Title: Broken Puppet
Developer: iDec/UPF student team
Platforms: PC
---
I've played a lot of freeware games. Long before I started writing about games or checking out the more known, mainstream indies, it was freeware games from Digipen and various sites that introduced me into indies, from ASCII roguelikes to the neon futuristic cityscapes of Nitronic Rush, Broken Puppet has some of the most impressive visuals I've seen in a freeware game and, while featuring some janky controls and physics, offers a fun and atmospheric physics-based puzzle-action game.
Broken Pupper puts in the worn faded shoes of puppet Katherine, replaced by a new pupper performer and left in the forgotten shadows of the basement. But she is determined to return to the stage and must ascend through the dreary dilapidated levels to destroy her replacement.
The game centers its puzzles and action around using threads; threads act as both a grappling hook to pull objects or a tether that can connect two points. This allows you to knock down heavy cabinets to activate pressure plates, support broken bridges, and even fight the weird puppet enemies that roam the basements. Soldiers charge you with swords, spinsters collect the needles you fling, and other threat lurk.
But Broken Puppet's most impressive element is its atmospheric aesthetic, build with a custom engine rather than Unreal or Unity. The ruined halls, the dim industrial rooms, the eerie arrangements of discarded toys and parts make for an engrossing world to traverse through the game's six levels.
You can download Broken Puppet from IndieDB and GameJolt.
Developer: iDec/UPF student team
Platforms: PC
---
I've played a lot of freeware games. Long before I started writing about games or checking out the more known, mainstream indies, it was freeware games from Digipen and various sites that introduced me into indies, from ASCII roguelikes to the neon futuristic cityscapes of Nitronic Rush, Broken Puppet has some of the most impressive visuals I've seen in a freeware game and, while featuring some janky controls and physics, offers a fun and atmospheric physics-based puzzle-action game.
Broken Pupper puts in the worn faded shoes of puppet Katherine, replaced by a new pupper performer and left in the forgotten shadows of the basement. But she is determined to return to the stage and must ascend through the dreary dilapidated levels to destroy her replacement.
The game centers its puzzles and action around using threads; threads act as both a grappling hook to pull objects or a tether that can connect two points. This allows you to knock down heavy cabinets to activate pressure plates, support broken bridges, and even fight the weird puppet enemies that roam the basements. Soldiers charge you with swords, spinsters collect the needles you fling, and other threat lurk.
But Broken Puppet's most impressive element is its atmospheric aesthetic, build with a custom engine rather than Unreal or Unity. The ruined halls, the dim industrial rooms, the eerie arrangements of discarded toys and parts make for an engrossing world to traverse through the game's six levels.
It's December, the time for Christmas cheer and a few thousand Ludum Dare jam entries. The theme this year is actually two-fold - "Growing" and "Two button controls" - and hundreds of developers have explored the themes in countless ways.
With almost 3,000 entries, it would be impossible to play them all, so here is a selection of twenty games that grabbed my attention with their mechanics, looks, or both.
If you like these or just want to browse the submissions yourself, you can find the entire collection of Ludum Dare 34 entries here.
---
A 2 button space trading miniature. Buy, sell, dodge pirates, fling asteroids and get berated by your gran.
Reap - PC
Your ship breaks up on the rocky shores, but luckily you've made it to the island! Every action drains your energy, but the sleep you get each night revitalizes you
Forklift Man - PC, Mac
You are Forklift Man! He can rapidly grow his limbs at his will. His amazing superpower must be put in good use among various challenges and puzzles.
Cubyrinth - PC
Cubyrinth is an atmospheric Puzzle/Exploration game. The level is constructed like a Rubik's Cube, where every sections can lead you anywhere if you choose the right button to press.
Concrete Jungle - Browser
Guide the plant to sunlight above its dark and dingy habitat.
Mobsferatu - PC, Mac, Linux
Take your place in an angry mob while you climb through Nosferatu's Tower seeking revenge, avoiding traps and looking for other folks to join your crusade and your crowd will grow.
