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Every year the Independent Games Festival (the IGF) is one of my favorite parts of the Game Developer's Conference. You have to give these guys respect: with tiny teams (usually three to five people) and virtually no budget, a good indie developer can crank out a full game in less than a year. And ironically, having a small team and a small budget frees these guys up creatively; answering to no one, they can make whatever game they feel like, experimenting with crazy new gameplay ideas.

Unfortunately, unlike the 2006 awards (which we covered extensively on FilePlanet), not as many of the finalists this year have their entries available for download. (The good news is most of the developers are holding back because of pending publishing deals, or even possible Xbox Live Arcade distribution. It's a good time to be an independent developer!)

As part of our continued support of the Indie community, we've assembled our three favorite downloads to highlight in this week's FilePlanet Spotlight. Fun, innovative, and ambitious, these three games will keep you entertained for hours.

Armada Online

When two guys get together to make a space game, even if they're industry veterans, you'd think they'd keep it small. But not Roger Fang and Mark Jordan. They started EvStream with the dream of making the ultimate space game -- a massively multiplayer world emphasizing great core gameplay and tons of player choice. You read that right: a massively multiplayer Indie game! And it's good!


Armada has players creating a ship and stepping into an online galaxy where they can zip around, mine for minerals, upgrade their ship, and engage in multiplayer battles. What's particularly interesting is how streamlined the gameplay is: the graphics are 2D (with the exception of the gorgeous backdrops of the homeworlds), and the action all revolves around the players. You can either tool around open space seeking your fortune, or you can enter into any of several "neutral zones" where you'll fight a multiplayer battle with specific win conditions.

Unfortunately Armada Online doesn't have any sort of beginner's manual (with the possible exception of this forum guide), so before you dive in here are some pointers:

You'll start on your homeworld. Right click anywhere to fly around (the scenery is fantastic). Or, hold down the right mouse button to continually fly toward your mouse pointer. Hit "C" to see your character profile or "S" to see your ship profile (or mouse over the buttons at the bottom of the screen to see what they do.)

There's not much you can do at your homeworld until you get some experience. Hit "W" to bring up your starmap and check out the galaxy. You can warp anywhere where there's a mission -- mouse around to see.

There are two ways to get experience: first you can go out into a free space sector, like "Delta 3" (look for it near the center of the map). There you can just fly around and take out aliens, alone or in groups. If that's not your thing, you can join a giant team battle. Find them by mousing around the green areas until you find an area like "Neutral Zone." In team battles nobody gets wealth or experience until one side wins, so commit yourself to at least 20 minutes of combat. Team battles are good for newbies because you can support the winning team just by mining minerals and picking off smaller aliens at the fringes of the battle. [Update: The guys in the Armada forums disagreed with this advice, encouraging you to get right into the battle and help teammates even at a low level. See my FileBlog for details.]

Combat is simple -- your ship's main weapons will track and fire at enemies automatically. Down at the bottom of the screen are your special abilities. As in MMOGs like World of Warcraft, just hit the number button of an ability to trigger it off. Some (like the human missile defense system, a real lifesaver) will activate automatically. The best way to kill enemies is to keep circling around them.

In multiplayer maps, stations will sell "upgrades." This is an interesting gameplay mechanic, because maps have their own local economy -- you earn a local reputation that you can spend during a battle to buy lots of upgrades, and after the battle, they're all reset. This allows you to play around: Do you amp up your engines and shields? Or do you install experimental new weapons? Your ship has five slots to fill as you kill enemies and earn more stuff.

Don't be intimidated by the lack of instructions -- just hit the "enter" key to start talking to other players. You'll usually find a couple of people willing to help you make something of yourself... and before long you'll be sucked into an MMO that's refreshingly simple and surprisingly deep.


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