruction sequence by jumping off them. A crystal that isn't moving around will generate weapons, which can then be acquired by moving Blood Boy next to one.

Name: Fantastic Blood Boy
Developer: Gustav Kilman
Category: Action
Type: Freeware
Size: 5MB

The Amazing Brain Train, Grubby Games (Windows, Mac, Linux)

Larva Mortus, Rake in Grass (Windows, Mac)

Droid Assault, Puppygames (Windows, Mac, Linux)

Skin and Bones, Addictive 247 (Windows only)

Chase Ace Deluxe, Space Time Foam (Windows only)

Previews

Clockwork: Preliminary design sketch for Mike Bithell's new steampunk adventure posted in his development journal.

Blood from Clockwork Hearts: The author of Gun Mute and Snowblind Aces might possibly be working on a new IF adventure game.

The Fool and His Money: More screenshots from Cliff's long-awaited sequel added to the game information page.

Lila Dreams: New design sketch and art posted in Creatrix Games' development journal.

Go Beryllium: More screenshots from monoRAIL's upcoming 2D shooter posted.

Press/Interviews

What's New in Indie: The April edition of GameTunnel's monthly feature is up.

GameTap: New interviews with the developers of P.B. Winterbottom and World of Goo added.

Karoshi: The lead producer of Fallout 3 takes a look at 2Dcube's series of suicide platformers.

Play This Thing: Cactus Arcade reviewed.

In the Woods is a short IF adventure game set in the world of a classic fairy tale. This story is much closer to the original unabridged version which few people would have heard of, and can be completed in roughly ten or fifteen minutes of play time.

Name: In the Woods
Developer: Anna Anthropy
Category: IF
Type: Freeware
Size: 20KB
Direct download link: Click here

Karoshi 1 speed run

A preview for the upcoming indie RPG Frayed Knights was recently released as a 62 MB file download. The game features 3D graphics, turn-based combat, and a party of four different characters with their own distinct personalities. Note that you'll be asked to fill in a survey when exiting the application.

Name: Frayed Knights
Developer: Rampant Games
Category: RPG
Type: Demo
Size: 60MB

Pics from a party over at Raigan and Mare's place, in celebration of N+'s 100k sales figure on XBLA.

Castle Crashing "The Beard" is basically a small preview of The Behemoth's upcoming XBLA release Castle Crashers. Only one button is used to control both melee and ranged spell attacks. Increase your knight's level by hurting the boss or hitting tombstones to access more damaging moves.

Tom Fulp's alter ego is relatively easy to beat once you've familiarized yourself with his pattern of attacks.

Name: Castle Crashing "The Beard"
Developer: BoMToons
Category: Action
Type: Browser

[In this in-depth Gamasutra analysis, casual game veteran Gril looks at the state and evolution of independent gaming, from PC to console, from Desktop Tower Defense to fl0w and beyond...]

Independent development is one of the hottest trends right now within the game industry. And fortunately the public is responding well (but not necessarily responding to an "indie" trend, as we'll see below). N+ is a success on Xbox 360. Kongregate's traffic is growing steadily. Pixeljunk Monsters and particularly flOw are doing well on PS3. If things continue this way, by the end of 2008 most innovation in gaming is going to happen in independent games.

But are they a viable venue for developers? Leaving aside the fact that for every N+ there are a lot of failures (that happens everywhere else and it's a redundant point) in order to make a game that finds its audience you need to be careful about the platform the game is targeted to. Let's look at the market analytically.

Continue reading "The State of Indie Gaming (Gamasutra)" »

Space Troy is Lazrael's latest game. It's a stylish retro shoot 'em up with a short but challenging level divided into three parts.

"You are Troy the space squid, an agent of the Space Taxing Department (STD). You have received info that there is a populus that is comepletely taxfree at the moment and you must fix dat. With guns."

Use X to fire, arrow keys to move and Enter to start a new game and skip forward in the intro sequence.

Name: Space Troy
Developer: Lazrael
Category: Shooter
Type: Freeware
Size: 4MB
Download link: Savefile

Joshua Smyth's Attack of the Meeplings is a vertical shooter consisting of three levels, playable using Java-enabled browser. Hold the Z key to shoot, and press the space key to use a missile. Autofire can be activated with the A key.

Gather blue orbs to increase your multiplier, which is added to your score whenever an enemy ship is destroyed. The game loops infinitely, with a minor speed increase after every three stages. High scores are only recorded when playing at the normal difficulty setting.

Name: Attack of the Meeplings
Developer: Joshua Smyth
Category: Shooter
Type: Browser

Hampa's turn-based fighting game Toribash was recently ported to Flash by the original author himself. Most of the features have been stripped down to its basics, but full source code for Toriflash can be downloaded from the same thread for modding and hacking purposes. (source: Toribash, Fun-Motion)

Name: Toriflash
Developer: Hampa
Category: Strategy
Type: Browser

The Sewer Goblet is a new roguelike game created by Tale of Game's Studios, the same group which produced the recent b-ball hit Barkley Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden. Your objective is to storm a dungeon, reach the bottom level, retrieve the baby, and finally returning to the top floor. Treasure and equipment can be acquired to improve your chances of survival. Once you've reached the bottom floor to retrieve the baby, you will have to travel all the way up again in order to fully complete the mission.

Your progress is saved automatically when exiting the game using the escape key. Press the R key to rest, or tap space to access your inventory. Cast spells or discard inventory items using the Q key. Press W to collect treasure from the ground when standing over it, and eat snacks to reveal their magical properties. There are roughly twenty levels in total.

Name: The Sewer Goblet
Developer: Tale of Game's Studios
Category: Roguelike
Type: Freeware
Size: 30MB
Direct download link: Click here

Hello Panda is a stylish vertical shooter made by GPTouch using Game Maker, featuring three playable characters and five levels interspersed with the occasional boss encounters. Enemies drop blood when defeated, which can then be acquired and used to fuel special attacks or to upgrade your default weapon.

Press the Z key to shoot, and hold the left shift key to display your character's hit point. Use the X key to execute your secondary attack. Press the C key when you're firing to upgrade your weapon, or increase the blood pack count by one if the red gauge shows a hundred percent. Use the space key to activate a temporary invincibility mode when you have at least one blood pack.

Name: Hello Panda
Developer: GPTouch, Inc.
Category: Shooter
Type: Freeware
Size: 30MB
Download link: Mediafire

Hey, folks - so if IndieGames.com readers could help us out for a second, we're conducting a v.brief anonymous survey (6 questions only, should take about 30 seconds to fill out!) to work out exactly who reads the Indie Games Blog.

Why? This site is operated by us folks at Think Services, which also runs things like Game Developers Conference and the Independent Games Festival, we're trying to work out more about the demographics and wants of the site readership.

Anyhow, the survey is completely optional, and as mentioned previously, the results will not be tied to any personal information or details you give us.

But if you do want some incentive to do it, we're giving away a set of 4 GameSetApparel T-shirts - including a neat Dan 'Alien Hominid/Castle Crashers' Paladin tee, among others - to one randomly picked survey filler-out.

[Please note that when you complete the survey, it'll just go back to the IndieGames.com homepage.]

Thanks!
Simon
(Chairman, IGF.)

In The Last Stand 2, your objective is to protect a barricade against oncoming hordes of zombies. Manage your time during the daylight to search for weapons, survivors and repair.

Move with the W, A, S and D keys. Aim with the mouse, and reload with the R key. Press space to switch weapons.

Name: The Last Stand 2
Developer: Con Artists Productions
Category: Action
Type: Browser