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Blendo Games (the creator behind the very stylish and classy Gravity Bone) released Flotilla a little over a week ago.

Flotilla is a space exploration game where you go from star to star flirting with danger and talking to bull-slavers and cat-pirates and various other terrestrial animals piloting space ships, killing and getting killed by many of them.

The meat of the game is the turn-based spaceship combat. Turns take place simultaneously, so you have to really think about what your enemies are going to do, especially since each ship has a bunch of invulnerable armor plating that you have to circumvent. You can control the orientation of your ships, and there are a few movement options that let you trade speed for firepower and vice-versa, so it’s really a battle of lining up your ships so that you’re ships are flanking or can otherwise hurt the enemy, while making sure their shots can’t get past your armor.

It’s an incredibly satisfying system with a lot of depth, and the demo will make you cry and wish you had $10 when it ends. Or, y’know, you do and you can buy the game and everybody wins.

Alawar Entertainment has announced the release of Settlement: Colossus for the PC. The goal of the game is to build a thriving empire and win back the favor of the gods.

Players build the empire through solving puzzles and finding hidden objects. The once great emperor has found himself in quite a predicament. He has lost the favor of the gods, was robbed by his true love and had his city over run by his enemies. Now the emperor must take what little he has left and build a new empire for himself. He will have a bit of help from a few of his loyal followers. The game combines hidden object game play and strategy game play, which sounds like an interesting game play style.

“The developers at Alawar Five-BN impressed us yet again with their creative blending of two of our most popular game genres,” said Kirill Plotnikov, Alawar’s vice president of publishing. “We’re proud to offer Settlement: Colossus as the latest in a long line of compelling casual game experiences from one of our top internal development studios.”

If Settlement: Colossus is a game that sounds interesting to you, check it out at Alawar’s web site.

Press Release Follows:

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – Feb. 11, 2010 – A fledgling empire in an untamed paradise awaits your decree in Settlement: Colossus, the latest offering for PC from Alawar Entertainment, one of the world’s leading publishers of casual games. This captivating adventure is available now for download exclusively at www.alawar.com/game/settlement-colossus for only $9.95.
Cursed by his god, robbed of his true love and with his once proud and shining city laid to ruin by his enemies, a 300-year-old emperor is forced to search for a new homeland in Settlement: Colossus. After years of wandering and hardship, he and his small band of loyal followers discover a ripe, uninhabited plain. In this innovative combination of hidden-object and strategy game play, players gather resources, solve puzzles and research new materials, guiding the efforts of these pilgrims to construct a new and thriving city and complete the emperor’s mission to win back his god’s favor.

Key Features:
    Challenge both your mind and your powers of perception as you gather 7,000+ hidden items and play over 50 mini-games.
    Discover 30 different types of life-saving resources, along with special tools, charms and magical items that will help your settlers thrive.
    Explore 62 lush and gorgeous locations, accompanied by the game’s beguiling soundtrack and ambient effects.
    Research, invent and advance your civilization with more than 100 upgrades, optimizing the allocation of resources.
    Collect 14 trophies by completing various challenges and become a true champion of the people.
“The developers at Alawar Five-BN impressed us yet again with their creative blending of two of our most popular game genres,” said Kirill Plotnikov, Alawar’s vice president of publishing. “We’re proud to offer Settlement: Colossus as the latest in a long line of compelling casual game experiences from one of our top internal development studios.”
Settlement: Colossus intertwines the fun of hidden object games and the satisfaction of city-building strategy with the thread of an engaging storyline to weave an enchanting tapestry enjoyable by all ages. Settlement: Colossus is available for download now at www.alawar.com and will launch on other major download portals later this month.

Planet M.U.L.E. is a remake of the classic economic multiplayer game M.U.L.E., and done with permission of the Bunten family. If you didn’t play the original the video above explains some of the basics. I’ve really been having a lot of fun with this game; it’s most fun if you play with people you know (I’ve been playing with #tigirc folk Mr. Podunkian, Eva-Jolli, Ortoslon, BlademasterBobo, Dragonmaw, etc. —thanks for helping me learn the game). It’s a beautiful design, it’s one of the few games that feels like it takes intelligence to do well in.

