The long-running game jam Ludum Dare recently held its 41st event, which was dedicated to making games that combine two "incompatible" genres. As previously reported, Ludum Dare 41 spawned surreal adventure game You Left Me. It also gave us Oni Hunter, a 2D puzzle-stealth game about clearing groups of bad guys in an instant. You can play it for free in your browser here. A team of four made Oni Hunter in just 48 hours, but it looks and feels great. Basically, you slow down time and draw a path for your sword that not only puts you back at the level's door but also kills all the enemies in the level—murderous tracing, basically. It's fun to thread the needle and nail multiple Oni at once, and taking down special enemies like guards with vision cones or extra armor ratchets up the challenge considerably.If you want to check out some other games from Ludum Dare 41, have a gander at this Itch catalog. There are like 2,000 of them, by the way. Ball of Duty: Modern Bowlfare sounds … [Read more...] about Free browser game Oni Hunter is a fun mix of Gunpoint and Mark of the Ninja
Indiegaming
The Making of Cogmind’s Alpha Trailer
A game’s trailer is extremely important, so rather than release some mediocre video recordings during pre-alpha development I decided to let gifs show off the animation while keeping the audio side of things to myself, waiting for the game to reach a more complete state when I could then invest a lot of time into producing a proper video. My previous experience with ASCII videos taught me that they’re difficult to do well, so I knew it would take a while to find a satisfactory process for Cogmind. In the end Cogmind’s 90-second trailer required nearly three weeks of full-time effort from inception to final production. At first I considered hiring someone else to do it (a professional), but I like creating things myself, and finding, hiring, and bringing another person up to speed on the project would take a while, not to mention one of the most time-consuming parts--collecting clips for a trailer--is something I’d still have to do myself, anyway. In all I … [Read more...] about The Making of Cogmind’s Alpha Trailer
Designing great minigames and sidequests for indie JRPG Legrand Legacy
For many JRPGs, turn-based combat and sweeping stories can make for an excellent game, but sometimes, it's the small diversions that add to the experience. From game-changing sidequests like in Lunar 2: Eternal Blue, taking a moment to fish in Breath of Fire, engaging in Iron Chef-like cooking contests in Suikoden II, or doing some chocobo racing in Final Fantasy VII, many memorable moments are born out of the things players do when not tackling the main story. This era, and the minigames and sidequests that frequently appeared in its games, were what made Henry William 'Uwil' Winata, lead game designer for Legrand Legacy, want to make their game. "Legrand Legacy is our homage to these classic JRPGs of yesteryear, but with fresh new twists that will appeal to modern players," Winata says. "From hand-drawn, pre-rendered backgrounds, epic lore, a sweeping original soundtrack, and 3D cutscenes, 90's kids will be instantly hit with a sense of … [Read more...] about Designing great minigames and sidequests for indie JRPG Legrand Legacy
Developers share their favorite indie games of 2017
2017 has been a banner year for videogames, with many successful and important titles getting released throughout the year. Instead of presenting you our favorite 2017 games, we asked developers which titles resonated with them instead. Their answers are once again testament to the richness and diversity that independent games have to offer. If 2018 will only be half as good, we're in for quite a ride! Jay Tholen (@jaytholen): "Rex: Another Island was my indie pick for 2017. It's a solidly designed 'open world' (it has one really huge level with warp points) platformer in which you play as an adorable pink dinosaur exploring an island with diverse biomes. Games of the 'difficult platformer' variety don't normally do this for me, but Rex was therapeutically relaxing and I want to go hang out in its world again just thinking about it." Sam Luangkhot (@flarechess): "Really loved Brianna Lei 's Butterfly Soup VN for a lighthearted and touching story that has … [Read more...] about Developers share their favorite indie games of 2017