April 2005 
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April
2005 Indie Game Monthly Round-Up
(by
The Illustrious Panel - TIP) |
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Deadhunt
(April 5)
by REL Games
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It's a first person shooter, well made and smooth playing. But on the
downside, the entire demo takes place on one very wide open map, and gives
the impression that there are only 4 maps in the whole game. Also, you are
given one specific weapon for each level and can't switch. And lastly, you'
re shooting zombies, so as you expect, they mindlessly storm towards you as
you mow them down. It's a strange combination of dull (just keep sweeping
that gun across their heads), exciting (whoa, more are coming from the
side!), tedious (frags=120, on one of the shortest levels!), and fun (hey,
decapitating zombies). - MH |
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| Crashed after trying to start a
level. - SR |
N/A |
| Hahaha! While the game is not intentionally funny, I can't help but get a good laugh from it. The finest arena zombie hoard killing 3D shooter I've played. The game's crazy. It'll throw hundreds of zombies at you with various melee weapons, eventually adding armor to toughen them up. Why did I find the game so amusing? It's because it's so beautifully produced. Your 2 guns (from the demo), the assault riffle and shotgun are skillfully animated, like in any quality shooter. Also the zombies can be decapitated, dismembered, and are rather determined to cut you. And man, that nuke tearing apart the zombies looked great. Good stuff. - MK |
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Oasis
(April 12)
by Play First
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It's supposed to be Civilization at its teeniest, but it's really not. What
it is is a simple turn-based strategy/puzzle game which is highly
luck-based. It's a lot of fun to play, and it keeps you going with a
variety of different things to be shooting for as you play. I would
recommend this game as a quick timewaster, much like Solitaire or
Minesweeper, only with a decidedly more Egyptian feel. - MH |
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| I first met the Oasis guys at the IGF – I had a booth next to theirs. They
were cool and unlike me, never seemed to tire of explaining the game to one
more person. A year later it’s finally released. Was it worth the wait?
You bet. This is an addictive strategy game where each “level” is finished
in a few minutes with lots of clicking. It’s got a very “board game” feel.
Exploration, build up, luck, carry over, it’s all here in a finely tuned
experience like you haven’t seen before. - SR |
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| The big winner from IGF 2004, I certainly had high expectations. I've been getting notices from the developer for a while, as I signed up for the beta that year, but never actually played it. Finally, sitting down to play it, yeah... I'm impressed. It's a strategy game, strangely similar to Mine Sweeper, just a bunch more complicated, ... and Egypt themed. The game has a solid tutorial/campaign for getting you up to speed, and I'm almost sure the levels are randomly generated. Nice. I was having a great time playing, until I was interrupted by this commanding voice telling me "WARNING, YOU HAVE 2 MINUTES IN YOUR TRIAL REMAINING!!111". Scared the crap out of me. Thanks for that one Mr. Developer. - MK |
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Garden Golf
(April 13)
Download Now!
by Fun Pause
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| A pretty decent minigolf game. Some of the holes are fairly excruciating,
like the windmill that's more like a jet engine (totally random chance
whether you're getting it in there or not!). It handles all the basics
well, and is reasonably enjoyable. If minigolf is your thing, I think you
would have fun with it! If that's not your thing, it won't change your
mind. - MH |
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| Despite having zero animation for the player (is he a statue?), overall I
like the graphics. The problem is the ball movement just doesn’t feel
right. All three of the ball types feel flawed. The “normal” ball feels
like it’s covered with Velcro, and the absolute shortest distance you can go
with the “light” ball is three feet. I’d prefer a ball that can go up and
down hills without violating the laws of physics. Why can’t I turn off the
repetitive music without turning off the sound effects too? - SR |
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| Hey, I like mini-golf games, but this one didn't do much for me. The game is played from an isometric perspective. It's rather easy to play, moving the mouse changes your angle, and pressing the mouse button controls your power. Unfortunately, predicting your angle trickier than most, as you only have a small arrow to do it with. The physics feel rather simple, as the ball moves really quick, and sort of sinks like quicksand into the holes. It's not bad, but it's nothing special. - MK |
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Snowy: Treasure Hunter
(April 15)
by Aliasworlds Entertainment
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| Very cute graphics as we've come to expect from Snowy. But the gameplay?
