11 Jul, 2011
Every year at PAX, video game convention madness heads to Seattle and wreaks havoc for a few days downtown on Labor Day weekend. Traffic slows to a crawl, tourists come flocking in for a glimpse, and geekiness abounds. And at every PAX, there is an indie games showcase of the Top 10 indie titles out there.
Earlier this week, a panel of “industry experts,” as PAX indicated, had a little meeting and decided on the indie titles that would be making an appearance and receiving some free booth space. They range from 2D platforming action goodness to strategy and puzzle-based games. Here’s the Chosen 10, as PAX would have it:
A Flipping Good Time - Developed by Digipen Institute of Technology
A Flipping Good Time
- Developer: Digipen Institute of Technology
- Platform: PC
- Genre: Action Platformer
- Website: A Flipping Good Time
Awarded the “Most Unbelievably Awesome Fun” Award by the Extra Credit Innovation Awards, A Flipping Good Time is a “fast-paced free-flowing 2D platformer.” Nature and gravity will be your guiding forces as you navigate through hazardous terrain in a world set entirely underground. Have some fun in mine cart rides, and don’t forget to keep collecting those shiny things. We all like shiny, right?
Antichamber - Developed by Alexander Bruce
Antichamber
- Developer: Alexander Bruce
- Platform: PC
- Genre: Exploration / Puzzle
- Website: Antichamber-game.com
If you’ve ever wondered what it would be like to live inside of an MC Escher painting, then this is the game to do it. With a focus on discovery, breaking all the rules of deapth-perception, and overcoming your surrounding by means of unorthodox exploration, Antichamber sounds like it will blow your mind in a good way. It has won numerous awards, including the Grand Prize award for the Unreal Contest and Technical Excellence for the IndiePub contest.
Atom Zombie Smasher - Developed by Blendo Games
Atom Zombie Smasher
- Developer: Blendo Games
- Platform: PC, Mac, Linux
- Genre: Strategy
- Website: Blendo Games
What do baby nukes, airstrike missiles, napalm, and zombies have in common? Why, they’ve got Atom Zombie Smasher. In a game that plays a lot like Starcraft and PacMan had an illegitimate genius child, this game looks like undeniable loads of zombie exploding fun. If you don’t believe it, head over to the website and watch the demo trailer. Best part? You can buy it on Steam, or download the demo.
Fez
- Developer: Polytron
- Platform: XBLA
- Genre: Platformer
- Website: Polytron Corporation
Some gamers are divided whether they still want to see old school 2D charm, or if everything should be hyper-realistic in the world of 3D. Fez strives to give us the best of both worlds, with a 2D protagonist named Gomez. Gomez is getting a little sick of living a flat and boring life, and wants to explore the three-dimensional universe. A change in perspective is all it really takes.
Jamestown: Legend of the Lost Colony - Developed by Final Form Games
Jamestown: Legend of the Lost Colony
- Developer: Final Form Games
- Platform: PC
- Genre: Co-Op Top-Down Shooter
- Website: Jamestown Game
What if Britain had actually managed to go up and colonize Mars? And they managed to do this in the 17th Century? For one, we wouldn’t have the failure of the Gunpowder Plot to remember. Maybe the United States would be a martian colony if this had really happened. All a pipe dream, but Jamestown: Legend of the Lost Colony promises to be loads of fun, with up to 4 player co-op in a steampunk inspired curtain shooter. Don’t believe it? Check out the trailer at the website.
Snapshot - Developed by Retro
Snapshot
- Developer: Retro Affect
- Platform: PC
- Genre: Puzzle-Platformer
- Website: Retro Affect.com
Save the world with photographs, one snapshot at a time. No, we’re not talking creepy Fatal Frame style. We’re talking cute and fun style. Well, Snapshot style. Manipulation is the name of the game, as players will have the ability to capture photos in the environment and use it to solve puzzles, defeat enemies, and keep on going.
Solar 2
- Developer: Murudai
- Platform: PC
- Genre: Unknown
- Website: Murudai.com
Set in an abstract universe, you don’t shoot planets in this one. No, you’re actually THE planet. Prove yourself to be the best of the best, or you can just ignore everyone and everything and see just how big you can grow to be. You can nurture life on the planets you control, or you can attack monsters. You can even steal planets from neighboring solar systems and become the cosmos’ biggest bully.
Splatters
- Developer: SpikySnail
- Platform: PC
- Genre: Puzzle Action
- Website: Spiky Snail.com
Splatters is just what the game is: full of paint splatters and colorful goopy fun. In a game where Peggle becomes every germophobe’s nightmare, Splatters encourages you to string together the biggest splats of color you could possibly manage to score big. Watch the trailer at the official website.
Vanessa Saint-Pierre Delacroix & Her Nightmare
- Developer: Bad Pilcrow
- Platform: PC
- Genre: Action / Puzzle
- Website: Bad Pilcrow.com
2D meets 3D in this puzzle adventure, with a 2D platforming game basically glued onto a 3D cube. Vanessa is a curious little girl who finds a magical cube in her father’s antique shop. Like any curious one, she toys around with it and soon finds her world sucked into…well, sucked inside the cube.
Word Fighter - Developed by Feel Every Yummy
Word Fighter
- Developer: Feel Every Yummy
- Platform: iOS & Android
- Genre: Word Game
- Website: Feel Very Yummy.com
In a game where Street Fighter meets the likes of popular word games like Bookworm Adventures or even Scrabble, we’re given the thinking man’s fighting game: Word Fighter. If you hated Agatha Christie and her books, then you’ll get the chance to tell her how you really feel. 6 playable characters will be included, but we’re hoping we’ll get more literary greats to beat down. Who liked reading John Steinbeck anyways?
Via Destructoid.
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