Indie Jeff's Weekly Picks: August 15-19

In this week's picks include the photo-based adventure game TRAUMA, interviews with Octodad 2 developers Young Horses, Cold Beam Games, and more.

2

In last week's picks, I included a trailer for the indie adventure game TRAUMA (see top image) by Krystian Majewski. It's an adventure title that garnered several award nominations at various indie festivals in 2010, but has just recently been released for public consumption. It's a refreshingly adult experience that takes place inside the dreams of a woman recuperating from a car crash. Each "chapter" of the game is a surreal micro-story that informs the larger narrative and character development. All of this is presented in an intuitive interface that allows players to navigate the game's 2D photos--its primary art assets--in 3D space.

I enjoyed my experience with TRAUMA quite a lot. Despite being about navigating complex emotional landscapes, the actual playing of the game is surprisingly intuitive. It's one of those titles you could sit a non-gamer friend in front of and set them loose without much guidance. We'll also be discussing the game on the Weekend Confirmed podcast the week after PAX.

You can read my full review on Indie Games Channel, and the game itself can is available on Steam ($6.99) or the developer's website (5 euros). If you want to give it a test run, there's also a free (lower fidelity) browser-based version playable on the official site.

I've also got a couple of great indie interviews with developers Young Horses (Octodad 2) and Cold Beam Games (Beat Hazard) about their upcoming titles:

With the Indie Games Summer Uprising kicking off on XBLIG beginning this Monday, August 22, I figured it's only appropriate to share another trailer from one of the more interesting looking entries, SpeedRunner HD. Developed by Doubledutch games, SpeedRunner began its life as a Flash title, but the XBLIG rendition will include some crazy looking local competitive multiplayer for up to four players (starts around the 0:52 second mark). SpeedRunner HD will run 240 Microsoft Points ($3), and will be out on XBLIG before the Uprising ends on September 2.

From The Chatty
  • reply
    August 20, 2011 12:00 PM

    Jeff Mattas posted a new article, Indie Jeff's Weekly Picks: August 15-19.

    In this week's picks include the photo-based adventure game TRAUMA, interviews with Octodad 2 developers Young Horses, Cold Beam Games, and more.

    • reply
      August 21, 2011 7:44 AM

      I rather liked the Beat Hazard interview. The original Beat Hazard quickly became one of my favorite games after I bought it, and Ultra is my favorite DLC for any game I've ever played.

      Steve Hunt impresses me by how much he listens to the fan base. Things like last.fm scrobbing and internet radio support came about just because a few people in the Steam forum asked if it was even possible.

Hello, Meet Lola