In honour of the recent Ludum Dare (theme: minimalism), this week's Free Webgame Round-Up was so minimal that it was invisible to the naked eye when it was originally published this Friday. Unless you were in the know, it was almost as if it hadn't actually been written – but it definitely, definitely had. I'm reprinting it here for no particular reason, so prepare yourself for dancing llamas, sci-fi survival, wabbit-hunting, scepters and dungeon-crawling. Enjoy!
Gods Will Be Watching by Deconstructeam
Of all the survival titles doing the rounds these days, Gods Will Be Watching seems like the least selfish of the lot. By which I mean it's not a game about keeping one person alive but rather a whole group – which is a lot harder, and more strategic, than one guy scrabbling around in the dirt. In this beautiful one-screen adventure game, you have to survive for 40 days on an alien planet. Luckily you have a doctor, a soldier, a psychiatrist, an engineer, a robot and a dog with you – imagine if you'd been stranded with the intergalactic equivalent of Made in Chelsea. Survival is ruthless – at any moment you can choose to kill anyone at the camp. Well, there is rather a lot of meat on a human being. Er, so I'm told.
Heroine Dusk (demo) by Clint Bellanger
Oh yes. I do love a good first-person dungeon crawler, and Heroine Dusk is already a lot better than most. Within seconds you'll notice the frankly gorgeous art and music, which come together to create a real sense of atmosphere and intrepid exploration. I want to know what's lurking in this mysterious world, even if the encounter rate is currently a bit annoyingly high. (Via IndieGames )
Hunter Hungry by Jonathan Whiting
Another game with a survival theme. This time, however, you're hunting for meat to give to your hungry family, an act which (obviously) takes the form of a sidecrolling platform game. While the climbing is quite fiddly, and there's perhaps a bit too much backtracking, you'll perserve on your quest to skewer rabbits with your bow and arrow, because – well – what's going to happen to your adorable pixel kids otherwise? (Via Free Indie Games )
Please Ignore The Dancing Llama by Zayne Black
That's sensible advice at the best of times, but here the dancing llama exists to distract you in your quest to acquire lots and lots of glowing doodads, before reality collapses in on itself or something. There's a strict two-minute time limit to this not-too-tricky arcade game, as well as regular dimension shifts – one moment you're playing a sidescroller, the next you're controlling your little minimalist guy from an overhead perspective. If you're looking for a funny, entertaining score-attack game with great music – and of course a dancing llama – then you've found it. You've finally found it. (Via IndieGames )
Four Scepters by Benjamin
A wonderful puzzle roguelike – this is rapidly becoming its own genre – which, like Desktop Dungeons, makes absolutely every turn count. As the name suggests, your goal is to acquire all four scattered scepters, in a subterranean world. Luckily you have four adventurers with which to achieve this daunting task: a fighter, wizard, thief and assassin, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. However, even on Casual mode, Four Scepters is damned hard. When a hero dies, they stay dead – but on the plus side every action they've taken in the dungeon remains. Unforgiving, yet thoughtful – Four Scepters is the Clint Eastwood of the roguelike genre. (Via Free Indie Games )
