The Friday FREE GAME Feature! Ep72: Aborigenus

Pixelated platforming with RPG elements!

Aborigenus takes the traditional platformer and adds in a number of roleplaying features like leveling, skill choices and quests. It's an interesting mix that I enjoyed, though it needs some work.

The Friday FREE GAME Feature! Ep68: Dead Meets Lead

Stranded on a zombie plague island, hack 'n' slash your way to an antidote.

I'm a sucker for top-down or isometric hack 'n' slash games, and probably even more so for zombies. Cram them together and you should have a title I'm going to love, right? I thought so, but Dead Meets Lead somehow manages to fail at doing anything interesting.

The Friday FREE GAME Feature! Ep66: Project Adventure Game

Challenging Metroidvania-style platformer!

Project Adventure Game is a difficult but rewarding exploration platformer. It plays similarly to classics like Metroid or Castlevania, requiring you to learn the patterns and moves needed to survive an area with save points being few and far between.

MOWIN' THE LAWN! Grass Is No More HIGHLIGHTS! The Friday FREE GAME Feature 65

Here it is - an example of "The Friday FREE GAME Feature!" in highlight form!

Let me know what you think by posting a comment on here or the video itself. I feel this change improves the channel by making the videos brief and to-the-point... but as always, I value your opinion.

If you'd like to see the full-length video or read more about the game, you can check out my previous blog post here.

The Friday FREE GAME Feature! Ep65: Grass Is No More

Mowin' the lawn, movin' the lawn!

Grass Is No More is a lawn mower driving "simulator" where you score points by cutting grass while avoiding obstacles. It was developed during a competition in a limited time, so it's not going to have all the bells and whistles that one might expect due to the deadline.

The Friday FREE GAME Feature! Ep64: Super Square Chaos

Platforming shoot-em-up with destructible levels and lots of weapons!

When I first saw Super Square Chaos, my expectations were fairly low. There's a lot of action/shooting platformers to choose from, and the majority of them are very similar. I was pleasantly surprised to find some interesting twists in this title.

The Friday FREE GAME Feature! Ep61: Process

Stuck on a train, you have 20 minutes before it collides to your doom! Can you stop it in time?

Process is a point-n-click adventure game with a couple of interesting twists.

The Friday FREE GAME Feature! Ep60: FLARE & Zelda 30 Year Tribute

Another double feature today! First up, a voxelized update to a classic adventure, then a moddable hack 'n' slash RPG!

The Friday FREE GAME Feature! Ep59: Endorlight

Dash to the exit in this platformer with random levels!

Endorlight is labeled as a roguelike platformer that some have likened to Spelunky. While I haven't played Spelunky, a glance at its store page on Steam shows that it's rather popular and enjoyable. I'm not certain I can say the same for Endorlight.

The Friday FREE GAME Feature! Ep58: Serena

A point-and-click story about a man's relationship and memories, created by a slew of developers.

Serena is less of a game (in the traditional sense) and more of an interactive story. You play as a man trying to piece together his memories of living in a cabin with his wife, Serena. He seems to have a severe case of amnesia and perceptual issues, as the opening of the game focuses on a photograph of him and his wife, whose face is blurred out. As you wander about the now-decrepit cabin looking at its contents, the man's memories slowly return, revealing what happened long ago.

I really liked the atmosphere of this title. The decayed cabin was dark and mysterious, but the protagonist kept things from being too depressing with an amusing anecdote here and there. Speaking of which, every story and memory, along with each written letter comes with full voice narration. While the game isn't incredibly long, it's nice to see that the developers (did I mention this was a large collaborative effort?) went with voice acting for every bit of information. The title would've lost a lot of immersive impact without it.

That said, it wasn't difficult to figure out what probably happened in this man's life that he had mysteriously (or conveniently) forgotten. I was able to pretty much call out the ending about halfway through the game, and there wasn't much of a surprise when I reached the game's conclusion. The tale itself was a little predictable, but I was pleased with how they doled out the story as a collection of anecdotes and memories.

In all, Serena was an interesting experience with great atmosphere and exposition. In some ways, it reminds me a lot of A Night In The Woods (which I played late last year), so if you liked either of these you might want to check out the other.

The Friday FREE GAME Feature! Ep57: Adventures of FrikiBoy

Classic 2D action adventure with a comedic twist!

