MAGfest 2017 Indie Games Awesomeness Roundup

Hello and a belated Happy New Year to all! This year I was thrilled to return to tradition by spending the post-New Year’s weekend at none other than MAGfest! (It used to always be this weekend, but moved later for a while.) Four days of arcades, tabletop, concerts and great friends — what more could a nerd ask for?

As I’ve done two times in the recent past, I campaigned through the Indie Videogame Showcase, a full wing dedicated to the ‘little guys’ of game development. Today I give you some new titles in the indie market that you can look forward to!

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Bit Rat (Bucket Drum Games)
A machine becomes sentient … but is curious of the world, rather than evil. This is a game of discovery from a new perspective, with puzzles akin to the classic Pipe Dream.

Dino Blaster (Casey Labrack)
Take Asteroids vector graphics and add in a cute little dinosaur. Run around the Earth (a constantly spinning circle) dodging meteors, avoiding predators and volcanoes. How long can you survive!?

Burgal’s Bounty (Phat Games)
A guy’s girlfriend is kidnapped, so he becomes a robber to pay the ransom! This mobile puzzle game involves placing arrows to direct an auto-moving crook to collect cash and trinkets.

Kingdom Bash (Matthew Estock)
A great addition to the couch arena pool! One hit kills the enemy. Select between four classes, use dashes to absorb and/or dodge incoming hits and fight over powerups to reign as the victor!

Blind Blades (Heavy Key Studios)
Here’s a really cool 2D arena fighter. The stage is all black AND white. Your samurai are black OR white. You blend. Hide from each other, find each other and deliver the killing blow first.

Miracle Mia (Shademare)
A colorful 2D action platformer where our lady protagonist uses a tennis racquet (and other swipey items) to reflect enemy projectiles back at ’em!

Avaria VS (Juncture Media)
Ever wished you could pit your hard-worked RPG characters on a friend? Now you can! This is a Final Fantasy-esque story (two races, one is immortal that can “fall from grace” and become the other, who has access to magic) with an integrated PvP mode.

Silent Earth (Remote Games)
They’ve brought Missile Command to the 21st century! Upgrade your city as you fend off waves. Some projectiles will help you. And boss fights!?

Lunaform (Chronobit Studios)
A puzzle game where you swap around colored hexes to absorb matching stars. A simple premise that gets complex real fast!

Battlesloths (Invisible Collective)
Local multiplayer twinstick shooter — with sloths! And other cute animals! IN A DEATHMATCH!

A Purrtato Tail (Drunk Robot Games)
How do you make cats cuter? Turn them into potatoes! Then take the Purrtatoes (I do NOT have the honor of claiming that name) on a puzzle-based Metroidvania adventure!

Rail Theory (Sudden Increase)
Resident Evil fans, line up — Here’s a new 3rd-person survival horror for you! The monsters’ attributes, weaknesses and behaviors are randomly generated.

Chrono Ghost (NITETIME Studios)
A side-scrolling puzzler (akin to Limbo/Inside) where you manipulate time to progress!