Home Gaming Indie Zoe: Raider of the Lost News (9 January 2014)

Indie Zoe: Raider of the Lost News (9 January 2014)

3 min read
54

Retro indie zoe

We’re back, baby! That’s right, I spent my holiday gorging on food and gaming, recharging those batteries of mine so I can offer you even more excitement and enthusiasm. Also, I indulged my hipster street cred and spent most of that gaming time playing indie games. So, what’s new this year (so far) in the world of indie gaming? Take a look.

First up, Stephen already told you the good news about Starbound. That’s right, Starbound crossed the 1 million mark. Impressive stuff, the game was only released on Steam on 5 December. Well done Chucklefish.

Over on Kickstarter, they are celebrating the successes of 2013. There are some cool tidbits about 2013, such as:

  • 3 million people pledged $480 million, which is $1 315 520 per day, $913 per minute
  • 19 911 projects were successfully funded
  • Kickstarter was on Jeopardy! and Cards Against Humanity

Good Old Games is celebrating their fifth birthday, giving a bit of insight into their early days, as well as what makes them tick. They made a cool video for those who are interesting in watching videos:

For the non-video watchers, there are some cool facts such as that 360 million hours of gameplay have been downloaded on GoG.com, and if you were to convert all the data downloaded to floppy disc, it would be enough to cover all of San Francisco. The GoG catalogue has over 650 games, over 120 of which are indie and 250 of which are for Mac gamers. The oldest game is Zork, released in 1977 and they listen to your votes to try to bring more of your classic favorites to the site.

Toki Tori developer Two Tribes has laid off all designers and programmers, leaving the company with just the two founding members. However, this isn’t the end for them:

We’ve decided to move away from creating custom technology and focus on what’s readily available. As a result we’ll be working with a much smaller team on our next game, a 2D side scrolling shooter, which will be re-using the existing Toki Tori 2+ engine.

I never like news that involves people losing their jobs, but at least the studio is carrying on creating games. Hopefully they can re-hire people when they are doing better.

Need more Halo in your life? Well, Missing In Action (M.I.A.) is a fan-made indie game that’s built to feel like a normal Halo game. Developed by Infinity Industries in partnership with Skydive Industries, this could end up filling the Halo gap:

The game is set during the events of Halo 4. You play as Tom (A spartan Just like chief). You are deployed on A Halo Installation to search for Chief and Cortana after they went adrift on the Dawn. The whole game you find clues and search for him and come along some threats on the way.

Finally, I have received news that the Greenlit Cannons Lasers Rockets will be launching in the coming months. If you’re keen to try out a Free to Play, arcade space MOBA, you really should keep an eye on this.

I doubt you guys need many indie games at the moment, but really, you shouldn’t even try to resist this awesome Humble Indie Bundle. It’s got some games I really want to try out – at least this time they aren’t all games that I already own. The Humble Weekly Bundle also has some cool games, including Machinarium and Shelter as well as Lume and Botanicula. I’m not going to go on – I think we’re all still recovering from the Steam Sale; are there even any games left to buy?

What indies did you play over the holidays? I spent some quality time with Telltale games – The Walking Dead and The Wolf Among Us. I also finally got to play The Stanley Parable, which is everything it’s cracked up to be. The Novelist seems cool, but seriously gave me motion sickness. Oh, and I finally played Braid which is unspeakably clever.

Last Updated: January 9, 2014

54 Comments

  1. Admiral Chief in Vegas

    January 9, 2014 at 12:36

    I wonder where Zoe’s start button is…

    Reply

    • TiMsTeR1033

      January 9, 2014 at 12:39

      that is a good question!

      Reply

    • Sir Rants A Lot Llew. Jelly!!!

      January 9, 2014 at 12:51

      0.0

      Reply

    • VampyricSquirrel Monk

      January 9, 2014 at 12:53

      Ask @Dean:disqus 😛

      Reply

    • Alien Emperor Trevor

      January 9, 2014 at 13:03

      I think this show’s she’s a fake retro gamer. Old games always said “press enter” not “press start”, that’s console lingo ;P

      Reply

      • Sir Rants A Lot Llew. Jelly!!!

