Earth Invaders

I forgot to post an ad for my newest game, Earth Invaders, a while ago, so check it out.

Earth Invaders has been circulating the MochiAds Leaderboard network of game portals for a couple months now, and I have yet to see any money from it, so that has really made me stay away from Flash game development for a while, but I'm working on a new game now. You can see all my complete Flash games (games worth playing) at www.fantasyjam.net/flash/games

FJBall v1.2.0

Game is here: http://www.fantasyjam.net/flash/games/fjball

Features:
basic physics, velocity and gravity
fully animated FJGamer sprite
highscores!!

Game can be played at: http://www.fantasyjam.net/flash/games/fjball

FJBall

I thought I'd just promote a game of my own: http://www.fantasyjam.net/flash/games/fjball

It really is a fun (but short) arcade game.

Free SimCity? Free Civilization?

The best SimCity knock-off is LinCity-NG. It has a tendency to crash in Linux, but it runs fairly smooth in WinXP. It's free and open source. The project is abandoned, though.

I'm not sure if C-evo is open source, but it's the best freeware alternative to Civilization for Windows. It's free, it looks great, and it has a map editor! It even has an extremely low filesize of 2.4mb! What more do you need?

I'm keeping a look out for better sandbox games. There's a decent Portal clone in development, but it doesn't seem to be worth posting about yet. I'll keep you in the loop.

My Collection of Linux Games

I'll just separate them into their genres for easy access...

First-Person Shooter
Sauerbraten - Cube dazzled me with its level editing prowless, so I played Sauerbraten, essentially Cube 2, and I was amazed. Furthermore, this is the must-have game for level editing, but its online play is severely hindered by hackers and know-it-all newb haters.

Tremulus - This is one of those proof-of-concept games. They thought to combine two totally different gameplay aspects into one game. The two genres this can fall under are FPS and RTS. This game is a bit like Team Fortress in the sense that you can choose a character class, and it has a familiar building feature to build turrets and similar objects. I really like this game. Click here to learn more about it.

Warsow - I just like the graphical style of this game. The actual gameplay isn't impressive, but it is still entertaining if you like first-person shooting. My advice is to find something else, though. Also, the only way to get the Linux version of the game is to get the full package, which includes the Windows binary.

Platformer (you know, the jump-and-collect stuff)
N - This was made in Flash, but there's a Linux binary available for those who're still anti-Flash. It's one of the best platform-jumping games I know of, and I hope you enjoy it. This game has a level editor.

Rhythm (like Guitar Hero)
Frets On Fire - I shouldn't be the voice for the rhythm genre, because I'm not a big fan of that stuff, but I loved PaRappa the Rapper and its sequels, and Frets is not like PaRappa the Rapper.

Strategy (anything that requires thinking)
FreeCol - The screenshot in this blog post is of this game. FreeCol is a pretty neat game of colonization. Your mission is to colonize territories. This game is far from done at a development standpoint, but there's enough to keep you busy for a while.

Gate88 - This is one weird game. By weird, I just mean unorthadox, and, by unorthadox, I mean weird. Anyway, I like this game, and I think you will, too. It has a blend of action-packed and strategic gameplay, and it looks good to boot.

Glest - This is my favorite strategic battle game. I don't play it often, though, because I can't save my progress and feel the satisfaction of leveling up like in Diablo or some other dungeon-crawling game.

UFO:AI - The AI is for Alien Invasion; not Artificial Intelligence. However, it's a futuristic strategy game that doesn't give you the build-to-do gameplay mechanic. Instead, you just send in troops to kill aliens.

Wesnoth - Rather "the Battle for Wesnoth," as the site says, this is one of the games I ended up playing on Windows first. I like it, but it's not quite as addictive as Glest.

Graphic Novels (not-so-interactive stories)
Narcissu - This game is like reading doujinshi (Japanese comics) but requires electricity. The payoff is that it's free. There's a sequel as well, so try Narcissu 2 if you like number 1.

Obviously, you can play Flash-powered games in Linux, too, so I suggest a game called N.

Graal is back again!?

For those of you who never became associated with the awesomeness that was Graal Online, it was a late '90s MMORPG, in which you and the other players controlled the game content. In essence, it was Second Life but two-dimensional. Those interested in making world were able; those only wanting to play were given all the opportunities to do so.

The community was stabbed in the back when the game became pay-to-play. Over time, those still devoted to the game kept it alive in the form of private servers, and I know of only one place left to relive the glory days, and that's here: http://www.graal2001.org

Perfect World

A few posts ago, I mentioned a free MMORPG called Perfect World. I said I'd give you more information after I played the game for a while, and I played it, so here's my opinion of the Perfect World:

OMG! This game rocks! O_O Seriously, I love it. It's like playing Oblivion online with the wing mod. I was attracted to the game by a video of people playing in the air, but I expected to have to level up a lot to fly. That's not the case.

Over time, as you level up, you gain more flying energy, which allows you to fly faster and for more time. I've noticed the speed of flight is considerably slower than running, but it all depends on your agility level.

