Originally known as Project Q when it was first brought into the public domain some months ago, Nifflas today released Saira [link], his latest complete game and his first venture into shareware. And a fine piece of work it is, too!

After my recent verbal wranglings regarding Cave Story for the Wii, a few people seemed to have the impression that I was beating Mr. Nygren up – this most certainly wasn’t what I intended to convey. In any case, as a big fan of his, I’d like to offer my congratulations. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed all of the game I’ve played through so far; it has all the trademark features you’ve come to expect but with several marked differences and additions when compared to its most obvious cousins, the Knytt games. It’s absolutely worth playing – expect to be completely absorbed! Try the demo and tell me it isn’t so…

To celebrate the occasion and spread some early holiday cheer, I’m giving you the chance to win a free copy of Saira! For details of how you could start exploring the full world of Nifflas’ newest creation, keep reading after the break…

[A winner has been picked and the contest is over. Thanks for your comments!]

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I snatched up Madballs in… Babo: Invasion [link] yesterday in Steam’s holiday sale and had a ton of fun in the multiplayer. I’ve been racking my brains trying to remember exactly which game it reminded me of, then it struck me like a swarm of rockets – the ol’ classic BaboViolent [link], of course! It’d been ages since I played it after someone recommended it to me several years ago. I think I spent about a week in there before I went back to whatever it was I had been getting up to previously, so it didn’t really stick in my mind…

Which, in a round about way, brought me to thinking: “Hey, I wonder how many of today’s Modern Warfare 2 players would know about the real online games of the past decade that sparked everything off?” Probably not a whole lot. So I reckon it’d be nice to go back and cover some of the best oldschool 2D multiplayer games – some that time caught up with, and others that are still going strong.

As a series of posts I won’t say they’ll be done overnight – I want to at least try and be concise with the content for each game, and knowing how lazy / easily distracted / generally slow I am, it could take a while. Still, I’ll try to keep prodding myself in the direction of getting them done.

If you think you have some interesting information, historical or otherwise, about any of these games, I’d love to hear it, so feel free to post a comment here or contact me with your thoughts. Watch this space!

You can’t really argue with a name like Gratuitous Space Battles, can you? It shouts “Hey, look at me!” down your ear like a drill sergeant yelling at a soldier who isn’t standing up straight. It sums up just about everything that’s great about it in three perfect words. You fight battles against your many enemies. In space. And the confrontations are indeed extremely gratuitous…

Positech Games have masterfully concentrated the most entertaining bits of space games over the years: massive capital ships flinging gigantic lazor beams at each other with swarms of fighters dodging between them, and the ability to design and arrange those ships so that they might inflict the maximum amount of superheated plasma death upon the enemy before they bite the dust. In a glorious lightshow of kersplosions, of course.

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Another day, another couple of indie titles that may pique your curiosity!

Osmos [link], released a few months ago by Hemisphere Games, is something I failed miserably to mention at the time. Continuing the trend of ambient chillout games with which you can switch your brain off for a while, this one features a nifty absorb ‘em up gameplay mechanic with plenty of interesting twists to keep your attention. Drift around a fluid playfield filled with various sizes of cellular blobs and complete set objectives, such as absorbing a specific cell or simply becoming the biggest in the pool. Though it starts out easy, you’ll soon find yourself needing quite a bit of dexterity and fast thinking, especially if you want to unlock the endgame achievements. A snip at $10, I’d say, and there’s a demo for you to try first if you like.

Now, a confession – I’ve not sat down and given AI War: Fleet Command [link] an awful lot of my time, but I still want to give you the heads-up on it because Arcen Games seem to have a sleeper hit on their hands. The main thing to say is that despite being an RTS, AI War includes bits of 4X and even turn-based strategy, with the main draw being an extremely competent AI opponent (which you fight either solo or in co-op multiplayer). Attempting to control every single bit of the map will end in tears quickly, because the enemy’s “Threat” rating will increase as you destroy its ships and perform certain other actions, eventually reaching a stage where its onslaught becomes too great for you to counter; considered, surgical strikes are what you’ll need to win. If campaigns spanning many hours sound like your type of fun, give the demo a spin.

There’ve been a lot of good indie productions released this month (and in previous months when I’ve been slacking), so it’s probably time to catch up with a few…

First, from Amanita Design, comes Machinarium [link]. The winner of this year’s IGF Excellence in Visual Art award has been a long time in the works but looks, as you may imagine, absolutely splendid. Help a robot who’s been exiled from his city to rescue his girlfriend, kick out the bad guys and generally make the world right again. Essentially it’s a point-and-click adventure, but with fantastic hand-drawn environments and characters. There’s a lot to praise about this game, not least the sublime atmospheric music and perfectly-weighted humour. Check out the demo in your browser, or wander along here for their other games.

After running a competition to decide its new name, the game formerly known as Dyson has become Eufloria [link] – a far more fitting title! Rudolf Kremers and Alex May have finished up the game and it’s a perfect chillout RTS without any of the frills that often confuse rather than help. Control your flock (cloud?… swarm?…) of sentient seedlings to explore an asteroid belt and discover the cause of a hostile infection. Nice and relaxing, yet with a definite challenge toward the end. Get a taste of Eufloria with the demo.

More indie stuff to come over the weekend!

Superb news! Possibly the best “ethical” abandonware site that ever was has been put back into action. A group of determined individuals seem to be working their socks off to reincarnate Home of the Underdogs after several years of stagnation! I wish them the best of luck… it’s not the smallest of tasks to attempt.

Take a wander through some of yesteryear’s best games at www.hotud.org. And don’t forget to tell your friends!

Back in the days of Windows 3.11 there weren’t all that many decent games; most of the really cool and trendy stuff was still being made for DOS. One shareware game that bucked the trend, however, was Inner Space [link], released in 1994 by Software Dynamics. I would say it’s worth recognising as one of the most innovate shareware games made back then, and as long as you don’t have a 64-bit version of Windows, it’s still quite playable… and rather addictive, too!

The amazing storyline goes like this: a virus has invaded and let loose all of your installed programs. Being the noble hero that you are, it’s your job to enter the mysterious electronic realm known as “inner space” to capture or destroy all the errant program icons before returning home for a nice cup of tea. Careful, though. The terrifying Inner Demon that controls this digital dimension might not let you out so easily…

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Not much time for blogging tonight so I’ll have to be fairly brief.

Today I wanted to highlight the recent release of Erik Svedäng‘s Blueberry Garden [link] on Steam. You can buy this year’s IGF Grand Prize winner for a piddly $5! Indie games really don’t come much cheaper than this, though admittedly you probably aren’t going to be getting days of gameplay for your dosh. But I’d say there’s enough to fill a couple of hours if you’re really casual and/or thorough.

The style is wonderfully whimsical and inviting. Everything has been done to create a calm, relaxing atmosphere – from the soothing piano music to the hand-drawn look of the graphics, Blueberry Garden is a perfect game to unwind with. It’s open-endedness caters to fans of Seiklus or Knytt perfectly, so if you’ve enjoyed either of those then you should feel completely at home flying in this world of berries and giant cheese!