Adventures of FrikiBoy is a modern take on the classic adventure game ala Legend of Zelda. You're tasked with a mission of utmost importance - to reclaim stolen baked goods, including the Coconut Delight, from the clutches of a villain named Guitar Shark. As you might've guessed, this game comes with a heavy dose of comedy. The villain tends to leave behind notes that point out his own lair's mistakes and comes pretty close to breaking the fourth wall.

Sometimes humor is used to mask what is otherwise uninteresting or just bad gameplay, but this is certainly not the case here. In fact, FrikiBoy is one of the more solid indie games I've played for this series recently. The controls are intuitive and responsive, it's well paced in terms of exposing new features/elements, and it even comes with an in-game manual! There's some great design choices going on here too - having a circle to show the reach of your melee attacks is very helpful for kiting enemies, and the flashlight feature really plays up the "adventuring in a dark dungeon" feeling that many games miss (or overdo) completely.

The standard adventure features multiple difficulty settings, and logging in via GameJolt gives you access to additional content and game modes.

For fans of classic adventure games, I highly recommend giving Adventures of FrikiBoy a try!

The Friday FREE GAME Feature! Ep54: Transcendence

Space exploration, combat and roleplaying with roguelike elements!

Transcendence is a sci-fi space game where you pilot a ship on a divine mission to reach the galactic core. You can choose from three different starting ships - freighter, yacht or fighter - depending on your playstyle. Beginning at the Sisters of Domina outpost, you're given some basic missions to get acquainted with controls and game mechanics important for your journey.

One of the game's strong points is its variety of options. While your choice of starting ship can affect your success at certain missions, you can always upgrade your ship with an assortment of weapons, armor and devices (and later on purchase entirely different vessels) assuming you have enough credits.

The title has a high amount of replayability as well. In addition to piloting a different class of ship, each new game has some amount of procedural generation to keep things fresh. If that wasn't enough, there's even an array of expansions and mods to provide you with more campaigns. options, content and missions.

I don't have much in the way of negative remarks for this title, but I'll mention what few small gripes I have for sake of disclosure. I couldn't seem to find a reliable way to stop/brake my ship - the period key supposedly does this, but it didn't work for me. Also, a recent update added in-game music, but it seems to only have one song which plays just once, leaving you with the silence of space afterwards. I assume that a patch will likely fix that issue soon enough though, either with more tracks and/or a looping feature.

Those minor issues aside, Transcendence is a great game that provides a plethora of space exploration, combat and trading goodness!

The Friday FREE GAME Feature! Ep53: Mansionvania

Castlevania-inspired platforming action!

Mansionvania is a short platformer heavily inspired by the classic Castlevania games. You're on a mission to retrieve your pet which was stolen by a warlock. Chasing the villain to his mansion, you now must defeat the monsters and obstacles in your way.

If you've ever played the NES-era Castlevania titles, you'll feel right at home here. Enemies are defeated using your trusty whip, though you can obtain other weapons for a limited time. The controls are tight, though you'll probably encounter some frustration when enemies knock you back (which is perfectly in the spirit of the genre). Thankfully, the game provides you with unlimited lives, allowing you to memorize strategies and progress much faster than the titles it was inspired by.

While most of the monsters were standard for a game like this, there were a few interesting additions. The guy that spawns a large slime when you get close was pretty neat, and the boss fights were all enjoyable (which was also the case with another title from the same developer called Yet, I despise him).

If you have some free time to spare and need a quick Castlevania-style fix, be sure to check out Mansionvania!

The Friday FREE GAME Feature! Ep52: Prisoner

Wrongly imprisoned, you make your escape in this action game reminiscent of classic Legend of Zelda.

Prisoner was developed in the span of one month as an exercise in game design. As it was the developer's first game, I'd say they did a decent job at putting together a functional title.

You awake in a cell, hearing the voice of someone who has supposedly come to your rescue. Grabbing a convenient nearby weapon, you traverse the prison looking for a way out. The game (both in looks and play) feels very much like oldschool action games from the NES-era, such as Legend of Zelda. You can break open crates to find extra health and "coins" that can help toward attaining extra lives. You only have a sword through most of your journey, but towards the end you finally get to pick up a bow. Most of the game involves dodging obstacles and avoiding pitfalls along with timing your attacks against enemies.