There’s quite a lot of complexity and that comes out of the game’s rules, with a large number of possible strategies. There are a few optimum strategies that you’ll gravitate towards after you’ve seen how the experts play the game, but even those tend to be undermined by the actions of new players who don’t really get the game (or parts of it), so sometimes the player who winds up winning is the person who can figure out the psychology of the worst player and take advantage of that player. Alternatively, sometimes a bad player can ruin the game for everyone else by having the entire colony fail (although that’s rare).

There are a lot of cosmetic and minor rule changes from the original, but for the most part I think they make sense and are improvements. For instance, the time counter during auctions now counts down faster if nobody is moving, instead of forcing everyone to wait when it’s clear nothing else will get done that auction. And the game seems to be (from its blog) in active development, with more improvements released periodically.

The main negatives are inherent in it being multiplayer-only: you sometimes have to wait ages for strangers to play with if you don’t know anyone willing to play it with you, and when someone loses their connection or leaves the game they’re replaced with a boring bot (which seem to have only basic AI and will always lose if you know what you’re doing). The ranking system is also kind if simplistic; it’s based on total wins rather than any kind of Elo-style rating system, which I think would be more appropriate.

If any of you are interested in playing the game with other people but don’t know anyone with the patience to learn such a nonstandard game, come to the chatroom #tigirc on irc.esper.net and see if anyone there is interested.

[This is a guest review by anosou. If you’re interested in writing an article for TIGSource, please go here.]

Your Doodles Are Bugged! is quite the game. Created by German developer Spyn Doctor (responsible for Golden Tangram and Kuchibi), this is one of the most unique, personal games on Xbox Live Indie Games.

So, what the heck is it? Well, to speak in gamer’s terms, it’s a combination of Lemmings and Paint. Its genius is in its simplicity. Your task is to guide the little bugs to the jar of honey, passing the various “doodles” that block your way or form your path. To do this you basically draw lines for the bugs to jump and walk on. The gameplay is almost rudely intuitive and it’s a breath of fresh air in an ocean of twin-stick shooters, platformers, and massaging apps.

You control your doodling pen with the right analog stick, which responds pretty well to your touch. To draw you hold down A and to erase you hold down X, simple as that. You can go faster by holding the right trigger, a much-appreciated addition for the bigger levels, and you can undo with the B button. The most important control feature is the ability to zoom. The levels in YDAB! are remarkably advanced at times and without zooming on you wouldn’t have much luck trying to complete them.

To add a bit more depth to the gameplay you have a limited supply of ink. This might seem obvious and harmless at first but it really provides a challenge in the later, densely doodle-populated levels. It’s really good fun trying to figure out the best way through the dragons and clouds and fishes and smiling faces and trolls and squids and trees and birds and… oh sorry, kinda lost my train of thought there. What I mean is, there’s much challenge in just finding the least ink-draining route. You soon figure out that you might only need a little dot to get your bugs over a gap that a lesser player just would’ve made a bridge over. Overall it’s a very rewarding albeit sometimes time-consuming experience to make it perfect. Add to this a classic timer to compare your high score to your friends and you’ve got some terribly addictive gameplay. Add to that some very clean and pretty the doodled graphics, in-game tutorials, and an adorable story, and you end up with quite the package.

I have a few very minor issues with the game though. The first, and least intrusive, is in regards to the music. There’s only one track looping infinitely and even though I appreciate chiptune-infused folk music for mandolin and accordion as much as the next guy it gets a bit grating after a while. Another issue is that the bugs can be quite the little assholes at times. If one of your drawings is a pixel off that might result in a squadron of bugs leaping to their death. It does add a lot to the challenge and you get used to it but it’s still a bit disturbing.

Overall though, YDAB! is one of the absolute best on Xbox Live Indie Games. The amount of love and polish in this game is just amazing. There are plenty of levels and they’re suitable for a pick-up-and-play session basically anytime. I mean really, for 80MS (1 PUNY EARTH DOLLAR!) you’d be an idiot not to pick this up. There I said it, you’d be an idiot.

