http://www.rampantgames.comThis the website link for a few indie games from local game developers. The main owner of the site is a friend of mine who has been poking at me to actually try playing his games instead of just commenting on how pretty they were and retreating to go gab with his wife. Sooo...I downloaded the demo of Void War, and discovered that it was, indeed, fun. I'm not a huge flight sim or space flying fan, but I had a good time rocketing around and blowing up the other ships, and myself at least once. I even managed a few rounds with a laptop mouse because my other mouse took a break...I think it's dying.
Outpost Kaloki, found on the same site, was another download that I spent my 60 minutes on and found hysterical. Simming style game, but with a fairly simple tech tree and a theme that is simple enough that it's a good one to start kids with and amusing for adults too. The happy princess was just a little too sacrine and I stopped clicking on her, cause I couldn't take the giggling. My nieces, however, thought she was hysterical. No more playing games when they're visiting, though it was a good distraction for them.
So there's my random experience in game demos this week. Both of these games won awards in 2004 and I can see why. The game play for both is straight forward, entirely different from each other as they come from different designers and have different goals, but engaging. It didn't take long to learn controls and by the time I'd finished the demos I felt confident...enough so that I may have to consider full downloads to try the multiplayer mode. Heh...or maybe I'll volunteer to do a review and see if they'll let me download the full versions for cheaper.
~J
