Ico is an action-adventure game developed by Japan Studio and Team Ico and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation 2. It was released in North America and Japan in 2001 and Europe in 2002 in various regions. It was designed and directed by Fumito Ueda, who wanted to create a minimalist game around a "boy meets girl" concept. Originally planned for the PlayStation, Ico took approximately four years to develop. The team employed a "subtracting design" approach to reduce elements of gameplay that interfered with the game's setting and story in order to create a high level of immersion.
Home of the Underdogs is an abandonware archive founded by Sarinee Achavanuntakul, in October 1998.
Castlevania: Lament of Innocence is a 2003 action-adventure game developed by Konami Computer Entertainment Tokyo and published by Konami for the PlayStation 2 console. Part of Konami's Castlevania video game series, it is the first installment of the series on the PlayStation 2 and the third to make use of a 3D style of gameplay. It was released in Japan and North America in late 2003 and Europe and Australia in early 2004.
Lunar: The Silver Star is a role-playing video game developed by Game Arts in association with Studio Alex for the Sega/Mega-CD, originally published by Game Arts and released in Japan in 1992. After a successful release, the game was translated and localized by Working Designs for release in North America the following year.
Cave Story is a 2004 Metroidvania platform-adventure video game for Microsoft Windows. It was developed over five years by Japanese independent developer Daisuke "Pixel" Amaya in his free time. Cave Story features 2D platform mechanics and is reminiscent of the games Amaya played in his youth, such as Metroid and Castlevania. After its initial self-published release, the game slowly gained popularity on the internet. It received widespread critical acclaim for many polished aspects of its design, such as its compelling characters, setting, story, and gameplay. Cave Story is considered by many as the quintessential indie game because of its one-person development team and influence on the video gaming world.
Lincity is a free and open-source software construction and management simulation game, which puts the player in control of managing a city's socio-economy, similar in concept to SimCity. The player can develop a city by buying appropriate buildings, services and infrastructure. Its name is both a Linux reference and a play on the title of the original city-building game, SimCity, and it was released under the GNU General Public License v2.
I'm O.K – A Murder Simulator is a 2006 freeware video game developed by Derek Yu, Chris Hanson, Philippe Jones, Alec Holowka and Christopher Howard Wolf. It was created as a satirical response to a challenge by anti-video game-violence activist and disbarred attorney Jack Thompson.
Ys I: Ancient Ys Vanished, also known as Ys: The Vanished Omens or The Ancient Land of Ys, is a 1987 action role-playing game developed by Nihon Falcom. It is the first installment in the Ys series. Initially developed for the PC-8800 series by Masaya Hashimoto and Tomoyoshi Miyazaki, the game was soon ported to the Sharp X1, PC-98, FM-7, and MSX2 Japanese computer systems.
God of War: Chains of Olympus is an action-adventure hack and slash video game developed by Ready at Dawn, and published by Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE). It was first released for the PlayStation Portable (PSP) handheld console on March 4, 2008. The game is the fourth installment in the God of War series, the second chronologically, and a prequel to the original God of War. It is loosely based on Greek mythology and set in ancient Greece, with vengeance as its central motif. The player controls Kratos, a Spartan warrior who serves the Olympian gods. Kratos is guided by the goddess Athena, who instructs him to find the Sun God Helios, as the Dream God Morpheus has caused many of the gods to slumber in Helios' absence. With the power of the Sun and the aid of the Titan Atlas, Morpheus and the Queen of the Underworld Persephone intend to destroy the Pillar of the World and in turn Olympus.
Aquaria is a side-scrolling action-adventure game designed by Alec Holowka and Derek Yu, who published the game in 2007 as an independent game company Bit Blot. The game follows Naija, an aquatic humanoid woman, as she explores the underwater world of Aquaria. Along her journey, she learns about the history of the world she inhabits as well as her own past. The gameplay focuses on a combination of swimming, singing, and combat, through which Naija can interact with the world. Her songs can move items, affect plants and animals, and change her physical appearance into other forms that have different abilities, like firing projectiles at hostile creatures, or passing through barriers inaccessible to her in her natural form.
