When I’ve finished writing my own game (I seem to have coded myself into a corner at the moment) I’ll use this page for that but until then I just wanted a repository to put links to the most wonderfully well crafted and obtuse games I’ve had the pleasure to find. There’s also a page of undescribed links for a quick fix of good stuff that won’t neccessarily be on this page
First and foremost I would advise a daily visit to Jay is Games as it’s absolutely great.
These are mostly for the PC so I apologise to Mac visitors, however some are either ‘flash’/browser based and some are cross-platform.
19 Feb 2010
EVERY DAY I DREAM THE SAME DREAM
A fantastic and beautiful experience by Paolo Pedercini of Molleindustria. It’s easier just to start it up and observe yourself while!
21 SEPTEMBER 2009
TWO NEW GAMES!!
Oh Reece Millidge, you are a wonder of joy and talent. Thank you for Icycle. Play it and drink in the level design, music, sound, visuals and coding.
The latest beauty from Edmund McMillen who also wrote Meat Boy and has done a lot of other great work including working on Braid (below) and Gish and Blast Miner. Inspired by an utterly depressing 10-year school re-union he went to, this has a lovely feel, a lovely story and lovely game dynamics in there.
I simply can’t recommend this enough. From Vectorpark groundsman Patrick Smith. It’ll make you cry with joy. Buy the whole game as it’s only $3 and it’s sublime. And here’s his blog too which is very much worth the trip despite the pangs of envy (thanks jerry for the link).
Ooooh, a wonderfully simple looking but incredibly complex take on the Portal game (which, if you haven’t heard of you may get lost very quickly indeed). Coded by the mysanthropic Stephen Lavelle the game mechanic involves firing out an ‘A’ portal (red) onto a surface and a ‘B’ portal (blue) onto another creating a doorway through.
Your aim is to get the yellow pixel and avoid any other coloured ones.
Controls are :-
arrows – move
w,a,s,d – fire red portal
shift + w,a,s,d – fire blue portal.
Try his other games too, wonderful exploits in ludological narrative exploration (ooh look at my new dictionary). Tinnitus, Punch or Kiss, Striptease,
Jonathon Blow’s really rather remarkeable game may only be, I suspect, for a few minds of you out there but give it a go. It’s a quasi-philosophical/logical time based platforming game that by ‘world’ 3, if you buy the whole thing (and it’s only $14), beautifully pulls the rug from under you, wraps it up and hands it to you as a birthday present. I’m less thanhalf way through it and it’s stunning.
An extremely challenging game by Jason Rohrer. You’re going to have to pursevere with this and also think. I’m not even sure how much I understand of it even now but what little I do is tinged with a sadness I haven’t felt in many games. Ultimately the controls are left, right, up and down and the further you walk to the right hand side of the screen the older you get. His representation of the perception of time is one of the many subtleties that make this an extremely interesting game. I’m going to check out his other stuff as I suspect there may well be more gems there. Thanks to Mr Ben Burry for pointing this out as well as a really very interesting documentary with Jason Rohrer and Chris Crawford talking about experimental gaming.
I would thoroughly recommend the 50 or so minutes this takes up. Despite being initially quite terrifying and intense with Chris Crawford it evolves into a really insightful and tender conversation which I take away a lot of hope from!
Scroll down to the Karoshi links and I’d say it’s best to download the .exe. file (PC only) as there is a flash version but it’s not as brilliant as the exes imho. Jesse has a very very good sense of humour and a well crafted appreciation of how games work and the first time I played the first Karoshi I seem to remember laughing so much at the end that I fouind it hard to breath.
UPDATE! new Karoshi and new Karoshi page
by Nifflas
You have to download a bit of stuff but they are just beautiful ‘exploration’ games with a slice of puzzles and upgrading. The sound and visuals are amzingly soothing and the gameplay has a really simple and satisfying progression. Made even more stunning by a really open community level and artwork editor and thus a huge amount of extra adventures that extend the idea of Knytt’s universe. This is possibly the reason why I started properly wanting to write games.
He’s also written another couple of really wonderful games like
Within a Deep Forest and another one I can’t find or remember.
For a free game this is a wonderfully well written complex and satisfying platforming ‘RPG’ game created by Studio Pixel with very clever upgrading weapons, charming characters and a rather dark and deep plot. You’ll need to download and install things (the game and then the trans;ation thing) so read through what you should do on the download page but bare with it as it’ll reward you for many many hours.
This is a wonderful post-modern reaction to what platform and goal based gaming can be boiled down to at some level and as a result it’s a briliant game in itself. Very clever game by jmtb02
As with Acheivement Unlocked this is as much a post-modern look on what Role Plying Game (RPG) based gaming can be boiled down too. Very clever game by =GirlFlash.
by Noonat
The Website ‘A Happy Medium’ describes this best
“Queens (a game made for the Ludum Dare game design challenge based on the theme “domestic abuse”) gives you a new character with a new name every time your avatar dies. It’s a kind of twisted incentive to be better at the game and, in an uncomfortable way, helps you understand the obsessively abusive King antagonist. And then there is the classic plumber/princess dynamic that is present just enough to make you feel nostalgic and uneasy.
by Mattheus Skutnik
Beautifully illustrated and quite nice game to explore. A cross between the Moomins and something else pastel coloured. Lovely narrative.
Winner of one of Jayisgames competitions. Based around physics/bouncing balls. Nicely drawn and animated but also a really nice level of game play challenges within and after the game.
You must have played these but it’s absolutely evident the joy that the chap Rob Allen has in drawing, animating and making games.
Brilliant and very big free game. He ( a chap called On) also makes lots of other fun experimental games too and if I’m not mistaaken was the
originator of the first ‘grow‘ game (don’t really like ‘grow’ games)
By Amanita Design
Utterly beautiful in a similar game mechanic but a wonderful aesthetic too They actually did a great game for the BBC called Questionaut and are making a fully fledged game too called Machinarium.
by Gregory Weir
Great, exploratory, intellectual, wonderful.
by Brendan Chung
Wonderful frist person parody kind of thing. Other things on his site are well worth the exploration too although Ithink it’s only for PCs
It’s best to read up on the controls and instructions for this one. There are also walkthroughs if you get stuck.
Made by Kian Bashiri who’s also made a lovely social commentary game where you have to look at people’s ipods and ties on a tube/the metro but avoid any eye contact here
Fantastic, very humerous beautifully crafted around a simple technique -
first developed as an indie game and it has to be said this is the
finest transition to proper paying gaming I’ve seen. Chap who developed it also runs an experimental gameplay thing himself
Might look a little childish but a nicely crafted and textured world and lovely ambient feeling to it.
A really nicely paced (if slow) point and click game that manages to paint a fantastic set of dry humerous characters over four or five of the missions so far. Has some really nice touches of humour throughout it strung against a rather lovely game and community
More of a casual game in that it’s a very accomplished if basic Zelda clone which, if you want to enjoy a few hours (about 10 to finish the game but with a couple of side quest-ish things about 15) of levelling up have a go. It saves your progress so you can keep popping back.