SAAM - PC
Play as a Crewmember 341 who is waking up in their cryo-stasis pod on a ship called Trieste. You will be assisted by S.A.A.A.M. (System Automation, Assistance, and Analysis Matrix). Will you do what it wants you to? Will you be obedient?
DUO - PC, Linux, Browser
We have some funky geometry for you, again. All you gonna get is two buttons and lots of deadly spikes.
CICP - Browser
aka the Center for Interplanetary Pest Control
2DOOR - PC, Browser
The game is about following the right path, guided by the form and sound of illuminated doors. Choose the right path and pass through all 6 chambers.
Alien Pathogen - PC
Alien Pathogen is Top-Down Sci-Fi Horror Shooter. Mars 2315 , Alien Pathogen control Facility - Extraterrestrial decontamination Unit.
BoltStorm - PC, Linux, Browser
Boltstorm is a game about a Knight that ventures into the dungeon to save his fellow knights, but instead he gets trapped and is attacked by merciless executioners!
Abyssal Zone - PC, Mac
Abyssal Zone is a puzzle game similar to Sokoban.
Button Simulator 2000 - Browser
You've been unemployed for a while, and by the time you applied for the job online you would have taken just about anything. The advert said "Wanted - Grower to maintain crops and ensure high yield. Must have experience using HappyTime GrowMaster 2.0 HyperTerminal growing machinery."
Stargazer - PC
Enter into a mysterious icy world on the brink of its end. Solve puzzles and unravel the story of men and stars.
Growees - PC, Browser
Help mother nature to overwhelm the wild industrialization!
Double Kick Heroes - PC, Browser
Double Kick Heroes mixes a shoot'em up with a rhythm game! You must survive on the highway to hell by killing zombies with your gundillac! Struggle throught the 4 levels of total madness and escape from this nightmare! Only the power of Black Metal can save your band!
Breathe - PC, Browser
Four hundred years ago, in an ancient forest of somewhere in Japan Ni-tsu was left by her family in an very old temple. She started a deep meditation journey in order to fulfill her loneliness and to reach the highest state of illumination, however evil spirits won’t let her in peace.
We invite you to help Ni-Tsu in this journey of self-illumination!
Unicell Manager - PC
You are controlling inner workings of a unicell organism, which is growing bigger and bigger, eating plancton, fish, and people...
White Rose - PC, Mac, Linux, Browser
In a world created by sound, play as a boy with synesthesia as he fights the ever growing darkness with music and his fists, painting the world in color with every damaging blow. Choose between 3 tracks and destroy the monsters before the song ends, or else they will overwhelm you. Turn up the beats and enjoy the visual experience.
Title: Who Must Die
Developer: Antoinusitos
Platforms: PC
---
Who Must Die is a polished and eerie puzzle/adventure game that, in the vein of recent releases Her Story and Contradiction, uses full motion video to great effect.
Designed for the Epic Game Game Jam, the premise is simple. A bank of monitors, three subjects, and one of them is infected with a disease. From your control room, you must figure out which person is the carrier...and kill him.
Learning who's infected and who's not involves using various stimuli on the subjects and closely watching their reactions on the monsters, using info and clues in the station to look out for key behaviors. It's unique, compelling, and a smart use of FMV, given the game a realistic voyeuristic atmosphere that graphics alone couldn't have accomplished.
Who Must Die is available to download on itch.io.
Developer: Antoinusitos
Platforms: PC
---
Who Must Die is a polished and eerie puzzle/adventure game that, in the vein of recent releases Her Story and Contradiction, uses full motion video to great effect.
Designed for the Epic Game Game Jam, the premise is simple. A bank of monitors, three subjects, and one of them is infected with a disease. From your control room, you must figure out which person is the carrier...and kill him.
Who Must Die is available to download on itch.io.
Title: Rejection
Developer: qwerty
Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux
---
You awaken in a dark futuristic room. Lights power up, consoles rise from the ground, screens appear on the walls. In Rejection, you need figure out how to escape before it all resets.