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Trials and Tribulations is a visual novel adventure video game developed and published by Capcom. It was originally released for the Game Boy Advance in 2004 in Japan, and has since been released for several platforms, including a Nintendo DS version that was released in 2007 in Japan and North America and in 2008 in Europe. It is the third game in the Ace Attorney series, following Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (2001) and Justice for All (2002).
Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo's Dungeon is a 2007 role-playing video game published by Square Enix for the Wii. It is an installment in the Chocobo series that focuses on Chocobo and his quest to free a town lost in time from eternal forgetfulness. It is a loose sequel to Chocobo's Dungeon 2 on the PlayStation.
Derek Yu is an American independent video game designer, video game artist, and blogger. Yu has designed and co-designed several award-winning games, most famously Spelunky, Aquaria, and Eternal Daughter. He is also notable as a blogger and custodian of the influential TIGSource blog/community about independent video games. He has been called an "indie superstar" and a "genuine icon" of the video game industry.
Spelunky is a 2008 source-available 2D platform game created by independent developer Derek Yu and released as freeware for Microsoft Windows. It was remade for the Xbox 360 in 2012, with ports of the new version following for various platforms, including back to Microsoft Windows. The player controls a spelunker who explores a series of caves while collecting treasure, saving damsels, fighting enemies, and dodging traps. The caves are procedurally generated, making each run-through of the game unique.
Mighty Jill Off is a 2008 independently developed freeware platform video game designed by Anna Anthropy, with art by James Harvey and music by Andrew Toups. It stars a submissive named Jill, who has a boot fetish and is forced to climb up a tower after her Queen kicks her down it as punishment. Jill does this by jumping and slowly descending over obstacles. Jill can be defeated in one hit by these obstacles, but will return to the last check point. The game serves as an homage to the 1984 arcade game Bomb Jack and its console and computer sequel, Mighty Bomb Jack. It had follow-ups, such as Mighty Jill Off - Jill Off Harder Edition and Jill Off With One Hand. Jill made a cameo appearance in the 2010 video game Super Meat Boy as a playable character.
YU-NO: A Girl Who Chants Love at the Bound of this World is a visual novel adventure game developed and published by ELF Corporation. It was originally released in 1996 as an eroge for the NEC PC-98 Japanese home computer and later ported to the Sega Saturn and Microsoft Windows platforms without the sexual content. The story follows the protagonist travelling between parallel worlds to solve the mystery of his parents' disappearance. The game uses concepts from science fiction, physics, mathematics, philosophy, history and religion to construct a unique fictional universe. The "Auto Diverge Mapping System" (A.D.M.S.) that displays the branching parallel worlds and storylines as a tree helps the player navigate the game world.
Gravity Bone is a 2008 freeware adventure game developed and published by Blendo Games. The game employs a modified version of id Software's id Tech 2 engine—originally used for Quake 2—and incorporates music from films by director Wong Kar-wai, which were originally performed by Xavier Cugat. Four incarnations of the game were produced during its one-year development; the first featured more common first-person shooter elements than the released version. Subsequent versions shifted in a new direction, with the inclusion of more spy-oriented gameplay. The game was released for Microsoft Windows in August 2008.
Ben Jordan: Paranormal Investigator is a freeware episodic point-and-click adventure video game for Microsoft Windows developed by Francisco Gonzalez of Grundislav Games. The game consists of eight individual episodes, or cases, with an overarching plot connecting them together. The game has won numerous Adventure Game Studio Awards, including a 2005 AGS Award for Best Gameplay.
Cho Ren Sha 68K is a 1995 vertically scrolling dōjin shoot 'em up video game developed and originally published by Koichi "Famibe No Yosshin" Yoshida at Comiket for the X68000. Taking place in a ring structure, players take control of a space fighter craft to fight against an assortment of enemies and bosses.
