Indie Links Round-Up: Cherry Blossoms

“The Kickstarter campaign for Sportsfriends , a compilation of local multiplayer-focused indie games, seemed unlikely to meet its lofty $150,000 goal for a majority of its duration…”
The amount of polish, details and love putted into this game is just astounding.

Today’s Indie Linkscontain a whole passel of zombies, along with a few vampires, goblins, samurai, and Santa Clauses.

Sportsfriends Kickstarter Campaign Had A Triumphant Final Week, And A Turbulent Final Hour(Polygon)

Hydorah(PixelProspector)
“ Hydorahis an awesome and faithful loveletter to the horiztonal shooter genre.
The amount of polish, details and love putted into this game is just astounding. This is definitely some game of the year material right here!”

Blazing Trails In Cross-Platform Development With 17-Bit’s Skulls of the Shogun(Polygon)
“The launch of Skulls of the Shogun , the turn-based strategy game steeped in Japanese lore from indie studio 17-Bit, has been pushed back a few times. Studio head Jake Kazdal understands fans’ frustration at the delays, since the company wants the game to be released, too. But in his studio’s defense, he said, making Skulls of the Shogun has been “a ridiculous amount of work” for his three-man team.”

New Xbox Live Indie Games For Week Ending December 7, 2012(indiePub)
“Best bets this week include: Santas Xmas Dash II, an action adventure game where you play the role of Santa and must deliver presents as fast as you can; 2D Voxel Madness, a platform game where you are mining your way through complicated puzzles in search for treasure; Retro Pixel Racers, a racing game where you control little cars; Project Gert: Recon, combines an action adventure platformer game with a puzzle; Vampire Slayer FPS, a shooter game where you must slay all the vampires.”

March to the Moon(Indie Gamer Chick)
“March to the Moon is a shooter with RPG-style leveling up and attribute upgrades.  The whole shmup genre typically makes blood dribble out my ears.  It’s just not my thing.  On the other hand, the whole upgradable stats thing I usually have a lot of fun with at Indie Gamer Chick.  That’s because my first instinct with any upgrade system is to try to abuse it.  Pour all points into one stat, over power it, and see where it gets me.  People say ‘that’s naughty of you, Catherine!  You should play XBLIGs the same way you play non-indie games.’  To which I say, this is how I play non-indies.  It’s also probably why I finish about half the RPGs that I start.”

The Avant-Game – Brain Food for the Hardcore Weirdos(Gamasutra)
“Originally published in the December issue of Game Developer magazine, this piece on diversity in video games from editor-emeritus Brandon Sheffield explores a handful of downloadable titles that push just a little further than what we’re used to.”

The State of XBLIG Zombies(Independent Gaming)
“I was going to show you some cool Christmas-themed games on the Xbox Live Indie Game Marketplace (because of December, of course!) but they don’t seem to be particularly easy to find. Instead, I decided to switch over to the topic of zombies because, as in AAA games, zombies have marched (er, staggered) into the indie game scene. So, without further ado, here are some of the most interesting zombie games I have found, keeping in mind they aren’t in any particular order.”

Review: Little Inferno – From The Maker of World of Goo(Indie Game Reviewer)
“In Little Inferno from(people responsible for indie blockbuster World of Goo ) you wake up under strange circumstances. It seems you are trapped in a small abode of some sort with nothing but a fireplace to bide your time. Brief missives from a secret friend give you a sense that there is a greater story afoot, of which you are a part, and that tossing things into the fire will lead to some sort of cathartic resolution.”