Indie Links Round-Up: Chain Of Command

“UCLA student game project Perfect Woman uses the awkward behaviors the Kinect can track to force players to mimic life choices starting from the womb.

Today’s Indie Linksinclude a Mario crossover, a Kickstarter warning and a fistful of indies.

The Perfect Woman is one who can adjust to the Kinect’s bad interface(IndieGames.com)
“UCLA student game project Perfect Woman uses the awkward behaviors the Kinect can track to force players to mimic life choices starting from the womb. As Perfect Woman progresses, players make decisions that can make their simulated life difficult as they get older. The game aims to poke at the ideals media perpetuates, with particular inspiration drawn from questionnaires written in women’s magazines.”

Juegos Rancheros’ Fistful of Indies: April 2013(Venus Patrol)
“Every month, as part of the regular monthly meetings of the Austin, TX independent game community JUEGOS RANCHEROS, we do a very casual & chatty rundown of the ten or so games from the previous month for the audience, to give people — especially those curious onlookers from outside the indie community itself — a look at what they may have missed. The featured games are both local and global, and both indie and, on occasion, a bit-bigger-budget — what binds them together is simply that they’re all amazing.”

Super Mario Bros. Crossover 3.0 and Exploding Rabbit’s link to the past(Polygon)
“Exploding Rabbit’s future is linked to the past. Just over three years ago, the studio’s founder, Jay Pavlina, released the first game he’d ever worked on. Super Mario Bros. Crossover’s conceit was both familiar and novel. In the Super Mario Bros. remake, players can platform through the Mushroom Kingdom as a number of 8-bit icons like Metroid’s Samus Aran, The Legend of Zelda’s Link and Mega Man’s titular hero. It still has about 10,000 players a day, according to Pavlina.”

The Joystiq Indie Pitch: Signal Ops(Joystiq)
“Signal Ops has you assume the role of a handler, in charge of directing field agents on somewhat questionable missions. You do the bidding of one of the government’s church divisions, seeking out traitors among other dirty work. As a seasoned officer, you stay back at base while the recruits go out and handle the dangerous bits. You won’t be relaxing, though; these field operatives need constant supervision and someone to tell them what to do. It’s a darkly comedic tale of clandestine operations, treachery, and doing what’s wrong because it is right.”

Xona Games Interview(Independent Gaming)
“Xona Games has always had a place in my heart (considering the fact that they are so close by!) ever since I read an article in the business section of a local newspaper about them. They were inspiring – heroes. So I had to contact them for an interview about the company and the retro games they make as well as their challenges. NOTE: This interview may be a bit outdated as I asked the questions weeks ago and just recently got the reply – sorry about that.”

Avatar Trials: Ninja Uprising(Indie Gamer Chick)
“Avatar Trials: Ninja Uprising is another University of Utah student game. It’s really hard to believe it comes from the same pool of classmates that ultimately gave us Magnetic By Nature, one of the year’s best and most refreshing games. Avatar Trials is one of this year’s worst XBLIGs, and one of those rare games where my biggest challenge with it is trying to find anything positive to say about it. After having a few days to think about it, I couldn’t come up with a single nice thing to comment on. Avatar Trials is without merit in every way possible.”

Star Command Is A Great Game, But Also A Kickstarter Warning(Kotaku)
“For the last few days, I’ve been playing Star Command, a mobile game that’s had people excited for a very long time now. Beginning life as a Kickstarter project, it’s gone through several major delays, and arrives this week on the App Store an example not just of excellent portable strategy, but of the realities of Kickstarter funding as well.”

Monaco: The Kotaku Review(Kotaku)
“The co-op heist game Monaco appears to be missing whatever qualities an online video game must possess in order to turn the strangers who play it into jerks. I’m worried about telling you this, because I’m worried that I’m wrong and that Monaco is as prone to being ruined by the burrs of humanity. I’m worried that this ride isn’t going to be so comfy long-term.”