The following three games were created by an indie developer called Dan Christensen. All three games are of a high standard and have some unexpected bonus's not usually associated with freeware games, i.e. Cool graphics, excellent in game customisation and decent menus.
reverseOrder asked if I would post them for him. I was advised to upload the games to my filefront account due to slow download speeds; though I’ve posted a link to Dan’s site at the end of the post out of respect for his marvelous work and just in case my filefront links die. (Files from filefront have a nasty habit of disappearing without warning or trace these days – still it’s a free service so I shouldn’t complain). I've Emailed the developer to ask him where the last games stands with respect to the demo question that I mention below. The game hasn't been updated for a few years, and there's no 'full version ' release mentioned at all, so desite the game mentioning that it's a demo, I think it's actually a full version demo. (I hope so anyway. Despite it's demo tag, I still think it's a worthwhile download, so please don't let that put you off. It doesn't have any time limits, nor does it have any messages saying "This is a demo", lol.
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Twilight:
The author has separated the games music files from the game so that those on dial up shouldn’t have too long to wait for the download to complete. There’s still the original version of the game available from the developers site, but the latest version does have significant improvements made to it, with the addition of new weapons, enemies and other changes. If you check out the images which were all taken by the author, and which I copied and uploaded to my photobucket account, you can see that the author has gone to a lot of trouble to create a nice looking game. I was really impressed with it, and agree with the authors sentiments about this game; that is that it’s a cross between Crimsonland and Doom 3. Crimsonland because of the top down shooter and Doom for the atmosphere. Nice work Dan.
Unfortunately the games graphics seem distorted and the colors are all wrong when playing it on my main machine. I'd appreciate it if anyone else can confirm whether this is a global problem, or it's maybe something wrong with my graphics card (not that there should be as I only replaced it just over a week ago with a reasonable one (NVidia GeForce GTX275 with 875Mb RAM). Maybe it’s a driver that needs updating, but I was not able to play the game due to the objects blending in with the background. The game looked nothing like the screenshot of the game, but I can see why the author said that this game had similarities to Crimsonland (which I already own). The following is what the author had to say:
The most up-to-date version of Twilight. Includes nearly 20 weapons, two dozen classes of monster, and 10 expansive levels.
Adds cool new technology features such as background-distortion effects for cloaked units, NPR techniques for Night Vision and Infrared, and explosion simulations.
Adds cool new gameplay features with more units and weapons, as well as puzzle-based elements.
Download the core game to get up and running with a small download. Download the music pack and unzip in the Twilight directory to add background music.
Revision history:
The original release of Twilight, a 3-week project submitted for U of M's Game Development Major Design course had 8 Levels, 8 weapons, and roughly a dozen different types of monsters. The following are the changes made to the game over time:
1.1.2 (October 2006)
1)……Pause feature (P)
2)……Game no longer crashes when minimized (instead it pauses the game and makes an autosave)
3)……Various gameplay balance tweaks:
• Minigun and shotguns more powerful
• Heavy weapons slow player down less
• Lightning loop re-fire rate toned down substantially
• Fixed some over bright portions of levels
• Reduced lifespan of sticky patches
4)……Separated game into core game and music pack for bandwidth sanity
5)……Updated weapon and monster sound effects to be more varied
More ammunition icons
v1.1.0 (September 2006)
New features:
1)……10 new levels, replacing the original 8
2)……A dozen or so new enemies
3)……Eight or so new weapons
4)……Improved lighting model
5)……Shader-driven effects
• Hue rotations for monsters, eliminating redundant graphics
• Background distortion shaders for cloaked monsters
• Nightvision, Infrared vision, and more
6)……Finite-element simulation driven explosions
7)……Quicksave feature (F5)
1.0.0 (October 2005)
First release; submission as an arcade game for EECS 494
Images:
http://s109.photobucket.com/albums/n61/Whiterabbit_01/gaotd/Forums/Twilight/?albumview=slideshow
Game client download link:
http://www.filefront.com/14164021/Twilight.zip
Music files download link:
http://www.filefront.com/14164743/Twilight_Music_Pack.zip
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Strife:
The author doesn’t say much about Strife on his site, but the game comes with a decent manual that covers all the bases, which you can find in the unpacked games folder. As with Twilight, the game doesn’t come with an installer, so you’ll have to do place it manually as well as create your own desktop shortcut.
Strife is a tank vs tank duel game in which two players try to defeat each other. Rather than having a set number of lives, you have a fleet of tanks which you choose at the beginning of a match. You’ll find more details in the games manual.
You can see from the few screenshots he’s posted that the models he’s created wouldn’t be out of place as extras in a CGI space orientated film, lol. Don’t confuse this game with the 'Doom' like FPS with the same name. I’ll be posting that one soon (though I though I already had, but can’t find it in the synopsis, lol)
Controls:
Keyboard:
W: Move Forward
S: Move Backward
Space: Brake
A: Strafe Left
D: Strafe Right
Mouse:
Move: Aim Crosshair
Left Click: Primary Fire
Right Click: Secondary Fire
Middle Click: Rotate Camera
(not recommended for competitive play)
The author lists some of the features of the game below, though he’s definitely underplayed this game, which has a relatively complex menu system, with lots of choices to make. I’m really impressed with it.
