Tense, Minimalist Tower Defense

Tower defense games -- in which you place defensive towers with different characteristics to shoot at and stop a flow of invading critters (or "creeps") -- are one of the first unique and original game styles to spring from independent games.

As such, they're exactly the sort of game Manifesto was created to promote -- an innovative game style not seen in the conventional game industry.

An increasing number are appearing, precisely because this type of game strikes a chord, and is compelling to many people (me among them). Attack of the Creeps is a nicely polished game of the type, with tense, edge-of-the-seat gameplay, and levels that are by no means easy to beat, as the game goes on.

Polished Real-Time Fantasy Tactics
Now Updated to Version 1.54

Chronic Logic, developers of Bridge Construction Set and Gish return with a very different game: a tense, nicely polished game of tactical fantasy combat.

Before a 'round' starts, you purchase units--initially, you can choose from swordsmen and archers, but many other units get unlocked in later rounds. You place them on the map, and enemy units emerge (in a number of "waves" of attack). Combat is real-time, but pausable--and you will, in fact, be pausing frequently to order your units to move, or to use special powers (such as "taunt" for swordsmen, useful in preventing enemies from moving past to attack your more vulnerable archers, or "heal" for clerics).

At the end of each round, you're given the ability to unlock new units or powers for already unlocked units, so there's an RPG-like sense of progression. Naturally, you're faced with tougher enemies as the game goes on.

Ants Long For Combat, Too

Magnant is a charming little indie real-time strategy game in which you control a colony of intelligent, technologically sophisticated ants waging battle against other ant colonies and the evil bees and beetles. It has all the usual RTS tropes--resource extraction, building construction, and real-time combat--as well as a pretty cool version of online play.

It has one innovative and unique aspect, too; virtual "cards" let you build special units or buildings. They're earned through play, and as with a trading card game (like Magic: The Gathering), you never know what cards your opponents will deploy when you play online--which creates a greater degree of variety. Your carefully-planned strategy may be upended or need to adapt quickly when an opponent deploys a special unit you hadn't anticipated.

Pretty neat.

Defense is boring, right? Attacking is action, advance, and victory; defense is static. You sit there and hope for the best. No war was more boring than World War One--unmoving defensive trench lines for four long years. So a priori, you might think a game named "Master of Defense" would be, ah, less than scintillating.

Actually, it's quite cool.

You purchase defensive towers and place them on the map. Initially, you have a choice among three types: ones that attack walking critters, ones that attack flying critters, and ones that attack both but do far less damage. Each tower has arange of attack, which you can see as a circle about it by selecting it.

Empire Lite in Space

Dio Games calls Pax Galaxia "Risk-like," but actually it's more similar to Empire--albeit Pax is simpler and faster-moving.

The developer says:

Pursuit of Power is a real-time strategy game based in a fantasy setting. The game takes place during a time when powerful leaders use ancient magic to travel across the universe and add worlds to their empire. In Pursuit of Power, you assume the role of the leader. Your main goal is to destroy all enemy portals and troops. Use your leader to blast enemy units with a comet, destroy a group of soldiers with a vortex, and heal loyal troops. Summon buildings and troops from your home world to dominate the universe.

Slamdance Guerilla Games Festival Finalist

A sidescroller? Sorta; Steam Brigade's ultimate heritage is in games like Rescue Raiders. You and your opponent have bases at opposite sides of an area; you build units at your base, they move horizontally across the screen (which you have to scroll to see the full play area), and the ultimate objective is to take out the enemy base.

Old school gameplay, in other words but, well, very nicely implemented.

Medieval Real-Time Strategy With Clever AI

The Dark Legions is a surprisingly polished RTS game developed from a "lone wolf" developer--Marcell Baranyai did almost everything, from its 3D engine to its graphics and sound design, a pretty amazing effort.

Innovative it is not, particularly; fans of Warcraft and Age of Empires will find it familiar, and easy to pick up and play. There's the usual resource extraction, building construction, and combat you'd expect in an RTS title. Where Dark Legions shines, however, is in its AI--computer opponents have some tricks up their sleeves (like sending slaves behind your lines to extract resources near your camp before you exploit them) that you haven't seen before.

If you're in the mood for an RTS fix, this game may be just the ticket--and at a reasonable price.

The Independent RTS Game for Serious RTS Gamers

Trash is pretty much a two-man project--but in looking at it, you might well assume that it was a triple-A title from three or four years ago. That is, no, it doesn't have the huge number of units on the field that we see in big-studio titles now, nor models with as much detail, but it still looks pretty damned good.

And beyond that, it is intelligently designed, with a slew of clever ideas that informs you at once that these guys have played every RTS title in creation, and are intent on creating a game that goes one better.

Can an Indie RTS Compete with the Big Boys?
2006 IGF Finalist

Given the tens of millions of dollars that major publishers pour into huge RTS titles like Age of Empires and Rise & Fall, can a small team of Danes possibly hope to compete in the same genre?

Well... yeah!