Best Of Indie Games: Spewing Those Games Out

[Every week, IndieGames.com: The Weblog editor Tim W. will be summing up some of the top free-to-download and commercial indie games from the last seven days, as well as any notable features on his sister 'state of indie' weblog.] This week on 'Best Of Indie Games', we take a look at some of the top independent PC Flash/downloadable titles released over this last week. The delights in this edition include a social interaction simulator by the author of Everybody Dies, a platformer centered around regurgitation, a ZX Spectrum puzzle game, a variation of Minesweeper, an overhead shooter with heavy tanks, and a new bi-monthly game from the cool people at Flashbang Studios. Game Pick: 'Spewer' (Edmund McMillen and Eli Piilonen, browser) "A new physics-based platformer created by the prolific Edmund McMillen and Eli Piilonen, featuring music by Gravity Hook and Meat Boy music composer Daniel Baranowsky. You are in control of a test subject named Spewer, who must escape from the clutches of a scientist by surviving all fifty-five rooms inside a maze-like laboratory, one level at a time." Game Pick: 'W*H*B' (Bob Smith, freeware) "A puzzler that resembles Damien Clarke's Bloxorz in many ways, although this version features configurable button settings, great chiptunes and lovely retro graphics that the original had never offered. An emulator is required to play W*H*B, assuming that you don't own a working ZX Spectrum anywhere around the house." Game Pick: 'Extremine' (Tommo Zhou, freeware) "A challenging variation of Minesweeper that forces players to think fast, created by Tommo Zhou for the friendly Ludum Dare 14 competition. The goal of the game is to detonate mines instead of just marking them, and if you don't act fast enough you'll find that the mines will start to box you in as the board shrinks ever faster with each passing second." Game Pick: 'GDC: The Game' (Jim Munroe, browser) "For this year's Game Developers Conference, GameSetWatch decided to try a little journalistic/interactive experiment by recruiting Canadian author and game creator Jim Munroe to create a game for them. The result? An intriguing text adventure based on his experiences at GDC." Game Pick: 'Normal Tanks' (Vasiliy Kostin, commercial indie - demo available) "A single-player overhead shooter with plenty of heavily armored combat vehicles, turrets and mechanical creatures to shoot at. There are only four playable levels included in this demo version, but no time limit to restrict you from replaying the game at higher difficulty settings." Game Pick: 'Paper Moon' (Flashbang Studios, browser) "A short platformer originally created by the Infinite Ammo team and Adam Saltsman for the Gamma3D competition, then remade recently with new art and music for Flashbang Studios' Blurst web site. The aim of the game in both browser and the original competition version are essentially the same, where players are required to grab apples, bananas and cherries for points before time runs out."