Best Of Indie Games: If It Ain't Broke, Don't Scrap It

[Every week, IndieGames.com: The Weblog editor Tim W. rounds up the week's top free and commercial indie games, plus notable features from his sister 'state of indie' weblog.] This week on 'Best Of Indie Games', we take a look at some of the top independent PC Flash/downloadable titles released over this last week. The goodies in this edition include a top-down zombie shooter from the rebranded Xbox Live Indie Games section, a colorful vertical-scrolling shmup, and a real-time strategy game created in under seven days for the latest Experimental Gameplay Project theme. Other highlights include an experimental game by the developer of the Venture Games series and a challenging platformer that wouldn't look out of place on the screen of a Game Boy handheld console. Game Pick: 'I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MB1ES!!!1' (Jamezila, commercial indie - demo available) "Jamezila's I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MB1ES 1N IT!!!1 is currently the Best Selling and Top Rated title in the entire XBLIG catalogue for a reason. The premise is simple: Zombies are advancing - take them down. The entire game revolves around a single music track which includes lyrics such as 'I made this game using XNA, it costs a dollar and I hope you'll pay'. For a dollar, you're getting an action-packed top-down shooter that you'll genuinely want to stick on every time your friends are around." Game Pick: 'Broken Brothers' (Michael Todd, freeware) "Broken Brothers is Michael Todd's entry for the latest Experimental Gameplay Project. It's an RTS title with the tagline 'Gather, Survive, Expand, Unlock'. Beginning with 'Malakai', who is basically your Headquarters, the idea is to gather 'hope' via Harvester units, then use this hope to build attacking units like tanks and bombers. Michael decided to go for the 'bare minimum' concerning the graphical style, as the game needed to be fully completed within seven days, but he's managed to create a world which is sparse yet striking." Game Pick: 'Scrapp' (Andrew Brophy, freeware) "Scrapp is Andrew Brophy's entry into the GameCOG Explosions competition, and it's a rather colorful shmup to say the least. Your objective is basically to destroy the constant stream of enemies with your rainbow lasers and rack up a high score. The art style here is simply gorgeous, from the blurred surroundings while firing to the eternal scrolling words in the background. Definite eye candy and a nice little shooter to boot." Game Pick: 'Be My Bird' (Pocketwatch Games, browser) "Be My Bird is an experimental game which delves into the realms of neural networks via a flower-gathering bird. It is possible to teach the bird how to gather the flowers and bring them back to his nest, so that eventually he does it all on his own. For those interested in how it all works, the neural networking paths are on display to the right of the action." Game Pick: 'Tower of Heaven' (Askiisoft, freeware) "Askiisoft's Tower of Heaven is a wonderful platformer which will have you tearing large chunks of hair - nay, SKIN - from your cranium. Your task is to ascend said tower, but a mysterious power which resides at the top is doing everything it can to make sure you don't succeed. The introduction of the 'Book of Laws' early on also ramps the difficulty up tenfold."