Absolute Lode Runner. There are special items you collect to do unique
things, but it's a very minor tweak on a very exact Lode Runner clone.
Nothing wrong with Lode Runner, it's a great game, but it already exists
(along with hundreds of clones.). How about if Snowy takes us somewhere new
in the gaming realm? - MH |
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| This is one of those cutesy games were you run around and collect things
that sparkle while avoiding baddies. The gameplay might be a little
derivative, but I think the smooth animations, nice sound effects, and
overall high level of polish push this game somewhere near the top of its
genre. It’s fun. - SR |
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| I wasn't all that impressed with the Snowy: Space Trip. This one however, is quite cool. The art is excellent, and the audio is great too. It plays like load runner, and the many similar games. Really, without getting picky, the game's flawlessly done. The little details, like the
animation of Snowy jumping into the exit door, really impressed me. Very nice. - MK |
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Clash 'N' Slash
(March 29)
Download Now!
by Enkord
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| It's a truly mindless game, just hold down the button and enjoy. but enjoy I
did! It's a whole lot of fun to just zone out and destroy while collecting
upgrades (Note: leveling up is always fun). I'm not quite sure why you don'
t get to pick your own weapon for the first 9 levels, but it's still fun.
This game is actually very similar to Crimsonland, if you look a little
deeper than the surface visuals, and don't mind being chained to a planet. - MH |
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| This is kind of like asteroids except you’re stuck in the middle of the
screen. The art, sound and controls are all good but something bugs me with
the weapon system. You don’t have much power over what you’re going to use.
Sometimes you can switch to a different weapon instead of upgrading it
(wasting your upgrade), sometimes you can’t. It’s not explained and feels
illogical. A bit more gameplay variety and an improved weapon system would
go a long ways here.
- SR |
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| Nice! I've toyed with the planetary orbital defense game idea myself, and this game does it right. This game has almost a strategy aspect to it, beyond it's standard shooting around the planet. You earn and choose upgrades to improve your chances during the battle. The game looks good, and sounds good too. It's also fun enough that I ran out my trial by getting to the 10th level. Vaguely, the game reminds me of Zzed. - MK |
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Horror Squad
(April 14)
by Spectre Software
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| Do you remember back in the early 90's, when shareware games just didn't
make any sense? Like you'd get the game, and the first several days of it
would be the process of trying to figure out what you were doing, and what
was happening onscreen, and everything was just clunky and arbitrary and
written in system fonts, and even when you fully understood the game, there'
d always be random things happening that might be bugs, or might just be the
way the game works? If you don't remember, try Horror Squad to refresh your
memory. - MH |
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| This is a tile based tactical squad game. (think XCom) I really like the
idea and the game IS playable, but it’s just too rough around the edges for
me to recommend. The engine feels non responsive and jerky. It’s only
playable in a window. Scrolling around and giving orders is overly
cumbersome. Hitting escape instantly quits, that’s very 1995. This is for
hardcore tactical squad fans only!
- SR |
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| I was having a good month. I tried 4 times, but I just couldn't sit through a whole mission of this game. As we see it, the Horror Squad pulls up in its decked out Delorean, to fight the *evil* zombie threat. The squad itself enlists the efforts of a team of action heroes, and rejected Perfect Dark leads with a serious case of android throat. I'm not kidding, it's so bizarre. She speaks like a robot when she walks, but a normal woman when you just click on her. This game freaks me out more than any movie I've seen. The game kicks off, and you're in. No friendly tutorial or campaign mode to get you started. Go! Beat some zombies! Scrolling around the map and performing actions is frustrating. Everything shifts, jumps, and moves in unpleasant ways. Attempting to fight a zombie in a house was odd, and every time I saw one (including ones I could already see), my character movements would be interrupted, and I'd have to re-execute. I ended up beating that zombie with a bazooka, which by the way demolished the house he was in. Normally, I'd say that was cool. Visually, ... Ok, it's actually not too bad looking. Reminiscent of the original PC Syndicate in it's style, and even the zombies seen in various still screens are well detailed. As a game, it's not for me. - MK |
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Absolute Blue
(April 4)
Download Now!
