Wakey wakey, internet! It's Friday, and that means you only have a few more hours of drudgery before the glory that is the weekend rains happiness, fun, and irresponsibility upon us! Of course, because Halloween got all uppity and is suddenly too good to be on a Friday or Saturday this year, we're all going to be shagged out from ghoulish parties come Tuesday, but that's the price you pay for a good time and candy stolen from small children! On this week's Link Dump Friday, not only do we highlight some zombie empathy and a surprising slew of high-quality download titles, but we also take a look at three extremely promising upcoming titles, one of which in particular I am personally very excited for.
Psssst! Confused? This is our new Link Dump Friday format! For an explanation, read this if you missed it!
New and Noteworthy
Mage Gauntlet - You've got the touch! You've got the pow-WUUUUURRRR! Or at least, our heroine Lexi does in this iOS action RPG from Rocketcat Games. With a snappy sense of humour, easy to master controls, and a lighthearted approach to fantasy, this is simply a great little retro RPG that can keep you wrapped up and tapping buttons for a long time.
Lab of the Dead - Evil Dog gives us this odd take on zombie games in the form of a simulation/puzzle hybrid where you play a scientist after an undead invasion experimenting on the shambling monsters. Sure you can dissect them in a variety of ways, but the choice to try to help them connect with their past selves using tools, food, animals, and more can make for some surprisingly affecting gameplay.
The Blackwell Deception - Wadjet Eye Games adds another chapter in their stellar point-and-click adventure series about a young psychic and her ghostly guide who can't seem to stop stumbling across preternatural murder plots. Fantastic writing, artwork, and voice acting make up for some slightly obtuse puzzles and make this one a title adventure fans should definitely check out.
Drawn: Trail of Shadows - The always captivating hidden-object adventure series gets another notch on its belt with the release of this latest installment. Our own John Bardinelli called it "an adventure experience unrivaled in the casual gaming world", and fans were only too willing to agree. Have you discovered Drawn yet?
A Game About Game Literacy - What is it about games that deconstruct genres we love so much? Damian Sommer made this weird yet adorable and interesting little puzzle platformer as an extremely simple take on Metroidvania, and both our own esteemed Jay and equally esteemed-er readers took to it like ducks to water. It was made in just a day and a half, and requires some fiddly jumping, but there's just something about it that makes you want to see it through.
Preview Alert! Nearly five years after he first appeared in your browsers, the grizzled mystery solver is making a comeback... on your phones! Super Flash Bros' point-and-click adventure will be hitting the App Store when it arrives, which may be a bit of a disappointment to anyone not in possession of something that runs iOS, but still looks absolutely gorgeous. You'll be sent to a swamp to solve a murder than everyone claims is connected to a mysterious monster people believe has been living there for sixty years. The artwork looks beautiful, and the voice-acting and soundtrack definitely add to that professional polish. Check out more screenshots and the trailer over at the official site, but there's no release date set... yet!
Preview Alert! There's no place like home! Unless, of course, it's the scene of a brutal murder... and isn't your home at all! In Benjamin Rivers' upcoming indie horror adventure, you wake up in unfamiliar surroundings and promptly discover a body, which is usually bad news. Home is billed as "a murder mystery with a twist", and in this case that twist is that occasionally the narrative will ask you questions, and your decision dictates what happens next. (Or what already happened.) As the trailer at the official site informs you, however, no matter what, this will not end well. Cheery! The game is still in development, but you can (and should) follow Mr Rivers himself on Twitter for news and updates... and while you're at it, tell him to hurry up, because Dora needs her horror fix! TAKE MY MONEY, BENJAMIN.