Also, some buffs can speed you up or give you extremely fast health regeneration. This is when character classes come into play. Priests are the only class with spells to buff other players, and they can cast some pretty helpful buffs to enhance your combat ability. Therefore, if you party with one, he/she could stand away from the battle and just rapidly heal you or make you stronger, and the experience would be divided between you.

Of course, I'm not a priest; I'm an archer. I can spoot magically enhanced arrows from long distances to damage enemies before they can damage me. This is very helpful at later levels, because the enemies can hurt you when you're flying, however, if you're new, you're never hurt very badly, unless you attack something at a higher level than you.

This game is more than combat, though, and you will notice right off the bat that you'll have opportunities to race against a clock to fly somewhere or even mine iron ore... though I haven't found any iron yet. (I'm looking!) To mine ore, you need a shovel, and I believe you can use the same shovel to dig up plants, but I'm not sure.

Overall, I love this game, and I can only hope the developers add microphone support. If you're looking for a fast-paced MMORPG to play whenever you like (for free), Perfect World is for you.

Arcade Style Games You Must Play!

Grid Wars isn't the only free game to challenge the ranks of Geometry Wars games. A small company titled Binary Zoo has released a demo of a pretty impressive game titled Mono. They have other games, though, and the games are all free.

Geometry Wars clone or greatest freeware ever?

I bought Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved for my PC. Since I loved it so much, I went searching for Geometry Wars clones and found a freeware game I thought was much better than Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved. The game I speak of is Grid Wars 2.

Surprisingly, Grid Wars also has the same initials as Geometry Wars, so I can't just use short terms for the games or we'll all get confused. Anyway, Grid Wars 2 is only 3MB, so pretty much anyone can download it. If you don't have internet access at home, you can easily fit this game on your measly 32MB flash drive.

About the only thing I get from Geometry Wars that I don't get from Grid Wars is music, but that means I can play my own music with WinAmp!

Grid Wars official site (as far as I know): http://gridwars.marune.de
Programmer's other work: http://www.incitti.com/Blitz
Awesome Grid Wars 2 review with download: http://worldofstuart.excellentcontent.com/grid/wars.htm
Direct link to download: http://worldofstuart.excellentcontent.com/grid/GridWars54.zip

Syboard Ghostbuster

I'm moving away from Flash when making games from now on. I'm now using two programming suites, Construct and DarkGDK. I'm also looking into XNA and whatever else I can find for 3D game development, but for now, I'm using Construct for 2D games and experimenting with DarkGDK for 3D purposes.

Anyway, I've made my first game in Construct, but I used a tutorial, so it's far from original. Check out Ghostbuster. I'll update it over time to include a few extra features, including the most requested high scores table. You may request something in the topic by clicking here.

Free PC Game - Pteroglider

Pteroglider is a 4-year-old game, but it didn't do well in stores, so the developers, Codeminion, are giving the game away. Codeminion is also offering a tech demo of their first game project, Spellscape, which was a dungeon crawling game in the style of Diablo or Darkstone.

I have not tried these games out, so I can't give you a review of either game, but they're free, so try them. If you're interested in keeping an eye on Codeminion to see when new free games are available, just keep checking the blog.

Blatant Advertising

If you're looking for free tools to make your own games, I have a list you can check out by clicking here.

Speaking of blatant advertising, I took the time to download Perfect World, and I noticed it had some seriously annoying ads in the installer, but the game itself is pretty good, and the ads could never be as bad as the ads in 9Dragons. More on Perfect World in a few days. I want to play it more before I say how awesome it is.

Mythos Overworld

Still in closed beta, Mythos is looks amazing, and I hope it will be more accessible once it's out of beta and becomes a full game. Looking at the new overworld screenshots, I'm sensing a rise in hype: http://www.massively.com/photos/the-mythos-overworld/830490/

I wish you all a great Summer,
Joshua Maines AKA FJGamer.

9Dragons and Other Acclaim Games

Yesterday, I found the new Acclaim Games website and recognized a game I wasted hours trying to install last year. By wasting time, I mean the game installed eventually and I realized my PC couldn't handle the game. I also saw an interesting game titled Nine Dragons.

I downloaded the installer for 9Dragons, and it was a very quick download, but it had to download another installer, so I was annoyed and put it off until today. I let it download all morning while I did my yard work. Finally, at about 3pm, the installer was downloaded. Then, I had to download and install game updates for about a hour, but I kept myself busy during the wait, and it finished without any trouble.

I started the game and absolutely loved the opening animations for the start menu. 9Dragons is a very nice-looking game, and it even works with my crappy video card. I enjoy the look of the game, but it has some throwbacks.

The sound effects are annoying and, sometimes, downright obnoxious. The music is almost non-existent. The voices are off sync with the characters' mouths. All these problems are very apparent at the beginning of the game... if you participate in the tutorial.

The tutorial froze the game for about five minutes just to load some very distracting banner ads. There are advertisements all over this game! That's the main reason I'm never playing 9Dragons again. The other reason is I like CroNous more.