Telepath Psy Arena 2 is a basic strategy RPG by Craig Stern / Sinister Design. The genre is kind of underrepresented among indie games (although perhaps it appears more than we’d expect), and as it’s one of my favorite genres I’m just happy to play a new one, even if it doesn’t do anything particularly special and felt a bit unpolished for its price to me.

The way it works is you buy a party from the slave market (there’s a variety of classes), and fight a series of coliseum battles. You gain more money, which you can use to train your characters to make them stronger, or buy orbs to make your hero stronger, or buy new characters. If you lose a character in battle, they’re usually gone for good (like Fire Emblem). There isn’t very much story (although there’s a little), most of the game is just battle after battle. There’s no equipment or class changing or other bells and whistles, it’s just a bare essentials strategy RPG, although occasionally there are alternate win conditions to add some variety (such as capture a square, or protect one). I’d guess the game will probably last about 6-8 hours for a single playthrough.

By unpolished earlier, I mean things like many actions (such as GUI actions or walking) not having associated sound effects, a GUI made largely of round rectangles and text which often gets in the way and has to be moved around manually, very few pieces of music, difficulty in telling your team and the enemy team apart (they don’t even have separate colors), the inability to place your characters where you want at the start of a battle, and so on.

And of course the graphics. I know that Craig wrote an article called The Obsession With Aesthetics in the Indie Scene, but I kind of think there’s a difference between being put off by bad graphics and being obsessed by good graphics. To be fair though, the flip animation of the assassin was top notch, I loved watching it every time it happened. And of course it’s hard to make pretty graphics in a completely top-down perspective, regardless of how skilled you are.

But as I said, I’m just happy to see more strategy RPGs, and while it’s not excellent, it’s at least a solid entry to that genre that got me addicted to it for a small time (which is also how I feel about the latest Vandal Hearts game).

Gratuitous Space Battles, from Positech Games, is the UK developer’s next great addition to indie gaming. If you are a fan of space management games, where you collect resources, expand territory and deal with advisories through careful diplomacy – this game is not for you. Let’s be honest people, half the time we went through the trouble of all that management stuff was to build kick-butt ships and lay waste to rival factions. Thankfully, Cliff Harris has relieved us of this time consuming resource gathering burden. GSB has taken us straight to the main event: lasers, explosions and victory with honor. Don’t get me wrong, there’s a lot more depth to GSB than just giving the people what they want. You’re still going to have to work for it.

Gameplay:
On its face, GSB is a strategy game with some management and tower defense elements thrown in the mix. Like other great strategic games, GSB forces you to learn from your mistakes. With few exceptions, I was forced to watch as my beautiful armada was destroyed in glorious fireballs. I only avenged my past failings with a better strategy and keener tactics. The strategy involved in accomplishing each mission is where the real genius of GSB comes into play. Once the battle begins, all you can do is sit back and watch as the two armadas clash. The ships have some AI which can lead to unintended consequences and occasionally disaster for your fleet. More often than not you are going to have to rethink your initial strategy. Positech has also placed some nice little obstacles in some scenarios (like spatial anomalies that allow no fighters!).

GSB gameplay breaks down as such: you build the ships in your fleet, you place the ships on the battle gird, give orders to your ships and click the fight button. If you are going to get anywhere in the game, ship design is a must. This is where some of the management elements enter the game. Each class of ship has a unique number of modular components for weapons, engines, defenses and other specialty parts. The player has to balance these parts to create a viable and effective ship. Ship specialization increases with the level of mass; bigger ships equal bigger booms! Ship customization can even be completed at the battle placement screen for those last minute tweaks.

Once the player is happy with their mad ship building skills, it’s time to put the strategy into place. There is a limit in pilots, tonnage and treasure to each level, so the player must choose ships that can be most effective against the enemy, maximize the honor to be won and provide a good show. Battle prep is the key to victory. Each victory brings honor which can be used to unlock new parts for ship upgrades, ship hulls and eventually unlocking other species.

The player has the option of assigning various orders to each ship or fighter group. For example each ship can: protect a certain ship, escort ships, attack a certain type of enemy and even retreat at a player set amount of damage. By assigning orders to certain ships, the player can effectively create layers of defense; combined with specialized ships this can lend itself to complex strategic ship placement. With the various orders, the player can lure the enemy into a trap just as easily as commencing an all out assault. There is something deviously satisfying about watching your enemy fall hopelessly into a carefully laid trap. Get the right combination of placement, orders and ship design and sit back and enjoy the ride.