The game's itch.io page recommends that you have a paper and pen at hand; this is that kind of puzzle game. Each console has an array of colored buttons, and figuring out the proper pattern from the surrounding screen is the only to get out. It's tricky, satisfying when the clues and solutions finally click, and features an uninviting Alien-esque atmosphere, due its retro sci-fi tech and aesthetic.
Developer: qwerty
Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux
---
You awaken in a dark futuristic room. Lights power up, consoles rise from the ground, screens appear on the walls. In Rejection, you need figure out how to escape before it all resets.
Rejection is available to download from itch.io.
Title: Spellrazor
Developer: Dene Carter
Platforms: PC, Mac
Free build
---
What's the most weapons you've had in your arsenal while playing a shooter? Perhaps it was merely two, in a game like Halo, or maybe you had a portable armory in Borderlands. But I doubt that can hold a candle to Spellrazor, a Robotron-inspired roguelite shooter that lets you carry 27 weapons at the same time.
Influenced by titles like Rogue, Robotron, and Berzerk, you control a figure in randomly-generated levels where waves of powerful enemies roam. From the swarming frogs and rushing flies to teleportiing drones, they're all dangerous and your shields won't last very long. But thankfully there's a massive array of tactics at your disposal.
27 weapons and skills, one for each letter key on your keyboard plus a close-range melee attack on spacebar. Opening chests and killing enemies will provide ammo for various slots, but it's up to you to experiment and figure out what each does. You might learn that S recharges your shields or that E unleashes a devastating energy beam, among many other useful abilities, projectiles, and buffs.
With its flashy neon aesthetic, expansive arsenal, and relentless foes, Spellrazor delivers hectic arcade action. You can't manually aim, only maneuver and auto-target near enemies, so combat becomes about strategic positioning and using the best abilities at the most opportune moments. You never know what ammo you might gather, so your strategy is always shifting.
This version of Spellrazor will remain a freeware title, with more enemies and weapons being added. There will also be an interesting text adventure-esque element that involves using a debug terminal to decode glitches and uncover secrets. If the game is well-received, the developer plans to expand Spellrazor into a larger full-fledged release.
You can download Spellrazor here and follow its development on TIGSource.
Developer: Dene Carter
Platforms: PC, Mac
Free build
---
What's the most weapons you've had in your arsenal while playing a shooter? Perhaps it was merely two, in a game like Halo, or maybe you had a portable armory in Borderlands. But I doubt that can hold a candle to Spellrazor, a Robotron-inspired roguelite shooter that lets you carry 27 weapons at the same time.
27 weapons and skills, one for each letter key on your keyboard plus a close-range melee attack on spacebar. Opening chests and killing enemies will provide ammo for various slots, but it's up to you to experiment and figure out what each does. You might learn that S recharges your shields or that E unleashes a devastating energy beam, among many other useful abilities, projectiles, and buffs.
This version of Spellrazor will remain a freeware title, with more enemies and weapons being added. There will also be an interesting text adventure-esque element that involves using a debug terminal to decode glitches and uncover secrets. If the game is well-received, the developer plans to expand Spellrazor into a larger full-fledged release.
You can download Spellrazor here and follow its development on TIGSource.
Title: Red Amazon
Developer: Tom van den Boogaart
Platforms: PC
---
Red Amazon is a short narrative game, only lasting a few minutes, but it's still an experience fraught with tension.
You find yourself in an isolated cabin, under a grey foreboding sky. The fireplace roars, birds chirp. The minimal art style and sounds of natural create a calming atmospheric tone, but then...that all changes.
You're not alone out there in the woods.
Red Amazon is described as a thriller, and it certainly succeeds in that aspect in its short playtime. It's best to experience it without much knowledge. You can download the game here.
Developer: Tom van den Boogaart
Platforms: PC
---
Red Amazon is a short narrative game, only lasting a few minutes, but it's still an experience fraught with tension.
You're not alone out there in the woods.
Red Amazon is described as a thriller, and it certainly succeeds in that aspect in its short playtime. It's best to experience it without much knowledge. You can download the game here.