BlockCAD: Lego Buildings

I found this very interesting program called BlockCAD. I haven't tried it out, and I don't plan to, but it'll be great for anyone who likes Lego.

I found it while I was browsing a list of 3D modeling tools.

More Kid Friendly Games

I found a really awesome racing game for kids. It has the simplest of controls, just the arrow keys. There isn't a lot to it, either. You start the race, zoom past the other racers and try to collect little crystals to gain max speed. The game's called LudoRace, and you can download it from Graphit-X.

I also found a nice sandbox game (well, sort of) for the younger crowds. The game's called Freeride Earth, and, as the the name suggests, you ride all over the world in a sort of free-roaming environment. Really, you're on a hoverboard in a snowy area, and that's all there is to it. Even though the game is insanely simple, I enjoy its endless environment, and I suspect a young child would stay interested longer than I. The latest version can be found here.

If you have a fairly powerful video card, you could also try "That Cloud Game," an insanely popular internet phenomenon which allows you to fly through the air, collecting healthy clouds to dispatch them near unhealthy coulds to make more healthy clouds and collect those. The point of the game is to clear the sky of clouds, but I just have fun zooming through the sky as I listen to the beautiful soundtrack.

If you're feeling adventurous, you could also try out some of the nice-looking RPGs at Tomoshibi, but it's a Korean site, so you may have trouble finding your way around.

Lost Realms: Morrowind clone?

I found another interesting game in development. It's titled The Lost Realms, but the filenames suggest a different name, Legends. Anyway, this isn't much of a game yet, and I haven't bothered to try it yet.

Kid Friendly Games

This is my first kid-friendly post. I understand the need for non-violent games, and I did some extensive searching, but most of the games I found were obviously Flash-powered puzzle games. I decided not to bother reviewing those. If you think I should start posting good puzzle games, say so.

The first MMORPG that turned up when I searched for "kid friendly mmorpg" on Google was Toontown. Don't resort to playing that garbage. I have better options for you.

If you have to aim low, a browser-based game is your best bet. You could let your child fall victim to Runescape, and that's a very family-friendly game, but there are some alternatives. If your child wants a pet, NeoPets is probably the game you're looking for, but I would look at some NeoPets clones like PetNebula or KiroPets first, because the real NeoPets is too popular for its own good. One alternative I was actually creating as an offline game was Mythical Creature. If you like that game, say so, and I might start working on it again.

If you have a fairly powerful computer with a nice video card, you could give FlyFF a try. I actually played that game for about a week, when I was growing tired of Runescape. I quit playing only because my computer had problems playing it. I would play it again, but I really prefer the dungeon crawling games. If FlyFF works well for you, play it, because it really is a decent game.

On that note, you could also try Eudemons. One of my teenage cousins is currently addicted to that game, just like any MMORPG player. I don't get to try Eudemons, because it requires a somewhat powerful video card, but really, I suggest Runescape for low-end computers.

CroNous Update

I already posted about the free MMORPG called Cronous, but I had only played it a short time before posting about it, so I thought I'd tell you about my experiences with the game thus far.

After having a ton of issues with Runescape and MU Online, I resorted to playing Cronous. I wasn't looking forward to it, because the dialogue is very bad English, and I didn't really want to start anew with anything.

I enjoyed it for the first hour or so, and I posted about how it was better than MU. After a few more hours of leveling up and trying out both the Magician and Valkyrie character classes, I do not retract my previous statement. I do, however, retract a statement I made about MU. It is not like Darkstone. If anything, Cronous is closer to Darkstone than MU.

As I level up in Cronous, I continually save up items, and I eventually find some powerful stuff to help me survive in more dangerous areas, however, as time goes by, you are only truly fighting random monsters. Unlike Runescape, there is no alternative to the fighting mechanics. Want to own a house? Play Runescape. Want to train a crafting skill? Play Runescape. Want some awesome graphics and fast-paced gameplay? Play Cronous.

If you guys play Cronous and want a friend, my username (or rather my character name) is FJGamer. Hope to see you online! And good luck finding those rare items!

Dark Oberon

Strategy games have never been a good genre when it comes to freeware. There just aren't many free strategy games which are fun and look decent. I've found two fairly decent games to add to your selection.

Dark Oberon seems pretty good, but I never tried it. It has a portable edition, so that's all the more reason to download the game. What turns me off is the look of the game. It's two-dimensional, and the characters seem to be made of clay. Unique, yes, but I don't like it. Just my personal taste.

The better of the two is Glest. It looks great, and it runs on my computer, which has a crappy video card. It's also available for Mac, Linux, and Windows. If you need a nice, 3D strategy game for your very small collection of Linux games, pick this up!

Glest has reached version 3.1.2 and has a fairly large filesize of 51mb, so be sure you get the newest version. You select either a tech civilization or a magic civilization. There isn't much difference between the two. (Just the visuals.) You have free roam of a vast plane, you must raise troops and defend yourself from your enemies, and you will most likely have to set up a computer ally to help you if you want an easy time surviving. There is no save feature or scenario builder, like in most commercial strategy games, but really, this game can be a lot of fun to play, and it can be played single player or over the internet.