Welcome back to another Indie Friday feature! As you can guess from the title, we'll be taking a look at five local Australian indie developers and just what they have to offer on the game development scene. Do keep in mind that some of these titles aren't quite ready, but we believe that even without the polish these games have some great potential at showing off Australia's very prominent local talent.
Today's Featured Indies:
Space Dust Racing
Tahira: Echoes of the Astral Empire
Appointment with F.E.A.R.
Paradigm
The Kindred
Space Dust Racing | Space Dust Studios | Website | Platform: PC, Consoles
Intergalactic combat racing mayhem for family and party gamers! Release date mid-2015 for PC and consoles.
In the distant future, planet Earth has been rediscovered after being lost for millennia. The galaxy’s thriving and varied life-forms decide that a ‘last life-form standing’ competition is the most sporting way to divide the spoils from this ancient planet. Each civilization sends their best and most ruthless driver to battle it out for ancient artefacts, one small piece at a time.
Space Dust Racing is a vehicular combat party game for up to 16 players, supporting both local and online multiplayer. Competitors navigate race tracks and deathmatch arenas in exotic cartoon sci-fi locations, using weapon pickups to knock each other out. The game operates on a left-behind principle, where the shared camera tries to keep all competitors in view, but those who fall offscreen are eliminated. When one competitor remains, the round ends and everyone scores or loses points based on their performance. Rounds repeat until one competitor wins the artefact!
About Space Dust Studios:
Space Dust Studios is a new 'AAA indie' video game developer located in Melbourne, Australia. Our team of veteran developers have contributed to franchises such as Battlefield, Need For Speed, Tomb Raider, Dead Space, Burnout and Silent Hill. Now we've gone rogue, building our own immersive worlds and exhilarating gameplay for the next generation of gamers.
Space Dust Racing will be out in mid-2015 for PC and consoles. Check out the latest gameplay trailer below for a glimpse at just what Space Studios has in store.
Tahira: Echoes of the Astral Empire | Whale Hammer Games | Website | Platform: Windows, Mac
Tahira: Echoes of the Astral Empire is a 2D turn-based tactics role-playing game for the PC. You play as Princess Tahira leading the last remnants of her kingdom across a dying science fiction world as they desperately try to escape the army that pursues them.
You'll meet a diverse ensemble cast as you move through the world of Tahira. From Exiled Queens to drunk merchants, Tahira's world is filled with characters who are struggling to survive as civilisation collapses around them. However, at its core this is the story of how a reluctant princess named Tahira must overcome herself and those who seek to exploit her, to become the leader that everyone wants and needs her to be.
Tahira: Echoes of the Astral Empire will be available on Windows and Mac OS X in 2015. Check out their latest developer video showcasing the extremely beautiful looking animation styles below.
Appointment with F.E.A.R. | Tin Man Games | Website | Platform: Windows, Linux, Mac, iOS, Android
Appointment with F.E.A.R. follows the life of the superhero across a handful of days as they deal with their everyday normal life, whilst saving the citizens of Titan City from over thirty supervillains using narrative based combat, which unfolds as the combatants trade quips. The aim is to collect vital clues and information that lead to the arrest of these villains and discovering the location of the F.E.A.R. meeting.
Designing their own super-powered defender of justice in Titan City, the player makes choices that guide them towards new villains, super dilemmas and, ultimately, the Titanium Cyborg and the F.E.A.R. meeting. Unlike the nearly thirty year old gamebook, players can now customise
their character choosing superpower, gender, looks, costume design and, most importantly, their supername!
The interactive graphic novel also allows the player to collect F.E.A.R. cards by defeating supervillains and being awarded hero points for acts of valour. If an iOS or Android player has multiple copies of a card, these can be swapped with other friends via Facebook. By making clever decisions during the adventure the reader also increases the possibility of getting rare cards. The Steam version of the game features Steam Trading Card support.
Appointment with F.E.A.R. is available now on Windows, Mac OS X and Linux, and also available on iOS and Android. You can also purchase it
directly from Tin Man Games for $4.99 that will net you the Android, Windows, Apple and Linux versions.
Paradigm | Jacob Janerka | Website | Platform: Windows, Mac OS X
Paradigm’s unfortunate life begins at DUPA genetics, a company who makes it’s millions by growing and selling prodigy children to the rich and powerful who don’t want to leave their inheritance to their poor excuse for biological children.
Something went wrong in Paradigm’s growing process and he was left horribly mutated. To save their reputation, DUPA dumped the hideous infant in a nearby post Soviet abandoned town, forcing him to fend for himself.
Paradigm didn’t let this get him down and found solace in music. He dreams of becoming the best electronic music artist the world has ever seen! Unfortunately for him being the protagonist of an adventure game, life isn’t that simple. His past is set to catch up with him and he must reluctantly step up as the world’s saviour. When really he just wants to finish his latest EP.
On his journey, Paradigm meets an array of strange characters. Some include: a psychopathic superhero, an evil sloth, a 40-year-old space cadet, and a professional wrestling pug.
Paradigm is planning a launch on Kickstarter shortly, and will have an alpha demo available to the public at the same time. It will be aiming for initial release on Windows and Mac OS X. Check out its gorgeous looking art in the trailer below.
The Kindred | Persistent Studios | Website | Platform: PC
Welcome to The Kindred, a city simulation game set in a procedurally generated sandbox world. In The Kindred you build living villages with residents known as the Kin.
In order to survive, you will need to live off the land – building basic shelter, hunting animals and foraging for food. As your city grows, so do the needs of the Kin. Construct advanced machinery like wind turbines and put in place heating and cooling to help the Kin survive the elements.
We love this genre and want to create a game that gives players as much creative control as possible. Instead of just placing pre-made models onto a static landscape, players will have the option to design simple or complex structures block by block and watch the Kin build them in real-time.
An advanced technology tree allows you to create a town like the Wild West with wooden buildings and steam trains and then take them through to the 21st century with a bustling commercial hub with crops freighted into town from outlying farms.
Persistent Studios is working hard on getting out an Alpha version of The Kindred, but for now you can
check out their blog for all the latest updates on how the game is coming along.
Stay tuned for next week's Indie Friday, and if you like what you see let us know in the comments! Also if you happen to be an local indie dev yourself and want to be featured, just drop an email and we'll get you sorted.
Posted 05:42pm 05/9/14