By Jim Rossignol on November 20th, 2010 at 1:41 pm.
Cliff “Positech” Harris, the man who is currently finishing off the campaign parts of Gratuitous Space Battles, has been busy with a side project: wrangling independent developers.They now have a new indie portal called Show Me The Games. It’s supposed to be a collection of some of the best indie games on the PC, and includes some that you might recognise. Cliff explains:
SMTG is a crazy plan to try and prove that indie game developers, despite theoretically being in competition, can come together as a group, throw some money in an ‘advertising’ bucket, and help promote each others games. It’s true that getting indie developers to organise together is like herding cats, but I’ve owned 4 cats over my life, so I’m not scared. Using the amazing nasa-like technology of random numbers, the SMTG site randomises the games listing so nobody gets ‘top slot’. This simple listing of games is hopefully just the start, there may well be competitions, discount bundles or all kinds of stuff happening on SMTG in the future. The main point is that we now have a fixed location to host that kind of thing.
AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!!
I just wanted to say that. Still the best game title ever.
Cool website. Hopefully some more indies sign up soon, I’ve already got all the games I like the look of on there, but might stick in the favourites anyway, keep an eye on it.
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Actually it’s just called AaAaAA!!! if you check the title at the top in the Steam store: http://store.steampowered.com/app/15520/
But below it still says buy AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!!
You gotta love the inconsistency:)
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no one cares what steam thinks, mcnubbins.
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I thought the actual title was: AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! A Reckless Disregard for gravity.
To be honest I don’t think it matters how you spell it as long as you say it out loud with the full force and emotion you would apply to saying it had you just jumped off the top of a mile high hallucinatory skyscraper
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I had no idea it took place in my hometown. I’ve never noticed people jumping off buildings her in Boston. I need to look up more often!
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Pah! Random generator my bottom! The first game I see is GRATUITOUS SPACE BATTLES!!! CONSPIRACY??!?!?!?!
Joking aside, looks really promising, saw some things there that tickled my fancy that I haven’t seen before.
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It was only fourth in the list I saw. World of Goo was at the top.
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I imagine they would want to abandon the random thing if they eventually get a bigger catalogue, perhaps allowing people to search by genre, year, price and developer.
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@Anonymousity
I guess having both would be best; I like the randomised approach when it comes to games that are often unknown, and they’re not mutually exclusive.
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WAIT!.. random numbers can do that??!?.. why no one has tell the NASA about it?
The idea is nice, and is better than doing nothing at all. But I dunno about if this is the best way to sell games. I am sure theres ways to improve this.
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AI War is definitely on my list of “games I need to get at some unspecified time in the future, when the price is right and I’m not engrossed in something else.” It’s an exclusive list to be on.
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Same here, and it applies to Hegemony too.
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AI War is top on my list for when I get an uninterrupted chunk of time to nerd out.
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AI War is on my list to buy when the person reading this comment sends me money to buy it.
Yes, I’m talking to you. Pay up.
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Am I the only one who didn’t like AI War? I used to play it quite a lot with a friend (we each have 22 hours of gameplay) and we just quit the game in a sudden after we realized the game is just a tedious tower defense with a few tricks that work each time.
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Overplayed it maybe? It can happen.
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Maybe you need to set the difficulty higher. I spent 30 gruesome hours on various campaigns before I realized that difficulty 7 is too low for me to enjoy the game. It only shines when you challenge yourself and play at your limit. It takes a while to find out where that sweet spot is., though
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The important question is, when did you play it?
This game is constantly evolving, and if some tactic works too well, the devs quickly come up with some nasty update which balances it out and probably makes you regret using it the next time. ;)
It is worth contacting them on the official forums, they usually respond almost immediately.
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As mlaskus says, if it’s been awhile since you played it it’s not even the same game anymore, take another look and you’re liable to find something you’ll enjoy.
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Yes, but how will I know if those games are any good?
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You could search for them on here, to see what the Hive Mind thinks, or go look for a demo.
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Yes, but how can I trust those things to not lie to me? Everyone lies. All the time.
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Wanna the truth? They are out to GET YOU RIGHT NOW!!!
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yeah all of those games have a demo. even the ones without a demo link directly on the site have one on the respective game sites.
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its called research :o derp derp?
RPS, Youtube, random websites… Come on now, you arnt helpless.
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That’s what The Pirate Bay is good for. If you don’t like it, you delete it anyway. if you like it, give the developer a amount of money that feels fair to you both. That’s it.
The rest is an illusion anyway.
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What if I am helpless?