by Intermedia Ware
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I think there's just something fundamentally fun about side-scrolling
shooters. That's a plus. But there are a lot of minuses. For one, there's
no auto-fire, so serious thumb pain ahoy (although there are 'secondary'
weapons that rely on holding down the button, but they're for special
purpose only, and your regular gun stops shooting when you fire them), and
the system of power-ups is really dull with no options and lots of
power-downs littering the battlefield. The bosses are also truly annoying
and tiresome with no indication of how you are doing. My last big minus:
though there are speed-up power-ups, your default speed is horribly slow (and
too many speed-up power-ups endangers your life during the many
super-speedy-dodge-the-walls sections). It's a pretty nice-looking game,
with the basic fun of a side-scrolling shooter, but there are far more fun
ones available. - MH |
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| This R-Type inspired side scrolling shooter has pretty much the minimum
story possible for a shooter. “Shoot or die” is the advice you’re given, and
they mean it. With weather effects, brick laying bugs and some thrilling
high speed sequences this game delivers on the action and provides solid
gameplay all the way through. - SR |
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| A rather average SHMUP. Like a lighter weight Jets and Guns, obsessed with score pickups. An oddity that stood out to me was with the normal shot. You have a double shot, but unless you're turning, you don't see it as two, but instead just one. In fact, this makes total sense, but was strangely unexpected. The game really doesn't jump out at me as anything special. It has big colorful explosions and particle effects, but that's a minimum requirement for a SHMUP nowadays. - MK |
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Supremacy: Four Paths to Power
(March 14)
by Black Hammer
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| There's just one thing wrong with this game: no single-player campaign mode.
To me, that's a pretty glaring flaw. I guess I'm not the self-directed
type. But other than that lack, it's really great - a solid strategy game,
or more like two solid strategy games combined. It has a ton of depth to it
without requiring a degree to figure out what you're doing. - MH |
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| The game kicks off with a well produced intro. A composite of CG stills with motions, zooms and effects. Very nice. Sadly, there doesn't appear to be a tutorial or campaign mode to learn the ropes. Instead, you're given a lecture by a severed head as it reminisces and taunts you after each skirmish mission. On the plus side, you get your choice of one of 4 heads to be vocally abused by. Not the most elegant of approaches, but Ok. To contrast, the game itself is actually well thought out and designed, broken into space and planetary surface battles. Nice. Playing it I easily got the hang of it, but a tutorial or a progressive/meaningful campaign would have been a very welcome addition to the game. - MK |
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| A great game! The innovative tower bonus system that is used in the ground battles is particularly impressive, and the technology tree in the science station menu is interesting and allows for many experiments and play styles. The battles are exciting and, at the same time, require some forethought in each and every turn. Thus, Supremacy – Four Paths to Power manages to appeal to the casual gamer as well as the strategy enthusiast. -
MV |
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Tribal Trouble
(March 31)
by Odd Labs
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| A really fun, simplified, mini-RTS. It's amazing how many tiny guys they
can get squirming around on my crappy video card. Very easy to play,
following all the old RTS conventions, although some things are fairly iffy
and weird like how you can't figure out how many guys you're assigning to
something, because they run off and start doing it, counting themselves out
of the number remaining to be assigned. It's hard to explain, just trust
me. Overall though, it is easy to control, and fun and simple. It is
lacking a campaign mode of any kind, a major flaw in my book! - MH |
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| This is an extremely approachable 3D real-time strategy game. Kind of a
dumbed down Warcraft your mom could play. With random level generation, up
to 6 human players, online rankings, and a devoted development team I don’t
think you can go wrong here. - SR |
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| A nice lightweight RTS game. The art, while low and super low poly, still looks great. The game sports a solid tutorial which did a fine job getting up to speed. The demo might have been little easy win. Sure, the enemy did attack me, but I hoarded minerals and converted my peons into soldiers, after maxing them out no doubt. No contest ;). Fun game.
- MK |
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DROD: Journey to Rooted Hold
(April 1)
Download Now!
by Caravel Games
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This is a really cool adventure/puzzle game. My only real gripe is that you
end up a lot of the time doing highly repetitive key flailing. For
instance, you'll very often find yourself confronted by a line of roaches
that you can't safely advance on, so you have to wildly hammer the Q and W
keys to move your sword aside and then hit the frontmost roach. It's easy
to do, but annoying, and scary because if you slip and accidently hit the
same side twice, you get to do the room over. Fixing this issue (which
crops up in many other ways too) would really require a fundamental shift in
how the game works, so it's probably not possible. Other than that, it's a
very clever game which has complex puzzles as a result of a few simple
rules. - MH |
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| This game is a really neat collection of logic puzzles with a dungeon theme.
