A browser game is a video game that is played via the internet using a web browser. These games span all genres and can be single-player or multi-player. They are mostly free-to-play.
Aquaria is a side-scrolling action-adventure game designed by Alec Holowka and Derek Yu, who published the game in 2007 as the 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.
Braid is a puzzle-platform video game developed by Number None and considered an indie title. The game was originally released in August 2008 for the Xbox 360's Xbox Live Arcade service. Ports were developed and released for Microsoft Windows in April 2009, Mac OS X in May 2009, PlayStation 3 in November 2009, and Linux in December 2010. Jonathan Blow designed the game as a personal critique of contemporary trends in video game development. He self-funded the three-year project, working with webcomic artist David Hellman to develop the artwork. An anniversary version is planned for release at a later date for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, Windows, Mac, and Linux with updated graphics and developer commentary.
Aether is a video game designed by Edmund McMillen and Tyler Glaiel and published by Armor Games, released on September 3, 2008. Players control a lonely boy and an octopus-like monster that the boy encounters, solving puzzles on different planets to restore them from monochrome to color. The pair travel through space by swinging on clouds and asteroids with the monster's elongated tongue, searching other planets for life to which the boy can relate. It is also a part of The Basement Collection.
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.
Super Meat Boy is a 2010 platform game designed by Edmund McMillen and Tommy Refenes under the collective name of "Team Meat". It was self-published as the successor to Meat Boy, a 2008 flash game designed by McMillen and Jonathan McEntee. In the game, the player controls Meat Boy, a red, cube-shaped character, as he attempts to rescue his girlfriend, Bandage Girl, from the game's antagonist Dr. Fetus. The gameplay is characterized by fine control and split-second timing, as the player runs and jumps through over 300 hazardous levels while avoiding obstacles. The game also supports the creation of player-created levels. Super Meat Boy was first released on the Xbox 360 through Xbox Live Arcade in October 2010, and was later ported to Microsoft Windows, OS X, Linux, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, Wii U, and the Nintendo Switch.
Don't Look Back is a platform game playable through Adobe Flash and designed by Terry Cavanagh. The game is a modern interpretation of the Greek legend of Orpheus and Eurydice.
Edmund Charles McMillen is an American video game designer and artist known for his Flash game visual style. His most notable works include 2010's side-scroller Super Meat Boy and 2011's roguelike game The Binding of Isaac and its 2014 remake.
Minions was a free Flash-based browser game created by Paul Preece and David Scott, who are the founders of the Casual Collective and developers of Desktop Tower Defense and Flash Element TD, respectively. The game has been featured by gaming reviewer The Escapist for winning an award at the Game Developer's Conference in San Francisco. As of 2011, the game has been played millions of times at Kongregate.com It is based on the Warcraft III mod Defense of the Ancients.
Gish is a 2004 platform game developed and published by Chronic Logic. After eight months in development, it was released in May 2004 to a positive reception. A sequel, Gish 2, was canceled. The game became open-source software in May 2010 and received a 15th-anniversary update in January 2020.
Desktop Dungeons is a single-player roguelike-like puzzle video game developed and published by QCF Design. Released in November 2013, the game underwent a lengthy public beta phase, during which it was available to customers who pre-ordered the game. In the game, players navigate a dungeon filled with monsters before battling a final dungeon boss. The game has qualities of a puzzle as players must find the best methods to use items, spells, and upgrades to reach the final boss without losing too much of their character's health. Desktop Dungeons has been compared to a roguelike but with condensed gameplay. Desktop Dungeons received an award for Excellence in Design at the 2011 Independent Games Festival. The game is available for Windows, Macintosh, Linux, iOS and Android.
The Binding of Isaac is a roguelike video game designed by independent developers Edmund McMillen and Florian Himsl. It was released in 2011 for Microsoft Windows, then ported to OS X, and Linux. The game's title and plot are inspired by the Biblical story of the Binding of Isaac. In the game, Isaac's mother receives a message from God demanding the life of her son as proof of her faith, and Isaac, fearing for his life, flees into the monster-filled basement of their home where he must fight to survive. Players control Isaac or one of seven other unlockable characters through a procedurally generated dungeon in a roguelike manner, fashioned after those of The Legend of Zelda, defeating monsters in real-time combat while collecting items and power-ups to defeat bosses and eventually Isaac's mother.
Indie Game: The Movie is a 2012 documentary film made by Canadian filmmakers James Swirsky and Lisanne Pajot. The film is about the struggles of independent game developers Edmund McMillen and Tommy Refenes during the development of Super Meat Boy, Phil Fish during the development of Fez, and also Jonathan Blow, who reflects on the success of Braid.
The Basement Collection is a compilation of Edmund McMillen's Flash games released on August 31, 2012. The games were remade with added features and music tracks.
The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth is an indie roguelike video game designed by Edmund McMillen and developed and published by Nicalis. Rebirth was released for Linux, Microsoft Windows, OS X, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita in November 2014, for Xbox One, New Nintendo 3DS and Wii U in July 2015, for iOS in January 2017 and for Nintendo Switch in March 2017. The PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S versions were released in November 2021.
"I am Error" is a quote from the 1987 video game Zelda II: The Adventure of Link. The quote is spoken by a villager, apparently named Error, in the town of Ruto. In the original Japanese version of the game, the line is Ore no na wa Erā da..., which translates to "My name is Error...".
Mikengreg is an independent video game development team of Mike Boxleiter and Greg Wohlwend. Their games include Solipskier, Gasketball, and TouchTone. The two met in a game development class at Iowa State University and later began to collaborate on the Adobe Flash game Dinowaurs. When the project was funded, they founded Intuition Games with other college friends in Ames, Iowa, where they worked on small Flash games such as Gray, Liferaft, and Fig. 8 for Flash game sites such as Kongregate. Dinowaurs was one of the first games signed for the Kongregate platform. Their other games involved controlling the weather, influencing individuals in a riot, and riding a bicycle. Boxleiter and Wohlwend worked on several additional games that were put on hiatus.
The End Is Nigh is a platforming action-adventure video game developed by Edmund McMillen and Tyler Glaiel. The game was released on July 12, 2017 on Microsoft Windows via Steam. Ports of the game were released on August 15, 2017, on macOS, December 12, 2017, for Linux and Nintendo Switch and on April 30, 2019, for PlayStation 4. The game has been described as a spiritual successor to McMillen's Super Meat Boy.
The Legend of Bum-bo is a 2019 indie roguelike deck-building puzzle video game developed by designer Edmund McMillen and programmer James Interactive. The game was released on 12 November 2019 on Microsoft Windows via Steam, with future releases planned for macOS, iOS and Nintendo Switch. The game is a prequel to McMillen's previous roguelike video game The Binding of Isaac.
Eli Piilonen, also known under the pseudonym 2DArray, is a Nebraska-based American video game developer working as lead designer at indie studio Messhof. Piilonen is however mainly known for his earlier, independent work on browser games such as Spewer, the art game The Company of Myself, its prequel Fixation and the roguelike Not The Robots. The Company of Myself and to a lesser extent its prequel Fixation have frequently been cited as an early art game that successfully explores issues of mental health.
