25 Indie Games to Keep an Eye On

Kyle Orland and Sam Machkovech from Ars Technica wrote up an article about recently released or up-and-coming games, and both Drop that Beat Like an Ugly Baby and PWN were mentioned!

“The first thing that strikes you about this game is its extreme similarities to A Reckless Disregard for Gravity, which isn’t that surprising since both titles are from developer Dejobaan Games. Drop The Beat Like an Ugly Baby improves the concept of that first-person base jumping simulator in a number of ways. For one, the levels are now generated from MP3 files, Audiosurf-style, so the pillars and platforms you’re dodging fly by in time with the beat of the music you’re listening to. For another, the interface has been improved to show you just how close you are to the nearby objects that give you points.

The game is currently controlled with a mouse, which provides a much finer experience than the WASD controls. But the developers tell Ars that more control options may be in the final version. As long as I can plug in Tom Petty’s Free Fallin’ super-ironically, the controls can work however they want.”

—Kyle Orland

“Developer Erik Asmussen isn’t shy about his elevator pitch: to make a game that plays just like the cheesy hacking sequences from ’90s cyberpunk films. PWN drips with the style you’d expect from films like Hackers and Sneakers, from neon backgrounds and phony-looking “cyberspace” settings to big-beat techno and doofy-looking avatar art.

PWN sets two hackers against each other to capture every connected node, and its levels range from simple 2D grids of boxes to intense, criss-crossing arrays that must be spun around in 3D. Tap to control a node, then use a variety of “hacks”—like firewalls, trojan horses, and viruses—to corrupt your opponent’s progress and take over. What could easily devolve into a simple tap-fest does well with a nice balance of superpowers and grid-placement strategy, not to mention a pretty decent campaign full of cheesy ’90s-film writing. It earns its $2 price on the App Store and then some.”

—Sam Machkovech

Read the full article here.