The crisp clean tile set, snappy controls and fully voiced story (that’s
well written, no less) make this the best in the genre. The puzzles get
pretty tough so it’s a good thing there is a very strong online element here
to trade hints and even levels you create. - SR |
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| The return of numeric keypad game controls. Unfortunately for me, I play the roundup games on my laptop which has no numeric keypad, so it was tricky to play. That aside, the game is quite fun. It's reminiscent of an ASCII adventure game, but it's all spruced up with ... get this, *graphics*. You carry a large sword that you rotate to slay monsters and trigger switches with. That alone is the foundation of a refreshing little puzzle game. On top of that, you have cleverly written dialog which is surprisingly well performed too. Finally, an eerie sort of medieval chanting monk song on the title, with it's share of odd lyrics. Now that's class. - MK |
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Alien Abduction
(April 9)
by Pumpkin Games
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You know, I think this is the first time I've ever seen a "style clone"! It
plays totally differently from Mutant Storm (in fact, it plays exactly like
Defender), but it copies the look and feel of Mutant Storm exactly.
Luckily, that's a nice look, and the game feels good. On the other hand, it
's the hardest game in the history of the entire universe. That's the
biggest problem with this game: it's just too discouraging. Maybe if you
didn't have to replay the entire level every time you died, it'd be
different, but as it stands, a lot of (but definitely not all of) the fun is
sucked out of it by the sheer punishment. Still, I think with more
practice, which I intend to put in, it will increase in fun. Definitely
old-school arcade challenge. - MH |
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| AA is a slick tribute to an old arcade game called Defender. The graphics
take the “abstract geometric shapes” path but all in all it fits the retro
experience rather well. I like the unlockables and especially appreciate
being able to continue on any level. I don’t know if I’m old or what but I
ran out of juice around level eight. My reflexes were abducted. - SR |
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| This one's like a top down Defender, rather than the side view we're all used to, spruced up with more modern graphics and effects. Variation includes a powerup. Like Defender, you fly back and forth, swapping your thrust with the touch of a button, and you shoot stuff. I really didn't notice anything that'd make it stand out. - MK |
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Glow Worm
(April 20)
Download Now!
by Flashbang Studios
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| Same old color-matching stuff, but very well done. If your brain hasn't
completely melted all of its color-matching neurons, you should enjoy it
quite a bit! It includes 3 game modes which provide reasonably unique
challenges rather than just "now with a time limit!" or whatever. The
mechanism by which the worm colors change is pretty clever. I never knew
that worms placed in close proximity to each other would explode though. a
new trick for the neighborhood kids! - MH |
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| This month’s “color matcher” variant has an interesting twist – after
matching the colors, they leave babies of different colors that you also
have to do away with. Because you know what they’ll hatch into in advance,
it makes for some tasty combo opportunities. Being nearly impossible to
lose, the challenge is really in making nice combos. This is a polished,
well done game with a lot of hand crafted levels to work your way through. - SR |
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| Oh wow. Short of a lack of animation on the part of your advisor, the game's top notch in all regards. The audio and voice acting is fantastic, and the look of the art really captures the magic theme they were surely aiming for. As a game, sure, it's a matching game, but it doesn't feel like it pressures you, and it actually feels original. Wow. I'd be surprised if this one didn't make the portal top 10's. - MK |
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Wild West Wendy
(April 21)
Download Now!