Graphics:
GSB is visually spectacular; there is simply nothing I didn’t love about the graphics. From the cut-to screens to the over-the-top particle effects, every detail has been well thought out and brilliantly presented. Another great feature is following a single ship through combat; the player can zoom in and watch the ship be taken apart by enemy fire or dole out a good thumping to enemies. The graphics remain flawless throughout both the macro and micro view. Zooming in on the action is simply a feast for the eyes and draws the player into the action. Together with the sound effects, the explosive manifestation of some weapons jolt the camera for a great concussion like distortion; which makes explosions all the more pleasing to the senses. There’s nothing quite like watching swarms of fighters take down a capital ship.

Sound/Music:
From the opening score, the sounds and music take GSB to the next level of interactive enjoyment. One of the really effective elements Positech has chosen to include is the interactive sound effects. Different weapons have unique sounds, which is gleefully fun with missiles and pulse weapons. When you zoom in on the action, the sound effects of that part of the battle come into clarity instead of being lost in the macro-view. It’s an endearing quality that enhances the action sequences. The entire game is served well by the epic music and perfectly suited sound effects.

Lasting Appeal:
Each battle is a singular experience and I literally spent hours just trying to see how few fighters/ship I had to commit to win each battle. Since there is AI which lends itself to random outcomes, battles vary time after time. I haven’t even mentioned the clever and colorful communications dialogue during the battles, it’s just fun to watch. In addition to the campaign mode, GSB offers a survival mode (which tells you upfront that you will eventually lose) and user-created challenge mode, which can be fairly difficult. All these games modes combine for hours of explosive entertainment. And for those who can’t get enough, there is an expansion pack with a new race and new ships (see issue 8).

I rarely get uber-excited about forthcoming games, but I had my eye on this one for a while and I wasn’t disappointed. Sometimes you just need a really good strategy game with no apologies and self described “over-the-top explodiness.” To fulfill this necessity in life, Positech Games has given us Gratuitous Space Battles. Good hunting!

Colt: 8
Boy this is fun. Tower Defense with some rad inclusions, like a user controlled camera and first-person mode. Even though a single tower, and a player with steady aim, can handle the first few waves solo, when the difficulty ramps up FP is a lifesaver. Awesome animation, inventive towers, great sound effects, a staggering number of user-made and downloadable content; Widget exceeded my first thought of another entry in a tired genre. Woohoo.

Ben: 7
Widget TD is a standard tower defense game, save for one brilliant innovation: any of the units placed on the map can be commandeered and completely controlled by the player, often giving the unit augmented abilities. The enemies and units are pretty standard in their variety (the enemies have different speeds and HP, the units have different ranges and a couple of debuffs), but the unit-piloting hook is game-changing, and a lot of extra innovation is necessary. Both the visuals and the audio are completely unimpressive, though.

Peter: 7
WidgetTD is a simple tower defense game with one map that’s playable in the demo. Like any other tower defense game you build and upgrade defensive structures and hope they’re enough to keep wave after wave of attackers under control. The only mechanic WidgetTD adds to the mix is the ability to take control of any one tower. This brings up a first person cockpit view, and you can aim for the enemies you want. For some towers, this isn’t much use, but from the cockpit, your basic gun tower can hit anything on the map. The difficulty seems a bit out of whack though; creeps’ hit points ramp up far faster than you can upgrade your towers. Otherwise it’s a strong entry for the genre.

Andrew: 6
WidgetTD is a surprisingly difficult tower defense game that in most ways blends into the gigantic pack of me-too tower defense games that have flooded the market in the past few years. However, Widget stands out by allowing you to get into the turrets and fire them manually. While the strategic benefit of doing this is debatable, this polygonal strategy game earns points for originality, and yet loses points for unoriginality. One innovation is not enough when you’re competing in a genre of games so incredibly identical. It’s certainly not bad, but this is mostly stuff you’ve already seen before.