TOP 10 FREE INDEPENDENT GAMES of 2008- The Players List

Hey all; hope you're ready to move on to our next go at playing through and discussing games together.

The following list is taken from Game Developer magazine's list of the top ten indie freeware downloads of '08 as of September, written by Wee Tim Boon, the editor of Indiegames.com. The description for each is, as quoted, straight from the magazine. I'll start a separate thread for each of them as we take them on. How's one a week for homework sound? I have the feeling these are short enough where that may be too much time, but we can adjust as we go. To be clear: these are stand-alone games that will require a download (via the game name link) and installation. I have no idea how many of these are PC only; Mac users can let me know how slanted this selection is. Maybe one of the Mac users can launch an Apple version of this same thread?

All the links are tested and should be live, but if something doesn't click through you can almost certainly find more info and other places to download via the magic of google. Let's tackle them numerically:

1. Virtual Silence by Erkka Virtanen and Tuukka Virtanen
Virtual Silence is an action game where the player takes control of a young boy named Jason. He must overcome a series of experimental tests in a virtual world under the watchful eyes of his caring mother and an unnamed doctor. Comes with an epilepsy warning.

2. Psychosomnium by Cactus
This subversive platformer places players in a sparse but colorful dream world filled with a cast of surreal characters.

3. ROM CHECK FAIL by Farbs
Lots of ripped sprites and game play rules from arcade classics mashed together to produce amusing results. Plus the game itself is actually quite fun. Available for both Windows and Linux.

4. Karoshi 2 by Jesse Venbrux
Killing the hero instead of saving the world or rescuing the princess? Sign us up! Plenty of challenging puzzles to solve in each stage.

5. Rescue: The Beagles by Nenad Jalsovec
The retro-arcade action involves stepping into the tiny shoes of Edwin or Nicole as they embark on a mission to save cute little pooches from the hands of evil researchers and their henchmen.

6. Dirty Split by Uwe Sittig
A point and click adventure game with gorgeous artwork, a catchy soundtrack and professional voice acting. A private investigator named Baxter attempts to solve a criminal case that will require journeys to three different cities in order to gather new clues and evidence.

7. Dyson by Alex May, Rudolf Kremers and Brian Grainger
Dyson is a real time strategy game in which you take control of an entire asteroid belt by conquering other asteroids with your seedlings.

8. Mighty Jill Off by dessgeega
Dessgeega's tribute to the fantastic 'Bomb Jack' series, created with collaborative efforts from James Harvey and Andrew Toups. Not for kids!

9. Samurai Railroad Mansion by Lurk
An action game with more than a passing resemblance to Hogan's Alley. Slash your way through eight stages worth of ninjas, daimyos, shoguns, shapeshifters and evil spirits.

10. Harpooned by Conor O'Kane
Agitprop pretending to be a Cetacean Research Simulator disguised as a vertical shooter. Play the role of a Japanese scientist performing explosive and bloody "research" on whales around Antarctica.

If I get Windows bootcamped on my Mac sometime soon, I'll join in. Otherwise I'm going to have to sit this one out.

How exactly can you play any game on a mac w/o bootcamp XP?

I think I only tried CoD2, which runs very shitty as the OSX version, compared to Bioshock for example which runs full res in native XP. What gives?

Well, older games and emulators (and WoW) tend to run fine on my mac. I don't play any new games on it tho. That's why I also have a 360.

Also casual games run fine.

Some of the simpler ones might run okay in Mac OS X all right using Darwine - at least I remember Karoshi did. Which is pretty damn amusing, as is ROM CHECK FAIL. I'm looking forward to trying these via Boot Camp.

my first instinct was to say 'fuk u i'm not downloadin a million and one games' but i'll give it a shot I GUESS

Canks, I get the feeling 'fuk u' is your first instinct a great deal of the time. They're all tiny downloads and easily disposable and tested by hardcore geeks so I can't imagine it'll be any hardship on your rig.

Plus you get to play an autistic child that changes the world's colors!

Anyone know roughly how long Dirty Split is? I was wondering, it seems like it might be much longer than the others on this list.

I gave up before the end of the first conversation (which is why I ain't gonna start a thread on it).

I thought what you said sounded incredibly bizarre, and then I completely understood within a minute. Something about the abuse of background sound effects, bland music, and completely unengaging dialogue. I was ready to fall asleep right there. Nice art, I guess, though?