Title: Late Night Shop
Developer: Total Monkery
Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux
---
Horror games love to mess with the concept of sight in games. In Amnesia, you must avert your gaze from the roaming monstrosities to maintain your sanity. In the Five Nights At Freddy series, keeping watch on the dangerous animatronics is the key to surviving the night. The upcoming Perception puts you in the shoes of a blind woman. And in Late Night Shop, watching the beings that want to kill you is the only way to stay alive.
You're an employee investigating an alarm in the mall...but you soon discover that the danger is far worse than a thief. The mannequins stationed throughout the levels have gained murderous life, and are stalking you through the corridors and rooms. However, like Doctor Who's infamous Weeping Angels. these mannequins only move when you can't see them. So don't look away.
Late Night Shop is a wonderfully challenging and creepy horror game. Keeping a mannequin in sight may be easy at first, but then more join in, forcing you to carefully inch through the mall. They move fast when unseen, so every glance for an exit or around a room is fraught with tension.
The version to download is merely a pre-alpha build; the developers plan to expand Late Night Shop with more levels and a multiplayer component where one player controls the mannequins.
You can find the build and more information on the game here.
Developer: Total Monkery
Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux
---
Horror games love to mess with the concept of sight in games. In Amnesia, you must avert your gaze from the roaming monstrosities to maintain your sanity. In the Five Nights At Freddy series, keeping watch on the dangerous animatronics is the key to surviving the night. The upcoming Perception puts you in the shoes of a blind woman. And in Late Night Shop, watching the beings that want to kill you is the only way to stay alive.
You're an employee investigating an alarm in the mall...but you soon discover that the danger is far worse than a thief. The mannequins stationed throughout the levels have gained murderous life, and are stalking you through the corridors and rooms. However, like Doctor Who's infamous Weeping Angels. these mannequins only move when you can't see them. So don't look away.
Late Night Shop is a wonderfully challenging and creepy horror game. Keeping a mannequin in sight may be easy at first, but then more join in, forcing you to carefully inch through the mall. They move fast when unseen, so every glance for an exit or around a room is fraught with tension.
You can find the build and more information on the game here.
Title: The Sacrifice
Developer: foxboard
Platforms: PC, Mac
Free
---
I've played quite a few Ludum Dare 33 entries so far, but The Sacrifice has been my favorite. It forgoes the "play as a creature/killer/etc." interpretation of the game jam's theme, for a more insidious take.
The Sacrifice is a relatively simple game. You guide the five noble families of the Village, choosing their focus each season. By foraging, building, and evangelizing, the nobles must keep the Village\well-fed and happy,, keep its people sheltered against the elements, and, most importantly...maintain the secrecy of the Sacrifice.
Each season, someone must be sacrificed to please Chernobog, to keep the Village and its people in the god's favor. But each sacrifice will impact the Village stats and the families themselves. Choose wisely. It must be done to keep your people safe.
The sickly green aesthetic adds to the game's uneasy atmosphere too.
You can download The Sacrifice here.
Developer: foxboard
Platforms: PC, Mac
Free
---
I've played quite a few Ludum Dare 33 entries so far, but The Sacrifice has been my favorite. It forgoes the "play as a creature/killer/etc." interpretation of the game jam's theme, for a more insidious take.
Each season, someone must be sacrificed to please Chernobog, to keep the Village and its people in the god's favor. But each sacrifice will impact the Village stats and the families themselves. Choose wisely. It must be done to keep your people safe.
The sickly green aesthetic adds to the game's uneasy atmosphere too.
You can download The Sacrifice here.
It's that time of year again, time for a new Ludum Dare and hundreds of new game jam entries. Ludum Dare 33's theme is "You are the Monster", and developers have explored the theme in myriad ways.
It's impossible to play or see every entry, but here are some that caught my eye while browsing the submissions
You can check out more Ludum Dare 33 games here.
----
Death of a Lich - PC
The grand lich is immortal and, many years after each death, returns back to the world of the living, thanks to his crown phylactery.
Play as the grand lich and journey down the tower in search of escape.
The Sacrifice - PC, Mac
The Sacrifice is a management game where you, along with the five noble families of the Village, decide on what needs to be done in order to survive the island's harsh seasons.
