Holiday Music

By: Derek Yu

On: December 10th, 2009

Just ‘cause it’s Christman/Chanukah/Kwanzaa/Festivus doesn’t mean you have to be listening to Jingle Bells and all that festive stuff (although you’re very welcome to!). Here’s some music from the indie game world to rock your stockings as we approach the new year!

The Aquaria OST – Alec put together an amazing production for the Aquaria soundtrack, which he composed. This 2-disc, 50-track beast comes with an 8-page booklet that features artwork by myself and Marian artist Katie De Sousa, as well as an 8-panel mini-poster featuring screenshots from the game and liner notes. It’s a really beautiful package that comes in 3 flavors: unsigned, signed, and digital.

Fez Demo EPs – The mysterious Polytron Corporation has released 3 demo tracks from Fez, their upcoming XBLA game. The tracks, composed by Jason “6955” DeGroot, are available as a free download, or can be ordered as a limited-edition CD (250 copies). Check it out if you like chiptunes.

Zeno Clash OST – The Zeno Clash OST was released yesterday. Composed by Patricio Meneses, the soundtrack features 18 tracks and can be downloaded via iTunes or purchased as a CD.

Machinarium Bonus EP – Amanita Design has released five free bonus tracks for their incredible adventure game Machinarium. These are available as mp3s. The full soundtrack comes with the game if you buy it directly Amanita’s website (what are you waiting for?).

Game music 1 – Finally, the legendary indie chiptune artist Phlogiston released a free compilation of music he wrote for various games, like Bisse’s I Was in the War, cactus’s Air Pirates and PING PONG, and Darthlupi’s Wonder Bounce. He invites indie game designers to contact him about releasing their soundtracks through his label Pause. You would be amongst good company.

Well, that’s a lot of great indie game music right there. Hope you all enjoy these stocking stuffers. Please be sure to post any good soundtracks I may have missed that came out recently.

Happy Holidays!

Trailers A-Go-Go

By: Derek Yu

On: April 11th, 2009

The extremely weird first-person brawler Zeno Clash is coming to Windows April 21st.

Here’s some WiiWare Night Game gameplay for you. (Source: GregWS)

Old-school run n’ gun action from Teknogames, creator of Armed Generator Doom Machine – this one’s called Action Fist. (Source: AuthenticKaizen)

Malstrums Mansion

By: Derek Yu

On: April 1st, 2009

Malstrums Mansion is a free, browser-based adventure game from ACE Team, the creators of the upcoming first-person brawler Zeno Clash. Visually, it looks like an old Macintosh game, and the various macabre backdrops are gorgeously rendered in black and white. Not too surprising, considering that Zeno Clash was an IGF Finalist for Visual Art this year.

The game, which is inspired by Shadowgate, is suitably spooky, and even though it doesn’t quite live up to the NES classic, it’s still quite cool. (A save feature would have been welcome, though.)

TIGdb: Entry for Malstrums Mansion