1) The awesome strategic dueling system of Star Control
2) Normal mapping and stencil shadows
3) Networked multiplayer action
Images:
http://s109.photobucket.com/albums/n61/Whiterabbit_01/gaotd/Forums/Strife/?albumview=slideshow
Download link:
http://www.filefront.com/14164989/strife.zip
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Xenocide:
Here’s another gorgeous looking space shooter. There’s loads of screenshots, all copied from the authors web site. I’m not sure whether the game is a demo, or the full version though because while selecting the campaign it mentions that the game is a demo, but there’s nothing on the website to confirm this. I think it may have originally been intended to be sold and this was a demo, but the author has since decided to release it as freeware????
The effects are a little dated by today's standards, though still pretty good. Overall it’s a nice shooter for free. What makes this game interesting is the shop area. You are able to customize your ship significantly via the shop, from an array of choices that includes weapons, shields, reactors, engines plus more. You earn money via game play. If you enjoy building up a super ship, you’ll love this game. The following information can also be found in the games read me (found within the installed games folder). You’ll also find information on making the best use of the games extensive upgrade system as well as the games editor (which the author has said is more suited to developers than lay people. Unfortunately, the game doesn’t have an installer, so you’ll have to manually place the game and create your own desktop shortcut.
Basic game play and controls:
Navigating the menus is simple point and click.
In game controls are a combination of mouse and keyboard. The mouse controls the ship movement. The left mouse button fires the active guns, and right mouse button missiles. If you have a mouse wheel (and you really should), scroll it to change the view angle. Changing view angle is important because a top-down view is generally best for fighting ships, whereas a tilted view allows you to see land enemies from further away.
To change weapons, use the keyboard. Numbers 1-4 switch between guns. The guns will be listed with their numbers in the lower right corner of the screen. Numbers 5-0 switch between missiles, listed beside the guns. If you have two weapons of the same type, pressing either number will activate both of them at once, allowing for dual fire. The same thing holds for triple and quadruple guns, though if you have that many of the same type you should probably be buying more powerful weapons.
In the lower left corner you will have three meters: your shields, your armor, and your energy reserves. Shields and armor are the "health" of your ship. Shields regenerate, but armor does not. Energy reserves power your guns. They regenerate at a rate dependent on your ship's hardware.
The objective of the game is to beat the last mission of the campaign - "Deep Strike". In the full version of this game, that would unlock the next campaign. There are several missions where either of two missions will unlock the same further levels. You can decide to play one, or the other, or both. Missions usually have cash bonuses, plus additional pay for the ships and tanks that you destroy. Levels can be replayed, but you only get the pay the first time you play them. Furthermore, levels can be quit at any time, and you will keep the money that you have earned from killing ships. But you only get the level pay when you actually beat the level.
The following is what the author said:
Features;
Classic arcade style space shooter action
3D Rendering
45 Levels of mayhem
Massive ship customizability
Basic Premise
Xenocide is a top-down scrolling space shooter game. While it uses 3d rendering, the game play is similar to classic 2D games like Raptor, Galaga, or Space Invaders. Unlike these games, however, there is a lot of depth to the variety of the ships, levels, and the customizability of the player's own ship.
Levels and Content:
Xenocide has three complete campaigns with 15 missions each. 45 Missions in all. Each campaign features an entirely different race, human or alien, to fight against. With much different styles of ships for each campaign, the gameplay changes every 15 levels. Each campaign has upwards of a dozen basic types of enemy ship, with at least two variations on each type. Many of the levels also take place on land rather than in space, and each campaign has a variety of tanks and stationary turrets to provide special opposition on those levels.
Player Customizability:
The player ship in Xenocide is built up of about ten different components, ranging from the basic chassis to the reactor, missiles, and weapons. As the player progresses, he or she will unlock an ever increasing variety of components to customize and improve their ship as they see fit. This allows people to design ships to suit their own game play style. Make it slow and powerful, or light and fast. Give it lots of primary guns, or the ability to store a huge supply of missiles.
Engine Flexibility:
All of the files defining the levels, weapons, components, enemies, etc, are open to customization by the players. This is not recommended as a means to beating the game, since the items have already been balanced reasonably well, but it allows people who have finished it to add new features as easily as the old ones.
Images:
http://s109.photobucket.com/albums/n61/Whiterabbit_01/gaotd/Forums/Xenocide/?albumview=slideshow
Download link:
http://www.filefront.com/14165077/Xenocide.zip
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You can get all the games from the autor's address, but I would appreciate it if you download them from the links I've provided above. I will be able to judge how many community members are using our free service. :) Thanks,
The author Dan Christensen’s web address: