Boston Festival of Indie Games was last
weekend. This was my third time going to the festival which has been operating
for the same period of time.
There is a very curious dynamic at play at this festival. Generally I am a
very reserved individual. If you were in a charitable mood you could use the
word taciturn. The point is I rarely talk to people at these things. I am more
inclined to see and listen and take in what I can. Except at this convention. I
talked to way more people than usual, far in excess of what is normal for me to
do. I talked to just about every indie developer there. This is no joke, I went
to every table and saw every game in the digital section. I even played most of
them. Best of all I got to play this cooperative survival board game (After the
Crash):
with this nice fellow:
the game creator. Go check out his site and buy the game when it
is available it is awesome. I also played an in development real time
restaurant management game. Each player played a role (I was busboy aka plate
and glass washer) and helped work customers through an assembly like system.
There were many sand timers and much yelling. I can see it being a great party
game as it is real quick to learn, but pretty stressful to actually play well.
Those two board games stood out the most. In regards to the digital section
there were a lot of familiar games, either from past festivals or ones new to
the festival that I had heard about prior. Some ones that stood out:
- Anchorage Adrift:
a cooperative space ship game, similar to Artemis, players are tasked with running a
particular role on a space ship. A little rough technically and usability wise,
but showed great promise. - Soda Drinker Pro and Vivian Clark:
the first game is a first person soda drinking game which is hilarious. The
second game is hidden within Soda Drinker and is weird and strange and has to
be played. It is akin to dreaming or hallucinating. You play a rain drop that
changes to whatever it touches. Also the developer is a
real funny upbeat guy so that is cool too.
Adrift: a real polished looking arcade space shooter and tower defense
hybrid. It is slick, fun, and a good coop experience. Why it still is not
greenlight yet is curious.- Talon: a fast quake style
spaceship multiplayer shooter. It reminded me of playing Unreal Tournament or
other arena shooters.
Best part of all though was I got to throw my business card in one of those
raffle bowls. The phone number is wrong on it though so hopefully they just
send an email.