The title also seems to include an element of stealth, as enemy aggro looks like it's based off their visibility. Unfortunately, you often have to kill every enemy to get to the next section, making this pseudo-stealth mechanic somewhat less important.

As I mentioned above, Prisoner is functionally sound and a good first attempt at game design. It lacks any real punch though - the gameplay is basic with little variance and the dialogue is pretty bland. After being defeated by what I assume was the final boss, I couldn't find a good reason to jump back in and try again.

The Friday FREE GAME Feature! Ep51: Right Click To Necromance

Raise the dead to fight by your side in this Agar.io-styled army battler!

Right Click To Necromance was created in 48 hours during a recent Indie Speed Run development competition. The goal of this game is to build an army created by raising your fallen foes. This title follows the K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple, Stupid) design philosophy by requiring only a mouse to control the game - left click to move your army and... you guessed it, right click to necromance.

While RCTN takes a cue from the immensely-popular title Agar.io, it features more variety and flavor. Instead of playing as a basic circle, you control a number of independent soldiers and monsters that form an army. There are a handful of different troop types - from a lowly knight to a giant rock monster - each with different strengths and weaknesses. As a fan of tabletop warfare, I vastly prefer the wave of troops over a bland circle. You can't split into smaller groups, but you really wouldn't want to as this game is all about strength in numbers and picking your battles wisely.

Getting into multiple combats can be risky, as you have to eliminate an entire group before you can raise them. In the thick of battle it's not easy to pick out one remaining soldier when there's a wave of identical enemies all mixed in together. You'll often start a fight with one unit only to get flanked by an incoming army you didn't see coming, and at that point you need to decide if you can finish a unit off to raise reinforcements or make a hasty retreat. As you accumulate troops, you'll also find it increasingly difficult to avoid multiple enemies as your army simply occupies so much space. This makes for a great balancing mechanic as larger armies inevitably end up taking on a combination of forces on multiple fronts.

While RCTN is a decent title, it currently lacks long-term potential. There's no scoring system, alternative game modes or even a way to "win". You just keep fighting until you lose or get bored. As the game was created in 48 hours, I certainly don't hold this against the developers (Juicy Beast). I do however hope they decide to add more features to the title later on. I'd love to see any of the following: a multiplayer mode, a scoring system possibly with leaderboards, or even a final fight against a boss and/or opposing army.

Right Click To Necromance is impressive and reasonably polished for having only a 48 hour development period, but it has the potential to be much more.

The Friday FREE GAME Feature! Ep50: Execute & Life vs Life

Another double feature for episode 50!

First up is Execute, a strategy battle game created for Ludum Dare 26. In this game, your job is to defeat all enemies as efficiently as possible. This idea is taken to the extreme, meaning that if you use too many actions, you end up losing the level (as if you had died).

While I appreciate the overall concept, the game could use a bit more polish (now that the time restriction from Ludum Dare is long over). Perhaps a clue as to how many actions are "too many" would've been helpful, as well as better-defined victory conditions for each level. I couldn't seem to find a winning combination for level two, and it felt pretty vague as to what I was doing wrong.

After that is Life vs Life, an interactive point-and-click type of title where you play as a pizza delivery guy in a city. While technically a game, it doesn't seem to have any failure states (including not getting fired for disregarding your job) and is more of an interactive short story. That said, everything you do in the game seems to have a larger influence on the city than you might at first expect. Continually tipping the street musician will eventually have him playing a sold out concert, and excessively feeding the pigeons can result in a huge flock of them taking over one end of town.

This game is broken up into days of the week. At the end of each day, you return to your apartment to fall asleep in front of the television. The decorations of your abode change slightly depending on what you've done. At the end of the week, the game is over with a message talking about how people choose to live their lives. It was interesting to try clicking around everywhere to see what happened, but after several playthroughs you'll probably have seen about everything Life vs Life has to offer.

The Friday FREE GAME Feature! Ep47: The Old Tree

An atmospheric adventure made in Flash

The Old Tree is a point-and-click adventure puzzler made in Flash. You assume the role of a creature that reminds me somewhat of a wacky wall crawler toy, and your job is to solve puzzles to get the little guy to the next screen.

