Indie Game Dev Scene

"Horizons: The End Of Words" is a word game similar to Scrabble. You have to move letters so that the matrix contains full words. After moving letters, new letters appear in the selection bar. The game has pretty good graphics and can be played in the browser here: https://punkcake.itch.io/horizons

Super Dassalo Land, available at https://gumpyfunction.itch.io/super-dassalo-land , is a classic 2D platformer that bears resemblance to Super Mario Land. In this game you control a comic painter who has been absored by one of his comics and must find the path to his dog in every level. It is a good game to relax and quite fun if you like platformers.

The indie RPG Franken is available for free at https://splendidland.itch.io/franken . It is a rather short game that can be completed within a hour. What is interesting is the very simple and straightforward battle scheme, which makes battles completely predictable. Basically, whether you win or lose depends on the order in which you start battles with your opponents. In addition to battles, you can move around on the map and enter towns where you can talk with NPCs. The game is quite charming because of its very simple graphics, and in my opinion it serves as a good inspiration for creating your own games.

Evoke Hauptmeister is the game that made first place in the game dev competition at Evoke 2024. It is a variant of Paperboy. You play a boy riding a bicycle. Instead of throwing newspapers, you have to take photos of cars parked in the wrong place. The game features three levels of difficulty, but already the lowest level is quite hard. In fact I learned more about this game by watching the gameplay video at YouTube . Both the graphics and the music (composed by well-known demoscene musician Skyrunner) are very good considering that the entire game is in the style of the 16-bit era. The game can be downloaded for free at: https://justepyx.itch.io/hauptmeister

This year's Evoke party has brought us several new games, including a 4k remake of Minesweeper. You probably know Minesweeper, it is all about finding blocks on the screen where no bomb is placed. If you hit a bomb you lose. The objective is to clear the screen. This implementation is for Windows and the executable is only 4096 bytes, although it contains good music (even if it is very simple) and decent graphics. A true masterpiece!

Digdogs-Streetbusters is a fun and educational advertising game from the German Transport Association. The aim is to drive through the streets of Bonn in a car that you can assemble yourself beforehand, while observing all the traffic rules. As already mentioned, the car can be equipped with various utensils at the beginning. There are several engines, from the simple 4-stroke to the modern V8 engine. You can also choose your own spoiler, tires and headlights. Controlling the car is very simple, as you can only accelerate, brake and turn left or right. The game is viewed from an oblique angle, so playability is not hampered by complicated camera views. On many occasions, e.g. when the gas tank is empty or you have not paid attention to the redtraffic light, you have to complete small gimmicks, such as a nice Tetris game, a 3D maze à la DOOM (only without monsters) or a reaction test. These special interludes loosen up the overall gameplay, but it only takes about six minutes to play th