Alongside these tasks is a dark secret that the Village has upheld for decades, one that is more crucial to its survival than anything else. It requires an iron will to do whatever is necessary to protect the Village, its secrets, and life itself.
The Monster Inside - PC, Mac, Browser
A film noir style audio-visual novella.
A mysterious woman... a string of murders... and a man with a hidden past.
Delicious Cortex - Browser
Play a Lich King (and eat brains)
Mythos - PC, Mac, Linux, Browser
Mythos is a sidescroller platformer based on H.P. Lovecraft's Cuthulhu Mythos.
Me - PC
An intriguing story in a 2D sidescroller.
Bloodworm - PC, Mac
Be Bloodworm, and escape this place they've held you in for too long.
Grave - PC, Mac, Linux
Totem - Browser
It's impossible to play or see every entry, but here are some that caught my eye while browsing the submissions
You can check out more Ludum Dare 33 games here.
----
Death of a Lich - PC
The grand lich is immortal and, many years after each death, returns back to the world of the living, thanks to his crown phylactery.
Play as the grand lich and journey down the tower in search of escape.
The Sacrifice is a management game where you, along with the five noble families of the Village, decide on what needs to be done in order to survive the island's harsh seasons.
Alongside these tasks is a dark secret that the Village has upheld for decades, one that is more crucial to its survival than anything else. It requires an iron will to do whatever is necessary to protect the Village, its secrets, and life itself.
A film noir style audio-visual novella.
A mysterious woman... a string of murders... and a man with a hidden past.
Play a Lich King (and eat brains)
Mythos is a sidescroller platformer based on H.P. Lovecraft's Cuthulhu Mythos.
An intriguing story in a 2D sidescroller.
Be Bloodworm, and escape this place they've held you in for too long.
Title: Masques and Murder!
Developer: James Patton
Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux
Price: Pay-What-You-Want
---
Masques and Murder is an engaging mix of visual novel and RPG; playing as Justitia, you must prepare your plot for revenge while avoiding suspicion. An array of skills can be trained, from swordplay and firearms to dance and music. Each son has different likes, and you must careful befriend and seduce them while simultaneously not arousing suspicion by appearing too successful at certain events and tasks.
With each passing day, you carefully manage your skills, your mood, different events, the suspicion and respect of your enemies, until Justitia can finally strike and exact her vengeance. The Renaissance-era plotting occurs against a backdrop of art from the period and is brought to life through well-written flavor text.
Masques and Murder has been in development for over a year, and the polish shows in its layered gameplay and extensive descriptions. You can download the game here.
Developer: James Patton
Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux
Price: Pay-What-You-Want
---
A Renaissance vengeance simulatorLike a pebble in the midst of a stream, danger and deceit flows around you. Your father and brother have been murdered, struck down by the devious Prince and his sons. You will be forcibly married in a month's time, so your inheritance, your family's vast wealth and land, will be owned by the conspirators. But in Masques and Murder, you will not accept your fate idly.
Masques and Murder has been in development for over a year, and the polish shows in its layered gameplay and extensive descriptions. You can download the game here.
Title: We Shall Wake
Developer: Nokoriware
Platforms: PC, Linux
---
The plans for We Shall Wake include an open world, action RPG mechanics, and dynamic warring factions, but the recently released demo is much smaller but no less impressive. It provides a taste of the game's lightning-fast brawling action, and is fun all on its own.
"Fast" is the key word there. Inspired by games like Prototype, Metal Gear Rising, and Devil May Cry, your biomechanical warrior Novem is a super-powered fighting machine, able to sprint at incredible speeds, juggle enemies with gravity-defying aerial combos, teleport dash through attacks. With finely-tuned skills, you can take on a hundred enemies at once with ease. (Seriously)
We Shall Wake's demo offers several modes: a tutorial, a practice arena, and endless waves against increasingly powerful enemies. Not only can you practice new combos, the game also allows you to unlock new attacks and build your own custom combos, reminiscent of Remember Me's Combo Lab. You can unlock moves to extend your aerial juggles, lethal finishers, defensive shields, nanomachine-enhanced AOE attacks, and more to destroy your enemies in devastating new ways.
