Monday nights, 6PM, at Awesome Inc., we meet up to expose ourselves to indie games. C’mon out and look at how small game designers are pushing the medium, or bring something we can play!
Tonight we played ADOM, Pid, & Candy Box 2.
ADOM (Ancient Domains of Mystery)
ADOM is a proceduraly generated rogue-like. The game was first published in 1994 by Thomas Biskup. Like many older rogue-likes, ADOM is an ASCII based game, meaning that is made up of different text elements to create a total picture (see above). The game is procedurally generated, and according to the person demonstrating, that leaves it open to a wide variety of possible events and moments.
Certain elements of ADOM are always static, like the world map, but some aspects will be different every time. In ADOM, the world and your character are slowly falling under corruption, which has an actual effect on game mechanics. Certain corruptions will be useful, others will result in death.
The game looks primitive, but this allows it to be incredibly versatile and change and opens up the field for options. Approached by a beast that lures you with song — you can cut off your ears or stuff your ears with wax from beeswax, or several other options. It’s that open.
Pid
Pid (Planet in Distress) is an artistic, puzzle-platformer by developer Might and Delight. The game has been likened to if “Roald Dahl wrote a video game,” and features soothing, water color like backdrops, a small child protagonist, and unforgiving puzzles that promise to frustrate and confound.
The game juxtaposes a child-like environment and paint scheme with perma-death and violence. You are a super innocent child just trying to get home (and save the world.)
The official site is here.
Candy Box
Candy Box 2 (and its prequel Candy Box) is a game of revelations. As you spend candy, you can get access to more and more of the game. The game features an ASCII style, quests, weapon improvements and other related features.
The game also features a surprisingly vast world map and many features, despite it’s simplistic appearance. The in-world currency are candies and lollipops, and both function in different ways. Candy Box 2 has a immense amount of depth and far more going for it than it has any right to.
Candy Box 1 & 2 are free to play.
Come out next week and bring your favorite indie game to show to the group.