IndieSider - indie video game developers interviews

Plangman is a game that combines Hangman with a puzzle-platformer: avoid enemies and jump over pits to reach the letters you need to solve each level’s puzzle! Judicious use of bombs, jetpacks, and other accessories will help you get past impossible obstacles and enemies. The monochromatic aesthetic and synthesized soundtrack pay homage to the Apple II, the first computer of Plangman develop...

Ellipsis for iOS is a top-down action game in the style of Geometry Wars and Crystal Quest. Collect all the nuclei from a level while avoiding obstacles and enemies intent on your destruction! The bright neon colors, intuitive interface, and complete lack of text or HUD makes for an intense, concentrated gameplay experience. Ellipsis is the first game from Salmi Games, represented in this week&#82...

Momoka is a 2.5D adventure platformer for iOS and tvOS. Imagine the exploration of The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening or Cave Story, combined with the mechanics of Super Mario Galaxy. That’s Momoka, a non-linear, open-world action game set across a series of planetoids and outer space. In this week’s podcast, I chat with Benjamin Withers and Duncan Steele, who compose the enti...

Lumino City is a point-and-click adventure game released for Steam in 2014 and iOS/tvOS in 2015. It features a charming story, intricate puzzles, and an accessible interface — but its most subtle feature is also its most astonishing: the entire world of Lumino City was hand-crafted as a physical set. In this interview, Luke Whittaker of State of Play Games discusses why they chose this route over...

Girls Like Robots was one of Popcannibal’s first games when it was released in 2012. Metacritic ranked it the 13th best iOS game of that year, ensuring the game’s long life. Now it sees its first console release with a Wii U version, giving a new audience of gamers the opportunity to participate in this seating arrangement simulator. Place girls next to robots on the playing grid, but...

Before he created Wolfenstein 3D, DOOM, and Quake, John Romero released Dangerous Dave, a series of platformers for the Apple II and MS-DOS computers. One game in that series, Dangerous Dave in the Deserted Pirate’s Hideout, is now available for iOS, featuring both the original version and a remastered edition. The updated version includes an original soundtrack by Dren McDonald , a prolific...

Emily Is Away is a narrative game framed as a series of AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) conversations. The main character and Emily are high school friends whose relationship evolves as they go their separate ways in college but stay in touch online. As you guide these online interactions, the decisions you make will determine where you go to school, who your friends are, and who Emily is to you, all...

Mushroom 11 is a post-apocalyptic platform-puzzler. In a world without humans, a rogue mushroom must navigate dangerous obstacles and organisms. Players guide the fungus by “erasing” it, shifting its center of gravity, and splitting it in half. In this interview, co-designers Itay Keren and Julia Keren-Detar of Untame Games talk about why they chose a dark, futuristic setting for the m...

Super Happy Fun Block is a 2D puzzle-platformer for iOS. Ball’s monochromatic world is being invaded by colorful blocks — but he can make them disappear with a swipe to the left or right. Control the blocks to solve puzzles, rescue stars, and restore the world. In this interview, Molten Tomato developer Ethan Benanav discusses what he learned working at Zynga that he brought to his indi...

Master Spy is a cinematic stealth platformer and developer TURBOGUN’s debut title. As Master Spy, you use your stealth suit and super jump to infiltrate 2D mazes and evade traps that include motion sensors, pressure plates, and tigers. The pixel art, retro soundtrack, and dramatic cutscenes are reminiscent of Ninja Gaiden, Golgo 13, and Impossible Mission. Master Spy is available for $9.99 f...

PAC-MAN 256 is a free-to-play mobile game for iOS and Android from Hipster Whale, creator of Crossy Road, and 3 Sprockets, creator of Fight the Dragon. Guide Pac-Man through an endless maze while a glitch screen creeps up from the bottom of the maze, threatening to send you to the great bit bucket in the sky. Eat dots to unlock power-ups, collect coins to upgrade the power-ups and spend money to p...

In Gathering Sky , players guide a flock of birds through the air. Hawks and storms abound, but the game is primarily one of tranquility — there are no scores, objectives, or deaths. The terrain above and below changes across the five levels in synchronicity with a string orchestral soundtrack by Dren McDonald and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, complementing the peaceful experience. I sp...

