Alpha Beta Gamer

Text Based Multiplayer Shooter strangely enough is exactly what the title suggests, even stranger is the fact that it actually works rather well! Deathmatches (or Team Deathmatches) may not be fast, but they’re certainly frantic and fun, with players typing out commands as fast as possible.

Typing skills are definitely an advantage here, both in speed and accuracy, a misspelled command can mean the difference between life and death. Commands will be familiar to anyone who has played a text based adventure before, but you can always type ‘help’ to be reminded of them.

The game is currently on Steam Greenlight, with plans to add more game modes (including co-op, duel and capture the blip), wallpapers and some ’highly detailed and descriptive worlds with some walls to look at’.

Play the Prototype, Free

Excubitor is a great new futuristic shoot-em-up/horde mode/tower defence hybrid that sees you in control of a space fighter fighting off wave after wave of enemies, intent on destroying your base.

It’s an interesting mix of genres and works really well. In the first level your ship can boost around the map, meeting enemies head-on, strafing circles around them and blowing them out the sky, proving the old adage – attack is the best form of defence. Once you complete the level or die, the resources you collected during the last level can be used to buy upgrades for your ship, the shop is quite bare at the moment, but we’d expect it to fill out as the game development progresses.

Once you progress past the first (rather tricky) level you’ll have the ability to build turrets and activate defences, adding a tower defence mechanic to the game. This allows Excubitor to support different playstyles, allowing you to either upgrade your ship and take on the enemy head-on, or build more turrets at your base and bunker down.

Still in its early stages of development, Excubitor is already great fun, the ship handles well and it’s a satisfying feeling darting around the map, protecting your base from enemies. You’ll be able to chart the game’s progress too as each week the devs will be posting a new build with new features and improvements based on your opinions.

Download the Alpha, Free

Superfighters Deluxe is a fun multi-player 2D platform shooter akin to Smash Bros or Crash Commando that features little men shooting, stabbing, mashing, smashing, burning and blowing each other into tiny bits. It’s a bigger, better version of the original Superfighters, offering online multiplayer, improved melee combat, more character cutomisation and lots of other new features.

Fights are generally quite short affairs, starting with a dash to pick up the weapons that are scattered across the level, then all out war as all 8 players fight for their survival, with the last man standing being crowned the winner. The retro graphical style and customisation options add a lot of charm, while the levels are well designed, looking like 1 screen pieces of pixel-art, scattered with explosives and destructible scenery. It’s a fun game filled with a plenty of chaos and there’s always plenty of games ongoing, so you won’t be short of people to play with.

Play the Pre-Alpha, Free

Overtime Rush is a fun tower defence game reminiscent of Pixeljunk Monsters, with an interesting time stop and rewind feature. Coming to iPad, It features a nice crisp, cartoon graphical style, upgradable towers and a great variety of ice-skating...

Overtime Rush is a fun tower defence game reminiscent of Pixeljunk Monsters, with an interesting time stop and rewind feature. Coming to iPad, It features a nice crisp, cartoon graphical style, upgradable towers and a great variety of ice-skating enemies including goblins, werewolves, yetis and Satan himself. It’s a fun, light-hearted tower defence game, ideally suited to the pick up and play functionality of the iPad.

Sign up for the Beta (iPad Only)

WizardWizard is a challenging indie platformer with tight controls and a great soundtrack. Similar to Super Meat Boy, it’s got short but tricky levels and the ability to restart quickly. It’s an enjoyable little game with plenty of charm, thanks to the beautifully crafted pixel-art graphics and a nice sense of humour.

With only 25 levels, it’s a short, hard, precision platformer. Your wizards only power may be that he can jump, but he certainly does it well!

Download the Pre-Release Build, Free

Dead Synchronicity: Tomorrow comes Today is beautifully crafted 2D sci-fi point and click adventure inspired by The Secret of Monkey Island, Broken Sword, Day of the Tentacle, but has a more mature theme, similar to I have no mouth and I must Scream or Sanitarium.

It features a classic point and click interface, a mature and dark storyline set in a dystopian sci-fi world, an excellent soundtrack and a beautiful, stylish hand drawn art style. It really does feel like a classic old-school point and click adventure (albeit with prettier visuals). Featuring a puzzle style that will be familiar to anyone who has played a good point and click adventure before, with well thought out, logical solutions.

The world and storyline of Dead Synchronicity deserve special mention, with the world in a state of decay after it was his by something called ‘the great wave’, which destroyed all energy sources and communications, plunging the world into disarray. Worse still, a terrible disease is sweeping the population, turning them into ‘the Dissolved’, making them delirious, giving them supernatural powers and eventually killing them.

Throughout this, you play as Michael, a man who can’t remember his past, who’s trying to uncover what happened to the world, and eventually stop time itself from dissolving. It’s an intriguing storyline and a great looking game, full of interesting characters and ideas, and a level of maturity rarely seen in games.

Download the Alpha Demo, Free (Win & Mac)

Super Chibi Knight is great new hack and slash RPG with beautiful, big cartoony graphics and a wonderful sense of playfulness, created by game developer Nick Pasto (creator of Abobo’s Big Adventure with over 8.3 million downloads) and his 8 year old daughter Bella. Coming to PC, Mac and Linux, The game has already hit it’s Kickstarter target with 12 days left to go and has been greenlit on Steam.

Throughout the game, you’ll explore the world map from a top-down, Legend of Zelda-style view, switching to a side on view when you start battles, visit shops, enter houses or any other areas. As you progress you’ll uncover quests, level up your character, learn special moves, ride on a variety of mounts and upgrade your equipment. You’ll need these upgrades, as some of the monsters you’ll meet are massive, and pretty tough!

The world that Nick and Bella have created is overflowing with colour and charm, full of big, bold cartoon-like character design, fun challenges and nice surprises. It’s an exuberant and charming RPG, so overflowing with happiness that it could make a corpse smile.

Sign up for the Beta

20,000 Leagues above the Clouds is a beautiful new Studio Ghibli inspired game that sees you captaining a steampunk airship across the seven skies. It features Diablo-esque point and click controls and Sid Meyers Pirates!-style battles between ships, all set in a beautiful enviroment, reminiscent of the floating islands of Avatar.

As you play the game you’ll upgrade your ship and equipment, allowing you to travel deeper into the seven skies. Your actions throughout the game will define your characters personality, allowing you to rule the skies through fear, or by turning on the charm.

The visually stunning world of 20,000 Leagues above the Clouds is inspired by Studio Ghibli (My Neighbor Totoro, Howl’s Moving Castle, Spirited Away), with an aim to create an adventure game in a similar style where you are the main character. It certainly looks like the devs are achieving this aim, with both the piratey gameplay and the steampunk sky-world looking wonderful.

At 20,000 leagues above the Clouds the view is stunning, we feel sorry for anyone who has to walk the plank!

Sign up for the Beta here

Heroes of Frontier is a fun, well animated causal RPG game designed to be played on the go on iOS devices.

It features a comprehensive battle system that’s designed from the ground up for iOS, XP levelling, customisable weaponry and equipment, different character classes, big & bold character design, and the ability to recruit friends into your party. It’s a highly enjoyable, bite size RPG, perfect for playing on a mobile device.

Heroes of Frontier will be released on iOS on March 13th, but we have 20 early Access Keys to give away! As usual, we’ll be giving them out via our Official Twitter account @gameralphabeta

Original article HERE

Posts tagged indie