        January 9, 2014 at 13:05

        Sheesh gents. It’s Zoe. She’s very gamer. Bad @Alien Emperor Trevor:disqus. Bad @Admiral_Chief:disqus.

        Go sit in the corner and contemplate while I go and do the same as she can stand up for herself and doesn’t need me to do so.

        Woah. That’s like so many rant articles all in one set of comments lol.

        Reply

        • Admiral Chief in Vegas

          January 9, 2014 at 13:06

          *Llew rolls 1 for brownie points. Automatic miss*

          Reply

          • Sir Rants A Lot Llew. Jelly!!!

            January 9, 2014 at 13:08

            *critical miss. Self damage inflicted.

        • Sageville

          January 9, 2014 at 13:46

          • Unavengedavo

            January 9, 2014 at 14:07

            You and you’re racist tendencies…

          • Admiral Chief in Vegas

            January 9, 2014 at 14:20

            He always looks so confused

          • RinceThis2014

            January 9, 2014 at 14:25

            That’s because he’s a fucking moron. Wait, that was too real… Uhhh, it’s because he’s wondering where he put his other hat? 0-O

          • Admiral Chief in Vegas

            January 9, 2014 at 14:26

            lol

          • Alien Emperor Trevor

            January 9, 2014 at 14:29

            I think it’s because his too-small girl scout beret is compressing his skull.

          • Sageville

            January 9, 2014 at 14:21

            Hai suka wena!

            Don’t come here with that rubbish in your pants! mxm!

            (He has such quality quotables)

        • Alien Emperor Trevor

          January 9, 2014 at 14:28

          But she games on a… and I can’t believe I’m actually going to say this… she games on a… *dry heave* MAC!

          Reply

      • Admiral Chief in Vegas

        January 9, 2014 at 13:05

        DINGDINGDING, finally someone gets my joke! 10 million points to Trev!

        Reply

        • Unavengedavo

          January 9, 2014 at 13:48

          Hey, I made the header image okay so don’t pick on Zoe :O

          Reply

          • Admiral Chief in Vegas

            January 9, 2014 at 13:57

            #ShamelessSelfPromotion

            😛

          • Unavengedavo

            January 9, 2014 at 14:03

            Not just #ShamelessSelfPromotion but #AttemptToScoreBrowniePoints as well

          • Her Highness the Hipster

            January 9, 2014 at 14:09

            brownie points totally rewarded

          • Unavengedavo

            January 9, 2014 at 14:18

    • Dean

      January 9, 2014 at 14:03

      Woman come with a start button?! Why was I not informed? Investigation is necessary once I return home.

      Reply

      • Admiral Chief in Vegas

        January 9, 2014 at 14:07

        Yessir, however, not the same on all models, and since NO manual can possibly exist, you will have to explore your model to find out the location

        Reply

        • Dean

          January 9, 2014 at 14:09

          My good man, I am a PC gamer. I have no need for manuals. They are but the padding in an otherwise good CD case.

          Reply

          • Admiral Chief in Vegas

            January 9, 2014 at 14:18

            Amen, you said it.

            Although, I miss the gaming manuals of old. Filled with character lore etc.

            Like having a mini-wiki made by the game creators!

          • Dean

            January 9, 2014 at 14:23

            The best one I remember was from one of the old Beholder games. It was basically a D&D dungeon manual for the table top version.

          • Admiral Chief in Vegas

            January 9, 2014 at 14:26

            Awesome.

            When I bought Starcraft, man I CONSUMED that bloody manual!

            A story, character bio’s, unit bio’s, and that for EACH race!!!

            *Sigh*

            I miss those big boxes

      • Sageville

        January 9, 2014 at 14:16

        Still looking for the mute button….