High Strangeness is a top-down action-adventure game in the style of Secret of Mana. With the ability to switch between 8-bit and 16-bit graphics, players explore two versions of a mysterious world on their quest to save both from a mysterious threat. A chiptune soundtrack completes the retro feel of this collaboration from Barnyard Intelligence Games, Crystal Labs, and Midnight City. In this inte...

Leadlight Gamma is a text adventure, or work of interactive fiction. Inspired by such media as Silent Hill and Black Swan , Leadlight Gamma is a survival horror game in which you play as Belinda, a teenage girl who awakens to find herself in a dark parallel of her own high school. Spiders and zombies abound, and her former classmates want her dead. Can you guide her through the puzzles and combat...

Adventures of Pip is an adventure-platformer starring Pip, a single pixel in a 32-bit world. By defeating enemies and absorbing their pixels, Pip can evolve into greater forms, bringing him closer in line with the 32-bit enemies he encounters. Developed by Tic Toc Games, Adventures of Pip features a soundtrack by Jake “virt” Kaufman and is available for Windows and Mac via Steam and fo...

Puzzledrome is a puzzle game that challenges you to create perfectly symmetrical palindromes out of shape- and color-based tiles. Arrange 101 different levels so they’re reflected both vertically and horizontally! This game was released for iOS on May 28, 2015, and is coming this summer to Android, Windows Phone, Mac, and PC. Puzzledrome is primarily the work of one man, Brian Dutton, who tr...

Catlateral Damage is a first-person cat simulator in which players exercise a cat’s most prized skill: knocking stuff onto the floor. Procedurally generated houses, log cabins, grocery stores, and museums give you the opportunity to break dishes, televisions, fruit stands, dinosaur skeletons, and more. In this interview with developer Chris Chung , we discuss the game’s origin in the 7...

Luna’s Wandering Stars is a physics-based planetary puzzler from developer Serenity Forge. Players are challenged to manipulate trajectories, gravity wells, orbital thrusters, and more to collect golden asteroids while avoiding collisions with our solar system’s nine eight planets. This game is available for PC and Mac via Steam .

Dyscourse is a choose-your-own-adventure game that puts you in control of Rita, the leader of a group of plane crash survivors on a desert island. At every turn, you must choose: who will stay in the group and who must go? Will you look for food, water, or shelter? Do you await rescue, or make your own? Each choice branches the story, determining who will live and die. In this interview, developer...

Sunless Sea by Failbetter Games is the sequel to Fallen London, a browser-based text adventure. In Sunless Sea, you captain a steamship in the subterranean realm of the Underzee, charting unknown waters and exploring distant ports. Bring back news and goods from new lands to London and be rewarded handsomely — by which you can stave off hunger, cannibalism, mutiny, and eldritch waters lurking in d...

Shelter 2 is a survival game in which you play as a wild lynx, feeding and caring for your cubs as they grow in the wilderness into adulthood. Hunt prey without falling prey to wolves or the elements. In this interview, Might and Delight CEO Anders Westin discusses how the game establishes an emotional connection between the players and the cubs, addresses the divide between journalistic reviews a...

The Boston Festival of Indie Games , or BostonFIG, is an annual celebration of the Northeast’s indie gaming scene. Developers from Boston and beyond come to showcase their latest games and works-in-progress, be they for computers, consoles, mobile, or cardboard. Guest speakers from Robin Hunicke and Leigh Alexander to Brian O’Halloran and Jason Scott have headlined the festival, with m...

To Be or Not To Be is a choose-your-own-path book by Ryan North, adapted from William Shakespeare’s Hamlet and further adapted to interactive fiction by Tin Man Games , developer of numerous gamebooks. Choose to play as Hamlet, his father the king, or Ophelia. Make choices never before available to the Prince of Denmark. You may avenge your father’s murder — explore outer space —&...

Fight the Dragon is a hack ‘n slash RPG for Steam from Melbourne-based developer 3 Sprockets. Its titular red dragon has a million hit points and takes persistent damage, allowing players to slowly whittle away at him as they level up. But more significant, Fight the Dragon features a complete Adventure Construction Kit (ACK), encouraging user-generated content. Already hundreds of custom le...

Cubot is a puzzle game with a calming, minimalist aesthetic and a difficulty level that quickly ramps up. Released originally for Android, then for iOS, and finally for Mac, PC, and Linux via Steam, it has earned consistently positive reviews across all platforms. Cubot is the work of one developer, Nicolas Pierre-Loti-Viaud. In this interview, he describes how he chose the presentation style, the...