I've wanted to start blogging more often for a while now, but have lacked direction. A blog without a purpose is boring, especially when whoever writes it doesn't write well. I've had a revelation in my search for blogging purpose: indie games. Lately, I find my gaming time dedicated exclusively to indie stuff (and TF2, and Final Fantasy, and Professor Layton. Whatever). I've posted a few topics about gems I've discovered, and nobody has replied! Duders' interest in indie stuff seems to be pretty low. As there are so many amazing indie games out there worth our attention, I decided to dedicate my blog to indie game awareness. It's not as noble a cause as spreading any other kind of awareness, but it's way more fun (not to mention relevant to this website).

My plan is to blog at least on a weekly basis, highlighting old and new indie titles. The content will mostly be free PC titles, as these are the most accessible to our community. If console titles or shareware really impress me, I'll highlight those, too. Do note that this is an entirely subjective blog, and I'll really only mention stuff that I like. Expect a lot of games with old-school flavor. Also, I'm not big into browser games, so you won't see many of those.

So, let's kick this thing off! I've picked some of my favorites for the flagship blog:

Jumper 3

Jumper 3 is a very simple, highly challenging platformer game. When you first start it up, you're probably going to think "this game is a total rip-off of Super Meat Boy." When I first played Super Meat Boy, my initial thought was "This game is a total rip-off of Jumper!" They're remarkably similar, but Jumper came first. Actually, the main character in Jumper, Ogmo, is playable in SMB.

I've been following Matt Thorson's development since the very beginning (we used to chat all the time on MSN messanger) and am a huge fan of his work. Jumper 3 is my personal favorite title in his catalogue. Check it out!

Shoot First

Shoot First is an action roguelike developed by Teknopants. In traditional roguelike fashion, you descend floor by floor in a randomly generated dungeon. What I really love about Shoot First is the amount of variety. Every time I play, I come across a new enemy or weapon. There are tons of point-earning objectives unique to each playthrough. For example, sometimes you're given someone to escort to a staircase to escape the dungeon. Making things even more fun, the game can be played cooperatively. Playing a roguelike with a friend really mixes up the experience. Also worth mentioning are the online leaderboards, and killer music.

If you've been playing The Binding of Isaac, you will really enjoy this game. It's not as fast paced, but it has all the action roguelike fun and challenge of that game. Oh, and it's free.

Here is the website: http://teknopants.com/games/shootfirst/

Super Crate Box

Warning: Super Crate Box is very addictive. The game is a very fast, arcade style shooter. The entire game takes place on one small screen, and your object is to collect weapon crates. Each one will give you a new weapon. As you do this, enemies will constantly spawn at the top of the screen, and move down to the bottom. If they make it to the bottom, they'll respawn at the top, faster and angrier. The concept is a bit complex, but once you get playing, it is incredibly simple. I really love how fast paced and rantic the game can get, and highly recommend this one to everybody.

Website:http://www.supercratebox.com/

And finally, an "Indiessential" (I totally made that up, so proud of my self:

Cave Story

A classic indie title. If you haven't played it, you have absolutely no excuse. It's free for PC and Mac, or available over WiiWare. Just play it.

Cave Story is an action-platformer that has light Metroidvania elements. It has beautiful artwork, great music, and, most importantly, awesome gameplay. Cave Story is a classic.

Website:http://www.cavestory.org/

Thanks for reading! I do apologize for my lack of writing skill; that's part of my motivation for starting this blog, to get my self regularly writing. I hope to improve the quality of my blog with time and practice.

If you have any tips about anything, especially games I should look into, shoot me a PM!