Indie Games
Sometimes you gotta turn to indie games, things made by individuals on programs such as RPGMaker or from obscure names in order to get some bizarre but interesting explorations of ideas.
Yume Nikki (Dream Diary)
Name: Yume Nikki
Developer: Kikiyama
Category: Adventure
Type: Freeware
Size: 40MB
Download link: Rapidshare, WHFF, mirror (unzip .rar files using 7-Zip) - (follow the above link to get to the main article)
In Yume Nikki (Dream Diary), you're cast as a young girl living in a small apartment. There is very little to do in your room, but fall asleep and an entire dream world is yours to explore. The Z key can be used to interact or gain new effects. Certain locations beyond each door may yield more than one effect for the player to discover. Press 9 to wake yourself up. Use the desk in the room to save your progress, and hold the escape key for more than two seconds to exit the NASU console game.
Acquiring the bicycle, lamp and knife should be at the top of your list, as these items will double your character's speed, light up dark areas and allow basic attack moves to be executed. Nearly all locations are wrapped around, hence walking in one direction endlessly will always bring you back to the starting point.
Installation instructions are provided in the zip file. Yume Nikki does have a proper ending. (source: Sekhem, Starmen.Net)
There is a lot of surreal space in this game. And the developer also takes advantage of almost secret strangeness (see second video, it's pretty repetitive until you get a little past the three minute mark). The whole experience delves into the dreams of the main character, who doesn't appear to leave her apartment except while in the dream world. And if I am correct, you may find yourself ending up following various dead-ends, which can be sidetracked by waking yourself up and re-entering the dream).
The Sewer Goblet: The Wu-Tang Clan and the Wu-Tang Baby
From the mad minds behind Barkley, Shut up and Jam: Gaiden comes an all-new adventure – The Sewer Goblet: The Wu-Tang Clan and the Wu-Tang Baby! As the story goes, The Wizard stole the Wu-Tang Baby and fled into the sewers. You must send one of the Wu-Tang Clan into the dungeon and bring the baby back! Along the way you’ll tangle with Teknodwarfs, Baby Seals, and other unsavory characters.
The Sewer Goblet gets a lot of credit as the first rap-themed roguelike game, but doesn’t do too much to innovate the genre in general. Equip weapons, learn spells, manage your hunger (in TSG, every action costs hunger points), eat Wu-Tang snacks with randomized effects, etc. Not that this is necessarily a bad thing – it’s a solid dungeon crawl that’s easy to get into and somehow it never quite gets tiring bringing “da ruckus” as the Wu Tang Clan. Each member has his own special abilities that will aid you on your quest.
Yume Nikki (Dream Diary)
Name: Yume Nikki
Developer: Kikiyama
Category: Adventure
Type: Freeware
Size: 40MB
Download link: Rapidshare, WHFF, mirror (unzip .rar files using 7-Zip) - (follow the above link to get to the main article)
In Yume Nikki (Dream Diary), you're cast as a young girl living in a small apartment. There is very little to do in your room, but fall asleep and an entire dream world is yours to explore. The Z key can be used to interact or gain new effects. Certain locations beyond each door may yield more than one effect for the player to discover. Press 9 to wake yourself up. Use the desk in the room to save your progress, and hold the escape key for more than two seconds to exit the NASU console game.
Acquiring the bicycle, lamp and knife should be at the top of your list, as these items will double your character's speed, light up dark areas and allow basic attack moves to be executed. Nearly all locations are wrapped around, hence walking in one direction endlessly will always bring you back to the starting point.
Installation instructions are provided in the zip file. Yume Nikki does have a proper ending. (source: Sekhem, Starmen.Net)
There is a lot of surreal space in this game. And the developer also takes advantage of almost secret strangeness (see second video, it's pretty repetitive until you get a little past the three minute mark). The whole experience delves into the dreams of the main character, who doesn't appear to leave her apartment except while in the dream world. And if I am correct, you may find yourself ending up following various dead-ends, which can be sidetracked by waking yourself up and re-entering the dream).
The Sewer Goblet: The Wu-Tang Clan and the Wu-Tang Baby
From the mad minds behind Barkley, Shut up and Jam: Gaiden comes an all-new adventure – The Sewer Goblet: The Wu-Tang Clan and the Wu-Tang Baby! As the story goes, The Wizard stole the Wu-Tang Baby and fled into the sewers. You must send one of the Wu-Tang Clan into the dungeon and bring the baby back! Along the way you’ll tangle with Teknodwarfs, Baby Seals, and other unsavory characters.
The Sewer Goblet gets a lot of credit as the first rap-themed roguelike game, but doesn’t do too much to innovate the genre in general. Equip weapons, learn spells, manage your hunger (in TSG, every action costs hunger points), eat Wu-Tang snacks with randomized effects, etc. Not that this is necessarily a bad thing – it’s a solid dungeon crawl that’s easy to get into and somehow it never quite gets tiring bringing “da ruckus” as the Wu Tang Clan. Each member has his own special abilities that will aid you on your quest.