Release Approaching! Freebird Games will be releasing their intriguing RPG adventure game about a pair of scientists who can enter the memories of people on their deathbeds this Tuesday, November 1st. The story goes that this experimental new technology developed by the protagonists, Dr. Eva Rosalene and Dr. Neil Watts, allows people to live out their dreams and fulfill their wishes, all within their minds, but can only be performed on people who are already dying. This time, they're in the mind of an elderly man who's always wanted just one thing; to go to the moon. Will you get through this one without needing to break out the hankies or blink back manly tears? The game will be released for $12.00 USD, but if you already know you need to have it, you can pre-order it on Desura for the discounted price of $9.95 USD.
I still got to get used to this new LDF, but I find it good to gather the big titles and give us some news of things to come.
Nice to see the new LDF format is working.
is it?
It's working great! I'm very pleased with the changes we've made. All games have been given their own review and comments pages, which are serving the games much better than the old LDF pages. So far so good! :D
I read about the new format for LDF, and whatever you want to do on your own website is obviously your business. If you are going to include the browser link, though (since some of the games are playable in the browser), could you also include the download tag to indicate that some of them cannot?
Thanks.
[I think a better solution would be to not include those tags at all to avoid any confusion. Instead, I've added news and preview, since those now apply to the new format. Thanks for the feedback! :) -Jay]
New LDF Walkthrough
1. Appreciate the new LDF.
2. Write constructive criticism.
3(optional). Complain.
4(optional). Suggest.
deeply uncharmed by the invasion of sponsored and corporate content. it's reasonable to need funding, and real indie games don't debut every day, but jig is looking painfully like a big fish catalog.
Hi camille,
While you're entitled to your opinion, I must disagree with your assessment. Yes, we have advertising for Big Fish games, but we have not increased the number of games we review from there at all. If anything, we have reviewed less because we haven't been pleased with a lot of the newer games coming out over there. That said, there are still some worthwhile titles being released at Big Fish and we'll continue to feature them.
Beyond that, the quantity of free games that we feature has only increased over the years, so your comment about invasion of sponsored and corporate content couldn't be further from the truth.
On the JIG main homepage right now here is a list of the content I see (note that it's Sunday, and download content is only featured on weekends):
Absorption - FREE Flash game.
The Latest Work of Dai Hyakka - FREE Flash game.
Costume Quest - Indie download game, not sponsored, non-affiliate, we make nothing from your purchase of this game. It is a game we recommend, and it goes extremely well with the Halloween season, which is why we featured it now.
Sequence - Indie download game, not sponsored, non-affiliate, we make nothing from your purchase of this game. It is a game we highly recommend or we wouldn't have featured it.
Weekend Download - Contains recommendations and links to download 4 indie FREEware games.
Big Fish Halloween Sale - Not sponsored, but we do earn affiliate revenue from some purchases (not all). Every game at Big Fish has been reduced in price this weekend, and there are some gems available on the cheap. It's a big sale, which is why we are heavily promoting it. All mentions of the sale will disappear when the sale is over, Monday night.
Terrific Halloween - FREE Flash game.
2011 A Father's Travel - FREE Flash game.
Missilebreak Outvaders - FREE Flash game.
Pumpkin Remover 3 - FREE Flash game.
Monkey GO Happy Marathon - FREE Flash game.
Link Dump Friday - Contains a list of games we are excited about for one reason or another. There is no sponsored content. There is mention of one Big Fish game, however, and it is likely to be one of the best casual game releases ALL YEAR. So that's why we mentioned it again.
That's a whole lot of FREE content with a couple of indie games mixed in there. There is only one Big Fish game related post in the entire bunch. Anything else you see on the site for Big Fish is an ad. Advertising helps pay for all the free content we deliver every day. If you want to see less advertising, register an account with us and stay logged in. Many (but not all) of the Big Fish ads you see will disappear.
So, I'm sorry you feel that way, but the evidence above refutes your claim.
Nnnnoooooooo.....! (falling, fading pitch)
Or at least, Please! _do_ separate the links to download-requiring games from the links to online games in a clear way! Like maybe headers or sections of the link dump.
The "preview alert" is fine with me.
The main page area with thumbnails on top, I'm getting used to and may grow liking it.
Update