        Reply

        • Admiral Chief in Vegas

          January 9, 2014 at 14:18

          Error 404, not found!

          Reply

    • RinceThis2014

      January 9, 2014 at 14:23

      Whoa, well, she did say she recharging her batteries…

      Reply

  2. VampyricSquirrel Monk

    January 9, 2014 at 12:40

    I’m really contemplating getting StarBound…even though it’s in early access still.

    Reply

  3. Dean

    January 9, 2014 at 12:46

    You forgot to mention the crush you got on Bigby….

    Reply

  4. Sir Rants A Lot Llew. Jelly!!!

    January 9, 2014 at 12:51

    Ah nice new header for a new year.

    Reply

    • TiMsTeR1033

      January 9, 2014 at 13:25

      not new! I am making a new one, this is Avomans work!

      Reply

      • Sir Rants A Lot Llew. Jelly!!!

        January 9, 2014 at 14:52

        oh I see

        Reply

  5. Kensei Seraph

    January 9, 2014 at 13:03

    I bought Starbound.
    It’s pretty good but still not perfect.

    It’s got a slower pace than I expected and it took me nearly 8 hours to figure out how to get back to my spaceship without dying or exiting to the menu.
    That and it doesn’t tell you that you can power your spaceship using coal.

    Reply

    • VampyricSquirrel Monk

      January 9, 2014 at 13:19

      Good to know. It is in early access though, so they’re still working on it.

      Still tempted to get it though.

      Reply

  6. RockMossel2014

    January 9, 2014 at 13:04

    Trine 2. What a great game!

    Reply

    • Alien Emperor Trevor

      January 9, 2014 at 13:05

      +1 billion upvotes.

      Reply

      • RockMossel2014

        January 9, 2014 at 13:06

        I only recenly noticed it has a multiplayer mode! Have you tried it out?

        Reply

        • Alien Emperor Trevor

          January 9, 2014 at 14:24

          Nope, forgot all about that heh.

          Reply

    • Admiral Chief in Vegas

      January 9, 2014 at 13:33

      Yar, bought that recently, R25!

      Reply

      • RockMossel2014

        January 9, 2014 at 14:05

        Nice! I bought them both for R40 i think!

        Reply

  7. Alien Emperor Trevor

    January 9, 2014 at 13:04

    http://www.indieroyale.com also has a new bundle. A Valley Without Wind 1 & 2, Cognition Episode 1 & 2, pid & a few others.

    Reply

  8. Skoobaz

    January 9, 2014 at 13:23

    Loaded up Fez on PC with gamepad controller. Pretty neat!

    Reply

  9. Rags

    January 9, 2014 at 13:44

    Still got a ton to play! Trine 2 is busy downloading. But first Far Cry 3 and Dishonored need to be finished.

    Reply

    • Sageville

      January 9, 2014 at 13:48

      FC3, well worth it

      Reply

      • Rags

        January 9, 2014 at 13:56

        Demo’ed a torrent version. Take2 should deliver my budget version next week. Was pleasantly surprised how good it played, its addictive too! And damn its animation and voice acting is very well done. I was never a fan of Far Cry 1, thought it was a very shiny over hyped turd that played horrible. So did not pay attention to the praise/review scores of 2-3. Maybe I should demo FC2 too.

        Reply

        • Gr8_Balls_o_Fire

          January 9, 2014 at 14:00

          Not necessary. FC3 will do the job that FC2 wanted to

          Reply

        • RockMossel2014

          January 9, 2014 at 14:04

          Are you a fan of Skrillex and/or weed? If so, you have something to look forward to! 😉

          Reply

          • Rags

            January 9, 2014 at 14:18

            Oh damn, I’m not 😛

          • RockMossel2014

            January 9, 2014 at 14:19

            No problem then, but it would’ve made the game just a little cooler!

    • Alien Emperor Trevor

      January 9, 2014 at 14:22

      All three are well worth playing.

      Reply

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