Hey to everyone I haven't said hey to!

And Caitlin, don't forget to screen capture and show us your awesome games!

Evolution is beautiful
I wonder what level that critter is

Funny you should ask that because I was just about to ask what kind of stat point distribution would be required to unlock the Photosynthesis skill.

Hiya Tim! Always great to meet a fellow indie programmer.

Oh god, so many.

Pompeii: A near UNPLAYABLE adventure game from way back when similar to the Hugo games (which were vastly superior). Good luck finding anything on it. I could never find a way past the second or third screen.

Frets on Fire: I know a lot of people love it for being a Guitar Hero clone, but the tutorial constantly insults the player (way to get on my good side), half the levels are broken, and the response times for hammerons are a joke.

Gex: Enter the Geck (GB): The Playstation version of this game is awesome. The Game Boy version is a travesty and to this day makes me wary of handheld ports (and yes, I know I should get over that).

Mafia Wars: This isn't even a game. It's a bunch of web buttons that you click that run some Java code. After running through some Excel balancing tests (as I am apt to do) I discovered that in the course of the game, with a theoretical 1/3 chance of getting them in the jobs where you should but in reality only coming out close to a 1/8 chance, you would need to do jobs where you get cell phones about 1500+ times to get the required number of cell phones needed for progression. Nuff said.

Traffic Department 2192: Now don't get me wrong, I LOVED this game, but the plot twist scarred me for life, and then it went and had a cliffhanger ending! I can't help but hate it.

Gabriel Knight 3: What the hell happened to werewolves doing ballet? I paid for an adventure game, not for a geometry class.

More later, most likely.

I know, and such a shame too because they were so good. Where would we indie developers be without Apogee's model for distribution? Shareware FTW!

Also, not enough comparisons can be drawn between The Dopefish and Green Man imagery.

Mandatory introduction!

I am Dan from Lantana Games. I recently graduated from the Savannah College of Art and Design with a BFA in Interactive Design and Game Development. I've tinkered with game design my entire life and finally launched my first (and second) game last year, The Longest Night, an experimental piece about running a homeless shelter, and Zombie Slaughter Tour 2009, my one obligatory zombie game with a rhythm twist.



I am currently living in Boston, MA trying to get a startup going with my team. You can check out our website at http://www.lantanagames.com

In terms of my inspiration, it has to go to the Apogee games of yore, specifically Hocus Pocus, Raptor: Call of the Shadows, and Commander Keen: Goodbye Galaxy.





Some of my other favorites include Lode Runner: The Legend Returns, TIE Fighter, Freelancer, and Jazz Jackrabbit 2. My favorite indie games are AAAAAaaaaAAAA: A Reckless Disregard for Gravity, Aquaria, Audiosurf, Braid, Cave Story, and Machinarium, just off the top of my head.

And finally, I am excited to join the TIG community!

Carry on.

This is a great article on Rodain Joubert on indie game marketing, definitely worth a read: http://www.devmag.org.za/articles/78-ZERO-BUDGET-INDIE-MARKETING-GUIDE/

My advice would be to wait until you have something substantial to show off. Trailers always grab more attention than screenshots. With any luck, when you have something working and email press sites, they'll be interested and will spend half an hour writing an article on your game. Even if they give it bad press, it WILL get another download or two.

Yeah me either, but the comments I got back from IGF pretty much cover the bases. Just like with beta testing, you can't always guarantee you'll get the feedback you want or need, or even get any feedback at all. It's always best to get a larger sample size.

Hey TIGFolks! I'm Dan from the recently formed Lantana Games and thought I'd post up some screenshots and links from our two games released last year.

First there's The Longest Night (released under our old moniker), an experimental game about running a homeless shelter. This one is free, and just requires a Windows PC.


More recently we released Zombie Slaughter Tour 2009, a rhythm-based zombie shooter with included Online and Local Leaderboards. This one is a dollar to help support our startup efforts. Requires Windows XP/Vista/7 and a DX9 graphics card. Trailer can be found here:




Both of these games can be downloaded at our website: http://www.lantanagames.com

We also currently have an unannounced project that we've been working on for a few months, and will be building something at the upcoming Global Game Jam too.

Enjoy the games!

I saw this on the Indie Games channel a couple days ago and thought it looked especially good for an Indie Games channel game. Well done! I'll pick it up when I get some MSP.

Miyamoto never had to wait for someone to make a game based on his Meggy art for publicity like this.