by Mystery Studio
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| I have a feeling I will be the dissenting voice on this one. This game is
definitely well-done, and incorporates a lot (the Campaign mode is a great
concept, I love those kinds of things!). But in spite of all that, I just
didn't have ANY fun playing it. It was just constant stressful work. It
wasn't hard to succeed by any means, it was just really unfun. Whether this
is my own special issue or a more general problem depends on what the other
Illustrious Panelites have to say! Read on! - MH |
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| Mystery Studio’s second take on a bartending game – this time in the Wild
West starring a slightly less buxom gal. The graphics have improved and the
controls have been simplified quite a bit. The base game mechanics are
decent but this game could really use a combo system, something to keep
expert players busy without alienating more casual players. The “read the
newspaper” feature has amusing parts but also just odd things that seem out
of the place. Neat theme. - SR |
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| Unfortunately, the audio was extremely clicky and poppy on my sound card. Audio issues aside, it's a cool game. Having not played the original Betty's Beer Bar, or the competition Diner Dash, I'd say it fits right in with frenetic food games like Pizza Frenzy. The graphics are well done, and I'm sure the audio was great, had it worked properly on my sound card. A big thing I really like about the game is the queuing of tasks. Pizza Frenzy was bad for that, as you'd have click everything really fast, I'm sure causing serious injury to my hand, though it's true Pizza Frenzy wouldn't work with queuing. Very nice. - MK |
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Democracy
(April 19)
Download Now!
by Positech Computing Ltd
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| You know, I wasn't sure what to expect going in. But I plowed through the
extremely dense and necessary tutorial, and hopped on board to set the good
old U.S. of A. straight. I legalized pot, fixed the environment
(Completely! In one term!), upset the religious with stem cells, and got
kidnapped by industrialist terrorists and thrown in a South American prison.
Game over. I was a little shocked and stunned by the sudden and arbitrary
ending (okay, I was warned several months earlier, but I thought I was
really winning over the capitalists after that! Guess I needed more spies
or cops to cover my back), but I was into it. I'm mad too, because I was
way over 50% popularity, and had just solved the budget deficit even. Take
that, W. One major caveat to this game: there seem to be a lot of bugs,
some of which are rather subtle, given the complex and opaque nature of it. - MH |
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| Finally, a game that lets me see what would happen if we legalized narcotics
and prostitution while requiring school prayer. You can create some
interesting social experiments with this; it’s a lot of fun to play the
king. It’s not perfect, a bit ugly and I did experience a few bugs, but I
had a blast creating my own utopia. Well, until I was assassinated. - SR |
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| Being the resident Canadian on the panel, I chose to play as us, the Canadianese. That itself is a cool feature ;). The game is a sort of "run the government" simulator, ... for fun! It's certainly a complicated game, and GUI you're hit with as the game starts up is overwhelming. Certainly a niche game, as this game has proven to me my lack of interest and skill in running a government. On the plus side, the Canadians out there can thank me as I personally lowered taxes, got the country out of debt, made the Canadian economy a leader in technology, ... but that's apparently not enough as I didn't get re-elected. Jerks. Cool game. - MK |
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The
Illustrious Panel for this month:
MH- Mike Hommel -
Hamumu
Mike Hommel is known for his hilarious and bizarre games. Though
his site claims that all his games are just 'dumb fun' you'll find that
they are some of the more interesting games around, and will eat hours
away from your life without you realizing where they all went.
SR - Seth Robinson -
Robinson Technologies
Seth has spent the last fourteen years making odd games, including
designing and programming many independent titles such as the BBS hit
Legend Of The Red Dragon, the multiplayer Flash based web game Funeral
Quest, IGF finalists Teenage Lawnmower and Dungeon Scroll and the cult
classic RPG Dink Smallwood.
MK - Mike Kasprzak - Sykhronics
Coming from a game console background, Mike's responsible for bringing
to the market such oddities as Secret Agent Barbie for Gameboy Advance,
The Emperor's New Groove for Gameboy Color, and several other top girl
branded games (not that he's bragging). In indie land, he seeks
redemption. Mike's best known for his "cute but not girly" hamster
blasting game, PuffBOMB.
MV - Moritz Voss - Game
Tunnel
A 26 year-old German majoring in computer science (psychology
minor), for Moritz it’s safe to say that computer games are an integral
part of his daily life. He's been playing computer games avidly since the early 80's, which was
when he came into contact with the Commodore C64, and later the Commodore
Amiga platforms. In the 1990's, he switched to PC games around the time
id Software released Doom, which was also when he discovered that his favorite modes of play were multi player or head to head, and that
he enjoyed building levels and modifications for existing computer games. |
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See a game that was missed? Though we do
our best, we are unable to cover all games. In addition, some
games slip through the cracks because we just don't know they exist.
If you are a developer, ensure this doesn't happen by
submitting your game or a
news item. |
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