5 Indie Games that will humble you

The Humble Indie Bundle earned more than a $1.2 million in revenue in less than a week, close to $400,000 was raised for charity, interesting stats were announced as well – Linux users made the biggest donations. Four of the games are open source now - free as in free speech, not as in free beer. The promotion turned out to be an incredible success for the developers who pulled it off: 2D Boy, Chronic Logic, Bit Blot, Strategy First and Wolfire. "Now it's our turn to give back. As of 5/11/10, Aquaria, Gish, Lugaru HD, and Penumbra Overture pledge to go open source. We are preparing the sources right now and will be releasing them ASAP. We spent last night preparing Lugaru and it is available now. Update: The source to Penumbra Overture has been released!"

Applying the indie label on game development seems a bit redundant, considering that game development's roots are very indie to begin with; its meant to impress upon the reader the fact that it took a very small crew of uniquely talented individuals to build it up.. Here are a few Indie games designed to impress:

Blueberry Garden: Made by Erik Svedang, this is an award winning title at the 2009 Indie games festival. A demo for the PC is available, and is available on Steam for only $5.

Kometen: This iPhone game is made by Erik Svedang and Niklas Akerblad, it’s retailing on iTunes for $3, it has an amazing trailer.

World of Goo: Available for the Mac, PC and Linux, this puzzle game game has a unique physics engine used to enforce an appreciation of structural symmetry, it’s a bit like a civil engineering course, where you do rapid prototyping using Goo balls. Some bits of the game can also be considered to be as a satire on consumerism and technology, and the gameplay is very engaging.  World of Goo was a part of the Humble Indie Bundle.

Braid: Developed by two people over a span of three years, it’s a a 2D side-scroller similar to Super Mario Bros, and pays a fair bit of homage to the Nintendo classic, using the find-the-princess cliché as a storyline. Puzzle and time-manipulation elements form the bedrock of the game, creating a unique and mind-bending experience. Each of the game’s five worlds have a different space-time mechanic, coupled with ingenious puzzles that reward grey matter instead of button mashing dexterity. In most games, a single bad jump can cause you to restart the level,  resulting in frustration, while in Braid, you can just rewind the game to a few seconds prior to your mistake. The controls are simple and intuitive, the game eliminates unnecessary filler material like in-game menus, an inventory or a  points system  based on collecting pointless shiny objects. This allows you to focus on the the real challenge of the game – puzzle solving. Out of the 60 total puzzles, more than a dozen are so tough that you can spend hours figuring them out. Braid’s artwork is dreamy and the in-game music is enchanting. The game’s time-warping mechanics will have you stretching space, time, and sleep cycles. It’s a beautifully crafted, original title that will play on a four-year-old PC and the Xbox 360, and has all the traits of a classic that gamers can play, even a decade from now.

Samorost 2: This is a flash game that should work on any flash-supporting browser, and a freebie on the Humble Indie bundle. It’s made by Amanita Design, who are famous for making another point and click adventure game - Machinarium. The demo is available on the website:

And since you've read this far, a bonus! Pixel - A documentary on Pixel art is recommended viewing, this ten minute documentary is full of amazing reference points to indie game culture and retro gaming as an art form. DAN the Man is hilarious!