Best Of Indie Games: You're the Captain of This Ship

[Every week, IndieGames.com: The Weblog co-editor Tim W. will be summing up some of the top free-to-download and commercial indie games from the last seven days 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 goodies in this edition include the winner of the first ever IGF China Best Game award, a new collaborative project from cactus and Arthur Lee, an adventure game from the prolific AGS developer Ben Chandler, and a first-person exploration game clouded in total darkness. Other highlights include a puzzle game that resembles the Hoshi Saga series, a challenging platformer by the creator of the famed Karoshi games, and an arcade game that plays like a 3D version of Adam Atomic's Canabalt. Here's the highlights from the last seven days: Game Pick: 'Captain Forever' (Farbs, browser) "In Captain Forever, you're the captain of a ship named Nemesis, stranded in space without a single clue about your current whereabouts. By destroying enemy ships with your default laser weapon, you can cause them to drop ship parts that can be attached to your own ship. Additional ship plating, extra weapons and increased thruster power are just some of the benefits to be gained from salvaging intact modules." Game Pick: 'Dungeon' (cactus and Arthur Lee, freeware) "A short 2D platformer created for the 14th Mini Ludum Dare competition, where you are thrown into a dungeon with minimal instructions on how to play the game displayed at the top of the screen. Each area presents a different challenge for players to overcome, and a small piece of the story is revealed the further you venture into the castle. Some obstacles are certainly designed to be harder to beat than the others, so you might need a small amount of perseverance and patience before finally making it through." Game Pick: 'Featherweight' (Ben Chandler, freeware) "In Featherweight you play as Thadd, a scout for a rebel group fighting against robots who are out to capture all humanoids. Discovering that a fellow spy has been caught by the machines, he embarks on a mission to rescue her even with the knowledge that chances of succeeding is slim." Game Pick: 'Devil's Tuning Fork' (DGE Team, freeware) "An exploration game viewed from a first-person perspective, where you play as a child trapped in an alternate reality after catching a strange illness and falling into a coma. The unknown world is a dark one and has no illumination, but a tuning fork that you find at the start of your adventure can be used to feel your way around the maze of rooms and platforms." Game Pick: 'ClickPLAY 2' (Tom Vencel, browser) "The premise of ClickPLAY 2 is that a play button is hidden somewhere in every level, and you must figure out the correct method to make it appear so that you can click on it and progress to the next puzzle. It shouldn't be too difficult to complete all twenty-four stages in the game, although some arcade sections requiring quick reflexes could prove to be a bit of a challenge to beat." Game Pick: 'Focus' (Jesse Venbrux, freeware) "In Focus you find yourself trapped in a cave full of traps and robots that fire missiles at you on sight. You will learn a skill called 'focus mode' early in the game, which can be used to teleport yourself anywhere inside a blue circle. The focus field also causes everything inside the circle to move in slow motion." Game Pick: 'rComplex' (Roger Hicks and Brian Brian Terwilliger, freeware) "rComplex is a short demo created by two people in under eight days as a proof of concept, plays quite similarly to Canabalt, and features a strong narrative that tells the story while you attempt to outrun a giant squid-like creature. The objective of the game is basically to survive for as long as you can while trying to escape from a high-rise building."