This game has a great deal of atmosphere, with a dark but relaxing art style and music to match. Unlike many titles of the genre, you don't actually control the main character - instead you clear the way for him to continue his journey. This was kind of a nice change because you could focus more on the environment than where your character was positioned to solve the puzzles.

Sadly, the game lacks a lot of substance. The puzzles aren't terribly difficult and there seemed to be no penalty for failure - you just keep trying things until you sort it out. There's no replay value, unless you want to see the levels again (which admittedly look very nice). There doesn't seem to be a story, save for whatever you make up in your head as you go. It's also an incredibly short title, as you can finish the entire thing in less than 15 minutes.

If you're more about the journey than the destination, perhaps The Old Tree may be worth checking out.

The Friday FREE GAME Feature! Ep46: Storm: Neverending Night

Challenging 2D survival horror ala Resident Evil.

Storm: Neverending Night is something different, not necessarily good, but different. It's a side-scrolling survival horror game similar to classic Resident Evil. In classic RE, the camera was perhaps the biggest enemy players had to contend with. SNN takes care of that issue, but introduces several others.

For starters, the controls for this game aren't the greatest. The default settings are very clunky, and you'll probably want to rebind the keys right away. That said, the controls themselves take a good deal of getting used to.

Likewise, the UI isn't the most intuitive either. Items need to be combined in a very specific manner, which is quite a hassle. Additionally, you'll find yourself spamming the "pickup" key to grab items hidden behind random things in the foreground. To make matters worse, half of the UI is in Russian.

I couldn't find a save option, so I assume there are certain locations you can save at. That would be fine if you didn't have to go through a number of screens full of puzzles, challenges and dialogue that are necessary to advance.

I simply don't have the patience to give Storm: Neverending Night a real try, and frankly I'm not certain it's worth it.

Also, I'd like to announce a new youtube series, 42Craft, coming soon! It's being setup on a private server with a small group of friends, so I'm certain they'll appear in a number of upcoming episodes!

The Friday FREE GAME Feature! Ep43: Shattered Hourglass

Play as a time mage that's being hunted down!

Shattered Hourglass is a classically-styled RPG with some modern additions to character development. You play as Duran, the last time mage, who is currently being stalked by a mysterious enemy known as Mage Slayer.

The game features many of the things you'd expect to see in oldschool RPGs - stats, levels and experience, skills, equipment and the ability to add NPCs to your party. In addition, there's more character progression via jobs (which seem like multi or prestige classes) as well as a karma system. These features come standard in most games of the genre today, and are a welcome addition here!

The gameplay is very oldschool: turn-based combat staring at an enemy screen (think classic Phantasy Star or Dragon Warrior), navigating through 2D mazes and random encounters. This can be a turn off for those with little time or patience, and overall slows down the pace. As much as I liked classic RPGs back when they were new, even I feel they're kind of slow looking at them now. I'm not saying they're a waste of time, but you definitely need to free up your schedule a bit if you want to make real progress. That said, this title allows you to save at pretty much any location - another handy feature sorely missing from games of the past.

It's also worth noting that this title doesn't mind poking fun at itself or others. You're given an option right away to play in either 'Vanilla' or 'Silly' mode, the latter of which adds a good deal of comedy and content to your game experience.

In the mood for classic role-playing with a generous amount of humor? Then check out Shattered Hourglass!

The Friday FREE GAME Feature! Ep42: WizardWizard

Double-jumping, key-grabbing platforming action!

WizardWizard is a short but challenging platformer with a charming retro look. You play as a wizard whose only real powers are the ability to double jump and respawn a lot. You're on a mission to save a princess from a big bad with lots of obstacles in the way.

I keymapped a controller (as the game natively uses the keyboard) and it was very responsive. I've said it before - a platformer must have tight controls - and that's certainly the case here. My deaths were my fault, not the game's, which is good.

Aesthetically speaking, the title has a retro charm with several small modern effects (like the glowing moon and torches) which I really enjoyed. The game's premise is a handful of well-worn tropes, but that doesn't really affect the gameplay.

I suppose my only real complaint might be how short the game was. 25 levels went by relatively quickly, even with all my blunders. That's more of a compliment though as the game was enjoyable enough that I would've gladly played on!

So there you go, WizardWizard was a bite-size bit of afternoon platforming fun!