In my previous post, I named 10 out of my 20 favorite games from the Indies VS Gamers jam.
Before I continue, I want to mention that the jam winners and other developers who placed highly were very involved in the jam. Developers whose games did well generally played and commented on a lot of other people’s games. There may be some correlation there, so remeber that for the future!
Also, congratulations to all of you who completed a game for the jam and thanks to all of you who played games and voted. And now, here are the rest of my picks (in no order).
Space Team Zed (Unity, Win, Mac, Linux)
In this 3D, third-person shooter, you land on a small planet that is barren and serene, but turns out to be littered with crashed ships. Soon enough, you find out that zombies are the reason. Good thing you’re packing a laser blaster! The aiming and shooting feels good, and so does the low-gravity jumping.
1 Girl 2 Cups (Win)
Honestly, I don’t get the name, unless it’s just a prank on anyone trying to google it. However, the game, a team-up between indie veterans NAL and Nocturne Games, is pretty straightforward. You run around a huge Pac-Man maze picking up orbs, which double as your ammo, and dodging or shooting the hell out of the maniacs chasing you. I found the over-the-top blood splatters and the satirical voiceover work hilarious.
EST 100 (Win)
Drawing inspiration from Tempest, Force of Habit’s vector shooter has you riding the lines of different polygons (the 2D kind) and fighting off waves of things that don’t want you there. The lines also represent your ammo—they take barely any time to respawn, but they force you to be more careful with your shots. Dodging is also a precarious affair, since you can only move in two directions at any given time. Also, the music is groovy.
Mythical Graveyard Uprising (HTML, Win)
Here’s a fast-paced arena shooter that doesn’t do much that you can’t see in other video games, but it’s so polished and juicy and stylish that it doesn’t matter. Ink delivers another top-notch game.
Angel Orb (Win)
First of all, the pixel art is just gorgeous. Better yet, it sits atop some stellar arcade gameplay. Yes, you control a bird that flaps, but the rest is quite original. You flap around a single screen avoiding enemy avians and launching the titular weapon at them. The orb attacks its targets automatically; all you have to do is go retrieve it every time—and stay alive.
Zwordo (Win)
In Zwordo, you’re essentially Zorro fighting off an endless assault of skeletons. It’s almost too simple, but it does everything that it does so well. The sword stabs feel good. It’s so satisfying to stab those skeletons and see them fall to pieces and then lay there broken in the sand, while more of them are coming at you just begging to join the fallen. And that theme tune is quite catchy!
Contestant 3 (Win, Mac)
You’re competing on a twisted, sci-fi version of a reality show like Survivor. You’ve been crash-landed on an alien planet, where you have to try to stay alive by managing your meager resources and fighting off a variety of hostiles.Your audience approval ratings are your score. Also, there’s a neat mechanic where you can’t see enemies until you reveal them with your electric torch.
Motorcade (Flash, Win)
This is a game I would have popped piles of quarters into, if it had been a cabinet in the arcades I visited as a youth. In it, you and up to three others are armed motorcyclists escorting a limo down the highway. Naturally, your motorcade is attacked by jeeps outfitted with turreted machine guns.
DESTRUCTION DARIUS (Win)
{% youtube Yr0XFqOF4cc?t=9m %}
3kliksphilip made a trilogy of excellent video dev diaries during the jam (I’ve put the 3rd one above*, but all 3 are worth watching). Also, he ended up making a really excellent game! It’s all about tossing mines to blow up the barriers that stand between you and the end of each level. Blowing stuff up feels so good that it might distract you from actually finishing levels. Fortunately, you can choose to score based on speed or destruction.
Don’t Fall (Win)
Behind the too-generic name is a fun, quirky game. It’s set on an unstable platform that slants and tilts as you and your enemies move around on it. Trouble is, you’re trying to rescue the princess (generic plot, too) but she’s tied to a chair and the chair is sliding all over the place. So, you have to protect the princess and make sure neither of you fall off the platform’s edge while holding off her attackers and trying to knock them off the edge. Don’t ask why you can’t just cut her bonds and free her from the chair; just go enjoy playing a few rounds.
There are so many more games worth playing that came out of this jam. It almost physically hurt to have to narrow my picks down to 20. So tell me, what other games from the jam do you think deserve more recognition?
Update: I made a playlist of my picks! Playlists are cool.
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