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This could make a nice indie database (been pretty disappointed with similar offerings), but is this aimed for all good indies or commercial ones only? Guessing it’s the latter.
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It’s commercial games only, purely because we have pimped the site using real actual coinage, so everyone had to throw money in, and freeware games tend not to be able to do that.
Indie game databases do indeed already exist, but they have very little promotion behind them, because they tend not to advertise, due to the lack of a marketing budget.
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@noobnob If you want a not very comprehensive but still quite big Indie Games database head over http://db.tigsource.com/ you’ll find both free and commercial games
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Hey look its a picture of Hegemony.
You guys should totally buy Hegemony.
I really like the idea behind this. Pooling money for advertising and then everyone selling their games directly without Steam or Impulse or whoever getting a cut.
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This this this! I just got the latest Gold Edition beta and it’s feeling really polished now (at least Philip’s campaign).
SO GOOD
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Numen: Contest of Heroes is a very good action rpg actually, if you like Diablo or even better Titan Quest you should check it out
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Yeah, agreed. Although right now I’d recommend waiting for the Steam Christmas sale. It’s only just recently been sold for next to nothing so it seems like a bad time to buy it. Unless you’re 100% behind the idea of throwing money at indies for their indieness that is.
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Never heard of Castle Vox before but it looks kinda interesting. Has anyone else tried it? I’m downloading the demo now.
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Oooh bookmarked. It’s off to a good start and hopefully this will turn into a massive indie hub over time.
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Yes, YES! This is exactly what we needed. Thank you Cliffski and others!
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I’m downloading 5 demos now. If I’m lucky I won’t like any of them, and can save my money :P
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Never heard about Castle Vox before.
Is it worth playing?
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It’s basically one of SillySoft’s many risk-like variations. The best known is Lux. I am unsure as to what it offers in gameplay options that Lux doesn’t. The other variations offered specific maps and music and perhaps a campaign-like feature (not sure). In any case Lux itself has a lot of custom-made maps you can download (as well as a limited map generator).
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A really cool idea, and nicely done. :D
I’m currently having a go with the Eschalon demo, which I wouldn’t have tried otherwise, and enjoying it. However, it’s a ridiculous word to try and spell right without looking it up. :P
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Cliffski,
Wrangling independents. You’re a brave man.
But I think you knew that. Being brave enough to be one yourself.
I wish you success. So much success that it oozes out your pores even after a scrub down.
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This kind of willingness to try new and possibly daft things is precisely what the games industry as a whole needs. Excellent work; I hope it is a success.
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Castle Vox has completely absorbed me. I am a hug fan of the simultaneous turn-based structure of Diplomacy and the “game-y” additions of multiple units and territory bonus makes Vox unique and strategically varied.
Strat fans get this shit.
Also, serious gotta support the Vancouver devs
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Ohh very good, Just used (that) site to download Defcon Demo XD
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This ‘Gunrox’ doesn’t look too promising… Right on the front page you’ve got an almost exact replica of Fallout’s power armor, and ‘Zombie Outbreak”s thumbnail is a boomer from L4D. Oh, and ‘Quest For The Holy Grenade”s thumbnail is what looks like Cthulhu wearing power armor.
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“‘Quest For The Holy Grenade”s thumbnail is what looks like Cthulhu wearing power armor.”
You say that as though a power-armoured Cthulu could possibly be a bad thing.
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Crap, he’s got power armor now? We’re screwed.
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Is there any Hegemony coverage here? That game looks pretty damn good and I’ve never heard of it before.
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Ditto this.
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http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/tag/hegemony-phillip-of-macedon/
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It should get some more love, they’ve got a big expansion in beta now (which you can currently get for free with a purchase of the standard game while it’s in beta). I highly recommend it, and the demo is at least worth a look.
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Good on Cliffski, I hope this portal thing succeeds. I Shall check it out tomorrow, if I can tear myself away from the just-one-more-battlelry of the GSB campaign mode. I just got my huge fighter fleet absolutely slaughtered by a very nicely designed anti-fighter fleet – except “just” is more like 2 hours ago. And another game eats my life.
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I own each game on the site save Gunrox, Mad Skills Motocross, Blackwell Convergence and New Star Soccer 2010. Not caring a whit for anything sports-related (aside from the fabulous–but abandoned–UT2K4 mod Deathball), does anyone have any experience with the other three?
Recommendations?
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Excellent idea. Hope it grows into something really useful.
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Fantastic idea!
Duly bookmarked :)
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hippie goodness! er indie. oh yeah, but Snuggles in Time isn’t there… why? have a thing against furry games cliffski?
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