Even as an alpha, We Shall Wake already has an solid gameplay foundation and offers a promising look at the larger game to come. You can download the alpha demo here.
We Shall Wake will be coming to Steam Greenlight soon, and a Kickstarter is planned.
Developer: Nokoriware
Platforms: PC, Linux
---
The plans for We Shall Wake include an open world, action RPG mechanics, and dynamic warring factions, but the recently released demo is much smaller but no less impressive. It provides a taste of the game's lightning-fast brawling action, and is fun all on its own.
"Fast" is the key word there. Inspired by games like Prototype, Metal Gear Rising, and Devil May Cry, your biomechanical warrior Novem is a super-powered fighting machine, able to sprint at incredible speeds, juggle enemies with gravity-defying aerial combos, teleport dash through attacks. With finely-tuned skills, you can take on a hundred enemies at once with ease. (Seriously)
We Shall Wake will be coming to Steam Greenlight soon, and a Kickstarter is planned.
Title: AniMa
Developer: Jord Farrell, Mark Sparling
Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux
---
In AniMa, you go by many names - Reborn one, Ruthless one, Devouring one - but you only have one goal. You are a disembodied specter, given the opportunity by some mysterious being to regain your life. But returning to life requires you to take life, in this ominous puzzle platformer.
In each level, you must open a portal to exit, a portal that requires blood sacrifices to unlock. As a spirit, you can't die or pass through the portal, but the inhabitants of these trap-filled levels can. Possessing them allows you to activate switches, open gates, and, most importantly...die. Each inhabitant is different - one able to jump, another equipped with a shield that can block vaporizing lightning beams, and so on - and the challenge comes from figuring how to use their abilities, which must die, and which will be used to enter the portal.
But don't worry. You're taking nothing of value, according to your otherworldly benefactor. AniMa's gloomy, grainy art style and eerie sound design completes the game's dark atmosphere.
You can download AniMa here.
Developer: Jord Farrell, Mark Sparling
Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux
---
In AniMa, you go by many names - Reborn one, Ruthless one, Devouring one - but you only have one goal. You are a disembodied specter, given the opportunity by some mysterious being to regain your life. But returning to life requires you to take life, in this ominous puzzle platformer.
But don't worry. You're taking nothing of value, according to your otherworldly benefactor. AniMa's gloomy, grainy art style and eerie sound design completes the game's dark atmosphere.
Title: Game Over
Developer: Studio Black Flag
Platforms: Browser
---
Made for the Global Game Jam 2015, Game Over is a speed-running isometric platformer across abstract artistic worlds.
Game Over is a simple game. Best played with a gamepad, you move from stage to stage from an expanding overworld, leaping across chasms, using teleporters, and activating switches to manipulate the levels. Where the game really stands out is in its art style. The isometric worlds you platform in are colorful, vibrant, and unique, from pillars among the clouds to flying sky whales and more. While the perspective can lead to some unfair deaths, it's worth playing to see the game's interesting levels.
Game Over can be played here.
Title: Dolly
Developer: Blake Wood
Platforms: PC
---
Dolly is a short precision platformer through a gorgeous minimalist world.
From the first screen, Dolly presents a wonderfully artistic environment, a decaying world dominated by its bright red sun contrasting against a grey-ish landscape and flowing waterfalls. Your enigmatic quest passes through dense forest, up massive chains, and across spike-festooned ruins. Dolly may look pretty, but its short journey is one of precise double jumps over spikes and across deadly gaps.
Dolly can be downloaded here.
Developer: Blake Wood
Platforms: PC
---
Dolly is a short precision platformer through a gorgeous minimalist world.
From the first screen, Dolly presents a wonderfully artistic environment, a decaying world dominated by its bright red sun contrasting against a grey-ish landscape and flowing waterfalls. Your enigmatic quest passes through dense forest, up massive chains, and across spike-festooned ruins. Dolly may look pretty, but its short journey is one of precise double jumps over spikes and across deadly gaps.
